HEAVYOCITY - EVOLVE - Feel The EVOL

Got a lot of response from people about the OMNISPHERE blog I posted so I thought I would try and keep up with all the stuff I buy and use – talk about the stuff that works for me. Talk about things that will improve your life, make you a better man, help you better understand the intricacies of choosing a qualified running mate.

When it comes to learning a new interface, my level of patience is on a par with a pissed off Bill O’Reilly. I load the new software up and just start poking at it until something oozes out. Apparently I have time to write blogs but not fiddle with software or read manuals. Because of this unbecoming flaw, I like software well organized, easy to use, with simple interfaces, big buttons - things a monkey(or a tv composer) can use even if their faculties have been – uh, compromised.
So I loaded up Heavyocity’s EVOLVE (www.heavyocity.com) – and btw – I tried real hard to come with some clever pun on the title involving the word LOVE and EVOLVE but kept getting stuck on EVOL which I realize is love backwards but figured you’d rather hear about the product than me complaining about the “jumbled word syndrome” I’m seeing a doctor about.

Heard about the product from a composer friend who heard from other composers in LA who are using it and loving it. I figured I should rush out and get it so I could sound like everyone else in LA and land that next weight loss reality show gig. Fingers crossed! You gotta buy EVOLVE direct from the website - $400 – no street price –– Heavyocity tells me they have made a distribution deal and it will be in stores soon. (Translation: cheaper???)

EVOLVE runs in Kontakt 2 - so that’s easy. It’s made by composers who know what it takes to score 4,000 minutes of music in a day. It’s geared towards tv/film/game composers who like to be dramatic. Wishy washy, namby pamby, “I’ll just score this bandsaw decapitation scene with flute and harp” maestros need not apply. The website blurbs claim it works on dance remix material as well but it didn’t strike me that way on my first pass but I’ll give it a spin around the block on this techno record I’m doing and let you know how it turns out.

THE ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:
Great sounding hits, FX, weirdness, rhythmic and tonal sequences that are well organized, easy to find and well suited for dramatic scoring.
Should you get it? 99% Yes. The only people who might not need it is the few freaks who already own 20 other pieces of software like both Storm Drums, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, both original Distorted Reality sample CDs, another 100 sample CDs, and a bunch of other weird shit – and these people have spent 6 long months pulling the best stuff off them and reorganizing them into an easy to use interface in categories that make sense, making sure all the looped material syncs correctly to your sequencer, all the levels are balanced, blah blah blah. If you’ve done that, you can probably live without EVOLVE. The rest of us will buy Evolve and spend our time writing music and making money.

EVOLVE isn’t a band in a box. Evolve is the cherry on top, the specialty freaky groove in the middle, the ominous on the bottom, the bitch slap when you need it. There are no strings, brass, or other typical bullshit. Evolve is meant to slip over the top of your usual instrumental genius - kind of like a musical condom - only this one has sharp creepy prongy things on it.
EVOLVE comes as instruments and multis – so I loaded a multi first cuz I’m lazy– they have descriptive names like Trailer Smash or Ghost Stories. I threw some keys down in Logic for each of the 8 parts and had a scary weird cue done in about 5 minutes. It didn’t have much pitch or melody but then again if you add this to your habitual cheesy string parts I think you’ve got yourself an Emmy nod. I then tried an experiment where I loaded a new multi and kept the exact same midi tracks and voila! Another scary weird cue done. I muted one part cuz it was just too weird but the rest of it wasn’t bad. Time for me to enlist my gardener writing cues! I tell ya, loading up one of their multis really gives you about all you’ll need to amp up your track. I like things that are quick, easy and make me feel good. That’s why I like beer and girls with big boobs.

LIBRARY CONTENTS:
Looped grooves tonal, rhythmic, weird: real nice stuff in here. Definitely usable. One groove per key so you can just keep adding keys until you run out of fingers. Want more intensity? Have more fingers sewn onto your hands – do I have to think up everything for you?
Don’t be fooled by names in the rhythmic grooves section that say things like Tambourines or Hand Percussion – these have all been effected and fucked with so they aren’t your grandpa’s perc (there are some traditional instruments in the “Traditional” folder but you already own all that stuff.)
Don’t look for traditional rock drum kits – the kits here are all high on acid. Look for the unique here not the mundane.

HITS – I like hits that make me rectally bleed. And the hits here are top notch. I had to double up on my Depends just to get thru them all. In fact, although I said there weren’t many trad instruments – there is a bass drum that is the best I’ve ever heard. Not that washy, tubby, boomy realistic, authentic sound – but a ballsy, slappy, belly fat slap sound you can really rattle the viewers with. Kind of like the big Remo tom on Storm Drum 2 only better!
METALS & CYMBALS – Heavyocity knocked this shit out of the park. I am so sick of regular cymbal whooshes I wish I couldn’t hear above 2k. A while ago, I went so far as to effect my own cymbals so I didn’t have to use the same old thing again. Well, Heavyocity did it here too only they did it better. Prepare yourself for soggy Levis my friends.
The Dumpster Scrapes are the Distorted Reality sounds for 2009. Updated, rougher, meaner. I mean these scrapes are from the streets! You can almost smell the decaying food and discarded hookers in the dumpster they sampled. Use these now or forever be branded boring.
ODD NOISE & BUILDUPS – lots of different ideas in here. Ignorance alert! And I fully admit I write music and not software – but since these are all one shots that whoosh up to a climax, why make me waste my time backtiming the effect to land in the right place when a bit of programming would release the climax part when I release the key? That would make me happy. And when I’m happy, I drink less – no, wait – maybe I drink more – whatever – the point is for a piece of software meant for composers, everything needs to be geared towards saving time.

BASSES – there are only a few so you should really rely on your old standbys not Evolve. The few they threw in have standouts like Gnarly Piano Gods and Nuclear Bass Strike. Those 2 patches made me think that I want a section called something like “Final Notes” – huge, cranium exploding single notes that you would use to accent a very dramatic moment – like THE END! I do things like those 2 patches all the time but it takes me 10 minutes to stack the 5 synths and samples to make it. Evolve needs more of them.
There are a couple of drone type things but they didn’t really rock my world. Again, they’re fine but you probably have something better somewhere else. And I have a nit to pick about any synth or sound design patch made by anyone out there. Why doesn’t every programmer make my mod wheel do something? It is so ingrained in me to play a pad, a drone, etc and reach for the mod wheel expecting something extra to happen. I don’t know why I do it because most of the time no one has assigned the controller to do anything. But still I keep on twiddling my wheel hoping for some hot action. Now Heavyocity has done a pretty good job of assigning the mod wheel on quite a few patches but it seemed to me that it missed some opportunities. I’m not talking something fancy – hell, resonance only would be fine – I know I could assign it myself – but that slows me down – and if 1,000 composers have to do the same thing then we’ve all wasted time – time that could have been better spent smoking weed and watching Soul Train.
Lots of strange and different sounds can be found throughout. I have no idea why there’s an unaffected Toy Xylophone in the library – kind of oddly normal for the rest of the collection but still it’s A REALLY NICE TOY XYLOPHONE. There’s a bunch of female opera licks – again, surprised me to find it but when you need a diva hitting the high notes – you’ll be glad they are there. There’s a Pads and FX section – limited but good quality (alas almost no mod wheel assigning). It won’t replace Omnisphere by any stretch but they aren’t trying to. A lot of the collection feels like these sounds were created throughout the careers of the composers behind the software and they’ve pulled the best of them together in this collection. Sure, it’s eclectic but if you’ve created a killer Toy Xylophone, why not spread the love?

Overall, Evolve covers a lot of ground for the dramatically hip. The action/energy grooves are really great, the single hits fantastic, and the scary/weird factor is covered extremely well. Evolve has become my defacto sound design generator. But don’t expect this collection to be the only thing you need to land that Oscar. So lay it on top of your VSL, EWQLSO or your trip hop didgeridoo collection and sit back and wait for that call from the Wachowski brothers.