Hi Alchemists,
I just released my new soundset for Alchemy on patchpool:



The soundset Warped Strings for Alchemy is the second in a series focussing on specific materials and single instruments. For this soundset an acoustic Western Guitar was multisampled, treating it with all sorts of tools to create unique sounding real and unreal instruments, otherworldly textures, groovy sequences, beautiful and dark soundscapes and cinematic pad sounds. Multiple velocity layers and Round Robin variations were produced for the creation of expressive and organic sounding instruments.
All samples were recorded with 3 Neumann microphones and processed with native and outboard gear, to make the best out of the recorded audio material. A wide variety of electronic textures derived form the recorded guitar sounds were produced and often combined with the original samples and sounds resynthed inside Alchemy.

As in all my soundsets for Alchemy I make extensive use of Alchemy's complex modulation possibilities and Filters, often intermodulating LFOs/MSEGs/Sequencers with each other and assigning numerous parameters to a single Controller. This enables the user to deeply interact with the sounds and shape it according to his needs and preferences. Also the patches can serve as a starting point for the user's own creations when loading new samples into them and then using the pre-assigned Controllers and Snapshots in the Remix Pad. You can view/download the PDF for Warped Strings with more details, the licence agreement and the patch list including playing tips and description for each patch here.

Warped Strings Specs:

1.59 GB of original samples - source material:

Plucked Guitar using various objects like coins, screwdrivers
Tremolo Guitar
Beaten Guitar using drumsticks and mallets
Scraped Guitar using various metal objects for scraping the strings
Prepared guitar
Bowed Guitar - bowing the strings with a violin bow
Chimed Guitar - playing on the strings with the metal beam of some small windchimes
Flagolet Guitar
Trash Guitar
Slapped Guitar
Guitar loops

All samples recorded with 3 Neumann microphones in L-C-R - 48 Khz/24 Bit
U87 center mic - a stereo set of KM 184 for L-R using RME Preamps.

Delivery: Download
Library size in total: 1.61 Gigabyte
Download size: 1.04 Gigabyte

NOTE: This Sound Bank will require the full version of Alchemy.
It will not work with the Alchemy player version.

Price: 27 €

Product page

Thank's for reading

Simon Stockhausen
Last edited by Sampleconstruct on Wed Apr 04, 2012 10:58 am; edited 4 times in total

Ahhhh! Another insta-buy... if I had the money this time. Putting it on my to-buy list though. Good luck Simon!

Thank you Jensa

I was one of the early buyers and I just downloaded the set and have been playing with it all afternoon.
This is another fantastic set that defies a simple description, so many of the presets do not at all seem evocative of strings - warped, mangled or otherwise.

My own preferences for the bizarre have a feast in this batch, but for those who prefer more instrumental sounds there are plenty. And just a small nudge of the variations pads yields an unearthly modification.

Very creative, sonically very satisfying, a great tool for any style.

Thank you Jim - I just love to read your reviews of my sets

Wow! This soundset is just unbelievable.
If you own ValhallaÜbermod try "All Over" from Simon's free presets on "Bowed Strings" and "Glass Strings" for airy pads and haunting melodies. Can't stop playing those two sounds!

In fact i sampled my old acoustic guitar and cister playing with a cello bow two years ago. But the results were "skreetchy" and i had many problems with resonance from the guitar body. Tried various mic positions but didn't get near to Simon's samples. Or perhaps it's my amateurish bowing technique.

Fantastic sound art as all your other soundsets! I'm curious what comes next.

Cheers,
Gerald

Thank's a lot for the nice feedback, Gerald. I just started to learn bowing for my last Alchemy Bank Metallurgy, where I bowed cymbals and gongs - with the guitar it wasn't that easy to only bow on one string, as you have to find exactly the right angle to only create single notes (on the low E-string in this case) and not play chords/intervals all the time. And the right pressure and flow is very important too. Then I EQd each sample to get rid of all the resonances I didn't want to hear, enhancing the fundamental frequencies as well. It took a long time to produce each sample but I think the Bowed patches turned out quite nicely.
And yes, I agree- the combination with certain ÜberMod settings makes some of these patches totally far out - how cool would it be if Camel Audio licenced Sean's algos to include them in Alchemy - just dreaming....

What's next? There are plans for a a Bank with low Brass instruments (Susaphon/Euphonium/Trombone) recorded in a church (waiting for spring to arrive), then something on ceramic materials, then something big with orchestra...but first a longer alchemic break!

Low brass sounds would be absolutely awesome.

But first take your well deserved break. Do you ever sleep?

I was very lazy. Just put one single string on the guitar at a time.

I tried that as well, but I preferred the sound with all strings mounted...

Yes, but not enough really

wow!
Another fantastic soundset.
Cant wait see what your ideas on ceramics are...

Thank you - I have a long list of ceramic objects and instruments I want to sample, of course the Udu being the most obvious on this list...

There is a spontaneous Mini Group Buy happening for Warped Strings:
Mini Group Buy page
Spring Special thread with GB on KVR

I just bought-in