Buzz is a sketchpad delight, it is very fast to setup sequence, synthesis, and effects all in one 'chain of machines'. It is indeed modular, it has extended tracking capabilities, and it now has a ton of things that previous reviewers neglected because it didn't exist it at the time. Now being october 2004, things have changed significantly in the buzz community. I will highlight a few things here - Midi In Support - Great with uMw buzzmachine midiwrapper as well as Polac VST machine which loads VST, DX, buzzmachines. The VST support is great, the possilities are endless, the buzzmachines number in the 700s. Mega-effects to choose from, a great 'peer' machine concept, has been coded (via machines/apps) by more than 200 developers, pattern manipulators, cloning machines, wonderful subtick accuracy (yea no problem, we are NOT confined to ticks - a common misconception) and is freeware ! A truely unique community

Price paid: FREE

For those of you that are familiar with trackers, its simple. I made the switch from Impulse Tracker in 2000 and still use Buzz currently

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

This is a very baised question. Depending on which 'generators' you use of course your sound quality will differ. It can be a tracker with samples, soundfont loader, one of several quality buzzmachine generators, or the latest, greatest VSTi.

I will say - Buzz will do well in the right hands, due to its unique structure, it simply isn't for everyone.

OVERALL OPINION

I love buzz, have used it for almost 5 years now, its amazing, its allowed me to learn so much, and its just great for people who enjoy creating music by using the computer's keyboard + midi keyboard as opposed to focusing on the mouse. - Hotkeys !

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: nool (January 0-, 2004)