Hi there, it’s Loopstorrent. How are you doing these days, folks? Music production has become easy, but it was not the same in the past. It required money, time, concentration, skill, and hard work. But, as technology advances daily, many tasks are becoming easy to perform, especially when AI is plunged into this war of this new era.
In the music, every music producer wants to create his or her identity. This identity can be his sounds in songs like lyrics, vocals, or any other element. The main difficulty in producing the identity is that there are new sounds on the left of the industry. Producers use the same sounds repeatedly, so sometimes we get bored listening to a couple of producers. On the other hand, some producers intelligently made their signature sounds, which made them quite famous. Let me give you a few examples of great music producers like Kygo and Dub Vision. The signature sound of kygo is the vocal chops. He is also known as the tropical guy because of the pluck sounds that he used in many of his songs.
So, to describe all this, I want to tell you the importance of signature sound in the music industry. When you find making your phone difficult, reFX – Nexus 4 has your back. This is the synthesizer and generator that have defeated several synths. The Nexus 4 provides unique sounds in the form of presets you need to create an identity in the music industry. The Nexus 4 will provide you with the sound that will distinguish you from other producers, the sound that makes people dance, the sound that will the crowd crazy, and the sound that works as ear candy. I hope you have an idea of what the Nexus 4 can do. Now, let’s move on to the introduction of Nexus 4, and Loops Torrent will also tell you about its different functionalities.
Introduction of Nexus 4
Nexus 4 is a synth used by producers, film scorers, and music composers. It is also used to design sounds, but to a limited extent. The main thing about Nexus that makes it famous is its presets. It provides many presets for every genre of music, such as DNB, Tropical House, EDM, DUB Step, etc.
Themes or skins of Nexus 4
First, I want to tell you that Nexus 4 does not officially offer themes. However, some third-party resources make different interesting themes for the Nexus 4. This is because some people may feel bored while looking at the same interface again and again. In this regard, let me introduce the Razor 3. It is a third-party resource that makes amazing themes for different DAWs and plugins, including the Nexus VST. It offers different types of dark, light, flat, and other style themes for the Nexus plugin. All these themes are very easy to install and navigate. They are also compatible with Windows and Mac and don’t affect the CPU’s and plugin’s performance.
Loopstorrent wants to tell you to be careful while installing and downloading third-party themes for any DAW or plugins. You must cross-check the resources that are providing you with the data.
Arpeggiator.
This synth also provides you with the Arpeggiator panel, where you can write your loops of melodies, chords, arps, and much more. Loopstorrent thinks that this feature of the Nexus 4 is very important for boosting the creativity of music producers. There is one main Arpeggiator, and it also contains 16 sub Arpeggiators. This Arpeggiator also provides some pre-built midi loops. The amazing thing is that midi loops provided by the Nexus 4 can be copied and pasted into the actual piano roll of the DAW. It is also zoomable up to 256 steps.
Compatibility
Sometimes, when we install a new version of any synth, we risk losing all the projects that were designed with the previous version. This is very painful for every producer, and I also face such circumstances. Fortunately, the Nexus 4 is compatible with all its previous versions. Upgrading the Nexus 4 has made it smoother to run and exerts a low load on the CPU.
Effects
Some people want to make their sound unique compared to the synth’s pre-built preset. To handle this problem, the Nexus offers different effects like delay, filter mode, amp mod, and the reverb section. All these effects have been explained on Loopstorrent before.
Oscillators and Filters.
Now let’s talk about the important topic of Nexus vst: its Oscillators and Filters. Nexus 4 is not only a preset-based plugin. But it also allows the user to design his sounds. In this regard, the plugin’s essential features are oscillators and filters. They allow the user to create sounds like saw waves, square waves, sine waves, white noise, pink noise, and many other sounds that serve as a base for the sound design. These types of oscillators are known as subtractive oscillators. It also offers complex oscillators like the Pulse Width Modulation. These oscillators help create different textures and sounds to add details to the song.
Now, let’s discuss the plugin’s filters. The reFX Nexus 4 provides different types of filters. The main purpose of these filters is to shape the sound generated by the oscillators. Some common filters of the plugin are given below.
- Low-pass filter. As the name shows, its main function is to cut down the high frequencies of the sound and allow the low frequencies to pass through. This type of filter is mainly used to create sound coming under the water or from the well. In other words, this filter is used to make dark sounds.
- High-pass filter. Again, the function of this filter is also revealed by its name. This filter is antagonistic to the low-pass filter. It cuts down the low frequencies and allows the high frequencies to pass through. This filter is mainly used to create airy sounds and remove the mud from the sounds.
- The band-pass filter cuts down low and high frequencies, allowing only specific mid-frequencies. This filter is mainly used to create telephonic sounds or sounds from an old radio.
- One can completely transform a sound using all these filters and oscillators.
Preset Browsing and Search.
You can also save your own design or favorite preset in the plugin. This way, you will be able to find your desired sounds quickly instead of roaming about here and there in the library. The plugin also allows you to name your saved preset according to your own will.
Advanced Library.
The preset library of the reFX Nexus 4 has become more advanced. It has made it easy to find the desired presets for your projects. Different types of presets are divided into folders and sub-folders. To make this even easier and faster, the user can rate every preset and fix its nature. For this purpose, the user is given 6 dots after every preset, which become colored when they click on them. In this, the user can set the category of every preset according to his or her taste. You can also search presets by writing their name in the search panel. You can also rename the presets according to your own will.
Expansions
Nexus 4 is a limited plugin. To increase its ability, reFX also provides expansions, which you can buy and install in your plugin. When you first buy, the plugin offers 32 GB of presets and 64 GB of presets. If you buy the complete Nexus package, then it provides 250 GB. Besides these presets, Nexus constantly releases new expansion packs designed according to every genre of music. So you can say that Nexus 4 by reFX is only one plugin that goes for all.
Honest Review of reFX Nexus 4
The reFX Nexus 4 is a very good synth and sound generator. It has some advantages and some drawbacks.
Advantages
- Nexus 4 has quality sound presets crucial for modern music production. Their quality is good compared to other synths.
- This synth’s factory sound presets are very good. They include all the sounds essential for music production and film scoring. In addition to these presets, the Nexus constantly releases new expansion packs, so this synth has unlimited sounds.
- The plugin is very easy to use
- It has a user-friendly interface
- It has less load on the CPU than other VSTs.
- This one plugin works with all genres of music, whether rap, hip-hop, EDM, Pop, rock, DNB, techno, future base, etc. You don’t have to buy a bundle of plugins to produce different types of songs.
Drawbacks
- reFX Nexus 4 is a very costly plugin. In the old days, music production was impossible without the gears and studios. So, at that time, only a few people were involved in music production. But as technology became more advanced, music production became possible in computers. Nowadays, everyone can start producing music because it is easy and requires less money. So, nowadays, people need less expensive means to produce music. In this regard, the price of Nexus 4 VST is very high. Common producers can’t afford it.
- Its expansions are not free.
- This plugin requires more HD space on the disk.
Mac minimum system requirements
- Audio Unit, VST, VST3 or AAX host software
- Apple Silicon M1 (native) or Intel 2.0 GHz processor
- 8 GB of RAM (16 GB or more highly recommended)
- Display with 1024-by-768 or higher resolution
- macOS 10.13 and later, including macOS Sonoma
- Internet connection to download license
- 64-bit only
PC minimum system requirements
- VST, VST3 or AAX host software
- Pentium class 2.0 GHz 64-bit processor
- 8 GB of RAM (16 GB or more highly recommended)
- Display with 1024-by-768 or higher resolution
- Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11
- Internet connection to download license
- 64-bit only
Compatible host software
- FL Studio
- Logic Pro X / GarageBand
- Ableton Live
- Cubase / Nuendo
- Reason 10 or later
- Pro Tools 11 or later
- Bitwig Studio
- Studio One
- Sonar 6 or later
- Reaper 2 or later
- Digital Performer 4.1 or later
- Renoise 2 or later
- ACID Pro 6 or later
- Orion 5 or later
- NI Maschine
