Within a few minutes of installing Retro AS-1 into our our test-bench G4 we were making sounds that, until now, were only really capable of being produced by dedicated synthesizers, samplers and sound modules.

Sounds indistuingishable from those produced Oberheim, Roland Corporation and Sequential Circuits were soon eminating from the monitors, a far cry from the decidedly flat and lifeless monotones that had previously been attainable with emulation software.

As well as providing the user with multiple oscillators (depending on your machine's processing power), five waveform types and a bewildering array of filters, the retro AS-1 is also capable of being controlled by your favourite MIDI application, giving you the ability to make music either in real time (with hands on control of your sound as it happens) or have your sequences trigger multiple presets when you're ready to mix to an external source or export as a sound file internally.

Operationally you can expect Retro AS-1 to function in the same way as a traditional analog synthesizer, with filters replaced by algorithms capable of producing virtually any sound and with cotrol surfaces offering similar functionality.

Also expect the built-in effects to emulate those found in multi-effects processors that, until recently, also existed primarily in the three dimensional domain. Having the ability to quickyl and easily add various reverbs, delays, flange effects and even overdrive to your sounds will help you get the right results, without having to waste time patching various effects boxes together.

All in all an exceptionally easy to use and powerful addition to any CPU based MIDI studio, with more than enough extras to keep any self respecting synthesist happy.

Rating - 922,187 (out of a possible 1,000,000)

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