Smartelectronix

SmartElectronix's Taurus is a free software synthesizer that is available in VST format and for PC only. It's a software emulation of the classic Moog Taurus bass foot pedals. It's been a while since I had this software installed on my system, as I no longer have a PC, so I don't remember too much about installing the software. As long as you have a PC and a VST compatible platform to run the software with, you should be all set. The interface of the plug-in has a lot more controls than you'll find on the original Taurus, but that does allow for a lot more control, which you'll need since this doesn't sound nearly as good as the original Taurus. The interface has a filters and loundness (amp) section, as well as a series of other parameters to control a variety of settings. A manual shouldn't be necessary, and I haven't seen it if there is one. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I'm not running this software synthesizer any more, but when I did it was on a PC using Cubase SX. The computer that I used to run the SmartElectronix Taurus synth on was a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv8000 consisting of a 3.0 Ghz processor and 2 GB of RAM. I definitely never had an issue running the plug-in in this configuration, as I never ran more than one at a time anyway. It's free, so even if you're unsure of how well it will run, you might as well try. OVERALL OPINION There aren't any other software synths out there that I'm aware of that emulator a Moog Taurus, and certainly none of them are free. While the SmartElectronix Taurus isn't the best possible emulator, it still sounds pretty good and can definitely give you some nice and deep bass synth sounds. I like how much control you've got, as it makes it capable of sounds that a Taurus wouldn't be able to do. Definitely do yourself a favor and give it a try if you're system will allow you to.

It feels like I have had SmartelElectronix Asynth forever now, it has probably been about 5 years since I first installed it on my laptop at the time, it was just a simple Dell laptop but Asynth worked great on it. Everything with this Freeware VST was very easy to use and setting it up only took a few seconds at the most. I don’t every remember it giving me any issues or freezes when using it. Asynth is a 6 voice analog synth that has 2 oscillators and about 3 or 4 different filters. If you are looking for some really good analog presets then don’t bother loading this onto your computer though, because you wont find good presets here. If you want good analog sounds you will have to mold them yourself. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Asynth works great, and it is a very small VST. It downloads fast and installs into your VST folder really fast. There is no learning curve with it and nothing to worry about. You will be able to use it right away. The sound quality (if you know what you are doing) is very good, it can actually be a good analog VST to start on if you want to get into learning to work with Analog sound. OVERALL OPINION SmartelElectronix Asynth is completely free though I am not sure where to download it from now, but back when it came out you could download it directly from the Smartelelectronix website. I have never used any other Vst from SmartelElectronix and I am not sure if they have came out with any other ones or even a newer version of Asynth. The only thing about Asynth that I didn’t like is the interface, it is really dull and boring. I wish it had a little more spice to it to bring the VST to life and make it easy to look at while you use it. But that’s not really that important. It works great and sounds great, that’s all that matters.

The SmartElectronix MadShifta is a free pitch shifting plug-in that was actually developed by SmartElectronix and Toby Bear Productions in tandem. The plug-in is available for both Mac and PC systems and in both VST and Audio Unit plug-in formats. You wouldn't be able to use this plug-in in Pro Tools unless you had a VST to RTAS wrapper. I don't remember much about installing the plug-in since it was years ago when I was getting my hands on every free plug-in I could find for my old Cubase SX system. However, it should be easy enough to locate a download for this and install it. Using the plug-in isn't hard, as the interface is pretty self explanatory. It gives you control over the pitch itself (in semitones), along with finer tuning knob as well. It then has mix and output levels, as well as built in delay and high pass filter with parameters for cutoff and resonance. I wouldn't know if they even made a manual for this plug-in... SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Although I'm no longer running the SmartElectronix MadShifta, when I was it was in Cubase SX 2 primarily and later in SX 3. I was running it on a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv8000 lap top computer consisting of a 3.0 Ghz processor and 2 GB of RAM. This system was adequate enough for me to run the plug-in comfortably and without hiccups, although I never needed to run more than one instance at a time. OVERALL OPINION For a free plug-in, I really can't complain at all about the SmartElectronix MadShifta. It does as advertised - it's a simple pitch shifting plug-in that also has some delay and a high pass filter. It isn't going to revolutionize anything at all, but it's pretty solid at what it does. The delay isn't great sounding, but if you use this plug-in for what it's for it can do simple jobs for you. It's definitely not a professional plug-in, but if you looking to mess around with a pitch shifting plug-in, this will do the job. It's free so you might as well try it for yourself if you're at all interested!

Smart Electronix’s Fire plug-in is a multitap delay plug-in that is available for free. It comes solely in VST plug-in format, but it is available for both Mac and PC operating systems. The process of downloading and installing the plug-in should be quick enough, as I didn’t encounter any issues with this at all. As far as the interface is concerned, it’s got sections for delays, amps, pans, and a global section. The global section has parameters for your base delay amount in milliseconds, as well as for the number of taps you’d like, for morphing, and for dry/wet signal. The other sections are pretty simple as well, as it just takes some messing around with to get the hang of it. A manual isn’t necessary, nor am I sure if they even made one for this plug-in. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I’m currently running the plug-in in Pro Tools, although I’m using the Fxpansion VST to RTAS converter to do so. You can only run this as a VST plug-in, so if you don’t have this converter, you can’t run it in Pro Tools. I run the plug-in on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I run Pro Tools LE 8 with a Digi 002R rack audio interface. This plug-in takes up a very low amount of processing power, so as long you’re currently comfortable running your DAW with some plug-ins, Fire should run okay for you. Being that it’s free, you might as well try it for yourself if you’re interested. OVERALL OPINION While not the cleanest sounding delay plug-in out there, being that this is a free plug-in I can’t do too much complaining about it. It’s worth the free download for sure if your system can support it, as it’s got a good amount of control and the overall sound quality really isn’t half bad. Smart Electronix has a number of cool free VST plug-ins, so I’d definitely encourage those money saving plug-in searchers out there to check out Fire and the other free plug-ins that Smart Electronix has to offer.

The SmartElectronix Phase 90 plug-in is a phaser effect plug-in that comes in VST format. It's also a free piece of software. It is modeled after the MXR Phase 90 pedals, as the name obviously states. You can download the plug-in free straight from SmartElectronix's website, so the whole process should only take a few minutes as long as your system is compatible with this plug-in. The interface is extremely simple, and somewhat limited, as it only contains parameters for drive, speed, and feedback, which is more than the original Phase 90 pedal has, which only has a parameter for speed. I feel like if they weren't going to keep true to the original, there's no reason why there couldn't be a bit more control over your sound here. A manual probably wasn't made for this plug-in, and isn't necessary either way. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I don't run this plug-in any longer, but when I did I ran it in Cubase SX on a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv8000 lap top that had 2 GB of RAM and a 3.0 Ghz processor. The SmartElectronix Phase 90 plug-in was able to run extremely smoothly no matter how many of them I wanted to have going at once, which admittedly wasn't very much or very often. This plug-in takes up about as small amount of processing power as you could ask for... OVERALL OPINION While free, I don't believe that the SmartElectronix Phase 90 has too much to bring to the table. While it's worth getting if you have a compatible system since it is free, it doesn't have too realistic of a sound quality. It's also limited in the parameters and control that it offers. While it's simple, free, and doesn't take up much processing power, there are better plug-ins out there that are free as well. I would however, recommend trying it out for yourself if you're able, as other users might be able to get something more out of it than I was able to.

The SmartElectronix H20 is a compressor plug-in that can be downloaded for free in VST plug-in format. I'm not running this plug-in anymore since I switched from Cubase SX to Pro Tools a number of years ago. From what I can remember, the process of installing this plug-in wasn't a problem, and finding a download of it is very easily done as well. The interface of H20 is even simpler as it only has a handful of plug-ins to work with, including for input, attack, release, (compression) amount, and output level. There is also a 'saturation' button. I'm not sure that a manual was even made for this plug-in, but one isn't necessary either way. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Until a few years ago when I switched from Cubase to Pro Tools, I was running the SmartElectronix H20 plug-in on a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv8000 lap top PC computer with a 3.0 Ghz processor and 2 GB of RAM. This wasn't a plug-in that I used all that often and really used it sparingly, so I can't say I really tested the water in terms of how many of these I could run within a single session. Having said that, the plug-in certainly doesn't seem to take up much processing power, and being that it is free anyway, you can just try it out for yourself on your own system to see how it runs. OVERALL OPINION I can't say that I would have had the SmartElectronix H20 plug-in in my arsenal if it wasn't free, but being that it is free, I'd recommend that those with a VST compatible platform download it to try it out for yourself to see if it's something that might be useful for you. I will say that there were a number of other free compressor plug-ins out there that I used instead of this one, including the Kjaerhus Audio Classic Compressor. While certainly not the highest quality compressor, it's a free one nonetheless.