reFX Claw [Freeware]

ReFX Claw is a one oscillator with PWM. All of the effects and features of the Claw VST are pretty simple and easy to understand. This VST is completely free and you have nothing to lose, if you download it you probably wont uninstall it because it will come in use at some point or another. Most of the sounds that come with Claw are pretty basic, they wont shock and awe you by any means but they will do for now. If later one your want to get some more presets, you can download a ton of them online or even purchase some by some people that have really took the time to develop so price worthy sounds for this freeware VST plug-in.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Claw by reFX has worked perfect for me, I have ran it multiple times in several different software’s, I have probably used it on a total of 4 different machines and it has not crashed ever or caused any problems. They are still yet to update Claw version 1.0 yet though, I am not sure if they have came out with a newer version of it or not. I will keep my eye out. I have been using Claw for about 2 years now and will continue to use it.


OVERALL OPINION

In my opinion when it comes to freeware VST plug ins, you really don’t have anything to lose, especially if you are downloading from a site that is reputable and not some virus prone site. When you download reFX vst, you will immediately start to use it, there is no learning curve and all of the sounds and functions are easy to use and access. I am actually surprised that it is free. I am glad that I chose to download this, I have used many other reFX products and VST and each of them is worth using.

ReFX's Claw is a free VST software synthesizer for both Mac and PC operating systems. You can easily download the soft synth from a number of different places on the web, and once downloaded, installing the plug-in should be straight forward and simple. Using the Claw isn't difficult, as it looks like a one space rack unit with a number of parameters. It has built in effects in addition to the wide array of parameters for the synth itself. It's a one oscillator synth and the effects are distortion and delay. If you're familiar with the make up of basic synthesizers, you'll feel at ease here, and if not this is a great place to start since it's really only got the basics and is of course free. A manual shouldn't be necessary, nor am I sure if they have made one.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm running the reFX Claw software right now on my system at home without any performance issues at all. I usually run it in Logic or rewired into Pro Tools. The computer that I'm running it on is a Mac Book Pro consisting of a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. My audio interface is a Digi 002R and I monitor with a set of Adam A7's. I can't say that I've had any problems whatsoever running this soft synth within the aforementioned rig. If you're unsure about how well this will run on your system, I'd encourage you to try it out being that it's free.

OVERALL OPINION

If you're interested in free software, and specifically software synths, I'd definitely recommend looking at the reFX Claw. It's not a ground breaking piece of software by any means, but it can be useful and it's free so there's really no excuse for not at least trying it out. The sounds definitely aren't the most realistic, but they're useful nonetheless if used in the right situations. It's a freebee so if you're reading this you should stop and try it for yourself!