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There have been so many great plug-ins coming out of late and not enough time to review all of them, but when I tried the new Ohmicide: Melohman I couldn't resist reporting on how good it was. Read on to find out why.

About Ohmicide: Melohman
It's commercial common knowledge that "people always want more distortions" and this is exactly what Ohmicide: Melohman is delivering. In one death blow.

Based on Predatohm design, Ohmicide:Melohman is organized around up to four frequency bands, each of them coming with their own Noise Gate, Dynamics, Distortion, Feedback Generator and all mixing abilities with just a twist of pre- and post-processing (distortion input, high shelf output...).

The DSP is 100% different from Predatohm: compressor/expander works differently to fit well with both the very sharp Noise Gate we've included and the huge amount of new distortions. Those are at the core of Ohmicide. They're designed to offer pretty much everything you can think of next to a lot of things you can't think of. Some, like the tasty "Porridge" distortion sounds deliciously analogue, while the "Fractal" one is harsh and digital as hell. Or you've got the very dense "Accumulator" that can add low harmonics instead of high.

All those distortions are mainly new breeds - yet the classics are also covered. They all are declined in three variations: normal, ampsim and odd. The "Odd" one is terribly exciting as it gives you control on the harmonics frequency and allows for slightly detuned distortion. Last but not least, we've added a disto type that was missing from Predatohm... No distortion. It was an absolute need, considering how many things can be done just by using the multiband dynamics and/or the filter!

 
First Impressions

This is maybe the strangest and most rewarding distortion plug-in I have ever used. If you are after a solid state amp modelling VST then you might as well forget about it right here because Ohmicide: Melohman might not be your best choice. However, if you are after the beefiest, most bone crunching, yet smooth distortion/sound mangler/weapon of mass destruction then this is definitely the distortion unit for you.

On first impressions this unit looks like a brand new slick piece of equipment right out of an expensive studio, if it was Marilyn Manson's studio and you were recording somewhere in Hell. Complete with blood splatters and all. The knobs and sliders look new and fresh, and the screens look authentic. All up the interface is amongst the most impressive I have seen in a VST.

The only problem I have with the interface is that it is not inherently obvious at first, how to load and save your presets.

How does it sound?

I threw this synth on top of a synth bass to see what it could do. For its first use I just threw it on all default settings and played around with the gain levels for each level. My first impression was simply wow. This thing sounds amazing. I never thought I would hear a distortion like this, so full, fat, crunchy and unique.

After scrolling through all the available distortion algorithms I was even more impressed. They have a distortion type for any mood your in, from subtle to completely vaporised. The noise gate, shape and gain alone give you almost unlimited capabilities on the sound let alone the rest of the options.

What impressed me most about this synth was how it handles the extreme low ends and the extreme high ends. It mangles the sound, but unexpectedly each algorithm adds a certain sweetness to the sound.

Overall

This is my new tool of choice for distortion. This is without a doubt the best over all distortion package out there. It handles anything form subtle to oblivion and sounds incredible no matter how much you destroy your sound. For $99 this software is an absolute steal.

In my opinion there are only two things that could be done to improve this unit. One would be to make the preset loading and saving a little easier, and the second would be to add in a filter, or an assignable LFO to throw some automation in. Those are just nice to have features, and even without them I rate this as the top contender for VST distortion.

Rob Papen Predator VST Review
Many of us have been using synths with Rob Papen's influence for a long time. He has brought has tones of wicked sounds, and some great synth design. Rob was the man behind the Albino and Blue, two incredible synths in both sound quality, usability and look and feel. Rob has now teamed up with contreteFX to bring us he's third monster fat synth, Predator. How does it fair up? Read on to find out.

Preying on sound

Aside from it's hard as nails looking interface when you first look at Predator it looks pretty much like most other synths; Three oscillators wired through a filter, a few LFO's and a bunch of effects. Don't let this simple design fool you though, Predator is not all looks and you will see this when you first start scrolling through the factory presets.

Each of the three oscillators come jammed with 128 waveforms each, ranging from saws and sines to god knows what additive wave forms. This gives us a huge array of possibilities, and you will notice that a lot of these waveforms are perfect examples of modern trends. The parameters you get for each oscillator rivals Native Instrument's Massive as far as flexibility goes. You can control the symmetry, free-running, sync, ring modulation and also a sub oscillator.

 
Stalking Interface

The interface for this synth is breathtaking. It looks tough and it feel real. There's very VST's out there that actually feel like you are using a real synth but Predator really does. The knobs and dials work like you would expect, and the layout is clean and uncluttered.

Blood Thirsty Filter

Let's face is, the interface LFO's and oscillators are nothing without a good filter and Predator does not let us down. Like Albino, Rob has put a lot of effort to give us more control then ever over the main filter. It offers us High Pass, Low Pass, Notch and Comb filters at 6db, 12db, 18db and 24db as well as a 4 stage envelope generator. On top of that you can add crunch or smooth effects before the filter and direct modwheel correlation simplifies the whole thing significantly.

There is also a second filter you can user for even more control, but this filter doesn't have as many sound shaping options as the main filter.

This filter can rip sounds to shreds, but at the same time is glistens in analogue warmth.

Bone Crunching Effects

FX are always the icing on the cake for most synths, and more times then not I seemed to be disappointed with most built in effects. However I was presently surprised with predators range. 21... that's right, 21 built in effects including ED, delays, Distortion, chorus and filters. They all sound fantastic, fresh and expensive.

Predator in Practice

So all with all the bells and whistles how does this synth play? The CPU usage wasn't as high as I had expected and the program is very stable.

In practice it is very different from a lot of other synths out there with only the one main filter. It felt a little strange for me to not have a modulation matrix to work with, but the LFO's are easy enough to assign values to.

Having a run though the factory presets of this sythesizer you can see that it's capable of making great sounds for a whole range of genres. Hardstyle, Drum and Bass and breaks producers will find that Predator can make plenty of those harder sounds to rival Pro 53. Electro heads will find this synth great for crunchy bass and cheaky synths too.

Overall

Sound quality is just incredible, interface is incredible, modulation is a breezy and covers too many types of sounds to mentions. This is one incedable VST, and for the price of $179 this will be a welcome addition to your DAW's plug-ins.

I give Predator:

9/10