808 Studio 2

The upgrade is off the chain. It almost sounds like a totally different synth. More powerful and so much more punch. I wish it came with more presets and they had transferred the previous version's preset. The arpeggiator is a welcome addition too.

Actually, for me more like 3 and a half stars.

The Good:

1) Excellent sound, hence an organic quality.

2) Sits well in the mix.

3) Easy and quick to learn and program. Very straight-forward, pleasant GUI.

4) Flexible due to the three oscillator sound sources (two regular, one dedicated sub) and other programming options for tone shaping.

5) Pitch slide function is very effective.

The Bad:

1) There is a issue in pitch bend releases. If one, say, pitchbends a note (for example) down a major third (e.g., A to F) and releases the key before releasing the pitchbend wheel, all following notes will likewise be pitchbent down a major third (e.g., D to Bb, Eb to B, etc.) until one uses the pitchwheel to bend the note up to return to the original pitch. Pitchbending up and releasing before returning the pitchwheel to center produces the same corresponding issue with the new pitch being above the correct pitch.

2) What may be a an oversight: the maximum pitch amount for pitch bend is "hard-wired" to a major third; this cannot be increased or decreased within the GUI.

These last two seriously affect my use of the plug-in and are the reason for loss of one (and a half) star(s). If/when these shortcomings are addressed, the plug-in's rating could pretty easily be 5 stars. I'm hoping this happens.

I love it!!! It was exactly what I was looking for. It has a ton of great presets and it's easy to tweak sounds. I used it on my newest track. 808 studio has sounds that sit well in a mix or stand out.