UVI Emulation II 01/30/2012
Review of UVI Emulation II: For lovers of the sounds of the 80s - Emulation II is a sound library not to be missed. While it has its limitations - it's easy the best 80s sound library on the market.  Revival of the 80s. Although that the 80s had its particular sound in terms of production, such as huge gated snares and cheesy synthesizers, I always look back on the 80s as the time when the soul and definition of pop really got nailed. Sure, what we call pop today springs from many sources such as soul, disco and even rock - but the core of all those catchy melodies and massive intros we're hearing today is so 80s it possibly can be.
Click here to hear (and see) a demo of UVI Emulation II. Add Comment Hollow Sun Cognosphere 01/26/2012
Review of Hollow Sun Cognosphere: Cognosphere is the latest instrument in the Hollow Sun Music Laboratory Machines series and builds its sound from something so unlikely as dusty test-oscillators from the 40s and the 50s.  Let the cogwheel spin. After I bought Techtron I've been eyeing Hollow Sun very closely - especially their Music Laboratory Machines series which is a synthesizer built upon Native Instruments Kontakt engine.
While Techtron was constructed around two oscillators with the same waveform - Cognosphere is an entirely different animal: six oscillators - one noise generator - with sounds sampled from vintage test oscillators from the 40s and the 50s. Hollow Sun Techtron 01/08/2012
Review of Hollow Sun Techtron: Techtron is an instrument based on Kontakt 4 built upon two super sawtooth oscillators. Lovers of massive pads and huge sawtooth leads - rejoice. It barely gets better than this.  Supersaw instrument. Hollow Sun is one of those sound designers who flies a bit under the radar. They don't make huge noise of themselves and their presence on the internet is very humble. No clever marketing drops in forum threads. They are just doing their stuff - which they have been doing for years - at a unbelievably low price.
In short Music Laboratory Machines is specialized instruments built on the Kontakt 4 engine and currently there are ten different members of the family. In this short test we'll be looking at Techtron - a synthesizer based on two supersaw oscillators. Wave Alchemy Pro II 12/18/2011
Review of Wave Alchemy Pro II: if Sequential Circuits ever would have released a follow-up to the monophonic Pro One analog synthesizer, it might well have looked like this. Wave Alchemy does a truly remarkable job with its first synthesizer.  If the Minimoog is the dream synthesizer for performers who want to spend as little time as possible designing new sounds, the Sequential Circuits Pro One (and of course its older brother the Prophet 5) are definitely aimed for people who have a deeper interest in designing their own sounds.
As John Bowen once told me in an interview - they didn't add a third ocillator to the Prophet 5 in order to keep costs down, which led them to invent the Poly Mod section - the forerunner to the modulation matrixes we see in most synthesizers today. The Pro One is basically a monophonic version of the Prophet 5 and has all of the Prophet's features: two oscillators, a resonant filter, an lfo and envelopes. Although the Prophet 5 and Pro One are very versatile, I've always found me wishing for more when working with them. One more oscillator, a more flexible filter, one more lfo and so on. When the sampling maestros at Wave Alchemy started to sample the Pro One they did what the people at Native Instruments, Creamware and Arturia have already done: create a faithful clone of a legendary instrument. But Wave Alchemy didn't limit themselves as hard as the other developers did. The spirit of the Prophet is there - but they allowed themselves to expand the concept and take the Pro One into the modern age. Say hello to the Pro II. Synapse Audio Dune 01/15/2011
Review of Synapse Audio Dune: After years of hibernation old softsynth maestros Synapse Audio once again show their skill in creating synthesizers. Dune is a synth clearly aimed for the electronic dance music scene, and gives synths such as Sylenth 1, ElectraX and even Nexus a tough run for the money.  I control the spice. Review of Synapse Audio Dune: After years of hibernation old softsynth maestros Synapse Audio once again show their skill in creating synthesizers. Dune is a synth clearly aimed for the electronic dance music scene, and gives synths such as Sylenth 1, ElectraX and even Nexus a tough run for the money. Review of Sidsonic Libraries Circus Circuit Bending Library: German soundmakers take circuit bending to the next level.  Circus Circuit Library Berlin based soundmakers Sidsonic are relatively fresh on the library scene, but have succeeded to make quite some fuzz with their two first Kontakt-based libraries Circus Circuit Bending Library and Tubes! While this review only concentrates on Circus Circuit - it's quite clear that Sidsonic is not an ordinary bunch of sound designers. Circus Circuit is (obviously) about circuit bending and Tubes! is a library created from the mad innovations by Eric Barbour/Metasonix. In other words: these boys like it odd. While circuit bending is widely known to most people by now, it doesn't hurt putting yourself in the right state mind seeing Picachu making funny noises while being electrocuted. Fxpansion DCAM Synth Squad Strobe 12/17/2009
Review of DCAM Synth Squad Strobe: the simplest synthesizer in the DCAM collection is by no means simple or basic. It's in fact one of the finest synthesizers ever made.  Despite all the initial hype about Fxpansions new synth trio DCAM Synth Squad, can't say it initially caught my interest. Boring bread and butter synthesizers, I thought. No, not just boring. Pointless. One one-oscillator synthesizer, one string synthesizer (yawn) and one half interesting analogue/FM-hybrid deal. Fxpansion must really have run out of ideas. One of the good things about being me, is that I never cease to be amazed how utterly stupid I can be. DCAM turned out to be one of the most important things that have happened in the software synth scene for a very long time. Waldorf Largo 09/01/2009
Waldorf Largo review: German synthmaker Waldorf truly masters the art of creating impressive synthesizers, but still hasn't got rid of its shadow of the past: it's very, very German.  Since the publication of my review of the Waldorf Largo in the Swedish magazine Studio, I've learned much more about the inner workings of Largo. I still think Largo is one damn fine instrument – in fact, it's one of the best software synthesizers on the market right now. But after working with it for a few months, I've also learned that Largo can be quite irritating and sometimes downright frustrating to use.
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