tungsten's Reviews

A huge upgrade compared to my first DAW (LMMS) but I soon grew out of it

One of the first friends I ever made on the internet encouraged me to buy this and it was a great choice at the time I learned a lot through FL's user friendly piano roll, playlist/pattern based UI, and simple controller integration.

I would have never switched if I hadn't started investing in vintage sound modules. FL didn't integrate too well with external sound modules: - the recording process was primitive and I didn't like it. - I/O setup is also quite primitive. (Compared to Cubase or Studio One) - It didn't support midi spec very well either which gave me some issues with collaborators and clients when they'd share .mid files with me and they needed it to playback accurately or certain CCs they wanted me to work with (pitchbend for example) would be skewed and/or certain curves wouldn't playback accurately on my end but in other DAWs like Cubase, Reaper or Studio One it would sound how it should.

I say all this to say this is one of the easiest to use DAWs for a digital music producer (very easy to optimize for that setup) and it is servicable for hardware recordings but only if all of your collaborators use FL Studio so you can share fl project files instead of .mid files.

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$15 (even cheaper nowadays)? Truly the synth ever!!

I literally only got this because Jun Senoue used it.

Apparently its unpopular to like this but the presets are all very unique: Some are fun, many are dirty (or murky), some are funky, and some are outright nasty. I can tell the sound designer behind them put in a lot of work to get each of them to sound unique. Names and categories are also pretty straightforward. It is refreshing not being burned out by preset skimming because I have a fairly good idea of what to expect when I click something. Rarely does a preset name on this leave me "confused" but when that does happen. I'm usually in for a surprise: something nasty or something funky. Both CAN work if you have the vision for it, so mileage may vary.

I could talk about the VT UI but something about it just really makes my head hurt. I spend as little time there as possible.

Not my main mono synth, but this fills that unconventional sound character niche too well (it can make softer sounds too but the hard, gritty, and """"terrible"""" ones are my favorite).

Best of EastWest and Colossus' Modern Sucessor

As someone who actually used its predecessor, Colossus, I'm really happy to see this retained all its new samples (It's good EastWest didn't abandon these) but now its in a more convenient standalone player with a fresh coat of paint. Goliath ALSO includes a collection of newer content from various EastWest products, so you don't have to waste drive space on a library you don't use often enough because this has the essentials.

The worst samples in this library are the synths but nobody actually gets a composercloud subscription or buys eastwest products for the synth, so they thought they could afford to overlook and repackage the same crappy synths from colossus (and they were right to think so), would have been nice if they had at least rerecorded them but I'm like 100% sure its the same samples repackaged. Avoid. At. All. Costs.

Dated software but amazing sounds

I've had this since I first started producing. I still use it today! The sounds it comes with are fairly dated so not many people look fondly on it but I DO because many of the sounds from this plugin come from Yamaha (the EPs and the pads are especially good--literally the first program in the electric piano category is A+ tier). I still haven't explored all the sounds but there are very few outright "unusable" programs.

Another thing that keeps my memories of this plugin SO fond is the simplicity in UI, I find it very refreshing compared to many, more modern, plugins today (How many clicks should it take me to start playing a sound???). All I have to do is pick a category and test a sound. It's so easy. Load time is instant too.

However, the software IS starting to show its shortcomings the more and more updates have occurred between my DAW and Windows but I've still managed to get it to work through some trial and error. Depending on your DAW you may need an external vst bridge to get this to function properly. That's assuming you even have a copy because Steinberg discontinued this product, which is a shame, since they didn't adapt all the programs into their newer software (I'm referring to Halion Sonic 3 as I do not have Halion Sonic 7 (came out not too long ago, so I may be wrong?)).

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Portable Grand(father)

I have had this before I even knew I had a passion for music. It's kind of sad how its time with me started out as assisting me with my piano lessons I didn't care for at the time (a pity really). Now, I've had my portable grand for eight years and it is still fully functioning (MIDI support, speakers, display, battery). Though I never quite figured out how or if the sustain pedal can sound in standalone. However, it does function when detected by my digital audio workstation and it does sound when I use a virtual instrument that supports MIDI CC.

An incredible recompilation of this iconic synthesizer

I decided that I should play with this for a bit (hadn't used this since last year) just to check if my opinion changed over time and I have to admit it sounds even better than I remember:

The pianos (of course) sound great as I messed around with the Legacy Collection presets: 70s Stage EP, EP Pad, and Filter Clav; for over thirty minutes and it was really inspiring (i had a rough day today).

What really surprised me though was the more unconventional patches and soundscapes (Crystal Code being a new favorite!). I don't think I ever messed with these before and that's a shame as I've come to realize that these sounds can give really unique tones (especially in chords--that's the real magic right there). I then spent some time with the brass (brassofpower, spirit brass, and brasssectn are highlights) as it really stuck out to me since they had dark and warm low ranges that complemented their brighter (and more popular) higher ranges. The choir/vox seem to be a much more niche in usage (especially the leads) but they sound really unique when stacked (especially with midi cc) and can make an interesting leads.

I didn't have time to play with every program in one setting but I can't help but appreciate that this software synth release includes ALL these expansion cards giving everyone access to M1's complete legacy. If you're a fan of the sounds of that time it really doesn't get any better than that.

I wish it mixed better

I got this several years back for more sounds of the Sound Canvas series and I used to use this a lot (as it sounded better than most of the soundfonts I had). I still find some usage in VA for certain patches (ensemble hits), the Roland GS aesthetic, and it works well in combination with Hyper Canvas (as it too is Virtual Sound Canvas).

My biggest gripe with this plugin is that many sounds don't mix well with anything outside of virtual sound canvas (unlike Hyper Canvas) and external FX ironically make it sound worse, so I can't really recommend this to anyone outside of Roland Cloud, but if you are dying to have sound canvas in your virtual studio this works. I won't take that away from it.

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A decent Studio Canvas on the go

Saves me time from having to transport the hardware, so I can use this to play studio canvas sounds on my laptop. Its not a replacement for the hardware (as its missing many sounds) but its a good alternative.

Melodic instruments can be inconsistent but its fun to play

For a large 65,000+ sample library, at the outright price point of 299.99 USD, I expected this to sound more consistent. Almost every instrument is pretty detailed having alternative sample layers of the same "program" to explore so you'll always find something new.

The percussion is detailed enough a realistic performance, especially with the reverb options. The better melodic instruments tend to be the strings (plucked instruments). The worse melodic instruments (especially the wind instruments), however, remind me of old AKAI sample cds but sampled at higher quality. A couple specific examples that stick out (in a bad way) are the erhu and aboriginal flute. Their higher notes suffer (especially the erhu).

Despite this I have a pretty positive impression of this library because I appreciate that a lot of the instruments in this library were made with velocity layers/playability in mind. As a keyboardist, its fun to have that option. For whatever reason I don't come across too many libraries like that anymore; most rely heavily on modwheel and keyswitch with no alternative.

It's ALL there

I've been "sneaking" this into a lot of my covers of the Gyakuten Saiban 4 soundtrack (as this is one of the synthesizers Toshihiko Horiyama the lead composer used) and I regret not using it more in my other productions. It literally has it ALL: punchy leads, warm pads, realistic (but flexible) samples, dynamic effects, and iconic drum kits. An incredible amount of inspiration and sound design at the click of a mouse. If I had to recommend any KORG Collection plugin off just sounds alone it would have to be either this or the Extreme edition.

The ONLY negative about this VST is when you close the window to shift focus from it and you reopen it you have to wait 1-2 seconds. Compared to the other KORG Collection software synths it is slower in that regard but that's hardly a deal-breaker.

Excellent for my first midi keyboard

Its got all the basics (modwheel, pitchbend, program, pedal support) when it comes to a midi keyboard. I've been using it for almost three years now and its almost entirely replaced my old Yamaha YPG-235 as the iRig Keys 37 is very lightweight and easy to transport (small) and uses a standard USB Type-A cable. Though a year into usage the usb cable it came with was cheap and got a short about a year into my usage of it but USB type-A is very replaceable. It was easy to replace and I've been using that cable.