Simply moogish - Micromoon by Elektrostudio

Those who know my sound, especially on the album "Electronic Spacerock" but also from the Willma Poppen project, know that the one thing I like especially when it comes to VST Synthesizers is replicas of analog synthesizers by Moog. Quite some time has passed, since the only way to get a moogish sound on a computer were the (my opinion) rather expensive products by Arturia. Today the internet is literally bursting of digital clones of, for example, the Minimoog, Moog Modular  etc. Analogue synthesizer emulations are en vogue these day.

Being overwhelmed by the shere number of analogue modeling VSTs one could easily miss the Micromoon by the polish developers Elektrostudio... what happened to me, to be honest, for quite a time. Today I view the Micromoon as a reliable, ressource friendly and easy to use partner when it comes to the synthesis of of epic analogues style sounds. If I should pick only one of the outstanding features of that Synth, it would be indeed the ease of use. You do not have to fiddle around with dozens of parameters so this synthesizer gives a good sound. Just a few things have to be set and you are on your way. Still there are enough possibilities to satisfy passionated knob fiddlers and sound architects. Another thing I recognized at the Micromoon right from the start, was the nice warm and powerfull sound it delivers. This is no typical small squeaky softsynth where you have to blow up the sound using external effects to use it. This synth delivers pure power all by itself. Another nice feature is the ribbon controller, which is real fun, especially when used with propper MIDI controllers. The only thing one could find not so good at the Micromoon is, that it is monophonic. So it is not really suited for thundering supersaw chord orgies. HINT FOR FL STUDIO USERS: Layer channels fix this, as the Micromoon is absolutely ressource friendly and able to run in multiple instances in a DAW. I use the Micromoon, for example in the latest Willma Poppen releases, for the purpose it was created for: Bass and lead sounds. And here it does a marvellous job. The Micromoon ships with a small but great selection of presets, which serve as a great starting point for own sound engineering.

CONCLUSION: Ressource friendly, absolutely stable, multi instance use is no problem (I tested it with up to 30 instances running simultaneously), easy to understand and use, great warm and powerfull sound. A absolute must have not only for analogue synth enthusiasts.

Micromoon is part of the great Oryg 10 Analog Pack and can be downloaded from the website of Elektro Studio. CLICK HERE!

GreenMachine Amp - Everything a guitarplayer needs!

After I presented the Extremist VST some time ago, some folks asked me on Facebook etc., if I knew about a real great Amp Simulation VST, of cause a free one. And of cause I know some. Today I want to feature the one plugin of that kind, which was the most fun for me to work with. This means, all other free Amp Simulation VSTs had their weak spots. At GreenMachine, on the other hand, I had never the feeling that something was missing or didn't work as I expected. It is a solid piece of software, which has features, for which you have to pay a lot if you use GuitarRig etc.

To describe all features of this plugin in detail would really be too much for a blog posting. But every guitar player who plugged an electric guitar into a quality amplifier should be able to grasp the GreenMachine intuitively. Of cause GreenMachine offers all a standard Amp or Amp Simulation has to offer and a lot more.

Quality: GreenMachine is a very old plugin and a former commercial product which was set free by it's programmers some time ago. Because of that there's no support for GreenMachine. But you will not need any support at all. The extensive PDF manual tells it all. The GUI is not TOO clean but well arranged and should be easy to grasp for even semi experienced musiciens. The plugin did never crash, and is RAM and CPU friendly. Multiple instances in one DAW? Are you crazy? Why should one need to run multiple Amp Simulations simultaneously? Seriously: I never did that ;)

Conclusion: GreenMachine is in my opinion todays best free Amp Simulation for guitar and bass. If you want to play and record guitar with your computer and don't want to pay a cent, GreenMachine is your choice. For guitar- and bassplayers a must have!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD GREENMACHINE!

Steinberg Virtual Bass - A real Veteran!

Today I want to feature a real veteran of the Bass VST Plugins. It is the Steinberg Virtual Bass. Until today I had the old version, which had, from my point of view, everything the new version has, and looked like that:

While searching a download link for you today, I came across this newer version, which is kindly provided as a 64-Bit version also:

I want to set clear one thing first: If you expect to get a realistic sound of a real Bass equipped with strings from this plugin, you will be disapointed. The whole thing really sounds too synthetic. But this plugin is the one, which comes closest to the sound of a real E-Bass of all, commercial plugins included, Bass VSTs I tested so far. If there's somebody reading this and thinks he knows a VST which does this job better, please tell me about it. I allways love to learn. But keep in mind: We are not talking about expensive sample players with gigabytes of sample libraries, but pure BassSYNTHESIZERS which do the job without using samples. To emulate the sound of a real stringbass is, as the sound of a real accoustic guitar, a hard job to accomplish for a synthesizer. And here the Steinberg Virtual Bass does a quite good job. The settings are kept quite simple. One can change the position and shape of the plectrum. Also one can smoothly change the position of the pickup. Dear bassplayers: Try this with your real hardware bass ;) There is also a control for the damping of the strings. But this damps the strings just to a certain degree. You will not get the PLOPP of a 100% damped string with this. Also there is a control for the release time of a string, but extreme values do not work here either. After all one can achieve quiet good results, especially when using automation of the controls.

Quality: One should expect from Steinberg, the inventors of the VST technology, that they did a great job at this plugin. And that expectation is not disapointed. The Steinberg Virtual Bass is a stable, rock solid and ressource friendly VST with a GUI which even not very smart people, who have a basic understanding about what an E-Bass is, should be able to grasp. Because this plugin is very old, it runs great on very old computers. I didn't test multiple instances in a DAW, because one very seldomly needs more than one bass unit in a single song. ;)

Conclusion: The Steinberg Virtual Bass is, from my personal view, the VST Plugin which best mimics the sound of a real E-Bass. It is ressource friendly and incredibly stable coded. I indeed think, that it should not be missing in any VST collection.

STEINBERG VIRTUAL BASS IS PART OF THE STEINBERG CLASSIC COLLECTION VOL. 1
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

Extremist - Rough Heavy Metal Sound for Guitarists!

Today I want to feature a VST effects plugin, which is ideal for all guitarists looking for THE extreme Heavy Metal Sound. It is no full featured Amp simulation, but a distortion effect, which has some special features. The plugin has all stuff, neccessary to get a really powerful Heavy Metal sound from your guitar. First, there is a really nice Noisegate, which makes it possible to not let humming or other disturbing sounds get into the signal. You can also "creatively abuse" the noise gate to get some special unusual effects. Additionally this VST has a stereo 14 band equalizer. There are also a few presets, which convincingly mimic the sound of certain Heavy metal subgenres. The spartanic Reverb section of the plugin, does not really convince me and therefore I personally recommend to turn it off and use another reverb plugin with Extremist. Even if Extremist is intended for the use with guitars, I also recommend to test it with other sound sources, such as drums and synthesizers.

Quality: The VST is running stable and did never crash or cause my DAW to freeze. The only unpleasant thing I experienced with Extremist is, that with certain settings it rarely gives no sound at all. The Extremist is not REALLY ressource friendly, but also no ressource hog and should work without problems, if your computer is not too ancient.

Conclusion: Extremist is for sure not the best plugin for guitarrists, but it delivers what it's name promises: Extreme guitar sounds without compromise. Because it is no fully featured Amp simulation, it is neccessary to use it with a couple of other plugins in the effects chain to get the full guitar sound out of a computer. I don't want to say that this VST is a must have. There's simply too many great guitar plugins available for free out there to do so. Still it does no harm to have Extremist in your VST collection.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EXTREMIST!

Absolutely no knobs, but great sound - Goldentine by Safwan Matni

Once again I feature a small but great Synthesizer VST by Safwan Matni. And because this plugin has absolutely NO settings, this will most probably become the shortest description of a VST so far. I am talking about Goldentine, a plugin which does not look like it has much to offer if you first look at it. There is a picture of a golden table fork... yeah, and that's it. But there's more than you would expect in this VST. It is the best simulation of an E-Piano I have heared so far. What I like about Goldentine is the unexpected variations of sound it is able to produce. Depending on the velocity  it sounds from silk soft to solid like steel. The lower tones sound smoky and earthy while the higher tones sound bell-like. I used Goldentine myself in some of my productions and each time it sounded great. Listen to my Song "Gettin' Old" to hear Goldentine in action.

Quality: I am not using Goldentine for such a long time like most of the other plugins I featured in this Blog so far but long enough so I can say, that this VST is absolutely stable. It did never cause any problems. It is also very memory saving and doesn't cause a big CPU load. Goldentine should also be able to run on very ancient PCs.

Conclusion: Goldentine surprises with a absolutely authentic sound and a soundvariety, which one would not expect from a VST with absolutely no knobs and controlers to fiddle around. A must have!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD GOLDENTINE!

My favorite Delay - Kjaerhus Classic Delay

Because of todays of good weather, I want to do a a bit shorter feature today. So I want to feature once again a very simple but wonderful VST effect plugin: The Kjaerhus Classic Delay, by the Kjaerhus company which passed away much too early. I personally use this delay in most of my productions, and you will, if you know my music, surely recognize the sound immediately. With few exceptions, I actualy use no other delay effect. This is because of a bit of lazyness and on the other hand it is because of the quality and the sound of this plugin. The Classic Delay is quite easy to use, because, as with all products of the Kjaerhus Classic series, ease of use is a key feature. You really don't have to fiddle around a lot to achieve superior results. However, this delay comes with some surprising functionalities, which are usually only found in commercial products.

From left to right one finds the following:

1. an input level control, which determines the panorama of the input signal. TIP: This is especially important for the Ping-pong mode described under 7.
2. an often-overlooked little button by which you can convert the input signal into a mono signal. Sometimes this is quite a useful thing.
3. a switch for delay simulation types. The are three choices:  tape, analog and digital delay.
4. two numeric fields, which you can change by clicking them with the left mouse button, holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse up and down. The values set here apply only if the sync button described below is set to ON. In this case, the tempo of the VST is synchronized with the host application. The upper field specifies how many beats a cycle of the delay covers. The second field now indicates how many "echoes" are to occur within the period set in the upper field. I want to be honest and say that these very precise and easy to set up parameters are, in combination with the superb sound of that plugin, the cause for making it my favorite delay VST. Below those fields, there is a small button that determines whether the settings made in those fields are determining the effect and the tempo of the VST is synchronized to the VST host application, or whether the tempo of the effect is asynchronously to the host application. In the latter case, everything is determined by the Time(s) control, described under 5.
5. a Time (s) controller, which only works if the sync button, described under 4. is set to off. Then the tempo of the VST is not synchronized with the host applications tempo and the the settings  of the fields described under 4. are absolutely obsolete. The purpose of the Time (s) controller is to set how long a Delaycycle is. If the controller is set to the lowest level, every 0.05 seconds, an echo is generated, which is too fast to hear it at all. It only leads to an amplification of sound. At the highest setting of the controller every 5 seconds an echo is generated. TIP: If you need accurate echoes, make sure the sync button is on and leave the time(s) control alone ;)
6. a feedback controller that indicates how long the delay will be heared. Sorry, I'm not an expert in electronics. Therefore, I can not tell you much about how it all theoretically runs. One thing is clear: At the lowest setting, the effect stops somewhat immediately. At the highest setting, the sound echoes almost forever and will overlap. NOTE: Sometimes very loud signals are generated by setting this control to the highest value. Danger of clipping!
7. a ping-pong button which sets the pingpong mode on and off.
8. a control to set the sampling quality of the effect. If your computer is not too antique, you should set this to "HI", because the Kjaerhus Classic Delay is really programmed to be not too CPU load intensive.
9. a low cut knob that allows you block out low portions of the sound from the effect.
10. a high cut knob that allows you block out high portions of the sound from the effect.
11. a controller that determines how the relationship between the effect signal and the original signal on the output is. Turning the knob to the left, you get the pure original signal, turning it fully clockwise, you get only the output of the effect.
12. a controller for the volume of the output signal. TIP: The Classic Delay makes the sound a little more quiet. Therefore, if one wants to rehash the original volume of the signal, turn the knob a little higher.

Ok, that became somewhat  extensive ;) So we get straight to the quality: The sound is even superb if you set the "Quality" knob to the lowest setting. As with all products made by Kjaerhus, much attention has been paid to resource-friendlyness. The VST has been working, even with multiple instances simultaneously, already on my Pentium II 233 Mhz with 16 MB of RAM back then in 2004. So you really don't have to worry that your computer might be too old. Crashes, freezing the DAW and other problems? NEVER happened since 2004!

Conclusion: One of the truly essential and most used VST effects in my arsenal. Especially for dub reggae this VST is absolutely wonderful. A must have!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Kjaerhus Classic Delay!

Crystal - Creativity is the limit!

Today I want, once again, to feature a VST Sythesizer, which crossed my path just recently. I am talking about Green Oak's Crystal. First: This Synthsizer is nothing for beginners, at least if you don't want to use the quite extensive presetbank only. For all to knobfiddlers, soundmanglers and mad axe murderers of audio synthesis, that masterpiece of a Synth is just right. To list all features of Crystal would really be too much. Some of you allready told me, that I am writing too long features. But here are the most important facts. For the sake of my own lazyness, I simply quote from the Green Oak Website and hope they do not sue my ass over it ;)

Crystal features both subtractive synthesis and frequency modulation (FM) synthesis. It offers abundant modulation control with over 90 parameters which may be modulated, multi-stage envelopes with graphical editors, extensive tempo sync of envelopes/lfo rates/delay times, built-in effects for chorus/flanging/comb filtering/echoes, and a band splitter for effects processing by frequency band. Not only that, Crystal has wave sequencing and granular synthesis. (Source: http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/Crystal/Crystal.html)

Ok, so far for what Green Oak themself say about the Crystal VST Synthesizer. I really want to point at some features I find really interesting and important at that Synth. The builtin comb filter comes in handy for each and every sound massacre. The so called mixer section does not only at the start look complicated and promises much fun. Here it is, where outerdimensional sounds get their final dose of madness.

And now to the... errrm... THING I love most about the Crystal VST: The Breed-Function! Did you ever breed sounds? So theres Mama Sound and Papa Sound and when they make love, then there is Baby Sound... OR MONSTERSOUND! Hmm, how can a MONSTERSOUND happen, if Mama Sound doesn't smoke, drink and eat funny pills during pregnancy? Well, unfortunately, there's that nuclear plant right next to Mama and Papa sounds house... What? Has Sonny finally gone mad? What is he talking about? Yes, dear friends, all I just wrote makes indeed sense. With Crystal, you can breed sounds. And indeed you select a mothersound and fathersound (both existing presets) and from those a new sound is generated. The new sound is not just a mix of the parents, but is deformed more or less by the influence of a mutation parameter. And here we are at the nuclear plant topic, which kicks in, if you increase the value of the "mutation" control. Because not just the mixing of the parentsounds, but also the mutation value influence all of the countless parameters of the VST, there are also unviable and totally crippled results of breeding sounds. Well it's not allways a good idea to build nuclear plants next to a obstetrical clinic ;) But is is indeed possible to create nice (or not so nice) sounds using that Synthesizer and it's Breed Function. You just have to click a few more times, compared to Oatmeal with it's outstanding randomize functionality, to get usefull results. But it is by far easier than with the randomize functionalities of most VST Synthesizers. And unless you do increase the mutation value too musch, the monstrosities will be not too many.

Quality: On my setup/machine/DAW Crystal did freeze the DAW a few times. This means it crashed fataly. It doesn't happen very often, but still it is a good idea to often save your work. The CPU load was a tiny bit high here. No wonder if you imgine what goes on in that Synth. The memory usage is quite moderate. If your PC is not too ancient, Crystal should run well on your machine. I think a Pentium II or better should do the job. The graphical user interface of Crystal is quite complicated and especially newcomers will have a hard time to understand it. Many users will give up when they see the chaotic/cryptic mixer section, and that's a pitty.

Conclusion: The level of creativity (and patience) is really the only limit, if you use the Crystal VST Synthesizer and it's vast possibilities of sound manipulation. With it's Breed Function, this Synthesizer brings a completely new way to create new astounding sounds with just a few mouseclicks and it promises many hours of fun. This Synthesizers should not be missing in the arsenals,especially of soundfiddlers. Because of the many presets and the many free downloadable presetbanks, Crystal is also suitable for presetusers.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD CRYSTAL!