Plug-in Instrument

Nov 21, 2024 | soundonsound.com | Plug-in Instrument |Paul White

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 StarsMNTRA Pyramids runs on the free MNDALA 2 Player supporting all the common plug‑in formats. The premise is a touch New Age‑ish as the sounds come from crystalline quartz instruments fashioned in the outline shape of pyramids, rather like three‑dimensional orchestral triangles. Their ratios were inspired by those of the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Aug 22, 2024 | soundonsound.com | Plug-in Instrument |Dave Gale

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 StarsConjure an image of Cinematic Drums and you’ll probably be thinking about a battery of percussionists. In the case of Drumbada that means up to 15 Bombos Legüeros, which is a rare form of Andean bass drum that has apparently remained unsampled.

Apr 18, 2024 | soundonsound.com | Plug-in Instrument |Paul White

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 StarsState Machine Slow Drift’s designers suggest that its focus is on ethereal textures, though in reality it offers up a wide selection of preset styles, much as a hardware synth might do. These include basses, lo‑fi leads, soft pads, FM‑style bells and incisive lead sounds that have a little more attitude. The GUI is reassuringly straightforward with all the ‘instant gratification’ controls on the Home page. Access to the Synth, MIDI FX and Audio FX pages is via tabs.

Mar 21, 2024 | soundonsound.com | Plug-in Instrument |Paul White

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 StarsQuiet Music’s MagicDrum 2 is a multi‑sampled steel tongue drum of around 1.7GB with on‑board sound‑shaping and processing that brings it into line with other recent Quiet Music offerings. For those unfamiliar with the tongue drum, its physical format is rather like an inverted steel bowl that has been cut so as to create a number of tuned tongues that can be played by striking with the fingers.