Spectrasonics Stylus RMX v1.8 - Tarekith review

[Tarekith]

http://www.abletonlivedj.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=86

[Anubis]

Stylus RMX is an amazing instrument. I got the new XPand version a few months ago and I'm still blown away by it. Time Designer introduced in ver. 1.7 is sheer genius. The "simply" dial used in conjunction with changing the time signature and the different variations(A,B,C,D,etc.)... gives you endless variations of beats, bass lines, etc.

With version 1.8 and Live 8's ability to automate any of RMX's 20,000+ parameters... makes it the most configurable softsynth out there.

[timothyallan]

Calling it a softsynth is a bit misleading isn't it? It's still just a glorified drum loop rompler.

[Tarekith]

I consider softsynths to generically be any sort of plug in instrument. And I definitely don't think it's a glorified drum rompler, anymore than I think Omnisphere just places back atmospheric samples.

[timothyallan]

Fair enough. I consider softsynths to be plugins which synthesize things, which Stylus doesn't. Omnisphere is a whole other ball of wax as it actually is a synth... as well as a snazzy rompler

[ze2be]

just saw the videos from 1.7, and must say I jaw droped! Havent updated since 1.5..

Hadnt used it much the last 12 months, because im geting more back to making my own loops with midi and drum racks. But darnit, now with the Time Designer you can do there that you cant even do with Live 8! Or, it shold mostly be possible, but with RMX its almost instant, wheres in Live youd need some time to work on the audio loops. Maybe its time to get back to RMX. downloaded, and trying it tonight!



Semi OT: I would love a second gui option to the standard Art Deco design from Spectrasonic! Some VST creators do it.

In architecture and product design Art Deco was big pre world war 2. Functionalism came after the war, as people wanted to get back to, well, functionalism and simplicity! It had a comeback in the 60ties, and in the 80ties. And its coming back in product design around ATM. Dont mind it really, just that the silly factor ads up a bit when its a 2D software with painted on 3D elements. Art Deco Kitch galore!

Funk designs: contemporary Apple hardware, Ableton, etc minimal and functional.
Art Deco designs: Computer game interfaces, theme based designs, etc. painted on elements, or montages, often kitchy, with necessarily no use other then being decorative.

Art Deco slowly lost patronage in the West after reaching mass production, when it began to be derided as gaudy and presenting a false image of luxury. Eventually, the style was cut short by the austerities of World War II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco

[Anubis]

Calling it a softsynth is a bit misleading isn't it? It's still just a glorified drum loop rompler.

That's what I used to think too until I saw Eric's Time Designer demonstration. Since I bought the Xpanded version a couple of months ago I haven't even installed all of the drum libraries, only two.
What has been really interesting is using Stylus with skillfully sliced BASS and GUITAR loops. (Nine Volt audio specializes in these) I can conjure up musically realistic variations of bass grooves from just a single loop, for example.
With Stylus you can design intricate, complex grooves including drums, bass, guitar, or whatever else you wanna throw in and you're barely hitting 9% cpu!

[stutter]

barely hitting 9% cpu!

... although the RAM usage is another matter.

[remute99]

barely hitting 9% cpu!

... although the RAM usage is another matter.

Yup, that's my beef with Spectrasonic's - great sounds, shit RAM optimization - and a reluctance to do anything about it except bleat on about just how amazingly complex their synths are.

[tw1nstates]

The gui on their stuff is awful

I really don't like.

But their sounds are good.,

Stylus is the one of all of them that I am most, meh about.

It's just not great for 4/4 club music. i know everyone is gonna tune in now and go no that's not the case, you can roll your onw.

Yes, I use the individual his a fair bit but the loops frankly suck. Very American. That has always ben my problem with the out of the box sounds of Spectrasonics stuff. it's Californian hiphop, film music and 'club' orientated (but nit clubs like Fabric, Tresor, Panorama Bar etc). It's like they never heard of Chicago, Berlin or Detroit.

However, once you start programming their stuff can be quite cool. I just picked up Trillian on pre order and am planning on using it as an oscillator (or many different oscs to send into my modular. Personally I always thought that the 'real' bass sounds weren't too punchy. Somewhere I have a free EXS bass multi sample that some dude gave away on the internet fro free which absolutely pwns all of the trilogy bass sounds. however going back to it again there are many interesting start points for sound design.

Stylus though, perhaps it's just that I don't get it. I'd love to, it just sounds like a load of crappy loops to me, if you could separate *everything* into single hits or even better, if it was all programmed using the onboard fx so that you could swap in and out individual hits on the loops, then you would have something *really* cool. It's not impossible to do that these days. Also the fx limitation is a bit weird, why not load infinite chains of fx like live. Also being able to load VST / AU fx would be much cooler as well i don't rate a lot of the onboard fx. ..

Still everyone should by their stuff cos it;s better than most other rompler soundware. And very variable.

[p8guitar]

just saw the videos from 1.7, and must say I jaw droped! Havent updated since 1.5..

Hadnt used it much the last 12 months, because im geting more back to making my own loops with midi and drum racks. But darnit, now with the Time Designer you can do there that you cant even do with Live 8! Or, it shold mostly be possible, but with RMX its almost instant, wheres in Live youd need some time to work on the audio loops. Maybe its time to get back to RMX. downloaded, and trying it tonight!



Semi OT: I would love a second gui option to the standard Art Deco design from Spectrasonic! Some VST creators do it.

In architecture and product design Art Deco was big pre world war 2. Functionalism came after the war, as people wanted to get back to, well, functionalism and simplicity! It had a comeback in the 60ties, and in the 80ties. And its coming back in product design around ATM. Dont mind it really, just that the silly factor ads up a bit when its a 2D software with painted on 3D elements. Art Deco Kitch galore!

Funk designs: contemporary Apple hardware, Ableton, etc minimal and functional.
Art Deco designs: Computer game interfaces, theme based designs, etc. painted on elements, or montages, often kitchy, with necessarily no use other then being decorative.

Art Deco slowly lost patronage in the West after reaching mass production, when it began to be derided as gaudy and presenting a false image of luxury. Eventually, the style was cut short by the austerities of World War II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco

great post, zu2be!
I like it when someone makes fun of spectrasonics, although I use their plug-ins quite often...
the GUIs are an insane waste of screen space. I don't need a chrome roll-over bar that protects my plug-in in case a boot hits the screen... I need a well arranged GUI where I can see what's happening, without the need to change windows every second. And what I hate most is - the splash screen!