VST Cafe"E-Play Divorce is a great addition (addiction ? ;) ) to my arsenal. I love to layer it and overall I`m impressed. You cant compare it to another product because the sounds are pretty much unique. It consumes low CPU and the price is very fair."
The whole package weights 1.99 GB. It contains a rompler unit (VSTi) with 25, 32-bit Mse piano multisamples (1,1 GB) and 25 NKI Kontakt files, so you can use Divorce as a Vsti synth/rompler or as Native Instruments Kontakt Sample Library. I like this concept a lot. Not everyone has NI Kontakt (ie. I don't have) and on the other hand Kontakt users will (probably) prefer to use Divorce NKI files instead of rompler.
Ok, so first - the rompler unit. It offers pretty basic stuff such as ADSR envelope, panning options (modulation + speed) and reverb. Not much to be honest but ... I like it. It's not CPU hungry, I could easily insert 4-5 instances of E-Play Divorce and ie. route them to my "effects" channel with custom (DAW) effects such as EQ, Reverb, Delay. One more thing - scrolling through different pianos is very fast - samples are loading instantly.
How does it sound ? It DOESN'T recreate standard electric piano sounds, it's not an emulation / recreation of famous electric pianos. Instead, it really tries to bring something new, unique. There are 25 (which is quite a lot for one product) different pianos:
- so called "Lo-Fi" pianos (8-bit, Lo-Fi, Bit crushed, Degraded).
- pianos passed through the tubes, amps etc.
- "weird" pianos passed through the phaser unit for example
- gentle, warm sounding pianos.
I can see at least three ways of using Divorce:
Layering
Rompler is low CPU hungry so it's perfect for layering. Just load three, four Divorce instances and play with presets a little bit. You can achieve some unique sounds (ie. by combining "preamp" piano (nice lowend) with brighter one, you can produce quite "big", "full" sounds).
I love playing Divorce along with my TruePianos Grand Piano. It turns out that all these "Lo-Fi" pianos add some very nice harmonics to the default sound. On the other hand "Tube" / "Amp" pianos can bring additional "air" or some nice low-end flavour. Of course, it's totally recommended to experiment. For example, you can layer it with guitars, pads, strings, as well as short, plucky sounds (bells, marimbas etc.)
Just follow your creativity. It's suited for many genres, from Jazz to Electronica. I can even imagine sidechaining Divorce (plus layering it with err some pad ;) ) just to create Progressive House tune similar to Deadmau5 - Ghosts N Stuff. Tons of possibilities...
My opinion
E-Play Divorce is a great addition (addiction ? ;) ) to my arsenal. I love to layer it and overall I'm impressed. You can't compare it to another product because the sounds are pretty much unique. It consumes low CPU and the price is very fair. As far as I know, demo version will be available very soon...