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It has been something of a labour of love for us, as the scope of the instrument grew over 18 months, incorporating forensic line-level sampling of 15 different drum machines, and then two separate studio sessions, 6 months apart, to try to get the right results.

We think the results were worth it – it’s probably the most complex Kontakt instrument we have created, with a ‘matrix’ of channels that all work together and a deep editing system giving huge control over sound design.

The three sequencers turn it from ‘just’ an instrument into a very useful compositional tool, with intelligent tools like Euclidean Beats to provide solid, tight beats and the new Poly Beats tool to take your track into weird rhythmic spaces.

We’d like to thank Flipside Sound systems for their help with the PA, Monnow Valley & State Of The Ark studios for their enthusiasm for the strange recording concept.

This sale of ours will last from 25th to the 28th November. There will be variety of discounts on offer, up to 60% off in some cases.

Full details will be available on the 25th.

Warp records artist Clark has given a way a new track which heavily features that techno staple: Soniccouture’s Conservatoire Collection; specifically, one of the harpsichords. Whether it is the French or the Flemish we will leave it to you to guess.

You can download the track (Empty The Bone Thugs Of You) here:

Clark Website

Over time, though, the Kontakt 3 interface had got pretty dated, and we were keen to get it encoded for Kontakt Player also, but wanted to give it a worthwhile sonic update if possible. So Dan began experimenting with different weird ways of generating sound from guitars. If I remember correctly, the vibrator (yes, the sex thing) was an early idea which gave interesting, mandolin-esque, results, but other ideas were somewhat slow in coming. So the project always remained on the shelf while others came to flower sooner. Eventually, as a a re-imagining of the guitar as simply another type of stringed instrument, the full set of cello bow articulations was recorded, which added a completely different context to the project. Disconnecting the idea of powered stimulation and other semi-electronic directions, the true heart of the library was discovered in one of the most traditional forms of string excitement – the horse hair bow. We sampled several articulations like this, including playing with the wood of the bow (col legno). The main violin bow articulation is a dynamic crossfade patch, interpolating between the soft bow and the hard bow, and can be extremely expressive.

The final part of the puzzle emerged last year with the release of a new version of Godley & Creme’s Gizmotron, a device that attaches to an electric guitar and uses tiny rubber wheels to bow the strings. You can vary the speed (velocity) of the wheels on the device itself, which we then sampled to create a dynamic crossfade system in the virtual instrument.

Details:

24bit 48khz stereo & mono sampling, 8,600 samples.
9GB Download (16 GB instrument before Compression)
130 Preset snapshots
Acoustic & electric guitars
Multiple fret positions, dynbamic crossfade layers, round robins
Microphone & Pickup channels
Cello Bow Articulations:Arco Spiccato Legno Marcato
Soniccouture Jammer 2, generative arpeggiator
Soniccouture Modular FX Insert system
Kontakt Player + NKS Compatible (Kontakt 5.5.1 required)

Xbow Guitars Webpage