Review: StoneBridge Plugin Package by VIProducer

In this review, we will be going over the StoneBridge Plugin Package made by ViProducer. They have made an excellent virtual instrument platform on the UVI engine which lets producers fill up their instrument with samples and sounds they love and use in their own music for you to use and abuse.

So far ViProducer has collaborated with three different producers and in this review we will be looking at the version made with Stonebridge, a Swedish house music producer with some great hits under his belt like “Show me love”, “Put ém high” and “The girl you lost to cocaine”, just to name a few and his signature house flavor can be found throughout this plugin.

When you get one of the instrument bundles from ViProducer you get an instrument that is divided up into three instruments a Beat Maker, a Drum Shaper and a VIP Synth, basically all you would need to get going on a track. You also get some lessons with the instrument with great tips from the producer in question but we will go into that a bit more after the instruments themselves.

The Beat Maker

The Beat Maker is ViProducers drum machine and is filled in this instance with all of Stonebridge’s favorite drum sound which sound great straight out of the box but can be manipulated to make them sound your own in no time with the pitch section, Filter section with HP and LP, FX section with some drive reverb and delay and a three band eq. These effects can be set to each pad separately to get each sound just right.

Viproducer has also added a global FX section with some reverb, delay and saturation so you can get everything to sound cohesive and sounding like a true kit being played in the same place.
In the master section you get some more effects to make your kit sound huge with the big bottom fader, stereo image fader, the excite fader and a limiter these can all be bypassed or used separately according to what you need at that time.

The Beatmaker for Stonebridge comes with two fully loaded kits and eight separated hits sections so plenty of sounds to work with.

The Drum Shaper

The Drum Shaper is a nice layering tool to really make the samples that come with Stonebridge your own as it lets you layer up either 3 different kicks, snares, claps and hats in high mid and low fashion to really make your own custom drum sounds without too much hassle.

Like with the beatmaker, all the sounds in the Drum Shaper have their own dedicated FX section with Drive, three band eq, reverb and delay Along with the global FX page and the effects on the master page you are given a great set of tools to create your own drums sounds without too much effort.

In the Drum Shaper you also get an extra page called repeat where you can repeat the kick, snare and hats from eighths up to dotted sixty-fourths great for effortlessly making trap hat rolls and such and with the groove knob getting that swing is just a turn of a knob away.

The VIP Synth

The VIP Synth in Stonebridge upon first glance doesn’t really look like it’s got allot of capabilities but you would be deceived coming with two sample oscillators a wavetable oscillator and a waveform oscillator, LFO and modwheel mods, melodic and standard Arpeggiator, gate, FX and a master with some FX as well makes this a synth that can put out a Host of different sounds without breaking a sweat.

The synth itself is quite easy to work with and it doesn’t take long to mold one of the presets into one of your own custom sounds, the presets that come with Stonebridge are a great starting point for you as they sound great just as is with the unique flavor Stonebridge has given them.

As I said in the beginning of the review the instrument isn’t all you get when you purchase the Stonebridge bundle you also get a bunch of lessons. Ten to be exact and they cover the process of making music from making your kick to mixing al the way to getting the most out of your mastering buss and some stuff in between so basically some great tips and tricks from the seasoned producer himself.

Conclusion

The Stonebridge bundle From ViProducer is not only an instrument but a learning experience as well, the sound it makes is top notch and sounds great as is but is easily customized to create your own sounds. The user interface looks sleek and is well thought out and is a pleasure to work with. These ViProducer bundles are in my humble opinion some of the better libraries you can get for the UVI workstation and ViProducer have done a great job at providing a platform for Producers to give their personal flavor to the instruments and teach the up and coming producers the tricks of the trade so to speak.

Pros:

• Sleek design.
• Easy to use and abuse.
• Added bonus of lessons from the producers themselves.

Cons:

• Would like to be able to automate all of the knobs and faders but I think that is something that UVI needs to implement on their end.

VIProducer plug-ins are available in VST, Audio Unit, RTAS and AAX formats and requires the latest version of the free UVI Workstation or MOTU’s MachFive.

More Details: StoneBridge Plugin Package

Also see: Printz Board Plugin Package Review & Doctor P Plugin Review