Got the FS-1r sounds loaded into my S5K and have started the listening process.

First impression is that the CD would be good value at twice the price!

See, the thing I work on these days is not *how much* is on a cd, but *how useful* it is. And these sounds are bloody amazing. They're "secret weapon" sounds, the things you put in your songs with the specific intention of dropping your listeners' jaws onto the floor!

The pads are all I expected them to be (lush and swirly and evolving and big and subtle all at the same time), but the bass sounds are the real surprise for me. I have no idea how Steve has done what he's done with some of them. There's some psychoacoustic shit or something going on because normally, really big bass sounds make the windows in my studio rattle. These don't. They just punch me in the chest and hardly move the cones of the HR824s I use for monitoring. Wow.

Now, I don't like organ sounds (too many reminders of listening to my grandmother murder show tunes on an old Wurli). Some of these, however, are actually something I could use. And for me, that's a major concession!

Electric pianos are pretty damn fine. I'm getting into them more as my mediocre keyboard chops improve (hey, I'm a drummer - cut me some slack!!!) and I listen to more jazz and trip hop.

I'm checking my credit card limit. If this is the quality I can expect from all Steve's stuff, then I might have to invest in NewTron and CP70 as well!!

Dean Moris - Australia - 26 May 2005

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