Dust Road by Sounds And Gear
Hey what's good fam!
Back with another review, this time it's a new company (at least to me), that I learned about late last year.
The company is ModeAudio and the product I'm checking out today is Dust Road.
It's a collection of presets for MASSIVE.
So let's check it out!
So what exactly is Dust Road?
This is a collection of vintage MASSIVE presets, programmed to capture the instability of worn down analog synthesizers.
The concept is was to create presets that are constantly moving and shifting slightly in ways that analog circuits tend to do.
There are 50 different presets included and it also comes with MIDI files for triggering the presets or any other synths you may wish.
They style is aimed at EDM, Downtempo, Ambient, and Minimal producers, but as you know, I feel that if something sounds good, you can use it however you wish!
Quick Specs
- content: 50 presets, 50 MIDI files
- format: MASSIVE 1.3 or higher
- price: £12
How does it sound?
It definitely has a slightly imperfect quality to the sounds with the way they move and shift in subtle ways.
There's also a bit of rawness to the sounds with the use of drive and distortion.
I found there was a nice variety of content from bass to pads, leads, plucks, and synths.
Some of the pads were really cool, especially when you start playing with the macros then again, you know I'm a pad lover so I tend to really focus in on those type of sounds.
The bass was pretty edgy for my tastes, I tend to keep my bass sounds more simple and subby, but for EDM and other styles they would work well.
Not as many leads as I would have liked but the ones that were there I could definitely find a use for.
Overall it's a nice sounding collection of presets, with enough distortion and drive to warm up the digital sound MASSIVE is known for.
So what's the bottom line?
If you're looking for a collection of sounds to spark some ideas and you're a fan of MASSIVE, then this is a quick way to do so.
Overall I give Dust Road 4 out of 5 subs, it's a solid library with a nice amount of character and control over the sounds built in.
It definitely has a vintage/sci-fi vibe to it, and the macro parameters they mapped make it very easy to tweak and change quickly.