Virtual Instruments product reviews

With version 4 of its “drum sampler” included in both editions of Komplete 9 and available separately, what does Native Instruments propose to do ? Answers below.

In the domain of analogue synthesizer emulation, the race for fidelity continues. The biggest breakthroughs have not necessarily originated from the top editors. One of them, Monark, is reacting with…

iZotope is famous for its effects, audio processing and restoration tools. Now, the manufacturer enters the world of virtual instruments with the launch of Iris, its first synth. Knowing iZotope, we …

After the launch of a remarkable string instrument series, Orange Tree Samples enriches its offering with a new virtual concert flute, among other products.

Arturia has been launching a myriad of products since early 2012. Among the new products you'll find an Oberheim SEM emulation with new custom features. Let's have a look at the beast...

Among the host of new products introduced by Natives Instruments in September, we found a new Kontakt version. Here is a quick overview of its new features.

After Grand Pianos, it's the turn of the Upright Pianos bank to be ported to Synthogy's new audio engine. Let's give it a try.

We tested the Abbey Road 60's sound bank about one year ago. In the meantime, Native Instruments has already released three more Abbey Road sound banks: 70's, 80's and Modern Drums. Let's get this sh…

String sections from John Williams or Hans Zimmer are pretty nice but they don't sound very rock 'n' roll. So we are very happy to welcome Native Instruments' Session Strings — a string section for K…

Following our review series on virtual pianos, we test the results of a triple collaboration between a manufacturer (Native Instruments), another manufacturer (Scarbee) and an artist (Alicia Keys).

The launch of the Montclarion Hall Piano gives us the opportunity to present to you the full range of Tonehammer pianos, characterized by the same original approach of all the other instruments by th…

Vienna Symphonic Library recently presented its Vienna Instruments Pro. What is hidden behind this virtual instrument? Is it just an aesthetic update or a real evolution?

Prism is a polyphonic synthesizer included with the new products launched by Native Instruments in the Komplete 7 pack. Based on modeling technology... Let's find out what that means.

Drum replacement tools were very rare a decade ago but have become much more common in modern music productions. When the inventor of the famous Transient Designer launched its own sound replacement …

Spectrasonics has been living a love story with bass guitars for sixteen years. A long time before Omnisphere, Stylus and the famous Distorted Reality, one of the first products developed by Eric Per…

After many years of development, Spectrasonics has released their new flagship virtual instrument, Omnisphere, which has been heralded as a completely new ground-breaking hybrid virtual instrument in…

Since the dawn of synthesizers, there have been many types of synthesis to emerge. But the same can not be said about their approaches to work flow or interfaces. With Synplant, Sonic Charge has take…

A.I.R., Digidesign’s virtual instrument division, continues to provide creative tools for users of their Pro Tools software. This time, it’s a sequencer within a sequencer, dedicated to loops of all…

While certain sound libraries have been waging a gigabyte war, others have taken the synthesis route, such as the Wallander WIVI, who with only its few hundred megabytes takes on the sample library t…

Electric Pianos never seem to go out of style; and because they’ve now gone virtual, Digidesign has decided to come out with their own version of these timeless instruments.

MusicLab, the editor of RealGuitar, has released RealStrat, a virtual instrument that uses a combination of samples and in-house technology to emulate the sound and feel of the illustrious Fender mod…

After 20 years of editing hi-quality sample libraries, EastWest has taken the plunge and released its own sample player, simply named Play. At the Winter NAMM 2008 the editor unveiled several produ…