Zero-G

Nostalgia by Zero G is basically a library of patches that came in wav files and also with .nki files. I am very glad it came with .nki files because I use Kontakt and that is what those files belong to. Nostalgia has some sounds in it that are so amazing, there are some really good synths and basses. There are a ton of presets and presets of all kinds. The Nostalgia Zero G could be great for almost any style of music across the country and will give you a very unique sound. The Nostalgia Zero G runs great and will not give you any issues at all. I do wish it would also come with a pre made exs24 so we could have all of the regular sounds of the instruments without having the effects and everything on it. The Nostalgia Zero G will take a little time to get use to if you are using it as a stand alone, and if you are using it in Kontakt you will have no problems (assuming that since you already have Kontakt that you know how to use it). SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Zero g runs great, I have never had any problems with it as a stand alone or as just using the .nki files or even the .wav files. Everything seems to work great and sound great, and once you get past the small learning curve you will be well on your way. OVERALL OPINION I was not happy with the price of this VST though, when it came out I didn’t want to fork out that much money for it so I ended up just putting it on a credit card and paying it off slowly. I don’t feel like it should have cost that much, it was about 50 dollars over priced in my opinion especially when you have to use it with Kontakt in some programs. I have used it with Kontakt 3 and now with Kontakt 4 and it still works great though. The quality of all of the instruments are good, some of them are really good and quit impressive.

Zero G Morphology is a VST instrumental that comes with a pretty big set of presets/sounds. Most of them are well made and are ready to use right off the bat, but some of them just need a lot of EQ to be done because they have a lot of “unwanted” sounds and frequencies. I think total there are over 3 gigs of sounds. The layout of Zero Morphology is pretty basic and everything is easy to understand. For the price of it though I wish they made the layout a little more appealing and eye popping. It doesn’t really stand out to me like I like them to. I ran the Zero G Morphology on a G5 Mac running Operating system v10.3 and it worked perfect and never had a single error or crash. I am not sure if this can be used in Windows because I have never tried. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE There are more menu’s or sub menu’s than I thought there would be and if you using your laptop or a smaller screen , the text on some of these menus can be hard to see and read. .This can get to be very irritating at times. Most of all the effects are pretty basic and standard, nothing to really brag about. But I had no compatibility issues , everything works accordingly. Also, I am not sure if I have ever seen a manual for Zero G either, but maybe they have one on the website. OVERALL OPINION All of the sounds and instruments on Zero G Morphology are put into categories that lead to sub categories. When you start getting in to more menu’s that’s when the text gets smaller and more issues arise for me. The sounds are really good and I am happy with them but the layout isn’t anything that I would pay for again. I hope they update the layout and menu’s before the next edition (if they haven’t already).

This is a multi-sampled instrument setup to mimic a large workstation style synthesizer. The configuration is very simple if you are used to running Native Instruments Kontakt. Setup is as simple as installing, then opening Kontakt and adding the library. After that, all you do is navigate the menus, select your patch, then start tweaking/playing. The GUI of Phaedra is very well done. You get your basic controls of each patch like Cutoff and resonance, LFO options and attack, sustain, decay, release of both Amplitude and Envelope. Pretty much everything you need with the exception of not being able to really design your own sounds (as oscillator waves are not an option). The GUI is tight and compact, but not messy or hard to read/use. SOUND QUALITY The choices are quite varied. You get Pads, Leads, various synth samples, drums, effects and sequences. They definitely seem to be targeted towards electronica styles but still offer a wide ranging usability, especially with the pads. They can be gritty and noisy, but also extremely smooth and beautiful. I run this Library in Kontakt 5 on a Macbook Pro with an RME Fireface 800. Sometimes I run Kontakt as standalone, but mainly I use it in Ableton 8 and Logic 9. I do quite a bit of electronica ranging from indie style rock electronica, to progressive house and even some techno, and this library fits wonderfully in all of those. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this Library is the Pads. They are extremely versatile and offer a lot of depth and warmth as well as movement. The pads are what I primarily use this library for. I also like some of the synth samples, but I find I have other plugins that do a better job at that. I also like the effects selection as it contains a lot of staples that electronic musicians reach for when needing a good transition. I find that some of the synth samples are a weak so I don't really care for those all that much. I paid $199 for this unit which isn't too bad. It is a little dated so I didn't expect to love everything about it and I don't, but what I do like, I believe is worth the money. I have used tons of different software synths. My main ones include SynthMaster 2.5, Omnisphere and Sylenth, but I still reach for this library because I love the pads so much. Yes, I would recommend this and buy it again.

LOTS of different features in this cd. not much spoken word elements which is kinda expected... but all the vocals are almost ruined by the amount of reverb and other effects used on them. i didnt get this cd for the vocals, though. i got it for the drums.. and man there are PLENTY! the live drum patterns are very real. and by that i mean its almost as if youre in the studio with them, passin around a.... well.. you get the point. EXTREMELY well recorded. Price paid 70 usd SOUND QUALITY There are so many different varients of drum sounds on this cd that its hard to give a 'quality' rating because a lot are purposely distorted... but ill say 9/10.. mainly because a few of the loops that i really liked have the cymbal ride that is impossible to take out and it ruins the rest of the break if you ever wanna use the drums in that break for something else. OVERALL OPINION With any sample cd youre going to have to cut and edit everything that you want to use, so im not going to penalize them for that... but like i stated earlier im really upset at the cymbal rides in a few of these loops because it completely marries the sounds together. the quality of sound is just incredible.. its the only drum cd that i use. i truely appriciate this cd. which is a first, because i was almost put off by sample cds all-together. i thought they were a huge waste of money because the creators would signature all the beats to their liking, leaving you, the buyer that puts money in their pocket, with zero room for creativity.. this cd was definitely tailored for us, the user. with enough edge and liveliness to get you amped up about it, but enough subtlety for creation. Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: eternalYouth ( 3-, 2004)

Price paid $150 USD SOUND QUALITY The sound quality of this Reason Refill is astonishing.The beats are everything I was looking for,pure old skool junglism with volumes 2 & 3 introducing more so step styled beats but very amazing. OVERALL OPINION These beats are very usable.Some of the pads are quite interesting and the vox are a decent touch.If you're looking to chop these beats up you're going to need Recycle or some other editing program. The quality is very top notch.I don't see another jungle sample cd series replacing this for years to come if ever. My love factor for this is very high.Jungle Warfare is a must for jungle producers,brought to us by some of the finest producers in the game from the old skool Moving Shadow Records era (Hyper-on Experience's Danny D,and Alex B). Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: TheOracle ( 6-, 2005)

Totally satisfied with the quantity and quality of the sounds - you get literally thousands of REX files and NN19 patches! Price paid $149 SOUND QUALITY The quality and usability of the samples and loops is generally extremely high, and covers an incredibly broad spectrum of genres and types - there are over 9000 samples (over 7.5 gigabytes!) and you can find great stuff for any kind of music OVERALL OPINION Very straightforward - just copy the files to your drive and start loading into REASON. I would recommend this sound library to anyone who has Propellerheads Reason software. I have had my fingers burnt with sample CDs before, so it took red hot reviews on the reasonfreaks.com website to make me decide to order it at all, but thankfully it exceeded all my expectations. It has given me a library that is if anything TOO big, yet the quality I hoped for is there throughout. Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: Unknown (January 1-, 2002)