So you've got the basics down into your MIDI sequencer, fiddled about with some effects and arranged all the separate parts into some semblance of order. But something's still lacking. You went out of your way to quantize as little as you could but still that magic human feel has gone.

This is the situation that many electronic music makers have to face on a daily basis because when it comes to reproducing those licks and phrases that a guitarist or woodwind player can pull off with their eyes closed can take hours of mind numbing hard work within the MIDI event edit window of your sequencer.

That's where Flex Processor comes in. An ingenious piece of software from Cesium Sound that promises to help revolutionise the way in which those seemingly impossible to produce but oh so important twiddly bits are created and implemented within the framework of your latest masterpiece.

So what is it? Well, it's what is commonly known as a gesture synthesizer, which means that it is capable of simulating the kind of phrases we mentioned earlier by using a number of sophisticated methods to modify pitch bend and other MIDI controller data. So what would take possibly hours to create bit by bit can now be produced in real time using the joystick and programmable pitch wheel on your keyboard.

I must say that at first glance I wondered what I was letting myself in for, having mastered most every kind of MIDI software currently available I really thought I'd seen it all. Most of the terms and parameters meant little or nothing to me, and it wasn't until I actually used it to help produce a particularily impressive flourish while playing a solo phrase that I realised what it actually did.

To get an idea of what this software is really capable of I suggest that you take a listen to a CD available from Cesium Sound which contains ten tracks of amazing music made possible in part by this amazing new tool. For a review go here.