Obscurium

When creating music, most producers quickly decide that just using the sounds and effects provided by a DAW (digital audio workstation) is not enough. It’s not that DAWs aren’t powerful enough, just that, when looking for specific sounds, it may be easier, quicker and more practical to get some help from “outside”.

By this, of course, I’m referring to VSTs (Virtual Studio Technology) which are more advanced plug-ins that you can use with your DAW. If, for example, you were looking for a more futuristic sound, a VST like Obscurium would be more than recommended.

Obscurium does look like it comes from the future, but once you start playing it, you can’t help but feel that it has a certain a retro sound. You can immediately start playing music by clicking the keyboard in the lower part of the interface, or you can use a MIDI controller if it helps you produce a more organic sound.

That being said, you don’t really notice how insanely powerful Obscurium is until you start playing with the parameters. All those colored little dots that make up most of the interface represent different sound parameters that you can easily move around. In fact, this is such an important part of the program that you actually have four different tools to help you “draw” parameters and constantly modify your music.

Thankfully, you can activate Obscurium’s tooltips from the main interface, so that each of the program’s many functions are explained. And if you think you don’t yet possess the creativity needed to make music from scratch, the VST comes with over 400 presets that you can explore and adjust.

There’s no doubt that the program is designed to appeal to people with solid music theory knowledge and at least some basic production skills. But it’s the fact it can also be used by a novice (with a lot of curiosity and just a few lucky clicks) to create something that sounds just a bit rhythmic and melodic that makes Obscurium a truly spectacular virtual instrument.