Tonehammer has announced the launch of Microhammer, a new outlet for more focused and experimental sample content in smaller packages, with the same quality you expect from Tonehammer. The Microhammer catalog is built around the philosophy of "lower prices, greater accessibility and more choice, with SFZ support, a la carte items and fresh content arriving regularly".
Tonehammer says it will be exploring invented instruments, found sounds and under-appreciated classics with a fresh wave of "unconventional, mysterious and surprising content" every month. They'll be releasing a collection of new small libraries, available both individually and, for a limited time, all together as a specially priced bundle, for $89 (35% off) (until February 15th).
This month, there are six little libraries:
The Iron Throne [$39]
This is a very eerie and dark collection of metallic percussive and semi-melodic effects, ideal for use in horror and suspense scoring, sound design, trailer effects and post production, experimental and ambient music, or anything else you can think to do with it. The origins of the strange creation/discovery will remain a forbidden secret. Tonehammer used bows, mallets, metal rods, rubber balls, fingers, fists, drum sticks, nylon, metal brushes, rasps and files water and earth to "lift all manner of demon song from this obscene contraption".
Water Percussion: Volume 1 [$19]
Water Percussion Vol. 1 covers a variety of percussive elements purely made with water. The library includes drum kits made with water drops to cymbals clashed against water surfaces, from slapping wet concrete to comprehensive water human beat boxing. The end result is a library that sounds wet without any additional reverb. Water Percussion is highly experimental and for people that want another texture to their music and grooves.
Epic Room Percussion [$19]
This one is about punchy high, mid and low toms, dual octobans, triple roto-toms and metallic rims, recorded in a naturally wet studio environment. The sample set compliments Tonehammer products like Epic Toms or Epic Dhol, but is distinctively unique in its sharpness and cutting energy, due to the room it was recorded in and the way the drums were tortured.
Music Boxes [$19]
The Music Box is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century and called carillons à musique. Note that the tone of a musical box is unlike that of any musical instrument. The Microhammer Music Boxes have been sampled extensively in both dry, room/studio and hall like locations for maximum user flexibility. In addition Tonehammer made abstract versions of the patches to get even more content out of these wonderful, childish and haunting devices.
Tonehammer originally released this library as parts of Tonehammer's Antidrum 2 and Mini, but felt that it was a collection worthy of standing on its own - now with sfz support.
Solo & Ensemble Kazoo [$19]
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when one vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton - a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane. Tonehammer decided to multi-sample the "elegantly screechy" sounding and highly expressive kazoo in a variety of ways - both as solo- and as a 4-person ensemble.
The Microhammer Kazoo was created with the help of a "world-class" kazoo ensemble, featuring some of the finest hand-crafted wax-paper and plastic wind instruments that money can buy. This library includes features such as delicate automation control, round-robin on all note and release triggers, advanced programming and playability and special custom instruments that feature Tonehammer's life-like hall acoustic convolution technology. All in all, Tonehammer feels this is the most powerful professional-grade kazoo ensemble library available anywhere in the world. (and who's to doubt them!)
Tonehammer originally released a 16-bit version of this library as part of the Gnomehammer X-mas event as a special limited-time gift. Now, we offer the formal package, in full 24-bit glory, with added refinements and sfz support.
Gnomehammer: Volume 1 [$19]
This strange collection of quasi-musical oddities was mostly captured in one epic recording session somewhere around Thanksgiving in 2009 at the Tonehammer studio, involving lots of Belgian beer, balloons, helium, oxygen deprivation, the Tonehammer team and a few of their closest friends. While there is a bit of a winter or even some sort of pseudo-Christmas theme running through this library, it's definitely intended to fit in well with content from Tonehammer's Antidrum and Mini series of libraries.
The library includes a wide range of comedic sounds from authentic helium choir to drum kits from snow and ice sounds, from human beat box through PVC ensembles to manipulation of children's balloons - from glockenspiel to a strange set of tonal drones.
Tonehammer originally released much of this library as part of the Gnomehammer X-mas event as a special limited-time gift. Now, they offer the formal package, with new unreleased content, added refinements and sfz support.
Formats
These libraries are for download only and are all in standard Kontakt format, with accessible wav files. Also included are SFZ format versions for most instrument banks, with basic functionality and playability support.
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