After a few weeks of focusing on a particular instrument or application, we return to a variety of sounds and presets to get your creative juices flowing.
This week’s Sounds and Presets reverts to type and delivers a smörgåsbord of content for both hardware and software synths. Let’s dig right in and see what we have this week. And don’t forget, if you know of a sound library that I might have missed, let me know in the comments below and I’ll check it out!
Authentic Soundware Everything Bundle
Authentic Soundware have carved out a very unique niche in the sample library market. Their content focuses on what some might call “mid-century” sounds. That is to say, if you’re looking for something with a 50s or 60s jazz vibe, these are for you.
Ask your grandparents about the hip and happenin’ jazz vibe of that era (or in my case, my parents) and they’ll tell you about snappy drum fills, punchy brass and slick jazz guitar licks, all mushed up to get your groove on, baby! If that doesn’t work, just think Austin Powers soundtracks!
But it’s not just jazz that’s catered for here. Detroit Blues, R’n’B, Space Age Pop, Lounge, Jazz, Bossa Nova, Cha Cha Cha, Big Band and Easy Listening. Put simply, if you’re looking for that era of sounds, Authentic Soundware have you covered.
And now they’ve gathered all of their Kontakt libraries together to give us ‘The Everything Bundle’. And we all know what a bundle means, don’t we? That’s right, discounts! If you were to buy everything in the bundle individually, it would set you back just shy of $500. The bundle will sell for $395, but between now and August 19th, you can grab it for a mere $219! Groovy, baby!
And when they release new content, they’ll add it to the bundle and adjust the price accordingly. But you can always be assured of a substantial discount.
Tom Wolfe Binaural Collection for Arturia Pigments
When I was a lad, the term binaural was mostly used to describe the audio phenomenon whereby audio was recorded using two microphones positioned the same distance apart as human ears and then played back via headphones to deliver a full three-dimensional soundscape.
When I saw it starting to be used in the world of synthesizers, I imagined some clever 3D trickery going on, but alas, it was not so. No, it appears that in the world of synths, binaural refers to the ability of an instrument to produce elements of a sound separately through the left and right channels, delivering width and movement. Not the same, but just as interesting.
However, Tom Wolfe has actually created presets for Arturia Pigments that deliver on that original concept of binaural, i.e. sounds with three dimensional properties. My first instinct was to check the specifications of Pigments in case I had missed some secret binaural/spatial setting.
But it turns out that Tom has achieved this in a much more straightforward, yet clever way! By recording samples and applying a 3D binaural effect to them within a DAW, he takes those processed sounds and builds instruments with them in Pigments using its sample and granular engines.
Check this video out to see how Tom achieves this in Omnisphere…
What Tom has achieved here is, in my view anyway, proper binaural sounds that work just as well with speakers as they do in headphones. Naturally, the latter gives more definition to the movement and placement, but these sounds work really well wherever you listen to them.
It’s pretty obvious that these patches lend themselves brilliantly to film, TV and gaming where three dimensional audio is pretty standard these days. But I really hope more musicians get into using these kinds of sounds as it can really set your track apart.
Tom offers two binaural packs for Pigments and there are free demo patches for you to try. He also offers a 30 day money back guarantee, which is almost unheard of in this side of the business! Buy the pack with both sets and save yourself £10 for a limited time until July 10th, 2024.
Easy Sounds Spectral Move for Yamaha Montage M
Yamaha’s Montage M landed with a big bang last year, taking the idea of a one-stop shop synth way beyond its original concept. Building on the huge success of the original Montage, the M delivered a range of superb new features that set it apart from anything else in its market.
Firstly, the addition of the excellent AN-X engine gave Montage M some serious virtual analogue power. This new engine delivered a versatile and impressive palette of sounds to complement the AWM2 and FM-X sounds that the Montage was already famous for.
Then there was the vastly improved user interface and extra screen. Navigating around this complex beast was now more rewarding and easier to do. And we couldn’t not mention the amazing new polyphonic aftertouch keyboard that, sadly, only appears in the M8x version.
But its that first aspect that our final patch library makes use of and, more specifically, the new Smart Morph feature that Yamaha recently added to it. Already employed in the FM-X engine, Smart morph really opens up your modulation capabilities.
Also, by adding numerous Spectral FX samples and performances, and combining them with the AN-X and AWM2 parts, Spectral Move delivers over 240 Performances, 242 Live Sets and a wealth of other features that use all the latest features of Montage M, in particular the AN-X Smart Morph and Wave Folder and the new, luscious Shimmer Reverb.
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