Regular Rekkerd readers will likely recognize the name Tom Shear. I frequently post links to Tom’s excellent blog Waveformless, where he shares tons of tips and tricks, ebay finds, free sample packs and more.
A few months ago saw the launch of Waveformless Soundware, a site where Tom shows his expertise in sound design by – to quote the website, providing high quality presets for popular softsynths at extremely reasonable prices.
After releasing a soundset for reFX Vanguard, Waveformless Soundware’s second title is Dune Spiceflow, a collection of 128 presets for the Dune virtual synthesizer by Synapse Audio.
Packed with musically useful sounds perfect for electrohouse, trance, dubstep, EBM and more. Thundering basses, scorching leads, widescreen pads, evolving arps, wavetable and wave sequenced sounds, useful effects, punchy drums – this is a soundset that covers all the bases for electronic musicians looking for inspiring new sounds.
Check the demo tracks below to get an idea of the kind of sounds included in this soundset. Note that all sounds in these demos (including the drums) are from the Dune Spiceflow set.
If you like what you just heard you should probably just skip the rest of this review and go buy the set. Really.
In detail, Dune Spiceflow includes 18 arps, 23 basses, 6 chords, 8 drums, 3 keys, 20 leads, 18 pads, 6 sound fx, and 26 synth sounds.
The soundset takes advantage of Dune’s category tagging feature to assist you in finding specific types of sounds. Many patches also have patch information detailing modwheel assignment and general info on what the sound is all about.
I took some of my favorite patches from the set and created a few loops with them. Everything you hear is Spiceflow, no effects used.
If you like these loops you can download them here.
So what do I think?
Format: fxp/fxb patches
Price: $9.99 USD
Like: usable and inspiring sounds, use of modwheel, low price
Don’t like: —
Verdict: 8/10
My first impression of Spiceflow is very positive. There is lots of material in this bank that suits my music. I don’t consider my tunes to fit into electrohouse, trance, dubstep, or EBM genres, so “and more” is rightfully denoted on the product page.
To be honest, I am not likely to ever use patches like the drum hit sounds, but they do demonstrate the overall sound design quality and variety of this set. Spiceflow does a good job balancing both classic and more modern sounds. I am most excited about the pads, chords and keys. The whole set feels like a collection of handpicked favorites from a private stash of “best of” sounds.
This is my Waveformless soundset, but I think I already recognize a signature sound. Even when working with a synthesizer that is relatively easy to program (such as Dune), you are not likely to come up with the exact same sounds. For me, new patches are an opportunity to get inspired and I often let sounds direct the development of a track. Spiceflow is certainly going to serve me well in this respect.
In short, priced at just under 10 dollars, Dune Spiceflow offers incredible value for money. I reckon it is a worthwhile soundset for any Dune user.
Hey there, I'm Ronnie and I run Rekkerd.org. I'm a bedroom music producer and guitar player, and I love chicken vindaloo & all things glitch.
