Product: Revolve 100m
From: Dimension Arc Software
499-425 Carrall Street,
Vancouver,BC,Canada V6B 6E3
Phone: 604-664-0403
Price: US$99. Distributed in North American by ThinkWare.
For: Win95/98 (can also be used on the Mac with the MIDI Output driver of Insignia's SoftWindows 5.0).
Pros: Groove-oriented MIDI performance sequencer, in the "ReBirth" genre. Excellent third-party synth support. MIDI output and export capabilities.
Cons: Online manual only. Not NT compatible. Doesn't read ReBirth 1.0 files. Song files from ReBirth versions 1.5 and 2,0, however, are supported.
Summary: The golden era of groove is back. This is MIDI sequencing, the old-fashioned way (the way it was meant to be).
As we noted in our original review of ReBirth RB-338, ReBirth was a program so brilliantly effective at emulating Roland's TB303 and TR606 -- gadgets from the golden era of groove -- that it was only a matter of time before ReBirth itself was cloned and/or improved upon. Revolve 100m, from Vancouver-based Dimension Arc, tries to do both and for the most part succeeds. It imports ReBirth files, but unlike the program distributed by Steinberg, Revolve 100m doesn't concern itself with slavishly emulating the sound of Roland's 20-year-old hardware. Instead, it goes beyond ReBirth's premise by adding new capabilities -- most notably MIDI export and a wealth of MIDI sequencer functionality. And, like ReBirth, it's a heck of a lot of fun to make techno, dub or house music with.
We've seen glimpses of Revolve 100m throughout its journey from alpha/beta status to final release -- the company that produces it works in the same building we do. And what a high-tech music studio Dimension Arc has! Synths, samplers, keyboards galore, plus the obligatory array of mixers and of course, computers running practically every audio program and DirectX plug-in going. These guys walk around wearing Rebirth hats. Really -- you know they are seriously into this stuff. From this environment, you can bet that this is a tool with a strong techno flavour. And indeed, it is.
Revolve supports more synthesizers out of the box than any other program we've ever seen. Alesis, Emu, Korg, Roland, Yamaha -- and tons of lesser-known models and brands. If you have an external MIDI box, this program probably supports it. (Strangely, there isn't a single Ensoniq instrument listed, though.) The program designers have clearly stepped away from the blah generality of General MIDI -- heck, there isn't even a GM preset file.
We'll take a small bit of credit for the program's elegant importation of ReBirth pattern and song files. While v1.0 files aren't supported, a dialog clearly identifies RB version numbers before import -- a feature we practically insisted on after a bout of troubles with an early beta version of Revolve 100m.
Version 1.30 Features:
intelligent parameter learning (via MIDI Input monitoring)
Continuous controller, SysEx, XG/GS, RPN/NRPN support
over 300 synth definitions included
with slide, and shuffle importing
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