The Grid Expands Your Mercury-8 Experience – Sounds and Presets
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Cherry Audio’s Mercury-8 launched last week to great acclaim, and now Synthwave veteran and legend, Michael Oakley, has created The Grid, a superb bank for it!
Sounds and Presets
The Grid for Cherry Audio Mercury-8 by Michael Oakley
Just last week, Cherry Audio celebrated Thanksgiving with the release of Mercury-8, their most requested synth emulation ever. Having previously tackled the other two Jupiter’s with Mercury-4 and Mercury-6, Mercury-8 was almost inevitable.
Since its release, it has received numerous plaudits and accolades for not only its authenticity, but also all the extra cool stuff they brought to it, like a huge array of effects, a polyphonic sequencer, mod matrix and much more besides.
Regarded by many as the ultimate analogue polysynth and the very essence of 80s synths, the Cherry Audio recreation is naturally hitting the spot with synthwavers and retrowavers alike. So it makes total sense for one of that scene’s biggest and most talented names to create a preset pack for it!
Michael Oakley hails from Scotland but has made his home in Canada, and carved out a successful career as an artist and sound designer. His numerous releases, including the brilliant ‘California’, ‘Introspect’ and ‘Odyssey’ albums. He’s also designed sounds for numerous synths and Mercury-8 is the latest with The Grid!
The Grid is choc full of synthwave staples and some evocative and genre-specific tones that just tug at the heartstrings of my nostalgia! It’s an excellent addition to the already full set of factory presets and even if you’re not into all that retro stuff, I’m sure there’s something in The Grid for you.
The Grid can be purchased direct from Cherry Audio for just $9.99!
Virharmonic Prim Cello
I’ve been a big fan of Virharmonic’s work since they first introduced their Bohemian Violin. Originally made to work in the UVI ecosystem, it introduced a level of intelligent performance capabilities that relied less on key-switching between different articulations.
Instead, clever scripting within the instrument interpreted what was being played and how it was being played to deliver the correct articulation at the specific time. Aided by some general descriptions of playing style, such as assertive or emotive, the scripting freed up the performer to play.
Bohemian Violin was soon joined by Bohemian Viola and Bohemian Cello, creating a suite of three truly expressive sample-based string libraries that delivered character and authenticity not readily seen amongst its competition.
Virharmonic soon moved to their own player, affording them even more customisation and control over what was a very comprehensive instrument. With The Prim Cello, the focus is more on legato and only has three performance styles over the Bohemian’s five.
Using a new technique called Flow Motion, the aim is to deliver even more realism within a smaller set of styles with emphasis on legato and bowing. The result is a truly glorious cello library that takes all of the incredible performance capabilities of the Virharmonic engine and delivers something that stands apart from the Bohemian instrument and yet can complement it too.
You can add The Prim Cello to your collection for £161.00 directly from the Virharmonic website.
Sci-Fi Scape for Sonicware LIVEN Ambient Ø by A.KAV
Sonicware‘s LIVEN range has consistently delivered very unique and focused little synth/grooveboxes that makes use of a similar, if somewhat complex, user interface but always at a very competitive price point.
Their more recent LIVEN’s have focused on a more atmospheric style, with the likes of the LoFi-12, Texture Lab, Evoke and Ambient Ø. And it’s the latter of these that this next sound library is aimed at, with a collection of 40 new patterns.
Making use of the factory sounds and effects, “Sci-Fi Scape” has been designed to create sounds from alien worlds and landscapes. If you’re into making experimental, cinematic atmospheres, then this collection ought to be in your sonic arsenal.
These patterns enhance the Ambient Ø beyond what ships in the box with minimal effort on your part. With rhythmic patterns set alongside more abstract and evolving noises, this is a very broad suite of sonic elements that will enhance your work.
Sci-Fi Scape costs just €12 and is available from A.Kav’s store.
50 Cosmic Ambient Sounds for KORG Trinity Plugin by Nick Klimenko
KORG‘s latest iteration of their Collection, their sixth in all, added some very cool instruments to the set. There was the brilliant and bonkers PS-3300, a wonderful SGX-2 piano instrument and then a veritable classic of the workstation era, the Trinity.
Revered by so many, the Trinity continued the KORG family line of sample-based workstations that started with the legendary M1. Now clad in silver, and bearing design traits shared with the Prophecy and Z1, the Trinity was a true workhorse.
Ubiquitous on stage as much as it was in the studio, the Trinity was often paired with an Akai MPC to form the backbone of a plethora of classic hip hop and R&B tracks of the era. In the days before the domination of software, the Trinity was that generation’s Omnisphere.
Now faithfully resurrected in software, this mid-90s stalwart is making a welcome return, and with all of the factory sounds and add-on libraries included, it is a real nostalgia trip. Cosmic Sounds from Nick Klimenko delivers a wide range of spacey sounds.
Covering pads, strings, plucks, drones, atmospheres, FX and more, this is a collection that just makes the Trinity sing. The bank reminds you how versatile the Trinity was (and still is) with 21st century sound design that comes with a distinctly late-20th century feel!
Add 50 Cosmic Ambient Sounds to your KORG Trinity plugin now for just €15.
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