SILVERBOX
SilverBox from Spectralhead is a Roland TB-303 software recreation, and no, this is not just another software recreation of this legendary bass line. I used to have an original in late 80's and I have to say - it was not so easy to program. Trial and error was the name of the game. And, it was a pure nightmare when the time came for pattern programming. The whole band started to play a chorus while TB-303 was still playing the verse. "Hey, can you count, man?" This should be repeated 32 times and not 34 times. Come on, can someone change this!" It was time for a break for a half an hour: time for cigarettes and re-programming.
Boys on Spectralhead wrote that Silverbox sounds exactly like its hardware predecessor. Is that true? How would I know? I sold my 303 twenty years ago. Original or not, Silverbox sounds amazingly good. It definitely has the 303 sound and it doesn't sound artificial like some virtual instruments do. It has this recognizable 303 sound - from a depth and punch to the 'teen and smirk' - like high snarling sound.
Despite the great sound, it's not this that makes it unique. SilverBox has a built in piano roll with dedicated ranks of buttons under the piano roll for every one of the sixteen beats. They are for gate, accent, slide and octave up and down options. With all these controllers on the top of the user interface it is laughably easier to program bass lines (like never before). You can get your original line in a minute. It is one of the most user friendly instruments these days and this makes SilverBox proudly stand out amongst others.
To make things even better Silvebox also responds to midi notes. Just play or draw another ote in your main sequencer and the whole line will be transposed to the played root note. It is a very handy eature to make instant changes in the arrangements.
Control yourself
Main window contains all classical bass line controllers plus some additional ones. The Oscillator section is used to choose between sawtooth and square waveforms and also contains a tuning knob for detuning the frequency of the oscillator. A Filter section with cut off and resonance knobs also displays an additional knob for choosing beteen hi, low and band pass filter types. The Envelope section contains a decay accent and envelope modulation knobs for controlling that classical bass line sound. There is also an overdrive section where a knob for distortion level and a knob for switching between various distortiod noin types can be found. Some other not so traditional controllers are the Noise button for adding some background noise, VCF tune button along with some global transpose controllers and a few minor 'toys for boys' in sequencer section.
All in all, SilverBox sounds so good and it is so easy for managing that you can easily lose your sense of time while tweaking all those knobs and drawing happy notes. You can have a good time for hours on end.
Review by Alexander Arsov
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