Product Reviews by KVR Members

Diva is the best sounding soft synth I've ever used. It has an incredibly musical sound.

It is good for analogue emulation to such a degree that I literally sold my analogue synth after buying it, as I couldn't see the point any more of hanging on to analogue gear. If you're looking for lush Seventies sounds, it's spot on. If you are looking for 80s stuff you can get there too, just about. Once you start trying to make modern dubstep basses and so on - no. Nor 303 sounds. But for anyone looking for Wendy Carlos, Vangelis or even Gong synths... you will be in heaven.

If I had to keep only one piece of music software, it would be Renoise.

I've been using it for over ten years. For a long time it was something I dipped into now and then, as I surfed around looking for a DAW to love after leaving Logic. I kept coming back to Renoise, and for the last two or three years can't be bothered with anything else.

It is excellent for composition. Once you get your head around the interface (and I was not an old tracker fiend) you won't want to go back to the clunky DAWs. It's not meant for recording, and not exactly perfect for mixing either - so it's good to have a regular DAW around to export stems to and record into if you need it. But for composition, magic. You can work with VSTs etc, but it also allows you to work with samples in a way which is impossible with - say - Logic or Ableton. I have shown it to many, many people, and they always go "Wow! It's like the Matrix!", but so far not a single one has tried it for themselves. It seems to put people off by looking complex, but it really isn't. So a big advantage is you look cleverer than you really are, just by using it.

Favourite things, in no particular order:

No visual representation of sounds makes you use your ears, not your eyes.

Best sampler ever.

Amazing routing options, allowing pretty much anything to control pretty much anything else.

Funny in-built features, like the ability to rip patch from a VST to a sample patch, so it will work wherever you go (and save CPU).

Lovely, funny user group.

Excellent, uncoloured sound.

Can be installed to a memory stick and therefore entirely mobile.

For some reason I can't define, unlike any other DAW, it simply isn't irritating. It's neutral, extremely functional, and you never get the feeling that it's making the music for you or dangling novelties in front of your eyes. Once you've got the hang of it, it sort of disappears and you feel like you're making your music all by yourself again.