$23.92
Around 30 instruments were captured and Loot Audio have tried to draw upon a number of basic synthesis methods including divide down/formant, classic subtractive, DCO, digital FM and additive as well as capturing some tube synth textures from three vintage synths.
Synths included are the DK Synergy and ultra-rare Mulogix Slave-32, Rhodes Chroma, Rev.4 Octave Voyetra Eight, Farfisa Syntorchestra, ProphetVS, Elka Synthex, Oberheim OB-X and Matrix 1000, Korg PS-3100. Tube synths included the Hammond Novachord, a Jennings Univox J6 and a heavily modified Cordovox CG-1.
The String Collection Ethos
As with all of Loot Audio’s Kontakt instruments, the ethos behind them is not so much an attempt to capture and recreate the past but an opportunity to present the original source material as textures, elements and building blocks in order to create something new. At the same time, hopefully some the original beauty and character of these rare and vintage instruments and equipment is retained.
A long time in the making, Loot Audio have been wanting to release for some time now a sequel to one of their most popular Kontakt instruments to date which has been a personal favourite of mine since the beginning. As many are aware, Loot Audio have always had a bit of a soft spot for evocative cinematic synth strings, and especially pseudo-realistic string ensembles. It has been very exciting for them that some of these string ensembles and textures have found their way into a number of major music productions around the world.
Loot Audio’s original String Collection was largely based on early string synths such as the ARP Omni and the Eminent 310U. They wanted to add several new offerings from several other families of synthesizer. The reasoning behind this was an attempt to broaden the sonic territory in what has proven to be a remarkably effective and easy-to-use layering engine. Some extra elements from Loot Audio’s beloved 1938 Novachord #346 have been introduced including a very “warts & all” string timbre straight from the beast. Such elements may sound a little too antique to some in isolation but can form a remarkable secret element when layered with others in the layering engine. It is hard to believe this quarter ton 163 tube monster is 80 years old this year!
Unique Processing Methods
Loot Audio has also tried to introduce a number of unique processing methods to add tonal colour, character and movement to various sounds. This included a rather bizarre idea they had to play raw material through a speaker and record it using an old carbon granule GPO telephone mic. This imparted a wonderful crunchy antique character which when layered with the original source produced a rather beautiful effect.
Other methods involved recording on and off of rather worn ¼” tape on a wonderful 1969 Revox G36 tube reel to reel. An original 1969 Dolby A-301 (the world’s first Dolby dynamic noise reduction system) and a DBX II 128 compander along with a gorgeous Binson tube Pre-Mixer were also used to good effect. A number of triple ensembles were used to process single string timbres from various synths into something much more akin to the original Solina strings.
This included the often overlooked Korg SDD-3300 triple modulated delay and retasking the triple BBD chorus ensemble in the little Böhm Dynamic 12/24 as well as the wonderful “Orbitone” generator in the Eminent 310U. Truly uniquely, Loot Audio used the latter to process some of the string timbres from the Novachord to produce some very special ensembles!
A number of layers and blends were brought together to form the basic 36 instruments loaded into the layering engine to form String Collection II.
Equipment Used
Processed With
System Requirement for The String Collection II – HIDEAWAY STUDIO
MacOS :
Kontakt Version Required:
4.2.4 Full Version (Not for Kontakt Player)
Approximately 1.2GB of free hard disk space is required.
Windows :
Kontakt Version Required:
4.2.4 Full Version (Not for Kontakt Player)
Approximately 1.2GB of free hard disk space is required.
