Soundiron – Hopkin Instrumentarium : The U (KONTAKT)

By | October 20, 2023

 

Publisher: Soundiron
Website: soundiron
Format: KONTAKT 6.1.1+
Quality: 24 bit 48 kHz stereo


Description: U is a shiny steel lamellophone created by master instrument maker Bart Hopkin. Instead of one tine per note, this creation has 14 closely spaced tines per note. Each group of teeth is tuned to octaves and fifths in a range of three to four octaves. The sound is created by sliding across the many teeth of a selected note using a thin, stick-like plectrum. There are twelve such groups, forming a chromatic scale. Because each group spans multiple octaves, melodies can be played creatively by emphasizing certain notes. The teeth are made from narrow stainless steel machine screws, adjustable in length using hex nuts in the base. Additionally, most screws are tone-adjustable with additional hex nuts that serve as adjustable length weights. The end result is a mesmerizing liquid metallic tone, perfect for your next composition that requires a truly unique tone.

To start, we recorded The U close-up in wide-angle stereo. For the second microphone position, we used a tetrahedral binaural microphone to give you a first-person experience of playing the instrument with an intimate and enveloping sound. We’ve included a range of playable tuned and untuned articulations to give you complete freedom. And in the classic Soundiron tradition, we’ve also included sonic textures, pads and tones that take the concept beyond its material source and into the realm of pure imagination. They can be played, layered, modulated and mixed together with natural acoustic articulation to achieve an endless variety of new sound combinations. U gives you a wide, flexible palette of musical colors and features easy-to-use layer blending, performance tools, and special effects to spark your creativity.

The Kontakt interface includes a set of automation-ready sound shaping controls for complete creative flexibility. You have control over swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse and fine), articulation switching, crossfading and layering, and more. We’ve also included 20 unique sound effect presets to give you plenty of creative options.

This library comes with an adaptable LFO system with selectable LFO shape, modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo sync, and decay time. You can also apply your choice of 12 low-pass, high-pass and FX filters with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, mod wheel, expression, post-touch, key position and step sequencer table control. Our custom arpeggiator offers a velocity table and controls for direction, timing, swing, randomization and arpeggio duration. We’ve included a key and scale locking system to restrict your notes to common scales and keys for easier melodic composition and live performance.

The interface is complemented by our modular FX rackmount panel with 18 different DSP effects modules that you can assign to any of the 10 available slots in any order. You’ll find classic phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cabinet simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator and much more. The reverb effect includes our favorite reverb convolution impulse characteristics, including 99 different rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor environments, plus another 40 customizable FX impulses to radically transform the sound and open up whole new worlds of musical possibilities. We’ve added a great bank of factory presets for the FX chain to get you started!

Characteristics :
2 Master presets and 20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets
1 Unique Hand-crafted steel lamellophone
Plucks, Bowed Shorts, Bowed Sustains, Glisses, Percussion, FX
24-bit, 48 kHz Stereo Lossless NCW Format.
7,694 Stereo Samples
5.04 GB Installed (8.89 GB Uncompressed)
Made for the free Kontakt Player (version 6.1+), Komplete Kontrol, all S-Series Keyboards and NKS software and hardware by Native Instruments


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