Hemerocallis Ruby Spider

Collision is a physical modeling instrument for authentic sounding percussion instruments and creative percussion, developed in collaboration with AAS. Collision produces the sound of xylophone, marimba and glockenspiel; however, you can also elicit completely new sounds from the instrument. Unlike instruments that use samples, Collision produces dynamic and lively sounds, adding an organic feel to your tracks. With Corpus, an audio effect that reproduces Collision’s resonant range, the sonic scope is expanded even further. This gives you a wide range: from authentic sounds to exotic and experimental sounds.

Control Collision

With Collision and Corpus, you can control the sound down to the smallest detail – from the attack impulse to the velocity and the resonance body. Choose a velocity type – bar, plate, head / membrane or tube – and change the geometry there. You can also experiment with different materials: Glass, metal, wood, nylon or rubber. Try different listening positions and compare the sound of parallel and serial arrangements. Or add harmonic or discordant overtones. You can exhaust Collisions presets to get instruments that don’t exist in the real world, or create new sounds from scratch.

Resonators

Collision has seven different types of resonators. “Soundbox” here refers to both the vibrating surface, and the (optional) soundbox underneath:

Beam simulates different sized bars made of different materials.
Marimba is a sound bar with a curvature on one side that produces special pitches.
String simulates strings of different materials in different lengths, as found on piano, guitar and zither.
Membrane is a rectangular drumhead whose material and size can be adjusted.
Plate simulates rectangular plates of different sizes and materials.
Pipe simulates a cylinder that is open on one side. The opening of the other side can be adjusted in size.
Tube Tube simulates a cylinder that is open on both sides.

Control options

Collision can be operated in two ways: parallel and serial. This mimics the construction of real instruments. For example, a xylophone consists of a mallet and a surface under which there is a vibrating tube. Thus, a xylophone has a serial construction. A parallel construction does not actually exist in real instruments, and it is precisely at this point that physical modeling synthesis shows its strength. You can create virtual instruments without physical constraints: for example, two resonating bodies that produce sound independently. Or multiple surfaces that vibrate simultaneously.

Corpus separatus

Corpus is a virtual sound box – a sound machine with a life of its own. You can use Corpus independently of Collision to give your audio material the characteristic sound of physical modeling synthesis, or put it behind virtual instruments to create complex resonances. Corpus eliminates the need for complicated miking or auxiliary construction in the studio. Corpus’ real draw, however, is its MIDI sidechain input. This allows you to change the pitch of the generated resonance, or add pitched resonances to percussion with a constant pitch.

The most important functions

Collision

Collision is a new type of virtual instrument and is fully integrated into Ableton Live’s interface.
Collision provides many presets of classic percussion instruments: Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Marimba, Balafon, Vibraphone and Toms.
Physical modeling synthesis lets you change Collision’s parameters in real time.
Collision’s Exciter section has two oscillators: the first one shapes the mallet, whose material you can change by changing the hardness and adjusting the noise part. If you increase the hardness, it simulates a metal mallet. Adding noise gives the mallet a felt-like surface. The second oscillator of the exciter section produces noise, has adjustable envelopes and various filter settings. This gives your sounds an edginess.
The Resonator section consists of two polyphonic resonators, arranged either in series or parallel. The resonators simulate the struck surface and a sound body. Here you have the choice between different types:
- Beam (a sound bar made of wood or metal)
- Marimba (a sound bar with a curvature on one side that produces special pitches)
- String (strings of different materials in different lengths)
- Membrane (a drumhead)
- Plate (a flat resonant surface)
- Pipe (an open or closed cylinder)
- Tube (a pipe variation that is closed on both sides)
other parameters: Direction of attack, listening position, decay, brightness and tuning of harmonics. Each resonance type has its own parameters for shape and size:
- Ratio (changes the geometry of the membrane and plate resonances).
- Opening (changes the pipe geometry)
- Radius (changes the circumference of tube and pipe)
Both resonators have pitch envelopes and two modulable LFOs.
For expressive, dynamic playing, many parameters can be controlled via key tracking, velocity changes, and with MIDI controllers.

Corpus

Corpus lets you process the incoming signal in stereo and change the width of the stereo field.
Corpus can be used independently of Collision to give your audio the characteristic sound of physical modeling synthesis.
Corpus has access to both Collision resonators.
A MIDI sidechain input controls the pitch of the resonance.
Corpus has split parameters. This allows you to detune resonances on the left and right channels.
Dual LFO that lets you create interesting stereo effects by changing the phase settings.
A post-effect filter section adds timbre to the signal.

Alto Xylophone – Tuned Orff Percussion Instrument for Contact

Soundirons Alto Xylophone is a carefully sampled, tuned Orff percussion instrument. The xylophone is mainly used in elementary school lessons and is just over one meter long. It features a warm sound as well as a fast decay and has 13 rosewood sticks that are in a diatonic C major scale from C4 – A5. Soundiron used Felt Mallets to capture each note, and then recorded percussive strokes. In addition, two soprano xylophones were sampled an octave higher: one has 13 notes (C5-A6) with a rounded, playful timbre, and the other has 12 notes (C5-G6) with a sharp tone played with regular mallets and wooden dice strikes. All three xylophones were recorded in a studio with two microphone positions, with 10 round-robin and up to 14 velocity layers per note. Then these natural wood sounds were enhanced with 20 organic ambient soundscapes and 20 custom FX presets. Alto Xylophone fits any genre, from horror to jazz, and brings acoustic percussive accents to your next composition. More details in English:

The Kontakt interface includes a suite of automation-ready sound-shaping controls to give you total creative flexibility. You have control over swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse & fine), articulation switching, cross-fading and layering, and so much more. They’ve also included 20 unique sound-designed custom FX presets to give you lots of creative options. This library comes with an adaptable LFO system, with selectable LFO shape, modulation target parameter, speed, intensity, tempo-syncing and fade-in time. You can also apply your choice of 12 lowpass, high-pass and FX filters, with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, modwheel, expression, after-touch, key position and step-sequencer table control. Our customizable arpeggiator offers a velocity table and control over arp direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. Soundiron have included a key and scale lock system to constrain your notes to common scales and keys for easy melodic composition and live performance. The interface is rounded-out by their modular FX rack panel, with 18 different DSP effect modules that you can assign in any of 10 available slots, in any order that you wish. You’ll find classic phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator and so much more. The Reverb effect includes our favorite convolution reverb impulse responses, including 99 different rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor environments, plus another 40 custom FX impulses to radically transform the sound and open up whole new worlds of musical possibility. They’ve added a great bank of FX rack chain factory presets to get you started!

Product Specs

One master NKI instrument bank in open Kontakt format
Alto xylophone and two soprano xylophones, tuned + untuned percussion & FX in two mic positions
20 ambience patches created from the source content
24 bit / 48 kHz uncompressed PCM wav samples
20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets
14,129 stereo WAV files
3.1 GB installed
Flexible and intuitive multi-layer user interface controls, with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator
Full FX rack with convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers & FX environments

Important: With the free Kontakt Player version you cannot use this library not operate this library! You need for this “Open Contact” format you need a Kontakt full versionwhich is included e.g. in Komplete or Komplete Ultimate products. The required Kontakt version number for this product can be found in the product description or on the manufacturer’s website. System requirement: Mac:

macOS 10.14 or higher
64 bit
Intel Core i5 or Apple M1 (native)
RAM: 4GB (6GB recommended)

Windows:

Windows 10 or higher
64 bit
Intel Core i5 or similar CPU
RAM: 4GB (6GB recommended)

Supported interfaces:

Mac (64-bit): Stand-alone, VST, VST3, AU, AAX
Windows (64-bit): Stand-alone, VST, VST3, AAX

Legacy Versions: If you need an older version of Kontakt, please see this info page. Toontrack EZkeys Dream Machine – a dream come true when it comes to hybrid and imaginative sounds. The presets in this library not only bring fun to play with – they also expand the expressive possibilities of EZkeys’ songwriting features immensely.

Sounds, Patterns & MIDI Composition
Sound variety rich in ideas
Electric piano – classical…
… and sometimes imaginative
Application area of EZkey’s Dream Machine
Conclusion: Dream Machine for Pop and Ambient
Toontrack EZkeys Dream Machine at a glance

The approximately 280MB large library is based on a total of four sampled instruments, which are allowed to prove their diversity in almost 50 presets. The main focus is on a Rhodes Mark 7 and a celesta, which are mostly combined with marimba and xylophone. In addition to these hybrid sounds, however, quite conventional presets are also part of the assortment. Those who like it more experimental will be happy about the soundscapes and pads. Because through the skillful use of effects, conventional instruments have been transformed into gentle soundscapes here. The instruments are provided with sustain, soft and sostenuto pedals for pianistic expression, but also various dynamics and tuning options. In addition, each preset has individual controls for all sorts of functions like reverb, tremolo or even distortion. Since Dream Machine is part of the Toontrack EZkeys family, you get EZkeys both as a standalone and in the plugin variant included. Accordingly, you can use Dream Machine as a standalone program on PC and Mac or use any DAW as a host. Composing made easy! The MIDI browser gives you access to a wide range of song elements and melodies.

Sounds, Patterns & MIDI Composition

There’s no need to purchase separate software or a sampler, because you get full access to everything EZkeys has to offer in Toontrack EZkeys Dream Machine. That is, in addition to the sounds, a large archive of MIDI patterns that can be arranged into great-sounding keyboard and piano accompaniments via the drag-and-drop circle of fifths system. EZkeys is a powerful composition tool in its own right. It’s so easy to use that actually everyone can handle it – you don’t necessarily have to be fit on the keys. The MIDI patterns in the base library might then be a better fit for the Grand Pianos that Toontrack also offers. A fair offer: If you already have EZkeys Grand Pianos, for example, you get Dream Machine at a reduced expansion price. >>>Learn more about EZkeys.

Sound variety full of ideas

With 47 versatile presets you get a solid selection of sounds of all kinds. There is no completely free tinkering with instruments and effects in EZkeys, which is mainly due to the easy handling. Because this is clearly the main focus of Toontrack’s EZ series – see also Toontrack EZbass and Toontrack EZdrummer. To that end, there are a number of different presets to choose from, covering a wide range. Both the Mark 7 and the Celesta have everything from “simple” to “wacky” in the assortment. The highlight here is especially the hybrid patches, where up to four instruments are combined with each other. I really liked the use of tremolo and wah effects, which gives the instruments a really lively and dynamic feel. With just ten mallet patches, I was afraid that the marimba and xylophone would take a bit of a back seat, but the two instruments don’t let themselves get down that easily. When the Mark 7 and Celesta are not supported, the Marimba and Xylophone show that ten patches are more than enough to show variety. Dynamics and tuning can also be adjusted for the right finishing touch.

Electric piano – quite classic…

Both the Mark 7 and the Celesta are kept very simple, clean and neutral overall. Thus, they do not get in each other’s way when it comes to combining the four instruments. Compared to the marimba and xylophone, you also notice that a bit more emphasis was placed on feel and dynamics, but I still see room for improvement in this area in particular.

… and imaginative

The real highlight, however, are the hybrid presets, where especially fans of soft and glassy sounds should pay attention. For example, the shimmering Rhodes is refined with the cool sound of the xylophone, creating a unique sound approach that is rarely heard. The Dream Machine is also no stranger to a distorted or harsh sound. However, the presets from which a nice dirty sound can be teased out can be counted on one hand.

Application of EZkeys Dream Machine

The library is particularly suitable for everything in the direction of pop and ambient, but I also see a lot of potential for genres like jazz or soul. But if you are looking for a real ambient-dream sound, you will find it in the soundscapes, because a wide stereo image, warm mid frequencies, and large reverberation chambers are the order of the day here. I particularly liked the presets that get a soft fade-in effect through a longer attack time. Perfect for film backgrounds or as an intro for a song.

Conclusion: Dream Machine for Pop and Ambient

If you expect sounds with a lot of possibilities for sound design, you have definitely landed at the wrong address here. Because the strength of EZkeys Dream Machine are many good presets, which unleash their potential in combination with the composition and MIDI engine of EZkeys. If you’ve been working with EZkeys Grand Piano so far, Dream Machine gives you an additional world of sound. EZkeys MIDI patterns suddenly sound in a whole new guise, motivating you to get creative with different combinations of patterns and sounds.

Toontrack EZkeys Dream Machine at a glance

Platform: Standalone (Windows 7 or later/MacOS 10.10 or later), VST, AU, AAX Performance requirement: Processor: low, Memory: min 4GB (8 recommended), Hard disk space: min. 400MB HDD (SSD not mandatory, but improves loading times) Manufacturer/Distributor: Toontrack Hemerocallis Ruby Spider.

Anna Hein

Hemerocallis Ruby Spider