Solina String Ensemble – new sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt 4
Binary Music announces the release of Solina String Ensemble sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt 4.
Originally manufactured in 1974, by Dutch company Eminent, and later, under licence by ARP, it was an immediate success across a wide spectrum of music, with users including David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Parliament, Air, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and The Cure.
Every note of each voice (Violin, Viola, Horn, Trumpet, Cello and Contrabass), has been sampled at 44.1 kHz, 24 bit resolution.
Two distinct versions are included – one sampled with the original modulation and three round-robins per note, and one sampled without modulation, but with modulation recreated using Kontakt’s scripting and effects.
Available as an instant download, price: £15.00 (approx. $23 U.S. or €18) + VAT in E.U.
Full details and audio demos at: http://www.binarymusic.co.uk/solina.html
The Completion – real time modular
A generative real-time recording of the modular synthesizer and Kontakt5.
The synthesizers.com Q172 quantizer Aid module is sending midi pitch data back into my DAW (Steinberg’s Cubase 6) and I’m routing it to Kontakt 5 with an instance of Sonic Couture’s “Bowed Piano” sample sets. I also routed the midi through to the Yamaha TX816 with 8 modules playing a superb piano rendering.
Days worth of patching on the modular for everything else.
Some modules of note are the Ken Stone BiNTic filter/oscillator, J.Haible Tau “Pipe” phaser, Ian Fritz ChaQuO and 5 Pulser, two CGS01 sub oscillators and one CGS01 in Harmonic Sequencer mode.The HS mode is generating the pitch data for the formerly described piano patches and the high pitched sliding sounds in the background.
The dotcom sequencers and STG sequencers are producing voltages for the BiNTic dark ambient industrial sounds in the background.
A final white noise to the Q107 filter, Sputnik VCS, Cynthia QLPG, SSL digital delay and Oakley Deep Equinoxe phaser and STG signal amps round out the sound voices.
Epic-Epic – new free sound library for Kontakt
Audio Genetics Lab has released Epic-Epic, a free sound library for Kontakt.
Here’s what they have to say about Epic-Epic:
All audio demos are produced entirely with the Epic Epic library and do not use any extra processing other than reverb ,EQ ,compression, volume automation, imaging, more reverb, limiting, delays, analog hardware panning ,a Reaktor patch that sounds great but who knows what its really doing, a few interns for getting coffee, a Palindrometer, deep meditation, and the luck of the Irish.
That’s pretty much what it takes to get a clean, up-front epic sound, these days.
Details at the Audio Genetics Lab site.
Skyline – Analog Keys and Rhythms for Kontakt
Rhythmic Robot has released Skyline Analog Keys and Rhythms for Kontakt.
Skyline is sampled from a rare Italian GIS Skyline keyboard. The Skyline was an early 70s analog keyboard-and-rhythms combo machine with 3 combinable keyboard tones (giving it a grand total of 7 sounds) and six preset analog rhythms. It was a strikingly designed instrument, with a contoured and beveled matte black case standing on twin columns attached to a pedestal base. The casing also housed an amp and twin speakers, which helped to take the edge off the transistor sound and gave the Skyline a surprisingly sweet, warm tone.
Rhythmic Robot’s sampled version of the instrument samples all of the tones and their combinations, ensuring that combined tones sound exactly as they do on the original Skyline (rather than recreating them in Kontakt). It also contains the Preset Rhythms, which have been sliced and are fully sync-able to host DAW tempo – and also can be combined for multi-rhythms. In addition to the Preset Rhythms there are individual kit piece hits for the rhythm tones, which have been multi sampled and are triggered randomly to avoid machine-gunning.
Skyline incorporates some carefully-chosen effects accessible from the front panel, with Compression and Level controls for the Rhythm section, and Tube saturation, Vibrato and envelope Attack and Decay for the keyboard sounds, plus a lush Chorus. Although the original Skyline was mono, the sampled version includes a subtle stereo spread from the low notes to the highs. Output can be run through an amp cab simulator for an extra “live” feel.
Features:
- All 7 possible keyboard tones sampled at 24-bit.
- All 6 analog preset rhythms sampled.
- Rhythms freely combinable and will automatically sync to host tempo.
- Compression and Level controls for rhythms.
- Tube saturation, Vibrato, envelope Attack and Decay, and amp cab simulation built in.
- Stereo spread tracks keyboard position for subtle width.
Price: £8.95.
Compatible with Kontakt version 4.2.3 and above (including Kontakt 5). Not compatible with Kontakt Player.
Drawbar 350 – homage to the original Stylophone 350S
Rhythmic Robot has released Drawbar 350, a unique analogue drawbar organ instrument created from the overheated transistors of the enormous Stylophone 350S.
Drawbar 350 is both a homage to the original Stylophone 350S and a departure from it. You can imitate the original 350 perfectly by simply treating the drawbars as on / off switches – either fully out of fully in – and leaving the envelope controls set to minimum. (And why not? It’s a classic, after all!) Or you can go to town and create washes, pads, soundscapes and textures. Or you can turn the whole thing up to 11 for a really aggressive, Punk 70s sound that all but leaps out of the speakers and strangles you.
The Drawbar 350 is without doubt a snarling, spitting, angry character at heart, full of attitude and malice. But we’ve given you the tools to tame it and bend it to your will. It’s a sound that you simply won’t find anywhere else: original and dangerous. Welcome to the world of the Drawbar 350.
Drawbar 350 features
- All eight voicings of the Stylophone 350S sampled at 24-bit.
- Drawbar control replaces the toggle-switches with 12-stage blend-able drawbars.
- Voices: Woodwind 16″, 8″, 4″, 2″; Brass 16″, 8″; Strings 4″, 2″.
- Transistor organ sound enhanced by specifically-chosen effects processors.
- Bite, Anger, Fury and Vibe settings to roughen or tame the sound.
Drawbar 350 for Kontakt (full version 4.2.3 or later required) is available to purchase for £8.95 GBP.
Free Synth Collection For Kontakt & EXS24
Audio Zombie has released a collection of free synth patches for both Kontakt and EXS24:
AZ SimpleSynths is a collection of synth instruments for both Kontakt and Exs24 software samplers. This collection offers a number of typical synth instruments for electronic music
production.
I used Es2 synth for sound design here and modulation for each sound has been
made with Es2. So i made no use of samplers filters or fx all you get here are synth
instruments sampled from Es2 synth which i programmed. Of course you can make
use of samplers filters or fx’s if you want to or when it’s needed.
You can preview the patches above. They are available as a free download from the AZ blog.
Glorious 8-bit sound of the Cheetah SpecDrum for Kontakt
Rhythmic Robot’s has released SpecDrum 2000, a 24-bit sampled Kontakt instrument of the Cheetah SpecDrumand its three add-on sound packs.
The SpecDrum was Cheetah’s first foray into drum machines, pre-dating its popular MD8 and MD16 hardware units, and took the form of a hardware expansion to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer. Once the SpecDrum expander had been plugged into the Spectrum’s expansion port, the user could load up dedicated drum pattern editing software that played the eight onboard samples of the SpecDrum. These were 8-bit samples of real instruments. The add-on sound packs came on cassette, and could load in three further drum kits: Afro, Latin and Electro.
SpecDrum 2000 samples all four kits at 24-bit quality and spreads them across four octaves for instant access. The UI allows access to level, pan and tuning controls for the kit pieces, plus a group of Effects which operate across the whole kit. These comprise Tube saturation, Drive distortion, Bit-reduction (to take those 8 bits down even further) and buss compression. Subtle velocity control of kit piece volume is built in for “humanising” if needed.
STN L.E.W.D – Low End Warp Device Demo
“Following on from the STN layering concept I bring thee L.E.W.D.”
A 4 oscillator (layer) Drum and Bass module dedicated to creating the lowest of low basses and the biggest of all 808 thumping kicks. BUT, it is a lot more than that and the only way to show you is for you to check the demo….Featuring WOBBLE and WAVER effects, 3 levels of SATURATION, LOW END DRIVING, WIDENING and BOUNCE….
The idea behind L.E.W.D was to create an aesthetically and fully functional low end bass and kick module that would have the type of controls that I selfishly wanted. Ease of use and ‘fun’ were the main criteria for developing this product.
To be able to dynamically affect every layer on the fly appealed to me greatly.
Chaining specific effects and dynamics into single function knobs and dials not only makes it easy to run deep edits on the go but it makes for a much more pleasing approach to sound design. Additionally, the whole concept of making everything simple and beautiful gave me an insight into how to design a functioning GUI whilst maintaining control. The decision to chain and condense effects and dynamics into single functions was made to help beginners and intermediates understand and utilize commonly desired processes.
The real power of L.E.W.D lies in the layering process. Each kick and sine layer has been meticulously processed to layer both in tune and harmonically with each other. Using phase cancellation, polarity inversion and M/S, specific frequencies have been dug out and others enriched so that when applying heavy overdriving and saturation effects the results are both genuine unique.
Aqua – new collection of pads, textures and motions for Native Instruments Kontakt
Citron Instruments has announced the release of Aqua, a collection of pads, textures and motions for Native Instruments Kontakt.
Aqua has wide and liquid sounds, clear and ergonomic user interface, high quality and new principles of the instrument control. All of this is Aqua, the 1st element of the library.
Aqua features
- Includes Pads, Textures and Motions.
- Format: NI Kontakt 4,5 (Full Version).
- 500 Mb (NCW Compression).
- Flexible layering of sounds.
- Easy and intuitive use.
- Effects: LP and HP filters, stereo widener, reverberation.
Aqua for Kontakt is currently available to purchase for 59 EUR (price will go up to 79 EUR at future update).
Check out the new Synth Magic Polychrome
http://youtu.be/JA5vw1aqa50
Quick demo of Synth Magics Polychrome instrument.
A synth based on the Farfisa Polychrome for Kontakt 4.2.4 and above including kontakt 5.
Available at www.synthmagic.co.uk
More interesting though is perhaps to read the comments to this video, and I must say I am tempted to agree:
Doesn’t sound like a Polychrome to me. What was used for reference? Seriously. Maybe one of the demo tracks features something a bit like the choir section. Osc sync – what? How about recreating the paraphonic envelope? Isolate each section for a demo. If it’s good, the sound itself will sell it alone – not polished tracks with other instruments. Where’s the chorus ensemble effect – the phaser – tremolo? All hallmarks. Couldn’t hear any attempt at that.
This video shows the Farfisa Polychrome played with a Roland DEP-5 FX processor for delay effects.
The Farfisa Polychrome from 1979 is one of the rarest Farfisa keyboards. It is a flexible string synthesizer / string ensemble with a very characterful, musical sound.
It has a PERCUSSIVE section, a STRING section, a ENSEMBLE section and a VOCAL CHORUS section. The most sections have VCF cutoff / resonance controls. It has a great phaser (with SPEED, EMPHASIS and TREMOLO controls), a noise generator, single outputs, an external input jack (for external signals, which can be treated with the Polychrome’s chorus and phaser) and a lot more… It even has aftertouch! And it’s fully polyphonic, too…
DATAMASKIN
