Virtual Instrument

Our in-depth buyers guide takes you through the world of brass sample libraries and virtual instruments aimed at pop and rock production.

I don’t know whether it’s just me, but haven’t we seen rather a lot of very good Kontakt-based sample...

Shreddage might sound like a Heston Blumenthal recipe involving Shredded Wheat and cabbage, but it’s actually a Kontakt-based sample engine from Impact Soundworks.

Struggle with your strumming? Perhaps NI’s Strummed Acoustic can lend a helping hand.

This fastidiously sampled instrument could be the only Rhodes you’ll ever need.

Orbit is a Kontakt 5 instrument designed to be a source of evolving or pulsing textures. Unusually, you access it via...

Grand pianos can sound fantastic, but many of us cut our teeth playing old uprights in homes and schools and still want that kind of sound for our recordings from time to time.

With so much choice on offer, picking the right brass library for your music can be tricky. Our comprehensive product guide shines a spotlight on the current contenders.

Sample Magic have been making sample libraries for many years, but this virtual drum machine and synthesizer combination is their first instrument.

Audio files to accompany the article.

What exactly is a harp guitar? It’s a new one on me, but its history and background is intriguing.

Siren Audio launched the Lorelei suite of applications a few years ago but now two of them, Generative and Feedback 2 have received major tweaks and updates.

The soundware label of James Wiltshire of the Freemasons, F9 Audio are promising a new range of soundware called Drumtrax.

Back in 1977, Scottish company GR International, designed and manufactured a rhythm machine called the Powerhouse. Thirty-eight years later, owner of two Powerhouse machines, Dan Radclyffe, renovated his tapes and hardware and sampled all eight original cartridges to make this 64–loop library.

These files accompany the Sample Shop articles in the September 2015 issue.

Need a professional drummer in your studio? How about auditioning EastWest’s ProDrummer for the job?

Never afraid of a challenge, Arturia have undertaken the first software emulation of the celebrated Oberheim Matrix 12.

Eleven years is a long time in software, so the new version of SampleTank ought to be pretty impressive.

Of all the record producers and engineers I’ve interviewed over the years, few impressed me as much as Joey Sturgis, so when I heard that he was the Executive Producer of Drumforge I was very keen to take a look at the product.

Vintage Strings is a Kontakt library intended to sit alongside Vintage Vibe and Vintage Horns and, like those products, uses original samples recorded in a fashion intended to replicate how it might have been done in Motown.

The fifth of MusicLab’s ‘Real’ virtual guitar instruments, RealEight is modelled on an eight-string guitar, currently popular for metal, prog metal, epic rock and all things dark and demonic.