2007 EDITORS' CHOICE AWARDS

Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By the EM Staff

Signal-Processing Software
(individual)

Celemony
Melodyne Studio 3 (Mac/Win, $699)

The Sound Guy
SFX Machine Pro (Mac/Win, $149.99)
We're always reluctant to allow ties for an Editors' Choice Award, but when faced with two stellar products as different as Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 and The Sound Guy SFX Machine Pro, we just couldn't leave one out. Since its introduction in 2001, Melodyne has evolved into the go-to choice for pitch correction and vocal munging. SFX Machine Pro is a lesser-known but no less illustrious effects processor capable of sounds you'll hear nowhere else.

Melodyne Studio 3 is a one-stop shop for manipulating both monophonic and polyphonic vocal parts. Working with polyphonic parts is new to version 3 and was a major factor in our deliberations. Although designed primarily for working with vocals, Melodyne also works well on other pitched instruments, such as winds and brass.

One of the more revolutionary aspects of Melodyne's design is its adaptation of the MIDI-editing paradigm to audio parts. Melodyne analyzes an audio file and lays it out as events (called Blobs) along a horizontally scrolling piano-roll editor. You edit the Blobs as you would MIDI note events, moving them vertically to change pitch and moving or stretching them horizontally to affect timing. You can even change tempo and have event durations automatically adjust to match. By default, Melodyne preserves the formant structure and amplitude envelope of a Blob, but you can modify those parameters. That and a host of other features take Melodyne beyond the realm of vocal repair, making it an impressive creative tool.

SFX Machine started in 1997 as an Adobe Premiere-format audio-processing plug-in for the Mac. Even as a non-real-time effect, it was so impressive that it garnered a 1998 Editors' Choice Award. We were pleased when the real-time, cross-platform SFX Machine RT appeared in 2003, but it lacked the preset editor of the Premiere version. You still got a slew of effects, but you could no longer get under the hood. Loyal users howled, and in 2006 the editor was reintroduced in SFX Machine Pro. The factory presets, now numbering 350, are great, but being able to build your own presets again was key to our choice.

SFX Machine Pro's factory presets run the gamut from straightforward filter- and delay-based processes to pitch-shifting and pitch-following effects to sound-effects generators. You'll find a well-balanced collection of off-the-wall effects; utilities like gating and removing DC offset; and old standbys like auto-wah and sample-and-hold. In short, SFX Machine Pro has something for just about everyone.

Sound Library

Harm Visser
Creative Physical Modeling Toolbox for Reaktor 5 (Mac/Win, $189)
Harm Visser's Creative Physical Modeling Toolbox for Reaktor 5 fills a big gap in the Reaktor Ensemble universe. More than 130 Ensembles are organized into 14 categories such as standard orchestral families (Brass and Percussion, for example), articulations (Bowed Strings and Plucked Strings), era (WoodWind_Medieval), and synthesis method. The Ensembles based on traditional instruments are often strikingly realistic, though you may need to do some tweaking to the Brass group.

The real fun begins where traditional instruments leave off. Visser has created a number of hybrid instruments that you won't find on any concert stage, and it's easy to build your own. The Plucked_Wind Ensemble, for instance, will be useful to sound designers and computer-music composers, and the various scraping and scratching creations in the Bounce Roll Scrape category can add realism to your tracks.

Visser uses modal synthesis, one of several modern approaches to physical modeling, to create his virtual instruments. Each model contains multiple resonators to re-create the vibrating components of the original instrument, and Visser calculates the proper frequencies by analyzing actual acoustic instruments. He uses the cross-platform program Praat (www.praat.org), which is in the public domain, so you can undertake your own explorations. But right out of the box, Creative Physical Modeling Toolbox gives you a huge collection of customizable tubes, bars, bows, and bells to enhance your Reaktor workshop.

Synthesizer
(hardware, analog)

Cyndustries
Zeroscillator ($995)
Analog modular synths are back with a vengeance, and 2006 was a banner year, with numerous new companies and modules. However, one particularly innovative module, the Cyndustries Zeroscillator (ZO), goes where no module has gone before. Designed with FM synthesis in mind, the ZO offers “through zero” exponential and linear modulation capabilities, which introduce phase artifacts that intensify and broaden the oscillator's timbral palette. Add to that a wealth of modulation inputs, a variable sync mode, and the unique Time Reversal mode, and the ZO is already a must-have module. But there's more.

The ZO has ten audio outputs, four of which are morphable quadrature outputs that are 90 degrees out of phase with each other. The waveforms of the quadrature outputs can be continually adjusted — manually or with a control voltage — from a triangle wave, through a sine wave, to a square wave. Not only do the quadrature outputs offer interesting sonic potential, but they can also be put to other uses, such as controlling four VCAs for quad panning effects.

Cyndustries also had the audacity to release the ZO in five different module formats — the only company to attempt such a feat — so that nearly every modular user can have access to this powerful and rich-sounding oscillator. Although it's priced on the upper tier for synth modules, the ZO is well worth the investment, both in sound quality and craftsmanship.

Synthesizer
(hardware, digital)

Access Music
Virus TI Desktop ($1,995)
Since 1997, one of the most popular and successful families in the world of electronic music has been the Access Virus series of digital synthesizers. They sound magnificent, and Access Music continues to offer firmware updates that expand the capabilities of even the oldest models. The most recent generation, dubbed the Virus TI, includes three instruments: the Virus TI Keyboard ($2,765), the Virus TI Polar ($2,765), and the rackmountable Virus TI Desktop. To be honest, we could have given the award to the whole series. We chose the TI Desktop mainly because we appreciate its compact form factor for tabletop or rack applications, and at $770 less than the keyboard models, it gives the best bang for the buck.

All three models bring innovative features to the product line, most notably software that allows you to work with the Virus TI as an instrument plug-in on your computer. (TI stands for Total Integration, a concept that fuses the advantages of hardware and software.) The TI series also features wavetable synthesis and a new HyperSaw engine that can generate nine parallel oscillators per voice, in addition to the classic analog modeling that has been the mainstay of previous models. Access has given the Virus TI twice the processing power of the previous generation and twice the polyphony; greatly expanded program memory, digital audio I/O, and USB ports; an improved display; an enhanced arpeggiator; and a Multi mode that lets you edit all 16 parts without affecting the original Single programs. The Virus TI even functions as an external effects processor and a 2-in/6-out audio interface for your computer.

The AU- and VST-compatible Virus TI plug-in makes controlling the keyboard or desktop synthesizer just like working with a soft synth. It affords complete control of the hardware and delivers new capabilities, from graphically tweaking oscillator waveforms to storing an unlimited number of patches. You can program and edit sounds with one hand on the mouse and another on the front panel. When you save and reload a sequencer file, the software saves and reloads all Virus TI settings.

In a synthesizer family that has grown more powerful with each new generation, the Virus TI represents the most significant upgrade to date.

Synthesizer
(software)

Arturia
Prophet-V 1.0 (Mac/Win, $249)
If you aren't lucky enough to own both a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and a Prophet-VS, have no fear: Arturia's Prophet-V 1.0 is a dead ringer for those two classic synths, and you don't need to be a gearhead to appreciate its amazing authenticity. Prophet-V provides a dedicated display for each of the two hardware devices it models and a third display that combines aspects of the two on a single screen. Its flexible modulation options will send you into analog nirvana, and with more than 50 programmable synthesis parameters, you'll be transported to a tweaker's paradise.

Each of the individual emulation modes is stunningly close to the original. The V models the original Prophet-5's analog circuitry down to the last wire. Its two oscillators are coupled with a white-noise generator, an ADSR, and a multiwave LFO. The wavetable-based VS offers 96 sampled waveforms as sources for its 4 oscillators, and the original's joystick, used for vector synthesis, is included in Arturia's emulation.

The Hybrid mode goes beyond anything the original hardware could do. Its straightforward audio matrix lets you enable or disable audio modules from each of the two synths, and its modulation matrix lets you interconnect ins and outs from the control modules of both synths on a single screen. This is one soft synth that will keep you busy for a long time.

Virtual Orchestra

Vienna Symphonic Library
Vienna Instruments Symphonic Cube (Mac/Win, $10,990)
There are a lot of ways to get a virtual orchestra onto your desktop, but if you're looking for a no-compromise, state-of-the-art approach, Vienna Instruments Symphonic Cube, from Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL), is the way to go. This massive sample library consists of more than 800,000 individual samples (550 GB), arranged into 10 Collections, and includes everything you'll need to emulate an orchestra in your studio.

Symphonic Cube offers a huge number of both standard and extended articulations. You'll find nearly every type of string-bowing style, a massive number of wind-playing techniques, and a vast collection of percussion sounds (hits, rolls, flams, and more). In addition to the single samples, there are ready-to-play musical passages, including glissandos, grace notes, and octave runs.

Tying it all together is a user interface with which you design and configure samples for playback from your MIDI tracks. You'll have to get used to some unusual terminology (such as Matrix and Cells) when working with Symphonic Cube, but the overall architecture is very logical and quickly becomes second nature.

Don't assume you need a conservatory degree to make good music with this collection: Symphonic Cube includes your own “personal orchestrator” (which VSL refers to as “Performance Detection” algorithms) that picks the correct sample for the musical passage in question. For example, the Speed Control parameter can switch between two or more samples based solely on the tempo of the notes in your music. Or you can configure the program to choose different samples based on repeated-note patterns, musical intervals, and more. Key- and Velocity switching are just so old school!

We gave a good, long look to MOTU's Symphonic Instrument, which is our favorite new under-$1,000 virtual orchestra, but Symphonic Cube is simply the last word on the subject. And as of this writing, VSL has just released a major upgrade to its user interface, which should make working with this superb collection even easier.