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NOVAkILL are an industrial goth band from Sydney who produce dark electro and EBM (Electronic Body Music). What makes them worth to mention and interesting for us music and sound producers, in my opinion, is that over the last 10 years since their first album they have also released dozens of their self-made, stylish-looking and free VST synths with which they create their music and especially those distorted and dark overdriven acidic basslines which are so typical for this music genre, and perhaps even for other styles and ambient loops.

Those VST-plugins can easily be installed and run in host software such as FL Studio, NI Maschine, Synapse Orion and others.

Band information: http://www.reporecords.de/index.php/artists/novakill
Free VST-plugins: http://www.novakill.com/killerz.htm

In this topic I'm going to test, briefly review and experiment with some (maybe not all) of Novakill's VST-plugins, including screenshots of my own settings and uploads in my new Alien Synth Loops pack.
By the way, this is not intended to advertise the Novakill band or any of my sounds. It's just a fun project to learn the proper use of VST's and kill my free time (no pun intended).

Feel free to add your own reviews and samples in this topic aswell.

Alright, let's run through a list of downloadable VST's on their website...

VST instrument synths:
----------------------

NITROUS PM+
NITROUS PD
NITROUS NEO
ULTRAkILLER
BALLTEARER
PISSCUTTER
RIPSNORTER
NOVAkILLER
COLDkILLER
OVERkILLER

X2 Synths:

FEARkILLER-X2
HOPEkILLER-X2
NEOkILLER-X2

Old synths:

ANGSTkILLER
BRAINkILLER
BRAINkiLLERv2
DREAMkILLER
EGOkILLERrev1
EGOkILLERv2
EGOkILLERv2+
EGOkILLERv3mini
EGOkILLER-III
EGOkILLER-IV
GODkILLERrev1
GODkILLERv2
GODkILLER-III
HOPEkILLER
iDkILLER
iDkILLER-II
iDkILLERpv
iDkILLERv2
iDkILLER-XL
JOYkILLER
kARMAkILLER
kARMAkILLERrev1
LOVEkILLER
NEOkILLER
NEOkILLERIII
NEOkILLERlight
OVERkILLER

VST effect synths:
------------------

kILL-O-RAMA = stereo/pan tool with built-in signal booster
killerDELAY = six-filter delays in one with tempo sync and rhythmic effects
killerGATE+ = programmable gate effect with multi-mode filter and distortion

As you can see, lots of sound killers there.

So.. I start to create my first killer bassline with "PISSCUTTER".
I chose this one first, because of its funny and intriguing name.
And because I like the colors yellow and green in GUI's.

My settings:
http://oi59.tinypic.com/kbopc1.jpg

My sound sample:
http://www.freesound.org/people/Zetauri/sounds/276804/

Basically this is an advanced 2-wave Oscillator (2-Osc) with randomater, pattern sweeper (1-16 bars), ADSR and ADBSSR envelopes, unison detuner and some additional filters. Novakill have released 3 VST's of this type which look and operate similar: BALLTEARER as FM Osc, PISSCUTTER as Phase Distortion Osc, RIPSNORTER as Unison Osc.

They are useful for creating acidic and distorted basslines or higher synths. I especially like the programmable pattern sweeper which slides through the note frequencies in the song patterns from high to low or low to high. There is also a knob on the upper right corner for post-mastering. It's not like a complete equalizer but it gives you an additional option to tweak the drive and loudness of the final sound output. So far I like this oscillator VST. After a few hours of sound tweaking and figuring out the settings it is quite fun to use for creating punchy, dark and dirty bassline loops.

My Rating: 8/10

I continue my Novakill VST test series with the BALLTEARER 1-osc and the killerGATE+ effector which I coupled together with two already built-in retail FX VST's in Native Instruments MASCHINE host software.

My setting/presets:
http://oi57.tinypic.com/qobp8m.jpg

My sound sample:
http://www.freesound.org/people/Zetauri/sounds/277251/

BALLTEARER can create smoother basslines than PISSCUTTER which is more aggressive, raw and noisier. For my alien sound productions I certainly prefer the BALLTEARER, because I can create more trance-like basslines with it which are more pleasant to the ears but still have that distorted and acidic texture to it. I think when you compare my two samples ("AlienKiller_Basslines.wav" and "DarkThrillerLoop_J8.wav") with each other you can hear the fundamental difference between PISSCUTTER's and BALLTEARER's oscillating sounds.

In this test session, however, I had the most fun with the killerGATE+ effector! Filtering and playing a sustain bass or any sample for that matter through a rhythmic gate in various speeds (divisions, "slices") and a custom programmable 32-step sequencer is a very useful feature for electronic synth music, electro and trance. In its feature setup the killerGATE+ (coded in 2005) is a very unique and rare VST-plugin to this day. In addition to the mere gating of sound input the Gate VST also comes with its own filter, LFO, distortion and I/O mix capabilites. You won't find anything similar to that effect in FL Studio or NI Maschine, for example. In my opinion this type of complex Gate Effector VST should be made standard in any professional sound and music production software. I put the killerGATE+ definately to the collection of my permanent installed FX VST's which I'm going to use on a frequent basis.

And ofcourse the BALLTEARER will stay in my collection of "Most Useful VST-plugins" too.

My Rating: 9/10

I could give this a score of 10 out of 10 points, but I'm still looking for an even better gear setup with Novakill's VST's...

Hey Zetauri, thanks for posting this.
I have been meaning to test out the Novakill synths for ages. - even downloaded them sometime ago and saved them somewhere... but never got around to test them.

My advice to anyone else. Just pick a random one and give it a try. I hear they are all very good.

AlienXXX wrote:
Hey Zetauri, thanks for posting this.
I have been meaning to test out the Novakill synths for ages. - even downloaded them sometime ago and saved them somewhere... but never got around to test them.

Hehe, I can see your take on this. You had those old Novakill babies sitting on your harddrive for ages, not knowing that it could turn out so well in 2015. And now you are hooked too.

Or maybe I was just lucky this time, because I was the first user around here who gave Novakill VST's a serious try and uploaded some samples on freesound. First come, first served, as they say.

Actually there are so many free VST synths and effectors released on the net from so many different developers that you could fill up a whole 4.7 GB DVD with it. I recently downloaded hundreds of new free VST's for my collection. My current VST-plugin folder is 1.5 GB in size (zipped packages, not installed yet).

I also recommend to download and try free VST's from vstplanet.com
They have an extensive collection of free VST-plugins, from old to latest releases.
Just to give all you other sound-creating freaks out there a hint. There is so much to explore and experiment with in the VST department.

After I'm done with testing and reviewing Novakill's VST's I'm going to test all those hundreds and thousands of free VST's available on vstplanet actually, depending on how much free time I can spare for testing........

Thanks Zetauri! As someone with limited internet this is really helpful. Will be giving BALLTEARER a run for sure!

It's disappointing that they're Windows only. I wanted to try out the gate plug-in because I've been looking for one.