50% off “SynthMaster One” by KV331 Audio

'SynthMaster One’ is an easy to use wavetable synthesizer with an intuitive workflow.

With it’s simple layout, rich wavetable/waveform content and inspiring factory presets library, designing new sounds with SynthMaster One is a real joy!

An Incredible True Wavetable Synth With An Intuitive Workflow & Fantastic Sounds!

With dual wavetable oscillators, stunning filters and fast-paced interface, “SynthMaster One” sounds fantastic and stays out of your way while you work!
It comes with a wealth of features including:

• Powerful wavetable oscillators.
• An intuitive GUI that makes programming easy.
• Gorgeous filters.
• High-quality effects.

Not only does “SynthMaster One” sound amazing, it also supports switchable skins/interfaces for a completely customizable look, and several of them are included!

Get Inspired With Over 650 Presets & Incredible Sound Manipulation Tools!

  “SynthMaster One” comes equipped with an easy to understand yet powerful interface, a massive amount of presets to draw inspiration from and also true Wavetable Synthesis abilities which open up new possibilities for sound design.
SynthMaster One Architecture
SynthMaster One’s architecture is intuitive and easy to negotiate, but boasts enough flexibility and depth to deliver a limitless range of electronic sounds.
It consists of two Oscillators with associated Sub Oscillators, the mixed outputs of which feed into two Filters, which in turn output to one or two envelope modulated amplifiers, followed by a series of master FX.
Routing Panel
The signal flow between the oscillators and filters can be reconfigured using the Filters menu here.
Browsing Presets
“SynthMaster One” comes with a huge library of over 650 presets that can be searched and filtered in the browser by:

• Instrument Type
• Attributes
• Music Style
• Preset Author
• Bank Name

For example, if you want to see all trance-appropriate sequenced mono Factory presets by Aiyn Zahev, select the Factory Presets, Aiyn Zahev, Sequence, Monophonic and Trance entries in the five browser columns.

    

Normally €54 – get it at 50% off before it’s gone!

• 50% off the normal price (normally €54)!
• 800 Inspiring Factory Presets – from a world class team of sound designers: Arksun, Aiyn Zahev, Bulent Biyikoglu, Gercek Dorman, Nori Ubukata, Rob Lee, Ufuk Kevser, Selcuk Ergen, Vandalism, Vorpal Sound and Xenos Soundworks
• Semi-Modular Architecture – 2 Oscillators with 2 Sub Oscillators, 2 Filters, 4 ADSR Envelopes, 2 LFOs
• 16 Step Arpeggiator/Sequencer.
• Wavetable Synthesis – true wavetable synthesis which opens up new possibilities for sound design.
• Stereo Oscillators – each of the 2 oscillators have stereo output, and can have up to 16 voices “unison”.
• Zero Delay Feedback Filters – All of the 4 filter categories are developed using the zero delay feedback filter technology. With advanced filter parameters like input gain, drive and acid, you can get that “analog” sound from the filters!
• 11 different effect types: Distortion, LoFi, Ensemble, Phaser, 6 Band EQ, Compressor, Vocoder, Delay, Chorus, Tremolo, Reverb.
• Microtuning – SynthMaster supports Scala tuning, so tuning can be set either for each preset or globally by loading from a Scala tuning file.
• Preset Browser – SynthMaster features a comprehensive preset browser with separate search criterias for instrument type, preset attributes, music style or preset author.
• Importing MIDI patterns as Arpeggiator Sequence – just drag and drop the MIDI file onto the arpeggiator view on the plugin window.
• Cross-platform VST and AU: PC VST, Mac VST/AU. On Windows, it runs as a standalone application as well.
• Perfect for Trance, Underscore, Chillout. Psytrance and much more!  

GET IT HERE

93% Off the Ultimate Sound Designer Toolkit by Sound Ideas (Save $1385)

The Ultimate Sound Designer Toolkit by Sound Ideas

INSANE STEAL!!! For just $99.99, get the massive 15GB+ Sound Designer Toolkit 1, 2 & 3 by Sound Ideas. This is truly an essential “Must-have” for any musician and sound designer. The scope of sounds offered is so diverse that for $99 you are getting the holy grail of cinematic sound design. The sounds included are great to fuse as musical elements in any production. Originally $1485, now available for just $99.99 for a limited time only (you save a whopping $1385). You don’t want to miss this!

Sound Designer Toolkit 1
Originally a five disc set, and now a hard drive or download, this set of production elements includes three discs worth of various stingers, rumbles, booms, whooshes and hits, plus two discs worth of musical effects, hits, accents and music beds.

If you are looking for a specific stinger to use, you’ll find it in this collection! The musical effects include various categories, from feel to instrumentation. Musical beds and stingers range from a more corporate feel to a relaxed, tranquil feel. Drums, brass, guitars and keyboards can also be found on this royalty free, top-of-the-line collection.

Sound Designer Toolkit 2
1621 Production Elements as a Download

The second installment of the Sound Designer Tool Kit Series has an over 1,600 incredible production elements.

This set overflows with endless stingers, trailer elements, explosions, destructions, impacts, whooshes and comedy to use in your production. These production elements were designed to encompass a variety of categories: dark, scary, horror, eerie, monsters and aliens, space and sci-fi, nature, animals, and weather. Additionally, there is also a collection of Musical instrument accents and beds – from solo instruments to symphonic

Sound Designer Toolkit 3
2,088 Fully Designed Production Elements as a Download

Sound Designer Toolkit 3 from Hollywood Edge is a masterful collection of fully designed elements created for Hollywood Edge by Kamen Atanasov. This package of over 2,000 production elements includes everything from Accents to Ambiences, Stingers to Tones & Impacts to Explosions, designed to provide a full mix of Scary, Dramatic, Magical & Sci Fi elements for your productions. The 2,088 broadcast wav files were created as 24 bit / 48 k broadcast wav files and come fully embedded with searchable metadata – Sound Designer Toolkit 3.
$1485 Value

GET IT HERE 

Toys After Dark by PLUGHUGGER for OMNISPHERE 2.5

Toys After Dark is a glimpse into what's going in the toy factory after closing time. It is a playful and experimental soundset based on circuit-bent toys and musical instruments, such as math toys, old Casio keyboards and talking toys such as the Furby.

While the purpose of circuit-bending is to bring out new sounds and textures from simple electronics - the nature of circuit-bended gear are generally chaotic, crazy, wacky, weird, noisy and often completely bonkers. Trying to make sense of circuit-bended sounds is an exercise in patience, but that what we did with this soundset. Omnisphere 2 comes loaded with an extensive library of circuit-bent sounds and we spent quite some time listening though all the recordings for the most interesting parts. Armed with a collection of cool sounds, we started putting together our own sounds: rhythmic loops, tonal single sounds, textures and even drum loops.

All of the tonal singles have been tuned to make sense in a musical context - as much as a circuit-bent sound can be tuned - as are many of the loops and sequences. But to keep the chaotic vibe of circuit-bending some of the rhythmical material were not tuned.

Together with the single sounds we also created 50 multi sounds where created even more complex sounds and advanced rhythmic loops.

Toys After Dark contains 231 sounds:

101 Arpeggios and Sequences

19 Hits and Bits

22 Synth Bass

2 Synth Mono

30 Synth Poly

7 Textures

50 Multi patches

PRICE: €4.90 / 75% OFF

(NORMAL PRICE €19.90)

UNTIL 20th OF JANUARY

Use coupon code BROKENTOYS to get the discount.

Available Here

  

64% off “Synthwave Drums” by Beatskillz

“Synthwave Drums” is a resurgence of the 80s drum sound in the 2010s and follows the principals of the retro production styles.

Synthwave Drums not only brings you all the popular drum machine sounds, but also brings dry and processed versions that sound exactly like the records you’ve heard!

Step Back In Time – A Vintage 80’s Drum Machine Plugin!

The 80s defined the era of Synthesizers and Drum Machines. This is the time when great musicians suddenly had electronic instruments at their disposal, and a new genre of music evolved. Certain drum machines defined and made the 80s sound instantly recognizable.

With “Synthwave Drums” Beatskillz have done the hard work of capturing this magic for you, giving you over 100 preset banks of 12 sounds per preset. That’s over 1200 drum sounds! They didn’t just stop there, their plugin GUI has been lovingly designed to inspire you and put you in the mood for “synth wave”!

The Drum Sound That Defined the 80’s – Locked & Loaded!

Often when you buy emulations or samples of just the drum machines, the sounds are too raw and sound nothing like the sounds of the genre.
These drum sounds came from early samplers and analog synthesis. Romplers/Samplers were 8 and 12 bit and made any sample put into them sound “unique” and it did not sound like the original recording.
Lower sample rates of 10-22khz and early D/A converters also played an important role in defining the Drum Machine Sound!
PRESET BANKS – Each Kit / Bank contains 12 drum sounds

• 63 MULTI DRUM KITS
• 13 KICK SNARE COMBO KITS
• 5 CLAPS BANKS
• 4 CYMBALS BANKS
• 8 HI HAT BANKS
• 4 PERCUSSION BANKS
• 2 REVERSE SOUNDS BANKS
• 2 REVERSE CYMBAL BANKS
• 12 TOMS BANKS

Contains a TOTAL of 113 Sound KITS/ BANKS

A total of 1356 Drum One Shot Sounds!

.WAV one shot folder of all samples also included

Normally €69 – get it at 64% off before it’s gone!

• 64% off the normal price (normally €69)!
• The ultimate vintage 80’s drum machine plugin!
• Contains a TOTAL of 113 Sound KITS/ BANKS
• A total of 1356 Drum One Shot Sounds!
• WAV one shot folder of all samples also included
• OSX 10.6.8 or later
• 2 GB RAM / 300 MB HD
• VST2 / AU compatible (32-bit or 64-bit host)
• Windows XP SP2 or later
• 2 GB RAM / 300 MB HD
• Screen Resolution: 1024×768
• VST2 compatible (32-bit or 64-bit host)
• Perfect for 80’s Synthpop, Synthwave, Dreamwave, Outrun styles and much more!

 GET IT HERE

 

                         

Best Music Software Gear of 2018 by Sample Sound Review

There have been so many amazing sample libraries, vsts, plugins, and patch libraries released in 2018 that I cannot include them all. I can only give you what I feel were the best ones that I have played. Full disclosure: there are many libraries like Jaeger by Audio Imperia and the The Christopher Young Collection by 8DIO that I have not been able to acquire yet, so they will not be included in my list. I also did not include any patch libraries to Synths I do not own but I'm confident there are many that would have made this list. I also have not included any mastering plugins, effect plugins, or sample packs in this list.
 So with that said I will begin with my favorite software gear of 2018. I'll begin with my favorite soundbank libraries to my favorite synth Omnisphere 2.5 !!

(Please Note: You will have to click the title link of each product to go to the product to learn more, I did not embed the link within the picture)

My Top Favorite Omnisphere 2 

2018 Soundset Releases:

EMPTY FIELDS – F.2 - Triple Spiral Audio

Empty Fields – F.2 for Omnisphere 2 will be an ongoing project of 10 releases in a one year timespan (every 4/5 weeks a new release). Each release will contain 50 – 70 new patches, 10 – 20 multis and it will use a hybrid setup with using both new recorded material and using soundsources from the Omnisphere 2 core library. There have been 8 packs released so far with total is 420 presets and 80 multis.

Journeys- by Triple Spiral Audio
 Journeys is a soundset with a rich sound world featuring dystopian sounds, mystique surrealistic ambiences, cold harsh horror sounds and rich evolving futuristic and science-fiction like sounds. It draws its inspiration from Dante’s Inferno from the Divine Comedy (the patches The First Ring till the Ninth Ring are directly inspired from this), till the book the Stand from Stephen King till the old Mad Max movies.

Cloud Atlas - by Triple Spiral Audio
Cloud Atlas for Omnisphere 2 provides you the sounds to start a journey filled with mysterious leads, haunting basses, lush and evolving analog pads, neo-futuristic and dystopian soundscapes and raw and tribal arpeggiated sounds.

This soundset is completely created with new soundsources from original recordings of a variety of synths (ARP Solina SE IV, Roland D50 and super jv-1080 to name a few.

Airwave V3 by PluginGuru
 510 Patches (351 are ARP + BPM Basses, Drums, Percussion, Rhythmic PAD and ARP patches!), 95 Multis and 133 New SAMPLES including Sweeps, Transitions, Risers, BOOMS, Crash FX, Claps and so much more. This is a complimentary library which means many of these sounds are unique and designed specifically to enhance working with his other 2 AIRWAVE libraries.

ESC PluginGuru Tribute Library

This is a special collection created by 16 programmers (known as The European Sound Collective aka “ESC”). They programmed this library and GAVE it to PluginGuru to release to everybody. They have watched, learned and been inspired by the YouTube videos that have been released since 2009 and wanted to show their appreciation in a rather unique way!

Consisting of 250 patches and 50 sound sources, this is a very inspiring library that has a unique sound and vibe to it compared to other libraries released by PluginGuru.

Retrosphere V1 by PluginGuru
 378 inspiring patches that ALL use NEW SAMPLES from Oberheim analog synthesizers. Recorded with care and excellent attention by Kurt Strohmeier. Sounds include Bass, FX, Pad, Lead, Synth and Textures all recorded from various Oberheim synthesizers including the Matrix 1000 and OB-Xpander. These samples have a very unique “smooth and warm” quality to them that only come from vintage analog hardware!

Traveller by Triple Spiral Audio

Traveller is a soundset that puts you on a journey where dark and light meet – dark and light ambient pads and textures, mysteriously moving soundscapes with guitar drones, haunting arps and dark deep ominous basses. Hardly anything stands still where movement is a key feature.
The set contains 200 presets and 50 multis crafted for the new updated Omnisphere 2.5 and is created from the Omnisphere 2 soundsources.

Omnisphere Ylem II by Garhn Audio 
  This is a collection of 50 textures for Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2. The sounds are designed primarily for atmospheric, otherworldly and experimental ambient, film and game music.

DARKless by String Audio

DARKless is more oriented towards bright tones and a positive/emotional mood, making it the perfect companion of LIGHTless, which has sound characteristics oriented towards dark tones and a mysterious/sinister and aggressive mood.
305 Soundsources
346 Patches
128 Multis

Delight 2 Scenes for Omnisphere 2 by Hollo Sound
 A real delight for lovers of lyrical, ethereal, mystical, emotional, evolving, soft, airy and transparent pads, strings and voxes.
You can find thick, dramatic and warm analogue synths, basses, leads, plucks.
There are playful and magical keys, arpeggios and BPM synchronized pads, plus a handful of useful drums, transitions and soundscapes.

 

Tom Wolfe's Fractal

A bank of 100 gritty, grainy and slightly obscure sounds, from lo-fi textures and serene pads to blistering leads and crunchy sequences, for Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2. Fractal was created with unconventionality and uniqueness in mind, and provides the perfect solution for your industrial scores and compositions.

 Colossus III by The Unfinished 

Omnisphere Colossus III is a collection of 400 patches for Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.

The third part of the Colossus series continues where the others left off, providing a wealth of sounds designed for atmospheric, Hollywood underscore and action music. Colossus III is particularly inspired by the work of Harry Gregson-Williams and James Newton Howard.

 CYBERIA by THE UNFINISHED
Omnisphere Cyberia is a collection of 300 patches for Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.
It is designed to blend the electronic and organic worlds, in order to provide dynamic and dramatic, atmospheric sounds; full of grit, punch and wonder.

My Top Favorite Kontakt Instrument Releases of 2018:

Heavyocity Forzo Modern Brass

Recorded at the legendary Skywalker Sound, FORZO is the product of Heavyocity's world
class sound design team joining
forces with award
winning composer, Jason Graves, and A
list Hollywood Film Score Engineer Satoshi Mark Noguchi

Heavyocity Novo Synthetic Strings Pack 03
An unmatched anthology of vintage and modern string synthesizers.
Ranging from classic to contemporary, Synthetic Strings brims with all the warmth and depth that these iconic synths can muster.

Zero G Ethera EVI 2.0
 Zero-G Ethera EVI – Electro Virtual Instrument. Produced by award-winning sound designer and composer Stefano Maccarelli and featuring the critically acclaimed vocalist Clara Sorace, Ethera EVI takes you into an amazing world of stunning vocals, synths, arps, textures, bass, horns, drums, acoustic instruments and ambient sounds for all your cinematic and electronic music productions.

Gothic Instruments Dronar Master Edition
 DRONAR Master Edition is the flagship virtual instrument of Gothic Instruments’ hugely popular and award winning DRONAR series of atmospheric sound creation tools.

Developed for Native Instruments' free Kontakt Player, the 30GB (50GB uncompressed) Master Edition combines all the raw audio and 2,000+ presets from the first eight critically-acclaimed DRONAR modules into one huge beast of an instrument plug-in.

Ideal for creating dark and chilling soundscapes as well as uplifting ethereal and ambient music, the DRONAR Master Edition makes it easy to create and play highly expressive pads, patterns, textures and atmospheres for any genre.

8DIO Hybrid Tools Dark Prophecy
 Hybrid Tools – The Dark Prophecy (17GB compressed) is a new, dark, chapter in the saga of our evolving Hybrid Tools. Purely designed with true analog hardware synthesizers and expanding upon the latest trends in professional scores.

Arpology Cinematic Dimensions by Sample Logic
 Quadruples the power of the original ARPOLOGY with the addition of an all new 4-core performance engine, individually animating 4 instruments to create one cohesive sound.  The library boasts over 1,200 presets designed to deliver flexible sequencing and arpeggiated grooves for all types of cinematic productions.

Xosphere 2 by Sample Logic 
 XOSPHERE 2 is simply amazing. XO2 is not only an infinite sound sculpting virtual instrument, it also sports over 2,000 inspiring ready-made soundscape presets derived from content curated by leading sound design and virtual instrument companies. The result is a momentous achievement for Kontakt and for atmosphere creation. This truly is the last atmosphere tool you will ever need.

 Soundiron Rhythmic Odyssey

Rhythmic Odyssey is a flexible and highly-customisable loop-based virtual percussion instrument for Kontakt Player and a huge open-format modular loop library for use with any piece of software or hardware you wish. This deep and stylistically expansive collection focuses on dynamic live tuned and untuned percussion performances by British instrumentalist and media composer David Oliver.

Best Budget Priced Kontakt Libraries under $50



Holy Ambiences 3.0 by Soundiron

Holy Ambiences is an ambient synth pad, evolving soundscape and sound-designed ambient sample library for composers and sound artists. It captures a wintery, icy mood with shimmering and sparkling textures, lush, mystical backgrounds, warm musical patches and a mysterious vibe.
 
LUSH ATMOSPHERES 
Lush Atmosphere is an ambient Kontakt Library featuring 3 ambient instruments, and amaster patch to mix and control them. Lush Atmosphere will be the secret sauce you throw into your mixes to add that lush ethereal sound.

Cosmos by Impact Soundworks
An evocative synth powered by atmospheric, pulsating, and ambient sounds and inspired by the wonders of outer space. Over 350 rhythmic phrases and ambiences, perfect for providing movement and underscore.

My Top Favorite Soft Synth releases of 2018


Omnisphere 2.5 (Update) by Spectrasonics

Arturia- Pigments Polychrome Software Synthesizer
 An immensely powerful wavetable and virtual analog software synthesizer, 20 years in the making. This is Pigments, and it’s going to change the way you make music.

Synapse Audio - DUNE 3
 DUNE 3 comes with many new patches crafted by expert sound designers. Since DUNE 3 is fully patch-compatible with DUNE 2, it includes its presets as well,
doubling the factory library size to more than 1000 patches.

HEXERACT by Auddict
 A powerful software synthesizer, multiplied with the added dimension of organic recording, leading to sonic possibilities not even remotely paralleled by any software or hardware currently available.

Rob Papen Go2

  Go2 which ships now with over 1000 inspirational presets!

And yes, Go2 has all of the controls visual at the same time but still has some unique features and sound for sure… which makes sure that it will boldly go to where no other synth in this category went before...

Retails for only $49

Zero-G HERZ-OG

Herz-OG is a colossal 6.5Gb Kontakt Instrument synthesiser that’s packed full with over 15,000 separate samples. It comes with a unique custom Kontakt interface with a simple elegant design and fully functioning sequencer. Herz-OG comes with over 700 preset instruments that are merely your starting points on the road to creating the patches of your dreams. 

It's priced at only $53.95.

Reviews from the Best of 2018 by 
Sample Sound Review Below: 

• Forzo Modern Brass by Heavyocity- REVIEW

• Traveller for Omnisphere 2.5 by Triple Spiral Audio- Review

• Tom Wolfes Fractal for Omnisphere Review

• Arpology Cinematic Dimensions by Sample Logic -REVIEW 

•  Synthetic Strings Novo Pack 03 by Heavyocity -REVIEW

•  8DIO Dark Prophecy Hybrid Tools - Review

• Xosphere 2 by Sample Logic -REVIEW

•  David Oliver's Rhythmic Odyssey by Soundiron

•  Heavyocity Novo Synthetic Strings Pack 03

• Omnisphere Ylem II by Gahrn Audio- REVIEW

• Lush Atmosphere by Genera Studios - REVIEW

• Cloud Atlas for Omnisphere 2 by Triple Spiral Audio- REVIEW

• Empty Fields F2 for Omnisphere 2 by Triple Spiral Audio- REVIEW

• Journeys for Omnisphere 2 by Triple Spiral Audio -REVIEW 

• ESC Plugin Guru Tribute Library for Omnisphere 2 -REVIEW

Keep in mind I did not get a chance to play or review a lot of libraries I would have liked too.

 I also obtained a lot of incredible libraries created in 2016-2017 that I wish I could include in this list but unfortunately this list is for everything released in 2018. I will give you a hint though, CL- Projects will certainly make this list for 2019! I also want to say that I have not been able to review Sonic Underworlds soundsets yet, but I am confident they would of made the list too. 

To Learn more, check out their websites below:

www.SonicUnderworld.com
  www.cl-projects-sound-design.com

Cheers to a Huge 2019 !!

MONOLITH Atmos & Abyss by String Audio (Kontakt Library)

String Audio has been a little quiet since there release of DARKless in early 2018 and for good reason. They just released an Epic new sample library Kontakt bundle called MONOLITH Atmos and MONOLITH Abyss.

MONOLITH Atmos is a powerful tool for Kontakt to create deep and complex cinematic sounds, from delicate and pure pads and tones to unreal and signature soundscapes and textures.
Each instrument is composed of six layers.
The library features more than 17GB of sample material 

• 17+GB of original sample material (13+GB using Kontakt's lossless sample storage compression).
• 3300+ high-quality samples.
• 6 layers.
• 296 pre-programmed Snapshots. 
• Main Engine: Individual layer controls for pitch, volume, pan, solo, mute, effects bypass, layer lock, adsr, layer boost and cut, pan and amp LFO send.
• Powerful randomize function.
• Dedicated Motion Engine: Pan - Amp - Pitch - Filter LFO.
• Dedicated Color Engine: 276 convolution Impulse Responses, Randomize function.
• Dedicated Effect Engine: skreamer, lo-fi, chorus, tape saturation, delay, and distortion (controlled by the modulation wheel.
• Dedicated Eq/Reamp

MONOLITH Abyss: is the ultimate tool to add that "huge sub bass" sound to your compositions and sound design projects.

• 800+MB of original sample material (540+MB using Kontakt's lossless sample storage compression).
• 200+ high-quality samples.
• 4 layers.
• The "Sub" Layer consists of a collection of several "60Hz" Sub hardware and soft synth sounds specifically for this library.
• The "Bass" Layer consists of a selection of Bass sounds, their scope is to add "focus" to the Sub Layer.
• The 'Dirt" Layer is a selection of textures, their scope is to add a signature sound to the Sub and Bass Layers.
• The "Abyss" Layer consists of a selection of "Ultra-Low" samples, acting around 40Hz.
• 150 pre-programmed Snapshots. 
• Main Engine: Individual layer controls for pitch, volume, pan, solo, mute, effects bypass, layer lock, adsr, layer boost and cut, pan and amp LFO send.
• Powerful randomize function.

Minimum System Requirements

Requires FULL retail version (sold separately) of Kontakt 5.6 and above.

This library is NOT supported by the FREE Kontakt Player.

Check Out More: STRING AUDIO

 

MONOLITH from stringaudio on Vimeo.

Ambient Tape Machines: C1 by Genera Studios- REVIEW

                      

Ambient Tape Machines: C1 by Genera Studios

Total Sample Size - 805MB

184 Samples

Over 70 Snapshot Presets

Intuitive GUI with Plenty of Control

Custom Dual Arpeggiators

Open script for all you KSP scripters out there!

Recorded at 24 Bit and 48kHz

Full version of Kontakt 5.8.1 or above is required (will not work in Kontakt Player)

Features:
3 sound sources with volume, pan, tuning, and tape speed controls
Two ADSR’s for VCA and VCF (with VCF ENV depth)
Switchable LFO synced to your host tempo (with mod depth)
Vibrato depth and rate control
4-pole LPF and HPF
Delay, Reverb, and Saturation Controls
Custom dual arpeggiators for LPF cutoff and resonance

REVIEW 

 

Ambient Tape Machines:C1 by Genera Studios is an ambient soundscape Kontakt Library created by recording samples on a cassette tape and playing them back with a variation of speed using a vintage Library of Congress C1 cassette player. Genera Studios wanted to capture the warmth of true analog to create something truly unique. I was excited to hear this was another ambient library since I really liked Lush Atmosphere, which I reviewed earlier in 2018. 

There is a total of 184 samples used in this library and 70 snapshot presets. You will have to copy the Ambient Tape Machines snapshots folder and place them in the user folder of Kontakt found in the Native Instruments folder to have access to all the presets. 
 The folder in Kontakt can be located by following the path below, depending on your system.
Mac OS Snapshots Folder:
System Drive/Users/<your username>/Documents/Native Instruments/UserContent/Kontakt/
PC Snapshots Folder:
C:\Users\<your username>\Documents\Native Instruments\User Content\Kontakt\

 This is another Kontakt library from Genera Studios that is very affordable, weighing in at only $20. The GUI is simply laid out with all the controls, ADSR, and dual arpeggiators on one page. Genera Studios teamed up with 2 musicians and sound designers to create many presets in this library.  Jetfire Prime contributed a collection of incredible ambient and FX sounds. Franklin Vanderhyde of Music For Film and Media contributed diverse patches in almost every category.

There is some really great presets in this library and some that are perfect for a haunting underscore. Very deep, dark, and thick ambient sounds drenched in some spacey reverb. It was amazing to hear what came out of the samples recorded from the C1 cassette player. There is a lot of atmosphere and unique sounds within this library that can be easily manipulated into something of your own.

To do this review fairly though, I must address a couple issues I had with this library. For one, I found myself adjusting the volume between some of the presets a little more than I would have liked but it's an easy fix.  One other thing I would have liked to have is some FX assigned to the mod wheel because I always use my mod wheel. This is one issue I hope gets addressed in future libraries. 

I did do a video demonstrating the presets in this library so you can get a clear understanding of what Ambient Tape Machines:C1 contains. I also included the great demonstration video from Genera Studios.

As a budget Kontakt instrument I think it's a great companion to other ambient libraries. It took me a few days to play with it but I really found potential in this library. Even though a some of the presets fell a little short to my needs, others really delivered.  For now, this low cost library comes in as a high recommendation and another job well done by Genera Studios.

4 Out of 5 Stars!

To Learn More Visit: Genera Studios