Product Reviews by KVR Members

Slow, blurry, unintuitive, the samples can't be used in commercial projects, I uninstalled it in 5 minutes, really garbage.

Dune 3.5 is such a high-quality synthesizer that it blows up synths like Korg or Yamaha in electronic sounds. You won't find 4 GB piano sounds or real strings, but the electronic sounds are tops. Consider the price you will pay for it. The power of its leads, the character of its pads and synth basses is unrivaled in the world of synthesis. The reason is the quality and path of the 'analog' signal that it brings inside. Also the drum kicks are powerful and unique. Hopefully in the future there will be improvements and expansion of sample editing so that eventually an acoustic piano or full drum kit can one day be triggered, but maybe Synapse isn't going that way.
In complex sounds in terms of power and quality it surpasses Falcon and Omnisphere by far. Dune's sounds have a unique analog-digital grain and characteristic, nothing sounds like the Dune 3.

Thank you Synapse for such a great musical instrument for the electronic musician! An unbeatable classic in 2022.

Unfortunately 1 star is due to the protection that this Avenger VPS has that I bought and after a couple of months it asked me to 'register' it again ??? what the fuck? I had to stop a project I was working on in my DAW to find the username and password for the V-Manager, then I had to re-start all instances within the project because it wouldn't take the change. It is a shame that after having spent hundreds of dollars and having registered it, it asks me for license registration again, it has no meaning other than to "remove" potential buyers. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE, DO NOT BUY THIS VST until this stupid thing has been corrected.

***** Opinion updated on December 1, 2022 *****

I think it's a great synthesizer after all, I shouldn't detract from the sound quality and the synthesis features that are incredible, just for an opinion against the protection system that the synthesizer uses, I think it's not fair and for That's why I withdraw and give it 5 stars for the magnificent sound and the quality of its library. Hopefully the protection will be reviewed and improved in the not too distant future.

• Updated review:
  12/4/2023.

**The new version of Serato Studio 2.1 has improved a lot, the current ability to use unlimited effects per Pads/tracks has opened up the possibility of expanding the production immensely.

The STEMS separation works great and the audio quality is impeccable. Thanks for implementing VST3, excellent! I just need to be able to freely record MIDI or at least expand to 64 measure instead of 8!! 2024 guys please! Thanks SERATO Team, one of the best DAW in bussiness ♥.

• Updated review:
• 6/5/2023.
• The fact that it will not accept plugins in VST3 format in 2023 makes it obsolete with many of the tools that are produced and no longer support VST2, Serato programmers, enable VST3 in Serato now, not in 2024 or 2025, thank you!

A professional composing tool for the professional musician, with professional sound and excellent effects. The editing, programming and composing flow of a track makes it a wonderful companion when it comes to getting inspiration and fast music composition results. It uses VSTs of any type and handles them with excellence and very low CPU consumption.

The effects that it already incorporates are of great quality although they can not be edited in depth, but surely it will be able to in next updates. The new version 1.7 incorporates 16 pads per group which makes it fantastically well and the incorporation of the mixer and the automation of each sample in real time make this work tool something incredible.

I can record a drum line, give an independent effect to each sound in the kit and then record automation of panning, equalization filters, etc. all in real time and recorded to perfection and all in seconds.

The final sound is a gem, no clicks or delays of any kind. The project saves and opens very quickly and never loses any sample along the way, very nice Serato!

I can export every Stem in my mix in seconds and then master it separately in any mastering software. Serato is a gem of inspiration, ideas, concepts and fast elaboration of any musical style, but I have found it genius for original electronic music compositions specifically. Thanks to the Serato Studio development team! A phenomenal DAW 2022!

• Audio quality
• Effects
• Pads
• Automatization of each sample
• Workflow
• Inspirational
• Easy to use
• Professional
• A new great mixer :)
• The composition blocks and workflow
• How well handling any professional VST (instruments and effects)
• Low Low CPU resources (Awesome!)
• Inexpensive
• With a lot of room for future updates!
• Export Steams and or entire project
• Project saved always re-call exactly as it was 'saved'
• Never loosing 'samples' or broken sounds
• A gem for Hip-Hop, Funk and or any electronic style
• Wave interface and sample manipulation, as it's best.

< Serato Studio v1.7 >A professional composing tool for the professional musician, with professional sound and excellent effects. The editing, programming and composing flow of a track makes it a wonderful companion when it comes to getting inspiration and fast music composition results. It uses VSTs of any type and handles them with excellence and very low CPU consumption.

The effects that it already incorporates are of great quality although they can not be edited in depth, but surely it will be able to in next updates. The new version 1.7 incorporates 16 pads per group which makes it fantastically well and the incorporation of the mixer and the automation of each sample in real time make this work tool something incredible.

I can record a drum line, give an independent effect to each sound in the kit and then record automation of panning, equalization filters, etc. all in real time and recorded to perfection and all in seconds.

The final sound is a gem, no clicks or delays of any kind. The project saves and opens very quickly and never loses any sample along the way, very nice Serato.

I can export every Stem in my mix in seconds and then master it separately in any mastering software. Serato is a gem of inspiration, ideas, concepts and fast elaboration of any musical style, but I have found it genius for original electronic music compositions specifically. Thanks to the Serato Studio development team! A phenomenal DAW 2022! - Chipi.

Speachy is an incredible tool for real-time/post voice editing when used in conjunction with VSTHost and the VR-Cable or within a DAW, it allows you to use the excellent noise gate without affecting your original voice. The built-in compressor is subtle, clean and transparent but with very high power. The 'sexy low-end' function gives your voice an FM station bass and the mid and treble [voice air] controls give the signal quality and presence. The other controls are quality as long as you use them sparingly [as on any other platform]. The equalization is of enormous quality, but I bought it for the incredibly powerful DENOISER algorithm, a marvel! Still running on version 1.0, hopefully Dev. can update it by tweaking and making some adjustments and improvements, but at the end of the day it's an all-in-one VST for vocals, zoom calls, radio stations and videos of great professional quality.

The MEMORYMOOG from 1982 was the first polyphonic and storable synthesizer from MOOG MUSIC. Although the POLYMOOG, which had already been published in 1975, had polyphony, it used an octave divider circuit and all voices had to be content with a single filter. In addition, he had no memory slots for his own sound creations. The MEMORYMOOG, on the other hand, had six independent voices, each with its own oscillator trio, filters, envelopes, VCA, etc. And the sounds created with it could be saved and called up again.

At the time, the MEMORYMODE was often regarded as a six-fold MINIMOOG, this may be true to a certain extent, but the matter is not completely true, despite some existing similarities (three oscillators, cascade filter circuitry), there are also a few differences in the sound architecture. For example, the oscillator circuit was realized using the CURTIS CEM3340 chips, which are also used by the competition, while the MINIMOOG still had a discrete design. The MEMORYMOOG also had a separate LFO and the possibility of oscillator synchronization. Two complete ADSR versions are used as envelopes, which are also based on CURTIS chips.

As always, the synth is only available for 64-bit systems, with WINDOWS it must be at least version 7 and with macOS it starts from version 10.9. A standalone version that does not require a host is available as well as plugins in the formats VST2, VST3, AAX and AU. In my test, I only limited myself to the VST variants under WINDOWS 7 and 10, because there is neither an apple computer around here, nor do I use the AAX plugins intended only for PRO TOOLS. My setup consists of a stationary studio computer (CPU i7-4790K with 4 x 4.0 GHz, 16 MB RAM) with WINDOWS 7 and a laptop (CPU i5-4200m with 2 x 2.50 GHz, 4 GB RAM) with WINDOWS 10. On both computers, the MEMORYMODE ran smoothly even with several instances at the same time, without making the respective system sweat.

Let's now turn to the sound architecture of memoryMODE and start with the centrally positioned oscillator department. As with the model, we find here three oscillators, each of which can generate the waveforms pulse (with manually adjustable and modulable pulse width), ascending sawtooth and triangle. The foot position can be 16', 8', 4' or 2'. Oscillators 2 and 3 can be detuned to oscillator 1, the second oscillator can also be synchronized to the first. The third oscillator, on the other hand, can – as was once the case with the MINIMOOG – be moved to the sub-audio range and decoupled from the pitch control by the keyboard in order to use it for modulation purposes.

To the right of the oscillators is the mixer section. Each of the three oscillators can be adjusted separately in its volume, in addition, a white noise can be infinitely add.

This signal mixture then passes first through the filter and then the amplifier. The filter is a replica of the famous MOOG transistor cascade (what else...). In contrast to the original, the slope can be switched between 12 dB and 24 dB per octave. Adjustable parameters include the cut-off frequency(CUTOFF), the resonance (EMPHASIS, extends to self-oscillation), the depth of modulation of the envelope (CONTOURED AMOUNT) and the influence of the played pitch (KB TRACK).

Filter and amplifier envelopes correspond to the classic ADSR variant, the influence of the velocity can be defined in both by virtual rotary knob. For the two envelopes together, there are four switches with the functions RETURN TO ZERO (in the case of notes struck directly one after the other, the attack phase of the last played note is reset to the beginning), UNCONDITIONAL CONTOUR (this is not a hair care product, but causes the envelope to jump to the release phase immediately after the attack phase, even with held notes, which corresponds to an AR envelope), KEYBOARD FOLLOW (the higher the played note, the shorter the course of the attack, decay and release phases) and RELEASE (deactivates the release phase completely, thus obtaining an envelope in the style of the MINIMOOG).

No, I have never fumbled, let alone owned, a real MEMORYMOOG. However, the typical MOOG sound is still generally quite familiar to me, be it through recordings in which it was used, be it through other emulations and above all through hardware devices that I had either borrowed earlier (MOOG PRODIGY) or owned myself (BEHRINGER MODEL D).

The MOOG character is undoubtedly present in the MEMORYMODE (it should be if possible...), massive basses, fat winds and creamy leads are no problem at all. In addition, all kinds of sounds beyond the usual MOOG stereotypes are possible with the MEMORYMODE, such as soft pads, wiry sounds and oblique effects.

Although the basic sound is very convincing overall, I still have to get rid of a small criticism at this point: In the very high keyboard positions, I was able to perceive slight artifacts in some sounds, a kind of metallic-sounding coloring with a cyclic chirping. The phenomenon occurred with all waveforms, but with the pulse wave this was the most intense, and the more oscillators were switched on, the stronger it was audible. I guess this has its cause in an aliasing of the oscillators (?). With the other plugins of CHERRY AUDIO I had not noticed this so far, but I had not particularly focused my ear notice on these.

For all this, however, the MEMORYMODE can do absolutely all. And after I had approached it further in the course of the review, I had to realize that I like the part quite well. It is very fast and easy to use, more flexible in sound than it may seem at first glance, and the basic sound is also right on the whole (with only minor compromises in the very highest, usually hardly used keyboard layers).

CHERRY AUDIO offers the MEMORYMODE on its own website, but it is also available through various online shops. The introductory price this time is 39, - US dollars (currently about 33, - Euro), which is a tenth above the past introductory offers, but is still to be regarded as cheap. The regular selling price should be 59, - US dollars (so around 50, - Euro) (will it ever come...?). If you do not want to buy the cat in a poke, you should make use of the offered demo version, the 30 days should probably be enough to form your own opinion.

FL Studio is a tremendous piece of software to musically create any song in any genre imaginable. Those who lock it down to one musical style don't know what they are talking about. The interface is flawless, fast, lightning fast, intuitive and modern. One of the best on the market, above Pro-Tools, which is an old and boring dinosaur. Creating a good sounding track, cutting it and editing it is so easy in FL Studio! The editing and sound modules, compressors, limiters, etc. are excellent! When you first open FL studio it takes about 3 seconds, Mixcraft 9 takes three times as long, Studio One takes almost 30 seconds or more. There are many who say that a DAW has no sound of its own, but the FL Studio console lives when you add editors, compressors, etc., the sound shoots up to an incredible quality. In Mixcraft for comparison, it sounds flat and muffled, the same as in Studio One or Bitwig. In FL Studio the sound is fat, creamy and dense, modern and elegant at the same time, making the producers ears can have a close vision of what the final master will sound like. What I don't like about FL studio is that sometimes the mouse click behaves unpredictably, the synths you assign are not automatically associated to a channel and that's a bit confusing. Some of the built-in synthesizers are mediocre sounding and unintuitive, not all of them...Directwave sounds like Kontakt the same, Sytrus sounds incredibly clean and analog at the same time, it's like having a Korg Chrome inside FL Studio. FLEX is great for pads and atmospheric sounds. The Patcher where you can mix anything you can think of responds like a tool out of this world! The piano-roll that works here works wonders and there is no current DAW that can come close in its performance and versatility, a marvel for composing well and fast. If you don't use any DAW yet and you are thinking about one, don't hesitate with FL Studio, it's a dream DAW, it's perfect? NO, but it will make you smile in every song you compose, produce and listen to with it.

UPDATE: 6/13/23 * Mixcraft Pro Studio V.10 *

- Incredible scaling for superb scalable 4K/8K monitors

- FULL VST3 support with incredibly robust stability on par with Pro-Tools.

- Excellent mixer with a completely revamped and highly accurate mixer.

- Accurate mixdown of the master that sounds exactly like the original mix (leaving FL Studio and Studio One 6 with their flat and non-dynamic mixdown) Mixcraft exports your work in 24-bits with a professional and unique precision in the market.

- A joke price, I paid $39 for the upgrade from 9 to v10 (Well done Acoustica!!!).

- Professional effects

- Incredibly robust MIDI board and never leaves a note behind when you Quantize.

- Best DAW on the market with CPU heavy VST like 'Avenger - Vengeance' - I could simultaneously run 41 instances of the synth and it barely scraped 35%, impressive performance!

- Dream automation, any handle you move on the synth will record excellently! You can cut and paste entire tracks including all automation.

- Excellent Samplers included, you drag a loop and it automatically cuts it mapped to the Sampler, crazy!

- TB Barricade the best mid class limiter on the market! Try it, your mix will never be as punchy as with it.

- Instant combination of synth layering and layered effects with instant recall.

- Excellent and robust audio handling and wave elasticity algorithm, whatever you throw at the sequencer it will automatically put it in time, not like Studio One's garbage, you have to manipulate it and it never stays in time, Mixcraft is classy here.

- The recording controls bar detached wherever you want, lightning fast loading of large projects and top notch support make Mixcraft v10 the DAW of your dreams, trust me, it leaves all the others that cost 10 times more by the way!!.

UPDATE: 6/13/23 * Mixcraft Pro Studio V.10 *

- Incredible scaling for superb scalable 4K/8K monitors.

- FULL VST3 support with incredibly robust stability on par with Pro-Tools.

- Excellent mixer with a completely revamped and highly accurate mixer.

- Accurate mixdown of the master that sounds exactly like the original mix (leaving FL Studio and Studio One 6 with their flat and non-dynamic mixdown) Mixcraft exports your work in 24-bits with a professional and unique precision in the market.

- A joke price, I paid $39 for the upgrade from 9 to v10 (Well done Acoustica!!!).

- Professional effects.

- Incredibly robust MIDI board and never leaves a note behind when you Quantize.

- Best DAW on the market with CPU heavy VST like 'Avenger - Vengeance' - I could simultaneously run 41 instances of the synth and it barely scraped 35%, impressive performance.

- Dream automation, any handle you move on the synth will record excellently! You can cut and paste entire tracks including all automation.

- Excellent Samplers included, you drag a loop and it automatically cuts it mapped to the Sampler, crazy.

- TB Barricade the best mid class limiter on the market! Try it, your mix will never be as punchy as with it.

- Instant combination of synth layering and layered effects with instant recall.

- Excellent and robust audio handling and wave elasticity algorithm, whatever you throw at the sequencer it will automatically put it in time, not like Studio One's garbage, you have to manipulate it and it never stays in time, Mixcraft is classy here.

- The recording controls bar detached wherever you want, lightning fast loading of large projects and top notch support make Mixcraft v10 the DAW of your dreams, trust me, it leaves all the others that cost 10 times more by the way!.