Crank from Rhythmic Robot takes over six hundred samples of an Eastern European stringed folk instrument – the wonderfully erratic hurdy-gurdy – and welds them into a four-oscillator analogue synthesiser framework capable of creating strange, eerie, evolving patches. This is what a polysynth would sound like it it was built by medieval gypsies out of old planks and lengths of twine...
The hurdy-gurdy produces its sounds by rubbing a rosined wooden wheel over a series of violin-style strings: the sound is half violin, half hand-cranked barrel organ. It's uniquely strange and can be both plaintive and raw-sounding. We've sampled a hurdy-gurdy extensively to create the DNA for Crank, and have named the instrument after the handle that the player cranks round to make the hurdy-gurdy play.
The twin Crank oscillators are independently controllable, with dual filters, envelopes, pitch control, LFOs and so on; they also run in tandem with twin Analogue Oscillators, adding some classic analogue waves to the tonal palette. The characteristic attack "squeal" of the acoustic hurdy-gurdy can be turned on or off individually, and the sound sources mixed and blended to create haunting and evocative instruments that sound "almost real". Crank is a great way to get the sound of strings from parallel universes into your mix
Features include:- Twin Crank oscillators drawn from extensive samples of the hurdy-gurdy
Twin Analogue oscillators sampled from the Roland SH7 flagship analogue synth
Over 60 factory patches
Twin flavours of noise: classic white noise, plus vinyl-style crackle
Extensive LFO modulation of pitch, amplitude and filter cutoff, independently for both Cranks
The famous Rhythmic Robot GLITCH button to randomise the instrument in musically inspiring ways!
http://www.rhythmicrobot.com/page0/page ... index.html
Crank is available now from Rhythmic Robot, at an introductory special-offer price of £19.95 (normal price £24.95). It requires Kontakt v.4.2.3 or later to run (including all versions of Kontakt 5). Kontakt Player is not supported.
We're also intending to bring out a meticulous recreation of the folk hurdy-gurdy itself, without any of the synth elements: less aimed at sound designers and more at alt-folk / alt-rock and soundtrack composers. It'll be out sometime soon, and we're mentioning it here because anyone who buys Crank will be entitled to a special lower price on Hurdy Gurdy once it ships
Happy music making!
The Professor (and Mongo)
