Scanner: Library – Raiders of the Lost Tapes – Sounds and Presets
This week, we are treated to Robin Rimbaud’s massive tape archive with Scanner: Library, plus sounds for Pentaphonic, a Hurdy-Gurdy and freebies for a Kawai K5!
We have a nice variety of offerings in this week’s Sounds and Presets, with an invitation to dive into the extensive tape archive of Scanner. We’ve also got 100 new sounds for the recently released Pentaphonic by Cherry Audio, a medieval Hurdy-Gurdy and a collection of free presets for the Kawai K5.
Scanner: Library and More!
Scanner: Library for Kontakt by Soniccouture
We kick off this week with a new library from those clever people at Soiniccouture, which explores the very essence of the artist known as Scanner. Robin Rimbaud, to give him his full name, has been at the forefront of experimental electronic music for over 30 years. Known for and named after his extensive use of police scanner recordings and their use in his music, Robin has assembled an extensive archive of audio cassette tapes.
And it is this archive which forms Scanner: Library, a Kontakt instrument that uses these recordings to create a rather unique instrument. Consisting of three sound modules, each with its own sample from the archive, they can be individually manipulated in a number of ways. After passing through a basic envelope and a filter section, you can also tweak wow and pitch.
Layering up your sounds will give you a unique blend of strange sounds, evolving and organically shifting and then passing through built-in delay and reverb effects. Robin himself has designed half of the 200 included presets, but you can truly make this instrument your own by importing your own samples and using them as one or more of the three layers.
All the supplied content was recovered from the tapes directly, using numerous pieces of gear to process them in unique and individual ways. This library is deep and varied and represents Robin’s long and illustrious career. It contains not only the legendary police scanner recordings but a wealth of improvisations, field recordings and experiments in sound.
Whilst the Scanner: Library interface looks pretty basic and simple, the almost limitless combinations you can create with the layering of sounds mean that this instrument can generate very complex sounds and textures. Rather than giving you a collection of Robin’s sounds with which to mimic his style, it actually pushes you to explore and create your own sonic experiments in true Scanner style.
Scanner: Library is available now for £139 for a limited time and requires Kontakt 7 or 8, and is compatible with both the full and Player versions.
Translucent for Cherry Audio Pentaphonic by James Dyson
Earlier this week, Cherry Audio unleashed yet another quirky and unattempted plugin instrument in the form of Pentaphonic, their recreation and expansion of the short-lived Gleeman Pentaphonic synthesizer. In typical Cherry Audio style, it sought to deliver an as authentic as possible version of this rarity whilst giving it all the bells and whistles of a 21st century emulation.
And, as usual, they released an extra bank of presets to go along with the already extensive factory collection. Created by resident Cherry Audio sound designer, James Dyson, these sounds go on to explore all the sonic potential of the plugin, exploring numerous styles and tastes and making the most of all the new extra features and functionality.
There are plenty of weird and wonderful patches on offer here with plenty of sounds designed to inspire and embellish your work. To be quite honest, James is a bit of a machine and he seems to have extra sounds pouring out of him all the time. So if you’ve already explored the factory presets, or fancied something a bit more, then this is for you.
Translucent for Pentaphonic is available now for $9.99, direct from the Cherry Audio website.
Hurdy-Gurdy for Kontakt by Edu Prado Sounds
A few years ago, I was visiting an old medieval town in Northwestern France, and as we were walking around, there were some buskers, attired in clothes of the 12th century and playing medieval instruments, including a Hurdy-Gurdy. I have to say, it made for quite an evocative experience.
And whilst the use of such instruments today is rather limited to historical recreations, be it in film or TV, there is something about the sound of a Hurdy-Gurdy that can exist beyond the Middle Ages and give a composition a unique texture. You only have to look at the success of Teenage Engineering’s EP-1320 medieval groove box to see that these instruments still have a place today.
With that in mind, Edu Prado, along with Jan Pfitzer, has updated their original Hurdy-Gurdy for the 13th century 21st century to give us a version compatible with, and making the most of, the latest versions of Kontakt, Kontakt Player, and associated NKS-compatible gear. The library contains 9 instruments and over 80 creative snapshots that occupy a measly 200MB+ of your disk drive’s capacity.
So if your compositional or performance work requires you to step back in time to the world of lords, ladies, serfs and mythical dragons, then this instrument really does need to be in your collection. Hurdy-Gurdy is currently on offer with 35% off at €25.35/£21.88, and owners of the original Edu Prado Hurdy-Gurdy get a crossgrade price of just €13.
Custom Ambient & Analog Sounds for Kawai K5 by Nick Klimenko
Bringing up a solid rear guard action this week is a collection of free sounds for the cult classic Kawai K5 synthesizer from the talented Nick Klimenko. Released in 1987 in both keyboard and rack form, the K5 was Kawai’s attempt to dominate a digital synthesizer market where the Roland D-50 and Yamaha DX7-II ruled the roost.
Rather than go down the more traditional or common routes of PCM, FM or subtractive synthesis, Kawai used additive synthesis to create the clean, crystalline and sonorous tones so popular at the time. Users could combine up to 126 individual sine wave harmonic waveforms to create their sounds, giving the K5 its own unique niche in the market.
As such, it is one of those synths that is coveted by those who truly know what it can do and how it was able to compete in a very crowded digital space where the likes of Roland, Yamaha and KORG were very much the dominant players. Compared to their later additive synths, the lower bitrate DACs employed in the K5 gave the sounds a level of “dirt” that is quite desirable these days.
And now we have a fresh new bank of sounds for all the K5 and K5m users out there in the form of the Custom Ambient and Analog Sounds pack from Nick Klimenko. Building sounds using its layering of harmonics, Nick has created 48 Multis and a collection of single presets that will breathe a bit of new life into your vintage digital synth. Best of all, the pack is completely free of charge, but you can also name your price if you feel Nick deserves rewarding!
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