Bass with guts: Hotelsinus ReeseBassline

Sometimes you want the full gamut of oscillators, filters and modulation, but sometimes you don't. A very flexible architecture is fun: bringing in complex modulations with combinations of envelopes and LFO will get you complex and expressive sounds.  But it's also very time consuming and not the fastest way to get to the result you want fast.

On the other hand a very specialized synth with a limited palette might be OK on occasions, but those limitations might become frustrating if too limited and having a gallery of very specialized instruments is usually something that is far from ideal.  

So, if you're like me, you'll want some powerful synth to get the job done for certain kind of sounds with well chosen parameters and some fixed choices already made. This is the case here with Hotelsinus ReeseBassline.  A free VST instrument that is built for bassline.   Usually this would mean: yet another 303 clone. Thank God, not this time.

I find that Hotelsinus made good choices to put together an valuable instrument. This means that it's got what it needs to make a descent 303 emulation, like you expect of any synth with "Bassline" in its name. Saw/Square oscillator, amp envelope, low-pass filter, distortion, glide setting for the portamento.

We're talking of a single oscillator synth, but it's got a unisson mode that you can push to 8 voices with variable detune, so that you get have a massive sound in no time. Then you take this massive sound into a double-filtered (LP & HP) distortion. Here you get only what you need, three knobs: LP, HP, Amount. If there's one thing a don't like about the ReeseBassline, it's the way the signal is sent from the oscillator to the distortion.  There's no way to set what the velocity modulates. It seems to be fixed to the volume of the oscillator before the distortion stage. This sometimes leads to a schizophrenic behavior at high distortion level where a low velocity gives a soft undistorted sound and a high level gives a massively distorted and compressed sound, with little variation in-between. Maybe I would have placed the velocity to affect amplification after the distortion stage, not before, but at some settings this isn't such a problem. I think that a switch to choose between those settings could be useful.

Next we have a a triple filter: band-pass, low-pass and high-pass.  Not a multi-mode one, but three independent filters.  A change from the usual single 3-mode filter! This choice of path is good, but I'm not sure I quite like the chosen filter type.  A matter of personal taste maybe.  

Then the signal goes into a phaser (why don't we find them more often?), a switchable stereo-widener, and a final multi-mode filter. A chorus could be expected in this path, but then the massive 8-voice detune more than makes up for it.

The end result is a loud, raw, strong and large bass sound. One that you can use easily and that is musically useful. The way ReeseBassline distort and compress it sound gives it a very manageable behavior that will make it a instrument I like to use in lots of situation. I've read a few comments on this synth saying that there's nothing here you can't achieve with other more complete synths. This is absolutely true. What I like here is the choices that are made and the limits that are set. Limits are good for creativity.  You want limits. They just have to be well chosen, and what I like here is the choices made and, above all, the end result.

For the Drum and Bass, DubStep, Reese-like sound ... I don't know and don't care either.  So I can't comment on that. One thing for sure, this thing is not subtle.  You get a punchy sound that gets the job done.

Sadly I must also add that there's a bug in it that makes it go into an unwanted high pitch tone on some occasions.  For that reason, it can't be used in a live situation.  I hope this will get fixed as it is annoying. It's also here that I must repeat that it is is a freeware.  So it's a terrific value, but it also means that the developer may have only limited time to support it.  The last update, 1.3.1, dates from march 2008.

PS: please note that I managed to not use the "fat" word once! A hard task with such f*t  instrument.

More information:

KVR thread:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=206698&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

To know more on HotelSinus:
http://www.hotelsinus.com

The VST page:
http://vst.hotelsinus.com

IceCream by CosmicBoy

How can you not like Cosmic Boy's IceCream, a free VST with a 8-bit/SID-like chip character. This instrument is just plain fun. It's success is in some clever details. First is the sequencer. The fact is, it's just a programmable LFO, but because it gives IceCream the typical sequencer sound of the SID chip, calling it a that way is fine. Two destinations are available, cutoff and pitch, there's a tempo sync division knob and a list of templates for the pattern. A "smooth" knob round things a bit, makink it more LFO-like. Quick, easy and it does the job. Too bad it doesn't offer to reset the sequence at key press, but it's OK.

Then there's the bit reduction that is at the bottom of the interface. Instead of making it global, you apply it individually to each of the two oscillators ... ahhh! To my knowledge, this is the first time I see a synth with a bitcrusher applied that way. It adds to the character of IceCream a lot. A nice touch.

There's also a nice 8 band EQ that is used to shape the sound, but this one seems out of place here. I mean, everything in the interface is colourful and simple with a minimum of control and then ... 8 bands EQ? I would have preferred a nice 3 or 4 bands EQ, or even treble and bass knobs to go with the spirit. Oh well.

The rest of the specs are more conventional: multi-mode filter, two ADSR envelopes, reverb and delay. Saddly the delay doesn't sync to the tempo, a strange omission. The XY pad and Harmonyx button are a nice touch too. The choice of a standard knob to vary the oscillators waveform is strange, as you don't see which waveform you choose, and the knobs makes you think it's continuously variable, while it's not.

Of course what strikes immediately the user is the not so serious candy-like interface. I like it, but I admit it might make some think this is little more than a joke. Believe me, this one nice VST that you have to try. It doesn't tries to be a faithful emulator of a C-64, Atari or Nintendo chip, it just takes bits form this and that and makes a instrument that is original, easy and fun.

http://www.myspace.com/cosmicboymusic

Chysalis Ni by Saltline

There is just SOOOO MUCH free VST synths and FX around.  I spend a lot of time trying them.  And you know what: I enjoy doing that.  But it gets  boring, since there is a lot of similar products.

Of course, there are exceptions.  

I like those moments: you download a free synth without knowing anything about it, but the snapshot looks interesting.  You drop it in your host and you go: "What the ???".  You play a few notes you wonder what is going on, then you tweak a few parameter and you're convinced: this IS different.

Chysalis Ni is not revolutionary, but that's not the point.  First of all, the presets are just plain fun.  They don't try to reproduce the "cliché" sounds we just can't stand anymore.  Some presets bends the thing and in doing so they show you where you can take this instruments.  It's far from the bread and butter category, but also it doesn't go in the glitch/FSU/weird useless FX category.  Refreshing. 

For me this is a good discovery.  You know how it is with freeware, because they are free we don't expect too much.  And then there are those like Saltline that don't seems to know about this and gives you the quality you expect from good shareware synths ... for free.

I won't use this in every composition, but I like having this kind of instruments available to trigger ideas.  I think the interface could be a bit clearer and easier to use, and if the sequencer could sent MIDI notes at the output it would be even better, but it's still very useful as it is.  And original!  A rare thing.  Oh, and did I said it sounds beautiful?  Well it does.   Go download it and give it try.  It will be time well spent.  Thanks to Saltline for this offering:

http://saltline.co.uk/chrysalis-instruments-ni.html

Boring details:
Chysalis Ni is a saltline VST instrument in VST format for the PC platform.  The technical specifications are irrelevant as they give no clue about the sound.