In this video, JK Swopes of SoundsAndGear reviews the Xils-lab PolyKB II morphing synthesizer plugin for Mac & Wndows.
The PolyKB is designed to recreate the sound of the RSF PolyKobol analog synthesizer, including one of coolest features – a continuous morphing oscillator, which can be fully modulated by many sources.
“This is the type of plugin that you wish had it’s very own controller,” notes Swopes, “it’s that enjoyable to play.”
Xils-lab PolyKB II is available now for €149.00.
If you’ve used PolyKB II, leave a comment and let us know what you think of it!
Yes, definitely one of the best analog-modelling VSTi’s out there, with absulutely lovely-sounding LP. I didn’t like the sequencer but I guess the priority was to recreate it after the hardware instrument as faithfully as possible. And as far as I remember (I don’t have it now) not all the buttons were MIDI-controllable, too bad
One of my synth-bros uses the semi-preset version, which has a few such limitations, but its merits are notable. Its like a new slant on a Prophet-5, with some tonal tricks all its own. I appreciate ‘player’
versions of instruments, as I can get a lot of the beef while conserving RAM & CPU cycles for my bigger guns. This is one of those tidy little ‘secret weapons’ that can give you welcome added range. If you’ve been debating adding a poly-analog Something to your rig, consider this one. It delivers the goods in an ergonomic form.
Fungo, I’m not really sure about conserving RAM & CPU thing, the ‘player’ plugin still runs the same algorithms as it’s biggest brother. Maybe just lacks some graphic rendering (less knobs, smaller gui), but i don’t think it makes huge difference
Pawel, you make a fair point. That’s surely a glitch on MY part, born of some older gear. I had SOMEthing or another that was less of a CPU-gobbler… must have been an early demo or etc. Alchemy works that way, so I stand corrected.
BTW, Xils-lab does require iLoks (ugh), but on the XILS 3 & 4, its a soft-iLok, which is at least somewhat more rational. I’m one of those iLok haters because it drove me buggy after a while with its fussiness. I buy and register rather than crack, so I gradually built a system of products that don’t demand them. I’d love to buy MOTU’s MachFive, but that iLok is a deal-breaker. If there’s no way to be an honest buyer unhindered by that thing, I’ll go elsewhere, but the trend is mostly serial-number now. Its totally worth it, because you get sale prices and tech help that don’t come with kraks.
If you wanna hear how the original stuff sounds like, check this out from my friend NightBirds.
http://youtu.be/9FNJqjKkWEE
enjoy, the RSF Polykobol II is such an awesome piece of gear 🙂
ilok required?