BitHeadz Unity DS-1

I've been into music since age 11, pro since 13. i'm 43 now. Right now I'm a rock bass player, my 1st rock band for any length of time. Before that it was conjunto, soul, jass, salsa and bigband, in that order.
Using a Mac g3 with Logic 5 and the Unity DS-1 app with Steve Reids' Global Percussion gong out from a M-Audio Quattro to my Event Tria setup via a Yamaha Pro Mix 01. Using Unity @ 2 years.

Global percussion and the Unity DS-1 app is the sh*t! Got "Global" off Ebay new, and was definatly satisfied. Not only do you get the whole bevy of latin percussion in very good form, but also african, middle eastern and various lower latin american instruments. There are various conga, timbale etc, sets with different attributes that maker them extremely playable in various contexts. With some adjustments and knowledge of the actual instrument, the CONGA CRM can be played almost EXACTLY like the real instrument. Very gratifying! Highly recommended!

* Ver 2.0 -PC format
* Presets are decent - plenty samples from Jimmy Jam to EMU modules
* Being PC based - editing is a breeze, drag and drop selection for sample layering etc.
* MAnual in PDF format - hard to read in the loo..?

* Polyphony CPU dependant, PIII 733 - I get 64 voices easily including effects [insert and global]
* All the standard FX, available as mentioned - reverbs are not bad, but I would have liked if directx plug-ins were usable in the software. I suppose the RE-WIRE function to Cubase takes care of that..[VERY CPU intensive though]
* Get as much memory as possible (512Mb at present) as this baby is solely RAM based.. (unlike Halion/Giga)
*Very nice modulation capabilities - all manner of sources and routes..
* Weak point - FILTERS! Brittle/very digital/bright..etc

* Fast CPU, good sound card = low latency, hence very playable, anything else = nightmare!
*Clean natural sounds, phrases,loops are quite good - CD (16bit 44khz) like sound.
* Forget about radical filtering effects - Hardware synths do a much better job...mind you I like Halion's filters!

* OS dependant - WIN2000 not available, so stuck with W98 one runs into an occasional glitch every now and then.

* Very good! Could not import S1000 samples, even though it is supposed to... so support send me OSMOSIS free of charge!!

* Besides Giga the only dedicated PC sampler around, and for ease of use [.ie. PC HDD/PC colour monitor/ 24bit Scard] I would say that one would be hard pressed to find a hardware equivalent especially if you already own the computer.

Using 2.1.3 on Macintosh, a G4 with 768 megs of RAM and duel 120 Gig drives. Just using Sound Manager and the sound quality is fine.

Editing is a real oddity. Not intuitive. There are windows for importing patches, individual samples, and multisamples. One window over-rides another, it's not like a separate window opens so you can kind of follow a line of what you're doing. Once you've gotten around a few times, you get used to it, but I do so hate having to get used to something becuase it was programmed by squirrels.

Lots of odds and ends that can be opened (like the MIDI keyboard and a MIDI Processor, etc). All must be opened separately The on-screen keyboard should open up as part of the edtior window. Hello?

The manual is truly pathetic, probably written by the programmer as he went along and was never edited by a professional Tech Writer. Need to look something up in the index? It's not in there. Need to solve a problem and check Troubleshooting? It's not there. Want to know how a feature works? Chances are it's either poorly described or not described at tall. Dreadful.

Polyphony is based on how much memory you allocate in the Control Panel, but you also have to allocate a separate chunk for the Editor for working on samples. Again, not intuitive. Don't neglect one for the other; allocate plenty of RAM to the edtior and when you're done working on samples, quit this so you can use the samples in your sequencer.

There are lots of built-in effects of pretty good quality, especially the delay/flange types. You can get pretty outlandish with a sample by applying a kitchen-sink full of FX, but should you? At least you can here.

I should mention that this is not a full-featured sample editor. Thought it would be? Nope. It can sample, however! But its really more of a sample player, its sample editing is limited to say the least. You're able to open your own sample editor for really looping a sample (gee, thanks), but this means you have to OWN a sample editor, so consider that when buying.

It imports ProTools and Akai in long-winded and odd fashion (again, through the above-mentioned Editor). Want to install a whole CD of Akai samples at a stroke instead of just one sound at a time? BitHeadz is happy to SELL you a solution: Osmosis at $180. Come on, this should be included as a feature (you did, afterall just spend $450 for the DS-1 already).

There is a small smattering of DS-1 native CDs, but I think they'd better either hustle up getting more developers to support them or at the very least, include Osmosis features.

Once a sample has been made or imported, the sound quality is what you'd expect from a pro sampler, but getting there is NOT half the fun.

I should also mention that it claims to import SoundFonts. Uh, it kind of does, just the samples, not ASDRs or such.

And the LFO is virtually useless. Could not find a decent setting. Trying to give a woodwind a natural sounding vibrato is impossible.

Nothing like reliability to make all of the above quibbles become nasty grumbles. It seems that if I don't use DS1 at least every few days or weeks, it needs to be reinstalled. The installer is a tremendous pain and again and also not intuitive, especially upgrades.

E-mail response is pretty good. But 90% of "Customer Support" is a well-designed product and well written manual. In the DS-1, BitHeadz has neither.

A new version is coming up. Perhaps they'll improve.

Having something on my Mac to use quality samples with Digital Performer is a real plus. Having it be designed by BitHeadz isn't. I'll muddle through until someone comes up with something better (and I'm even hoping that it IS BitHeadz). If you don't mind muddling, give BitHeadz a try.