Monthly Archives: September 2021

Chris Hein Orchestral Brass EXtended KONTAKT

Chris Hein Orchestral Brass EXtended is an extensive orchestral brass library meeting highest expectations regarding sound quality, expression and applicability. What started out as a functional and fun brass library in its first iteration, has been taken to the next level with the EXtended Version.

Producer Chris Hein has brought his thirty years of sampling experience into this masterpiece, giving the user maximum flexibility, highest level of customization and benefit in use. For the EXtended Version Chris Hein pushed the limits of Kontakt scripting and modelling to power the most realistic and dynamic brass collection ever seen.

While the original library featured nine instruments, Chris Hein Orchestral Brass EXtended comes with twelve instruments in total. Included are all nine original instruments plus three additional instruments, six ensemble instrument patches, and two effects articulation patches. All in all, Chris Hein Orchestral Brass EXtended contains 20 GB of additional content – more than twice as much as the original library and over 43,000 new samples.

Instruments from Orchestral Brass Complete: three Trumpets, three Trombones, and three French Horns recorded as individual instruments and as three ensembles. Each instrument builds upon almost 8,000 single samples, 14 articulations and up to eight dynamic layers.

Additional instruments in the EXtended Version:

•  F-Tuba
•  Sousaphone
•  Euphonium

In fact, these three Low Brass Instruments have more articulations and samples than the original Brass Instruments – there are 24 articulations in total for each of the Tuba, Sousaphone and Euphonium.

Sousaphone ImageIn addition to 5 different sustains, 6 different shorts and 5 different special articulations, you’ll find:

•  Added Repetitions in 16th and 8th notes with adjustable speed
•  6 new short articulations and hundreds of stunning one shot effect samples

Euphonium ImageChris has sampled these instruments in exquisite detail, with 16 dynamic layers for the normal shorts. This provides a huge range of variation and expression. Short repetitions, dirty attacks, growls and ornaments were deliberately recorded with character and expression, so they’ll bring unparalleled realism to your parts, simulating the natural playing nuances of a real-life player.

For an epic Hollywood sound Chris Hein added six Ensemble Instrument patches using the same mixing techniques he used for his Ensemble Strings library, Chris has created extra large, epic Brass Ensembles from a careful mixture of the solo instruments. Thanks to the sonic quality and the extremely wide dynamic range, this version of Orchestral Brass offers instantly fat and full sounding Ensembles for each instrument group.

Included are:

•  Trumpet Ensemble large
•  Trombone Ensemble large
•  Horns Ensemble large
•  Low Brass Ensemble
•  Full Brass Ensemble
•  Full Brass Ensemble without the Trumpets

The low brass ensemble is a particular highlight, with extended articulations including: Ensemble repetitions, 6 new short articulations, 12 different Note Heads and a large variety of spectacular Ensemble Effects.

More Features inside Orchestral Brass EXtended

• Note-Head Variations – Changing the Note-head variations has always been a standout feature of Chris Hein libraries, and with Orchestral Brass EXtended the number of different attack articulations increases from 6 to 12. This is the easiest way to bring more character, variations and nuance to your brass performances. Instantly switch between all versions of clean or dirty attacks by just moving the Note-Head fader.
• Simulated Mute Controls – The simulated mute controls inside Orchestral Brass EXtended are effective, realistic and first and foremost lots of fun. Because they’re modelled, rather than sampled, Orchestral Brass EXtended consists of a reasonable size without multi-sampling every different type of mute. All the EXtended instruments are armed with the mute modelling, accessible from the front panel. Included are five different Mutes: Bucket, Cup, Harmon, Straight, and Stop mute.
• True Legato – The instruments of Chris Hein Orchestral Brass Complete offer true legato. The corresponding in-depth recordings and edits result in unexpectedly realistic sounds with perfect note-transitions. At the same time you can expand these realistic articulations by additional, artificially inserted legatos.
• Perfect Dynamic Transitions thanks to Phase Alignment – All samples were fully aligned in phase. Accordingly, the instruments offer perfect seamless transitions of dynamic layers without sonic degradation.

Both the high quality gear such as selected Neumann microphones and the musician’s significant performances drive the sound aesthetics. Unlike the award-winning Chris Hein – Horns, this library takes advantage of the renowned WDR Symphonic Orchestra.

For this library, dry close mic’ing was an intentional decision. All instruments were recorded individually avoiding any crosstalk. Despite that CH Winds Compact incorporated the inevitable interaction of an orchestra. Therefore, the participating musicians used headphone monitoring, to complement each other, forming perfectly balanced ensembles. Consequently, time-dependent articulations such as Dynamic Expression achieve an especially coherent tone, allowing you to combine individual instruments for perfectly matched ensembles.

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Samples From Mars SDS800 From Mars MULTIFORMAT

Classic Simmons Analog Toms, White Noise & Tuned Kicks
The Simmons SDS-800 is an analog 80s drum synth, responsible for the cosmic syn-tom (‘beeww beeww’) sounds used on countless disco, boogie & reggae recordings. In the 90s, it became re-popularized in the techno world, with the raw, resonant white noise oscillator being used for jarring hi hat and snare programming. And most recently, the Simmons drum sounds have become a signature for punk funk groups like LCD Soundsystem.

All of the different Simmons brains vary in sound, and the SDS800 is no exception, easily holding its own against the bigger (and much more expensive) SDSV. The voices are a bit tighter and faster, the resonance on the snare is capable of a wider range of sounds, and the 2nd skin Toms are 2nd to none.

The Recording Process
We tracked the 800 mostly raw, to allow for maximum subtractive sculpting in your sampler or DAW of choice, only occasionally applying compression with an 1776 to some bass drums. Recording the majority of hits to tape, we twisted the (many) knobs in all types of combos for the snare, getting many variations of resonance, envelope and filter settings. To create “hi hats”, we incorporated an additional (Moog) high pass filter.

For the bass drum and toms we took a more calculated approach – tuning groups of bass drums (including digital, unprocessed) with a guitar tuner. Every filename is labeled with its corresponding note number and you can create some amazing basslines and analog melodies, like this.

The toms were recorded in groups, which makes them perfect to work with as traditional tom sounds. Various combinations include: noise, no noise, long decay, short decay, and 2nd skin – which sounds like a sort of ring modulation or frequency modulation, and is very cool.

The results: 480 classic Simmons drum hits – bass drum, snare, toms, and (our own) hi hat. Access the extensive organized individual hits or get jamming immediately with eight pre-made 16 hit kits – assorted kits with those classic toms, white noise kits, wonky FX kits, and chromatic bass kits.

In the End
The SDS800 From Mars, and Simmons in general, can do that classic syn-tom, but they are capable of SO much more. The hits sound excellent on their own, but when you begin layering the samples with other (eprom or sample based) drum hits, they really start to shine. If you ever have a weak sample that you like the character of, try using these analog hits to fatten and focus it. Layer the white noise to add depth, energy and punch to an existing snare, use an analog sub under an existing bass drum. Or, just program Losing My Edge and see the checks come raining in.

Contents:

• 480 24bit WAV SDS800 Simmons Samples
• (8) pre-made 16x Hit Kits for instant jamming
• Classic Syn-Toms, White Noise Snares & Hats, Tuned Sub Bass & FX
• Variations of sounds include pitch bend, tune, resonance, decay length, noise amount & more
• Toms and Bass Drums recorded in groups for better playability
• Chromatic Bass Drums, labelled by note name
• Most drums recorded to tape and largely unprocessed
• Ableton: includes 1 master drum rack with all samples
• Kontakt, Logic & Reason: include: 15 Individual Hit Instruments & 2 Kits instruments containg 8 pre-made 16x hit kits
• Maschine, Battery & FL Studio include: 8 pre-made 16x hit kits
• MPC1000 & MPC2500 include: 8 pre-made 16x Hit kits on 2 MPC Programs
• 107 MB Unzipped Per Format

Ready For:

• Ableton Live 9.7+ (Not Intro)
• Kontakt 5.6.5+ (Not Kontakt Player)
• Logic 9+
• Maschine 2.6+
• Reason 8+
• Battery 4.1.5+
• FL Studio 20.8+
• MPC1000 or MPC2500
• 24 bit WAV Compatible DAW or Sampler

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Akai Marco Polo Presents Pad Thai Deluxe MPC Expansions WAV SXQ XPJ XPM XAL

Akai Professional and Marco Polo are proud to release Pad Thai Deluxe Vol 1!

Pad Thai Deluxe features the cream of the crop taken from Marco Polo’s highly acclaimed and internationally known” Pad Thai” drum kit series. Known for having some of the hardest and dustiest drums in the game, Marco Polo has spent years digging for records and applying that same approach to assembling his drum kits. Marco has produced for some of the greats in Hip Hop such as Rakim, Scarface, Masta Ace, Pharoahe Monch, Westode Gunn & Talib Kweli too name a few.

This is essentially Pad thai on steroids! 24 brand new fully composed beats/pgms including musical, bass and drum elements to get your beats knocking with minimal effort. A mixture of laid back vibes to the dirt and grit of Brooklyn, New York where Marco calls home. Use the presents and demos to catch your own vibe or guide you on a new musical journey. These sounds are ready to rock RAW with minimal processing. Punch, thump and dirt is the name of the game here. Whether it’s one shots or chopped original breakbeats. This kit has you covered for the inspiration to produce any modern or old school Hip Hop vibe.

Be sure to check out Marco Polo’s YouTube series “MP On The MP” season 1 for a deeper look into using pad thai in his production process! MP has taken his MPC 2000 Xl workflow/approach to new levels in the modern Akai world and we’re excited for you to hear this brand new kit that will definitely change the game.

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