However, you can add third-party DXi and VSTi synths, the latter via the bundled VST Adapter. Though nPulse is based on a good concept, its limited range of sounds makes it the weakest of these instruments. Finally, there's nPulse, a 12-part drum synth with individual synthesis modules dedicated to kicks, snares, hats, and so on. It cannot import drum kits from other formats, so you are currently limited to Velocity's own drum-kit banks.

It has only 18 cells and no routing features, but it offers a filter for individual cells. Velocity is the drum sampler, similar in design to Native Instruments' Battery. It's an original and powerful tool, but the controls can be somewhat tricky for novices. Cyclone, introduced in Cakewalk's Sonar 2.0, is a beat deconstruction sampler that is, it can slice and rearrange grooves, as well as assign one-shot samples and repeating loops to pads.

PSyn is a flexible four-oscillator synth with good filters, capable of producing a wide range of interesting sounds. DS864 is a straightforward multitimbral sampler that can import SoundFont 2.0, Akai, and Kurzweil files, although it ignores any preexisting filter and envelope settings.

Cakewalk's elegant and efficient solution is a one-window view to which you can dock the major components.Ĭakewalk Project5 comes packed with DXi-compatible instruments. Composition applications such as this integrate many elements, so user-interface and work-flow organization is paramount. After the simple installation, you can use P5 either as a standalone environment supporting WDM, DirectSound, and ASIO drivers or as a ReWire client or host. The Cakewalk Project5 box contains one install DVD and a concise but helpful printed manual. Listed at $429, Project5 doesn't come cheap, but neither does its competition, and Cakewalk also offers aggressive upgrade discounts to registered users of its Sonar software, with which Project5 shares some functionality. It's also stable we did not experience a single crash during testing. Cakewalk's Project5 is a strong contender in that market niche, providing a comprehensive set of instruments, an efficient work flow, excellent automation, and support for ACIDized loops.

Ever since the early days of Propellerhead's ReBirth, all-in-one pattern-based composing environments have been quite popular with electronic musicians.

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