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Review of Trilian

by TweakHeadz Lab

Spectrasonics Trilian Bass Module Software (Mac and Windows)

Trilian is designed from the ground up to be the most versatile bass virtual instrument available today with a new level of expressive, real-time performance for acoustic and electric basses - plus cutting-edge synth bass tones with powerful editing and extraordinary sound quality. Trilian is the successor to Spectrasonics' award-winning Trilogy bass instrument, offering deeper control of musical expression and much greater flexibility of sound shaping. Trilian's 34GB library is 10-times the size of Trilogy and features all new acoustic, electric and synth basses.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere Software Synth (Mac and Windows)

After many years of development, Spectrasonics is proud to release the brand new flagship virtual instrument Omnisphere. This epic 'Power Synth' breaks completely new sonic ground by combining a wide variety of hybrid realtime synthesis techniques, an epic library of remarkable 'Psychoacoustic' sounds, and many innovative features that have never been seen before in any hardware or software synthesizer. The new instrument is the first to be based on Spectrasonics newly developed STEAM Engine.

Spectrasonics Stylus RMX XPanded Software (Mac and Windows)

Spectrasonics has released a new “Stylus RMX Xpanded” product package which includes the acclaimed Stylus RMX Realtime Groove Module virtual instrument software, plus all five of the award-winning S.A.G.E. Xpander expansion libraries: Backbeat, Retro Funk, Metamorphosis, Burning Grooves and Liquid Grooves. The addition of the Xpanders’ 5.5 GB of outstanding acoustic drum and percussion grooves enhance Stylus RMX’s already massive 7.4 GB remix-oriented core library.

Trilian just arrived at the lab and I am putting it through its paces. What can I tell you now? It surpasses Trilogy by a huge margin, yet retains everything I loved about it, including the great basses in there. Ah Trilogy, how I have missed thee! If you had a trilogy license and are on an Intel Mac you know that things were not working for a while. Check the Spectrasonics site for upgrade deals. I got the upgrade free. Now that is what I call taking care of customers.

Trilian takes bass sampling to a whole different level. You have a 16 channel mixer in Trilian that can be devoted to a single bass multi, with different articulations.

There is a new acoustic bass, a Chapman stick, and the synth basses are utterly phenomenal. I programmed 3 synth basses in a matter of about 25 minutes.

Here's some pics of Trilian in action (click to enlarge)

Trilian's Main screen

Trilian's Patch editor

Quite similar to Omnisphere. Speaking of Omnisphere, if you apply the updates as of Nov 2009 you will find that Trilian sounds now show up in Omnisphere. Very nice. And before you ask, yes, you can combine the Trilian/trilogy bass samples with the Omnisphere and atmosphere samples inside Omnisphere. Omnisphere is rapidly becoming the greatest soft synth on the planet. If they add more instruments, it might soon be the most encyclopedic as well. I a way that no surprise because Eric Persing is, after all, one of the masterminds if not "the" mastermind behind the Roland JV/XV/Fantom enterprises. With Omnisphere the only constraints are CPU/Memory. Imagine in 5 years...

Update: Dec 07 2009

Just updated Trilian beyond its initial release. I have to say many of the presets are so memory intensive they are putting logic over its internal limit. Now I am getting a little worried about running the HUGE acoustic basses with all the articulations. This is a Logic problem, not a Trilian problem. Trilian is just one of the first soft samplers to run headlong into Logic's limitation.

Positively, Trilian's presets can now be accessed from Omnisphere so there can be one uniform GUI for your composition. You can run 16 instruments in Omnisphere and as many of those channels can now be Trilia. (plural of Trilian?, lol). I probably won't use that so much as logic really does not deal with multi-instruments as efficiently as does Cubase. I'll just create a new instance for every Trilian/Omnisphere/RMX sound.

Trilian is well worth the cash for those going beyond the basic in their sound arsenal. Get in Now!

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