There aren't too many decent guitar plug-ins around, and those that are on the market often provide limited possibilities or are way too overpriced for bedroom-producers. Recently, MusicRow launched a brand new package that should solve this problem. Magic Vox is presented as a handy little tool to easily implement a variety of guitar sounds into your productions. Finally a proper guitar tool to spice up tour tunage? 365Mag went to take the test.

I tested Magic Vox in both Cubase and Ableton Live 7 with an additional drum sampler but without any additional controllers or external sound modules. Installing and setting up the plug-in is a piece of cake: just place the .DLL and other files into your common VST folder and off you go. In both sequencers, Magic Vox can easily be added to a MIDI track after which the interface in the form of an amplifier automatically pops up. The lay-out is very clear but, at first sight, very limited. In the center of the interface are two screens in which you can select up to two guitars of choice. Included in these options are some world-famous guitars such as the Gibson LP Amped, the Gibson 335 and the Fender Tele. Selecting two guitars to be played at the same time gives a well-balanced clash, after which one can adjust the attack, release and volume of each guitar separately with the buttons above the screens. So far for overall mixing. The buttons located under these screens offer a bit more options to properly mix your sound. I'm not sure why 'granular' is spelled as 'granlar' and delay as 'deley', but these minor errors aside, these buttons should provide a more in-depth mixage. Or should they?

It soon enough becomes clear that these buttons (or switches, like those found on a regular guitar amp), do affect both guitars at the same time without offering the possibility to adjust each one separately. The Magic and Granular switches only seem to work occasionally, but the Distortion switch adds a real dirty effect to the guitars, perfect for mixing electronics with rock. The detune switch on the far right on the panel can be used for slight pitch changes, although it's a bit too limited. Overall speaking, these basic options are a bit too limited to really squeeze out a series of rock-solid guitar jams.

Combining and adjusting the digital guitars isn't exactly done in a jiffy, but what fun it is to play around, isn't it? At first, the guitars do not sound like guitars anyway, but twisting the knobs efficiently might get you a proper result. Luckily, Music Voc comes with a series of soundbanks for further experimentation. And this is where Music Vox's true value can be found. There's plenty of stuff to choose from, with the banks ranging from organs to keyboards and even a handful of synth sounds. Selecting a sound bank changes the overall sound played, after which you can modulate the sounds by selecting your guitars of choice. After a few moments of playing around, I eventually ended up with a nice series of hardrock, funk, and deep bass sounds that properly matched to my pre-made beats. It all sounded a bit static, lacking the organic flow of a real-life instrument, but it certainly increased the will to rock. As Magic Vox does not include the option to finalize your sound on-the-fly with the help of phasers and fades, it is suggested you do so with the help of your sequencer or audio effect plug-ins. Overall speaking, Music Row has found an original way to combine organs and keys with guitars, thereby providing some well cool sounds to be used in any genre.

Overall speaking, Magic Vox has become an affordable solution to your guitar needs. It requires some modulation before the result can be called usable, but play around for a while and you sure will end up with some cool riffs.

Magic Vox ships at € 79 / USD 99.