Hollow Sun has announced Cronk-O-Tron, a sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt.
Cronk-O-tron is part of a new series of ‘MLM Lite’ products I’ll be banging out from time to time for ‘cup of coffee’ prices.
Cronk-O-Tron (as the name suggests) is a cheap and cheerful thing with a dark and crusty old tone. It’s made up of layers of stuff carefully blended to create a vintage/retro kind of strings/voice pad sound – lo-fi and wobbly.
It’s extensively multi-sampled in stereo and each sample was recorded for a minute before having long and luxurious loops applied that allow the sound to ‘breathe’.
Cronk-O-Tron features
44.1kHz/24-bit.
Advanced Retro Synthesis Engine.
Mysterious lo-fi string/vox samples.
All-pass filter for tonal modification.
LFO sweep of filter for phase shifting.
‘Crud’ switch creates edgier lo-fi elements.
Simple envelope shaper.
Stereo spread control.
Chorus and stereo/mono echo section.
Convolved reverb with custom impulses.
The Cronk-O-Tron library is available to purchase for £2.50 GBP.
The Big Blue Compressor is a modern compressor with vintage qualities. Although it can sound transparent whenever necessary, it was designed to give character and warmth to your sound.
Big Blue Limiter is a character limiter. It is neither transparent nor intended to be. In fact it adds a little mojo to everything you run through it, if desired even when no limiting is taking place.
112dB Big Blue Compressor effect plug-in for PC & Mac.
Changes in Big Blue Limiter v1.1.1
64-bit VST & AU version for MAC OS.
Extra large GUI for easier reading on high resolution screens.
32- & 64-bit installation for Windows is now combined in one installer.
Drag & drop authorization was removed (to simplify the authorization process & enhance compatibility with ProTools 10).
Fixed: Peak light got stuck at a local maximum on MAC OS.
Fixed: Knob & slider parameters didn’t show up correctly in native editors and external controllers.
Changes in Big Blue Compressor v1.0.1
64-bit VST & AU version for MAC OS.
Extra large GUI for easier reading on high resolution screens.
Auto make-up function can be turned off.
Less CPU load.
Fixed: Big Blue Compressor would randomly crash AU Validation Tool (Logic).
Fixed: Improved CPU load by fixing denormal bug.
Fixed: Big Blue Compressor couldn’t be inserted on mono tracks in RTAS & AU.
Both plug-ins are available to purchase at a 25% discount until July 31st.
Signo SFX-Instruments has announced the release of Rumbles, a sound fx library for Native Instruments Kontakt and Logic EXS24..
Rumbles SFX-Instrument is another unique concept specially developed for easy sound design. This instrument contains 61 original textures of rumbles used for anything coming out from space or for earthquakes, machineries, room control, engine rooms and so on. So get ready to rumble.
There are many «workers» inside the heart of Rumbles. Three LFOs are work together with the Surround panner and randomly assigned to angle, «Y» and distance to produce a surround sound effect that comes from all sides. By combining different rumbles sound effects among themselves, it offers you the possibility to hear many other original sounds.
Chokehold has launched Alexis D-Four, a free drum sampler instrument for Windows and Mac.
The Alesis D4 drum and percussion sound module sampled.
I didn’t just want to get the samples out of this machine, I wanted to capture and simulate the dynamic range of the device – which had an impressive -76dBfs noise floor.
Even though it was a one-shot machine, the idling noise was loud enough so that a close listener could really hear the samples fade into the noise floor differently at changing velocities.
Others have sampled D4s before, but they usually just capture one loud sample and scale its volume down for lower velocities. Which also lowers the volume of the noise floor being played back, and thereby distorting the dynamic behavior of the device. Might sound cleaner at lower volumes, but not authentic.
Younger ears used to ultra-sterile digital samples might find these sounds a little grungy and fuzzy, I find that as well. But it’s not a harsh or evil fuzz, it’s actually a very warm and pleasant hiss, and may just be what’s missing in oh so many modern productions.
Alexis D-Four features
A sampled 90s drum module with a huge 1.16GB sound library.
500 drum sounds, 3000 samples, 1 custom patch.
Plugin player for Win or Mac, VSTi or AUi, x86 or x64.
Ueberschall has launched Funky Electro House, a new Elastik Soundbank featuring all components to create Electro House productions.
Funky Electro House combines vocals and adlibs with phat synth-basses, stutter lead sounds, and dancefloor beats. An ideal solution for producers of contemporary club hits. The innovative electro sound is usable for diverse projects. Beside music productions, this library is an outstanding choice to create trailers and jingles as well as for film scores.
This library contains all components to create Electro House productions. The complete mix is divided into single instruments. The backings contain synthesized basses, electric bass licks, lead-synth loops, electric guitar phrases, sound FX as well as vocal parts – the latter being available in produced and raw, unaltered versions.
In addition to a ready-to-use drum-mixdown, all drums are available as single-tracks. Plus, to create your personal grooves, the sound bank also includes all drum sounds as single-shots.
The sound bank is 999 MB in size and includes 316 loops and single-sounds. Each of the four construction kits offers at least one main part, a break part (8 bars down, 8 bars up) and a variation part. Added to each kit is a folder including the original studio vocals and another folder including the single drum-sounds.
AfroDJMac has launched VHS Rack and Double P Keys, two new titles in the series of free Ableton Live packs.
This Ableton audio effect rack will give you control over the pitch inconsistencies, chorusing, saturation, and compression that are characteristic of VCR tapes. You can dial in the effect to be subtle, or go all out and make your music sound like it’s practically broken. It can be used on a track by track basis or on the master channel.
Double P Keys is a multi-layered synthesizer rack.
This instrument rack contains five chains of synthesizers stacked on top of each other. 3 of the sounds are designed to add ambience and texture to the sound, while 2 of them produce the musical, harmonic material that allow you to play notes and write melodies. You can mix in the level of “Double P Noise” and each synth. The instrument also has control over the filters of each of the two musical synths.
The first musical synth can be morphed from a pluck type sound to a more rounded pad sound. The second synth makes use of the filter envelop to give movement and character to the sound. All 5 layers of this sound are created from the same sample, just different sections of it. I won’t say exactly what it is, but I’m sure if you give it a listen, it will be a familiar sound.
Both libraries are available to download from AfroDJMac at no charge.
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