Picking the sound you want is as easy as it can be.
A comfortable patch browser is provided to give you an instant overview of all the available categories and sounds, together with an on-screen keyboard to audition them from within the patch browser.
And with Tone2’s high quality sound technology at its core, you’re not only working with a greater palette for creating original sounds, but also the best sound quality possible, with a lower CPU usage than any other type of workstation or synthesizer.Įlectra2 comes with an astounding sound collection of over 1200 production-ready sounds by professional sound designers. Its friendly hands-on interface allows first-timers to easily create sounds and experts to delve into sound design as deeply as they want to. The instrument is equipped with a high-end quality sound engine, multilayer support and a wide range of music production features, but it’s designed to put you in control. Electra2 is ready for any type of music you play! With its powerful and sonically versatile approach to audio production, it provides you with truly outstanding new sounds. These are bold words, but let us explain why they think it’s true…Įlectra2 breathes new life into the term “synthesizer workstation”. Many people say that Electra2 is the most powerful synthesizer on the market.
Make sure to check out that article as well.Electra2 – the only synth you need to create a hit! Speaking of freebies, in this issue Ginno is featuring the Tal Reverb 4 in his Reverb Roundup 3. As I mentioned earlier, it’s great for testing plugins, for live use, and the price just can’t be beat. It’s easy to use and configure, and the ability to load it from a jump drive is a definite bonus. One additional feature of NanoHost is that it uses a very high refresh rate (120 Hz) for smooth graphics.
The Help menu has a link to the online manual and you can check for updates from there as well. The built-in recorder will record what you play and save it to a WAV file. Other features include a tempo setting (BPM) that will set the timing for the VST to follow which can be important, especially for arp patches. Some patches it created had nearly no volume or none at all, however, some other plugins worked very well with it. When I used this with a few different plugins I received varied results.
Just as an example, to do this with Tone2’s Saurus, rename the Nanohost exe file to Saurus.exe, copy it to the plugin’s directory and you’re all set.īanks and individual patches can be loaded and saved, and a randomize feature will create new patches for you. All that’s needed is to re-name NanoHost to the same name as the plugin. You can also use NanoHost to change a VST into a standalone plugin. Just a quick note about Saurus 2: there is a standalone version of Saurus 2 already, but it doesn’t have the additional features NanoHost includes. For this review I tried it with Tone2’s Saurus 2 and a few other plugins. Along the top of the display it will show the patch name, BPM rate, CPU usage and output level. After that’s all set, the display of the VST should load.
If your MIDI keyboard isn’t detected, then a MIDI configuration screen will appear. After you load NanoHost, you just browse to the directory of your choosing and load a VST. One of the best features of NanoHost is that you can load it right from a jump drive as no installation is actually needed. Plugin format support: VST 2.x (32 or 64-bit).
Operating system support includes Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (32-bit or 64-bit), and Linux with Wine.
The best part is that it’s a free host you can download from the Tone2 website. Another way to use NanoHost is for sound design, as you don’t really need a complete DAW for that task. I have nothing against Reaper, and that issue I made up was totally hypothetical. If it works with NanoHost, then the culprit is most likely something within Reaper.
For example, certain features of a synth/sampler may be working in Cakewalk by Bandlab and Cubase, but might not be functioning in Reaper. I beta tested many plugins in the past and I usually try out the plugin I’m testing in a few different hosts. Another reason to have some type of a simple host is for testing plugins. First of all, it’s useful if you are playing live and you don’t need your DAW to be running. A standalone version is good for a few things. For your consideration: a simple host for your plugins with a price that can’t be beat.ĭid you ever find a synth/sampler plugin you really like, but then you find out it doesn’t have a standalone version you can use? Some developers will include a version of their plugins you can use without loading your DAW or other host, but that isn’t always the case.