Soniccouture has released The Skiddaw Stones, a unique new sampled instrument for Kontakt, EXS24 and Live, and launched its new web site with a one-week-only Buy One Get One Free offer. SC also announced a new Exclusive Content system.
A Lithophone (litho = stone, phone= voice) dating from 1840, The Skiddaw Stones are composed of 61 tuned and shaped rocks, made from the rare hornfels stone, found in Cumbria, England. Created by Joseph Richardson, a stonemason and musician, it took almost thirteen years to collect and shape enough individual notes of hornfels to make an eight-octave range. The massive task of assembling this instrument consumed Joseph so absolutely that he and his family were reduced to poverty. Once complete, Richardson and his sons toured Europe as The Rock, Bell and Steel Band, and even performed at Buckingham Palace, by command of Queen Victoria.
The Stones are a permanent exhibit at the Keswick Museum and Art gallery, who very kindly agreed to let Soniccouture record this rare instrument. The Stones were painstakingly transported to Music Farm Studios, Cumbria, where two different sets of mallets were used to laboriously capture large sets of velocity hits, then an extra articulation was recorded - the sound of the head of the wooden mallet being scraped across the stone surface - a surprisingly haunting and resonant sound.
Soniccouture says that the result is "a truly bewitching instrument, one that sounds truly ancient, even older than it is. Totally unique rock music".
The Skiddaw Stones (for Kontakt, EXS24 and Live) is available now as download (£49) or disc (£59) from www.soniccouture.com. It is part of Soniccouture's current Buy One Get One Free Offer - enter this code at the checkout (offer expires 9th September, 2009, and applies to downloads only): 4R0156JCM2
New Web Site & BOGOF
To celebrate their new site, SC are offering BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) for one week only. Simply pick two downloads, enter this code - YJ5FLTYPSG - at checkout, and the cheapest one will be free. This will also get you both new Exclusive Products. Offer expires 9th September, 2009. One free product per customer.
Exclusive Content Launched
Soniccouture has launched a new Exclusive Content system. This means that when you buy a product from SC, you get access to high-quality free content that is not available to buy direct. These products are large, fully spec'd libraries, not tiny giveaway free samples.
The first two Exclusive Content products are DevilFish and Tube Drum. These become available when you buy your first and second SC product respectively. If you buy 2 at once, then you get both at once*. More Exclusive Content will be added as time goes on.
* this only applies to purchases made on or after 26/8/09. SC regret that past purchases do not qualify for Exclusive Content.
