Results for HALion

Precisionsound has announced the Hedberg Travel Organ, a sample library for Kontakt, EXS24, HALion & SoundFont.

The “Hedberg Travel organ” is a 4 octave Swedish folding harmonium made in Enskede, Stockholm, Sweden, around 1950 by “Hugo Hedberg”.

This instrument combines brilliance and simplicity in something that looks like an ordinary suitcase. But don´t let the appearance deceive you—it’s a great example of a completely acoustic, portable keyboard instrument.

With a warm and stable tone quality, different from both the accordion and bigger harmoniums, it will be a useful element in genres as Folk, Country and Jazz – but also in a simple acoustic guitar-vocal setup. The instrument has been used as a Missionary Organ, for playing psalms in outdoor services.

Hedberg Travel Organ with custom interface for Native Instruments Kontakt.

Hedberg Travel Organ features

• 117 24bit WAV files, chromatically sampled and recorded in stereo. Range is C1 to C5 with the last note stretched to C6 so you get 5 octaves. Includes notes and release samples, as well as noise samples.
• 2 programs for all versions of Steinberg HALion.
• 2 programs for Logic EXS24.
• 2 programs for NI Kontakt v1 and v2.
• 1 program for NI Kontakt v3 v4 & v5.
• 2 programs in the SoundFont format (16bit).
• The SoundFont versions are 100% compatible with all virtual samplers supporting the SoundFont format like Dimension Pro (Cakewalk), Free SFZ player, NN-XT (Reason) and more.
• Full version of Kontakt 3, 4 or 5 is required for the Kontakt versions (Free Kontakt Player not supported).

The sample library is available to purchase for $25 USD (+$11 USD for DVD).

More information: Precisionsound / Hedberg Travel Organ

SampleTekk has announced a Summer Sale, offering its sample libraries at a 50% discount for a limited time.

Prices in the store are regular, the discount will be applied when checking out.

The sale applies to all products, including the recently released

• Black Kontakt Player powered Steinway D Hamburg Concert Grand piano, and
• INIL Choir – 10cc Voice Loops, an ethereal choral library in cooperation with Eric Stewart of 10CC (Kontakt/EXS24/HALion/NN-XT).

More information: SampleTekk

No Dough’s fourth release in the NDS sample pack series is titled Underground House.

Simply put, this is the heart and soul of the underground house scene in a massive collection of over 7000 professionally crafted WAV sounds, designed to give you that authentic House music vibe you hear from your favorite artists but in a format that is useful for any style of music that requires a punchy analogue sound.

The sample pack features:

• 4,700+ drum and percussion hits.
• 59 multi-sampled instruments.
• 161 bass and synth loops.

The drum and percussion hits include various classic sounds of drum machines and sampled sources, with three variations; Original recordings, driven, vinyl and Revox (Studer tape machine) versions. No Dough used some various outboard gear to get an authentic vibe. Everything is nicely categorized in folders by the type of drum hit. No drum kits are included though.

To record the multi-sampled instruments, No Dough used gear by Oberheim, Roland, some old EMU samplers and FM synthesizers. The sampler patches are split up in various sections. There’s bass, strings & pads, leads & synths and organs and misc. A good amount of sounds.

The bass and synth loops sound very authentic as well. Actually, playing them individually they almost sound kind of low quality, lo-fi. But in a good way.

Loops are ready to be chopped, smashed, distorted and resequenced, each loop features a Recycle version and we have also included a selection of Midi files so you can get at the notes themselves to twist, mash and create.

I’d say that is a good thing, because these loops are meant for chopping. You are not going to get much of a good result by simply tossing the loops together as there are some tuning issues and files have no mention of which key they’re in. This set of loops just isn’t a construction kit type set so unless you stick with using just a single loop and create additional melodies around that, you are supposed to do some of the work yourself. The sound is there though.

Check out the demo track to get an idea of what NDS-4 Underground House is about.

So what do I think?

Even though No Dough prides itself in recording in high quality 96kHz/24bit, it’s still vintage synths, gritty sampler sounds, tape machines, and analog processing chains we’re talking about. NDS-4 is not about pristine quality, it is about the vibe of classic underground house music.

No Dough’s key description for the Underground House pack is “tone, warmth and musicality”. I hear that, and I would sum those up and call it authentic. Individually the samples and loops sound somewhat raw to me, lo-fi, perhaps slightly dated. And that’s how it is supposed to be, because once you start putting things together you quickly end up with something that sounds like the real deal. Go check it out.

More information: NDS-4 Underground House

Steinberg has announced the release of Dark Planet, a soundset for expansion pack for HALion 4, HALion Sonic and HALion Sonic SE, featuring brand-new loops and instruments, perfect for cinematic scores and ambient music.

Offering a palette of electronic sounds from which to choose, Dark Planet is a vast, emotional world full of ethereal colors and ghostly shapes.

“If you’re looking to create a movie-like sound experience, with ambient soundscapes and haunting phrases, you just won’t get around this one,” commented Matthias Quellmann, product marketing manager at Steinberg.

Dark Planet comprises 800 presets including lead, bass, pad and percussion loops and instruments as well as high-quality sample content that spans more than 2 GB in size. Its prominent MorphFilter boasts four classic filter types for blending two filters at a time. The Macro Page transforms the HALion host into an extraterrestrial adventure, providing immediate access to the sound control parameters of Dark Planet.

Dark Planet interface

Dark Planet features

• More than 800 presets with loops and instruments, including basses, leads, pads, drum, percussions and effects and over 2 GB of uncompressed samples.
• Integrated MorphFilter for exceptional sound manipulations.
• Intuitive HALion Macro Page for instant access to all major parameters.
• Windows and Mac installer included.
• Note: Dark Planet does not require the USB-eLicenser dongle due to its Soft-eLicenser copy-protection technology.

The Dark Planet VST Sound Instrument Set is available to purchase for 49.99 EUR (incl. VAT).

More information: Steinberg / Dark Planet

SampleTekk has released The INIL Choir – 10cc Voice Loops, a sample library for Kontakt, EXS24, HALion and NN-XT.

The INIL Choir sample library in Kontakt (GUI and scripting by Hollow Sun)

In 1974 10CC recorded their third album, “The Original Soundtrack”. On that album there was a song that would not only be one of the greatest songs ever recorded, it also was a production masterpiece, way ahead of its time. The song is, of course, “I’m Not In Love” written by Eric Stewart and co-writer, Graham Gouldman.

A prominent feature of the song are those amazing, ethereal choral parts. These choirs are unique. There’s simply nothing else like them! The combination of voices and the way they where produced have given them a sound that’s truly one of a kind.

Now, SampleTekk, in cooperation with Eric Stewart of 10CC, are very proud to release of The INIL Choir, thus taking one of the most famous analogue samples into the digital era.

The INIL Choir sample library is available to purchase for $49 USD.

More information: SampleTekk / INIL Choir

Presicionsound has announced the Indian ShrutiBox, a sample library featuring the sounds of a Shruti box instrument.

Originating in South India (Kerala, Tamil Nadu), but widespread also in the North, the Shruti box is a small wooden (usually teak) instrument which provides a rich drone background to support singing and other solo instruments, especially winds, like the Bansuri or the Shenai, or to practice sessions and concerts of Indian classical music.

Indian ShrutiBox features

• 61 stereo wav files (24bit) mapped for Kontakt, HALion & EXS24 (all versions).
• SoundFont version (16bit) included for users of other sample players like Reason NN-XT, Dimension, Sfz player etc.
• Includes 2 long chord drones, 5 and 10 minutes long that could be placed as audiotracks in your DAW of choice.
• All notes of the Shruti box has been sampled for many minutes and cut in 4 variations.
  • ShrutiBox 1 has the natural attack and looped
  • Shrutibox 2 is a cut out of the long note/drone looped
  • Shrutibox 3 another portion of the note/drone looped
  • Shrutibox 4 the note/drone fading out, not looped
  • Shrutibox Pumpnoise – A selection of pumpnoises
• The Kontakt and HALion format have some extra programs including 2 Menu programs with all versions of the drones and noises together but with smaller tone range and a Mix program with 3 drones in unison mix.
• All formats are included when you buy Indian ShrutiBox.

The Indian ShrutiBox library is available to purchase for $19 USD.

More information: Precisionsound / Indian ShrutiBox