UVI Shades - wow what a filter, EQ, modulator...

[Boombastix]

This one impressed me. A bit expensive at the intro of $79, but this presentation video is extremely well done showing off all the capabilities. I was impressed. Every time I thought, "OK, but can you do THAT", they showed just that .

Nice work-flow, easy to understand, makes useful sounds, looks nice, yada yada. I think UVI just sat a new standard, even though the mod section looks very much like Massive X, Ovox, etc, it is very well done.

The modulation talk starts here, and yes, you can draw in and save your modulation curves...

Don't think UVI drops Black Friday prices below 50% off, and this may be off limit this year, who knows. The price is what it is.

I almost wish I didn't have so many plugins that this would be a no-brainer

[Despondo]

Yeah. This one looks like a winner to me.

[Loque]

It looks good. If you don't have already all those options, it's worth the 80 bucks.
But i already have plenty of potions here, so i can easily skip this.

[Jackjackdaw]

It looks fantastic. I need to not look at it too hard or I will have to buy it!

[danc]

Although YES you can do a lot of this elsewhere... you are likely to have to use a number of different devices to achieve it. Which is clunky and non-intuitive. The fact that it's all integrated into one makes it a very powerful tool. Do bear in mind they bring some really nice/interesting filter curves to the mix.

It wouldn't surprise me if the the king of all EQ's Fabfilter Pro-Q introduces modulation (LFOs, ENV trackers etc.) into their next version release PRO Q4. Why... because FF already have a lot of these modulation tricks in their other software (e.g. Saturn, Volcano etc.) it just makes sense that they bolt it into PRO-Q.

Having said that... don't dismiss UVI... as UVI are on a roll in my mind - they make excellent synths (e.g. Falcon, Vintage Vault, Drum Designer) and excellent effects (e.g. Meteor, Drone) and Shades joins the ranks in their hall of fame.

[DougalDarkly]

SInce when is a flexible modular approach clunky and unintuitive?
Why do people even use Reason if they feel this way?
Has anyone told all those hardware hipsters in the other thread that they're 'doing it wrong' and should go for an all-in-one approach as that's the most intuitive?

It's very weird to me hearing this from Reason users is all - like when someone posts a solution to a problem using Reason's rack paradigm and they complain that it's a 'workaround' - wtf?

[danc]

SInce when is a flexible modular approach clunky and unintuitive?
Why do people even use Reason if they feel this way?

There's room for both types of approach - modular and self-contained - and they can sit nicely and happily next to each other.
If you want to get on and make music, without having to think too hard, then go for all-in-one tools... look at the current trend of channel strips like PSP Infinistrip and IK Mixbox.

Alternatively - if you want to lose yourself, experimenting to your hearts content, having loads of fun, then snap a whole load of components together and see what sound comes out the other end.

Just take the modular synth market. It's a thriving amazing little sub-culture, where musos with a tech-savvy edge constantly add extra little bits, spending their hard earned cash (cus it soon gets costly) - whilst the rest of the music world reside with all-in-one synths like Diva, Serum, Massive etc.

Two worlds. Neither is exclusive. Do both.