Any Colossus User?

[aliengroover]

I've read a few magazine reviews, but I've yet to read too many user reviews. It's seems like a nice product. Anyone here care to share their thoughts on it?

Thanks in advance!
Peace

[mixaudio]

Haven't had a chance to go thru the entire patch list, but the drum sets and electric guitars were very handy on a recent production I just finished. Very realistic and the drums seem to play different samples alternatively/randomly which adds more realism.

The nylon string guitar appeared a bit hissy, but very expressive.

The electric pianos sound good too.

In terms of trying sounds, I guess I've only scratched the surface, but as I said, what I've tryed is excellent quality and feels expressive.

You get enough parameters to modify the factory programs without going too deep, but with enough options to customize basic attack-sustain-decay-release, velocity parameters. Also, there's a section with 4 DSPs per part (not too many parameters to tweak here either) and this comes handy for having independent reverb, delay, chorusing or filtering/EQ on each of your parts. However, this has to be managed carefully, since these effects are not applied globally but to each part, which can max-out your processor's performace too soon.

I think there's another add-on that enables independent routing of each part into auxiliary tracks in PT, but can't tell much about it since I haven't upgraded my PT version yet,

Automating parameters is not as good and easy as I was expecting, since this plug-in doesn't follow the usual PT automation setup like most other plug-ins... or at least, I haven't been able to figure-out how to automate parameters using track automation playlists.

Performance has been really good, considering I'm running it on a dual 1Ghz, PT 6.4, 001 setup. The direct from disk extension has been working good too. This setup has allowed me to run about 4 or 5 instruments before the hiccups start (no crashes, just PT stopping and asking to increase the HW buffer size, which I've maxed out, but I'm aware of my computer speed limitations).

One thing I'm having to get used to is the time it takes for each instrument to load. I'm hoping this would be reduced on a faster machine. Browsing and listening to patches or drum sets can be a bit time consuming. I've tryed loading 4 or 5 different drum sets for instance on separate parts to be able to compare sounds, but I'd prefer just to be able to change patches quicker.

Hope this helps.

Rodolfo

[GW]

Colossus isn't the problem (some great sounds), the NI-engine is...

Before you consider any NI-product at the moment, you should read this first:
NI-forum...
All users that have bailed ship and started to use Independence insted come in with very good reports...

...also - there is a very huge pricedifference on this product.

[aliengroover]

Thanks alot for the info, both of you!
Peace

[halfguard]

which thread? what do you mean independence? thanxxxx

[pasanta]

I've used it and was thrilled I was only helping someone else with their gear; in other words, I was glad I didn't buy it.

I'm not really trying to be cruel, it has it good points and some "ok" sounds. But many of them are just a bit too "general midi" sounding for me. Sort of like old Roland Sound Canvas stuff.

Colossus offers a lot of sounds. But the free Xpand offers as good if not better in most cases; just not as many. And it works stable and uses a lot less CPU.

[GW]

I mean Independence from Yellow Tools...

Independence from Yellow Tools...

...here it is!