| Test: PlugIn: LinPlug RMIV 4.03 Drumsampler
19.11.2003
Author: Stephan LüddeThe beat strikes back
What do have R2D2 and RMIV in common? Quite a lot: Both produce wonderful
beeps and are invaluable navigationtools one in deep space, the other one
in the rhythmic structures of your song.
"My battery is low: The LinPlug RMIV"
My name is IV, RM IV
The RMIV is the most current incarnation of VSTi manufacturer LinPlugs
renowned drumsampler RM. Their goal was to design the ultimate tool to
produce drumtrack's in a modern computer based song production environment.
Unlike other Linplug instruments you can purchase the RMIV only on CD . A
downloadable version is not available. The simple reason is the large
selection of samples that come with the software: 120 Drumsets in any
popular style will need a gigabyte of your hard drive space to install. To
insure backwards compatibility you will find all the drumkit's form older
products like the RMII and RMIII on the CD. A large selection of acoustic
and electronic drumsound's is also provided, including the usual suspects
and many wicked sounds. Some of the kits don't use any samples at all. They
rely on the most exciting new feature of the RMIV: The Drumsynthesizer.
Installation is quick and easy. Its a pity that you cannot define a separate
path for the samples. Of course you can move the files after installation,
but maybe I am just spoiled by other VSTi's. After Installing you should
check the version and if needed download the latest one from the Linplug
website. The version on the CD still contains a bug that causes the RMIV to
load a song without its sounds.
The Sampler
Eighteen Drumpads can be assigned with sounds. You can assign up to 30
Samples to every pad and switch or crossfade these using velocity. Each Pad
can be assigned to a mute group with a single mouse click. Routing a pad to
a specific output is just as easy. A generous supply of 18 outputs is
provided. On the "rear³ of the RMIV you can assign each pad to a individual
MIDI channel (well actually most of them because there are only 16 MIDI
channels available). Pads can be triggered with the mouse, including some
sort of velocity sensitivity where a click on the left side of a pad is very
soft and the more you click to the right the louder it gets.
"I like pets!³ "Yeah man, I like pads, too!²
I shed some tears of joy when I auditioned the kits in the RMIV. Thanks to
some simple left and right arrows, stepping through kits is a breeze and
doesn't involve opening up any menus or stopping the playback. Even large
kits load in an instant.
It was never easier to find the right kick for a song!
The Synthesiser
But the RMIV is more than just a drumsampler. It comes with a full-blown
synthesiser that is specialised in producing drumsounds. It offers 11
modules: 2 for kicks, 2 for snares, tom, open hihat, closed hihat, ride
cymbal, cymbal, claps and plop. Each module has a special parameter set,
which allows you to manipulate the specific aspects of the sound. In
addition most of the sampler features like Crusher, Distortion, Filter and
the wonderful Mod-Matrix can be used for the synthesiser sounds as well.
the Synthesiser Modules in the RMIV³
Each pad can either playback a sample or a synthesiser module. The bassdrums
sound very punchy with Kick 1 a bit more powerful in the low mids and kick 2
with a more clicky sound. But both sound very powerful! Both snares and the
hihats sound pleasantly analog. My personal favourite is the clap module,
which sounds even better than the former king of claps Waldorf Attack.
Envelopes and filter
Each pad has a dedicated envelope for amplitude, pitch and filter. Envelopes are
controlled with dedicated faders and the setting is represented graphically. "No doubt
about it-This filter sounds simply great.³ The filter can be used as a Low-, High-
Bandpass or Notchfilter. The steepness of the filters can be set to 12 or 24 dB.
The Lowpass filter will self oscillate at high resonance settings to produce
wonderful acid beeps.
Very Effective
Each pad has its own effect section to beef up the sound before it goes to
the output. Crusher and Distortion work as their names imply: They reduce the bit
resolution and create serious distortion. At a 12 o clock setting the
distortion fattens up a sound without actually distorting it. The compressor
is simple to use, needs very little CPU power and is good enough for demos.
The most peculiar effect is maybe the Varizer which creates subtle
differences in the sound every time it is triggered to provide a more
natural output. These changes are maybe too subtle for a hard compressed
techno track but work great with more acoustic type grooves.
Total Control
Maybe you already know the Mod-Matrix from other Linplug instruments. Its a
simple design that is easy too use: A selection of modulation sources can be
assigned to control any synthesiser parameter. Of course you can set the
amount of the modulation as well.
"What is the Mod-Matrix?³
Every important parameter can be controlled dynamically. You can control the
filter frequency with velocity, sweep the pitch with the modwheel or
modulate the pan position. Thanks to the ECS (Easy Controller Set-up) each
Parameter can be controlled by any MIDI controller. It was never easier to
customise your drums.
All inclusive
With one gigabyte of samples you will find any drumsound from classic 909
and 808 sounds to brand new stuff . The acoustic samples sound just as good
as the ones from Platin24 Drums or the studiodrums from NI. There might be
dedicated Drum sampling CDs that sound a bit more convincing, but the
samples in the RMIV come at no extra cost and provide a great basis for
every studio.
In the downloadable sound examples you can hear me stepping through the
preset kits. Only some of the larger acoustic kits took a bit longer to
load-which seems excusable because they were 70 MB big.
RMIV_Akustik.mp3 RMIV Akustik-Kits A selection of acoustic kits
RMIV_Elektro.mp3 RMIV Elektro-Kits A selection of electronic kits
Praxis
Throughout the whole test RMIV was running very stable. The bug with
forgotten sounds was easily fixed by downloading the latest update which is
a good example for the fast reaction of the Linplug team. The plugin is very
low on CPU load: The peakmeter in Cubase showed 30% when I played back a
dense pop pattern with percussion and effects and filtering on every sound
in a 100 MB Kit! (PIV 2,4 GHZ, 512 MB RAM, Windows XP HE, Cubase SX).
Handling is easy and the knobs can be set to linear or circular response and
even a mousewheel is supported. Generally mouse control is much better
implemented than in NIs Battery. Which brings me to the only two things on
my wishlist: Modulation of the sample startpoint with a controller and a
loop function like in Battery.
Parrapapa pamm!
A great software! Period. Working with the RMIV is good fun and makes
programming great grooves a piece of cake. For the price the RMIV delivers
an intuitive interface and great sounds. No matter if you look for your
first or your second drumsampler-look no further!
PLUS
++++ powerful drumsampler
++++ great sounding synthesizermodules
+++ sophisticated filter and modulations
++ punchy and versatile library
MINUS
---- believe it or not-there is no minus
PRICE:
Retail 149 US$ (129 EUR)
Streetprice 149 US$
Manufacturer:
www.linplug.com
original test from amazona.de. translation publishes with permission from amazona.de. |
