Spectrasonics Stylus Review

[electrobank]

I just recently purchased Spectrasonics Stylus VST and with the RTAS PC version possibly due out soon, I just want to give those of you who are unfamiliar with it or thinking about purchasing it a brief overview and opinion.(was that a run-on sentence?)
Stylus is a software instrument just like SampleTank, EXS24, etc. But unlike the previously mentioned, it cannot import 3rd party file types. It uses its own proprietary format and therefore it is not really a "sampler" per se. Ok so that kind of sucks. The upside to that is that they provide you with a 3 gigabyte core sound library spanned across 5 Cd-roms. The installations is dreadfully painful and slow. The sound library cannot be broken apart and you can't pull files off the roms, so you will need to clear a 3 gigabyte space on your HD for this.
In use, the Stylus opened up in Logic 5.2 just fine. The sounds did not take too long to load even with their large size. The library has a good mix of one shot samples, and plenty of loops.
Stylus incorperates Groove Control, which allows you to change the tempo of a loop independently of the pitch . It is similiar to REX files but there are some differences. All the sample qualities are good. The sounds are mainly intended for the 6000 different genres of Hip Hop, Acid Jazz, Breakbeat, Drum and Bass etc. So if you work in those areas, you will find the sounds quite useful.
At first I have to admit, I was dissapointed when I realized that there was no future 3rd party sample format implimentation, but now I think it makes a lot of sense. Like Spectrsonics say themselves, there are already many samplers out on the market today that do that. I do like proprietary sound libraries because I know the sample is going to sound like it was intended and not sound like a "tranlated" or converted version of what an akai, or emu sample is suppose to sound like. The CPU load is not too intesives when in use.
I am looking forward to the Atmosphere Instrument that is due out next month. I will buy it even though it looks like it will only be for VST, MAS and MAC RTAS. It doesn't matter, as I have given up hope for Direct Connect and RTAS instruments for PC. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[APAULOS]

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