Deadlines and budgets don’t often allow for experimental sampling sessions and hours of programming. If a client calls asking for 30 minutes of music due in three days, you don’t have time to tinker — you need to strap in and start writing! Thankfully, soundware developers know the pressures of being in the trenches. We’ve rounded up the five most interesting, evocative, and up-to-the-second sample sets in what we’ll call the hybrid category. Though they contain both acoustic and electronic elements, their purpose isn’t necessarily to sound like this or that instrument or even a whole orchestra — it’s to sound like a mood or emotion.
UEBERSCHALL SCORE FX
$199.95, www.ueberschall.com;
dist. by Big Fish Audio, www.bigfishaudio.com
Score FX is formatted for playback in Ueberschall’s Liquid software instrument (included). Based on Celemony’s Melodyne time and pitch engine, Liquid lets you rework and tailor the content in a novel and unique way to fit your specific musical needs.
It’s not as simple as dragging an audio file into your DAW, though. Liquid sort of expects you to roll your own patches — you drag and drop audio elements from the Score FX library onto a virtual keyboard. In essence, you build a palette of sustained and one-shot sounds that you can either trigger from a MIDI controller or export as audio that can be re-imported into your sequencer. If this sounds a little tedious, it can be.
On the flipside, Liquid can automatically time-stretch and transpose its content to match your current session, so as you’re auditioning sounds, everything will be in the most appropriate context for your project. More importantly, assembling my own “sound banks” proved to be a useful part of my initial creative process, because it forced me to make decisions about how I wanted sounds to work together. By limiting my palette early on, I got down to the business of writing music.
Content-wise, there’s a lot to love. The beds, pads, and accents cover a vast musical landscape, from brooding, ethnictinged drones and chilling soundscapes to heart-pounding action sequences and downright terrifying atmospheres. Other highlights include a generous set of effected ethnic woodwind and vocal phrases, which call to mind Hans Zimmer’s collaborative efforts with Lisa Gerard on films such as Gladiator. Orchestral ensembles are used to good effect, giving definite Hollywood cred to a number of the construction kits.
Score FX’s production quality and musicality is uniformly excellent. Make no mistake, for those willing to work within Liquid’s structure, Score FX will inspire countless ideas and deliver the caliber of results that profes
NEED TO KNOW
Hard disk space 6.78GB.
Formats Liquid Instruments player (AU, VST, RTAS, standalone).
What’s in it? Construction kits, loops, and one-shot samples.
Standout points Beds and atmospheres have an ultra-current, Hollywood sheen. Good separation of construction kit elements. Liquid audio engine has excellent time-stretching and pitch-shifting.
HEAVYOCITY EVOLVE
$399, www.heavyocity.com
Heavyocity Evolve is a combination of stellar sound design, evocative textures, menacing impacts, and go-to pads and basses, all wonderfully produced and programmed into instruments and multis for Kontakt Player. The developers have made clever use of Kontakt’s built-in effects, performance controls, and processors, including the highly programmable arpeggiator. The result is a collection that’s musically flexible and quick to work with.
Content is divided into four categories: Rhythmic Suites, Stings and Transitions, Tonality and FX, and Percussive Kits. (As we were going to press, Heavyocity released an “Expanded Content” update of 150 new patches based on existing samples, but programmed to take advantage of Kontakt-specific features such as 5.1 surround output). The organization is sensible, and the names accurately reflect the kinds of sounds you’d expect in each category.
The emphasis is on functionality and ease of use. For example, tonal loops (a subset of Rhythmic Suites) are presented as single instruments as well as combined in “menu” patches for easy audition, so it’s easy to find what you’re after without having to load and unload a bunch of patches. Likewise, a staggering number of drum and percussion loops have been combined into a handful of patches that present a wide range of related and musically-compatible grooves mapped across the keyboard, making the process of building up dramatic, propulsive percussion beds embarrassingly simple.
Any loop-based material automatically syncs to your host tempo. However, a good number of the tonal and percussion loops aren’t actually audio loops, but instead, are generated using Kontakt’s step sequencer. This gives you the added ability to tweak, customize, and completely re-invent Evolve’s loops, which can make it easier to fit the material into your own original compositions — and is something most other libraries don’t offer.
Similar to Sample Logic Synergy (see page 72), many of Evolve’s ambience and soundscape patches are based on generously- looped single samples mapped across a range of keys. There’s definitely a “sweet spot” on the keyboard where these sounds work best. In some cases, three or four related samples are mapped to their own key groups within one patch, which I found helpful, as it let me create longer or more interesting drones without using more instruments or MIDI tracks in my sequencer.
Sonically, these are dramatic, widescreen-ready sounds. You’ll find a seemingly endless supply of one-finger “cue starters,” where holding down a single note can kick off a flurry of musical ideas. Likewise, many of the impacts and transition effects would serve as excellent devices to give a scene an extra element of mystery, impending doom, or unnerving discord. It’s difficult to find fault with any aspect of Evolve because it’s simply outstanding.
While it might not have the sheer volume of samples as some competing products, Evolve doesn’t need to. It’s not about “sample bloat,” but about an imaginative, well-rounded set of tools that makes composing easier and more rewarding.
NEED TO KNOW
Hard disk space 5.75GB.
Formats Kontakt Player 2, Kontakt 2 and 3 (AU, VST, RTAS, standalone).
What’s in it? Instruments, multis, and loops.
Standout points Organized and programmed to help speed the creative process. Built-in performance controls, step sequencer, and effects provide added flexibility. Killer impacts and transition effects.
PROJECTSAM SYMPHOBIA
$1,499, www.projectsam.com
Symphobia is unlike any other product in our roundup, and frankly, unlike any other library we’ve seen to date. While it’s technically an orchestral library of sorts, Symphobia is not a conventional set of multisampled instruments. Instead of sampling individual sections and soloists playing articulations, the focus is on larger combined ensembles, such as the entire string section along with low and/or high brass, to create powerful and more authentic sounding wholes. According to the developers, the reason was simple: “The real thing sounds so much better. A staccato note played by violins, violas, horns and trumpets, together, correctly seated at the concert stage, will sound much more cohesive than a mixture of sample recordings of the same elements.”
Roughly half the library is dedicated to these combinations, with the other half focusing on “cinematic effects” such as rips, tone clusters, and other offbeat, avant garde musical statements. Project- SAM took things even further by processing the ensembles and effects to create a number of impacts, synth-like pads, and hybrid synthetic-organic blends. The inspiration factor is so high that these sounds practically compel musical ideas to bubble up in your mind.
The samples are beautifully recorded, meticulously edited, and expertly programmed into NI’s Kontakt format. A choice of close- and stage-miked perspectives is available for many of the instruments, and every program offers performance “effects” such as octave doubling, legato, and repetition retriggering, all built on Kontakt’s KSP script processor. There’s even an ingenious “cluster” module that, when engaged, produces a variety of harmonic and dissonant tone clusters just by playing a single note. In practice, all of these options add to the already high degree of usability and musicality, making it possible to sequence remarkably believable passages with minimal effort.
Twenty multis are also included, which are intended to give busy composers instant access to specific types of palettes that convey a certain mood or film genre. With titles such as “Captain’s Log,” “Alien Corridor,” and “Acid For Blood,” it’s evident what kind of treat you’re in for with these presets. Here again, ProjectSAM has done the heavy lifting for you. The sounds have all been carefully chosen, resulting in combinations that simply deliver fantastic results, without having to browse through bunches of folders or tediously layer part after part to achieve a larger-than-life effect.
Indeed, Symphobia seriously minimizes the learning curve involved with writing orchestral-based music for the big screen, because ProjectSAM has already done your orchestration homework. Add to this the wellspring of effected, processed textures, aggressive impacts, and electroorganic hybrid pads, along with the “template-ready” multis, and you’ve got a collection that raises the bar for all other cinema-oriented “hybrid” libraries.
NEED TO KNOW
Hard disk space 17.5GB.
Formats Kontakt Player 2, Kontakt 2 and 3 (AU, VST, RTAS, standalone).
What’s in it? Instruments and multis.
Standout points Synthetic textures and effects are out of this world. Ground-breaking cinematic orchestral sounds. Remarkably flexible and functional. Well-programmed and organized. Expensive, but worth it for pros.
BIG FISH AUDIO STRATOS
$99.95, www.bigfishaudio.com
Stratos is a specially targeted collection of 50 construction kits organized into five aptly-titled categories: Mysterious, Ominous, Ethereal, Sombre, and Experimental. Its major strength is that you can quickly combine elements to create a piece of music that nails the organic/synthetic hybrid sounds you’re likely to hear in sci-fi thrillers and edgy CSI-type shows.
The format is uniformly consistent and very user friendly among all the categories. In each category you’ll find ten kits, all of which include complete reference mixes and the elements that make them up. Typically, there are just two or three elements per kit: a main underpinning texture or pad, supported by some rhythmic and/or additional sound design fragment. Much of the grunt work is already done — for example, percussion rhythms are already processed with reverb and rendered as stereo mixes (as compared to providing one-shot samples), so there’s very little programming involved in making these sounds work in a cue. Serious tweakers might bemoan the lack of more isolated elements, but if you’re under the gun, Stratos’ plug-and-play factor is a plus.
All of the kits are in the key of C (mostly C minor, with the Ethereal kits being major), which makes it easy to mix and match elements from different “emotions” to create a cue with more or less tension, depending on what you combine. For more flexibility, you could always keymap the WAV files in a sampler, letting you work in other keys.
The drones and atmospheres are well produced and eminently usable, with very little filler. For the seriously lazy, you could noodle on top of one of these drones and come off sounding like a bona fide film composer. Naturally, we don’t endorse this kind of musical cheating. On an inspirational tip, hearing how layering just a few elements can conjure a certain mood was a good reminder to me that sometimes, writing less can mean bigger emotional impact.
NEED TO KNOW
Hard disk space 4.1GB.
Formats Audio only: 24-bit WAV files.
What’s in it? Construction kits.
Standout points Elements can be easily mixed and matched from different categories. None of the kits are “overproduced,” so there’s space to add your own ideas. Kits accurately convey the moods of each category.
SAMPLE LOGIC SYNERGY
$299, www.samplelogic.com
Synergy offers high bang for buck, but even if it cost hundreds more, it would still be a go-to collection for any serious working composer.
The instruments are divided into eight categories: Ambience (295 patches), Bass, Drums (54 patches), Impacts (269 patches), Melody (173 patches), Pads (57 patches), Rhythms (270 patches), and Multis (40 patches). Sonically, every loop, effect, texture, and multisample is expertly produced, and it’s no understatement to say Synergy perfectly captures the “vibe” of modern electronic-styled film and TV music. You’d only need to add a wellstocked orchestral library to the mix, and all your bases would be covered.
There’s no shortage of impacts and ambient beds that conjure aural images of tension, fear, mystery, and suspense. In other words, exactly what you’d want underneath your fingertips when time is ticking down and you have to deliver a batch of cues. The sound design that went into this material is impressive, and in many cases I found myself asking, “How’d they make that sound?” Yes, the inspiration factor is off the charts.
Many of the ambience and evolving mood patches are based on single, long-looped samples mapped across a range of keys. As a result, when you play in the lower registers, sounds often become darker and more sinister. This is a cool by-product of keymapping a single sample, but you’ll find that in many cases it limits the useable range; go outside it, and the patches either sound mushy and indistinct at extreme low registers or chipmunk-like in the high ones.
A wealth of multisampled pads ranges from what Blade Runner might sound like if made today to angelic and otherworldly hybrids of choirs, synths, and acoustic instruments. It’s all very tasteful and “now” sounding, and provides an emotionally lighter side to Synergy’s otherwise intense character.
The rhythm and drum categories are chock full of filtered, delayed, pulsing, and otherwise tweazed-out loops that run the gamut from high-octane action sequences to mysterious criminal investigations. A good complement of “ethnic” percussion and hi-hat patterns is included, along with a small selection of over-the-top “StormDrum-like” hits. This is perhaps Synergy’s only weak spot, so if you need taiko on steroids, you’ll have to look elsewhere. [We suggest Nine Volt Audio’s Action Drums Taiko Edition. –Ed.]
Synergy exploits Kontakt’s scripting features to give all the instruments on-screen controls for adding effects, tweaking envelopes and filters, and engaging the arpeggiator. Similarly, Kontakt’s beat-syncing features have been applied to all the rhythmic and tonal loops for instant tempo matching in whatever host sequencer you choose. Across the board, the thoughtful programming provides a high level of musical interaction with the samples. This is exactly the kind of functionality that makes a library more than just a bunch of sounds, but a true instrument.
NEED TO KNOW
Hard disk space 18.8GB.
Formats Kontakt Player 2, Kontakt 2 and 3 (AU, VST, RTAS, standalone).
What’s in it? Instruments, multis, and loops.
Standout points Covers virtually every imaginable aspect of non-orchestral TV and film music. Kontakt Player’s built-in performance controls and effects provide added flexibility. Expertly designed sounds will spark your creativity. Category names are intuitive and useful. Excellent value.
LIBRARY FINES
It’s not uncommon for composers working “in the trenches” to write music for library production companies (that doesn’t mean the same thing as sample libraries). These companies own and license large catalogs of music, which gets used in TV programs, films, commercials — any time the producers need to outsource music, which is often. Library companies are always looking for fresh cues and tracks that enhance their catalogs and keep up with current trends. For example, “criminal investigation” is a hot genre on the library scene right now.
However, some sample developers limit — or entirely prohibit — using their samples in library music. Why? There are shady composers who “write” music that’s nothing more than loops from a sample library, without adding a single musical element of their own. Naturally, developers don’t want this to happen. It’s also not uncommon for sample developers to require an additional license for music that gets embedded into, say, a child’s toy.
All products in this roundup allow for use in music library tracks, and in most cases, it’s okay to use them in designing sounds and music for video games, as well as the main use of TV and film soundtracks. Heavyocity’s Dave Frasier comments, “We don’t mind if you use Evolve to make library music, but we included the following clause to discourage triggering one of our loops and calling it a cue: ‘Loops (continuous repeating compositions that contain only a combination of modified samples) must be used in a musical context with at least two other instruments or loops that contribute significantly to the composition. The loop may be an element, but not the entire composition.’”
Bottom line: If you plan to write music for a library or video game company, don’t risk getting sued — read and adhere to the license agreements of the sample collections you use.