MAX7IMBA

The Max7imba: Its somewhere between a Marimba, a Kalimba and a DX-7. Listen to the demo – its like a vacuum-tube marimba played with light-sabres. A metallic sort of percussive sound, but after the percussive hit, some drone voices come in and hang about for a bit, embedding the percussive main sound in a ghostly haze. This sample-set is based on an original DX-7 patch and the main samples have that non-linear DX-7 sound, sampled, of course, at multiple velocities. The mod-wheel brings in the drone voices. The drone voices are held for some time after you play the notes, so when you play a flurry of percussive notes, you are left with a long wash of drones. The custom interface has control for the length of the hold time. The drone voices have controllable vibrato. There is also a controllable attack sound (with round-robin alternate samples). A built in reverb and delay and an autophasing effect that adds subtle motion to your playing are all controllable from the custom interface.

GARLICK HARPSICHORD

Garlick Harpsichord: A lovely single-manual example, made by the renowned harpsichord-maker Andrew Garlick. Lovingly multi-sampled in great detail, including both notes and note-off samples. Controls are provided to bring in a second choir of strings, tuned an octave above the first, and for the volume of the note-off noises, as well as to control the amount of the built-in convolution reverb. If you want a little funky with your powdered wig, there is a “Filter” button, which turns on a resonant filter which is under the control of the mod-wheel.

JAW-HARP BASS

The Jaw-Harp Bass. A breathy, lamellophone bass sound built from a comprehensive set of jaw-harp samples. The difference to an actual jaw-harp is that this Kontakt-instrument can be played chromatically – so you can play melodies, bass-lines … symphonies no less. Multiple-velocity and round robin alternate samples of course. Samples in close-miked stereo for a nice wide sound. Modwheel fades between two different intonations. The custom interface provides controls for a “clanky” attack sound. The custom interface gives you control over a sub-bass which can be added, tone-colour, as well as the choice of two built-in reverbs and a built-in delay.

RUBBERBAND BASS

Hand me down my walking cane, and y’all had better prepare yourself, because you never heard a sound like the Rubberbandbass. When I saw this short fat guy Stretch a band between his toes, hey, I laughed so hard, cause the man got down! Sure, some people play $3000 Alembics or double-basses worth more than their cars. But sometimes, you ain’t got no cash and you just need to get down. That’s when you turn to the Rubberbandbass, its the bass for everyone! This is a multi-sampled rubber band, a nice fat purple one if you care, for that rubbery bass-sound. As ever, extensive controls are provided. There is a choice of three different impulse-responses, including two custom acoustic-sounding woody soundboards and a Tweed amp along with a “Tone” control to adjust the midrange. A built in LFO, controlled by the modwheel can go from adding a bit of grrrmph buzz to a rubbery wobble. Two-octave pitchbend – hey, this thing is stretchy – and a choice monophonic modes with legato or full-time glide or polyphonic, and finally a built-in delay. (Thanks to www.freesound.org, where user Alienistcog a.k.a. Chris Castiglione provided the extra twisty rubber-band noises, and Vincent Sermonne provided the brushed-drum track used on the demo, and to the Spinners for advertising copy)

REESE CRUNCH

ReeseCrunch: a crunchy Reese machine, greasy like peanut-butter but cuts like a table-saw. Produces a reese-y bass sound, based on a triple sawtooth wave, so there is continuous movement as the three waves beat against each other. From there, there is an added layer of buzz which fades in an out randomly for extra movement, and then the whole thing is run through all kinds of further nonlinear nastiness. The custom Kontakt interface has a host of controls to tailor the sound to your depraved needs. There is a selectable “Attack” and a control for the sub-bass volume, the built-in filter, and the buzz volume, as well as built-in phaser and chorus effects, a choice of built-in delays, and of course the vital crunch (distortion) and selectable amp-simulator controls. You can also control the filter cutoff frequency using the mod-wheel to keep the sound moving, just like a proper reese. The soundcloud demo showcases only two of the myriad possibilities for tuning the sound.

JAM JAR

Another one from the kitchen: a tuned percussion instrument made from the sound of snapping a Mason jar lid. But that doesn’t tell you much – listen to the demo. Its somewhere between a steel drum and a kalimba. This very responsive Kontakt instrument has main samples at five different velocities as well as round-robin alternates. Tweakability is provided by the custom Kontakt interface, which has several controls to fine-tune the tone, and allows you to select a damped mode, where the notes end when the key is released, complete with note-off noises, or an undamped mode where each note rings to its natural conclusion. A “dubby” version of the instrument is also included, where the mod-wheel brings in a delay.

DIRTYSYNC

DirtySync is an “Oscillator sync” sound, implemented using Kontakt programming and scripting. Since sampling technology is not well suited to oscillator-sync, brutally forcing Kontakt to do it results in a rich, gritty sound. If you want the digitally distressed version of Van Halens’ of “Why Can’t This Be Love” you’ve come to the right place! There is loads of control. The custom-scripted interface allows you to select the mod source to be either the Mod wheel, a built-in envelope with or without velocity sensitivity, with controllable decay rate. It also provides front-panel controls for the filter. Finally, the effects section includes switchable chorus, delay and bit-crushing effects.

SAMPLE AND HOLD

The sample and hold circuit: another standby from the analog synth era, propelled headlong into the digital present as a Kontakt instrument What was commonly called “sample and hold” was usually noise fed into a sample and hold circuit to produce stepped but randomly varying control voltages, which were then usually used to control the filter cutoff. Think “Rez” by Underworld or The Who’s “Won’t get fooled again”. This Kontakt instrument goes beyond that: the custom scripting produces a waveform that changes randomly in rhythmic steps. So you get a “sample & hold” effect but the filter is still free for whatever else you want to do with it! Of course, you can also route the stepped random control to the filter cutoff frequency to produce the traditional effect if you want, but you could instead control the filter with an envelope or with the mod-wheel – the possibilities are endless. What’s more, the “sample and hold” can either be free running, or can sync to your track’s BPM. This instrument can produce a wide variety of sounds – its virtually a full-blown synth VST all in its own! The Kontakt panel has a host of controls for the filter and waveshape and modulation – see the screenshot. Check out the Soundcloud demo for just three of the many possible sounds.

SOPILA

A Sopila for Kontakt – an ancient, traditional, double-reed woodwind from Croatia (see http://www.gajde.com/index.php/en/sopile.html). This instrument is also known as the rozenice in Istria, and is very similar to the sopile from the island Krk. The samples are courtesy of Sameul Sacher (see http://www.samuelsacher.org). The samples are long and not looped. In addition to round-robin alternate samples, there special note-off breath samples as well as a trill sample. The sopile is a difficult instrument to play, and we have included a “flub” note, which can can be triggered at will to add character to your playing. The custom Kontakt interface has a button to make the instrument play monophonically – which makes legato notes sound more natural – as well as for the amount of pitch humanization, breath and wind noise, and for a built-in delay effect.

BULBUL TARANG

Waves of Nightingales, my man! That is the literal meaning of Bulbul Tarang, which is the name of this Kontakt instrument. Also known as the Indian Banjo, it is a common folk instrument from India. The Bulbul Tarang has a two sets of strings, one for melody and one for drones. The melody strings are all tuned in unison and are fretted by keys, and played with a plectrum. This extensive sampleset has multiple-velocity samples with round-robin alternates, along with note-off samples, and separate samples for the drone strings. All samples decay naturally – no looping. It has a custom Kontakt script which reproduces the the monophonic response of the real instrument where lifting a key can cause the note to continue to ring at the root note produced by the open strings, with a selectable root-note. The script also allows you to choose a polyphonic mode.

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