You know what it is… Friday… time for some BIG Fish!
Last time I did a Big Fish Friday was before the Thanksgiving holiday, it was a Vir2 Instrument, VI One.
Folks seemed to like it and asked about more Vir2 products, so I wanted to checkout another instrument they sent to me to review, syntAX.
What is syntAX
Basically, it’s a synth. Just like VI One it runs off of the Kontakt player engine, and can be opened in the full version of contact as well.
It’s slant is towards analog sounding synths but there is a twist and it’s not all general bread and butter synth sounds here.
They have character. A lot of it!
According to the site:
Introducing syntAX…
part synth…part interactive sonic revolution.
A massive, expansive, and complex collection of electronic textures, the core of syntAX is a 2000+ patch synth library covering an immense amount of synth territory, including soaring leads, evolving pads, thick basses, harsh distortions, unusual textures, other-worldly atmospheres, FX, hits, blips, and more.
Instrument Quick Specs:
- Contents: 3.6gb of 24 bit wave samples, 2000+ patches
- Format: Kontakt/Kontakt player
- Price: $199
Why should you look at yet another synth plugin?
This collection is a lot different when compared to most of the synths available. It’s not trying to be a recreation of an old technology, it’s not just a static library of copy cat sounds and textures, this is an adventure in sound design with sharp twist, turns, and straight up gut wrenching dives into unexplored sonic territory.
This collection is different. I have a lot of synth plugins, but there are specific one’s I go to for their special character, syntAX will be one such instrument.
The sound design on here is not “plain” in any sense of the word, it’s more involved, more evolving, more unusual.
Everything in this library has sort of the same “feel” if you will… it lends itself well to explorative sound design, harsh, exotic, and very musical.
If you are looking for something a little leftfield and off the beaten path…check the demos of this collection.
What the heck is ScatterFX?
This is one of my favorite features of this instrument. Not only are the raw patches evolving and esoteric, but you can easily tweak them right from the front of the kontakt instrument. This “Scat” system allows you to create some rhytmic and pulsating modulation masterpieces….but don’t worry, it’s EASY.
ScatFX gives you some little graph, and it bascially causes your sound to pulsate according to how you adjust the lines on your graph, of course this is all in synch with your tempo and very easy to adjust, I don’t know all the technology that goes in it, all I know is I can pull up the little graph and tweak out my sounds easily, that’s all I care about.
StepFX is “sorta” like an arp engine, it plays and retriggers your sounds in a sequence based on the steps and note durations you set forth. It doesn’t cause your sound to “pulse” this one causes it to “move”
You can adjust the speed, pitch, gate, etc… very useful.
What about the overall sound and variety?
Well, you get everything from leads, bass and arp attacks, to pads, atmospheres, and phat freaky stuff lol. The sound production is superb and on some of them just pressing and holding one key will give you a nice sonic landscape to travel through…the sound design on these sounds are amazing.
Again, the feel of this instrument is very distinct, almost “erie” if you will. Perfect for ambient, evolving film scores or next level music productions…that like to stray off the beaten path.
I love sound design, I love evolving and unique sounds, and I also love when an instrument doesn’t just follow the “me too” herd mentality that so many seem to adhere to.
Bravo to Vir2 and Bunker 8 Digital for creating something unique and different and not being afraid to experiment with new sounds
What’s the overall verdict?
I think this is a great product, I think the price keeps it in the same field as many other synth plugins. The sound is unique enough that you don’t have to worry about overlap and duplication within your library, no matter what type of synths you have in your collection.
The easy to use ScatterFX system provides you a quick and flexible way to create new sounds, full with emotion and movement.
Definitely worth a good look, I give this one a 4 out of 5, I really like Vir2 Instruments and I am looking forward to seeing what else they can cook up.
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Nice sounding synth, very unique and a wide range of sounds and dynamic effects.
Peace
Laman (olujade)
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saintjoe Reply:
December 4th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
thanks for checkin it yo
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i hear the potential in this synth,you are right it has its own sound.
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saintjoe Reply:
December 4th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
thanks for checkin it out, it’s pretty cool.
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Thank you for review
sound’s great!!
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saintjoe Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
thanks for checking it out!
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Appreciate this review! Its almost like you read minds, I was looking into synths yesterday, that “humanoid” synth thing, but this what you reviewed is pretty dope because it has its own flavor and can be very useful long run!
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saintjoe Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
hahaha lol, thanks man! I’m just like you man, I just review and show stuff that interests me…I know there are others like me lol.
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as always saint joe you give great reviews what can i say about any native instruments products you can,t go wrong with any of them this synth sounds like no other that just what we need
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saintjoe Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
well, this isn’t a native instruments product, it’s from Vir2 instruments, they just use the native instruments kontakt player like a lot of other sound design companies do…but it’s not released or branded by NI.
glad u like the content!
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thanks homie iam on it thanks again u did it again item sold you should work for these companys you do a great job of getting the item across to the veiwer when the the software people fall short with the demos thanks again dude preciate it
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saintjoe Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Thas whasup man! lol… I wish I could work for one of these companies, that’s a dream job man lol.
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Peace
HMmmmmmmm, I kinda feel the scat fx. That alone is worth possibly picking it up. Not that blwn away by the sounds though. I have a gigantic refill library so its pretty hard for me to jump up over a new synth. I do however, Love ReFX NEXUS and Imagelines Toxic Biohazard. Rich fat sounds.
I must hand it to Big Fish for the VIR2 Instruments, But I would most likely pick up Sample Logics Elements before I’d get synthtax, atleast for the moment thats what I feel.
Peace
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saintjoe Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
I feel you groove, this to me is more of a “dressing” synth than a main go to synth. i really think the ScatFX is the strong point and the sound design is great but not “regular” enough to be a main synth. Sample Logic has some dope stuff as well, trying to get my hands on something of theirs to review.
I really like the Vir2 instruments and I’m looking forward to see what else they drop
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Yo thats some nice sounds I always wondered if I should get the Emulator x 3 or Kontakt 4
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saintjoe Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Hmmm… that’s a tough one, emulator x does some amazing things, but there are tons of libraries like this one here that are made to work in kontakt.
I know Emmulator can read a lot of formats, I don’t have it, I use proteus vx but I’ve used emu hardware before and the software is based off of that.
they both are dope, I just think there are a lot more libraries that work directly in kontakt available, but emmulator should be able to convert most of them
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nice! looks like some quality shit!!!
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saintjoe Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 9:55 am
thanks for checkin it out yo, it’s pretty dope and unique.
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Thoes samples are hott!!
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saintjoe Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Thanks for checkin it yo, it’s a nice instrument.
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