Gentle Ripples, Crashing Waves and Harsh Scapes – Sounds and Presets
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Ripples is a new bank for Pigments from Tom Wolfe, plus sounds for the KORG modwave, Polyend Synth, Omnisphere 3 and even the good old Yamaha SY85!
Ripples, Waves and Scapes!
Ripples for Pigments and Luftrum x Tom Wolfe for Omnisphere 3 by Tom Wolfe Presets
We have a double helping of Tom Wolfe sounds for you this week as he releases Ripples, his latest bank for Arturia’s Pigments 7 and a special free bank of sounds for Omnisphere 3, more of which later. Ripples makes the most of Pigments ability to create deep, evolving and natural ambiences with lots of movement.
Ripples contains 50 presets that deliver soft and slowly evolving patches that move and flow in fluid ways, from pads to arps and sequences that really deliver on the ambient front. Tom says that Ripples is very well suited to producers of ambient music and media composers looking for “subtle air and delicate movement“.
The bank is on a special introductory offer for the next week, down from £23.99 to just £15.99.
But that’s not all! Regular customers of Tom’s will know that he has a considerable vault of free patches. It just so happens that the vault is now five years old, and to celebrate this momentous event, Tom has collaborated with Luftrum, another great sound designer, to deliver a special addition to said vault.
These 10 freebies are for the amazing Omnisphere 3 and these are in addition to 15 new free presets, five each for Pigments, U-He Diva and Xfer Serum 2! So go ahead and fill your boots the vault really is a treasure trove of goodies!
WTFM Scape for Polyend Synth by A.Kav
I’m not going to lie. I’ve tried to get my head around the Polyend way of doing things, but I always seem to struggle. My friend and I stood in front of some of their gear at Superbooth a few years ago and between us, we we completely befuddled by the whole thing.
That said, when this bunch of presets landed in my inbox, my interest was piqued by the mention of FM synthesis. Did anybody tell you I’m a fan? It’s quite the secret… not! This bank of sounds from A.Kav makes use of 2-operator FM, which some may think is a bit weak. I assure you, it is not.
The NonLinear Labs C-15 is 2-op FM and that sounds FAR from weak! And the 2-Op FM used here makes use of a 3x feedback system, which allows for incredibly complex waveforms, even more so with the wavetables used by the operators themselves.
All of this makes for a very powerful collection of strong, metallic and powerful tones that span a variety of uses amongst numerous genres. For your €12, you get 15 Synth Scenes and 50 Synth Presets, so plenty to be getting your digital teeth into.
Grab WTFM Scape from the A.Kav store now!
Ambient Realms for Yamaha SY85 by Nick Klimenko
The Nineties were a confusing time for Yamaha. They had changed the entire synthesizer landscape in 1983 and dominated it for a solid 4 years after. And then people started playing catch-up. Roland launched the D50 in 1987 and KORG debuted the mighty M1 a year later.
Both these exploited samples to great effect, and the M1 delivered a powerful sequencer too, thus defining the era of keyboard workstations for years to come. And what did Yamaha have? The Mk.II DX7. No samples, no effects, no sequencing. The tide had well and truly turned.
But they weren’t quite out of the game and, in 1989, they launched the V50. Essentially two DX11 (or TX81Z) engines, a sequencer, FX unit and a PCM drum machine in a single keyboard, it somehow couldn’t steal the light from the competition.
The subsequent SY range, whilst producing some fantastic keyboards, felt confusing and lacked an identity. The SY22/SY35/TG33 combined 2-Op FM and AWM samples, the SY77/SY99/TG77 took powerful 6-Op FM and AWM samples and blended them brilliantly, with a useful sequencer and FX engine.
But the SY55/TG55/SY85/TG500 eschewed FM and simply focused on samples. The SY85 certainly sounded good, mainly because Yamaha had invested a small fortune in building its AWM sample libraries, and whilst it sounded great, it wasn’t until the EX5/7 towards the end of the decade, that they became a force to be reckoned with again in the workstation field.
But there’s a decent following for the SY85, and Nick Klimenko is tapping into that with his Ambient Realms pack. There’s 128 presets, half of which are actually his previous Analog Dreams bank, so it’s a real bumper pack! As you’d expect, there’s something for everyone here, but the big, evolving pads are a particular highlight!
For some unknown reason, Nick says this bank isn’t compatible with the TG500, which is odd. I have reached out to get some clarification but, at the time of going to press, I haven’t heard back. Anyway, grab this bank from the LFOstore for just €25.
Otherworld for KORG modwave by LFOstore
It’s been a New York Minute since we had a new bank of sounds for one of KORG’s brilliant Pi-based synths, so it’s a relief to have this new bank from LFOstore for the powerful modwave synth. Entitled Otherworld, this bank is aptly named.
It contains 40 performances that tick all the boxes when it comes to organic, cinematic sounds. categories that the modwave, in all its guises, is capable of handling very well indeed. There are sequences and arpeggios, as well as the usual collection of pads, basses and leads.
As you’d expect, this bank works with all versions of the modwave, including the native plugin (currently on sale), so however you prefer to make use of the modwave engine, this bank of sounds works right out of the box. You can grab it for €15 straight from the LFOstore website.
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