Goldbaby Productions has announced the release of iAm-K3m, a sample based synthesizer for EXS24 and Kontakt.
The K3m is a hybrid digital/analog synth produced in 1986. It uses an 8 bit wavetable for the oscillators and has analog filters and VCA. It also has a very lush stereo chorus!
This synth was recorded through various tasty bits of studio hardware… things like the UBK Fatso, Great River Harrison EQ32 , A-Design EM-PEQ.
What you get is a sample based instruments bursting with character, digital grit and analog warmth. You will find musical inspiration and sonic adventures waiting to be incorporated in to your next track…
Contains 116 patches for EXS24 and 122 patches for Kontakt. Including all the wave oscillators from the wavetable and a set of drums and FX synthesized on the K3m.
The iAm-K3m library is available to purchase for $49 USD.
Goldbaby has also released iAm-K3m-Free, a free sample pack featuring 36 24-bit wav drums created using the Kawai K3m and various analog hardware units.
The third volume in Goldbaby’s Tape Drum Machines series of sample libraries features the sounds of another dozen drum machines.
For those new to the concept, the Tape Drum Machines series combines vintage and modern drum machines with tape machines and analog tape effects.
This third volume in the series features nearly 3,500 samples (24bit) from a total of 12 drum machines, recorded with Otari and Rola reel-to-reel tape decks and a Hitachi cassette deck. Add a touch of tape simulation from Kush Audio’s UBK-Fatso and you get Tape Drum Machines Volume 3.
Gear used for Tape Drum Machines Vol 3
Tape Drum Machines Vol 3 drum machines
Casio RZ-1 (238 samples), one of the first drum machines which featured sampling (0.8 sec at 20 kHz).
Kawai R-100 (132 samples), 24 12-bit sounds in 3 kits.
Kawai XD-5 (905 samples), features 256 waveforms, with up to 4 waveforms per drum sound. Has advanced options like envelopes, filters, delay, ringmod and more.
Korg DDM-110Super Drums (83 samples), a total of nine (9!) 8-bit 15.6kHz samples in this lo-fi machine.
Korg DDM-220Super Percussion (71 samples), lo-fi crunchy sounds like the DDM-110, but this time with Latin American percussion sounds.
MFB-522 (453 samples), analog drum sounds from Germany. Features step sequencer and lots of controls for editing the sounds.
M.P.C. Electronics DSM-1 (515 samples), single channel analog drum synth intended to be used with drum pads.
Roland Rhythm 55/TR-55 (276 samples), analog rhythm box with 10 sounds generated by tuned resonance type circuits and white noise.
Roland Rhythm Plus PB-300 (314 samples), analog rhythm machine with 8 sounds (apparently a bit of a mix of TR and CR machines).
Sakata DPM-48 (122 samples), digital drum machine with old school sounds (also manufactured under Jugg Box and Hammond brand names).
Yamaha ED10 (284 samples), electronic drum pad with an analog synthesizer which can produce a wide range of sounds (includes filter+mod, subsonic, click, noise, etc).
Yamaha RX21L (80 samples), features 16 latin drum/percussion samples, in full 12-bit glory.
The sample pack also comes with some patches for Battery and Guru, which is great if you use these instruments. However, samples are categorized in separate drum machine folders so it’s easy to browse the sounds.
The samples themselves have descriptive names indicating the type of sample and what gear was used. For example, RZ1_BDvinyl_7_x_Tape2.wav is vinyl basedrum sound #7 from the RZ1, recorded on the Otari MX5050 1/4 inch 2 track machine with the gain set for more saturation. The “x” denotes additional processing like the use of a filter or equalizer.
The analog machines – DSM-1, ED10, MFB-522, PB-300, and TR-55, have many sounds that were sampled multiple times for use of round robin (also indicated in the filenames). These variations will help you get more realistic results.
Alright, so what do these drum machine samples actually sound like? I made a few demo loops so you can get an idea. The first track is a combination of the loops, the individual ones follow (drum machines indicated in the track title).
All drum/percussion sounds in these loops were done with TDM Vol 3 only. I didn’t use much processing, just some compression and a tiny bit of reverb on some of the samples. For melodic content I used u-he ACE, Sonic Charge Synplant, and Daichi’s Synth1.
So what do I think?
Product: Goldbaby Productions Tape Drum Machines Vol 3 Format: 24bit wav, Battery+MIDI & Guru kits and bundles Price: $29 USD
The third volume in the Tape Drum Machines series includes a huge variety of digital and analog drum machine samples. Not all of them are equally interesting to me though. I am not a fan of digital latin percussion drum machines so the DDM-220, and the particularly nasty sounding RX21L I could do without. Goldbaby’s tape treatment does add value but they’re just not the type of sounds I’m usually looking for. Luckily those only account for 150 out of 3,500 samples.
In general TDM Vol. 3 is a well balanced pack of electronic drum sounds; from the raw digital 12-bit orchestral hits of the R-100 to the warm synthetic analog sounds of the ED10 and MFB-522. My favorites are the RZ-1 – great for lo-fi hip hop beats, and the XD5 which has a surprising large amount of diverse sounds. I love the rough, saturated “tape2″ samples of this one.
TDM Vol. 3 meets the high quality I have come to expect from Goldbaby. If you are into drum machine sounds this one is a no-brainer if you ask me.
Goldbaby Productions has released Tape Drum Machines Vol 3, a new collection of drum machine samples.
More drum machines given some tape love!
Tape Drum Machines Vol 3 features
12 Drum Machines and 3 Tape Machines. 3498 x 24 Bit drum samples.
Drum Machines used: Casio RZ-1, Roland TR-55 & PB-300, Kawai XD-5 & R-100, MFB-522, Korg DDM-110 & DDM-220, Sakata DPM-48, Yamaha RX-21L & ED-10, and the MPC ELectronics DSM-1.
The Tape machines used: Otari MX5050 1/4″, Rolla 77 valve mono 1/4 inch, and the Hitachi Cassette deck. Plus the UBK Fatso was also used.
Formats: Battery 3, Guru and Wav Pack (Guru version includes 18 Bundles & Kits, Battery 3 version includes 18 Kits & a few Midi files to preview the kits).
Tape Drum Machines Vol 3 is available to purchase for $29 USD.
Acousticsamples has updated Kawai-EX Pro, a virtual concert grand piano instrument.
The Kawai-EX PRO sample Library is a fabulous 9-foot (276cm) KAWAI EX concert grand piano that used to be in the Kennedy center in Washington DC. This Library is the result of a collaboration with Lance Herring.
Changes in Kawai-EX Pro
Numerous voicing improvements that make releases more accurate and consistent.
New release samples for some keys.
Improved dynamic range.
Improved pedal behaviour.
More consistency when using custom controls.
New formats (SFZ, HALION 3, EXS24, Mach5).
Added compatibility to Kontakt 2.
Whole new version for Kontakt 4 and the new scripting capabilities.
New GUI for the Kontakt 4 version.
Kawai-EX Pro is available to purchase for $115 USD.
Acousticsamples and Lance Herring have announced the Kawai-EX, a sample library featuring the sounds of a Kawai EX concert piano.
It’s a fabulous KAWAI EX concert grand piano that used to be in the Kennedy center in Washington DC.
The product is already in an advanced state.
Kawai-EX features
5 “pedal up” layers, 5 “pedal down” layers, and 15 release samples per note (4 only for the light version).
Thumps samples.
Automatic Pedal noises samples.
Multiple mic position and mixing from the interface (in PRO version).
Ability to save polyphony by enabling / disabling each position.
Sympathetic resonance (pedal down samples).
Multiple releases. They have been carefully picked up for each note to really reproduce the real mechanical behaviour of a note.
As always, a custom kontakt interface that let you modify the response of the piano as well as its tone and the volume of the releases.
The Kawai-EX will be available in the first half of September in Kontakt and GIGA formats. Other formats will follow as free updates (Halion, EXS24 and maybe SFZ).
The sample library will have a pro version with all the above features, and a light version with only one mic position, a single release and only 4 velocity layers.
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