Stylus RMX is Spectrasonic's flagship drum and percussion virtual instrument for both the PC and Mac.  Originally released in 2002, it recently has received a massive update and thus bears looking at again.  While this review will mainly concentrate on the new features added in version 1.7, I'll try and touch upon the basics of the instruments as well for those people who may not be that familiar with it. 

Spectrasonics sent me the RMX Xpanded version of Stylus for review, so in addition to the 2 main program DVDs, there were also 5 of the S.A.G.E. expansion soundsets included in the packaging (Backbeat, Liquid Grooves, Metamorphosis, Burning Grooves, and Retro Funk).  Also included in the package is a DVD containing dozens of video tutorials covering all aspects of the instrument, from basic explanation of the synth controls, to advanced midi mapping.  My only complaint about the tutorials is that some of the older ones have Eric Pershing providing an introduction to the tutorial, and during these parts the audio is extremely muted and hard to hear.  The actual tutorial sections are usually well-recorded however.  Regardless, it's a really good way to learn how to use the app for those people who don't like reading manuals, and doubly handy since Stylus doesn't come with a printed manual anyway. 

Installation was simple and straight-forward, and ended up taking up around 13GB of my hard drive.  A couple of OS specific notes however.  This 1.7 update is the first product from Spectrasonics to be compatible natively with 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows.  Also, if you use a Mac computer that has an Intel chipset, the actual installation of Stylus straight out of the box is not compatible with your computer, as it supports PPC computers only.  However the latest update from the Spectrasonics.net website is Intel and PPC compatible, so you'll need to have access to the internet before you can use the product. 

Stylus RMX does not run standalone and can only be run from inside of an appropriate VST or AU host.  For the purposes of this review, I was using Ableton Live 7 and 8, and everything worked great.  One really nice new feature in the latest update, is that Stylus is now able to sync to the host transport.  This means you no longer need to use a lot of automation in order to start and stop playback of the grooves in time with your DAW, something I'm sure a lot of users will appreciate as it makes it so much easier to use the instrument now.

For those familiar with other Spectrasonics products, the layout of Stylus is very similar.  A clean and uncluttered view presents some of the basic controls of the instrument gathered on the main Edit page for easy tweaking.  These can be viewed in Standard View, where you have access to all of the synth parameters, or in Easy View, where only the most often used controls like Volume or Filter Cutoff are displayed.  There's not a ton of synthesis parameters in this instrument, so personally I think the Standard View is the one most people will use anyway.  Each part in RMX has 3 LFO's, 3 envelopes, 4 types of filter with overdrive, course and fine tuning, and a master filter with emphasis (similar to resonance).  Additionally there's control over sample start time, volume, and a reverse function.

You can use up to 8 different loops or grooves at once in Stylus RMX, with all of these 8 parts making up a Multi.  Each part of a multi gets it's own synthesis and effects pages, as well as it's own Chaos Designer settings (more on this in a bit).  You can view all 8 parts at once as a sort of horizontal mixer, allowing you to adjust volume, pan, and effects sends of each part at once. 

Edit Groups are a function that really help Stylus RMX from being just another loop player.  Each element of a loop (kick, snare, clap, etc) can be assigned to it's own edit group, and multiple hits can be assigned to a single edit group as well.  This is great, because you can not only edit individual sounds in a loop with the synth controls, but also apply effects such as reverb to only the snares for instance.  By assigning all of the snares in a loop to the same edit group, you can adjust them all at the same time.  If you don't want to spend the time manually assigning drum sounds to edit groups, there's some short cuts to speed things up.  With these, it's possible to assign only the downbeats or backbeats to an edit group, or break up the loop into time divisions like 1/16th notes per edit group.  It's a really deep and powerful feature that allows you to completely deconstruct and edit the loops at a microscopic level (if you want).  The tutorials that cover edit groups last over an hour, so it's definitely something you'll want to sit down to watch in order to get the most out of this very powerful feature.

If Edit groups aren't enough to help you turn static pre-made loops into your own creations, then the Chaos Designer function certainly is.  Given it's own page in the RMX instrument, this function allows you to dial in random or semi-random variations into each part of a Multi.  You have control over a huge amount of parameters, such as how the note patterns in the loop get altered, how often a slice in the loop repeats or reverses, how the timing of the loop will change, and how the pitch or dynamics of individual slices in a loop will be altered.  All of this can be varied from happening only once in awhile, to constantly evolving and changing.  There's also a 'buzz' section in Chaos Designer that lets you add micro edits on the fly too, great for breakbeat and micro-house producers (among others).  You can even capture all of these random changes as a new midi file to use in your DAW of choice.  Overall Chaos Designer is a very in-depth way of altering loops, the kind of thing you can spend all day exploring and still barely scratch the surface of how it can alter static loops.

While not quite as advanced as Omnisphere's Library at letting you narrow down parameters of a sound while browsing, the Stylus RMX library still has some features that make looking for the right loop much easier.  Sounds are organized by tempo, "Grooves" (complete loops and their individual parts), according to which Xpander pack they came from, or based on instrument type (hihats, kicks, bongos, etc).  This makes looking for the right drum sound among the thousands and thousands that RMX ships with very fast and easy.  It's also possible to browse all of the individual drum hits from each loop one by one according to instrument type.  So if you only need a snare hit, it's easy to sort and try out just single snare hits.  Still, having used Omnisphere so much over the last few months, I'd love to see some sort of variation in the way that library works brought over to Stylus RMX.  

Finally, it's also possible to drag the MIDI note data from each loop right from the RMX browser view into your host DAW for further editing.  So if you like the sounds in a loop, but want to write your own fills, it's easy to drag and drop the MIDI from RMX into your host and edit it there.  Very flexible. 

Version 1.7 Update

 

 

 

One of the biggest new functions added to Stylus RMX in version 1.7, is something Spectrasonics call Time Designer.  In previous versions of Stylus, all of the loops and grooves were largely meant to work only in 4/4 time signatures.  Now however, you can dynamically change the time signature on the fly and Stylus will follow right along.  Not only does the time signature change, but it does so in a very intelligent way. Loops are truncated or extended in a way that actually makes sense, versus in some random fashion.  The best part of this feature, is that it works with all of the RMX content you already have (both user created, and the SAGE Expanders), and doesn't require a new library.  It's a pretty amazing thing to play with, and I'm honestly really impressed with how well it manages to change time signatures while still sounding completely musical.

Another new feature In Time Designer is the ability to Simplify parts.  In the past some people felt that the grooves and loops supplied with RMX were too busy to fit well into a mix at times.  Especially since you can layer up to 8 of them per instance of Stylus RMX. In version 1.7, you can now remove elements of each groove on the fly using one knob, and like the rest of Time Designer, it's all done in a very musical way.  This is a great addition, and honestly my favorite new feature.  It makes it a lot easier to combine loops to make a really unique groove, without things getting too busy.  Finally, Time Designer also lets you shift loops forwards or backwards by specified time values (1/8th note, 1/16th, etc), and instantly trigger 8 different variations on each loop pattern.  The variations are often subtle, but this works well too because it doesn't change the overall feel of the loop either.

 

 

Stylus RMX also inherits all of the new effects that were introduced in Omnisphere.  As before, these are used in sort of a virtual rack format, both globally on the master output, on 4 different return channels, as well as individually for each part.  If you read my Omnisphere review, you know already how much I liked the effects that it comes with.  They could almost be sold as a separate product, the quality is that good. 

Please visit this link for a recap of the effects in Omnisphere:

http://www.abletonlivedj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=129&Itemid=86

Summary

If there's one thing that consistently surprises me about Spectrasonics products, it's how deep they are, without losing the ability to be easy to use.  While at first glance you might think that Stylus RMX is nothing more than a multi-timbral loop player, it soon becomes clear just how much is built into the instrument to let you tweak the material it ships with into entirely new and unique sounds.  Only the extremely lazy need to worry about using a loop in Stylus that another producer might happen to pick as well.  If nothing else, it's downright FUN to alter the content and bend it to fit your own unique needs.  And unlike Omnisphere, it won't use all of your CPU power doing so, unless you start piling on tons of Pro-Verbs on every single part. 

The added Xpander packs really fill out the library, and will suit you for almost any need.  In general, the Backbeat, Burning Grooves, and Retro Funk packs add cleaner and simpler loops, while Metamorphosis and Liquid Grooves provided heavily effected and more modern sounds that electronic musicians will likely be more interested in. 

For those who don't own Stylus RMX Xpanded currently, it's roughly $399 retail for the full package, slightly less at street price.  However if you do own the instrument already, you'll be pleasantly surprised to learn that the 1.7 version update that adds all of these new features is FREE.  It's great to see Spectrasonics continuing to support their products and customer base, and I think it goes a long way to mollify those that were a little upset at how long the Intel Mac transition might have taken.  All in all it's a bit of an understatement to say this update is an incredible value!   

For more information or to download the update, please visit: 

http://www.spectrasonics.net 

Update:  Just as this review was about to published, Spectrasonics introduced another new update to Stylus RMX, version 1.8 (free as well).  This update adds the ability to choose which of Stylus RMX's hundreds of parameters are available for automation in your host DAW.