Wow! This plugin has opened up so many creative possibilities how can you not have it? British artist and musical prankster Tim Exile (designer of NI plugin THE FINGER) has returned with another fun and powerful synth/FX hybrid- THE MOUTH! THE MOUTH is designed to generate melodies and harmonies out of whatever audio material you feed it.
The best part is that it is very affordable and works with NI's Free REAKTOR 5 PLAYER another great plugin that comes with 200 sounds.
Native Instruments leads the way with innovative plugins and synthesizers. NI has recently introduced an incredible loop library for Kontakt- George Duke Soul Treasures. George Duke is on of the world's leading keyboard players and has an extensive musical history. Sampled numerous times, George Duke can now be had inside your DAW- well his vibe that is. SaintJoe from soundsandgear.com has a review of the product and it looks like a must have. Take it away SaintJoe...
What is George Duke Soul Treasures?
It’s like having access to a bunch of George Duke studio sessions, royalty free…to use however you wish! No seriously, it’s like they took George Duke…along with his personal engineer Erik Zobler, locked them in the studio, and told them to play some goodness if they ever wanted to smell the fresh air again.
Okay…maybe they weren’t that ruthless, but you know…getting someone of George’s skill to sit down and record a bunch of random loops for other folks to use is quite a feat in itself. It’s over 500 loops, in a customized kontakt player instrument, tempo-synced and ready to slice.
It’s a sampler’s dream!
I wasn’t even worried about how it would sound…it’s freaking George Duke, teamed up with his personal engineer, put into an instrument from NI. That said, it was a lot more diverse than I first expected.
SaintJoe, a frequent contributor to the Music Tech section and creator of soundsandgear.com, has created a new user forum/website for users and enthusiasts of Native Instruments Maschine. Maschine is the newest hardware/software drum sampling machine that offers a great deal of powerful sounds and efficient workflow. It is designed as a bridge between MPC/groovebox users and those who work with midi software, combining the best of both worlds. Take it away SaintJoe:
People with similar interests love to get together and hang out, share tips, ideas, or just chill. Sorta like all the crazy folks like me that love to make music…..yeah that’s you :)
I saw there was really no place for various Maschine users to connect and network. We mostly visit the official NI forums, but most look to that as simply a place to go when you want support. There was no place to just go and hang out, talk about Maschine, post videos, etc…all in one spot.
So you know I had to do something about that right?
Now we have MaschineMusic.com, it’s an online community dedicated to users, possible users, or anyone interested in Native Instruments Maschine. I think it’s always good to have an “unofficial” place to discuss and build around a product, just so you’re not at the “mercy” of the company who’s product it is you’re discussing. And no matter what folks will say, Maschine is here to stay, it seems it can only get better.
EVOLVE Mutations 1 and 2 are both kontakt player instruments that bring the creative and experimental sounds that Heavyocity are known for, into the studios and bedrooms of musicians of all kinds. Not only does it follow the same basic categorical layout of EVOLVE (Rhymthmic suites, percussive kits, stings and transitions, tonality and fx) it also picks up right where EVOLVE left off. It’s not a replacement for, it’s definitely an addition to EVOLVE, yet stands on it’s own.
The bundle is made up of version 1 and version 2, with 2 being the most recent and is full of 317 kontakt instruments, mutations 1 has 275. Each stand on their own, and definitely shine when used together.
This library is ready for any electronic music producer, video game sound designer, film composer, experimental hip hop producer, or anyone that loves the let the sound take control.
Quick Specs
* Content: 593 kontakt instruments (4gb)
* Format: Kontakt Player or Kontakt 4
* Price: $169 (bundle) or $119 each
How does it sound?
Well, depending on which sounds you use it can sound scary, vicious, epic, soulful, experimental, edgy, terrifying, esoteric, ambient, alien, monstrous, airy, metallic, demented, angelic, demonic, percussive, chilled, spine-tingling, blood curdling, soothing….well I think you get the point.
I honestly have NEVER played an instrument like this, anything you load just sounds wonderful, ready to go. Everything is produced with the up-most quality and creativity.
The Multis…oh my….you could literally complete a movie trailer with just the multis! I promise to you the first night I installed it I couldn’t even make it through demoing all the sounds without opening it up in Ableton and putting it to work for some hardcore movie style compositions.
Everything you can imagine, all the small little fx, the stuff you hear on commercials or in the theaters…that stuff is here. It may not be the exact sounds, but it’s the styles I’m speaking of. Because to me, this is easily one of the most unique and irreplaceable instruments you’ll ever come across. Heck…I’d say Heavyocity as a company is irreplaceable because I know of no one that is doing it like this. Not that I’ve come across.
Everything has a sheen and shine that says “I’m ready for my closeup!”
What’s your favorite part?
Man…that’s such a tough call, I love this bundle so much it’s really hard to say, but one of the things that really sticks out to me are the trigger fx in Mutations 2. I installed Mutations 2 before I installed Mutations 1 or the original EVOLVE library, and I see why Trigger FX were such a big deal! It let’s you get some morphing, mutating, randomly sick sounds just by “flipping switches”
The interface is made up of tiny switches that control things like dirt, cabinet, saturate, lofi, pan, eq sweep, pitch, delay 1, delay two, and glitch! And these all respond to keys on your keyboard as well…so you can hit the keyboard keys which control each one, play your sounds, and let the sound organically mutate right before your ears and eyes….yes…these sounds have so much personality I feel like I can see them.
Seriously, I found myself wishing the other libraries included trigger fx…BUT since they can all live with each other inside of Kontakt 4 or the Kontakt Player…I’m free to layer, trigger, mutate, and experiment as much as I wish!
If there was one thing outside of the sound design and organization that makes Heavyocity stand out…it’s their use and abuse of fx…and how creative they allow you to be with them.
Time to checkout some more samples, for those that like to mix the live jazzy sound with hip hop and downtempo funk.
Today I’m doing a review of Doodlebug’s Jazzy Hip Hop Theory, a jazzy hip hop library released by Loopmasters.
Some of the new school folks may not know who Digable Planets are…let’s just say, they ARE jazzy hip hop!
Doodlebug is a member from this very group.
So let’s check this joint out!
So what is Doodlebug’s Jazzy Hip Hop Theory?
It’s that real jazzy hip hop, played by the very same live musicians that have been playing with Doodlebug throughout his career from Digable Planets to his own solo stuff.
If you got a real appetite for that classic, jazz influenced hip hop, boom bap, back pack, funk-rap sound…then this may be your thing.
You get real live drum loops, electric and upright bass, as well as some saxy flute lovin.
You also get some nice guitar riffs as well as a few vocals/phrases to play with
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS, creators of some of the most powerful and widely used software synths on the market, offers two plug-in synth players available for FREE download. These can be used both as a stand-alone application or within any sequencer/DAW host as a VST®, Audio Units™ or RTAS® plug-in. KORE 2 Player and KONTAKT Player provide an introduction into the world of sounds offered by Native Instruments. KORE 2 Player is a software synth that comes with a 400MB sound library that can be expanded with additional synth libraries, many for as low as $59. KORE 2 PLAYER includes six Native Instruments sound engines under the hood and provides ready-to-play sounds that can be browsed and tweaked via the intuitive KORE 2 PLAYER interface. The KONTAKT Player is a sample playback synth that allows for innovative, highly playable instruments. The virtually unlimited flexibility of Kontakt Script Processing allows for instruments with unprecedented functionality and musicality.
Check out the video below for a sample of the MASSIVE THREAT sound set available for the KORE 2 Player. Shout out to Saint Joe at soundsandgear.com:
