Underscore is an instrument library for Native Instruments Kontakt 5.1. It is designed to meet the needs of modern working composers, who are often asked to write and deliver a LOT of music in a short amount of time. It includes a wide array of acoustic-hybrid and electronic sounds, which can be played as instruments from your keyboard, or driven directly from the key-triggered FluidPhrase Engine. In concert with the Phrase Envelopes, 5-layered voice architecture, filter modulation and FX, Underscore is a juggernaut of rhythmic scoring.
INSPIRATION
WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
Underscore was built to inspire, and it certainly does. All patches are musically responsive and inviting to play. The FluidPhrase Engine lets you improvise complex rhythms with ease, and invites you to explore endless variation – a simple chord can become a motif; a broken chord can transform into a hypnotically polyrhythmic ostinato pattern. The Phrase Envelopes function as your assistant, adjusting sound elements as you play, and the sense that you’re working not with an instrument but with another musician is perhaps most inspiring of all!
SOUND
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE?
Powerful features are meaningless if they don’t deliver compelling sounds. Fortunately, Underscore delivers! The sounds in this library range from subtle to vast, and work equally well under intimate dialogue scenes as they do supporting a full orchestra at 160bpm. They are organic and playable, and they evolve with numerous randomization and tonal control options which convey the nuance of human expression. Best of all, the engine is built to be flexible, and the user interface is fast and intuitive – dial in “just right” in seconds.
SPEED
WILL IT MAKE MY JOB EASIER?
Underscore will save your marriage. Well, maybe not, but it’ll definitely save you time. It can adapt to any key-signature, meter, or tempo, which means it obediently follows when you have to make arrangement changes or massage tempo to hit picture. Expression is an essential part of creating emotionally engaging music, but using host-automation can be time consuming – especially when you have to make last-minute changes. Using a Phrase Envelope to do those fader rides automatically means less time fiddling and more time actually writing music.
VERSATILITY
WHAT IF I HATE PRESETS?
Want to use your own custom sounds? The power of Underscore makes it easy. Load up your samples in seconds, and start cooking. Using the extensive modulation routing, you can push the filters from a murmur to a scream, or turn a juicy distorted saw-wave into a warm mellow aura. Add layers of FX, assign envelopes and Flex Modulators, program custom polyphonic phrases and trigger them live! The possibilities are truly astonishing. From delicate to brutal and back again – your sounds for your music.
