Crowds, Vaults and a Lotus – Sounds and Presets
More free content from Audiomodern and some Poly M patches...
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This week, we go into battle with Crowds, play with a free Bodhrán and immerse ourselves in a blend of Japanese instruments with orchestral textures.
Sounds and Presets
Crowds – War & Battle by Boom Library
Last week, I brought you the sounds of great 20th Century speeches, with the likes of Kennedy, Churchill and more, cleaned up and made available for free. Whilst they might not immediately appeal to most, there’s a huge amount of music out there that uses these kinds of things.
This week, we stay with out-of-the-ordinary vocals, only this time, we’re ON the battlefield with Crowds – War & Battle from Boom Library. Probably more suited to those who produce sound effects tracks for film, theatre and other similar projects, there could still be a place for these in your musical productions.
We’ve come a long way from the Wilhelm scream, and this 42GB collection of 3,935 sounds across 1251 files allows you to invoke feelings of anger, fear, triumph and desperation. Sounds are categorised using keywords from the very specific to much broader terms.
Boom Library haven’t just sampled a small number of voices and just multiplied them. They’ve recorded large groups as well as single voices and used a vast array of different microphones placed in the field at different angles and distances to deliver authentic positioning.
Crowds – War & Battle comes as a collection of 24bit/96kHz WAV files, so these can be used in almost any audio or video production software. Every file contains extensive metadata to make it as easy as possible to find what you’re looking for quickly.
Solo Bodhrán for Vaults by The Crow Hill Company
Since its recent inception, The Crow Hill Company has delivered a steady and consistently useful collection of small but free sample libraries that are time-limited and only useable in their bespoke Vaults instrument plugin.
Last week saw the launch of their latest offering, the oft-mispronounced Bodhrán (it’s “Bow-Ron”). It’s commonly found and used in the folk music found in Ireland and Scotland and is a single-sided drum played with a double-headed beater and some nifty wrist action.
The Bodhrán is fairly synonymous with these styles but can add a Celtic feel to almost anything when played right. To aid you with this, there are syncable loops provided as well as individual hits. There are controls that allow you to control playing style and effects, all contained within the very clean and simple Vaults UI.
Vaults libraries are only available for a fixed period of time, typically 180 days. So there’s still 176 days to go before this one disappears. Whilst you’re there, you can make sure you’ve got all of these super-useful libraries before they disappear.
Scene : Lotus for Kontakt by Native Instruments
Native Instruments Scene series is a collection of low-cost, quick-result instruments created for media composers so that they can get results fast and with minimal fuss. The latest addition to this suite is Lotus.
The Scene UI is built around a vector-like paradigm that allows the user to move between two sampled sounds using its XY ‘pad’ and offering a simplified range of sound-shaping controls and FX. Intelligent scripting allows you to match these sounds with the key of your project.
Lotus derives its sound sources from a blend of traditional orchestral timbres, blended with Japanese instrumentation and synthesized tones. By using the XY control, you can achieve a pleasing blend of these sounds with ease.
Scene : Lotus contains 16 sounds, 120 presets in a 1.2GB footprint and can be used with either the free Kontakt Player or the full version of Kontakt itself. It is available now from Native Instruments for just £25.
Spectra for Soundbox by Audiomodern
Audiomodern shook up the pre-packaged sample-based instrument world with Soundbox last year. The low-cost platform allows users to explore its features with a selection of free content, with the ability to bolster one’s library with paid-for content.
It features four sample-based layers and a range of sound-shaping tools, along with MPE support to serve up a really intuitive experience. And now the free library has received another addition in the form of Spectra.
Spectra is aimed specifically at the ambient genre and comes with 30 presets that play to that genre’s core of soundscapes, atmospheres, drones and effects-style sounds. Weighing in at only 214MB, it punches well above its weight, especially when combined with Soundbox’s extensive sound-shaping features.
Soundbox works as a plugin on all major DAWs as well as having an iPadOS version, which this library is also available for. You’d be silly not to try this out as it won’t cost you a penny and will download in seconds. Pick it up now over at the Audiomodern website.
PolyM Realms for Xils-Lab PolyM by Daniel Stawczyk
PolyM, Xils-Lab’s expanded recreation of the legendary Moog Polymoog, has been out for a little while now so it was surprising to learn that PolyM Realms is its first official sound bank! Created by Daniel Stawczyk, who has created a number of banks for Xils-Lab instruments, it explores the unique features of an instrument best known for its use by Gary Numan!
Daniel has endeavoured to cover a wider range of sounds that go beyond the Vox Humana preset that made that instrument famous, and he does so with some aplomb! There are 80 presets included here and there’s something for everyone.
Some of the sounds are very much in the Polymoog vein but others go way beyond and it all makes for a very versatile and useful bank of sounds for what is already a versatile instrument. If you’ve been putting off buying PolyM, now is a great time to pull the trigger as it has got a hefty discount on it!
You can also pick up this collection of sounds with some money off as it is currently reduced from €19.90 to just €12.90. Buy it now from the Xils-Lab website.
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