Product Reviews by KVR Members
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Z3TA+
Reviewed By Cabinfever [all]
October 7th, 2004
Version reviewed: 1.4 on Windows
zeta gets lots of praise and it deserves it. it has many strong points: fantastic routing possibilities, huge patch library, good arp, good filters, comprehensive built-in effects, excellent ergonomic gui, easy to learn, a good sale price.
overall i feel it has a slightly cold tone. that doesn't mean it is lacking in "emotion", but it doesn't sound like an old roland or korg, it's more "digital" than "analog". but still distintive, and very appealing.
the one facet of zeta which *is* weak is cpu usage. compare zeta to absynth for example and it is a most monstrous resource hog. given what is now being achieved by ni and developers like williamk, i think zeta is quite profoundly substandard in this area.
i also give zeta an 7 for presets, not for any lack of quantity or quality, but only because they are still so disorganised. i'd like to see a zeta bank library like ni has for absynth with sounds categorised into 128 banks. there are hundreds of great sounds available but they are hopelessly disorganised. patch chaos.
but overall one of my all-time favoutrite synths, versatile, rich & deep.Read Review
overall i feel it has a slightly cold tone. that doesn't mean it is lacking in "emotion", but it doesn't sound like an old roland or korg, it's more "digital" than "analog". but still distintive, and very appealing.
the one facet of zeta which *is* weak is cpu usage. compare zeta to absynth for example and it is a most monstrous resource hog. given what is now being achieved by ni and developers like williamk, i think zeta is quite profoundly substandard in this area.
i also give zeta an 7 for presets, not for any lack of quantity or quality, but only because they are still so disorganised. i'd like to see a zeta bank library like ni has for absynth with sounds categorised into 128 banks. there are hundreds of great sounds available but they are hopelessly disorganised. patch chaos.
but overall one of my all-time favoutrite synths, versatile, rich & deep.Read Review
Microtonic (µTonic)
Reviewed By Cabinfever [all]
February 13th, 2004
Version reviewed: 1 on Windows
Yes, this is a great drum synth, but it's not perfect. So instead of talking about it's wonderful tweakability, easy sound manipulation and crash-proof life, here's a few things I don't like:
- Chaining patterns together isn't intuitive. Maybe for you, not for me. Can't see what the hell is going on.
- It's a pig to synchronise to other sequencers if you decide against using the in-built 16-step toy pattern sequencer.
- The pattern sequencer is a joke. 16 steps ?! If this thing was designed as a horizontal GUI rather than a bathroom-tile square then they could have fit in an a workable 32-step pattern. I mean what the hell - 16 steps and then we flip to another pattern ? Is this 1990 ?
Hopeless, in fact truly woeful. Unbelievable. When everything else is so good to shoot itself in the foot with such an amateurish and frustrating restriction just takes my beath away.
I also find the GUI insipid and washed out. Maybe it's trying for some sort of Mac-like translucency, but for me it doesn't rate.
Other than that I'm very happy with this device. It's got a beautiful sound, absolutely superb noise and filter & EQ to get very subtle shades of tone, and lots of odd sound potential.Read Review
- Chaining patterns together isn't intuitive. Maybe for you, not for me. Can't see what the hell is going on.
- It's a pig to synchronise to other sequencers if you decide against using the in-built 16-step toy pattern sequencer.
- The pattern sequencer is a joke. 16 steps ?! If this thing was designed as a horizontal GUI rather than a bathroom-tile square then they could have fit in an a workable 32-step pattern. I mean what the hell - 16 steps and then we flip to another pattern ? Is this 1990 ?
Hopeless, in fact truly woeful. Unbelievable. When everything else is so good to shoot itself in the foot with such an amateurish and frustrating restriction just takes my beath away.
I also find the GUI insipid and washed out. Maybe it's trying for some sort of Mac-like translucency, but for me it doesn't rate.
Other than that I'm very happy with this device. It's got a beautiful sound, absolutely superb noise and filter & EQ to get very subtle shades of tone, and lots of odd sound potential.Read Review
