Short answer: a lot. Here are some sneak preview details:
Emulator II Universe of Sounds – Volume 2
We’re almost done with the sampling on this, and it’s just fantastic: interestingly, the technical quality of Vol 2 is a generation ahead of Vol 1 – we’re noticing hardly any audible loop points, and the noise level has dropped down to the point where we’re considering not doing a NR pass. The library has a slightly different content emphasis too; we’re seeing many more keyboards and synths (some great pianos and EPs), amazing drums, and some really neat ethnic sounds throughout. There are fewer orchestral patches, but they’ve been recorded really well; so you tend to get three or four articulations of, say, a viola (legato, marcato, pizzicato, tremolo) done extremely well and thoroughly multisampled, rather than tons of variants on the viola theme. Our feeling is, strongly, that the two libraries complement each other very well – breadth of resource in Vol 1, slightly more focus on detail in Vol 2.
More stuff from our friend Doug at Q Up Arts
Our collaboration on the EII and EIII libraries has been huge fun and has brought some wonderful old technology back to life in exactly the way we most enjoy. We’re keen to keep this partnership going, and in a very cool move, Doug has given us permission to distribute Q Up’s own sampled instruments on our site. So we’re going to be setting up a little Q Up Arts corner to present you with the best of Doug’s output in his post-Emulator incarnation. (Keeping it separate seems to make sense both because it’s someone else’s work and because it’s Kontakt 5 and above, whereas – as you know – all our in-house instruments are Kontakt 4.2.3 and above, to keep all you late adopters happy 🙂 )
Possibly the finest vintage synthesiser we’ve ever created…
You’re going to need to hold on to your hats for this one. It’s only half completed, but when it’s done it’s going to be truly cool. (We hope.) Think three main oscillators plus sub and noise, but with the huge advantage that the third oscillator is an “External Input” allowing you to route fully-formed patches from some classic hardware through the synth’s architecture. All that plus a very clearly-defined sonic signature that comes from all the component bits being sampled from one manufacturer’s machines only. Which manufacturer? We’ll leave you guessing for now…
And more!
More drums, more synths, and more weirdness, pretty much guaranteed. Stay tuned 🙂
Awesome news!