Here’s something cool and unexpected.

Our heroes over at Soniccouture.com have gone and whipped up another product that makes you wonder why no one had thought of it sooner.

Scriptorium.

Rather than just produce another of their fine sample instrument libraries, Soniccouture have tucked into the guts of Kontakt and give us a toolkit for taking Kontakt to the next level. One of my favorite things in the Soniccouture libraries is giving us access to the hidden goodies that help power their masterful sound design. And now they’ve really gone to town and programmed up a whole 35 Kontakt scripts that range from “You’re fucking kidding me, right? Awesome!” (Group Sequencer) to, “Huh. Interesting…” (Morse Code). A few are borrowed/upgraded from some of their other product, so I can attest to their quality. And I’m damn excited to try the others: if you’ve ever hunted for useful Kontakt scripts on the web you know what a score this is.

So, if you haven’t played around with scripts in your copy of Kontakt you’re missing a whole lot of time-wasting fun. They’re dead easy to work, really; if a dilettante such as myself can use them then certainly most others can. And these look to open up a whole world of possibilities. Plus there are 60 instruments included to get you started, along with 3 demo 4 tutorial videos.

I have a great idea for re-building a certain discontinued softsynth that I missed out on buying, and this is just the ticket to get me started.

And, although this is both version 2 and version 3 compatible, it’s perhaps another argument as to why NI should allow for other upgrade options.

Hey, check this out:

That’s about 6 hours of mucking about, using a not-complete selection of the included instruments. “Mixed” directly in Kontakt, a little Ambiance on a send, a taste of Vintage Warmer on the two bus.¹ Perhaps finalized a little too loud.

And I have no idea what I’m doing!

Well, that’s not entire true. You see…

As you may have heard, the Soniccouture Gamelan is indeed the business. A meticulously assembled and presented Kontakt library, it begs superlatives. It’s as challenging as it is effortless, as simple to assemble and play as it is mind-blowingly complex.

So imagine it in the hands of someone who has a greater musical mind than myself.²

Soniccouture has said that the primary audience seems to be those who will use this for soundtracks and scoring, beds of music for video games and such - and indeed, I imagine this will become a prominent part of our semi-collective soundscape. For someone who’s bread and butter it is turning out interesting and varied music this is a brilliant tool.

But here’s the thing. It’s a fascinating theoretical study of music and composition; a more esoteric aspect of musical theory now more easily available³ to the curious and studious. So I imagine that this would have huge appeal to the educational market as well. As a teaching tool this appears an essential companion to the written and visual record of this fascinating aspect of our collective musical culture.

Using the really clear and well-considered manual, reading and listening to each piece in context, it would be hard not take something away greater than just a cool sound you might use in one of your tracks. I sincerely believe I learned valuable musical information just putting together that demo.

Listen, I’m a long-in-the-tooth punk, underground, and sometimes pop guy who’s a johnny-come-lately to the world of electronic music composition. And what I’ve retained about theory could fit on a notecard. For me so much of this all is the exploration. Trying things and seeing what works and what doesn’t. Learning that which I didn’t know. (Sometimes it’s a joy being a neophyte because there’s a whole world open to you.) So, that I’m able to assemble something that may be technically imperfect but of which I’m not ashamed is a real testament to what Soniccouture has pulled off here. And there’s features I haven’t even begun to explore.

Finallly, I don’t know how much of the limited edition packaging they have - word is it was going quickly - but if you’re at all on the fence you’ll kick yourself if you miss this edition. It really conveys the value that this truly is. It reminded me of seeing PiL’s Metal Box for the first time and being completely impressed by what an amazing object it was.⁴ Even my girlfriend, who usually and understandably glazes over when I start talking about cool music software, remarked on how classy the packaging was.

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Update: Just this morning Soniccouture released a Gamelan Set tuned to western equal temperament. In their words, “Some of you will appreciate the chance to play the Gamelan instruments in western tuning, and some of you will just ignore this version and tell us we’ve sold out.” I’m definitely in the former group.

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^{1 I know I sound silly trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about.
2 I take it you’ve listened to the demos. If not, do so now. They’re really beautiful.
3Some people have groused about the price, which is considerably more than Soniccouture’s other products. It is what it is, and in my opinion it is more than worth it. My point being, it is not out of reach of universities and music tech schools.
4The first release of Project5 also elicited this reaction; that was a truly unique and cool piece of packaging.}

Somewhat long, poorly shot but cool video after the jump. Bare with it, it goes some interesting places:
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My new friends over at soniccouture.com have sent me a press-release for their next piece of sampling goodness, and it’s too good not to share it with whomever stumbles across this blog

They’re thinking big: rather just a single instrument they’re going for the whole ensemble. To be specific a Balinese Gamelan ensemble.

Funnily enough, the subject of a Gamelan set came up on their forum many months ago, and I made the comment “you know that soniccouture would make a badass Gamelan sample set.”¹

Seems I was right: 25 different instruments, 24GB, and, I am certain, the usual care and musicality that go into their pristinely sampled instruments.

This one isn’t cheap, and it’s gonna eat up a large chunk of your sample drive, but as near as I can tell there’s nothing else out there like this, certainly nothing as extensive. For those of you doing soundtrack/sound design work, this is a gimme; for the rest of us, I’m sure the investment will be worth it, and will give you a multitude of sounds you would have to search long and hard to come close to approximating.

Full specs after the jump.

Also, remember, there’s still time to get in on their download instrument sale. I was using Konkrete Drums just last night thinking how damn useful it is.
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Further my posts concerning of the fine soniccouture sample libraries, I’d be remiss if I didn’t post something about their current yuletide offering. And quite a sale it is: but a cool 40% off their entire download line. Of course, Abstrakt Bass and Hang Drum are there, but they have a pretty deep library of cool instruments so go wild. Ends Midnight, Christmas Eve, 24th December. (GMT)

Of course, it’s the holidays and such and you still need to get your, erm, significant other, mother, what have you, whatever it is you agreed to get them, but why not buy yourself a couple of great new songs as well.

So, there you go, the Digital LoFi Holiday Gift Guide for the Disenfranchised. Download a a couple fun and useful toys for under $200.

Yeah, I know. Groan. (Other stupid post titles “Bass, How Low Can You Go?” “Bass Fishing with Puffer”.)

A few weeks ago, I wrote a mash note to the soniccouture.com sample libraries that I’d acquired (Hang Drum, Konkrete Drums 2). I also mentioned that there was a deal with Soniccouture on Abstrakt Bass. The fine gentlemen at soniccouture provided me with a review copy. I’ve now had a chance to investigate more this library.

Honestly, it’s taken me a while. And not just because of my recent hardware woes. As I said about Konkrete Drums, this thing is impressively deep. It covers a lot of ground, and it covers it well. One of the things that’s so brilliant about souniccouture’s instruments is that they are just that, instruments. Which is another reason it’s taken me so long to formulate a semi-informed opinion: these are a blast to just play, and it’s hard to just flick through the library without wanting to stop and work on something, or just throw together a “live” setup and “jam” for a while. Plus they load quickly - well, inasmuch as any Kontakt multi-sample instrument can be said to load quickly - and sound great in a mix without a lot of tinkering. And all the pertinent controls are right there on the front.
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I’ve now spent some time with the 2 Soniccouture sample sets I’ve purchased over the last few months, specifically Konkrete2 and the Hang Drum libraries. So, I feel fully qualified to rave about these products, and in general develop a bit of a gear-nerd crush on the company.

General fan-boy notes: Slick, well-functioning web-site, with a good eCommerce business model. (Some other payment options might be advised but I’m fine with paypal.) But, more importantly, insanely well-produced content, that is as specific as it is flexible, and it’s reasonably priced; in terms of sample libraries (and music software in general) they’re downright cheap. You’ll need a Kontakt so there’s that; I mean, most of the titles are released for other sampler-players as well, but what they do with Kontakt is where these libraries really shine - the scripting is insanely good.

Konkrete Drums 2: It took me a little while to figure out how to make them usable. Obviously, it’s not EZDrummer - not any sense.¹ And it’s far more extensive and varried than your bog-standard x0x sample kit. But the mapping vaguely recalls your standard drum-kit mapping (kicks and subs down around #36). And most of the hits seem to be single velocity - caveat: I say that not having fully explored the library: it’s really frickin’ huge. The range of sounds is really expansive, from organic to completely inorganic, metallic to completely warm and squishy. And this is cool but really I purchased it for the glitch-script it comes packaged with. Go watch the video, you’ll see what I mean. Nice, right? And with Sonar’s new multi-lane controller view makes short work of this.

Hang Drum: I said to my producing partner last night, “The problem with these libraries is that in about a year you’ll be hearing them everywhere.”

Let me revise that. In about 6 months you’ll be hearing them everywhere. I’ve already used them on 3 tracks.

It’s amazing how they’ve approached putting together a multi-sample of an unconventional instrument. And, as everyone notes, it’s easy to just sit there with the “Jamming” script turned on and just muck about for hours. So, here I am, once again, giving away the game. For a while these are going to be like Reason and you’ll be watching TV or playing XBox and some piece of music will drift by and you’ll think to yourself, “Hey, that’s the Hang Drum library.” For a little less than $100 US - less if you’re European, you can sound like every other producer for the next, oh, 7 years. What will be interesting is the people who really start pushing the library in unconventional ways. But even if you don’t use it in a single track you should buy it just to experience its musicality.

And if you act now you can get their Abstrakt Bass for a discounted price. Honestly, when I first was poking about their site I thought, “Yeah, whatever, another bass instrument.” But, again, this thing appears hugely deep, covering all manner of, erm, basses. And, once again, they top off a really extensive but economical library with a batch of Kontakt-scripting goodness. Right now I’m so glad I could never afford Trilogy.

And for you lechers and freeloaders, they have a well-stocked freebies/demo page so you can taste their brilliance. But, really, this is a company we want to be around for a while so buck up and buy some new sounds.

¹I’ve edited this for clarity, and to make a feeble joke.