Folktek, makers of some amazing one of a kind instruments have just released an amazing sounding sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt. The library includes a huge batch of instruments they have created over the last twelve years! Check out the sound samples and get more details on their site, this is a pretty unique library that could have a lot of potential uses. The library is available now for download for $149.79. Folktek was also featured in one of our workspace and environment articles, check that out if you want to hear about their process.
COLLECTION SPECS
A grand total of 64 virtual instruments
1.74GBs of data
16-24 bit 44.1khz Sounds
Works with Kontakt
For Windows & Mac OS
Over $30,000 worth of Folktek instruments sampled
Abstract, Ambient, Noise, Percussive & Synth VSTs.
For the past couple months, Alessandro’s life has taken over mine. He handed over a few gigs of video for the teasers and because we approached them in a minimal fashion, we were left with nearly an hour of unused footage. I tried to make sense of it all in the video below and think it tells a story of a few cats that live with an annoying roommate.
In his first interview about Sonoio, Alessandro is shedding some light on his new project touching briefly on the background of Sonoio, the method and not the lyrics.
SONOIO comes from the Italian “sono io”, which means “it’s me”. It’s the first time that I write a whole album on my own.
Starting out
The bulk of the songs were written on the Buchla in January and they all started from sitting in front of it, not knowing what to do. I sit in front of it and I feel like a baby playing with something new: no rules, a lot of colors, unknown sounds and lights. It’s easy to be creative that way. There is no feeling of working. It does however apply to other instruments I have found. The main obstacle was at the beginning, when I thought I was going to record a modwheelmood album. Once I realized this was a different thing, with a different set of rules, everything went quite smoothly, especially thanks to Jon’s feedback while working on the tracks.
A song never just comes to my mind. It has to be triggered by a sound, a sequence, a rhythm, then add a bass line or a melody, it really depends. If you listen to a song like “just me”, that one started with having my friend Reed Hays showing me a trick on the 281 module, where the envelope emulates a sidechained compressor. That became the main part in the song. I started realizing fairly early in the process that I was coming up with more interesting material for my standards if I concentrated on writing with only one tool, as opposed to layering different instruments like I used to.
What instruments were you used to layering?
A Jomox XBase 09 for the more standard sounding analog drums, NI’s massive for some of the drones, a lot of UAD plugins for mixing, SoundToys Decapitator, Crystallizer, and a healthy dose of Eventide H8000FW.
Are there any additional hands and ears helping you out?
The name says it all, Starcraft boy*.
Just for that, I’m posting our scores. Answer the question.
Jon Bates from BigBlackDelta helped a lot with his expertise and opinions. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and not knowing what sounds good anymore. It was mostly a situation of having a trusted person who shares the same musical attitude to come in, listen, and pull me out of an endless circle. He also sang on one of the songs, Houdini.
Did you intentionally leave out instruments?
Yes, for the most part. The challenge was for me to utilize a very low number of instruments and preferably the modular only: that way you end up coming up with sounds that might recall others but never quite sound like them. Some of the songs (Just me, Not Worth Remembering, Hold On, Let Go) were recorded as one takes on the Buchla, and then vocals were overdubbed. There are no more than 8 tracks of Buchla at once, plus Vox + vocoder.
Aside from Blindoldfreak, is this your first full length release since your time with Nails?
First full length on my own, besides modwheelmood’s Pearls to Pigs, which came out as an album last year. I spent the last few years working on other people’s music and touring a little but mostly cat sitting.
What are your rates for cat sitting?
I charge one thousand dollars an hour.
Can you talk about your lyrics or themes you were exploring?
No! Good, cause I didn’t really care.
Do you plan to tour?
I don’t enjoy playing shows as much as I enjoy writing and recording music. It always feels like you have to prove yourself in a foreign field. The studio is were I am happy and feel like I do something worth listening to. That said, yes, I will play shows eventually.
How does Sonoio stand in your existing catalog of music?
It’s what I do now, might not be what I do tomorrow! It’s difficult to look back at what i have done and analyze it. Everything sounds great until you release it…. Then you are ready to move on… it’s therapeutic.
How would you describe collaborating with Harvestman for your SuONOIO Synth?
Natural.
*Actual score of a game of Starcraft Alessandro (purple) and I (yellow) played. All those years on tour and in the studio must’ve fried his killing skills.
Alessandro Cortini has been working non-stop for the past few months on his Sonoio project which launches it’s campaign today. At the launch site you can pre-order the album in different formats and packages, take a closer look at the SuONOIO instrument, and watch the teasers we put together. Trash_Audio will have an exclusive video and interview coming soon. Until then, go and enjoy the sights and sounds of Sonoio.
Gorilla Box now has almost everything in stock including the Gorilla Cages which sport a Tip Top Audio power supply and Vector Rail System, road cases, 12U cases, switch covers, screws and other accessories. The Tip Top Audio power supplies are the best Eurorack power systems I’ve ever come across. To find more information on Gorilla Box from this site visit: Our Archives. The 3U racks are the only item not available yet.
Make Noise just announced a product that a couple of friends and I helped beta test, BRAINS. When combined with Pressure Points (1 or 2 chained together), it turns the pressure sensitive controller into a 4 or 8 step sequencer that utilizes the touch plates for performance orientated patterns. If you have a Doepfer A-151 sequential switch, the pattern length can go up to 24 steps with 2 Pressure Points. Don’t forget that Pressure Points also has gate outs making it a feature heavy sequencer. It features some strange things that I’ve never seen in a sequencer controller such as the Touch-Clock which, among many things, quantizes your interaction with the Pressure Points plates to an incoming clock so you’re always triggering on time. The standard sequencer modes are here as well such as Reset, Run, and Direction.
Two new releases today at the Fixt download store. The first is a collaboration between Surachai and I (Render:Error). The second is a sort of maxi single from me…
“Polyfuse and Surachai: professional sound designers by trade, accomplished electronic musicians by hobby. Both have received acclaim for their respective musical outputs, Polyfuse for his Acid/Techno/Industrial Dance that makes you lose it on the dancefloor as though controlled by a voodoo doll and Surachai for his self-named Plague Metal, a non-Euclidean geometry of tortured analog electronics and brutal cyber metal. After having run the Trash Audio blog and their own Shade:Red music label together for several years, one would expect some sort of collaboration between the two, and indeed there was, some time ago. Now, after languishing on a hard drive for years, this first single from the Render:Error project has seeped through a crack in the pavement to infect the citizenship. You can run, you can cover your ears, but it will do no good – Render:Error will find you, and you will obey.”
“Over the past three years, Polyfuse has taken the Chicago underground by storm with his expertly-produced take on the modern Industrial genre, meeting somewhere between the frenetic, sharp-edged Acid Techno of yesteryear and the superbly-textured Electronic Rock of modern acts such as NIN. Last year, in between experiments in long-form dark ambient and jagged, minimal analog Acid, the remains of an aborted 2007 debut album were released for free. Now, Polyfuse is preparing for the release of the fully-realized followup, The Speed Of Forever, and serving as an advance warning comes this three-track teaser single with album cuts “Dagger Hero” and “Never Repeat These Words” and exclusive B-side “Floor”. With a sonic structure as threatening as the deadliest military hardware these compositions give testament to the fact that a repertoire of considerable force is being manufactured within the borders of the Windy City, and the eventual onslaught will change the face of modern electronic music.”
Alessandro has just announced SuONOIO, a small synth that will be available as one of the physical releases packages offered with the release of Sonoio, his latest project. Harvestman was commissioned by Alessandro to make a small versatile synth with tons of functionality only the Harvestman could pull off. Additional information to follow….
Alessandro Cortini has a few special announcements he’ll make soon but for now all you get is a glimpse. Also, there is an open discussion over at the Sonoio Facebook page where you can ask questions. Link is below.
The Trash_Audio team is late for work! This is basically what goes through my mind on a daily basis.
All of the audio is original and not altered from the camera. This is probably what downtown Chicago would sound like if we were being invaded by outside forces. Explosions, gunfire, people flying out of building, military and fake breasts will be all over downtown Chicago for the next month because Transformers 3 is shooting.
Gorilla Box’s first product, the Gorilla Cage, is now available at their Online Store (Product Page). This is targeted towards DIY folks who would like the constructed rack but want to find their own power supply. Gorilla Box is also selling a number of miscellaneous utility products to customize your Eurorack system including colored screws and caps. Other product releases will be announced soon like that complete Gorilla Cage with the Tip Top power supply.
Here are the specs of the Gorilla Cage:
- Custom made for Gorilla box by Vector Electronics. This is without the power system, just the rack.
- Comes with flat black metal anodized backplate with bussboard screw holes prepunched. The large hole on bottom of prototype not included in final rack. backplate is solid black anodized at the bottom.
- Black front handles easily removed with a screwdriver.
