Guitars are highly versatile instruments.
They’re the backbone of both death metal and meditative strumming. With any number of amplifiers and effects, you can turn a simple guitar note into anything.
So, it’s no surprise that you can use guitars to a heavy extent in cinematic worldbuilding. Whether you’re making a lighter ambience that requires simple, light arpeggios or a darker world that requires a wall of harsh sound, guitars can absolutely fill both of those needs with enough post processing. Of course, playing the guitar is a skill in and of itself, and guitars definitely aren’t the cheapest instruments on the market. So, often, producers will just resort to post processing samples or MIDI guitars.
Now, there’s another option: CINEDREAM by UJAM.
This plugin is the first ever fully intended to create cinematic guitar soundscapes. The UJAM team claims you can turn a single note into an evolving atmosphere, and the plugin features a wide variety of phrases and post-processing effects to drive your creativity forward. Just like normal guitars, the plugin is highly versatile and can be used in any capacity.
Also, in case you didn’t know, UJAM is the plugin company that was co-founded by Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams. So, if they’re putting something out that says it can help you build cinematic soundscapes, then you should probably listen. Zimmer, after all, is one of the greatest film scorers of all time. When he speaks about soundscapes, you listen.
Let’s play with CINEDREAM!
Disclaimer
I’m a fairly quick learner a lot of the time, but CINEDREAM took me a while (and is still taking me a while) to figure out.
The user guide is amazing, and there are some absolutely phenomenal tutorials online for it. But, a lot of my problems really stemmed from one major detriment.
I currently produce in a cramped apartment bedroom. I do not have much space at all. I currently use a very compact 25-key MIDI keyboard – specifically this one, which, by the way, I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a 25-key keyboard. This becomes an issue with CINEDREAM for one main reason: it’s programmed to be usable from C1 to C5. I only have two octaves on my keyboard. Thus, I’ve lost some usability.
Now, it’s not the end of the world. I can play most every note that the plugin offers in two octaves, and I can also use the mouse to select specific keys on the plugin’s layout. But, not having my left hand available to select phrases in real time is pretty unfortunate. You’ll see what I mean in a second.
Should this disclaimer deter you from getting this plugin? Absolutely not. This is just a problem that I quickly ran into, and I’d be failing at my job as a journalist if I didn’t disclose this right from the start.
I’d also like to give a massive shoutout to this video right here. This is a really in-depth guide that I actually used and learned from when I was struggling to pick everything up on my own. Go show Creative Sauce some love!
Player & Instrument Mode
So, the first thing to note is that this is a PLAYER instrument. It’s not your average VST where you can just play notes like normal; this one has a bunch of phrases and MIDIs coded in, so all you have to do is a hit a note or a chord on your keyboard and you’ve got a full guitar phrase already.
Here’s what you’re going to want to know first: in Player mode, the keyboard on the bottom is split into two because the left half handles what kind of phrase your guitar will play (there are common phrases, which are like your average 1/8th notes and 1/4th notes, and style phrases, which are special for each guitar style in the plugin – more on those in a minute) and the right half handles the notes. You can change the style of the phrases and guitar itself by clicking the Style dropdown slider – there are a bunch to choose from.
I’m mostly going to be talking about Player mode in this review, as I found Instrument mode very hard to work with on my current keyboard. That mode lets you click on a chord on the right side and lets you play that chord in different articulations (as well as playing singular notes in that chord) with your left hand. For my workflow, where I like to have total control over what notes I can and cannot play at a given time, it’s pretty hard to use with only a 2-octave keyboard.
If I wanted to play notes in a chord in Instrument mode and then switch that chord, I’d have to rapidly change the octave setting on my keyboard to make it work. It’s far easier for me to just use Player mode, where I can have complete control over the notes I play and just control what phrase plays from my computer.
Again, I say none of this to deter you from getting CINEDREAM. The biggest part of my job is, once again, that I give you my honest opinions of a product. And, again, this may only be a problem for control freaks like me.
Enough of that. Let’s talk layout.
Layout
As you can see above, the layout of the plugin is fairly simple. We’ve already spoken about the bottom quarter of it, so let’s handle the top part.
Everything in orange will effect the raw sound of the guitar, while everything in blue effects the post processing. The contour knob affects the envelope of the sound; go right, and the guitar sound gets longer. Go left, and it gets shorter and applies a slower attack. The character knob handles the sound’s timbre; you can make it as soft or as hard as you’d like. Tune handles the tuning of the guitar to a very precise detail (it’d be super easy to make microtonal sounds with this), and variance adds realism to the strumming.
Lastly, the Stomp Box acts as sort of a pedalboard. You’ll find everything from filters to distortions and more in there. There are quite a few options; try them all out and see what works! You can control how much it impacts the sound with the knob to the left. (Note that sound comes through the Stomp Box AFTER the amplifier.)
On the right, you can pick several different types of amplifiers (all of which are wildly different), and determine how much it impacts your sound with the drive knob. Focus applies an EQ with four different frequency ranges (the further left, the lower the frequencies, and leaving it in the middle bypasses it), and the width knob allows you to double your signal.
Lastly, the Finisher adds a final effect to your sound. These range from massive reverbs to something close to a trance gate. Just like with the stomp box, it’s worth playing around with these. There are so many (as you can see), and they can turn your guitar from a guitar into an unintelligible sound. The real fun in this plugin happens with this knob.
There are also a ton of factory presets loaded up to get you started. These range from normal guitars, to otherworldly pads, to dark, brooding atmospheres. They’re all good indicators of what CINEDREAM is capable of.
That’s mostly it. It combines normal acoustic guitar processing with wild sound design possibilities, all in one compact package.
Usage
So, after I figured out what I was doing, I had a TON of fun with CINEDREAM. This synth really pushes guitar to the limits.
I had a lot of fun playing with different finishers and amps, turning normal acoustic guitar into harsh walls of sound. I also think the raw guitar sounds coming out of the plugin sound excellent; I don’t know where they’re sampled from, but they’re good enough to drag and drop into a song without any processing. The real fun comes when you destroy them, though!
I will say that, while it’s possible to play your own melodies if you select a phrase that just plays one note repeatedly, I’d forgo doing that and just use CINEDREAM for chords and ambiances. It’s definitely doable, but a bit of a headache, and it’s best when you just play static notes and chords.
Below is a sample track I’ve made. I used four different guitar sounds here: a normal guitar, a gritty bass with some dark undertones, a hard rock-y lead, and a washed out, shimmery guitar pad. You can hear all ends of the spectrum here; from recognizable guitar to near-unrecognizable ambiences.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m looking forward to playing more and more with it, and find ways to include it in my upcoming projects!
Pros & Cons
Pros:
It’s wildly flexible and sounds great.
Quality and creativity are hallmarks of UJAM’s brand. No surprises here, there’s a lot of it to go around. I’m curious to see what some people end up making with this!
It’s cheap!
CINEDREAM is $40 USD, and they offer a free trial. For what you’re getting, that is an UNBELIEVABLE deal. I easily could have seen them selling this for a hundred dollars more.
Cons:
The whole “my keyboard” thing.
I’ve talked about this enough, so I won’t go into it again. But, if your workflow requires you be able to control everything with your hands (like for me) and you don’t have a 5-octave MIDI keyboard, you may struggle with this plugin. I also may be a massive crybaby, and this may not actually be an issue for a lot of people. That’s up for you to decide.
It takes a toll on the CPU.
From my experience, there’s a lot of processing going on here. I’m lucky to have a pretty solid computer that can run it, but I’d make sure you can run the plugin before you make a purchase, as there’s a lot of work going on under the hood. And, as always, prepare to freeze tracks.
Conclusion: Should you get it?
Considering that I really enjoyed it even with hardware limitations, I think CINEDREAM is worth a purchase if you want a great guitar player instrument, or a new ambience machine. It’s high quality, inspiring, and cheap: three signs of a great product.
Buy CINEDREAM here.
Ben Lepper is a music producer and journalist from Boston, Massachusetts.
