REVIEW
By Marc '01
The original Stylus was one of the first groove based software instruments on the market. Based on the Spectrasonics’ Groove Control ‘sliced’ sample format, it made hundreds of pre-sliced and keymapped breakbeats instantly available within your favourite sequencer. Setting a trend that many have since followed, Stylus made it easy to re-pitch and tempo-shift loops to fit your track while still giving you the original MIDI files to play with. With the original having previously won the coveted FM Editor’s Choice let’s see if this new RMX – and it is reportedly a completely new version, not just an update – reaches the same giddy heights with its host of dramatic new features. Those new features include an improved interface, eight-part multitimbral operation, infi nite expansion possibilities with a facility for loading additional libraries and your own converted REX fi les (it comes with a conversion utility), multiple outputs, multiple editgroups, multiple operation modes, a comprehensive mixer and FX suite, real-time MIDI control and, last but not least, the aptly named Chaos Designer that does an amazing job of breathing life into static loops as well as creating all-out anarchy.
Installation
Installation is straightforward. Stylus comes spread over two DVDs – you run the installation program on the first DVD, then copy over the sound library to the location where you’d like to store it on your hard drive. If you prefer to keep it in a different place to the default program folder then all you need to do is create a shortcut to the directory where the samples are kept. Installation is a fairly smooth affair, although copying 8GB of samples can take about 15 minutes. It’s then just a matter of a brief visit to the Spectrasonics website to authorise the plug-in with a challenge/response code. And while you’re there, make sure you check the latest version to download as there have already been numerous updates since 1.00 (as we go to press it is on v1.05).
Browsing and User Modes
Once you’ve loaded up Stylus in your host sequencer, the fi rst thing you’ll want to do is check out some of the loops and grooves. To do this you need to activate the browser by clicking the loop title bar on either the central display or the footer bar at the bottom of the page. The main fascia then changes to display the directory structure, where you can choose the Core library, which contains the all-new RMX grooves, the Classic Stylus grooves (from the original Stylus), and a few other directories including sound menus. You now get the range of ‘Suites’ and their corresponding ‘Elements’. The elements tend to consist of variations of the loop and the new RMX Grooves have more isolated parts, like just the hi-hats or kick parts of the groove. Click on an element and it starts playing immediately in time with your sequencer’s tempo, you can then use the speed buttons to increase or decrease the playback speed up to 8 times faster or slower. Once you have chosen your element from the suite, you can drag and drop the MIDI file into your sequencer from the blue bar on the left hand side, and onto the appropriate MIDI/instrument channel where it names itself accordingly for easy reference. When you examine the part you can see how it’s laid out chromatically across the keyboard. Each MIDI note corresponds to a slice from the loop. You can then begin editing away to get your own variations and mutations. This is known as the ‘Groove menu’ mode.
Alternatively, you can just start the ball rolling by jamming things out on the keyboard, recording and quantising your parts to get your own feel going. This way of working is achieved by selecting the ‘Slice menu’ option. Where each of the elements in a suite are assigned to a different MIDI note, so you can play with more than one loop at a time, allowing you to layer the elements.
This mode is great for jamming things in real time as it also incorporates a triggering system that allows you to drop beats in perfect sync with each other in a similar way to Ableton Live. Elements are assigned a trigger mode quantise value, either ‘Immediate’, for instant triggering, ‘Next Beat’ so it will begin playing on the next down beat, or ‘16th’ to begin on the next 16th note. When using the quantised modes to jam, you just need to make sure you hit the note a little bit earlier than you want them to activate, so they can start correctly, if you are sequencing with a mouse then you will probably just use the ‘Immediate’ mode.
How much tweaking can be done?
Stylus has four main pages to navigate: the Edit page, Chaos Designer (see boxout), FX and Mixer, which are all accessed from the footer. This remains constant regardless of which page you are on and also includes controllers for volume, multi-part selection and displays for your chosen sounds and for whichever mode you are using. There are a good set of synth-style editing features including a multimode filter derived from the impOscar synth by G-Media, separate envelopes and LFO’s for Amp, Filter and Pitch, as well as controls for the Master Filter, Pitch, Sample Start and Reverse. If this is too much for you, you can hit the ‘Easy-Edit’ page and a simpler view appears with fewer controls and bigger knobs to use.
It isn’t always desirable to have all slices in a loop equally affected by the editing controls. Stylus classic dealt with this issue via an individual Zone Edit option. RMX allows you to assign different components of a loop to different ‘edit-groups’ for independent pitching, effects and filtering etc. This simple option makes for a massive increase in the tweakability of any loop, and you can have up to eight active edit groups for each part when working in ‘slicemenu’ mode. While we are on the subject of modes, you can also use the RMX in ‘Kit’ mode, which turns it into an 8-part drum module, utilising any of the thousands of single shots from the ‘kit modules’.
The FX suite and Mixing Desk – mash it up.
There are a total of 24 effects types available for shaping and transforming your beats. These include compressors, limiters, EQs, fi lters, wah-wahs, distortion, phasers, flangers, delay and reverb. There are a few variations for each type of effect and lots of them feature bpm synchronisation, which is obviously a great help for quickly setting echoes, sweeping fi lters and fl anges. Syncs range from 16 bars down to 1/64 of a beat, they also come in dotted and triplet timings and can be turned on and off at the touch of a button.
The routing architecture is very flexible and covers most angles. There are four aux chains in the mixer and one master chain; each chain can have up to three FX blocks and you can mix and match any way you like. FX can also be slotted in as inserts, and each of the multitimbral parts and every edit group can have its own individual insert chain, which allows for a lot of sound-specific tailoring. So if your snare needs a different treatment from your kick, just assign them to different edit-groups and you get a unique insert rack for each.
All the effects are of a decent quality, and work well to add flavour to your grooves. Special mention has to go to the Flame distortion, which has about 22 different styles of dirt and crunch, and really adds some filth to proceedings. The mixer section works horizontally, with the parts 1-8 all visible on the same page. Here you can adjust one part relative to another, mute, solo, mix volumes, feed the aux sends and tailor the panning to your requirements. It’s straightforward and also serves as a central place to browse for sounds.
Chaos Designer – it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!
If you like the sound of your loop but want to create some changes in the pattern or the feel, then Chaos designer is a neat way of improvising new variations. On the Chaos Designer page there are various parameters where you can introduce musical chaos into the equation. The Edit Groups feature can be used to select certain parts of a loop to add the chaos to, leaving other parts unchanged.
One such parameter randomly rearranges the pattern/playback order of the slices. The higher you push the ‘pattern’ slider, the greater the probability of a slice being re-ordered. Another parameter to play with is the push/pull timing of the rhythm. Introducing this to the right elements of a loop can give a repetitive loop just enough subtle variation to be almost human.
Pitch, dynamics, repetition and reverse can also be manipulated and once you start the chaos going you can capture it as a MIDI fi le and drag it onto your sequence where you are free to edit and extract the bits you like.
So what’s it sound like?
Spectrasonics pride themselves on having one of the most exhaustive sample libraries in the world at their disposal. Amongst the 8GB of samples there are over 200 suites in the new RMX Grooves library and about 180 suites in the Classic Stylus collection – that’s about 2500 grooves, 3000 kit modules and over 10000 single shots. In each suite there ae on average about fi ve variations. While the Classic collection concentrates on authentic and retro sounding breaks, the RMX library is full of crazy, quirky, processed loops that have been compiled using a wide variety of sounds and hits, all immaculately produced and highly tweakable.
It’s impossible to categorize this collection, suffice to say that it would find uses in all styles of music production and sound design. The Groove elements library which contains several hundred loops of kicks, snares and percussion is actually the same material contained in the Classic and RMX but is categorised by instrument to assist your search. There are also several thousand single shot samples arranged into kits and types at your disposal when using Stylus in ‘Kit’ mode. It’s fair to say that it covers a lot of possibilities – straight out of the box you get a top quality arsenal at your disposal. Add to that the fact that the RMX is a massively versatile, eminently useable, user friendly mangling engine for loading in your own converted REX beats (as well as countless other libraries) and you may just find that it becomes your first choice VSTi for grooving.
Spectrasonics have made a grand job of reinventing the original. Excellent stuff!
