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Addictive Drums 1
Reviewed By Spyro [all]
January 29th, 2008
Version reviewed: 1.1.1 on Windows
I own AD since it was a baby beta version, the guys at XLNAudio kindly contacted me by mail to test it.
All I can say is, this drum set plugin blow me away since day 1. The overall sound is amazing and realistic, the CPU usage is a joke, and the tweak ability is superb.
The v1 kits were already amazing, and now the Retro Pack makes it way more versatile than most of the competition solutions.
I'm always after vintage drumkits to be able to emulate old school funk or disco, and this Retro Pak was exactly what I needed for ages.
Now, I use Addictive Drums in almost every project, I barely touch the other drum libraries I have, unless I seek for an specific sound.
From Rock, to ballad, to pop, to Funk, to Disco....AD is the thing.
I was sure AD was going to be very successful, and now I'm starting to see some big names using it. Bravo XLN. (by the way, as beta tester I found the guys behind the company very very very friendly)
I only gave 9 to the features section because I think AD could really benefit by using convolution internally to emulate vintage gear or reverbs.
The MIDI rhythms library is very good, I think it could be a bit more complete, but you can also do your owns and store them inside (as I did)Read Review
All I can say is, this drum set plugin blow me away since day 1. The overall sound is amazing and realistic, the CPU usage is a joke, and the tweak ability is superb.
The v1 kits were already amazing, and now the Retro Pack makes it way more versatile than most of the competition solutions.
I'm always after vintage drumkits to be able to emulate old school funk or disco, and this Retro Pak was exactly what I needed for ages.
Now, I use Addictive Drums in almost every project, I barely touch the other drum libraries I have, unless I seek for an specific sound.
From Rock, to ballad, to pop, to Funk, to Disco....AD is the thing.
I was sure AD was going to be very successful, and now I'm starting to see some big names using it. Bravo XLN. (by the way, as beta tester I found the guys behind the company very very very friendly)
I only gave 9 to the features section because I think AD could really benefit by using convolution internally to emulate vintage gear or reverbs.
The MIDI rhythms library is very good, I think it could be a bit more complete, but you can also do your owns and store them inside (as I did)Read Review
I'll not say Slayer sounds like the "REAL" thing, but it does represents a very useful intrument when you want to add "flavors" into a mix, for instance the flavor of a plucked strings instrument.
As a bass, Slayer is VERY good, you can build a lot of useful bass patches, specially for Funk music. By playing with the microfones position you can make very dinamic, groovy sounding basslines.
Slayer can do nice distorted lead lines as well as powerchords with later feedback. It has various strumming functions to make more realistic riff patterns.
It comes with lots of effects that you can also load and arrange as you wish, you can use them to process the Slayer pluck generators. You can use it to process any live signal.
I like a lot it's GUI, is very good looking (moslty the little effects)
Slayer is low on the CPU also (more now no the latest version)
I bought Slayer 1 and I already liked it, but the new Slayer 2 was so good for me, that I upgraded it without any regret.Read Review
As a bass, Slayer is VERY good, you can build a lot of useful bass patches, specially for Funk music. By playing with the microfones position you can make very dinamic, groovy sounding basslines.
Slayer can do nice distorted lead lines as well as powerchords with later feedback. It has various strumming functions to make more realistic riff patterns.
It comes with lots of effects that you can also load and arrange as you wish, you can use them to process the Slayer pluck generators. You can use it to process any live signal.
I like a lot it's GUI, is very good looking (moslty the little effects)
Slayer is low on the CPU also (more now no the latest version)
I bought Slayer 1 and I already liked it, but the new Slayer 2 was so good for me, that I upgraded it without any regret.Read Review
If you want a top sounding analog style synth, z3ta+ is the weapon.
It has a very good GUI, nice looking and easy to learn. You can turn off almost everything allowing the user to administrate the CPU usage directly. Is also very customizable from inside and out.
z3ta can do everything you want, additive, substractive and FM synthesis, also you can use a wide variety of arpeggios and on top of that, you can load tuning scales if you want to do more esoteric sounds.
It comes with lots of effects too, to add the final flavor to your patches, it can be used as FX processor too.
It has so many patches that I rarely do one from scratch, the palette is very complete so you'll surely get lots of patches that really fit on your mix.
It has a nice control matrix, with value limits and lots of different curves. X-Y controller with randomizing capabilities.
As I see, z3ta+ is not only one of the best sounding synths out there, is extremely complete, covering all your needs.
It's price is very fair, for the ammount of features it offers.Read Review
It has a very good GUI, nice looking and easy to learn. You can turn off almost everything allowing the user to administrate the CPU usage directly. Is also very customizable from inside and out.
z3ta can do everything you want, additive, substractive and FM synthesis, also you can use a wide variety of arpeggios and on top of that, you can load tuning scales if you want to do more esoteric sounds.
It comes with lots of effects too, to add the final flavor to your patches, it can be used as FX processor too.
It has so many patches that I rarely do one from scratch, the palette is very complete so you'll surely get lots of patches that really fit on your mix.
It has a nice control matrix, with value limits and lots of different curves. X-Y controller with randomizing capabilities.
As I see, z3ta+ is not only one of the best sounding synths out there, is extremely complete, covering all your needs.
It's price is very fair, for the ammount of features it offers.Read Review
I tried several other maximizers and I can say Voxengo Elephant is clearly superior, it offers several ways to process audio depending on the material you are working on.
Elephant's sound is very clean, very professional and very stable.
I highly recommend this plugin. If you are accustomed to freeware maximizers and you think they have a good sound quality, then you MUST try Elephant! You'll hear the difference.
You will be able to go louder and still get a clean sound.
As for the CPU usage, it depends on the settings you set, you can use a light, yet clean settings to maintain CPU usage low and when rendering you can turn on all Elephant's features for a better mastering.
The documentation is very good, it covers all aspects of it, including explanations to help user to choose the best shape and speed values depending on the sound material.
I also think the price is more than fair considering the ammount of features Elephant offers, other similar plugins can cost as much as $600 not to mention hardware units.Read Review
Elephant's sound is very clean, very professional and very stable.
I highly recommend this plugin. If you are accustomed to freeware maximizers and you think they have a good sound quality, then you MUST try Elephant! You'll hear the difference.
You will be able to go louder and still get a clean sound.
As for the CPU usage, it depends on the settings you set, you can use a light, yet clean settings to maintain CPU usage low and when rendering you can turn on all Elephant's features for a better mastering.
The documentation is very good, it covers all aspects of it, including explanations to help user to choose the best shape and speed values depending on the sound material.
I also think the price is more than fair considering the ammount of features Elephant offers, other similar plugins can cost as much as $600 not to mention hardware units.Read Review
