MusicRadar Verdict
How much use you'll find for REV will depend on your style, but it's particularly good at effects, pads, ambiences, risers and esoteric instrumentation. We like it a lot.
Pros
- +
Well produced. Lots to experiment with. Sizeable library.
Cons
- -
Not much.
MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.
Output's Kontakt/Player library, REV, is based on a library of reversed sounds and comprising four instrument "engines" - each one powering a sizeable collection of categorised presets.
Instruments are keyboard-playable multisampled patches; Timed Instruments are timestretched instruments; Loops are banks of tempo-synced, pitchable loops; and Rises are various types of timed build and riser.
"REV is beautifully produced and endlessly explorable"
Each engine has its own interface (they share many common controls). Instruments and Timed Instruments are dual-layered, with four versions of each sample (reverbed, dry, looped and forwards), enabling you to mix and match.
The engines aren't dazzlingly innovative, but Output has used many of Kontakt's best scripting features, like triggerable effects and timestretching, to great effect. The main thing is that it's a 6.8GB sample library that's beautifully produced and endlessly explorable.
“It’s an old-fashioned piece of conceptual rock”: Steven Wilson issues album update and promises no less than the reinvention of the “extended classic rock solo”
“We were always going to try to break boundaries and try new things”: It was the first No.1 pop single to feature rapping - and it came from Debbie Harry and Blondie
“I have to try and talk about the neck without sounding offensive or angry”: Johnny Marr says satin finishes have no business being on a guitar neck
