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ZERO-G NOSTALGIA - REVIEWED BY CHASE & STATUS
 Retail price: $199 (£110)
For over 15 years Zero G have provided us with a consistent high quality supply of sample CDs and related software. They have often produced sounds for major corporations - for example Roland, Yamaha, Akai, Microsoft, Apple, and Sony - as well as for radio, television, films and major record companies. They have recently teamed up with Native Instruments and East-West to unite the world's premier sample libraries with the finest in sampling technology and their latest offering, Nostalgia, is exactly that. Powered by Kompakt, the kinder, gentler little sibling of NI's world-class Kontakt sampler, Nostalgia features over 1.3 gigabytes of sounds and more than 1,300 patches from four decades of electronic instruments. Crammed into this piece of kit are fantastic representations of some of the best keyboards, beat box machines and synthesisers from the last 30 years.
After an easy install and painless registration online, we loaded up the sampler into our host sequencer, although Nostalgia can be used as a stand-alone application. Instantly it becomes apparent that the quality of the sounds are second to none- sounds that have without a doubt shaped the world of electronic music. Kompakts' unbelievably easy to use interface makes the whole experience fast and headache free.
Sounds can be layered with a maximum of eight patches playing simultaneously or on different midi channels and ample amounts of outputs are supplies for multiple routing options. Patches can be edited in group edit mode which allows for simultaneous and global changes in all of the instruments selected together as a group.
In Edit All mode, any edit affects all instruments in the group. Pressing the Group Edit button also opens the Group Amp section in the Instrument window, revealing volume, pan and tuning controls, each with an associated LFO control. The Instrument window contains a Sampler subsection that features microtuning, which gives you 19 different tuning structures- more than most users will ever need.
The Velocity Curve control is a welcome addition that enables adjustment of your playing touch. Glide gives you easily accessed portamento, as well. Also contained within the Instrument window is the Filter section, which sports six different kinds of filters: single-pole lowpass, 2-pole lowpass, 4-pole lowpass, highpass, notch and bandpass. There are cutoff and resonance controls, and cutoff can be modulated by envelope, key tracking, velocity and a dedicated LFO. The Instrument Amp section features controls for volume, panning and tuning while the modulation section sports three envelopes and four LFOs all with ample amount of flexibility and control. There's also a useful graphic of the envelope.
The Retrigger button causes the envelope to commence from the beginning with every new MIDI Note On message. When off, the envelope does not retrigger when a second note is played before the first is released, for legato-style playing. By clicking on the Filter Envelope button to the right of the volume envelope, you can use the same type of AHDSR envelope to control the cutoff frequency of the filter. The third envelope is the Free envelope, which can be used to modulate a number of parameters, including panning, tuning, filter resonance, and both amount and speed of the four LFOs. An Amount slider determines how much the envelope will modulate the parameter.
The LFO section lives directly to the right of the Envelope section. There are LFOs for volume, panning, tuning and filter. Each has a control for frequency, and sine, sawtooth and square-wave LFO shapes are available. A Retrigger button causes the LFO to start from the beginning of its cycle with every new MIDI Note On message. When it's off, the LFO runs free. The filter LFO has one added feature: the ability to control either cutoff frequency or resonance.
Kompakt also sports an effects section,which gives you reverb, chorus, delay and a master filter. There are presets for each, as well as a bit of tweakability. The reverb is as basic as it gets: A Size knob determines room size, Damp controls absorption and a slider determines wet/dry balance. Although this seems basic we were surprisingly satisfied with the results. The same is true for the chorus, delay and master filter.
The final stage of Kompakt's effects section is the master filter, which offers a 4-pole resonant lowpass filter, a resonant highpass filter, a resonant bandpass filter or a 3-band fully parametric EQ. The three filters are most useful if you're using Kompakt as a single instrument, and the EQ is best used when you use Kompakt as a "virtual rack" with multiple instruments playing a piece of music. The filters and EQ sound great and add a useful extra level of control of the final mix.
The sheer choice of easy to access sounds is at first a little daunting but after messing around for around ten minutes it starts to become clear that Zero G have literally covered everything and there is definitely something for everyone here. For all you synth enthusiasts check out the list of instruments included!
SYNTHS:[b] X5DR, Mellotron, MemoryMoog, MiniMoog, Moog Taurus Mk1, Moog Opus, Moog Voyager, MultiVox MX202, NanoBass, Novation SuperNova II, Modulus Monowave, Novation K-Station, Oberheim Matrix 12, Oberheim Matrix 1000, PolyMoog, Prophet 5, PPG Wave 2.2, RMIElectrapiano, S+S synths, System 100, TB303, VP300 Vocoder Plus, Alpha Juno 2, D50, Jupiter 6, MKS50, RS202, SH101, Sci-Fi, Suzuki SX-500, TI Speak & Spell, Wurlitzer EP200, Wurlitzer EP203, Vako Orchestron, Vox Continental, Yamaha CP70, Yamaha DX7, Yamaha CS1x, Yamaha CS5, Yamaha CS80, Yamaha CVS10, Yamaha SY2, Yamaha SY85, Yamaha TX81Z.
[b]BEATBOXES/DRUM SYNTHS: Ace Tone 'Rhythm Ace', Akai XE8, Akai XR10, Alesis HR16, Alesis HR16b, Alesis SR16, Boss DR55, Boss DR220, Fricke MFB512, Kawai R5/R50E, Korg DDD1, Korg DDM110/DDM220, Linn LM-1, Linn 9000, Mattel Synsonics, MXR 185, Sequential Drum Traks, Sequential Tom, CR78, TR606, TR707, TR727, TR808, TR909, Simmons SDSV, Yamaha RX11, Casio RZ1, Emu Drumulator, Keytek MDP40, Korg 'Mini Pops', Linn Drum Mk2, Oberheim DX, TD7 V-drums, TR505, Sakata DPM48, Sound master SR88, Sound Master Stix, Soundtech Rhythm 12, Pearl DRX-1, Pearl Syncussion, Yamaha DD10
The list of patches is endless but the feeling of nostalgia is definitely apparent from the moment you install this software. For all those that don't really know or care about all these timeless instrument names take it from us that you will soon be impressed although don't expect beautifully crafted soundscapes presets like those featured with Absynth for example. Zero G have stayed faithful to the realistic representation of these classic machines. There is such a vast amount of sounds available here, from old-skool lo-fi beatboxes, huge Gothic Tron sounds, smooth Prophet pads and strings, beefy Moog basses or leads, classic electric pianos, swirly string synths, cheezy toys, brittle digital synths, and evolving S+S textures.
When using Nostalgia we found it was great for layering a multiple amount of sounds and creating rich lush pads, excellent for songwriting and instantly accessible to achieve strong, phat lead noises for ideas and riffs.
We particularly liked the Moog Voyager samples and Jupiter 6 leads. The electric pianos and organ patches like the Wurlitzers also sounded really warm and added a real richness when layered. Together with the ease of use of Kompakt and the quality of samples provided we soon got lost in an endless sea of creativity generating phat sounds with tones of movement and depth which have already led to the beginning of some hopeful future releases.
Unfortunately we didn't have access to any of the original hardware instruments that have been replicated here for comparison but having gone through the extensive list of patches and presets it is apparent that the quality of the sounds are very high and nostalgia has enabled us to work with enough pieces of gear to fill a small concert hall!
Review by Chase & Status (Will Kennard & Saul Milton)
Buy it now
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Dogs On Acid > Comments > 
09-05-2005 03:02 PM
, but it does describe fairly well the characteristics or at least some of the functions of the program, good enough to get the ball rolling and some of us interested, i wudnt mind chekin it out, to see wat it can do, aswell as wat the interface looks like
nostalgia reveiw
