Manufacturer's Description for Zero G Morphology Dream Synth/Soundscape VSTi (Macintosh and Windows)
Morphology is a new Native Instruments-powered virtual instrument from Zero-G and producer Ian Boddy featuring over 3 GB of evolving soundscapes, dream synth patches and samples for film composers and sound designers, created from scratch by Ian Boddy, one of the UK's most celebrated synthesists, and a veteran of the European electronic music scene since the late 1970s. Boddy has over 20 solo albums to his credit, runs the ambient label DiN, has composed 6 library music CDs for DeWolfe Music and has previously created numerous popular sample libraries for Zero-G including Ambient 1 & 2, Malice In Wonderland and Dream Zone. His exclusive sound archives and arsenal of vintage and modern synths have been extensively plundered to create the unique and inspiring new library that you will find within this powerful virtual instrument.
"Morphology is not your average sound library. You're not going to find drum loops, techo samples or any "real" instruments here. What I hope you will discover is a world of soundscapes that morph and evolve over time, and which range from the awesomly beautiful to the teeth-grindingly nasty. A range of gorgeous synth pads using meticulously crafted multi-sampled analog waveforms. All wrapped up in a very powerful and easy to use front end. In short - sounds that will inspire you to make your own music." - the producer IAN BODDY
Emerging from the post Tangerine Dream generation, Ian Boddy has carved out a position as a distinctive independent composer and performer, and is one of the few of his generation to have successfully integrated electronic music styles as diverse as seventies-style sequencer structures, melodic neo-classicism and the post-rave Modern Ambient style. Here he again provides the listener with a rich atmosphere of original timbres and floating soundscapes. A prolific performer, Ian is credited with over 70 live appearances in the UK, Holland, Germany, and the USA.
Features
Over 3 Gigabytes of new evolving and morphing soundscapes, dream synths & samples by Ian Boddy, one of Europe's leading synthesists.
Virtual Synth section includes lovingly multi-sampled / multi waveform analog synth. In conjunction with the flexibilty of the Kompakt interface this provides the user with a huge potential to customise their own sounds.
All original samples, recorded at 24 Bit sample resolution for hi-fidelity.
Easy and intuitive user interface (a player version of Native Instruments' superb Kompakt sampler).
Engine is based on Kontakt audio engine, the world's finest software sampling engine.
Professional sound quality with advanced 32-bit processing.
Powerful filter offers six types, including low-pass, high-pass, and band-pass.
Three AHDSR envelopes and four LFOs.
Integrated effects: chorus, reverb, and delay.
Total Recall (complete MIDI automation and control).
No Sampler Required!
Morphology comes as a Virtual Instrument which includes a high-performance Native Instruments interface powered by the efficient Kontakt audio engine, including Direct-from-Disk*, for Mac and PC (*With freely-downloadable Direct-from-Disk extension).
The audio engine functions as a plug-in instrument, without the need for a sampler.
Many sound shaping tools have been built in to the interface. Powerful multi-mode filters, envelopes, and LFOs give a wealth of creative possibilities. Integrated high-quality reverb, chorus, and delay effects are also provided.
Professional sound quality with advanced 32-bit processing allow for lush arrangements. The clean and intuitive interface never lets the technology get in the way of your creativity. The all important instrument parameters can be immediately adjusted without the need to page, scroll, or fumble through a manual.
Programming Notes:
Sound Quality
All the sounds were recorded and processed at 24 Bit resolution and 44.1KHz sample rate.
Organisation
The Instruments list groups the sounds into categories. These are further subdivided into folders which then contain a selection of sonically related instruments.
Memory Size
The size in Mb is given for each instrument in the Patch List. All programming has been carried out with the samples loaded into RAM. However, a visit to the Native Instruments website will enable registered users to download an update to the Kompakt software interface which would allow you to activate a Direct from Disk (DFD) functionality if you prefer, thereby enabling the streaming of the samples direct from your hard disk drive.
Modulation Wheel Assignments
Every single instrument (except the basic waveform templates) has the Modulation Wheel assigned to a function. This gives a lot of dynamic control over the character of the sound. These assignments are listed for your convenience in the Patch List.
Polyphony
All instruments are programmed at the default polyphony of 32 notes except for a selection of sounds in the Synths sub-folder. These sounds are marked as Monophonic in the instrument list (see link above).
Groups
Several of the Noise FX instruments use templates that have two groups assigned (White + White / Pink + Pink or White + Pink Noise). These of course therefore use 2 notes for every single note played. Their table of contents also lists the Mod Wheel assignment of each of the groups.
Multis
Up to 8 instruments can be combined in a Multi giving a vast array of possible combinations of the supplied single instruments. For example try combining a couple of bass instruments for some really fat and thunderous sounds. Or how about combining a Sawtooth and Square wave pad and then using the modwheel to crossfade between them. This latter effect is easy to set up by over-riding the pre-programmed Mod Wheel assignments. Simply set the Mod Wheel to control one instrument with positive volume control and the other with negative volume control.
CPU Load
The exact CPU load of any given instrument depends on a myriad of factors - the power of your computer, notes played, complexity of the instrument etc. However if you find the CPU load is too high for any particular instrument the quickest way of reducing this is to see if the instrument uses any of Kompakt's own built in FX. If so these can be turned off to maximise CPU efficiency.
Tuning
Where possible the samples have been tuned to C3 as the root key. However bear in mind that many of the more esoteric sounds either use heavily detuned or pitch scrunched effects so exact tuning is tricky to say the least. Also several sounds use exotic micro-tonal scales so again they can be difficult to sit into a normal harmonic structure. Many of the loops provided by Markus Reuter were originally played in keys other than C. In these cases the Patch List (see link above) lists their Root Keys where you will find the original sample playing back as it was originally recorded. Finally many of the instruments have as part of their name useful clues to what key, mode or notes are involved in their construction.
Virtual Synth
With the wonderful user interface that the Kompakt Instrument format provides, it was a good opportunity to provide a meticuolusly prepared set of basic analog synth multi-samples. These raw VCO samples can be used as the sound source for some serious synth programming.
With this aim in mind samples were prepared @ 24Bit/44.1KHz across the whole keyboard range and provide an accurate representation of all 6 waveforms of probably the most famous analog synth of all time. Each sample is 11 seconds long with a loop length of about 9 - 10 seconds per sample. This is sufficiently long to allow a certain 'natural' feel to the sounds with slight pitch drifting or phase changes occurring over this time.
The full multi-samples were prepared at every minor third starting at Gb-1 and going all the way up to C8. Thus each of the pitches, namely C, Eb, Gb and A need only be transposed up and down by one semi-tone to provide the remaining notes. This means that one of the waveform templates includes 35 seperate samples and requires 48.6 Mb of memory. Lite versions are also provided where the Eb and A samples were omitted as well as the very low and high frequencies. This provides a more memory concious 15.3 Mb template.
The 6 waveforms are Triangle, Triangular Sawtooth, Sawtooth, Square, Wide Rectangular and Narrow Rectangular. Of course each of these has different harmonic contents and so sound quite different. Also when viewed close up in a sample editor it becomes clear that these are certainly not theoretically perfect waveforms but include all sorts of rough edges which is probably what gives an analog synth that mystical warm fuzzy sound we all love so much.
As one of the purposes of this excercise was to duplicate this warmness it wasn't felt necessary to exactly tune all the samples. So the procedure in preparing the samples was to manually tune each one to a reference source by ear. This means that when playing the finished result a certain amount of beating between different samples will occur which is a good thing! Furthermore some of the ear splitting high notes are almost impossible to tune exactly. What you get though is a beautiful, full, warm analog VCO template which you can then use as the starting point for synth programming using the Kompakt Instrument interface.
The Virtual Synth folder holds the raw templates in both Full and Lite versions as well as some White/Pink Noise templates. Use any of these as a basic starting point or explore the many variations that are provided. You'll find a few of the latter in the Noise FX subfolder derived from the White/Pink Noise templates. About 70% of the instruments in the Synth Pads subfolder and 100% in the Synths subfolder are derived from the full and Lite waveform templates.
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System Requirements
3.1 GB Free Hard Disc Space, DVD Drive
Minimum Requirements
Windows XP/ME/98, Pentium III/Athlon 500 Mhz, 256 MB RAM
Mac OS 9.2 or higher, G3 500 Mhz, 256 MB RAM
Recommended System
Windows XP, P III/Athlon 700 MHz, 1 GB RAM
Mac OS 9.2 or higher, G4 733, 1 GB RAM
Compatibility
WIN (VST®2.0, DXi2, ASIO, MME, Direct Sound, RTAS**)
Mac (VST®2.0, ASIO, Soundmanager, OMS, Audio Units**, Core Audio**, RTAS**)
**RTAS support and OS X compatibility including support for Audio Units and Core Audio will be available as a downloadable update later.
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