Recording - June 2012 - 38

RECORDING'S

SHOWCASE OF SOUNDS

A Cornucopia Of Content
New sound libraries extend the capabilities of sample player plug-ins
By Mike Metlay with Gary Eskow

In this extra-large Showcase Of Sounds, we’re bringing you sound libraries dedicated to a variety of sample playback plug-ins. Some are commercially available, others have feature-limited free versions, but all can be expanded with a variety of amazing content. Let’s dive in and see what the world of new sounds has to offer!

Best Service Epic World and Desert Winds for ENGINE

Best Service is a German soundware firm that’s been blazing its own path with its exceptional sound libraries/virtual instruments. The company’s line is based on the ENGINE sample playback platform designed by Yellow Tools (yellowtools.de), makers of the Independence software sampler that’s better known in Europe than the USA. ENGINE is currently at version 2.0.2 and has a clean, clear interface combined with many of the tools that sample aficionados hope to find in their virtual instruments—articulation control via dedicated sections of the MIDI keyboard, round robin sample support, legato phrasing control, built-in effects, and so on. Best Service builds its virtual instruments to capitalize on ENGINE’s architecture, and with the help of customized Quick Edit screens that bring important controls to the forefront of simplified user interfaces, each Best Service product looks at first glance like the ENGINE platform was purpose-built for it. Take note that the full version of ENGINE is available from the Best Service website as a free download, and comes with a small selection of free presets from each of the libraries on offer, so you can give yourself a taste of these and many other sound collections and try out ENGINE for yourself. We’ll be doing a more extensive review of the very powerful Galaxy X ENGINE-based virtual synthesizer package in an upcoming issue; for this issue on soundware, we’re focusing on the sample content in two libraries from master sound designer Eduardo Tarilonte, whose Forest Kingdom library wowed us in our December 2011 issue. Epic World Epic World is subtitled “Cinematic Landscapes”, and that’s a very suitable name. This library is rich with source material for film and TV work or video games, evocative and beautiful with a heavy fantasy/science fiction emphasis. The sound sources recorded to make the library are all acoustic in nature, but you’d be hard pressed to know that from some of what comes out of your speakers! The 7.7 GB library comes on a single DVD and installs and, like all Best Service virtual instruments of this type, activates via a challenge/response system (ENGINE has a builtin Internet-based electronic license management utility). The process is relatively straightforward in most cases; some Mac users may run into a glitch where the licensing utility refuses to launch, but the fix described by Best Service’s tech support staff works well.
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Once you dive into Epic World, you’ll find its sounds divided into six subgroups: Ambiences including Drones, Pads, Changelings, and FX, and then Instruments and Voices. As this library is really designed to provide quick and great-sounding music beds, the first four categories have the lion’s share of space devoted to them. Drones are designed to center around the key of C, with other keys providing variations of the basic drone found at C3. In my tests, I found the other keys to have tonal elements that allowed use in any key, sometimes with the stated C element entirely missing or at least removable. Pads work similarly to Drones but are entirely tonal and playable. Drones and Pads are made up of anywhere from two to eight individual layers that can be mixed at will via a set of faders on the Quick Edit screen (see the screenshot). Changelings are “ambient whooshes” according to the information booklet provided with the DVD (a nice touch common to all Best Service products). That pretty much sums it up: you get anywhere from six to 21 variations on five sound types (Deep, Jungle, Metallic, Soft, Windy) that can be sprinkled into your arrangements as needed for accents and transitions. FX are of course sound effects, divided up into Creatures, Nature, and SFX. The Nature samples are lovely, offering wind and water sounds and other ambiences; the Creatures folders feature everything from Dragon Growls to Giant Wing Flaps whose timbre changes with lefthand articulation choices. The Instruments include world-music drums, woodwinds, struck metals, strings, and more, from Africa, China, Japan, Tibet, the Pacific, and fantasy realms not on any normal map (“UrukHai War Horns”?). There are playable single notes, keymapped phrases, and loops with specified tempo. The Voices include African spoken word, Nordic chanting, a little bit of Gregorian Monks, vocalizations in Hindustani (I think), and one keymap of letter-perfect Elvish straight out of The Lord Of The Rings—and please don’t ask me how I know that. Mae govannen! There’s a lot to choose from in this library, all of it impeccably recorded and with easy remix tools right at hand. If your music requires natural or acoustic/world music sound beds, Epic World will probably provide lots of inspiration.

http://www.yellowtools.de

Recording - June 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2012