Last month, we happened to delve in the realm of music production, as the brass tacks of audio creation happens to intrigue us often from time to time. Genesis Pro caught our focus previously, and this article will be dedicated to the latest revelation from renowned solo act KSHMR, whose impactful music has gathered countless fans over the years. His skilful expertise in production has been lauded, and many have been curious about how he performs his mixing processes. Well, not to wonder anymore, since this very week the American personage launched his latest creation “KSHMR Essentials”, a joint-effort along with the developers W.A. Productions. Before we proceed, we do not have any sorts of sponsorship from the mentioned.
Talking about the pricing, this plugin costs around a hundred USD, but not to worry. Most producers use Splice, an online sample sounds library, and with the existing subscription, one can rent-to-own the said software, paying 4.99$ for 20 months till ownership.
This makes it affordable for many, but is it worth it?
We have to agree the UI of the plugin has been well-done, and the CPU-usage didn’t topple over when used in multiple channels altogether. The only bug we noticed was the preset name going blank when the instance of the plugin was closed, but that is not a deal-breaker. Opening it, we get five sections: Bass, Kick, Drums, Synth, Vocals. Each has their own set of modulations/FXs such as saturation, clipper, compression and others which we won’t go in details, for the sake of brevity.
For demonstration, we have attached a video along with today’s post. While testing, we intentionally chose dry, unprocessed samples to check how meticulously the virtual effects unit was created. Among the 35 patches provided, one can also create and save custom ones. We didn’t tweak any settings and decided to go all beginner by selecting the best sounding presets. After such use, we found bass sample to grow a thicker presence, vocals having a more upfront tonality, Kicks getting a fuller low-end, drums having sharper transients and synths developing a warmer sound. We preferred the vocal patches the most, followed by the bass segment.
In the end, we will say we did like this multi-fx device. There is a clever programming of saturation, transient-shaper, EQ and more within it. Beginners can find this helpful, however, to limited extents. Experienced producers can replicate the after-effects of this. That being said, is it a must grab then? Sure, if you are an existing Splice user, and perhaps want to have a nifty tool to experiment with. However, if budget is the main concern for you, then it’s not “got-to-have-this” stuff, like say Xfer’s Serum.
What do you think?
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