Handcrafted Mallets and Metallic Resonances – Sounds and Presets
Handcrafted Mallets flies in the face of all you ever thought chromatic percussion was capable of, plus resonant metallic textures and K2000 sounds!
Handcrafted Mallets and More – Sounds and Presets
Handcrafted Mallets for Kontakt by Handcrafted Audio
I’ve always found the sound of tuned percussion hugely evocative. I think it’s the blend of the percussive and chromatic elements that makes for a very expressive instrument. For instruments so limited in nature, they can be used across a wide range of styles.
Played softly, they can convey a sense of calm, romance, and relaxation, but played hard, they are perfect for dramatic action and motion. So you might be wondering how much one can make from just a couple of instruments. Quite a bit, it would seem!
Handcrafted Audio have taken two mallet-based instruments, a Marimba and a Vibraphone, and used numerous techniques and mallet materials and sampled the heck out of them in Handcrafted Mallets. They’ve not just used mallets, either. They’ve even used a bow on the Vibraphone!
They have also captured the Vibraphone’s sustain and tremolo features and given you control over those, too. And if that wasn’t enough, Handcrafted Audio have taken the sample content and created a third, unique synth from it. There really is a wealth of mallet-like content on offer in Handcrafted Mallets!
It really is a clever and incredibly unique collection of sounds that goes way beyond what you think is possible from such source material. Handcrafted Mallets is available for both Kontakt Player and the full version of Kontakt, as well as being fully NKS-compatible. You can currently pick Handcrafted Mallets up with 30% off at just £105.
Trails II for Kontakt by Fracture Sounds
Trails II, as its name suggests, is a sequel to the first edition, but this time, the focus is on metallic sounds and resonances. Once again, Alexander Parsons conjures up the weird and wonderful, using instrument combinations in ways most people wouldn’t dream of!
Apparently, it all started when he combined a brass trumpet resonating against a gong, which resulted in a sound that was both strange and somehow recognisable. Using more brass instruments, woodwinds and analogue synths, he explored this technique, the result being this library.
To enhance the otherworldly nature of these samples, everything was recorded in a very dry, small studio in London, using a range of close, room and contact microphones. The resulting samples were then fed into the Fracture Sounds granular engine, along with its blending engine to deliver a very unique collection of sounds.
They even sampled a Canna Sonora, an instrument that features a collection of resonant metal rods. These were suspended above a thundersheet, with the rods resonating as the metal sheet underneath vibrated. To the best of their knowledge, this is the first time one of these instruments has ever been sampled!
Trails II continues the experience set out by its predecessor and in a thoroughly unique way. With support for both the Kontakt Player and the full version, it is something everyone can enjoy, and it is currently on offer at £97, down from £129!
Chronos for Arturia MiniFreak by Mark Sound Design
Have I ever told you how much I love the Arturia MiniFreak? I’m sure I have, but I’m going to tell you again. I really love the MiniFreak! Nothing this small should sound this big. It’s a remarkable synthesizer and incredible value for money too!
Right, now that is out of my system, here’s a new bank of 60 sounds for it that are pretty excellent, but then it’s the MiniFreak, so it was always going to be that way, wasn’t it? This collection of sounds is, according to its designer, aimed squarely are cinematic, soundtrack and film score composers, but also for the likes of people behind dark, ambient stuff too!
Performance was at the front of Mark’s sound design, and every patch is created with exactly that in mind. What it does is show off how big this tiny powerhouse can sound. Sometimes, I have to hook up my MiniFreak to my big KeyLab 88 so that at least the keys I’m playing feel as big as the sound the MiniFreak is making!
This new bank of sounds is fully compatible with both versions of the hardware, as well as the MiniFreak V plugin, so nobody has to feel left out! You can grab it now for €16 direct from the Mark Sound Design Gumtree store.
Planet K2 for Kurzweil K2000 by A. Kav
We don’t often feature sounds for older synths on here, but I’m always keen to do so, so when this bank landed in my inbox, it was a dead cert for inclusion in a Sounds and Presets column! The erstwhile Kurzweil K2000, with its V.A.S.T. synthesis engine is a big favourite among many people.
Famed for its amazing sound, its deep sonic programming capability and legendary build quality, the K2000 was the continuation of the Kurzweil ethos of producing some of the finest hardware synths known to man. That said, they always seemed overshadowed by their cousins from Japan.
But those who knew knew that the K2000 was a real beast of an instrument, and so it is great to see A.Kav has developed a contemporary bank of sounds for it, which I am sure will please a great many K2000 owners. Planet K2 is a collection of 64 synth pads, textures, synth sounds, bass and FX patches.
And because Kurzweil always tried to maintain a strong degree of backwards compatibility, these sounds will also work on the K2500/K2600 series and, if I’m not mistaken, the current K2700 will also read them! How’s about that for some proper longevity in a synth range!
Planet K2 is available now from A.Kav’s store for just €16!
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