Friday, April 10, 2020

REVIEW: ALPHA ORGAN by SOUNDIRON







Alpha Organ is a deep sampled pipe organ released by Soundiron.


OVERVIEW


This is the Main Interface
 (Consists of 6 Main Controls, Octave Selector, Addictions Controls via the gear icon, & Mic Settings)

 


Additional Controls
(LFO, FILTER and ARPEGGIATOR
MIC SETTINGS
ALL MIXER
(Mix between all 10 STOPS)
LAYERED USER INTERFACE
(Layer selection, controls, and X-Fade Slider)

REVIEW



Ever since Soundiron announced Alpha Organ at NAMM 2020, it piqued my interest. Another developer surprised me last year with an organ release, and I was hoping Soundiron would surprise me too. Of course, Organs seemed to have had a resurgence since Hans Zimmer's score of Interstellar, which I must admit, I really liked. However, I knew Soundiron would apply something unique to Alpha Organ with its sound design abilities.



First Off, what is Alpha Organ? 


Alpha Organ is a pipe organ recorded at St. Paul's Church in San Francisco, CA. and is a Kontakt player compatible instrument with a retail price of only $69. For a Kontakt player instrument, this is a very fair price. 

When you first open up the instrument, you'll see three master NKI presets and a folder of 20 custom fx presets. The first NKI is the main Alpha Organ with a sound selection bar that contains all the stops housed in the middle of the interface with six main controls located underneath. Additionally, you'll find additional controls at the top right of the GUI. There is an octave selector control, mic position mixer, LFO, Filter, and Arp. My personal favorite preset from the sound selector bar is the 'ALL MIXER' articulation where I can mix between all ten stops and three mic settings (close, mid, & far).


The layered user interface contains a variety of advanced controls, layer selection, articulations selector, and an X-fade slider. If you don't know, Soundiron always incorporates a lot of sound sculpting capabilities within their instruments including the DSP Effects Rack. This allows direct access to Kontakt’s 18 built-in special effects and dynamic processors.


How does Alpha Organ Sound ?


The pipe organ sounds genuine, robust, with plenty of vibrating bottom end. The authenticity of the organ is attributed to how it was deeply sampled in the environment it was recorded in. However, my favorite part of the library is the sound-shaping preferences and layering customization. For me, the most satisfying results were when I spent time with the arpeggiator and blending other sounds with the ambiences. Don't get me wrong the traditional organ sound is fantastic, but when you can create movement and add textures, it becomes so much greater. Soundiron is a company that's not afraid to take risks, and they can make the most unconventional sound into a playable instrument. They were the only company that I know of that had the guts to release a library called Flatulus created by using real farts. Soundiron does not shy away from being daring, but I sure wouldn't want to sit in on that recording session. So if they could make a fart library playable, you can only expect the best with their more conventional instrument libraries. 

The 30 ambience patches were well designed, but if you want to apply even more atmosphere, I encourage you to experiment with the DSP FX Rack. I activated the delay and some other fx that created some heavenly atmospherics.


The library downloads at 9.22GB all recorded in 24bit, and works in the full version or Free Kontakt Player, as I noted above.



Alpha Organ is a fine addition for any composer searching to add a pipe organ and exquisite soundscapes to their compositions. My only question is, if this is the Alpha will there be an Omega Organ in Soundiron's future?


There's a lot I appreciate about Alpha Organ. Soundiron transformed this historic instrument into a beautiful sample library with a lot going on underneath the hood. Dig deep, and you'll discover a wealth of creativity. Well Done, Soundiron!






 Written by Steve Montgomery
(Infinite Mindscape & Darkmood)

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