Product Reviews by KVR Members

I used this version to create a demo for a song, to sound as if the late Richard Tee was playing. For those not familiar, Richard Tee was a member of the band "Stuff" in the 1970's. He was also a noted recording session player based in New York.

His sound was of a certain version, with a famous phaser patched into the output (coincidentally, a brand also made in NYC).

Using Mr Ray 73, and a 6-pole setting of an old VST phaser, I was able to nail the sound almost exactly.

I understand why GSi wants to keep things moving; it's not good business if one sits back doing nothing, while the rest of the world is striving forward. Even the company that took over production of Rhodes pianos is making their own plugin.

This plugin will take some hunting down, now that it's been discontinued, but finding it is worth the trouble. You'll get a really great "stage" sound.

I have the original NadIR, with the "two slanted cab" file loader GUI. That was the one available before STL got in the mix. I believe that's the source of the confusion.

If you know someone who still has the original, that one will do just fine. There's tons of free IR's all over the place, so whichever one you get, you're good to go.

The hardware EQs this Ignite plugin is based on are expensive. Notice: I said are expensive. This one plugin will do the job of three of the original hardware EQs! The "legacy" unit didn't have the midrange section; they had to create a special midrange EQ for mastering purposes. Everything you could think of to shape the tonal characteristic of a sound is all right here.

In case you're wondering, no, this is not just an appealing GUI based on a unit from the 1950s. It's designed to sound better than all the other emulations or "tribute" units floating around. This isn't some Synthedit waste of RAM and processing power. The tube sounds alone are worth downloading this VST plugin. They could have charged hundreds of dollars for this, and it's free. Get this EQ...

...no, seriously, why are you still reading this? I said, get this EQ!

I've been in the game a while. I started in the mid-to-late 80's, with programs like Texture and Sequencer Plus Gold. Recorded to a Tascam 8-track with dbx, later with an Alesis ADAT, and did mixes to an Atari 1040ST running Hybrid Arts ADAP II.

Long, slow fade to a few years ago. Cakewalk Sonar (pre-Roland). Hangs and crashes. Lost sessions. Pushed through to the Roland acquisition era, still can't get what I need out of it.

Then, cue the angel chorus -- Reaper. $60 for a basic license? Built-in effects, native plugins that actually help my work flow, skins that make sense... and no hassle for upgrades? There's gotta be a catch, right?

The only catch is, you have to learn it. It's got a lot of features, and a lot of available customization, and it's easy for a rookie to get frustrated. Fortunately, the Cockos Reaper forum is full of helpful people who don't mind saying something besides "read the @#$%in' manual". There's lots of YouTube vids from actual pros who are using the program.

There will always be those who say,"it doesn't work like (a competitive program)." Well, if you can afford that program, grab it. But it will cost a lot more to do just about everything this one does.

Version 5 has improved the MIDI implementation considerably, and it's got one of the smallest data footprints I've ever seen, 8 MB (32-bit). It's backwards compatible to Windows XP... and it's cross-platform with OS X back to 10.5.

The demo is uncrippled, and there's no watermarks of any kind. What have you got to lose?