Review Archive

Photo Credits: Ableton / AKAI

This past week I finally received the APC 40 I had been so eagerly awaiting. After a good year or so in trying to make the same thing work on a Novation Launchpad, Akai LPD8 and Korg Nanokontrol, I figured it was time to make a proper go of it and just buy the damn thing. Well, I did and I can say I got a lot more than I anticipated.

AKAI’s APC 40 is a dedicated and 1:1 controller for Ableton Live. It encompasses 8 channels within it’s 8×5 launch grid with volume faders, clip stop, cue/solo, record and activation controls. There’s also a dedicated master fader, stop all clips and scene launch controls and a cue level knob. To the right, we find two banks of 8 knobs, the cross fader and transport controls.

On the back side of the unit, we find the USB, power and two 1/4 foot switch connections. I was surprised to find that the APC 40 wasn’t bus powered, but the FAQ on AKAI’s website explained that with the large number of LEDs inside of the APC 40, it simply wasn’t possible. Strangely, no explanation was given for what the foot switches were to be used for in the user manual. It’s my guess that mapping each one to the bank up and down controls would allow you to scroll through your clips. Not a bad way to work!

Photo Credits: Ableton / AKAI

Physically, the APC 40 is about 8 inches wider than an LP. It’s light weight and can give one the impression of feeling a bit flimsy, but when you press on the front of the panel, it feels solid, really solid. AKAI really seems to have built this well with the assumption that it may experience some abuse over the course of it’s lifetime. Another feature that’s indicative of the preemptive engineering that went into the APC 40 are the encoders. Each encoder (aside from the cue level) are surrounded by an LED ring that scales across the standard 1-127 range. I found it a bit counter intuitive that the encoders are endless, however it soon dawned on me that that with some serious tweaking, a stop would cause the encoders to prematurely wear out. It also gives them a nice smooth feel and by the same token, the faders feel just as nice and the large caps on them give a solid, tactile feel. By the by, the cross fader is also user replaceable.

Setting up the APC 40 was a breeze. Right out of the box, Windows 7 detected and installed the APC 40 with no extra drivers required and all I had to do after that was to bring up Live (you’ll need version 8 or higher) and select it as a control surface.

Working with the APC 40 in Live is just as easy. The APC 40 will automatically map all the mixer controls for the first 8 channels, if you need more than that, you’ll need to scroll left and right (as well as up and down) with the bank select controls, which is located between the two banks of knobs. Keeping in that theme, the top set of 8 encoders controls the pan and sends for reach channel, with the number of the knob corresponding with the channel being controlled.

The second bank of 8 knobs is where things get interesting. The knobs in this bank will automatically map themselves to any of Live’s VSTs or effects in a selected channel. The APC 40 does a really good job of mapping and keeping consistency across devices. Important knobs such as the wet/dry and filter cutoff are always found in the same places. There’s also a left and right button that will allow you to scroll through instrument and effects. The cool thing about this is that the process is completely dynamic, meaning that the mappings change and update themselves every time you move channels. It’s also just as easy to use them with third party VSTs. All you have to do is map the controls you want to use in the usual manner and the APC 40 will remember them.

This does bring up one teensy problem though. To make use of the dynamic mappings, you’re going to need to learn to use the effect racks effectively. Without them, you’ll quickly discover it’s impossible to control more than one device at a time. However, in doing so, you’ll also open up a new world of effects possibilities with the ability to map multiple knobs to one macro. The 8 effects knobs on the APC 40 will neatly map up to the 8 macro knobs, making them easier to remember as well as cutting down on the visual clutter.

Given all that you get on the APC 40, it’s completely possible to use it with Live without touching the mouse. For this specific purpose, the APC 40 features a row of buttons under the stop clips buttons for selecting the track you want Live to focus on; much like you would do with the mouse by clicking on the channel header. There’s also transport controls, tap tempo and a dedicated button for switching between the session and arrangement view on board to help you in your mouse free endeavors.

This brings me to my one caveat with the APC 40: the transport controls aren’t clearly labeled which makes them hard to identify by sight. Instead, they’re relegated to plain, gray buttons which don’t provide any feedback as to which mode you’re in. They’re also sort of interspersed between the cross fader and banks of knobs, which makes it the biggest lacking feature in my opinion.

The only other complaint I have about the APC 40 is the side panels, or “wings” as they’re called online. They give the APC 40 an odd shape that makes it hard to fit into DJ coffins or sit squarely next to other gear. Fortunately though, they can be easily removed by the three exposed screws on either side and if you’re handy, you could easily whip up a pair of end caps.

Overall, the APC 40 has changed the way I work in Live. I now have easy access to every feature of the GUI and they way it dynamically maps the knobs has put an end to all the controller headaches of running out of knobs and then trying to remember which function they were mapped to. I consider the APC 40 to be money very well spent.

Halion Sonic Audio Demo by Soyuz7

For the technical details and specification for Halion 4 and Halion Sonic, please see my previous post here.

Being able to understand Halion Sonic at first glance is a daunting task. There’s very little real info that’s contained within the PR hype speak from Steinberg and the manual itself is particularly plain and offers few if any insights into the deeper, inner workings of Halion Sonic.

On the surface, what you get is essentially a box of presets that you can edit ROMpler style into your own creations. On their website, Steinberg touts Halion Sonic as having three special modes: disk streaming, drum machine and beat slicing. Don’t believe the hype as they say, as the disk streaming mode is the normal “play” mode in which you call up a preset, the drum machine simply refers to ability to select your own drum samples from within the library provided and assign them to keys, which is a common feature of software & hardware like this actually. And then finally, the beat slicer, which is Steinberg’s way of giving you a drum loop you can’t edit (or load your own) in one octave and then the same loop broken down into it’s component hits in the next.

On the whole, they’re nothing really above standard features and not really selectable as “modes”, which is all a bit misleading when you look at it that way. Also just as strange is Steinberg’s arithmetic in saying that it comes with 12 gigs of material. Halion Sonic comes on two DVDs (and also requires the separate purchase of a USB ELicenser dongle, if you don’t already have one!) and once installed, appears to contain a sparse handful of presets, most of which utilize the built in VA engine. Given that they were also advertising Halion Sonic as having material that was designed by parent company Yamaha’s Motif team, one can only wonder where all those gigs went. It’s quite possible that Steinberg put all of it’s eggs into one basket, as what’s on there is quite good and superior in quality to the instruments contained within the expansion pack offered on Steinberg’s website. Once you’ve downloaded and installed the expansion pack, it quite easily pushes the number of presets over the 1k mark as advertised, solving that bit of the mystery. It’s also worth noting that the expansion pack contains the Hypersonic, Halion SE and GM sound sets.

That’s what I feel that you pretty much get with Halion Sonic in terms of it’s presets: it’s more or less a high quality and largely expanded GM sound set. Overall, I don’t feel there’s enough quality or quantity in any one genre to enable a user to compose an entire radio ready composition on Halion Sonic alone. Weakest of all, in what was a bit of a major disappointment, are the drums. Most of them are variations on the standard Casio style drum sets, you know the ones I mean: clap blocks, chimes and whistles. Noticeably absent are techno or trance kits, an orchestral percussion kit and other standards such as brushed and jazz kits.

Up to this point it may seem like I’m being a bit down on Halion Sonic, but given what I’ve said so far, you have to take it for what it is: a teaser product for Halion 4. You’re mostly getting recycled user content with a dash of new stuff thrown in, even if it is completely editable as Steinberg promised. Interestingly though, is Steinberg’s complete under emphasis on what I would consider to be Halion Sonic’s best feature: the VA engine. In fact it’s buried so deep it’s almost impossible to find unless you know where to look. Loading a blank program may seem like the best way to initialize a patch, however that only allows you to load a multi-sampled program. To gain access to the VA engine, you have to go through the patch browser and search for the initialize patch patch and load it. Honesty, it was such a counter intuitive process I had to register for Steinberg’s support forums and ask for help!

Once you get it up and running, editing sounds on it and the sampler from scratch is a pretty straightforward process with no hidden surprises. Programming standouts include up to four LFOs per layer, two of which are polyphonic, a programmable step sequence modulator and an arpeggiator that Steinberg calls “Flexphrase” that plays, as you can probably guess, preset phrases, chord sequences and the like. None of them are user editable, unless you want to load your own midi files.

I want to pause here and go back and talk about the VA engine some more. As a certified synth nut myself, I can say with certainty that between the VA engine and the effects, Halion Sonic really is at the hardware level in terms of sound quality with these two items. Both are entirely worth the price of admission alone. At up to for layers per program and three oscillators plus a sub oscillator per layer and all of the modulation options, you can really create some dense and moving synth patches. The VA engine itself is rich and lush in harmonics and overtones. In fact, many times while flipping through the presets I heard something so deep and vast sounding I assumed that it was a sample, only to find out it was the VA engine, without effects!

So in conclusion, if you’re looking for mainly presets, Halion Sonic is going to leave you feeling a bit short changed. Given that the presets are already composed of recycled material and some bonus add ons, I don’t have much hope that Steinberg will be releasing sound packs. However if you do like the sound of the demos (take a listen to the one I posted below) you may wish to pony up the extra 100$ for Halion 4 and take advantage of the vast amount of sample CDs out there on the market in conjunction with Halion’s top notch effects to tweak them to your liking. Otherwise you can get a fair amount of use out of Halion Sonic if you enjoy programming and tweaking your own sounds. A multi-timbral VST VA of such a high quality is nothing to shake a stick at either.

And then finally, if none off that is really your bag, there are other products out there such as Sample Tank, that offers just as many presets with the ability to read sample CDs right out of the box coming in at just a bit under what Halion Sonic retails for.

As for me, I really like the synth engine and I’m hoping they offer an upgrade from Halion Sonic to Halion 4 as I’d like to combine the synth along with samples from various hardware synths and other sources.

User Manual

Factory Sound List

Inevitably, someone on an internet forum somewhere, will ask “what VST sounds the most like a Virus?” The Virus itself seems to be somewhat of a mythical item, shrouded in hype and mystery. It’s price, even on the used market, continues to keep it just out of reach for the average consumer. Frequently showing up on dance hit after hit, the mystique and appeal of the Virus only continues to grow.

In the synth community, there’s a thing called GAS. Not to be confused with the Taco Bell variety, this GAS is a different gas altogether. GAS stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome and it’s power can drive men (and some women) mad. However, like most bogeymen, GAS tends to quickly evaporate when exposed to the light of reason and critical thinking. So let’s begin by seeing if we can’t vanquish the bogey man by taking a deeper look at the Virus itself.

The Virus itself exists in no less than 4 incarnations: A, B, C, and the TI. The Virus is like any other off the shelf VA in that it’s built around a CPU core and DSP chips. It’s been said that each one is merely an update of the last, released when the previous operating system had reached maturity. A process that should be instantly familiar to any Windows user. It’s also been said that the last OS update to the B will bring it up to the specs of the C, minus one 4 pole filter. However that’s not exactly true, as we’ll see in a bit.

The first thing one will notice about the Viruses is the cost, they don’t come cheap. And the reason for the cost can be seen as the single advantage of the Virus over other hardware synths. Synthesizers and keyboards (sometimes called ROMplers) normally have two operating modes: monotimbral and multimbral. You can read more about that if you like in my Intro to MIDI feature. But in short form, what that means is that in multimbral mode, synthesizers decrease the quality of, or even completely omit, the effects on each individual part to reduce the load on the CPU. A common technique is to write a song in multimbral mode and then record each sound individually in monotimbral mode with the benefit of having all the effects.

The second thing you’ll notice about the Viruses is that they are heavy. This is due to the fact that when in multitimbral mode, the Virus is able to maintain full effects (as well as LFOs and arpeggiators) on each part across each of the 16 MIDI channels. What this means is that each Virus contains enough extra circuitry for 16 monotimbral synths. That’s a huge advantage in that it’s possible to compose entire songs or perform them live from one instrument. However one could easily argue that the value of such a feature has been rendered academic by the advancement of VSTs and the ability to simply open as many instances as you need with the only real limitation being the amount of processing power that your computer has.

What about the sound? Surely that must account for most of the interest and the hype in owning a Virus. I’m probably going to put myself on the hit list of many a Virus purist by saying this, but I think it’s largely overrated. Most of the sound is due to the high quality effects that come built into the Virus. In fact many people use Viruses as effect processors on the buses of their mixers. Most of the basic sounds (trance leads and basses) people want from the Viruses can be accomplished on just about anything along with a few good effects plug ins. Don’t believe me? Take a listen to the patches offered by Vengeance Sound and Adam Szabo if you don’t. Most, if not all of them, have the same sound and quality no matter the instrument they came from. And that’s including both hardware and software. Shocking isn’t it? If you liked what you heard from any of those patches, I encourage you to research the synthesizers they were created for. However we also have to consider that most, if not all of those sounds that you just heard were reminiscent of the A, B and TI Viruses.

The C is actually a bit of a departure in terms of sound from the Virus line and can easily be considered the most sought after hardware unit previous to the TI. It could very well be because there is something inherently different in the timbre of the C compared to the rest of the line. Especially as we have just seen that Virus like sounds can be replicated on a variety of instruments.

The C can really be described as a strange beast, almost a chimera. One one hand the C can be light and dreamy, reminiscent of Tangerine Dream and Boards of Canada. And then on the other hand, it can be warm and punchy with a dark, misty sound that seems to almost hover above a black abyss. It’s an overall sound that’s proven to be elusive in trying to recreate. For this reason alone it’s become a highly coveted instrument. If it were as easy as upgrading the B to the latest OS, as popular theory holds, it would be more well known as a poor man’s C, but alas, it is not. There’s something inherent about it that makes it special.

The closest we’ve been able to come to date is Lin Plug’s Albino 3, created by the man that also created most of the patches on the C, Rob Papen. Rob has done an excellent job of recreating the light and analog feel of the C as well as translating quite a few of his patches to it. I own Albino 3 myself and use it frequently for strings and pads.

Unfortunately, it lacks the ability to thump properly when you need it to in the basses or just sound as deep as the C does for drones and pads. I had all but given up hope in finding something that would adequately emulate the deep and foreboding nature of the lower end of the C until I bumped into Dune, by Synapse Audio, entirely by accident.

Synapse Audio is best known for their sequencing and VST environment Orion. But generally, they manage to stay off the radar, so bumping into was an experience that left me floored. Straight away from the GUI, you can tell Dune looks like the C; the audio demos on the page are also equally convincing. Downloading the demo quickly had me convinced that I had found a VST that manages to capture the deep and powerful lower end of the C. Many of the presets have that warm and evocative swelling that I like about the C. I have yet to buy Dune, but it’s certainly next on my list.

Having been a C user for over four years (that’s my C in the photo up top) I can easily say that between these two VSTs, they will get you 99% of the way there. What’s interesting is that each synth manages to capture a particular aspect of the sound. It’s almost fun being able to separate the dual character of the C into two synths so that you can focus on one at a time. Deep, complex and evolving analog like timbres from Albino 3 and a more focused, MiniMoog like approach from Dune that let’s you keep it fast and simple for basses and pads. Add in a high quality reverb and delay, and you’ll have nothing left on your wish list for years to come.

While Albino 3 is no longer being developed, you can still purchase it directly from Linplug. While toying with the idea of selling my beloved Virus C (which I decided not to do) I had the opportunity to bump into Albino again. I have less time now than I did in the past to work on music; what with being a parent and all the writing I do. And with what little time I do have, I can stomach setting up and cabling no more.

So really I was in the market for a sort of Virus replacement in VSTi form. I’m kind of known for my phenomenal dislike of VSTis and while Albino is by no means a replacement for the Virus, there are quite a few good things about it that won my affection.

I had tried out Albino 1 & 2 and always came away disappointed. While there were a vast array of features in versions 1 & 2 that were continued in 3, along with some serious upgrades, the overall engine seemed to lack oomph to me. I always felt like no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t push the sound as hard as I wanted to. The filters also suffered from my biggest pet peeve: weak.

Albino 3 seems to have cleared this up and then some. The output is hot, too hot in some cases (not that I’m complaining!) and the filters are smooth across the entire spectrum. And that’s exactly what sold me on Albino, the smoothness. Now that the output problems have been fixed, I’ve heard the synth as it was meant to be without any extra compression to boost up the sound and I was quite pleased with what I heard. This is where most soft synths fail me. I can push synths pretty hard with arpeggiation, fast envelope settings and hard filter sweeps. Most, if not all soft synths give me ear fatigue rather quickly as their sound dissolves into harshness right at the mid range.

I’m glad to say that didn’t happen with Albino 3. It’s sound is smooth, warm in a very digital way and consistent. In the few hours I played with it last night, I wasn’t able to get that deep “from the depths of space” kind of sound I can get out of my Virus. And who knows, I may later with some experimentation, but I’m glad that I have finally found a VSTi that will fit the bill and keep me occupied when my creativity is high and my time is low.

Released in 1998, Roland’s MC-505 groove box is based on the legendary JV synthesis engine and shares many of the same patterns and sounds of the JV-XP line of synthesizers. However the MC-505 is firmly based on the techno side of things and comes loaded with 808, 909 and 303 sounds right out of the box. Having had an MC-505 in my rig for a weekend I can say with a large degree of confidence that it combines an easy to use interface along with a great sound at an affordable price.

Overview
The MC-505 is a bit larger than I thought it would be, clocking in at just a bit larger than 18 inches wide. However the large size enables the 505 to have a knob or button on the deck for just about every one of it’s functions. On board stand outs are a coarse tune knob, two ADSRs (amp & filter), cut off & resonance, an arpeggiator, a low boost knob and Roland’s famous D beam controller. Right in the middle of the 505 is the lovely mixer section with the “keyboard” right beneath it. Along the backside you get 6 individual audio outputs which is great for sending those 808 or 303 sounds to external effects.

The Sequencer
I wanted to jump right in and make this the first topic in my review. Over the 7-8 hours I initially spent with my 505 over a weekend, I found the sequencer the hardest thing to use on it. At the end of the weekend, I came away feeling like I could never make it do the same thing twice. This is mainly because I prefer the step or grid sequencing as found on the Korg Electribes and E-MU command stations and it’s also where I quickly ran into problems. To edit (or even enter) your performance in grid form, you have to go through a series of unintuitive button sequences through which everything has to be entered while the sequencer is running. To enter notes on another part, you then have to stop the sequencer, switch parts and then restart the entire process. Of course figuring out how to do this is nearly impossible as the manual is completely obtuse. And beware! If you fail to “prepare for recording” as the manual states, your performance will suffer from a strangely low velocity and other such maladies. “Preparing for recording” is some process in which you set the initial pan, velocity and other settings for each part of the 505. They say you can do it in the manual, but I think it’s some sort of practical joke.

However there is a ray of sunshine in all this sequencer nonsense! If you like to enter your beats and basslines by knocking them out in real time you get to pass go and collect your 200$! All you’ll have to do is set your quantize and bang away on the keyboard and you’ll be in beat heaven. You can skip all the menu diving and preset, preset setting. Seriously, it’s that easy to use; if you like to work that way, or can get the hang of it, you’ll never have to dive through a menu to use this thing.

Obviously this is just Roland’s way of doing things and considering the MC-505 hails from 1996, it was in competition with the MPC for attention and they most likely wanted to attract a following by offering a similar work flow. If that’s not for you, don’t worry; Korg and E-MU have enjoyed equal success for catering to a different work flow with their beat boxes, so don’t be afraid to try out the competition either!

The Mixer
This is the best part of the 505! All beat boxes should have a mixer section like this! Right in the middle of the 505 you get a nice bank of 8 sliders and two rows of buttons that control all the instrument and rhythm parts. The rhythm parts are all routed through a master slider (part R on the mixer) and each individual rhythm part is selectable by a button for quick muting or editing. This works the same for the instrument parts on the row above it, but what’s unique here is how easy it is to mute and unmute rhythm parts! It’s seriously easy and ridiculously fast to build up and bring down your beats. And it’s also just as easy to bring in and out instrument parts to build up your tracks!

To the left of the sliders is a menu that will cause the mixer to “jump” to the selected value which will give you instant control over the volume, pan and effects send for each part. Again, what could be easier? The rest of the 505 works just as easy too. Simply select the part you wish to edit and all the controls on the front panel are instantly routed to that part for editing.

The Sounds
Well, you have to take them with a grain of salt as the JV-XP engine is a bit antiquated at this point. The natural sounds such as the pianos, strings and organs are going to fall a bit short in quality by today’s standards. However in contrast the synthesized sounds are and can still be quite a bit of fun if you decide to jump in and program your own.

Roland became a bit infamous for having put all their JV-XP sounds through compression and it’s apparent on the 505 with the lack of response from the filter on some of the sounds. However there is a dedicated “low boost” knob that will really fatten things out in compensation. The filter itself is actually pretty good and can get a bit out of control when set to the extremes.

Sadly there’s not many patterns or preset sounds on the 505. If I had to guess, I would say that the 505 is based on the techno expansion card, much like how Yamaha’s AN200 has a PLG-AN card bolted on the inside. Unfortunately however there is no room for expansion cards in the 505 unlike the 909.

The Conclusion
It’s a great box at a great price on the used market. You can’t beat the hands on interaction with this thing, so it’s great if you’re just starting out and it comes loaded with usable sounds right out of the box. But the way you work with the sequencer is really going to determine if you stick with it or move on and you may find it limited in terms of sound. If you can swing the extra cash, the MC-909 would make a great upgrade.

User Manual

Quick Start Guide

Patch List

Pattern List

Keyboard Pad : 16-keys
Maximum Polyphony : 64 voices
Parts : 24 parts (main: 8 + rps: 16)
Tones : 512 tones
Rhythm Sets : 26 sets (user: 20)
Effects : Reverb,Delay EFX (24 types)

Sequencer Section
Tracks : 8 tracks
Songs : 50 songs
Patterns : Preset: 248, RPS: 466, User: 200
Internal Memory : 95,000 notes
RPS Set : 60
Pattern Set : 30
Tempo : 20.0 to 240.0 (maximum)
Resolution : 96 ticks per quarter note
Recording Method : Realtime, Step1, Step2

Control Knob
D-Beam Controller : 28 types
Realtime Modify : Cutoff, Resonance, LFO (Modulation, Rate), Envelope Attack, Decay, Release, Panpot, Level, Portamento Time
Effect : Time/Rate, EFX Level
Play Quantize : Timing, Velocity (Grid, Groove, Shuffle)
Arpeggio : Accent Rate, Octave Range (53 styles)
Others : Low Boost, Master Volume

Others
Display : 7 segments, 6 characters (LED), 16 characters X 2 lines (LCD)
Connectors : Mix Output (L/R), Direct Output 1 (L/R), Direct Output 2 (L/R), Phones, Foot Control jack, MIDI IN / OUT, AC adaptor, Memory Card-port
Dimensions : 462(W) x 320(D) x 110(H)mm
Weight : 5.0kg