Hollow Sun TriOsc

Hollow Sun TriOsc is a 3 Oscillator synth with FM and AM modulation. Though it does only have a small list of effects that include Distortion, Chorus , Phaser, and a few different echo’s, it is still a powerful VST. The price of the Hollow Sun TriOsc is very low, I think it only cost about 10 dollars or something like that when it first came out and you can pay with pay pal or your bank card and get a download link right away. There is no manual for it which I didn’t like because it was a bit confusing at first because the interface is a little different than what I was use to at the time. The interface is very easy to understand and looks like most of the Kontakt instruments interfaces. There are three different menu’s that you can click on that will bring up a different interface, you have the “control panel”, the”Effects” and “Info” panels.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The TriOsc works great and has never gave me a single issue. I have just started using it and got it because it was really inexpensive and it also models after a really older unit that I was curios about.


OVERALL OPINION

The best part of TriOsc for me is I can sculpt some pretty good leads with it and get some really heavy and thick baselines as well. I seem to get better every time I use the TriOsc VST at making and molding my own sounds out of it. It has really brought a better understanding for me on how to properly use Oscillators. Before I started using TriOsc I would just mess with the Oscillators until I was happy with what it would sound like, now that I have been using the TriOsc I am starting to understand the right way to program sounds. I am very happy with it.

I run this on a Macbook Pro i7, 8gb ram 10.6.8 with an RME Fireface 800 in Kontakt 5. So far it has been perfectly compatible with setup. No need for a manual as this is just an interesting take on basic synthesis and effect manipulation. Setup was a breeze. Just download, install, and locate in Kontakt's File browser for TriOsc Instrument folder. All the functions exist on 2 pages, "control panel" which contains all of your standard synthesis parameters (attack, sustain, decay, release, LFO, wave selector, etc....) and "effects" where you will find Amp simulation, Chorus, Phaser, Echo and Reverb with all there individual tweakable parameters. The interface is kind of a love/hate thing. I love the vintage look for the aesthetics and novelty because I have always had a love of old, 60's looking tube gear. But, it is a pretty dark and instead of traditional knobs for the parameters, you get "dials" that only indicate the status via a little display in the middle. It seems funny but I realize now how much I like the "pointers" on knobs when designing sounds. I feel like they help me look at my soundscaping as positions on a clock. I'm so used to thinking a long attack sounds great when set to 2 o'clock that it has taken a little getting used to TriOsc's setup.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The only issue I have experienced is when I am using only my Laptop and trying to use the computer keyboard to trigger midi notes in Kontakt standalone. Every note I hit continually sustains until I hit the panic button. Other than that, I have had no other problems, no crashes and no lost work. Because the former issue is so little to me, I still give this a 10 out of 10. Mainly due to the awesome sounds you can make with this unit and the fact that it has this very vintage, very raw kind of sound that seems ever increasingly rare in the new digital frontier. My favorite use for this synth is writing, percussive sequences that range from clean plucking arpeggios to outlandish freq'd out bells to subtle, soft leads. Although having only sine and triangle waves for the oscillators, you can really get a wide range of sounds from this guy. I have only been using TriOsc for a few months but I have used it often.

OVERALL OPINION

What I like most about it is the combination of the quality sounds, the vintage tone and the cheap price. I imagine the guys at TriOsc really like there work and just love to share to give this away for only $8. The only thing I can say I dislike is the GUI can be hard to read at times. I don't think you will find a better synthesizer in this price range. The precision and quality of the samples to my ears sounds excellent. Everything I get out of this synth has that tone that makes me want to wear a lab coat and smoke cigarettes without knowing they are bad for you. I have owned lots of hardware and software synths but none that have emulated old vintage space launch gear. I definitely would recommend this for anyone who has less than $10 in there pockets and wants to get a very unique, very entertaining and sonically pleasing sample set.