All user reviews for the reFX NEXUS

Easy and problem-free installation.
Easy-to-install expansions and very well organized in categories.
No incompatibility problems with cubase nor protools.
Logical and simple manual.
It's a sample preset player.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

My setup:
Windows 7 64b
I7 4930k
64 gb ram 2400
Asus p79 deluxe gold
RME madi soundcard coupled with a burl mothership b80
SSD
Performance with windows 7.7
The software works correctly and the samples are loaded in less than a second, even the hollywood2 range.
Stable setup
Very low resource usage
Possibility to open 30 nexus instances in a single project without any overload, even on my old I7 2600k.

OVERALL OPINION

I've used it for 7 years, I think.
I've tested all vsti on the market
What I like best:
Original sounds that are regularly updated by the publisher with expansions.
Nice built-in effects and the addition of a real IR reverb, which is great to give more character and breadth to the sound
Fast and easy use and setup

What I like least:
Sample player only, so
it lacks synthesis generators to make sound design
Sound editing is restricted and you can't create your own combinations
The sounds are usually found on several expansions, which can be a bit disconcerting when you consider that an expansion costs $60 and that from the 128 sounds it includes, you have already heard 10 or 15 in other expansions and there are 20 useless SQ sequences they've put in just to fill space.
It lacks a search engine for the sounds


What I regret:
They should make version 4 mixing phalanx / sylenth and it would be awesome

Nevertheless, it's a very good product for people who like modern sounds and quick searches.
There are bundles with very attractive prices, but the complete version is pretty expensive.

I have used it every day on all my projects, so I would buy it again.

Easy installation! It's child's play!


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

It works fine both on a MAC and a PC (I tested it with GARAGE BAND and CUBASE )
A bit heavy on RAM, but that's normal

OVERALL OPINION

What I like best? The SOUND, what a SOUND!! It's truly jaw-dropping!!! If you are a fan of Trance, Electro or Lounge/Chill out music and you are looking for some mind-blowing pad sounds, cutting-edge leads, trippy basses or arpeggios, don't look any further! Nexus is THE plug-in you need!!! I'm still blown by how sublime the sounds are! The extensions are also jaw-dropping, I invite you to listen to the "Singin Diva" preset from the Dance Orchestra extension...It's magical and captivating!
In my opinion, the only defect is that sound editing is a bit limited, but I'm being picky
There's a demo available on Refx's site, so go get it!!! And you will give up Atmosphère and the like once and for all. To finish, the Dance Orchestral extension is marvelous! You can buy it with your eyes closed or rather your ears covered :P !!

I'll admit, I'm a musician first and a producer second. I have a hard time finding instrument plugins I like. Most are really hit or miss for me. If I can't get a good sound in 20 minutes I'm done. Out of the box Nexus is surprising. There aren't many controls. You have to go through the menu and find your sound by name. You aren't given any choices really about manipulating these sounds outside of delays/reverb. For me this was a welcome surprise. I simply picked a category and found a sound I liked. No knob twisting involved.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I produce a lot of different genres. It seems like Nexus can hang in any of them. I will say that the primary use for most of the sounds seems to be techno/dubstep/rave music but that's not to say their aren't a ton of other options. There's hip-hop and 80's stuff. More pop sounding synths. I'm pretty amazed at the sheer variety of usable things. It's got drums, bass, lead, strings, guitar, whatever. The pianos and electric keys in particular are really cool. Sometimes it can be kind of daunting. But chances are if you can dream it, it's in Nexus somewhere. That's what I like about it. It's the one plugin where I can open it up and KNOW that the sound I'm looking for is in there somewhere. It runs fairly fast although it's not the lightest on cpu. It eats up ram a bit too. I have seen more power hungry instruments but I've definitely seen lighter ones too. If you have a decent rig it's a non issue. I use it with cubase and have no problems. Every blue moon it will decide not to change presets and I have to restart.

OVERALL OPINION

I like how it's user friendly in the sense that I don't have to turn 50 knobs to get the sound I want. I can just look it up via categories. Easy for a guy like me who isn't a total synth nerd. The value is pretty good. Not cheap but darn if you don't get a ton of sounds here. And all great quality too. That's the thing for me. Every sound is high quality and that's a rare thing for synths like this. Very impressive.

Simple, fast, I use it in Fruity Loops, the interface is very nice

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

settings (laptop) and it's really stable, and performance of this app is really EXCELLENT !!!!!!!!!

OVERALL OPINION

I have been using this Ette, franchelment and I had been nothing like it!! The sound is simply spellbinding, magical and very grandee quality !!!!!!! The sounds are from major proposed synths like the Virus TI, Andromeda, the JP-8000, Juno (and so on ...) and are heat and fidelity incredible! !! Mainly oriented towards techno and electro (at least the version I have), this allows for sounds aggressive virus, or sheets of JP in his computer ... A big congratulations to those who created this software is a complete success, I would buy without a hint of hesitation !!!!!! I recommend it very strongly !!!!!!!

It's a pretty clear plugin. Installing was on the easy side. It works fine on Windows XP and has never caused problems within FL Studio. The GUI is simple and clean. You can get to all the features very easily such as the arpegiator.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I've been using Nexus for about 3 months. It's light on my CPU which isn't even meant for music work. It's a Gateway 2.0 GHz Dual Core with only 2 GB of RAM. I use the plugin within FL Studio and my midi controller integrates fine with it. Nexus has never crashed on me. It's actually one of my most reliable plugins. The load times are pretty qucik too.

OVERALL OPINION

The overall sound quality of Nexus is good, but the variety is not. Expansions are pretty much guarenteed to be needed if you want more than generic dance oriented saw synths. I prefer the Dance Orchestra expansion. The sounds fit into beats very nicely.

One big problem I have with Nexus is the fact that the sounds aren't very tweakable. Sometimes the patches will be layered and I want one element of it, but it's impossible to choose what elements you want.

The arpegiator in Nexus is a good feature. It's really easy to use but at the same time it's very detailed.

Overall it's not a bad plugin. I've used the sounds in it more than once and there are definatly some gems, but you will start to get annoyed with the amount of trance leads that are in it. Without the expansions I'd say Nexus isn't worth the money, and even with the expansions it barely is. The instruments are realistic enough to not sound cheesy, but not so real that they don't fit inot productions easily like East West / Quantom Leap instruments do.

I probably wouldn't recommend Nexus over plugins like VI One, or Philharmonik for normal music but if you are really into electronic music I'd definatly buy it.