Decent Samples has announced the release of a new sample library created entirely with electric motors.
A collaboration between Venus Theory and Dave Hilowitz, Motorlab offers up an assortment of sounds sourced from a variety of battery powered motors, meticulously captured to infuse the dynamic and electrifying essence of mechanical motion into the realm of musical creation.
Motorlab started as an experiment: I was try to fix a toy car for my son. As I was hot-gluing one of the electric motors back into place, I started to wonder whether the motor itself had any musical potential. I decided to grab a guitar pickup from my parts bin: this would serve as a microphone, picking up variations in its magnetic field as the motor turned. You can see the entire experiment in this video here.
The experiment was a ton of fun, and I amazed by the variety of different sounds I was able to produce with such a simple setup. At this point, I enlisted the help of my friend Venus Theory, who just happens to be a brilliant sound designer. He used the signals I had generated as source material for his various sonic experiments. I was blown away by the results–he pushed the sounds I sent him into sonic territory I could never have imagined. So we decided to make a sample library out it.
Featuring a dual-layer engine, the library comes with 30 presets of characterful motor-driven synthesizer sounds, handcrafted to bring a nostalgic, low-power charm to your next project.
Motorlab for Decent Sampler is on sale for $20 USD during a summer sale (regular $30 USD).
More information: Decent Samples
