A few things that I have run across or picked up lately that I think are well worth checking out.

Braunschweig Upright Piano from imperfectsamples.com – Ohmigod I love this piano. It is not without its “flaws”, but these flaws introduce character and help to make the instrument inspirational for me. (I’ll provide more detail in a follow up.)

apulSoft apEQ

apulSoft’s apEQ – This has been around for a while, but it is very versatile and allows extreme almost surgical sound shaping via EQ. A great interface. Demos available at the website.

NI Acoustic Refractions

NI Kore2 Acoustic Refractions – If you are into Absynth, this gives you some very cool sounds. The strength of the programming really comes through when morphing between the sound variations.

SampleLogic’s WaterHarp – This is one helluva deal at $49.95. 300 instruments, 1.8GB of samples for some “film ready” waterharp sounds, ambiences, stings, transitions. If anything, it’s a bit TOO film ready IMHO. Seems like an entire episode of CSI in a box. Still, there’s a lot here that can be worked with. And did I mention it’s only 50 bucks?

Tonehammer’s WaterPhone – Not as many instruments as SampleLogic’s and more expensive at $99.

Yet another Voice of Passion?

A couple of days ago I came across information on a small outfit called Tonehammer. From their site:

Tonehammer is owned by Academy Award Winning Composer, Troels Folmann and TEC Award Winning Sound Designer, Mike Peaslee. Tonehammer is specialized in creating unique- and powerful virtual instruments for feature, tv- and video games composers.

In particular I came across their latest product Forgotten Voices: Francesca. It’s damn good.

I don’t want to recreate information you can find on their site. Suffice to say that it’s a female vocal library of phrases arranged in categories that have names like Slow Chanting, Playful Chanting, Flute Singing, Lullaby, Powerful/Forte, Slow/Dark, etc. By adjusting the mod-wheel and pitch bend you can control sample start points and time-stretch/compress the phrases. There is also a bonus set of vocal ambiences that for me cinched the deal. Overall, the programming is quite evocative and usable and I really like those ambiances quite a bit.

According to Tonehammer:

The combination between sample off-set control and time-stretch/compression allows users to seamlessly morph different phrases together, which brings endless possibilities for creating new phrases.

Perhaps in theory. In practice, well, it takes practice to make the above happen. From the “happy mistakes” I made this weekend, I think there is promise.