All-in-one software studios such as Propellerhead Software's mega-hit Reason have come of age. Arturia's Storm is one of the breakthrough programs paving the way. It combines customizable synthesis, sampling, effects, and sequencing in a relatively easy-to-use package, despite poor documentation.

Charming innovations such as the Virtual Scratch Deck make Storm worth more than a second look. The program works on Windows 95 and 98 platforms and is available in French, English, and German language versions. Arturia, a small software company from Grenoble, France, says it plans to release a Mac version. Storm is pretty addictive and does a lot for its $199 list price. We give it three out of five stars.

The goods

One of the best things about Storm is its five killer drum machines. You'll find everything from acoustic and Latin percussion to traditional electro-style TR-808 and TR-909 sounds. Four of these modules function much the way old-school beat boxes do. One of them, the Tsunami, is completely different.

The Tsunami is an analog synth-based drum machine. You can tweak its "knobs" to make all sorts of crazy sounds -- from deep and booming to sharp and resonant. If you're sequencing beats on Tsunami and manipulating its knobs at the same time, these on-the-fly changes will be saved to your pattern. This sounds awesome and brings to mind the futuristic mood of Kraftwerk's music. Way cool!

The Storm's Arsenic bass line and its Equinoxe chord synth have the same basic synth engine, except Equinoxe uses three oscillators. These are adequate modules, but lack high- and low-end punch, especially compared to Reason's filter-laden synthesizer module.

Two other add-on synths are available as free downloads after you register your full version. This is brilliant. We like the ability to continuously upgrade. Let's face it -- using programs that keep up with new technologies just makes sense.

If variety is the spice of life, Arturia was right on the mark with Storm's palette of effects boxes. Obviously, the designers weren't going for the run-of-the-mill bill of effects, since the basic reverb unit is only available as a free download for registered users. However, they did include some interesting and super-useable effects. Our favorites are the Ring Mod (which adds a metallic ring to sounds) and Sequence Filter (which functions as a step modulator).

Out of the two sample players Storm offers, we grooved on the Virtual Scratch Deck the most. It plays loops on two "turntables" that you can manipulate for "scratching" with simple mouse clicks and drags. You can also move sliders on its mixer for discreet play. Although it's not the real deal, it's fun and has an interesting sound.

You load samples for both the Virtual Scratch Deck and the H3OPlus during the studio building process. You can drag-and-drop samples into each machine on the fly with the easy access pop-up sample window.

As we said earlier, this program gives you the power to customize your own studio in a virtual rack. Unlike Reason, where you can slap in as many modules and effects as your computer will allow, Storm only has four spaces for sound modules and three spaces for effects. Unfortunately this is hard-wired into the program. Maybe Arturia will change this limitation with one of its upgrades.

Sequencing and songwriting

Most of the modules offer only sixteen 1/16-note measures. This is kind of a drag, because you have to resort to using two individual patterns to make one (thirty-two 1/32-note) pattern when working with double-time for jungle and drum-and-bass applications. However, the H30Plus sample player lets you sequence up to four measures per pattern

After you've created enough patterns to suit your needs, you can make a song with ease. To start, click the record button at the top of the screen and start the five-track sequencer. Four of these tracks are devoted to your sound modules, and the last is for effects and mixing.

All knob movements are smoothly captured in record mode. This means that any tweaks you make on the modules are saved as a part of the recording process per track. If you copy certain measures onto a track, all of the knob tweaks you make are duplicated with the note data.

All five sequencer tracks are played together as a large loop. Drag-and-drop functionality makes duplicating phrases a snap. Unfortunately you can't cut your patterns up into loop "slices" the way you can on Reason, but you can make some freaky time changes using the oddly named quantize slider. This works like a groove function, which can give your beats a more natural, sloppy feel. This function also lets you trim notes off of selected measures.

We created a song using onboard sounds that were tweaked slightly. You can download an MP3 of it by clicking here.

The lowdown

The designers who created this program did a great job. For all intents and purposes, Storm is as tight and bug-free as anything made by Propellerheads, it just lacks some of the versatility and functionality that Reason has. We really like Storm, and we look forward to future releases from Arturia.

Summary: This is a fun and relatively easy-to-use music software package. Great drum sounds and cool sampling functionality.

Pros: Awesome analog style Tsunami drum machine. Fun Virtual Scratch Deck sample player. Sweet-sounding unusual effects. Inexpensive.

Cons: Poor documentation, which could be a source of frustration for beginners. Limited studio rack. Synths lack punch and character. Restrictive recording functions.

Creator: Arturia

Available: Now

List price $199

System requirements: Windows 95 or 98; 300 MHz PIII; 64MB RAM; any soundcard that's compatible with DirectX.