Virtual Instrument

Rob Papen's venerable soft synth gets a comprehensive update.

Hardware systems for generating MIDI output from guitars are often expensive, impractical and unreliable. Jam Origin's revolutionary software alternative is none of these things.

Have Toontrack improved their popular EZdrummer software without compromising its fundamental 'easy' approach?

With today's sophisticated virtual-instrument technology, it's never been easier to create realistic drum...

Apps based on existing software are far from unusual, but Wolfgang Palm has chosen to go the other way.

Rhythmic Robot’s Shortwave is a Kontakt instrument crammed with ghostly voices, radio tuning sweeps, morse code bleeps and an assortment of hisses, crackles and pulses.

Hatsune Miku is the name of a fictional 16-year old girl, who can be made to sing using Yamaha’s Vocaloid 3 synthesizer engine.

Apple iPad Air • Mellotronics M3000

BFD2 was always going to be a hard one to top, but that hasn’t stopped FXpansion from trying. Have they succeeded?

The latest version of iZotope’s RX restoration suite does more than before — and does it faster!

If you fancy a break from traditional musical interfaces, or merely want a fetching accessory for the dashboard of your spaceship, the AlphaSphere could be just the thing.

Vocal Lix's samples are designed to be used in dance tracks and lean towards R&B in style.

Taking the idea of 'found sounds' to another level, Soniccouture's Geosonics plunders the natural world for its most unnatural sounds.

The third instalment in Quantum Leap's Stormdrum series explores the private percussion collection of a legendary American drummer.

Audio files to accompany the article.

Competition for the accolade of best software sampler is fierce, despite some contenders having fallen away in recent years. Has MOTU's MachFive 3 got what it takes to come out on top?

The celebrated SID chip enjoys a virtual outing, courtesy of Precious Sound's lovingly sampled software instrument.

Three grand pianos jostle for supremacy in VI Labs' deep-sampled, secrecy-shrouded True Keys Pianos package.

The third instalment of EastWest’s grand orchestral master plan sees the project nearing the finishing line.

Konkrete 3’s barely contained weirdness sets it apart from other drum libraries, as does its unusually tweakable interface.

Synthogy capture one of legendary pianist Glenn Gould’s favourite instruments.