REVIEW

By Hollin Jones

Getting started

Installation is straightforward, but you’ll need a DVD-ROM drive to install the huge 7.4GB core sound library. Authorisation is by challenge and response, but you do get a four-day, feature-restricted demo mode if you’re just trying it out. The discs will install on Mac or PC in VST, Audio Units and RTAS formats, so practically everyone is catered for. When the installer seems to stop for a while, it hasn’t frozen, it’s just copying the large data file to your hard drive.

The Stylus RMX interface is greatly expanded from its predecessor. For a start, it’s multi-page. It’s also multi-timbral, and the ‘footer’ – always present at the bottom of the window – has indicators for all eight channels as well as a file browser and tabs to navigate between the main sections of the instrument.

The first page you’re taken to is the Edit page, with envelope, filter, LFO and pitch controls which you use to modify the characteristics of each selected sound. A new Easy button by the file browser readout takes you to the Easy Edit page, where the main controls are presented as big, friendly buttons.

Just browsing

Clicking on the file browser switches the view to the Browser window. From the Directory section on the left you can select from the core library, any expansion libraries you have installed, any REX files you have imported yourself and any favourites you have set. Clicking on the name of a file will make it play. Despite being recorded at a set tempo, the loops will play back at whatever tempo your host sequencer is set to. This is because Stylus RMX works fundamentally on Propellerheads’ REX technology. Every loop and element is a sliced REX file, making pitch and tempo ultra-flexible. It also enables you to take advantage of other nifty features, such as the deceptively simple Half and Double speed buttons, which instantly change a loop’s tempo with no loss of quality.

Thanks to Spectrasonics’ new SAGE technology, all of the synchronisation of loops, plus pitch and filter changes, occur seamlessly in the background. As you use the instrument more and more, this perfect sync’ing starts to seem natural, and you begin to wonder why all music software isn’t this easy to use.

Once a loop is loaded, you can go to the new Mixer page and start to layer more grooves on top of it. The mixer has level, pan, mute/solo and four aux send controls for each of its eight channels. By loading loops into the channels, huge beats can be built up very quickly and mixed together using the level faders. The dropdown menu at the top of the mixer page enables you to call up a number of preset multi grooves, or access your own saved favourites. By switching to Kit mode in the mixer, you can build your own kits from any of the individual sampled drum elements. Again, a number of preset kits are available, and any that you create can be saved and loaded.

Pure Chaos

The next major new feature in Stylus RMX is the Chaos Designer. By their very nature, loops are repetitive. In an attempt to bring some element of live performance back to the beats, the Chaos Designer enables you, for each of your loops, to randomise some of its parameters. This is done via sliders and knobs. The most useful ones are Pattern, Timing and Dynamics. By moving each fader, you introduce increasing amounts of randomisation to that parameter. So, for example, applying Chaos to a pattern will cause Stylus to start randomly varying the beat, moving the elements around to create new patterns as it plays. Adding Chaos to the timing will produce small changes to the quantize value, giving the impression of a real drummer rather than a strictly computer-controlled one. Similarly, activating Chaos for dynamics and repeat gives a more natural feel to loops, rather than a uniform, mechanical sound.

As well as a huge sound library, Stylus RMX has a full complement of effects included in its arsenal. By entering the FX page, you can apply up to three insert effects to each loop in each channel. There are also four aux channels and a master FX tab, all with three slots each. The 24 effects include delays, distortion, reverb, EQ, compressors and limiters. They don’t have presets, but all feature comprehensive manual controls and are more than up to the job of adding colour to your loops.

In the detail

The really interesting thing about Stylus RMX – and the reason it is able to pull off so many of these tricks – is that it controls the individual slices of REX files. While it’s possible for a user to do this to some extent in Cubase or Reason, it’s infinitely more powerful here, not least because it all happens with a few simple clicks. This new version introduces Edit Groups to enable you to control individual elements within a loop. Stylus RMX knows which slices in a loop correspond to which types of note. In the Edit, Chaos and FX pages there’s a panel called Edit Group. Clicking on the Assign tab and selecting a note type from the list enables you to single out that type of note for treatment. When you do this, the note type becomes available in a list, and then you can choose to apply Chaos and effects just to that note type. The effect of this, in plain English, is that you can modify individual elements within a loop – for example, adding reverb to only the snare beats in a loop. Or, adding Chaos to the hi-hats and distortion to the bass drum, all within the same loop. This is incredibly useful and essentially enables you to use the loops as if their constituent parts had been recorded on separate audio tracks.

All of this takes place within the plug-in itself. None of it actually requires a host sequencer to be playing or recording. In practice you will, of course, need to get the patterns you create into your choice of sequencer. This is as simple as dragging and dropping from Stylus RMX. In the Browser and Chaos windows, a blue button invites you to drag the pattern to a MIDI track. Now when you play back, the sequencer plays the plug-in. Create eight MIDI tracks and you can drag and drop patterns from all eight channels to build up complex tracks, including fills and any Chaos variations you have created. Also, if you audition new beats while the sequencer is playing a track, the beats will automatically play in sync.

Suitably stylish

Stylus RMX is an astonishing instrument. The concept of a real-time groove module which can be played live and also used to construct complex patterns is beautifully implemented. The learning curve is surprisingly gentle for an instrument that has so many features, and the CPU load isn’t as heavy as one might expect. The beats included in the core library tend towards the funk/dance side of things, but the Chaos Designer and the fact that you can create your own beats from the thousands of sampled hits mean that the possibilities for creating new beats are practically limitless.

The built-in effects are very good indeed and the ability to modify and effect individual elements within a loop is something that will change the way some people think about how they use REX files. Crucially, it all happens perfectly in sync and the sound quality is excellent.

For everyone from soundtrack composers to remixers and home/project studio users, Stylus RMX is a truly original instrument that will quickly become an integral part of your setup.

An incredibly versatile and well-featured instrument that will change the way you use loops and grooves forever. Essential for all computer musicians – and at a sensible price.