Soniccouture Resources/audio samples

This is a Multi sampled instrument. The setup is as simple as installing the Library, opening up Kontakt or other host, locate the library and load your instrument. After that, you are making noise. The Gui is nice in the way that it looks very "vintage" and is designed to look like the original instrument. The bad part is that this makes it a little too dark and hard to see. I usually enjoy these "throwback" interfaces, but I would sacrifice the novelty of it all for an easy to read/use GUI. One nice thing about the interface has all the main control parameters on the GUI's face and they are nicely spaced and not crowded. As this is a relatively simple synth by today's standards, tweaking the sound is relatively easy and can yield awesome results in very little time. SOUND QUALITY I really enjoy the sounds coming from this instrument. They are surprisingly warm and full of Analog character. I especially like using this unit in Poly mode for some fuzzy/noisy yet warm and soft pads. I run this in Kontakt 5 on a MacbookPro i7 Core 8gb ram with an RME Fireface 800. The sounds suit all sorts of styles. I use it mostly in electronica and rock styles but I could see this used in almost every style of modern electric music. At least any place a moog or vintage sounding synth would feel comfortable. OVERALL OPINION What I love most is the simplicity and the sound quality of the Ondes. It can range from eerie string style pads to gritty fat leads to huge keyboard styles and it very easy to morph the sounds to achieve what you want. What I don't like about this unit is how much CPU it garbles. It's a small sample set, roughly 30mb loads up in my memory server in kontakt yet it still slams the CPU meter at 256 samples. This makes me use it far less than I think I would. I guess I may need to upgrade to a MacPro at home soon. $129 is a fair price to have such a unique (and rare) instrument in my arsenal. Although I have never heard one in person, I have heard several recordings of the Ondes and Soniccouture did a great job capturing it. This is essentially a basic synthesizer, so yes, I have used lots of synths in my day. In terms of sampled synths, this is one of my favorites. Yes, I would buy it again, but I might have waited until I got a Mac Pro knowing what I know now about the CPU consumption.

This is a multi-sampled instrument ranging from synth basses to actual stringed basses. As with other Kontakt instruments, this is a pretty simple process of installing and loading (this is not a library so you need to find it under "Files"). The setup is simple enough with all the controls for the particular instrument/patch are right on the GUI. Essentially you get basic controls including Attack/Decay, Cutoff/Resonance, Reverb and amp/mic features on certain patches. SOUND QUALITY I would say that going through the entire library (about 1.6gb) you get a nice spread of Bass instruments. The addition of the Stringed Bass guitars is pretty sweet. I used them a lot for demo writing before I picked up NI's MM Bass. I keep this as a "back up" to my real bass during performance as it is not CPU hungry and has a pretty solid sound. I run this in Kontakt 5 on a MBP i7 and an RME Fireface 800 Interface. I use this mainly for electronica and I have to say it's pretty solid for that style. Some of the "moog" style sounds aren't as pleasing to me only because I have a Slim Phatty right next to me that certainly sounds a lot bigger. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this set is it is relatively small and packs a good punch. It offers a lot of different sounds and they also employ a specific engine that reduced aliasing sounds and keeps the "beat" of the sample across the whole keyboard. I also really like the fact that I only paid $15 for it as Soniccouture was "retiring" this plugin and offered a cheap price. There is not much to dislike about this set, especially at that price point. I give it a 9 out of 10 for sound. The sounds are good, but when don't quite capture the fullness of a real bass or my Slim Phatty's Bass sounds. I now use NI's MM Amped for my "mobile" bass sounds and it is much better in terms of "real" bass reproduction, but it also is about 14gb's larger and a heck of a lot more CPU hungry. I don't think you can get this at $15 anymore, but I could be wrong. If you can, it never hurts to have more options and that is a low price for some.

This is a Multi Sampled instrument. This is another plugin that is designed to be hosted in a soft sampler such as Kontakt. Kontakt can be a tricky beast to navigate and understand, but if you get a basic working knowledge of its functions, you can be up and running with most every plugin you use in it within minutes. SOUND QUALITY This is really only a one trick pony. It is essentially a very accurate, very sonically pleasing instrument that only needs to be itself. Infact, every effect I have tried to use on this plugin is shortly taken off as there is no reason to mess with such a pure sounding instrument. I do all sorts of music from rock/electronica/movie scoring/ and producing all kinds of music. Every time a client asks for something a little "ethnic" on their track, I usually show them this and they are instantly happy. I run this on a MacBook Pro i7 with Ableton 8 and Logic 9. I also use an RME FireFace 800 as my sound card. So far this instrument has performed flawlessly. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this instrument is how real it feels when you play it with a keyboard. There are little features like the sound of your fingers "dragging" across the strings when making large jumps on the keyboard or even the option to trigger a "harp" like run for that quintessential kung fu fighting movie sound. Basically, they did a great job bringing a very rare and expensive instrument to my computer for easy and instant use. I am very thankful for that as I have loved this instrument since I saw it in the move "Kung Fu Hustle" (great movie by the way). I can't find anything wrong with this instrument. I paid $79 for this plugin and I am extremely happy with my purchase and feel I got my money's worth. The precision and sound quality is truly amazing. I have never played the real thing, but this must be very close. I have used built in presets in hardware synths and in ESX 24 and this one blows them all away. I highly recommend this instrument for those who are in search of a viable reproduction of the Gu Zheng.

This is a multisampled instrument. First off, you must run this in a host such as Kontakt. Kontakt itself can be a little confusing if you little to no experience with it, but if you get a handle on Kontakt, then setting up Morpheus is a piece of cake. SOUND QUALITY The plugin comes with around 30 or more presets. They are definitely quite varied and some even are "sequenced" type effects that have an arpeggio type feel. For the most part I don't have any use for the sequence typed presets as I find them silly and unusable. The "simple" presets though are quite nice and demonstrate how much of a range this instrument has. It can sound like a warm Marimba all the way to a trash monster instrument built from scrape metal. I run this in Kontakt usually in Logic 9 or Ableton live, but sometimes as a stand alone. My Macbook pro i7 core with 8gb ram handles this instrument like it was nothing. I love mallet instruments especially for laid back "Gamelan" style electronica. The sounds that generate from Morpheus are a great fit. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this instrument is its very realistic sound. The low are rich with lots of nice harmonics and the highs don't thin out like most other mallet plugins. It sits around less than 1gb of samples but has the character of a large sample library. I wonder if anyone has made a Midi Mallet controller, if so, this would be the first plugin I would reach for to be controlled by it. What I don't like are about 1/3 of the presets and I guess the option of "sequencing" the sound. Essentially you can hold down one note and it will play itself. I don't quite understand the need as it's enjoyable enough to play like a real instrument (i.e. you have to strike the note to hear it) or can be easily sequenced from your host DAW. Morpheus has excellent sound quality. It is officially my go to mallet instrument at this point. I have used mainly built in plugins in Logic 9 and Ableton 8 as well as patches in various synths/keyboards. This one seems to stand above all the rest. I would definitely buy this again and recommend it to all my friends who are in need of some might fine mallet sounds.