Latest experiences

I wrote about ordering Native Instruments Komplete 6. Well I finally got around to actually using the new tools in productions and I have to say I'm impressed. Especially Kontakt has been tweaked really well from the previous versions. I always ran in to trouble with the Direct-from-disc loading with the older versions, but with version 4 this works like a charm and found myself just loading more and more instruments while working. It was just a joy to work with the new Kontakt 4.

Absynth 5 seems to be even better than the previous versions and the rest of the classic soft synths in the Komplete packet are killers. Sorry for the shameless product pluck but working with them is just sheer pleasure.

Also I've been waiting to really use Tonehammer's Propanium and Epic Dohl libraries. They are absurdly excellent. The propanium has such an off worldly sound that you just get inspired by that alone. Also the Epic Dohls are massively usable. You can hear the ensemble in the individual sounds.

Finally have to mention Bela D Media's The Giovani Edition is a brilliant choir library. I've had it lying on my hard drive for quite a while now but this is about the first time I actually use it. The library has a really aetherical sound which is perfect for haunting choral passages. Can't wait for Bela D Media to finish of their choir library with a male and female choir... At least the boy and girl choirs rock.

I'll chug the tracks I worked on here so you can hear what I'm talking about. They're just a collection of ideas and as such are rough and unfinished. They're for a short scifi film.

Landing
The ship descents
Killing time

Gear I used for these tracks:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 7
  
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 4
  
• NI Absynth 5
  
• NI FM8
  
• NI Massive
• NI Koreplayer
• u-He Zebra CM
• NI Guitar Rig 4 Pro
  

Libraries:

• Tonehammer Propanium
  
• Tonehammer Epic Dohl
  
• Bela D Media The Giovani Edition
  
• Project SAM True Strike 2
• Vienna Symphonic Library Horizon series Epic Horns
• NI Acoustic Refractions
  
• NI Kontakt 4 Library
• Samplelogic AIR
  

Isolation

This is about a track called:

Isolation

I started working on this track at my day job when I needed to test out my new computer and the software I installed on it. So it's basically a test track.

Inspiration for this one came from the brilliant movie "District 9". I loved it's realistic approach to scifi, the themes it touched and well just about everything about it. I wanted to create something on a similar basis.

As the basic ideas and inspiration behind this track were quite opressive I wanted to create a gritty sound. This in turn gave me a good chance to get familiar with NI Guitar Rig 3, which I hadn't used before. Also getting my hands on FM8 was something I had waited for a while. I used quite a lot of distortion and compressing on a lot of the instruments to get that dirty sound. I found that Audio Damage's RoughRider gives out a quite nice crushed sound so I used that quite a lot on different tracks.

The biggest new technical thing on this track was mixing it in surround sound. It's a whole new world for me and experimenting doing a surround mix took some time. The first four or five mixes were totally and utterly incomprehensible. But after a few mistakes I found the right kind of balance for everything so that the track sounds good in normal stereo and surround. Listening to in surround gives a few more little things to the listener, but it's not necessary.

With a lot emphasis on the grittiness and harshness of sound I wanted to bring a "human" element into the track. I chose a set of natural sounds from an up close and personal violin to warm ethnic percussions and Arabian Oud lute. I used them to round out the overall sound and to get a more vibrant air. The middle between the earthy natural instruments and the gritty synthetic side I filled with orchestral strings and brass.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the results and will definately continue exploring along these lines.

Gear used for this track:

DAWs and editors:

• Cakewalk Sonar 8
• Sony SoundForge 7
  

Samplers and instruments:

• NI Kontakt 3
  
• NI FM8
  
• u-He Zebra
  
• NI Battery 3
  
• NI Massive
  
• Cakewalk TTS-1
• NI Guitar Rig 3
  

Libraries:

• NI Kontakt 3 Library
  
• Sonivox Flying Hand Percussion
  
• Cakewalk TTS-1 Library
  
• NI Battery 3 Library