This week we have some excellent sounds packs for Ableton Live, new libraries for the KORG NAUTILUS and KRONOS and yet more PolyBrute patches!
Here we are again for another weekly round-up of sounds and presets for your synths. This week we’ve got some great packs for Ableton Live users. There’s also some new patches for Arturia’s PolyBrute series and KORG have released some nice banks for NAUTILUS and KRONOS.
Let’s dive in!
Jogging House Sounds for Ableton Live
With Ableton Live 12.1 around the corner (the public beta went live last week), I thought we should take a look at some excellent sound packs for Live that won’t break the bank. Jogging House, aka Boris, has three such banks available at their Gumtree store right now.
Compatible with Live 11.3 and above, they include Instrument Racks for Ableton’s Drift synth, drone samples and drums and percussion sounds. It’s fair to say that these sounds are definitely for the more chilled amongst us as they all have a laid back vibe. It makes a pleasant change from all the big, banging, cinematic stuff we sometimes get bombarded with.
‘Some Drums’ gathers together 352 percussive samples, 59 noise and drone sounds and 5 Ableton drum racks. There does seem to be a disproportionate amount of kicks (159) but that’s cool! The samples come from a wide range of analogue synth gear so that will give you an idea of where this pack is coming from.
‘Tonal Drifts’ focuses on Live’s Drift synth and delivers 60 instrument racks, each built around Drift with fully-mapped macros and variations. These are definitely for the lo-fi, ambient musician or those looking to build soundtracks. Whatever your taste, these are lovely, lovely sounds!
‘Sonic Beds’ is out and out sample-based with 60 Live instrument racks based around 117 samples. As well as being utilised by Live, the pack also comes with those samples as WAV-only files, so you can use these anyway that takes your fancy. Like ‘Some Drums’, the samples come from a wide range of gear so are nicely varied and eclectic.
PolyBrute Patches
Also just around the corner, and expected to ship any day now, is the gobsmackingly brilliant PolyBrute 12 from Arturia. Announced just before Superbooth in May of this year, it has become the most talked about and most anticipated synth of this year, if not this century. Check my review for why that is!
And one of the great things about PolyBrute 12 is that it can play existing PolyBrute 6 (yes, that’s its official name now) patches right out of the box. Both synths share the same firmware and sound engine, with the 12 simply doing that bit more with its 6 extra voices and fancy FullTouch mode.
For us PolyBrute 6 owners, it means the transition to 12 is seamless and what’s even better is that sounds created for the PolyBrute 6 are instantly transformed the moment you turn the ‘ALT’ aftertouch modes on. So buy these with the confidence that if you do decide to trade in your PB6, your sounds will be there for you in the PB12.
First up is a bank of sounds called ‘Morphology’ by Synth4Ever. It is clear that a lot of work has gone into these. They also cover a lot of ground. Multiple genres are covered by pads, basses, leads, sequences and more! Best of all, they all have A & B layers to take advantage of the PolyBrute’s morphing as well as the Morphee, ribbon and aftertouch.
Next we have another bank of sounds from SynthTaxi who we have featured before in this parish. Their new bank of 37 presets is entitled ‘Sci-Fi Horror Nightmare Dream’ and, as the name suggests, these sounds have been created after extensive research into TV and movie soundtracks. Using these as inspiration, SynthTaxi has created some very interesting sounds.
As with Morphology, all of these presets use all of PolyBrute’s superb expressive features and are really, really nice! I’ve been playing both sets on both my PolyBrute 6 and 12 and whilst they sound amazing on the 6, the PolyBrute 12 really does make these patches shine.
- Buy Morphology by Synth4Ever here
- Buy Sci-Fi Horror Nightmare Dream by SynthTaxi here
- More from Synth4Ever
- More from SynthTaxi
New Libraries for KORG NAUTILUS and KRONOS
Rounding off this week’s piece we have three new libraries from KORG for their NAUTILUS and KRONOS workstation. First up is KRS12 Summer 2024. Inspired by the beachside/poolside parties in Ibiza and the associated chill-out parties, there’s also a distinct Latin tinge and sounds most associated with the summer vibe.
I don’t know about you but we could certainly do with something summery as this particular season seems to have avoided us again in the U.K.! So for a measly $10, you can infuse your productions with 31 Programs, 15 Combis, 9 Wave Sequences and 10 Drum track patterns.
The next two banks are both specialist and not for the financially faint-hearted! Developed by Kelfar, Club Strings and Omega Kanun have a distinctive Arabic, Balkan and Greek flavour. They are absolutely stuffed full of samples with Omega Kanun clocking in at a mighty 1.27GB!
Huge attention to detail has been paid to both banks and utilise every aspect of these workhorse workstations. Whilst I don’t have either the NAUTILUS or KRONOS here to test these out, the demos give you a real flavour and they sound truly incredible. But beware, both banks retail for $199.99 but are currently on offer at $174.99 each.
- Buy KRS 12 Summer 2024 here
- Buy Kelfar Club Strings here
- Buy Kelfar Omega Kanun here
- More from KORG
- More from Kelfar
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