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Sounds Like NAMM to Me
3/16/2012
One aspect that distinguished NAMM 2012 from other shows of recent years was the relative dearth of sound libraries.
Nonetheless, a few soundware developers were on hand, and Electronic Musician was there to check them out. Here's a
brief look at five new products available now or a few months down the road.
Big Fish Audio
Fractured: Prepared
Acoustic Guitar
Big Fish Audio was at NAMM to announce
the
Vir2 instrument Fractured: Prepared Acoustic Guitar ($149.95). Using techniques
such as striking the strings with mallets
and pouring rice over them, Fractured’s
designers modified, manipulated, and
mangled several guitars to produce 105
instrument presets that deliver 2.3GB of
loops, arpeggios, pads, and drum kits, each with a custom set of onscreen
controls. Fractured runs standalone or as a plug-in, and you can open its
content in Native Instruments Kontakt 5.
Steven Slate Drums
Steven Slate Drums 4
Now you can choose from two editions of
Steven Slate Drums 4. The Platinum version ($299) features 100 kits in a
variety of styles, including drum sets modeled after kits from Dream Theater, Steely Dan, Nirvana, and Metallica.
The EX version ($99) features 25 kits designed for rock and funk, including a Led Zeppelin kit and a single dance
kit. At the heart of the library is SSD Player, a plug-in that lets you load, customize, and mix kits and MIDI data
within your DAW.
Synthogy
Ivory II—American Concert D
Synthogy was at NAMM demonstrating
its forthcoming Ivory II—American
Concert D ($199). Master sound developer
Joe Ierardi and his team sampled every
nuance of a New York Steinway Model D
specifically selected for its pure tone and
expressive dynamic range, recording it in
the Françoys-Bernier Concert Hall at Le
Domaine Forget in Quebec’s Charlevoix
region. Like Ivory II’s three previous
instruments, American Concert D will run
standalone or as a plug-in, and its content will install into an existing Ivory
II user’s library.
Orchestral Tools
Symphonic Sphere
Tucked away in a corner booth, Orchestral
Tools demonstrated the Kontakt-compatible
Symphonic Sphere ($335.29). This collection
fills in gaps left by other orchestral
soundware by furnishing embellishments
and articulations such as flourishes, trills,
and fingered tremolos. Alongside a full string
section, you get orchestral percussion, a woodwind ensemble, and symphonic
harp. The harp samples supply beds, sweeps, and scale glissandos with full
pedal control. Also included is the unique Trills Orchestrator for strings and
woodwind. The entire 24-bit, 48kHz library comes as a 23GB download that
expands to 43GB.
UVI
Emulation II
If you’re looking for that ’80s sound, you can’t
go wrong with the 8-bit glory of
Emulation
II ($199.95). UVI captured samples from a
restored
Emulator II keyboard, enhanced
them with studio processors, and created a
user interface that duplicates the original’s
look and feel. More than 250 sounds supply
everything from drums and basses to
orchestral hits and effects. But wait, there’s
more: You also get
Drumulation, a virtual
re-creation of E-mu’s popular 12-bit drum
machine, the Drumulator. Both libraries require the free sampler player UVI
Workstation and are also compatible with MOTU’s MachFive 3.