Reviews
For years, I’ve been happy with my FireWire audio interface for live DJing and recording hardware synths in my studio. But when Apple eliminated FireWire from their MacBook line (even the new MacBook Pros have only FireWire 800, not the FW400 used on audio interfaces), I got concerned for the future of my touring rig. So I casted about for a suitable USB2.0 interface, taking into consideration every variable from price to size to manufacturer support — and of course, sound quality.
Fortunately, NI announced their Audio 4 DJ just in the nick of time. My buddy Jason Jenkins currently uses its big brother, the Audio 8 DJ, with his Traktor Pro setup, and swears by it. So, with elevated expectations I fired up the Audio 4 DJ and took it to a few gigs.
First off, the thing is tiny. In my gig bag, it takes up a fraction of the space of my old interface. More importantly, it’s extremely roadworthy. Metal construction, a single knob for volume, and a recessed display add up to ruggedness that some competing units sorely lack. This box inspires confidence.
Setup is a snap, as NI’s years of software experience makes the install process a breeze. What’s more, the included disc also boasts the Kore Player with a demo soundpack and Traktor 3 LE software, so new users have a few goodies to get them up and spinning quickly.
I rely on Ableton Live for my work and as I expected, the Audio 4 DJ was recognized and configured in a few mouse clicks. Most crucially, at gigs it performed like a champ. Like some laptoppers, I mix within my software, using only two inputs of the club’s mixing console and relying on Live’s interface for cueing tracks. Obviously, NI knows this is a popular approach, as outputs 3 and 4, which are what you’d use for your “preview” mix, are duplicated at the headphone out.
At home, I used the Audio 4 DJ for recording my Dave Smith Mopho and Korg Kaossilator synths, and was pleasantly surprised at the overall audio quality. The converters sounded clean and crisp. DJs who spin vinyl will appreciate that plugging in a pair of turntables is covered, thanks to the built-in phono preamps and ground connector.
All in all, the Audio 4 DJ is precisely what I was looking to prep my DJ rig for the future. It’s tiny, built like a tank, and beautifully designed. I bought the review unit and now rely on it for touring.
PROS
Super compact. Rugged construction. 24-bit/96kHz converters. Includes phono preamps. Rock solid drivers. USB bus-powered. Headphone jack with dedicated volume knob is on the front where it belongs.
CONS
No onboard signal metering. RCA connectors are great for DJs but would require 1/4" adaptors for most keyboard- and band-oriented setups.
INFO
$249 list/approx. $200 street, native-instruments.com
NEED TO KNOW
What is it? USB2.0 audio interface
with four inputs and four outputs.
Who’s it for? Given that it has RCA
connectors only, it’s optimized for DJs,
as these connectors are what you’ll
find on turntables and DJ mixers. It
could also work for a small desktop
studio, though.
What does the Audio 8 DJ have
that this doesn’t? Four more each of
RCA ins and outs, an XLR mic input,
and MIDI I/O.
Is it worth it? For a basic, get-it-done
interface for DJs with laptops, it’s the
best value going.
Novation’s ReMote SL line (reviewed Feb. ’07) set a new bar for MIDI controllers designed for use with software. It offered deep control-by-control programming, a superior semi-weighted synth action with aftertouch, and it functioned as a USB MIDI interface so you could integrate a beloved hardware synth or two with your computer rig. Most importantly, its Automap feature promised to take the drudgery out of making a big bunch of physical controls command an equally big bunch of stuff in our soft synths and DAWs.
The long-awaited follow-up has finally hit, and the first thing you might notice is that the name “ReMote” is gone. Novation originally meant for that name to convey that the SLs were optimized for Propellerhead Reason. Between the SL Mk. II’s upgraded hardware and just how far Automap has come since it started life as a set of custom templates for such programs as Reason and Ableton Live, Novation now wants to convey that the Mk. II is optimized for . . . well, just about anything. Does using the Mk. II convey this? Let’s find out.
NEW HARDWARE FEATURES
Compared to the original ReMote SL, the first big things you notice are the touch-sensitive controls and a Sunset Strip-worthy complement of red LEDs. We’re talking the high-end control surface kind of touchsensitive here: Knobs and faders react to skin contact, showing their current assignment and value in the display, without you having to actually wiggle the control and possibly change something you don’t want to. The controls are close together enough that it’s easy to brush one with your finger as you adjust another, but the SL Mk. II almost seems to know the difference between you touching a second control intentionally (say, if you’re moving two pan knobs at once) and accidentally.
Between the LED collars around the endless knobs and the fact that all those rubbery buttons are now backlit (buttons light up evenly when pushed, looking very Star Trek), it’s much easier to assess the status of the unit with a quick glance. On the original SL, you’d have had to press a row-select button down the left or right edge of the panel to bring up the status of a given row of knobs, buttons, or faders in one of the displays. Now, you practically breathe on something, and it announces its name, rank, and serial number.
Speaking of displays, I do think that eliminating one of the original SL’s twin LCD strips is the only weird design choice on the SL Mk. II, which has a display on the left side only. Novation says that between the Automap heads-up display (HUD) window and the touch-sensitive controls and backlit buttons, the right-hand strip is now redundant. I can see what they mean — touch any control and the single strip now switches to showing the correct row of functions, the corresponding row-select button lights up, and the HUD window follows along. This is all pretty confusionproof, but still, it’d be nice to have that second strip for when you’re engrossed in a jam and not looking at your computer at all. Or, they could have used the nowvacant real estate on the right to put in longer faders, which is just what they did on the keyless Zero model — it has 60mm faders that feel much better for mixing. Still, the little 35mm faders on the keyboard models are silky and surprisingly able to resolve gentle nudges into changing a parameter’s value by just one or two steps.
The keyboard action feels pretty much the same as on the ReMote SL, which is to say it’s one of the fastest, quietest, and most fluid synth actions out there. This is one of those happy cases where “semi-weighted” isn’t a euphemism for “not very weighted at all,” as you can feel the beefy weights underneath the keys. They provide an ideal balance of long throw, satisfying heft, and quick key return, and between this and the nine velocity curves, the SL Mk. II is great for everything but the most serious piano playing calling for a fully-weighted 88.
It could be that I’ve just beat on my old ReMote SL too much, but the aftertouch on the Mk. II also seems slightly improved, progressing more gradually from nothing to full-on in response to increasing finger pressure. I’d say the SL Mk. II has my second favorite synth action ever. My first was also made by Fatar and used in a Novation product: the keyboard version of the Supernova II synth.
AUTOMAP 3
Automap is Novation’s method for connecting the onscreen controls of virtual instrument and effects plug-ins to physical controls on Novation hardware. The first thing that happens after installation is that it scans all your plug-in folders for VST, AU, RTAS, and TDM instruments and effects, then displays a Plug-In Manager asking which ones you want to enable (see Figure 1 on page 55). This creates “wrapped” versions of all the plug-ins you chose, which will show up in your hosts’ plug-in lists as duplicates that have “Automap” after their usual names. Insert one of these, and it comes into existence with all of its settings pre-mapped to controls on the SL Mk. II. To alter the mappings, you either click the “crosshairs” icon at the bottom of the plugin window, or simply press the Learn button on the SL Mk. II. Wiggle thing onscreen. Touch thing on SL. Done.
There are two places where you can see what’s assigned to what: in the SL Mk. II’s LCD itself, and in an onscreen window Novation calls the Automap HUD — heads-up display — which is a graphical duplicate of the SL Mk. II’s hardware control layout (see Figure 2 above). What happens in the HUD instantly happens on the hardware, and vice versa. You also get three settings to vary the HUD’s seethrough factor: opaque, semi-transparent, and very transparent.
Automap talks to plug-ins via host automation, not MIDI continuous controllers, essentially making wrapped plug-ins think that when you grab a control on the Mk. II, they’re getting marching orders straight from the DAW in which they’re inserted. The advantages of this are immediacy and completeness: Insert a plug-in, Automap instantly knows what settings it makes available to the host for automation, and every single one shows its face in the HUD and the Mk. II’s LCD. In other words, the automation-based approach is what makes the whole experience so slick.
The caveat is that while most plug-ins make this easy by exposing every parameter for automation, some aren’t set up this way by default. Spectrasonics Omnisphere and Native Instruments Kontakt Player, for example, have so many parameters that you need to enable most of them for automation manually, one at a time, which is a necessary step if you want them to show up on the SL Mk. II and the HUD.
Also, some plug-ins just use names like “Param. 001,” “Param. 002,” etc. for automation purposes, as opposed to the meaningful names that are in their user interfaces. This is especially true of plug-ins such as Kontakt Player, because they have to play host to third-party libraries, and can’t know ahead of time what a developer might decide to call this or that knob. This is all fine if you’re just recording automation onscreen — you mouse the filter cutoff or whatever, and the host knows its “boring name” and takes it from there. Trouble is, it’s the boring names that Automap will grab, so there’ll be some work typing more descriptive names into the HUD. The good news is that you’ll only have to do this once, since you can save the Automap template you’ve created, as a part of your DAW project and/or on its own. I recommend doing both so you can recall the template for use with the same plug-in in future projects.
At worst, certain software instruments don’t support host automation at all, or might do so in one format (e.g. VST) but still be working on it in another (e.g. RTAS or AU). Even though Automap-wrapped versions of these miscreants show up in your plug-in menu, loading one won’t populate the HUD with controls. Instead, you’ll get a window that’s blank except for the message “There are no control maps assigned to this group.”
Fortunately, Automap and the SL Mk. II are smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time, meaning they’ll talk automation to some plug-ins and good ol’ MIDI CC messages to others — that’s what the “User” layer of Automap is for! Hit the User button on the SL Mk. II, then in the HUD, click on the square that corresponds to the MIDI channel of the plug-in you want to control, and use the Learn function just as you would in normal Automap mode. Once again, save your template, and the only extra step is that you’ll have to hit the User button after switching to your non-conforming plug-in, and the Instrument (Inst.) button when going back to a normally-Automapped one. No big whoop — the switch is instant and glitch-free.
PRO PERKS
Automap 3 Pro is included with any member of the SL Mk. II line, but a $29.95 upgrade for all previous Novation products, though registered owners can upgrade to the base version 3 for free. Know what? Get Pro. One of the coolest things it adds is support for multiple Novation devices. In Logic 8 and Pro Tools HD 8 on a Mac, Cubase AI4 on a Windows Vista PC, and Reaper on Mac and PC, I got my 25-key SL Mk. II review unit plus two Nocturns working, dedicating the SL to the hosts’ mixers, one Nocturn to plug-ins that worked well with Automap, and the other Nocturn to plugs that were happier receiving MIDI CCs from User mode as described above.
Another big Automap Pro feature is drag-and-drop rearranging of control assignments in the HUD window. Though Automap lays out controls logically and predictably for each plug-in, you will want to customize your maps: “Those organ drawbars need faders, not knobs” or “Come to think of it, I wish my filter resonance were two knobs to the right.” In Pro, you don’t have to re-Learn any controls to fulfill such wants — just drag the alreadyassigned knob to the new location and everything updates. Honestly, if you want to completely rework an Automapped layout, having Pro is the difference between half an hour and five minutes.
CONCLUSIONS
Novation has taken a controller that was already tops for feel and flexibility and made it even better. Owing to the inherent variables in how different plug-in makers handle automation and MIDI, there’s no way Automap could be perfect, and to be fair, some new controllers we have yet to review promise even tighter integration with specific software. That said, the SL Mk. II with Automap 3 Pro comes a lot closer than anything I’ve tried to a “universal solvent” that actually makes me look forward to setting up controls as much as I do to playing. If the original ReMote SL was a gold standard for computer-based musicians, that standard just went platinum — and into Key Buy territory.
NEED TO KNOW
What is it? A full-featured MIDI controller
available in 25, 49, or 61 keys,
or as the Zero, a control surface with
no keyboard.
What does it have that the ReMote
SL doesn’t? Skin-sensitive knobs and
faders, dedicated buttons for Automap
functions, and better drum pads.
Does the Zero have anything the
other models don’t? A DJ-style
crossfader, and longer, 60mm vertical
faders.
What is Automap? Novation’s way of
using host automation to map plug-ins
to physical controls without the user
having to assign anything manually.
Will it control my recording software’s
mixer and transport as well
as my plug-ins? Yes. It talks to some
DAWs directly through Automap, but
uses the well-known Mackie HUI protocol
for others.
So, can it talk Automap to my soft
synths and HUI to my DAW at the
same time? Totally. You use the Inst.
and Mixer buttons to switch seamlessly
between these modes.
Are there any plug-ins Automap
just won’t talk to? Anything outside
of AU, VST, RTAS, and TDM — such as
the dedicated plug-is that come with
Apple Logic.
HANDS-ON
Endless knobs are encircled with LED collars to
show roughly where they’re set at a glance.
As on the original ReMote SL, you get a row of
pots (regular knobs) below the endless encoders.
Drum pads are still on the small side, but their
feel and response has been tangibly improved.
Though the keys have aftertouch, the pads don’t.
The lightest touch of a finger is all it takes to
select any knob or fader, which highlights it both
in the LCD strip and in the Automap heads-up
display (HUD) onscreen.
This button toggles the SL Mk. II from Automap
mode to Advanced mode, which is for controlling
hardware and software where Automap isn’t an
option.
Dedicated buttons for Automap functions simplify
important tasks, including showing and hiding the
Automap HUD window, and selecting whether the
SL Mk. II currently controls your DAW mixer, a
plug-in instrument, or a plug-in effect.
With Automap active, assigning hardware controls
to onscreen ones couldn’t be simpler: Press this
button, click a control in a plug-in, and touch the
desired hardware control.
Got sound modules? Full MIDI I/O and flexible
USB/MIDI routing options make the SL Mk. II a
full MIDI interface as well as a controller.
PROS
Touch-sensitive controls. First-rate keyboard feel. Almost bottomless programmability. With most plug-ins and DAWs, Automap 3 takes almost all the work out of assigning physical controls to software. USB-powered.
CONS
How well Automap works depends on how thoroughly a given plug-in implements host-based automation. AC adaptor (for use without computer) not included.
INFO
25 keys: $599.99 list/approx. $400 street; 49 keys: $749.99 list/approx. $500 street; 61 keys: $899.99 list/ approx. $600 street; Zero: $599.99 list/approx. $400 street, novationmusic.com
MELODY GARDOT
MY ONE AND ONLY THRILL
Singer, songwriter, and
multi-instrumentalist
Melody Gardot made
headlines in 2007 with the
release of her debut album
Worrisome Heart on Verve. Two years later,
she returns with the haunting My One And
Only Thrill, which masterfully mixes jazz,
pop, and Latin textures into a sound all her
own. With lush string arrangements by the
gifted Vince Mendoza and ace production
by Larry Klein, the album frames Gardot’s
gorgeous voice (and stellar songwriting)
amidst a varied soundscape that includes
Brazilian beats, Sinatra-style strings, and
Ellington-flavored trumpet interludes. On
“The Rain,” she draws you in amidst a bed
of piano chords that ring out like a muted
lover’s lament. And on “Your Heart Is As
Black As Night,” she tells the tale of love
gone wrong, while a swirling Hammond
organ echoes her battle cry. Surely to be
one of 2009’s most heralded releases,
My One And Only Thrill is a sonic thrill
indeed.
(Verve, vervemusicgroup.com)
JULIE MCKEE
WHAT A WOMAN SHOULDN’T DO
This is a vintage keyboard
enthusiast’s dream. The
London-based singersongwriter
heaps on a
healthy dose of piano,
electric piano, and Hammond organ
throughout this 11-song opus to love, loss,
and life. McKee has a penchant for gritty
Wurlitzer grooves — check out infectious
tunes like “Nobody’s Farm” and “All About
You” to sample her knack for writing memorable
riffs on the Wurly. Framed by a funkinfused
band (featuring Rob Gentry on
organ and Joe Leach on synths), McKee
shines both on uptempo, dancified tracks,
and torchy ballads like “Carousel” and “Summer
Weather in My Heart.” Whatever it is a
woman shouldn’t do, McKee does everything
she should on this impressive release.
(Shrewd Records, shrewdmusic.net)
FRED HERSCH POCKET ORCHESTRA
LIVE AT JAZZ STANDARD
Fred Hersch has been quietly
rewriting the rules of
jazz piano for the last three
decades — so it’s no surprise
that he does so again
on Live at Jazz Standard, his stellar new
quartet recording on the Sunnyside label.
With the hushed touch of a Zen master, and
the guts to frame his poignant piano work in
a quartet that trades the traditional bass
chair for a female vocalist, Hersch shines on
the album’s ten original tracks. “Stuttering,”
the sly opener, combines a Monk-esque
melody (performed in perfect unison by
Hersch, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, and the
nimble-voiced Jo Lawry singing), with a
metrically modulating drum beat, courtesy of
Richie Barshay. And on “Child’s Song,”
Hersch’s plaintive piano is affecting for it’s
stark and supple sound. Live at Jazz Standard
is another winner in Hersch’s already
impressive recorded catalogue.
(Sunnyside, sunnysiderecords.com)
BARNEY MCCALL
FLASHBACKS
The latest by Australian
expat keyboardist and composer
Barney McCall is one
wild musical ride. Equal
parts jazz, world, and experimental,
it mutates the very minute you think
you’ve figured it out. “Elequa Dictate,” the
opener, ropes you in with the sneaky sound of
Rhodes and syncopated horn stabs — then
lets loose on a journey to the center of ’70sera,
Herbie Hancock-inspired fusion. The title
track is a Pat Metheny Group-meets-free jazz
exploration with a shifting, bebop-inspired
melody. McCall is a fluid improviser, his piano
lines effortlessly navigating the rapidly changing
chordscape with eloquence and ease.
Other standouts include guitarist Ben Monder,
drummer Henry Cole, and the urgent
tenor saxophone work of Billy Harper. Guaranteed
to sound like nothing you’ve heard in a
long time, Flashbacks is worth the trip.
(Extra-Celestial/Scrootable Labs,
barneymccall.com)
Okay, so there’s this guy Deadmau5. He’s sold umpteen million downloads on Beatport, and every DJ wants to sound like him, but that’s out of the question. Or is it? A couple of weeks ago, I checked out a new compressor plug-in called The Glue. Deadmau5, Steve Duda, Sebastien Leger, and Chris Lake were all alpha testers. I’m not one to believe in treasure maps or magic lamps, but with that many worldclass dance producers involved, there must be something going on, so I had to check it out for myself.
Let me cut to the chase. The Glue is a magic lamp. It’s one of those tools that immediately makes you go, “So that’s how they do it!” It’s also mindlessly simple to use. The quickest way is to slap it on your master bus, tweak the knobs until it sounds good, and maybe follow it with a loudness maximizer plug-in. If the rest of your mix is well-crafted, The Glue will push it over the top and make the low end throb while ratcheting up the midrange punch. Personally, I’d compare it to the compressors in high-end software suites whose prices can run into four digits.
The knobs cover all the usual bases: threshold, ratio, attack, release, and makeup gain. Plus, the wet/dry knob is great for NYC-style compression tricks, and the range knob affects the overall intensity of the compression — everything from adding a touch more aggression to completely flattening an entire track.
Not long after Josh Gabriel (of top club duo Gabriel and Dresden) tried it out, he told me, “With so many compressors out there, producers usually have a favorite for each situation. For the mix bus, my new choice is The Glue. It does exactly what it says — glues everything together.”
If you’re making music that relies on thump-you-in-the-chest punch, this could be the only compressor plug-in you’ll need for a long time. Seriously.
PROS
Incredibly punchy, dance floor-ready compression. Sidechain capable. Very affordable.CONS
Configuring for sidechain use is a tad fiddly.INFO
$99, cytomic.comKeyboardists want the benefits of soft synths but not the problems, and we have every right. The benefits include emulating classic hardware synths we might not be able to find or afford, more polyphony and preset memory, and velocity and aftertouch response the originals didn’t have. Flexibility is another plus, as a diverse stable of plug-ins will let you create more types of sounds, more authentically, than you could with the average keyboard workstation.
The biggest problem is still the latency vs. CPU drain equation: Getting less of one means putting up with more of the other. The better your plug-ins, and the more of them you run, the more of an issue this is. Even with today’s fast computers, workarounds that make sense in the studio (like freezing tracks, increasing buffer size and thus latency, or just pushing the computer hard and doing another take if it chokes) are nonstarters in live performance.
Use Audio’s solution is Plugiator, a compact tabletop synth that runs a finite but great-sounding set of dedicated plug-ins. Most were originally developed for Creamware’s Pulsar and Scope: PCI cards that had audio I/O, software synthesis, and DSP chips to do the audio processing while your computer just ran the graphics. Plugiator is the latest spinoff of this technology. Can it feed your vintage-clone Jones while avoiding the soft synth Murphys?
SYNTHS
Plugiator can run up to eight synths, one at a time, which you select on the box itself or in the included Plug-In Manager software, a full-featured editor/librarian. The hardware knobs edit five obvious tweak-me settings per synth; in the Manager you get full control panels that dock below the preset list (see Figure 1 on page 61) or pop out to their own window. We know — you want to split and layer multiple synths, but two things more than make up for not being able to: The low price (multi-synth capability would’ve meant more DSP, so more money), and the fact that they all sound so good. Minimax. When it debuted for Creamware, nothing could touch this Minimoog emulation, and my ears say it’s still a notch above today’s best host-based Mini-mimics. Listen to one oscillator without filtering or effects, and it sounds like a raw analog oscillator should. Stack ’em up, and you’re in fat city, with subtle analog-like irregularity that adds warmth but not exaggerated dirt or drift. How a tuned and maintained Minimoog behaves, in other words.
Since it’s not a proper instrument mag review until someone brings up aliasing, I didn’t hear any in Plugiator’s virtual analog synths. That is, not unless I pushed the oscillators to heights of treble not even a canine John Cage would find musically useful.
B4000. Plugiator’s also a clonewheel organ? Yes, and a darned good one — finetunable rotary simulation, authentic vibrato/chorus, tonewheel leakage and condition to dial your desired vintage vibe, and nicely tubey overdrive. Overall, the sound is thick and ballsy enough to do the job in any live or recorded mix, though I will float a comment I’ve made about nearly every digital Leslie sim I’ve tried: The fast speed sounds more like the real thing in conjunction with chorus (setting C3, please) than it does on its own. The harmonic percussion does sound a bit synthetic, not unlike those organ hits you hear in house music.
Having separate upper, lower, and pedal parts is cool, but undermined by Plugiator not implementing those parts to listen to different MIDI channels. That makes B4000 better for single-manual rock playing than for two-manual organ jazz with bass pedals. Most factory patches are splits, so to make your whole keyboard play just the upper drawbars, you’ll need to drop the split points to where they’re out of range of your bottom key.
Lightwave. Daring to be digital, Lightwave evokes the crystalline timbres of the PPG Wave and Prophet-VS. A Grunge knob for each oscillator adds some intentional aliasing to really cop that PPG sound. Though each oscillator lets you choose from a table of 128 waveforms, there’s no internal means to step through waves rhythmically as you play — that capability is what gave the PPG its famously animated sounds. Still, many Lightwave patches have captivating harmonic changes, accomplished by clever LFO modulation of the filters. Downstream of the oscillators, those filters smooth things out so nicely that what we have here is a very flexible hybrid of digital and virtual analog.
Vocodizer. This vocoder features 22 bands and a detection mode that judges whether the input is a human voice; engaging it increased the intelligibility of words I sang into an attached mic. Vocoders normally work by imprinting the characteristics of your voice onto a sound from another synth, but since Plugiator runs one synth at a time, Vocodizer has an internal waveform source to give you plenty of robot-voice variations, from Styx to the Fixx to Daft Punk. Just as we went to press, Use Audio was finishing up an improved vocoder called Voctor — read this review at keyboardmag.com to see what we think. Prodyssey. This one nails the distinctly different character of the ARP Odyssey, the main solo synth alternative to the Minimoog back in the day. That sometimesairier, sometimes-sharper signature is here in all its glory. Notable on the Additional settings screen are sliders for the response of the filter and/or oscillator pitch to aftertouch.
Pro-12. Here’s another spot-on homage, this time to the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. As Minimax and Prodyssey get their analog inspirations right, so does Pro- 12 faithfully duplicate the singular squawk and sheen of Dave Smith’s original gigfriendly polysynth. It also adds very expressive modulation, the aftertouch options in particular going quite a bit deeper than Prodyssey (see Figure 2).
FMagia. This synth and Drums ’n’ Bass (described next) are new for Plugiator, not encore performances. FMagia makes Yamaha DX-style FM synthesis easier to get your head around, and includes an Expert Mode page for deep-divers. How does it sound? The factory presets deliver all the percussive, bell-like, and sometimes piercing qualities for which I loved my original DX7, plus a great many warmer sounds I could never quite coax out of that beast, no matter how many FM programming books I’d cracked.
Drums ’n’ Bass. Squirty, rubbery synth bass and analog drum kits are what this endearing little plug-in does. Drums are mapped to roughly the middle octave of your keyboard, with the same range of bass notes duplicated on either side. Click the name of any kit piece down the left side, and up comes a simple but useful bunch of editing controls. You can even change the waveform of each piece individually. D ’n’ B proved so chunky and funky that I found myself regularly going to it in place of the more storied synths I usually use for similar sounds. They should have named it “Booty Machine.”
IN USE
The most significant thing Plugiator doesn’t do (yet) is sync its effects and synth LFOs to host tempo. As a quick glance at most of the effects pages in the graphical editors show, the potential is there: Delays include pull-down menus of beat divisions: half, quarter, eighth, etc. — with triplet options, no less. Currently, though, what these sync to is a field called “MIDI clock” in which you simply type a bpm number; no external sync is involved.
Is there a workaround? Using the Pro- 12 synth, I recorded a MIDI track of pingpong delayed chords inspired by the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me?” After making sure the first note-ons fell exactly on beat 1, I typed the same tempo into Plugiator and Logic and let the eightbar sequence loop. It took about 50 repeats for me to hear the delay taps begin to drift from Logic’s metronome. Verdict: You can “free-sync” it and get decent results. Use Audio tells us external MIDI sync is slated for a future update. This’ll be especially welcome given how many factory patches feature pulsing modulations that just beg to be locked up to your song or DJ set.
What if you want a keyboard or knob box to control even more synth settings than Plugiator’s hardware knobs allow? The Plug-In Manager software doesn’t have a “click this then wiggle that” MIDI learn function at this time, but it does have a MIDI monitor that shows note and controller messages, and every parameter in every synth receives MIDI. So you can do it old-school: Using your mouse, move an onscreen knob or switch and take note of what control number comes up. Then, program a gizmo on your MIDI controller to send on that same number. Repeat until all desired assignments are made, and save all this as a preset on your controller. By the way, remember how I said Lightwave couldn’t change waveforms on its own? By drawing automation in my host for the waveform selectors (CC48 for oscillator 1 and CC22 for oscillator 2), I got shimmering, rhythmic wave changes for days!
Some hardware synths let you insert their editors in your host to automate them like any other plug-in. Use Audio is working on this, and I tested the first betas, which currently work only in Windows VST format in Cubase or Nuendo. But they do work, even to the point of the Automap function of my Novation keyboard (reviewed on page 54) recognizing each Plugiator synth. VST (not AU) editors for Mac are planned.
CONCLUSIONS
I love, love, love this box, and raise the issues I’ve raised only because I want you to know how to get the most out of your Plugiator if you buy one. Should you? Consider what you get from even the base model for a paltry $500: a stellar Minimoog clone you can play polyphonically, a modeled tonewheel organ with full drawbar control and a solid Leslie imitation, the Lightwave digital synth, and a vocoder. I also can’t emphasize the sound quality enough. If this thing were just a keyboard with presets and knobs and you couldn’t even hook it up to a computer, it’d still be a steal, and I’d still want to take it to every gig. As it stands, it’s the most affordable, instantly gratifying, and downright fun way there is to get the best of both the hardware and soft synth worlds.
PROS
Huge, lush, authentic sound. All the plug-ins rock. Huge bang for buck.
CONS
Not multitimbral. Effects and synth LFOs currently don’t sync to MIDI tempo. No tap tempo.
INFO
Base: $549 list/$500 street; Loaded: $698 list/$600 street; upgrade to Loaded, $149 list/$130 street. use-audio.com
HANDS-ON
All knobs are the endless type. This one selects
different programs within a plug-in synth.
Turn this knob to scroll to a different synth; push
it down to load that synth. When changing
synths, the load time is about two seconds.
These five knobs are hard-mapped to settings
you’re most likely to want to tweak in each
synth. The blue LEDs below show which synth,
along with its five settings, is active.
The three knobs to their right control a delay and
chorus/flanger common to every synth.
These buttons store ten favorite synth-and-sound
combinations, or directly select programs within a
single synth if you push the program knob down
first.
Around back is a mic input for use with the
vocoder plug-in.
NEED TO KNOW
What is it? A compact hardware
synth that runs up to eight plug-in-like
virtual instruments.
What do you mean, “plug-in-like”?
The plugs are proprietary, not standard
formats like VST or AU. You get
onscreen graphics for editing, but a
DSP chip in the Plugiator does the
work, so there’s no latency or CPU
drain.
What plug-ins do I get? The base
Plugiator ships with Minimax, B4000,
and Lightwave synths pre-installed,
plus Vocodizer as a free download
when you register. Plugiator Loaded
adds Prodyssey, Pro-12, FMagia, and
Drums ’n’ Bass.
How’s the polyphony? Different
depending on the plug-in. Minimax,
Prodyssey, and FMagia do ten voices.
Pro-12 and Lightwave do 12.
Vocodizer does 6. B4000 models 91
virtual tonewheels for forearm-acrossthe-
keys polyphony.
Can I play it without a computer?
Absolutely.
Can I control it in my host as
though it were a plug-in? Not yet,
though it fully responds to MIDI control
messages coming from your host.
At press time, Windows VST editors —
to allow insert and automation — were
in beta.
Think pedal effects are just for guitar players? Here are a dozen that made us think again.
In a world of workstations that have a studio’s worth of effects built in, why use pedals? Maybe to spice up a synth, electric piano, or Clav that doesn’t have all those effects. Pedals are also more fun for the same reason analog synths are: Grab a knob, hear a change. But it comes down to personality. Pedals are designed to do one or two things well, so combining different ones from different makers can take your sound, and hence your ideas, places a virtual rack might not. Here are a dozen we like, with more to come in future issues and on video at keyboardmag.com.
BBE TWO TIMER
Dual Analog Delay
PROS Sturdy construction. Clean sound. True hardware bypass.
CONS None significant.
STEREO? No.
UNIQUE FEATURE Dual delay settings.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE Pink Floyd at Pompeii or Vesuvius at Pompeii, depending.
$209 list/approx. $150 street, bbesound.com
BEHRINGER VM1 VINTAGE
TIME MACHINE
Delay, Echo, and Chorus/Vibrato
PROS Affordable. Cool classic look.
CONS On the noisy side.
STEREO? No.
UNIQUE FEATURE True analog circuitry at a low price point.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE Alien spacecraft attacking the planet. $69.95 street, behringer.com
BOSS RE-20 SPACE ECHO
Tape Echo Simulator with Reverb
PROS Nails the vintage Space Echo sound. Tons of control.
CONS Eats batteries (6 AA) if you don’t use the separately- sold AC adapter.
STEREO? Inputs and outputs.
UNIQUE FEATURE Tap tempo.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE You’ve set your controls for the heart of the sun, into which you’re flying like an eagle. $339.50 list/approx. $250 street, bossus.com
DIGITECH HARDWIRE CR-7
Stereo Chorus
PROS Rugged construction. Cool look. Rich sound.
CONS None significant.
STEREO? Inputs and outputs.
UNIQUE FEATURE Sheer variety of presets.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE There are two or more of you. $189.95 list/approx. $140 street, digitech.com
ELECTRO-HARMONIX MICRO POG
Octave Generator
PROS Simple to use. Thick, chewy sound.
CONS None significant.
STEREO? No, though you could pan wet and dry outs using a mixer.
UNIQUE FEATURE Can add both high and low octaves simultaneously.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE Your synth has more oscillators than it actually does. $279 list/approx. $210 street, ehx.com
FISHMAN AFX CHORUS
Stereo Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, and Tremolo
PROS Beautiful, high-fidelity, low-noise sound. Built like a tank.
CONS None significant.
STEREO? Inputs and outputs.
UNIQUE FEATURE Variety of presets.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE Pick a great pop recording with chorused Rhodes or piano. Like that. $389.95 list/approx. $250 street, fishman.com
GUYATONE ULTRON
Optical Multimode Wah
PROS Smooth, quiet, audiophilegrade sound. Extreme adjustability.
CONS Expensive.
STEREO? No.
UNIQUE FEATURE Optical circuitry.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE You’ve gone beyond “Higher Ground” to a whole new plane of existence (not Nirvana). $525 list/approx. $450 street, guyatone.com
LINE 6 ROTO-MACHINE
Rotary Speaker Simulator
PROS Wide range of Leslie effects.
CONS None significant.
STEREO? Inputs and outputs.
UNIQUE FEATURE Swapability with other ToneCore modules into housing.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE You have a Leslie. Pedal with module: $165.99list /approx $120 street; module only: approx. $40 street, line6.com
MALEKKO B:ASSMASTER
Harmonic Generator and Fuzz
PROS Signal boost is ideal for solos. Harmonic fuzz effect is unique and works on keyboards.
CONS Knob names are more amusing than instructive.
STEREO? No.
UNIQUE FEATURE Separate knobs for mixing clean and effected tones.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE The parallel you that hangs out with those people you’re too scared to party with. $260, malekkoheavyindustry.com
MOOGERFOOGER MF-105 MuRF
Step-Sequencing Filter Bank
PROS Sounds like no other stompbox. Beautiful design. Rocksolid build.
CONS Expensive.
STEREO? Mono input, stereo outputs.
UNIQUE FEATURE Filter automation sequencer with tap tempo.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE A sound design genius by just holding down a chord. $449 list/approx. $420 street, moogmusic.com
MXR CUSTOM SHOP 1974 PHASE 90
Classic Phaser
PROS Classic sound with original specs.
CONS Rate doesn’t go as fast as EVH or block-logo model.
STEREO? No.
UNIQUE FEATURE Handwired discreet circuitry.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE Steely Dan. $216.60/approx. $120 street, jimdunlop.com
TC-HELICON
VOICETONE HARMONY-M
Vocal Harmonizer and Processor
PROS Very natural-sounding harmonies. Also a “vocal strip” with mic pre, EQ, and dynamics.
CONS There’s a learning curve to get the most out of it.
STEREO? Mono mic input, stereo outputs (switchable to mono wet and dry outs).
UNIQUE FEATURE “Smart” MIDI-controlled vocal harmony.
MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE You travel with two hotsounding backup singers. $395 list/approx. $300 street, tc-helicon.com