All user reviews for the Spectrasonics Stylus RMX

While there is over 7 GB of sounds just in the main release, I would have liked to see more in certain areas. For example, there are at least 12 menu's worth of snares, and only 4 or 5 octaves worth of cymbals. It still covers everything you need, but it could possibly be balanced a little more. I would have liked to see a few more processing options within the VST interface, but the sounds are so nice you very rarely consider processing them any more. Regardless, if you're into hip hop, electronica, or even if you want live-sounding drums either from a preexisting groove or in your own patterns, Stylus will handle your needs. I don't know of a better drum module, and according to most critics and publications, neither do they.

$200 or so

If you have any experience in using VSTs, this is very easy to use. If not, you can learn quickly. It requires more patching than say Battery, but it gives you infinitely more options in terms of grooves etc. When you find a groove you like, you just drag it and drop it on a channel and it snaps itself to your project tempo. Nothing could be easier.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The sound quality of Stylus RMX is ridiculous. Every sound has been processed and tweaked to the nth degree, and while that statement can put you off, in this case, it sounds awesome. There is every conceivable type of drum sound in its libraries, and the grooves are varied and very live. Nothing sounds fake or electronic. All of the sounds from the grooves can be used individually if you prefer to build your own kits.

The quality is great. I haven't had it lose my kits or stop working on me. Its very stable.

OVERALL OPINION

I love this product. It gives me virtually every drum sound I could possibly imagine in one tight package. If I don't feel like creating my own pattern, or feel like backing up my pattern with a quieter live loop, it is amazingly easy to pick a groove and throw it on your track. The sounds are fantastic, and it seems to be engineered towards hip hop heads, so it is right up my alley. Spectrasonics is a very trustworthy VST manufacturer. Grab Trilogy as an accompaniment to Stylus and your bottom end is Vida Guerra. PHAT!

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: XL83 ( 7-, 2005)

Stylus installed on my system without a hitch. I didn't have any issues with compatibility or installation errors. Setting it up is also very simple. After you get your serial key registered you just have to set your DAW to add it to the VST library if you are using a PC like I am. After that you will be good to start making beats. The manual is okay, I actually had to go online a few times to search out answers to a few questions that the manual didn't cover. It mostly hits the mark though.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I have a custom built PC that runs Windows XP. I have a very nice dual core Intel processor, and plenty of RAM to go with it - 4GB. Stylus works just fine on my system, the performance is great. It uses a surprisingly small amount of CPU for me, maybe less than 2%. You are going to get some great electronic drum sounds out of this program while barely taking a hit on your system resources, which is great for that genre of music since it tends to be very FX heavy which taxes the CPU and RAM. It's very stable.

OVERALL OPINION

I have been using Stylus for a few years now in its various incarnations. This is usually my go to piece of software for creating electronic sounding beats. There is an impressively huge library of sounds for you to sort through, and once you find something remotely relevant to your project, you can tweak it to your specifications with the in-depth tools that Stylus provides to you. What I really like about this plug-in is that it's as complicated as you want it to be. If you just want to load up a preset and make a beat straight away - you can do that, you don't have to twiddle any knobs. If you want to really nail your sound though, you can edit the minute details of your sounds. The value on this software is great, you can get fantastic sounding beats from this. I would definitely recommend it.