Virtual Instrument

Virtual piano, virtual pianist or virtual songwriting partner? Toontrack’s EZkeys 2 attempts all three.

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. As with the original Atlantis release, the style of the vocal samples for Atlantis 2 suits epic fantasy with a strong medieval/Celtic vibe.

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. Solaris GTR is an inexpensive yet impressive‑sounding virtual instrument that uses sampled guitar sounds as sources before processing them to create a range of delicate textures.

If you like your drums heavy, the Hertz Drums Bundle might be just the thing.

Sound Particles have placed 3D audio at the heart of their new soft synth.

Baby Audio’s first soft synth is inspired by the baby of the Yamaha CS range, the small but immediate CS‑01.

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. Sandstorm provides an easy‑to‑use platform for creating evolving soundscapes and sonic textures.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars. The instrument allows users to pick any two clarinet textures from a library of 15 available textures, blending and shaping them with onboard tools.

There’s a lot to like about MiMU’s unusually gelatinous take on granular synthesis.

HALion is back, and it’s bigger, better and FMier than ever!

The MiniFreak V is every bit as good as its hardware counterpart.

Arturia’s colourful soft synth goes from strength to strength.

Imaginando VS is a visual synthesizer designed for music and musicians.

Klevgrand introduce a new take on wavetable synthesis.

Choreographs is not so much a Kontakt instrument as a perpetual motion machine.

Can Dreamtonics really deliver a session singer in software?

MusicLab’s virtual guitars get a major overhaul.

When is a piano not a piano? When it’s been ‘augmented’ by Arturia...

Cherry Audio recreate that rarest of beasts, the Elka Synthex.

EastWest give the classic string machine sound a modern twist.

Rating: 4/5 Stars. Fluffy Audio’s Simple Opera Singer may provide a compelling alto and soprano solution for your next musical needs.