_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.

_And although I actually prefer the sound and feeling of the 90s rather the 80s - it was during the 80s when the coolest synthesizers and electronic instruments were made. It marked the peak of when the creative spirit reached its highest point.

I am of the firm opinion that most synthesizers produced in this era still beats the sound and feeling of even the most modern and developed plugins of today. If it wouldn't be such a horrible hassle to leave the wonderful world of total recall, I wouldn't mind leaving all those VSTs behind. Seriously. Go buy an old Ensoniq, Yamaha or Roland from that time and you will know what I am talking about.

When UVI released their Emulation II sound expander, I immediately got interested and quickly wrote to them asking for a review copy, hoping that this collection would be the missing bridge between the sounds of the 80s and modern technology.

Quite quickly I realized that Emulation II is one of the most well-made libraries of 80s sounds I've ever encountered.

There are 270 sounds in Emulation II and practically all of them are on the spot.

It's like those old Roland sound modules full with material that sounds perfect right out of the box - but here the focus is on the 80s.

Although the visuals of Emulation II suggest a love for a certain Emulator sampler - the material is way broader than that. Here you can find material from the Yamaha DX7:s, Roland D50s, Jupiters, Prophet VS and many more. But at the same time the material is seriously lacking coverage from many classic machines. A note to the sound designers at UVI. The Korg M1 piano cannot be substituted with an Emulator II Grand Piano or a cheesy Honkey Tonk Piano.

What I am trying to say is there has obviously been a selection of which sounds to include in Emulation II. This was my first disappointment with the library, that there are many sounds I deeply connect with the 80s that aren't represented.

_But when talking about faults - the biggest problem with Emulation II is in my opinion its editing capabilities, which I would describe as seriously limited.

There are two envelopes, one stereo tool, one effect section with phaser, delay and reverb, a bit crusher and a section where you can assign the modulation wheel - that's it.

I suspect the reason why not to make the interface more programmable was partly to make it simple to use and keep the sounds true to the original feeling - people who want to go further can buy MachFive and take the sounds into the future. If this is the reason I partly understand that - but still... an assignable lfo would have opened up for lots of fun. 80s dubstep basses anyone? But maybe UVI wanted to prevent exactly that.

_Just mentioned as a free bonus is the drum instrument Drumulation, which is a drum machine with a simple built-in step sequencer. This instrument is actually a little gem. Sound wise it squeezes together some 500 drum and percussion sounds - but what's so nice about it is that it's so damn complete. Without exaggerating, Drumulation is the ultimate beatbox for creating those classic 80s rhythms.

CONCLUSION
For any 80s-inspired production, there are two libraries I would reach for: Zero-G Nostalgia and this one. While Nostalgia covers way more ground, it's not even close as refined as Emulation II. Although I find the 180 euro price tag high - I must stress that you get premium quality. There is no dead meat. Every sound is selected for a reason and every sound sounds absolutely excellent. The included "bonus" Drumulation instrument is what actually seals the deal for me. I've never encountered such a complete or simple to use tool for creating 80s sounding rhythms before. If you have the slightest weakness for the sounds of the 80s - Emulation II should be on top of your list.

_UVI Emulation II
Web: www.uvi.net.
Price: 180 euro.
Good: Cool interface, spot on sounds, no dead meat.
Bad: Very limited editing possibilities (if you don't own Machfive).

Review copy: thanks to UVI for NFR.

_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.

_Just by looking at the specification you might get the impression that Cognosphere could be of the most lofi of lofi-synthesizers - but it's not. If I should describe Cognosphere I would say it's some kind of ambient sound generator with a penchant for the soft and spooky - rather than the big and nasty. Until you start working with the effects that is - especially the distortion. In this respect Cognosphere is quite interesting. Initially I didn't really find its sound that appealing. It got that The Orb-ish mystery vibe and when listening to the sounds from the raw oscillators, and I directly started to think about electronic toys for children.

"But when you turn on the distortion is like stepping into a horror movie. The mystic sounds is instantly replaced by sinister atmospheres".

But when you turn on the distortion is like stepping into a horror movie. The mystic sounds is instantly replaced by sinister atmospheres.

_Working with Cognosphere is both a bit fiddly and creative at the same time. As with all Music Laboratory Machines the design is absolutely gorgeous. It sets the atmosphere just right. But designing sounds from scratch is... not difficult, but more like a journey. It's almost like a mix between a traditional subtractive synthesizer and a synthesizer using additive synthesis.

One very cool feature is the instant randomization feature. Every time you click the big cogwheel a new sound is generated. The sounds generated with this span from the this-is-ok to this-is-great. In other words, it's quite usable compared with many other randomizers.

CONCLUSION
While Techtron covers the supersaw base - Cognosphere covers the ambient, mystic and sinister. It's way more of a one-trick pony than Techtron is, but in a world where almost all products are aimed for everybody - I consider this to be a good thing. The highlights of the plug is definitely the instant randomization feature, and in combination with the effects you can quickly create some quite bone-chilling sounds and atmospheres.

Hollow Sun Cognosphere
Web: www.hollowsun.com.
Price: 10 pounds.
Good: Fantastic for odd ambient sounds and dark sinister soundscapes.
Bad: Nothing really. It is what it is and it does it well.

Review copy: bought from Hollow Sun.

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Metasonix sampled - Sidsonic Tubes!
Spectral effects - Little Endian SpectrumWorx 2

_In all its essence, Tremor is a drum synthesizer combined with a pattern sequencer. The synthesis method in Tremor is built upon Fxpansions DCAM Synth Squad engine. If you've been using DCAM before, you probably know what this means: authentic analog tones, excellent modulation capabilities, no support for samples, and hard on the cpu.

_There are eight separate engines in Tremor, which basically is eight simplified DCAM synthesizers. This review is not meant to be a comparison against the old Sonic Charge Microtonic - but since there are many similarities with both it's almost impossible not to compare the two. For example - just as with Microtonic, there is just one type of sound producing module - one generalized module capable of creating sounds from claps, crashes to bass drums and synthesizer sounds. As I've discussed earlier, this approach is both good and problematic. The good thing is that you can create a much wider variety of sounds. The bad thing is that it's way more complex to dial in a good kick drum, than it is with Audiorealism ADM, D16 Drumazon or Drumspillage for example. If you're not used to create drum sounds yourself, you'll be most likely to rely on the provided presets.

The presets are - in my highly personal opinion - so-so. The pre-programmed patterns are quite good actually - especially those who make use of the built-in effects (Tin Can Verb - yum yum) - but I had expected more from the drum sounds. Comparing with Microtonic is unfair - Microtonic has been around for a long time and have a whole ecosystem of sounds. But browsing sounds in the little tonic generates far many more 'wow's than with the preset drum sounds in Tremor. This is quite possibly a temporary problem - it wouldn't surprise me if Fxpansion is already planning free preset expansions for Tremor. I'll say it again. The presets aren't bad. I just expected more from them.

What totally shocked me though was the amount of processing power Tremor uses. I can guarantee you never have seen a drum machine use this much processing power before. On one extreme occasion, I managed to reach 75 percent of the cpu on an Intel i5 3.1 GHz iMac, with only four sounds and one (although intense) modulation. No other plugins were used. While this was an extreme case - and my normal patterns reach around 20-40 percent of my cpu - Tremor is exceptionally processor hungry. How much I like and respect Fxpansion as a developer, I firmly feel they made a miscalculation here. I don't agree with the idea of releasing products that can only run smoothly on the absolute high end machines, no matter how cool the inner workings is.

As suggested on Kvr Audio - one way to get around this problem would be to have a way to change the quality of the sound engines. DCAM already have this, and it definitely makes sense that Tremor should have a similar option.

"while Microtonic feels like a drum synthesizer in its core - Tremor feels more like you squeezed in eight very capable synthesizers in one single package"

_But with that said, you do get some very cool stuff in exchange for straining your poor processor. If I were to compare Microtonic and Tremor again, I would say that while Microtonic feels like a drum synthesizer in its core - Tremor feels more like you squeezed in eight very capable synthesizers in one single package.

If you've ever programmed DCAM Synth Squad you'll know it has got a personality of its own. When I am programming the power horse Cypher, my constant mantra is: have a plan from the beginning & take it slooow. If I don't I always end up with a cool - but practically unusable sound. In this respect, Tremor is similar to DCAM. You need some focus not to only be creating interesting weird percussive sounds and noises. DCAM is not like the foolproof Minimoog where you can turn the knobs to any settings and it still sounds good. Tremor is like riding a car with a stick.

Although the synth engine let you decide which direction you want to take Tremor - I felt Tremor to be drawn to the rough, almost the industrial. Sure, there are a couple of 909-esque sounds among the presets, but I felt them to be equally misleading as the 909 sounds in Microtonic. Tremor is not a 909 and I cannot say it even does a good job emulating the 909. But that's not its job and after the first hour when I was trying to recreate the typical sounds we've heard a million times - I felt 'to h*** with it' and I started to take Tremor for what it is.

The coolest feature of the pattern sequencer is without a doubt the possibility to alter the length of each individual track. The bass drum can be four steps long, the snare eight, the hi-hat six steps and the bass can be eleven. What makes this absolutely genial is that just by altering the length of tracks you can transform even the most simple drum pattern into something way more interesting. I hope dearly that Fxpansion plan to expand Geist with this functionality in the future. A wonderfully inspiring feature that is one of the highlights of Tremor.

CONCLUSION
Let's put things straight. There are three problems with Tremor: the presets, the processing power required and if you're a novice, creating your own drum sounds is really not that intuitive. These three issues are not something you just can neglect. If you're not sitting on an Intel i5 or more powerful processor I would personally not even bother with Tremor. With that little processing headroom you'll have left when you start using it for real, you will just end up by getting annoyed by it.

With that said, Tremor is not a joke. Sure, it's absolutely not an all-rounder and there will be equally many who will be left cold by its sound as many who will hail it to the skies.

To end my thoughts, I'll just say this. I definitely won't be replacing Geist with Tremor. In my book, nothing beats Geist. But when it will be time to start the production of my next album - I will most definitely be looking at the possibility to create the whole audio backbone on Tremor alone. It got all the muscles and attitude to stand on its own.

Fxpansion Tremor
Web: www.fxpansion.com.
Price: 99 pounds, 119 euro or 149 dollar.
Good: Very inspiring, unique sound.
Bad: Presets are a bit meh, processor usage is hard.

Review copy: thanks to Fxpansion for NFR copy.

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Best drum sampler ever. Period. - Fxpansion Geist.
Three heavy-weight synthesizers - Fxpansion DCAM Synth Squad.

_Although that ShamanStems is a quite new kid on the block of sound library makers - after four released libraries it's clear that these fellows knows what they are doing.

Their latest release is called Dark Progressions and can easiest be described as a journey into the beauty of melancholia. Here, melancholy is more of sitting down reflecting on life with a cup of tea rather than drowning your problems with a bottle of cheap red wine.

You can listen to the official demo of Dark Progressions here.

_Soundwise, I directly found the material resonate with my own musical background from the 1990s when artists such as The Beloved, 808 State and The Shamen were all the hipness. To me, Dark Progressions is a mix between many styles. You can hear traces of modern trance in there and there are moments when I'm starting to think about the absolutely brilliant album Strange Cargo III when William Orbit was yet to become a monster producer. There are even moments when I'm thinking about Groove Armada. But the sounds and loops are very well connected and you never feel material doesn't belong.

"There is some clever thinking behind the library as well. For example, there are no conventional drum loops - but only kickless drum loops."

There is some clever thinking behind the library as well. For example, there are no conventional drum loops - but only kickless drum loops. But since the library comes with its own drum samples - this approach is actually better than providing traditional loops with kicks. These loops are absolutely delicious and work for more than just four-on-the-floor kicks.

Among the things that impressed me was that the audio synth loops also come as midi which radically open up for new types of soundscapes. I quickly hooked it up with Nexus and my own presets just to see what could happen - and it ended with a nice loop sounding like this.

_The synth chords and effects also impressed me enormously and fit with the style perfectly. In no time you can create some very cool sounding soundscapes.

CONCLUSION
In very little time I have become something of an admirer of ShamanStems - they have a knack for finding nice moods without overdoing it or making it sound fake. Another thing that I like is that their libraries aren't too big. 455 megabyte and 291 files in total is quite enough for a dedicated sound expansion like this. And for the price - I cannot ask for anything else. A truly wonderful library.

_ShamanStems Dark Progressions
Web: www.soundstosample.com.
Price: 16.90 pounds.
Good: Small and compact library, brilliant kick free loops, includes midi files, good price.
Bad: Nothing.

Review copy: NFR from Sounds to Sample.

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Almost 800 superb kick free loops - Kick Free Revolution Vol 3
Excellent progressive house drums - Wave Alchemy Deep Tech and Progressive

_Long before house sprouted into all the flavors and mutations we're seeing today, the definition of house were pretty defined: a electronic beat machine - usually a 909 - a bass guitar, some electric piano and maybe some synthesizers and that was pretty much it.

In this library Sample Magic relives the era in - by todays measure - a pretty calm tempo of 120 and 125 bpm. This library is aimed for the users who are primary looking for old-school drum sounds and loops toppled with some nice bass loops.

_Although not all of the drums in this collection rely on the sounds from the Roland 909, that's the vibe. Typical programmed beats from the 90s complete with those classic hihats. It feels genuinely old school - and it keeps true to the original style as well, which means you won't find any cowbells or whistles in there (damn it!). As so often with releases from Sample Magic, the loops come in variations, and the beats always come in a kickless version.

The top loops are complete drum loops minus the kick and are very well made and set the feeling spot on. It feels vintage house and old-school hiphop at the same time, which is not strange - they are essentially the same thing.

The bass loops are approximately a fifty-fifty mix of electric and synthetic basses. They are deep and there is no sign of those modernistic detuned saw basses - and are much more melodic in content.

"The drums samples are well selected and processed in an authentic way - for example, there are no whimpy kicks nor are they uber-compressed. They sit nicely in the middle."

Among the synth loops there are a clear majority of electric pianos - processed, filtered and embedded in dust. The feeling here is laidback jazz. The synth sounds are traditional stabs that have been heard on countless recordings during the decades.

The drums samples are well selected and processed in an authentic way - for example, there are no whimpy kicks nor are they uber-compressed. They sit nicely in the middle. The snares are quite varied and range from processed acoustic snares to electronic, hybrids and layered samples. The percussion folder mainly consists of shakers in various forms. There are also many toms and bongos, but the focus lies on shakers, which I consider to be a good thing since very few libraries spend any energy on shakers.

Although only 31 samples, the effect section is very cool. It's mainly made up by impacts and vinyl-ish ambiences and they sets a very nice - almost dubbish vibe.

CONCLUSION
Vintage House is an excellent starting point if you want to go back to basics and you want material for old, classic house. As so often with releases from Sample Magic - where the library really shines is in the selection of drum sounds and its kickless loops, which are absolutely top-notch. The only real negative thing I can say is that this library seriously wet my appetite for more old-school sounds - especially old-school hip hop when Mantronix ruled the dancefloors.

Sample Magic Vintage House
Web: www.samplemagic.com.
Price: 34,90 pound.
Good: Excellent drum sounds and loops. The snares and the kick less loops quickly became favourites.
Bad: Not one single uptempo house piano in the whole collection.

Review copy: NFR from Sample Magic.

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Great house sounds and loops - Sample Magic Organic House.
Create house just like the pros - The secrets of House music production.

_Oliver Schmitt is a man driven by a passion. Just like Deadmau5, Oliver Schmitt knows the art of creating drum loops that sound spot-on modern with a minimum of ingredients. For someone like me - who rather add than take away - it's almost like dark magic. But as the old idiom famously says 'the devil is in the details' - and that's what Oliver Schmitts loops are all about. Tiny details that you barely register but perceive as a whole.

_In all its essence, the point of his Kick Free Revolution series is to provide the mood and the swing for drum productions. Basically all you need to do is choose and program the kick. This formula is as effective as it is clever, especially considering that these loops doesn't occupying every part of the frequency spectrum. In other words - it's easy to break out elements and tweak the loops to your own taste.

Before I forget - it's important to remember that this library is a library with only loops (both wav and Apple Loops) rex-files. The loops are conveniently put together in instruments for EXS24 and Kontakt - but there are not one single drum sounds in this library. Just loops.

There are 777 loops and they are divided into nine categories: Minimal, Hihat, Noise, Mixed, Tonal, SynthPerc, LivePerc, Kits and FX. Many of the loops come in an extra variation usually with more or less elements in them.

Each category has its own style. The LivePerc category is based on acoustic percussion sounds and the SynthPerc is based... yes, you guessed it: synthetic percussion sounds. While the loops in these categories are based on acoustic and synthetic sounds - that's just what they are. Based upon. The loops have been programmed and processed far beyond what you would probably call a traditional acoustic percussion loop. I'm not talking about mutilation of sounds - anyone can slap a multiband compressor on a loop and call it art - but creative processing dynamically over the loop.

"these loops do not only lack the kick but also the snare"

The loops are set in 127 bpm and work exceptionally well with traditional four-on-the-floor kicks (and the snare on the second and fourth beat) as well as equally traditional rock patterns. The reason for this is that these loops do not only lack the kick but also the snare. The omission of the snare might sound like a simple trick, but it makes the all difference in the world when it comes to actually use the loops in your own productions. This does it make very easy to build dynamic drums for entire track - with your favorite snares and kicks.

CONCLUSION
Being a somewhat decent producer myself - I marvel at the cunning steeped in this collection. The sounds are both carefully selected and masterfully processed. The usage of tonal elements is very clever and the loops are very dynamic - giving a feeling of ebb and flow.
If you are after the kind of sounds that will help you concur the charts of modern trance pop, this is probably too advanced for your audience. But if you are into modern electro and techno - or want to spice up your productions with those genres - there are few collections that will make you stand out in the same way as these loops will. People will think your production skills are way more advanced that they really are.
One final note about the price. In these days when you can grab gigabyte-sized libraries for 10-20 euros, a price of 64 euros is definitely high. But since the quality of these loops is so exceptionally outstanding - Kick Free Revolution files under investment, rather than expense.

_Sound of Revolution Kick Free Revolution Vol 3
Web: www.resonance-sound.com and www.sounds-of-revolution.com.
Price: 64 euro.
Good: truly excellent kick free drum loops.
Bad: Nothing really. It is well worth its price.

Review copy: NFR from Sounds of Revolution.

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
More kick less loops from Oliver Schmitt - Kick Free Revolution Vol 2.
Genial drum sounds - Wave Alchemy Drum Tools 01 Minimal Techno.

_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.

_The architecture is subtractive and is pretty straightforward. There are two fixed oscillators, two envelopes, one lfo, one filter, an effect section and an arpeggiator.

The modulation capabilities are hard-wired into the instruments. The oscillators can be pitch modulated by the lfo and also be controlled by a (dedicated) pitch envelope. This is quite cool actually and makes it possible to create pitch modulated hoovers in no time. And if you think the sounds need an extra edge of sawtooth-screechiness, just modulate the oscillators with an extremely rapid lfo. The lfo can modulate the filter as well as the pan and the volume.

Since Techtron builds upon the Kontakt engine it means the filters and effects come from our friends in Germany. In Techtron there are a simple equalizer, distortion, Leslie, delay, reverb, phaser and chorus. I've never been a fan of the Kontakt filters nor effects, but they work quite well in Techtron - adding a level grittiness - especially the Leslie effect which work really well.

__The arpeggiator is of a medium-advanced construction. You can change gate, the speed, the number of notes and in which interval they should be played and how the notes should be played (and yes, the infamous chord alternative can be used).

The interface is both beautifully made and is logically constructed. The only negative think I can say about the interface is that you don't see any values of the parameters you fiddle around with. But it's not a huge problem. You quickly get used to it and start trusting your ears instead.

There are 32 presets coming with Techtron, which isn't that much, but there is very little "dead meat" among them. There are defined leads and massive pads that are just wonderful to use straight away.

CONCLUSION
Techtron is one of the nicest instruments I've encountered in a long long time, and the reason for this is that it's niched. If you love big sawtooth sounds - you'll love Techtron. The biggest problem with Techtron is its consumption of processor resources. Play a few chords and the cpu meter jumps up to 25 percent on a new fast and loaded iMac. But apart from that Techtron is instant love. Every time load up Techtron I always come up with a musical idea, which probably is the best verdict you can give any musical tool. And considering Techtron sells for six pounds - it's as much of a no-brainer I can think of. Genial.

Hollow Sun Techtron
Web: www.hollowsun.com.
Price: 6 pounds.
Good: Great sound, wonderful strings, extremely cheap.
Bad: Not much in wrong with this instruments - but it is hard on the cpu.

Review copy: bought from Hollow Sun.

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Sequential Circuits Pro One reborn - Wave Alchemy Pro II
The ultimate unison plugin? - Synapse Audio Dune

_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.

_WHAT IS
Pro II is built upon the Kontakt 4-engine from Native Instruments and NN-XT in Reason, which means this whole affair is constructed on samples: more than 6500 individual samples spanning over 3,9 gigabyte. The version tested here is the version for Kontakt.

To summarize the differences between the Pro II and the original Pro One:

The Pro One has all its controls in one hardware panel.
The Pro II has the controls spread over five tabs: Pro One, Pro II, Sequencer, Effects and Control.

The original has two oscillators.
Pro II has two oscillators plus two sub-oscillators.

Pro II has effects.

Pro II has a built-in analog step sequencer.

Pro II allows stacking of many units (in Kontakt multi mode).

Pro One has oscillator sync and has pulse-wave modulation.
Pro II has neither of those two functions (thanks to Ingo at Kvr for pointing that out).

PRESETS

_There are three groups of presets in Pro II. First a group of 138 typical Pro One sounds. These sounds include everything from basses, leads to effects. The second group consists of 38 presets utilizing the extra features of Pro II. The last group is multis - in other words several Pro IIs layered. This category is made up by 19 presets, and is by far the most breathtaking.

The reason why there are presets for Pro One and Pro II is that this whole synthesizer is actually two. Sounds confusing? Yes, I admit it does - but it's quite easily explained. The Pro One presets are 100 percent Pro One, including the analog filters. Nothing else.

The Pro II part on the other hand utilizes the parts of the Kontakt 4 engine - among them the filters. Wave Alchemy told me they will release a version for Kontakt 5 with switchable filters. Although I never hesitate one moment to tell the world how annoyed I am with Kontakt 4, I think the filters works very well together with the Pro II oscillators.

As you probably can imagine. The Pro One presets sounds like typical analog sounds. The presets from Pro II sounds much more modern and the multis are... huge. Most readers of this blog knows I'm a fetishist when it comes to bass sounds and am not too fond of synth pads - but with the pads in Pro II I'd actually like to create music with pads. Huge, massive pads.

But the Pro II doesn't only excel when it comes to pads - happily I can inform you that it's almost as good with bass sounds.

ARCHITECTURE

_The architecture is what you expect from an analog subtractive synthesizer. Oscillators - filter - modulators. The additions here is that the two oscillators aren't analog but a huge number of sampled waveforms. The two sub-oscillators can be set to either sine or square. At the very end there is an effect section, which I'll go into further on.

UNISON
An unexpected addition is the unison-function, but unfortunately it's not one of the Pro IIs best moments. It thins out the sound like a bad chorus. If you want to fatten up your sounds the chorus effect is actually a better choice.

SEQUENCER

_The built-in step sequencer is a very cool addition. It looks great and is very easy to program. There is a randomization function built-in and you can control the sequencer via your keyboard. You can even trigger different patterns by pressing certain keys in the seventh octave. Very practical.

EFFECTS

_The available effects are phaser, distortion, bitcrush, flanger, reverb, chorus and delay - and are all (apart from the reverb) based on the built-in effects in Kontakt 4. Again - I am no fan of the effects of Kontakt - but here I have no complaints. I don't know what Wave Alchemy have done with the effects but they work very well with the sounds. The reverb is another cool addition that is entirely unexpected. By using the impulse-engine of Kontakt Wave Alchemy have provided 20 very nice reverbs from one of those ultra-expensive Eventide DSP-7000 Harmonizers.

CONCLUSION
Everybody who reads this blog knows I'm far from a friend of Native Instruments Kontakt. I find it cumbersome to work with - if not outright confusing - there is no easy way of finding right instruments and if you want to create your own stuff including scripting - be ready for some monumental wtf-moments.
With that said, the amount of ultra-high quality instruments released based on Kontakt is staggering and Pro II is one of them. Creating sounds with the Pro II is easy. Sonically it doesn't feel like there is samples behind it. Apart from that you sometimes need to switch to another page - Pro II feels like your working with an analog synth - or rather an analog-digital-hybrid. Pro II is impressive in almost every aspect and for 40 pounds it's also a bargain. Two big thumbs up.

_Wave Alchemy Pro II
Web: www.wavealchemy.co.uk
Price: 39,95 pounds.
Good: Sounds great, expands the Pro One to the modern age, great price.
Bad: That there is two synth engines within Pro II is a bit confusing, no sync or pwm.

Review copy: Thanks to Dan at Wave Alchemy for NFR!

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Three excellent analog synthesizer - DCAM Synth Squad
Fantastic library for drum sounds - Wave Alchemy Drum Tools 01

_Although the 80s still make an impact on modern productions of today - electro or popish trance - the 90s is in my opinion one of the most underrated decades.

That's when techno moved away from house and rave and started a whole new sound.

Old School Tech from Waveform Recording is a collection of 530 megabyte samples and loops, covering this part of musical history.

_Let's move on to see what the collection contains.

Loops
Beats: 64
Top: 23
Percussion: 48
Kicks: 23
Snare: 19
Hihats: 10
Fills: 24
Bass: 16
Music: 30

Sounds
Effects: 23
Kicks: 21 (22 files but one file is empty)
Snare/Claps: 30
Hats: 53
Percussion: 33

After a quick glance among the contents we see that Old School Tech is quite heavy on the drums. Among the loops over 80 percent is drums and percussion, and among the one shots 85 percent is drums.

Starting off with the Beat Loops category, which is kind of mix of traditional drum loops, music loops and a combination of both. There are 64 of these loops, but in a way they are less since there are only 32 basic themes as many loops come with variations. The variations can be drums and music, drums and bass, kick and bass, just drums and so on.
I am aware that pre-produced music loops like these are of enormous help for busy producers of jingles and background music - but for normal producers who like composing their own music from bottom up, these loops is kind of worthless.
But with that said - the quality of the material is good and it was a very nice surprise to find an almost perfect recreation of the drums of Bam Bam Where's Your Child. Acid house goodness.

The Top Loops are what you expect: loops without kicks. The loops are mainly built around hihats, but the occasional fingersnap and percussion sound sneak in at times.

The percussion loops are more varied. There are snares, congas, rides, shakers - most percussive sounds actually apart from the kick. These loops are very nice and is in my opinion the highlight of the collection.

The kick loops are a little boring to be honest. All is four on the floor and is not that difficult to make yourself. The same goes for the hihat loops. 99 percent cover the same pattern. The Snare/Clap loops are more interesting and are more than just hits on the second and fourth beats.

The drum fills are good - but preprogrammed and preprocessed drum fills always pose a huge problem for me. If I'm not using the same snare/clap sounds with the same kind of effects - the chances are they will sound out of place. This can naturally be used as an effect.

The bass loops are nice - deep sub-basses with a hint of dirt.

Music loops is a mixed category of chords, strings, stabs and so on. Most of the loops come with only one type of sound, but there are a handful of loops with drum sounds layered. Apart from them - this category is spot-on for that old-school techno/house sound.

Personally I'm not too fond of vocal samples, but the material that come with Old School Tech is quite good actually: heavily processed and glitched up a bit (but not the hardcore glitching Katana Bits-style). Nice.

Moving on to the one-shots and the effects. The style is synthetic, big and dark - they are all good, but are a bit aimless. There is no red thread binding the effects together.

There are 22 kicks among the audio files but there are actually just 21 kicks, as one file doesn't contain any sample data (something must have gone wrong during the production). The style is quite synthetic and is often layered - sometimes with a hat sometimes with percussion and sometimes with more hits playing in time - such as the whole beginning of a hihat pattern(!).

Compared with the kicks, the snare/clap category is fairly clean - there are a shaker layered at times, but most of the times the sounds are separate.

The hats all have a feel of Roland over them. There is no distinction between open and closed hat sounds which is a little sloppy, and there are some shaker sounds in here as well. But apart from the sounds not being properly sorted - the sounds are definitely old school and suits the style perfectly.

Some of the sounds in the percussion category are a cutted to sharp so they end with a click. Nothing you cannot fix yourself by adding a short fade-out, but still... The sounds in this category is a bit of a lost and found category - which in all honesty is describes the 90s pretty well.

CONCLUSION
Old School Tech has its moments. The vocal glitches are great as are the drum loops and the music loops - but I cannot escape the feeling Old School Tech was a product that got rushed out. It definitely lacks the finer details, such as separation of claps and snares, open hats and closed hats. If you're looking for something that will kickstart you into making classic 90s techno - this pack collects all fundamentals you need to get going. My biggest criticism is that it feels rushed. It could have been done much better.

__Waveform Recordings Old School Tech
Web: www.soundstosample.com
Price: 22,49 pounds.
Good: The drum and music loops are great.
Bad: Some categories feel less useful than others. The samples could have been better categorized.

Review copy: Thanks to Sounds To Sample for NFR!

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Splendid techno samples - Wave Alchemy Deep Tech and Progressive
Uplifting trance - Sample Magic Deep Tech House

_Everybody seem to know about Hed Kandi. Maybe it's because of their crystal clear profile - both visually as with the music. But it's still kind of weird. People I know who aren't into house knows Hed Kandi. Even connoisseurs who specializes in Indian ragas knows about Hed Kandi.

While the typical Hed Kandi compilations cover lots of ground, it's still quite clear what you get. Electronic/electric funky house. With its own sample library Sample Magic calls the compilation disco-house, which sums it up quite nicely. The library Sample Magic Hed Kandi is not a pool of sounds to cover all aspects of Hed Kandi.

_WHAT THE LIBRARY CONTAINS

Sounds
Kicks: 32
Snares: 32
Claps: 13
Crashes: 10
Percussion: 55
Effects: 22

Loops
Drum loops: 180 (42 groups)
Top Loops: 57
Bass Loops: 63
Guitar Loops: 76
Synth & Keys Loops: 67
Music Loops: 71

LOOPS
The drum loops are very well made. It's strictly four on the floor, classic electronic house style with drums and the focus on percussion and hihats. I cannot use the word funky without feeling like an idiot, but when just auditioning through the loops, my feet started tapping and my body started to move without me even thinking about it. I'll just say these loops have their fair share of swing. The loops are sorted into 42 groups, with each group containing a handful of variations, such as different percussive elements have been removed. All of them comes in a kick-less variation. This approach makes the available loops less - it's like having 42 drum loops - the loops are more usable in a real production.

A real goldmine is the toploops - or the separate category of kickless loops. These contain all elements apart from the kick and are very well programmed, and can easily be used in not just house/disco productions but in uplifting/feelgood pop productions as well.

Moving on to the bass loops. Here the first disappointment came. Among all 60+ bass loops there are less than ten loops with synthesizer sounds - the rest is genuine bass guitar. While I personally don't mind a sweaty bass guitar (quite the opposite actually) I felt something was missing. Funk, soul and disco sure have a solid ground of real bass guitars but I think synthesizer basses are equally important. Just take a listen to Jenny Devivos Season of the Witch (Hed Kandi release) where the funky Moog bass rules about a third of the song. So - apart from the well-played bass guitars - I seriously missed some funky basslines.

The younger brother of the bass guitar - the electric guitar - and is drenched in either chorus or wah-wah. Not all of them have variations - but a fair share do. Personally I'm not too fond of this type of guitars - but that gets sorted under personal disorders rather any complaint against its players. Technically and harmonically speaking, these loops are right on the spot for giving that 70s romanic guitar feeling. Me personally move quickly over to the Synth and Keys loops.

Here we find a majority of rhodes and clavs. The style of these loops span from deep and moody to jumpy and uplifting. My personal favourite loops quickly became the classic house pianos - well, who can resist them? My only criticism here is that it would have been nice with a couple of variations of the loops. But on the whole the available loops are great.

The music loops are loops containing more than one instrument - usually disco strings, bassline and maybe some electric piano. Just as with the drum loops they come in variations with different elements removed. From my personal perspective - I'm very double about loops like this. It's too processed and done for my taste as a music producer - but from the perspective of a jingle producer - these loops cuts down the working time next to nothing.

SEPARATE SAMPLES
One nice aspect of the kicks is that there aren't too many. It's quite easy to handle 32 sampled kicks. Generally the sound goes from soft houseish to woody and on to mellow. No bone-crushing around here. Many of the samples are layered and a few are layered with distinctive hat sounds - something I personally don't like. As a man of order, I like my kicks clean.

The snares as well as the claps are generally short and snappy. Most of the claps are variations of the now religiously worshipped 909 clap. I think the selection of snares is absolutely brilliant. They are defined and come in a greater variety than the claps.

The percussion samples are another highlight of this collection. The samples are superbly selected - it's far from a lost and found category. The samples contain both electronic and acoustic samples but they all feel like they belong together.

Also the selection of hihats surprised me in a very positive way. The influence of the 909 is minimal. Sure there are about four typical 909 open hats, but on the whole the hihats are - just like the percussion sounds - well selected and well processed.

The included booklet hands out production advices for dealing with disco-house. Production tips inside the booklet is one of the trademarks of Sample Magic. If you're a fan of Sample Magic and have a few of their releases you probably have heard a few tips before - such as when to move hihats out of their quantized positions. The tips are useful and even if you've heard it before, it good to be reminded.

CONCLUSION
If you're looking for a library that will make you sound like Hed Kandi - this one takes you a bit closer but it doesn't cover all bases. It's probably better if you think of the library as a disco house (as written with LARGE LETTERS on the cover) collection with a distinct flavor of Hed Kandi productions. The highlight of the library is the drums - both the loops and the sounds - that is absolutely top-notch.

Sample Magic Hed Kandi
Web: www.samplemagic.com
Price: 34.90 pounds.
Good: The drum section is great.
Bad: The bass sounds could have been more varied.

Review copy: Thanks to Sample Magic for NFR!

IF YOU LIKED THIS YOU'LL LIKE:
Solid house grooves - Sample Magic Organic House
Uplifting trance - Myloops Trance Cosmos: Elements Volume 3