AudioRealism

ABL3 is very good and fun to use. There does seem to be an improvement to the sound with their Feb 2022 update. The ability to simply use the piano roll is really nice. Though for some of my projects I do opt for using the onboard sequencer and then muting and unmuting parts. Onboard distortion and clipping is very convincing. I still feel like outboard distortion offers much more realism.

I'm happy to have ABL3 if I want to meander around some acid techno or other 303 heavy genres.

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*Disclaimer: I'm a songwriter, producer, and educator. My writing style may read like a billboard ad, but my user review is sincere and authentic. I only appraise a product I consider extraordinary, hence the high rating. I don't work for the developer. In fact, I rarely work at all. :-) I hope you find my review useful. — Tommy Zai.

INTRO

ReDominator by AudioRealism is a super fat sounding virtual synth, which is modeled after the classic Alpha Juno 1/2 (JU-1/2). I actually had the JU-1/2 in the late 80s, and I can say without hesitation that this fine emulation brings me back and still inspires me. Actually, I remember foolishly selling my hardware model, opting for the newfangled digital offerings of the day. ReDominator has eased the pain of letting that synth go.

ReDominator delivers the unmistakable Hoover Sound* that was made famous by early Roland and Korg synths. However, it was the top 10 hit track "Dominator" by Dutch techno pioneers Human Resource that resurrected the sound. "I'm bigger and bolder and rougher and tougher, in other words sucker there is no other — I'm the one and only dominator. Wanna kiss myself!" It's no wonder this synth is called REDOMINATOR! And, what is the default patch called? LOL I have created tracks for the 90s techno-rave scene featuring this sound, and I have also used that vacuum tone on countless other tracks. This synth will deliver Mr. Hoover to you and much, much more — I quickly discovered a full-featured and powerful polyphonic synth that is capable of sweet basses, leads, pads, and all kinds of sweeping atmospheric soundscapes.

*There are several thick swirling carpet cleaning presets, and it's not difficult to create your own:

1. Choose the sawtooth waveform.

2. Evenly space oscillators by an octave.

3. Apply PWM.

4. Crank up the chorus effect.

FAVORITE FEATURES

• Vintage Interface.

• Fun to program.

• More fun to play.

• Love the sliders and knobs — tight and responsive.

• 200+ patches. .. a few duds, but countless good ones.

• Complex envelope generator.

• Sawtooth variations.

• Low aliasing waveforms.

• Moderate CPU hit.

• Innovative, responsive developers (responded to my inquiry within an hour)

OTHER THOUGHTS

• What will AudioRealism bring back to life next? Psss, I miss the pads on my Juno-106 and the lushness of my Oberheim synths and rackmounts.

• AudioRealism satisfies our audio obsessions, i.e., the wet, filter TB-303 bass, TR drum machines, and now the Hoover Sound a la Alpha Juno.

SUMMARY

ReDominator looks analog, sounds analog, and with the right controller — feels analog – a very specific, wonderful classic analog synth, which can deliver a wide range of sonic timbres from thin bite to fat punch to swirl. I'm not saying this is the last synth you'll ever need or that it's the ultimate "go to" instrument. There are more appropriate Swiss army knife soft synths out there. However, what I am saying is this — for the price, ReDominator is unbeatable for what it is and how it sounds! I highly recommend this synth to any eMusician, producer, film/video scorer, DJ, sound designer, and any other kind of audio tracker, who is looking for "that sound" and a whole lot more. Tommy Zai gives ReDominator two big, fat thumbs up. Thank you, AudioRealism, for resurrecting a classic synth that never should have died! Viva la ReDominator.

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Introduction
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The best 303 for Mac AU with an authentic sound, with lot of presets and great usability.

GUi & Usability
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Simple and very easy to understand GUI. And you can swap to another darker skin. Most of it is very self-explanatory. 303-user will know what to do. New user to 303, will have to learn the sequencer, but it's not big thing. That's why the 303 is (among other things) so sought after. It's just very easy to get groovey sequences out of it in an instant.
The contender Phosycon from D16 has worse usability. It was confusing to me, so I wasn't able to start a sequence within one minute. But that's probably jus me ;)

Load the ABL 303 and start right away by hitting a note on your keyboard. Hit another note and listen to the next sequence.

It even supports 303-audio-file-import and recognizes and implements that pattern. I have to admit I've never tested that feature, so I can't really say how good it works.

Sound
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The sound is as you expect it from a 303. Pretty authentic, but surely not like the real deal, because a real 303 hooked up to some fine high end analog gear will still punch better.
Then there is also Phosycon, which I think has a slight better sound, but the ABL has just a better usability for me. I believe the slight sound differences won't matter in songs, that don't build upon the 303 as a main instrument (like Acid).
ABL also has two types of distortion built in to pimp the sound. They're good, but meanwhile there are better external ones.

Presets
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ABL delivers a huge amount of presets. It's so much, that I still haven't covered one percent of it. You must know, that every preset can have multiple sequences triggered by a note. There are presets for all kinds of styles. Straight bangin acid lines, funky crazy grooves, driving bass lines... you won't be bored.

Stability
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Never had any issue. Runs and runs and runs.

Cons
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There is one little issue. If you want to create a custom MIDI map, you have to reload it everytime you open the session. It is NOT saved, nor with the ABL presets, nor with the DAW presets. At least it is like this with my system: Logic 8 & OS X 10.6.8.

Conclusion
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Everytime I want a 303, I go for ABL.

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I'm giving this synth 10 out of 10. I'm doing this because it's perfect for the purpose it was created, and beyond! I try to rate synths in relation to the average review at KVR, for the sake of fairness. I also only tend to review synths I really like. I wish we could rate out of 15 or 20 because the standard of softsynths in general has sky-rocketed in recent times. I'd give this 19 out of 20.

ABL pro is advertised as a "303 on steroids" and is the stuff of dreams if you're looking for classic Roland-style monosynth sequences and mutant acid lines. Two oscillators with all of the analog waveshapes and an LFO which can go audio-rate and be patched in as a 3rd oscillator feed a lowpass filter that can squelch and scream. The main filter design is more in the vein of the MC-202 than the 303 (and really is a dead ringer! No pun intended ;), but a "legacy" filter is provided with a 18db/oct slope which squelches instead of self-resonating.

If you've wanted to make authentic acid-lines with PWM and sync or stacked oscillators, this is your ticket. The synth engine, combined with the built-in sequencer, just has that certain magic to it which gets my head nodding and my face grinning. Like the straight-up 303 emulation ABL 2, the sequencer speaks Acidese fluently, and is as vital a part of the sound as the actual filters and oscillators! Alternatively, you can switch off both the sequencer AND the mono mode, and use ABL Pro just like any other softsynth, though having a fairly modern computer might be a good idea if you want to really exploit that.

Really, it always comes back to the sound. It's evocative of the past, yet expands into new territory. Features such as a waveshaper (which brings in varying amounts of wave folding), filter and oscillator FM, ring modulation, control signal patching and the audio rate LFO and lizard-tongue quick envelopes make this my go-to synth for tricked out acid.

I don't much care for the 303-style sequencer programming, and would welcome with open arms a graphical editor or piano roll interface, but this is made up for by providing extensive controllable randomization which seriously always inspires me after a bit of clicking around. Again this takes the oldschool acid technique of having the 303's batteries die and the pattern memory being filled with random, chromatic weirdness, and pulls it squelching and pulsating into the modern DAW. The ability to choose the density of notes, ties, and accents, choose to leave certain aspects of the pattern alone, automatically create relevent variations, and lock the randomization to different scales and modes really makes this a winner in my opinion.

In the oscillator department, much care seems to have gone into getting that characteristic Roland sound, especially the squarewave with it's complex spectrum and meaty bass. There are no perfect digital waveshapes here, and the result is something organic that changes timbre with pitch like the original hardware did.

All in all, an oldschool techno masterpiece with mileage way into the future. The bottom line for me is that this is a synth which has provided the spark of inspiration which ended up with entire tracks built around it. You can't ask for more than that!

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The Roland TB-303, what a simple instrument... Just take a sawtooth or square wave, run it through a resonant 18 or 24 db/oct lowpass filter modulated by a decay envelope, throw in some accents and portamento, and there you have it, BAM! right?

It's only by listening to the evolution of the software 303, that I've come to realize how complex and 'alive' the sound of a 303 really is. Like an accoustic, or a well programmed and featured synthesizer, there are subtle movements in the sound, and proportions that change beyond simple filter modulations.

Love it or hate it, to see a 303 as simply a waveform going through a filter is to miss the point. And that point has not been missed by Audiorealism, makers of what must be the most accurate softsynth 303 in the world today. The sound spawned countless genres and contextualizations precicely because this subtle complexity creates a sound which is compelling because it sounds alive, tangible, like a physical process.

Having played with a real silver squidgebox a long time ago, there are very few simulations that take me back to that insta-grin moment I cranked the resonance and let the acid flow. Audiorealism ABL 2 nails all of the subtleties almost squarely on the head. The way the accents bob up and down slightly, as if on the surface of a liquid; the way the main body/character of the sound changes, and not just the cutoff point, when you up the resonance; the clear, wide variation of sound, from peircing high-pitched resonant bubbles to dark, chunky rubber... need I go on?

ABL even affords you the luxury of adjusting the internal pots of your simulated 303, allowing you to supercharge or tone down the sound to fit the flavour of your current project. You can make the cutoff range go out the top of human hearing, choose between overdriven filters, or pure liquid sinewave resonance, and even simulate flaws such as the VCA clicks which occurred on every sequencer step.

One feature I really appreciate is the resonance gain compensation. In a ladder filter, turning up the resonance causes a drop in volume of overall sound, as more energy is directed into the peak and none is added. This makes extreme tweaking cumbersome in realtime, and requires either distortion or a compressor to level things out - which may not be desired. Resonance gain compensation gets around this simply by causing the oscillator volume to increase, in proportion to your resonance. Simple, but SO effective, and a welcome break from 'warts and all' authenticity :)

Many software 303's sound amazing put through a suitable distortion, but what floors me with ABL is that despite having built in distortion, it sounds amazing totally naked! Warm and authentic are words that spring to mind. Subtle distortions such as simulated filter overdrive, and the internal clipping that is caused when the volume knob exceeds 75%, create an output signal almost indistunguishable from the real deal.

I like the new GUI. It's bold and iconic without being overly nostalgic, but the option is there to skin if so desired. Features such as pattern randomization, sequencer swing, and an audio detection routine to detect the notes from a source loop, round out an amazing acid experience!

I am not an acid purist, nor am I a pure acid-head. I just consider the 303 an invaluable tool in creating electronic music, and something with instant appeal, sort of like electronic music's version of the electric guitar. ABL is the best emulation out there at the moment, and in A/B tests I, along with most other people, can't tell the difference. Whether you think this justifies the price tag is up to you, obviously...

... After all, a 303 is just a basic waveform through a resonant filter, right? ;)Read Review

I love this 303 emulation. It nearly captures the bite and grittiness of the original that everything else i have experienced has lacked.
The basic waveforms of the original TB-303 always possessed something different and very special in it's basslines and this has worked really well in replicating that.
I personally don't use the Pattern Sequence thing, but you could if you wanted and it works well and sounds very like the original.
I use for Electro music, it offers instant inspiration.
Not very good for general synth use, but you will come back to it very often if you are into that kind of thing.
Excellent purchase, looking into getting Pro for that those extra synthesis options.
Sounds great when paired with your TR-808 or TR-909 samples and you're away creating the great retro sound that you'll remember from years back.
The main selling point of this is the sound and it is the best emulation I have yet had the pleasure to experience.
I use this more or less on its own and it still cuts through the mix. Just like the original!

Great value for money and works really well when used as Ableton Clips.
Extremely stable and great to use if set on loop for Live. Best emulation I've seen.Read Review

I use the AudioRealism Drum Machine many months. This is the best Roland Drum Machine Clone. It is simple to programming for a great Drum-Sounds. So if you need a TR909,TR808 or TR606 in your music productions, the VST is a very good investment! The Price a small!

You can use every knobs Events very easily in host (FL-Studio,Cubase....). Programming the Pattern are very simple. You can import old ReBirth RB-338 and 909 Sysex. The Sound and effects are very hard and great! You can use own Wave-Sampler in this Drum Machine! The PCF (Pattern Controlled FX) can
be used to automate any of the drum machines parameters! Very great!

The Documentation are ok. Customer Support was great. You can use the Basic Presets-Bank - was ok! The Best for ACID-Sound and House Combination are AudioRealism BassLine2 and ADM.

If you use AudioRealism Drum Machine and search nice free Pattern and Midi-Files- are you mus visit my private website: www.happytb303.com
You can found many free Pattern for TB-303,TR-909 and TR-808!Read Review

Hello,

I use the AudioRealism BassLine2 many months. This is the best TB-303 Clone. It is simple to programming for a great ACID-Sound. So if you need a 303 in your productions, the Basslinis VSTi is a very good investment!

You can use knobs Events very easily in host (FL-Studio,Cubase....). Programming the Pattern goes on different wise. Everyone is very simple. (Step by Step or 303 Style programming mode). You can import old ReBirth RB-338 and PH-Files (d16.pl). Preferences dialog for easier setup and great Sound.

The GUI is very simple for beginner and profis. The Sound are is great. (Little difference Hardware). The distortion effect on
the Bassline is also great. It's filters are very well simulated.

The Documentation are ok. Customer Support great. Mike answer questions fast. The Presets - WOW! Stability - Reliable!! Period!

My favorit project for AudioRealism BassLine2 is my website. You can
found many Pattern for AudioRealism Products and more! www.happytb303.com

Bye
ErikRead Review