Soniccouture have announced a new virtual instrument: Geosonics.
A collaboration with award-winning field recordist Chris Watson, Geosonics delves deep into Watsons vast archives to form a library of rare sonic artefacts that cannot be found anywhere else.
Using this unique collection of audio as a starting point, Soniccouture created additional sound design material ; waves and sampled textures which, when layered and combined with Watson's original recordings create playable, musically useful soundscapes and pads.
Watsons recordings are divided into four categories : Ice & Water, Wind, Wires and Swamps. Recorded in locations as diverse as the North Pole, the Kalahari desert, the australian outback and madagascan swamps.
The Geosonics instruments follow the same categories, with over 400 Kontakt presets in total.
Library Specifications
6 GB library (with Kontakt NCW compression)
Contains 4.7 GB original Chris Watson recordings
400 sound design presets by Ian Boddy, Biomechanoid, Martin Walker, Andy Wheddon, Soniccouture
140 sound design sample sets
Custom Convolution IRs
FOCUS mapping function
24 bit 48 khz stereo recording / sampling
Compatible with free Kontakt Player 5 - VST AU RTAS Standalone
GEOSONICS INTRO OFFER
Get €20 / $ 30 Off Full Price
ENTER CODE : YA6ARGHW
Offer ends Midnight 24th August 2013
Playlist:
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : The Glitch Module
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : Using the Modulation Sliders
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : Focus Mapping
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : The Beat Shifter
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : Creating Glitch Hi-Hats
"Soniccouture are very pleased to announce the release of Konkrete 3 - a drum and percussion instrument for all types electronic music.
The eagerly awaited follow-up to the best-selling Konkrete 1 & 2, Konkrete 3 includes the original content from those libraries, and adds 41 brand new kits, all housed in a powerful new virtual instrument.
Features :
• Beat generator - The Beat Shifter
• 90 kits | over 5000 sounds
• Custom convolution effects
• Real time glitch module
• Focus Mapping maps single sounds across full keyrange
• Beat Library
• NI Maschine presets
• Kontakt Player compatible
INTRO OFFER :
New users can get 15% OFF Konkrete 3 (MSRP €99 / 129) until 18th Feb 2013
Availability and Pricing
Konkrete 3 is available now for download, priced GBP 99 / USD 129"
"Live 9 comes in three editions: Intro, Standard and Suite. The editions share common features, but Standard and Suite have additional features, Instruments, Packs and Effects.
Live 9 Intro
The essentials at a great price
Some feature limitations
3 Instruments
26 Effects
700+ Sounds (4GB)
EUR 79
Live 9 Suite
The complete integrated studio
All features
9 Instruments
40 Effects
3000+ Sons (50GB)
Max for Live
EUR 599
Live 9 Standard
The full features plus extras
All features
3 Instruments
37 Effects
1100+ Sounds (11GB)
EUR 349
Ableton Push
Published on Oct 25, 2012 by AbletonInc
"See Ableton Push in action. Push is a new instrument that solves an old problem: how to make a song from scratch. With hands-on control of melody and harmony, beats, sounds, and song structure, Push puts the fundamental elements of music making at your fingertips - and it fits in a backpack alongside your laptop."
New in Live 9: Animate your sounds
Uploaded by AbletonInc on Oct 24, 2012
"Record automation into clips. Edit automation with curves. Session View automation lets you capture your performance or add movement to your loops. Use curves to make automation more musical.
Live’s unique Session View makes it easy to improvise with musical ideas. In Live 9, you can now record parameter changes directly into Session View for even more flexibility. Edit automation curves with the mouse to create smooth mix transitions or radical parameter changes in your clips.
In one click, create new Session View scenes from your Arrangement tracks, or drag and copy individual clips from Arrangement to Session. The automation comes with them, making it easier than ever to move from improvising to arranging and back.
Find sounds fast. With Live’s new browser, spend less time finding sounds and more time making music."
New in Live 9: Find your sounds faster
Uploaded by AbletonInc on Oct 24, 2012
"Live’s new browser puts all of your instruments and effects, samples, Packs and VST/Audio Units plug-ins in one easy-to-navigate view. Drag and drop folders into the browser from anywhere on your computer. Search as you type, navigate from the keyboard and sort items by various categories."
"Play new sounds. Live’s library includes new Instrument Racks and sounds to get you going fast.
Live 9 Suite comes with more than 3000 production-ready sounds that give you the full range of vintage synthesizers, drum kits and one-shot samples, acoustic instruments and loops - all powered by Live's built-in synthesizers and effects so they can be tweaked and personalized. All sounds are organized for Live 9's new browser and work seamlessly with all common hardware controllers. See the full list of Packs included with Live 9
Browse the Pack store at ableton.com to find even more amazing sounds - signature drum kits by Daniel Miller, Soniccouture, Flatpack and Puremagnetik, new tempo-synched loop collections and high-end multisampled instruments specifically designed for Ableton Live."
New in Live 9: Get your sound right
Uploaded by AbletonInc on Oct 24, 2012
"Get your sound right. The new analog-modeled Glue Compressor and redesigned studio effects help you get a better sound in less time.
Live’s new Glue Compressor, developed in collaboration with Cytomic, is modeled on a classic 80s console bus compressor, both for its great sound and also to provide musical results with a simple set of controls. Live’s studio effects - Compressor, Gate and EQ Eight - have been improved with new displays, enhanced controls and better sound, making it easier to see and hear your changes."
New in Live 9: Audio to MIDI
Uploaded by AbletonInc on Oct 24, 2012
"Reclaim the music in your samples.... Live 9’s new tools for converting audio to MIDI give you unprecedented flexibility to extract musical ideas from your samples and build upon them.
Convert your favorite drum break with the Drums-to-MIDI feature and reuse it with your own sounds. Speed up your remixing work by using Harmony-to-MIDI to get the notes and chords from the original audio stems. Or simply seed your creativity with inspiring, natural-feeling MIDI grabbed directly from the most exciting parts of your music collection.
...or sing the music in your head. Sketch out ideas quickly by singing (or beatboxing) into Live and converting your recording to MIDI.
Your voice is the new keyboard: sing, beatbox, tap a rhythm on your desk, or play any solo instrument to capture your musical ideas as they come. Then use the Melody- or Drums-to-MIDI feature to turn your recordings into MIDI clips that you can edit and reuse with any sound."
New in Live 9: Faster Editing
Uploaded by AbletonInc on Oct 24, 2012
"Edit the details. Powerful MIDI note manipulation tools and an improved editing workflow help you create new musical ideas fast.
Transform MIDI notes
New controls in the MIDI editor let you quickly invert, reverse, transpose and speed up or slow down selected MIDI notes in a single click.
Stretch MIDI notes
MIDI Note Stretch markers let you speed up, slow down - or even reverse - selected MIDI notes.
Edit automation more easily
Add or remove breakpoints with a single click. Hover the mouse near envelope segments to select and drag them without using a modifier.
Move notes on and off the grid
Beats are easier to see when editing, and editing grids are now “sticky,” allowing notes to be freely moved and resized while still snapping when close to grid lines.
Warp clip automation
Audio clip automation is warped alongside the audio itself. Envelopes in MIDI clips can be stretched using MIDI stretch markers.
Add curves to automation
Hold a modifier while dragging to create and edit curves in automation envelopes."
"Max for Live is now included in Suite. Expand and extend your musical possibilities with Max for Live.
Max for Live, based on Cycling 74's Max 6, is now included with Live 9 Suite. Get access to all of the 900+ devices built by the Max for Live community."
What is Ableton Live? Published on Oct 25, 2012 by AbletonInc
"Get acquainted with Ableton Live, software for creating, producing, and performing. Create ideas, make changes without stopping, and capture everything as you work.
"Soniccouture is very pleased to announce that their Crowdchoir project has been a great success. The 'Crowd-choir' was an idea for a crowd-sourced sampled instrument, partly inspired by the 10cc track 'I'm not in love', which famously featured a vocal pad sound created by painstakingly over- dubbing a single vocal note over and over again.
The plan was to get hundreds of people all around the world to sing one note each from a 3 octave range - then layer these recordings in a sampler to create a unique vocal sound - a wash of different voices in different rooms in different countries.
Each participant was provided with instructions on how best to record their note - which format, sample rate etc - and a web form by which they could upload the audio file along with their name and email address.
The Results Over 1000 people contributed in excess of 4000 notes over a 3 month period, a fantastic success. The resulting audio was edited and processed into a truly unique sampler instrument, which you can hear and read more about on the Crowdchoir webpage.
The instrument is available now for £20 / €20 / $25. ( Kontakt / EXS24 / Ableton Live formats ) All profits will be donated to The Red Cross charity"
"First 'jam' with my new Octatrack. Samples come from my Juno-106, Slim Phatty and Omnisphere. The mainmelody is routed out through the el capistan and ehx cathedral, and then back in to the Octatrack.
The mainoutputs of the Octatrack was recorded in Logic Pro (Fireface800) with UBK-1 and Pro-L on the master bus.
"This is a little different from 'all' the other el capistan videos online. I play Soniccouture Music Box (free samplelibrary) inside Ableton Live, through the Strymon El Capistan and Electro-Harmonix Cathedral. The pedal is bypassed until 0.30.
The audio was recorded inside Ableton, normalized and exported. No other processing (eq, comp etc.) was used.
"The EMS Synthi AKS is a legendary instrument with an illustrious history. First manufactured in 1972 by EMS in Putney, southwest London, the Synthi A was basically a portable version of EMS's famous VCS3 synthesizer, and the KS keyboard (an unplayable thirty-note touchplate) was added to make the Synthi AKS. It cost £420, and it was quickly adopted by the likes of Brian Eno and Pink Floyd, and has been used by experimental musicians ever since.
Our Synthi AKS is a surprisingly versatile library, giving you horror klangs and snappy zaps, snarling ring-mod leads and basses, and fat, rubbery mellow textures ready to slot into your productions. You'll be astounded at the sheer size and sense of life in the sounds. With complete control over filters, envelopes, and the spring reverb convolution impulse, you'll be able to tame the beast. Well, almost.
To capture the raw, unstable sound of the Synthi, we sequenced it using a CV-MIDI converter. This really shows the unique analog behavior of this incredible unit as the loops push and tear at your speakers. The loops are divided into a mid-tempo set (acid loops), and a down-tempo set. There is also a set of oddities that didn't fit into either category."
"http://soundsandgear.com/soniccouture-synthi-aks-analog-synth-library checking out this raw synth library for Kontakt from Soniccouture called Synthi AKS, this thing sounds incredible, raw, nasty, thick, and huge"
"I was feeling quite a bit emotional and stressed tonight and needed something that really relaxed me, so I started playing with my custom Eigenharp Alpha Hang Drum setup. Since I got some requests to record a video with it, I just recorded the session and I came up with these themes. I'm not a great percussionist by any means, so this is just what it is, hope you like it.
This is solely using the sampled Mk1 and Mk2 Hang Drums from SonicCouture's Pan Drums product.
Instead of playing them as regular instruments on the Eigenharp, I arranged the two different sampled Hang Drums on the playing surface of the Eigenharp Alpha so that one is on top and the other at the bottom. The notes of the Hang Drums are structured in colored 'zones' of five keys which correspond to the different articulations for the same note. This means that I can just hit the area without thinking about musical notes and get into a percussion mindset. The arrangement is very similar to what would happen if you cut a real Hang Drum in two and bend each half until it's straight, with the Ding and Gu stuck at the top end.
It works very well and feels extremely nice with the super sensitive keys of the Eigenharp. The colored lights are also naturally soothing and it's truly a relaxing experience to play."
"http://www.eigenzone.org/events - I've prepared a reinterpretation of Koyaanisqatsi for our San Francisco Eigenharp tour from May 5-10.
Koyaanisqatsi holds a special place in my heart, it's one of those musical pieces that never leaves you, it stays deep inside you with all its beauty and nakedness, forever. My father introduced me to it when I was a little kid, it's a real shame he passed away before I was able to play it for him myself. He would have loved it. Nonetheless, this is dedicated to him.
I think I managed to capture the essence of Koyaanisqatsi, let me know what you think of it.
I you like this performance, you can download the lossless audio file from SoundCloud for free: http://soundcloud.com/gbevin/koyaanisqatsi
For those interested in the technical parts:
Everything is played on the Eigenharp Alpha and recorded straight from the audio interface output without any mixing and just a little bit of mastering. I'm using the SonicCouture's Glass / Works instrument in a four-part multi-timbral setup in Native Instruments Kontakt. Each key individually controls pitch, velocity and the resonance of the convolution filter cut-off frequency (which creates a faint scraping-like sound).
The vocals are done through the DPA microphone that's clipped onto the breath pipe and plugged into the Eigenharp Alpha. It uses the built-in Eigenharp Alpha pre-amp and is routed through a series of Audio Unit effects in EigenD for pitch shifting, stereo spreading, EQ and compression. I'm monitoring directly from the headphone output of the Eigenharp Alpha with my Etymotic ER-4P earphones.
The single instrument cables carries all the information, data and audio, in both directions."
"Just an improvisation and the first impression of the NI Reaktor 5.51, with the newly revamped Newscool
Amazingly, unlike any other step sequencer, Newscool uses "Life Sequencer" which possesses a concept of "Conway's Game of Life" or simply "Life" by J. Conway in 1970.
Even though, SonicCouture also uses such concept for KONTAKT in form of scripts available in Scriptorium
via Soniccouture "This offer is only available until 30th April 2011 - 100% of all payments taken for the Omnichord instrument will be donated to the Red Cross Japanese Tsunami appeal.
An Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument, introduced in 1981 and manufactured by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate, and buttons for major, minor, and diminished chords. The most basic method of playing the instrument is to press the chord buttons and swipe the touch plate with a finger or guitar pick in imitation of strumming a stringed instrument.
The Omnichord we have sampled here is a ‘System Two’, and it has a great synth tone, which sounds ‘cheap’ in all the right ways. You can mix two different tones, one straight, and one modulated with a basic LFO. While not sounding much like a plucked string, it does have a pure character all its own, which won it many fans, such as Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, to name but two.
We’d like to thank UK producer Neil Davidge for the loan of this particular Omnichord unit."
"Perhaps one of the most enigmatic musical instruments of all time, The Ondes Martenot ( literally ‘Martenot Waves’) was invented by Maurice Martenot in 1928. The original unreliable tube-based design was refined and later models remained in production until 1988. An interesting overview of the instrument can be seen on Youtube. [posted here]
"The Ondes Martenot has been used in many film scores first dating from 1931; Odna by Shostakovich, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Ghostbusters (1984), A Passage to India (1984), through to present day movies such as Amélie (2001) and recently There Will Be Blood (2007) by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead.
THOMAS BLOCH RETURNS
Thomas Bloch is perhaps the most renowned Ondist in the world ; when great musicians and producers are inspired by the sound of the Ondes Martenot, it is often him they turn to. Radiohead, Tom Waits and Damon Albarn have all worked with him...
LE RUBAN - THE RING CONTROLLER
The most famous is the metal ring, which is worn on the finger of the right hand. The ring is not used when the keyboard is being played, like the ribbon controllers we are used to.
When the Ondes is switched to ‘ring mode’ (au ruban), the ring becomes the sole method of determining pitch ; a very skillful technique, particularly so when you consider that in order to produce any sound at all, you must simultaneously manipulate the clear, lozenge shaped device, known as the touche d’intensité..
LE TIROIR - THE CONTROL DRAWER
The touche d’intensité is a large button on the control drawer of the Ondes Martenot, and is pushed and tapped to produce the tone of the instrument ; in effect , it controls the volume envelope of the instrument. The touche d’intensité is controlled with the left hand while the player uses either the ring or the keyboard to produce the melody.
Next to the touche d’intensité are a series of switches and dials which control the oscillators and create the timbre of the note - as well as send levels to the three loudspeakers.."
The screens:
"Ondes Main Panel
* Send level faders for each of the Ondes Martenot speakers, + line out level
* Faders for each of the 7 oscillators + 'Tutti' switch
* ADSR envelope control ( optional, depending on Setup)
* Brightness control - switchable to 12db Filter with resonance
* Detune, Width and Saturation faders
Ondes Speaker Edit Panel
* Convolution modelling of each speaker
* Close, Far and Room stereo mic positions for each speaker
* 4 different original settings from D2 Spring reverb
* AMP and DECAY settings for each IR processor
Ondes Performance Setup
The Setup Panel is a custom scripted MIDI control matrix. Depending on your playing ability and available MIDI controllers, you can configure the Ondes instruments realtime control options in a number of different ways. See ' Ondes Performance Setup Demo ' video in the Video tab.
* Custom Glide ( Ring) Scripting - realtime control of portamento time
* Control pitch and volume independently using Aftertouch, XY pad or any MIDI cc
* 'Exclude Key ' function - emulate touche d’intensité
* Save User control setups and load to any preset
The Poly-Ondes
The Poly-Ondes is a bonus instrument: a polyphonic synth using the Ondes Martenot oscillators and speaker modelling : create fabulous vintage pad sounds with full LFO and filter modulation, detune all 7 oscillators and play them back through the speakers for an incredibly characterful sound. There are 50 Poly-Ondes presets showing the sound design possibilities."
"Sound Design of a chord progression I recorded into Apple Logic using Soniccouture Bowed Piano sample library. The bounced file was 30 seconds long. I imported the file into Absynth for granular processing and other sound modifications. The final result was a file that was over 7 minutes in length."
via Soniccouture (videos here) "It is a little known fact, but the worlds first commercially available synthesizer was designed by the Hammond Organ Company in 1938 and put into full production from 1938 to 1942. The Novachord is a gargantuan, entirely tube based, 72 note polyphonic synthesizer with oscillators, filters, VCAs, envelope generators and even frequency dividers.
The first instrument was delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Jan. 30, 1940 as a birthday present, but despite this auspicious start, the 500 lb instrument struggled commercially...
We sampled every one of the 72 notes on this beast - 50 times over. As well as full patches, we also separately sampled each Novachord 'tone' - the stops, or filter channels - so that we could model a 'Virtual Novachord' in Kontakt.
This comprehensive core sample library is used to maximum effect in creating two separate instrument concepts - The Dual layer NovaSynth and the 1939 / 2039 NovaSynth."
via Gregtronic. According to Greg, this sample set is from Phil Cirocco's Novachord while Hollow Sun's is from another Novachord in the UK.
Also see the Novachord label below for more. Note Hollow Sun also has a sample set and there is a Novachord instrument for Kontakt.
"Berlin, September 24th, 2009 - Native Instruments today introduced BALINESE GAMELAN, a new KONTAKT-Powered instrument that marks the second entry in the "Discovery Series". Created in collaboration with the renowned sound-design house Soniccouture, BALINESE GAMELAN offers a versatile assortment of ethnic instruments that represent the rich sonic heritage of classic Indonesian music, for use in film scoring, electronic music production and traditional compositions.
BALINESE GAMELAN faithfully recreates the charismatic sounds of the traditional Balinese orchestra with its diverse combinations of instruments. Three essential elements of the larger Gamelan ensemble are included; the melodic core instruments which comprise the Jegog, the Calung, and the Penyacah; the "Gangsa" which consists of the Ugal, Pemadé, and Kantilan metallophones; and the kettle gongs which include the Trompong and the Reyong. All instruments have been carefully recorded from the London Symphonic Orchestra's own "Semara Dana Gamelan Ensemble" in full detail, resulting in 2 GByte of studio-quality samples that are brought to life through the unrivaled power of the KONTAKT sampling engine.
BALINESE GAMELAN can be used both with the free KONTAKT PLAYER and with the full-featured KONTAKT sampler, and makes extensive use of the advanced sound shaping and articulation features of the platform. Users can switch between original gamelan tuning as well as a western-oriented "concert" tuning, and an optional "Synth" version allows to creatively tweak the sound of individual instruments beyond their natural tonality. A "Jammer" function creates rhythmic patterns, while the typical detuned doubling of the Gangsa and other gamelan instruments can be conveniently controlled via dedicated parameters of the software.
BALINESE GAMELAN is available for download purchase in the NI Online Shop for $79 / 69 EUR.
Native Instruments is a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based music production and performance. The company's mission is to develop innovative, fully integrated solutions for all professions, styles and genres. The resulting products regularly push technological boundaries and open up new creative horizons for professionals and amateurs alike."
"The Skiddaw Stones are probably the most unusual and certainly the oldest instrument that Soniccouture has sampled.
A Lithophone ( litho = stone, phone= voice ) dating from 1840, The Skiddaw Stones are composed of 61 tuned and shaped rocks, made from the rare hornfels stone, found in Cumbria, England. Hornfels is said to have a superior tone and longer ring than the more commonly used slate."
"$10 - All money received from sales of ballistic will be donated to Cancer Research UK
ballistic is a 15 slot drum sample player designed to get you making beats quickly without a million parameters to adjust. All controls are on one screen and the essentials are built in, but with one stereo output per slot, you can add more effects per slot in your hosts mixer. This keeps CPU low and workflow efficient
Simple but effective, it boasts flexible midi triggers, sample audition, sample tuning, 4 choke groups, mute/solo options, sample reverse, sample normalisation, a lofi option and several kits of samples donated by many generous sample providers such as Loopmasters, Zero-G, Digital-Redux, Goldbaby, Soniccouture, Real Music Media, Ronnie @ Rekkerd, sink, polyslax and bedroom producers
Even better, all proceeds of sales of ballistic will be donated to Cancer Research UK, helping them in their aim of beating cancer. More details on their work here"
Note even though this goes to research done in the UK, the impact of their results is global.
micronaut - axial from Chris Randall on Vimeo. Chris Randall of Analog Industries and Audio Damage. "This is a video shot and edited entirely by my 16-yr old cousin Michael for one of my micronaut tracks while he stayed with me for his spring break. It was shot with a Cannon HV20, edited in Final Cut Express, with minor post in After Effects. It consists of footage he shot around PDX. Just to be clear, my input consisted almost entirely of explaining to him how quickly the edits should happen for "glitch" style videos, and showing him some Chris Cunningham work. Otherwise, he came up with this entirely on his own.
For the micronaut song, gear used is MKS80 for the melody, Goldbaby samples for the drums, Soniccouture Abstract Bass (pt. 3) for the bass, and some sample I had lying about that I can't remember the source of for the electric piano part. Audio Damage effects, plus the Eventide H8000 for the pitch-shifted part on the melody and reverbs. Recorded and mixed in Cubase."
A collaboration with award-winning field recordist Chris Watson, Geosonics delves deep into Watsons vast archives to form a library of rare sonic artefacts that cannot be found anywhere else.
