Thursday, February 21, 2019

REVIEW: NOVO ESSENTIALS by HEAVYOCITY







When I saw Heavyocity released Novo Essentials, I thought, what a great idea. Now customers on a budget can now experience a library of selective content taken from Novo: Modern Strings at a great price. Novo was recorded at the amazing Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. Studios and if you've been wanting to play it without breaking the bank, this is your chance!

Overview:

This Essentials collection contains 3 different NKI instruments:
 
I Full Ensemble (Traditional Orchestral Instrument), II String Designer Essentials (Deep Sound Design), and III Loop Designer Essentials (Loop Content). 



NOVO Essentials is a total of 10.02GB uncompressed and 6.1 GB on disc using Native Instruments lossless compression. There is a total of 5,668 samples and comes with 54 brand new snapshot presets.


Traditional Instrument Section:

In the full ensemble section, you get 1 NKI and 4 snapshots. There are 44 players in the ensemble featuring 18 violins, 10 Violas, 10 Cellos, and 6 Double Basses. You also get 4 articulations including: Long Sustain, Tremolo, Staccato, and Pizzicato.







The Evolved Instruments:

 In the Evolved instrument section, you can really dig into the sound design aspect by using the macro system to control an array of features like ENV (ADSR Envelope & also Sync, Start, Random & Width), EQ (3-band parametric), FILTER (Cutoff & Resonance) DRIVE (Saturation & Distortion), GATE (Rhythmic Effects), and Space (Delay and Reverb).

At the bottom of the II String Designer Essentials page, you get the Master FX section with Heavyocity's exclusive Punish (Compression/Saturation) and Twist knob (Phaser/Filter). 
At the top right you will find the Cycle tool which combines a rhythmic sequencer with an arpeggiator. You can several effects with the Cycle tool including pulses, granular synthesis, swells, and stutter effects. 
 II String Designer Essentials contains 1NKI and a total of 43 Snapshots.



In the III Loop Designer Essentials page you will find 1 NKI and 36 Loop Snapshots (12 Ambient, 12 Motif, and 12 Rhythmic)






At the top right you will find the Designer page where you can layer loops using the Designer Keys, as well as edit parameters for each loop in the instrument.





REVIEW


What if you already own Novo: Modern Strings?

This is a decision you will have to ponder but here are the details.

Number 1: You get 54 New Snapshots

Number 2: You get a Full Ensemble Preset: which combines the Violins, Violas, Cellos, Basses in one playable instrument and is exclusive to Novo Essentials. 

If you have the full version of Novo: Modern Strings, then you would not be getting any new sample material, but you will getting some cool new features with a reduced CPU load which I will discuss in the next paragraph.

What if you don't own Novo: Modern Strings?

To be able to experience the incredible Novo Modern Strings engine in such an affordable library is a no-brainer. The sound quality of Novo is not only phenomenal but undeniably impeccable. Another thing that impressed me was how low Novo Essentials was on my CPU. This should appeal to any composer doing work on a smaller laptop away from their workhorse computer. I tested this on a Windows Intel Core I5 with 8gb of ram and never got close to peaking. In the system requirements it says it can even run on 2GB of ram...What? There's a lot to say about an instrument that sounds this amazing and is so CPU friendly. 

I found so much inspiration and gratification when I began playing Novo Essentials that all I could think about was 'this sounds awesome’! I even recorded a non-verbal preset walkthrough video of my first experience with the instrument. You can find that video below where I first start off demonstrating the loops and then the rest of the library. 

One thing you should know is that Novo Essentials only works with Kontakt 6 and Kontakt 6 Player. So, if you haven't upgraded to Kontakt 6, no worries, it works in the Free Kontakt 6 player engine.

Heavyocity has released another solid release but not just because it sounds extraordinary as a cutting-edge modern String library! Heavocity has opened the Novo strings universe to a lot more players who might not have been able to purchase its big brother. This could be a very successful trend and could work very well for Heavyocity with customers on a budget. 

The quality of content and sound design capabilities in Novo Essentials is staggering. To be able to purchase a string library of this caliber for $119 (Retail) is a perfect opportunity and makes this a necessary must own!

Novo Essentials is exactly what it says it is and achieves a resounding 

5 Out Of 5 Stars!





Available Here: Heavyocity
&









  

   



Written by Steve Montgomery (Darkmood & Infinite Mindscape)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

VB

LM

Loopmasters Premium Sounds

PB

Pluginboutique.com Best Deals

VB