Earlier this week we posted a few Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on music software. These included sales from Heavyocity and Impact Soundworks. Since then a number of other music and audio companies have launched their own deals for the Black Friday weekend. For the sake of convenience we’ve compiled the other deals that we’ve found here, and we’ll attempt to update this list as we find more. (more…)
Absynth Twilights is the newest KORE SOUNDPACK from Native Instruments, one of a range of downloadable soundsets for KORE 2 or the free KORE PLAYER. We popped in the 360MB download into our KORE PLAYER to give you a full review.
Absynth Twilights uses, of course, NI’s Absynth 4 engine. This pack contains 200 sounds constructed from Camel Audio /Biolab’s “Absynth Sounds.” Think thick pads and soaring soundscapes, and you’ll be on the right track.
The first part of this review was conducted in my project studio late one evening. I made the unfortunate mistake of being alone in my dimly lit digs, not expecting to have a soundset scare the life out of me. A great deal of Absynth Twilights is made up of atonal textures and noises that defy explanation. A patch named “Church in Hell” is exactly as it sounds, though “Electric Sheep” is not cute and cuddly like you’d think. Actually, it’s closer to terrifying. Imaginative names like “The Changeling” and “Tetsuo” give a good idea of what these presets sound like, but I won’t ruin the surprise. Bring your blanket.
It’s not all scary noises, though. There are quite a few tonal pads included as well. “Chronosphere” is an absolutely beautiful, lush pad that begs to be used in a movie score. “Final Orbit” would be equally useful in the same situation. One of my favorites, “Spacewalker” has a thick, liquidy effects tail that really shows off the power of Kore’s engines.
If these 200 presets weren’t enough for you, you should know that there is up to 8 variations on a patch, and that you can morph from one to another with a slide of your mouse cursor. The level of inspiration after trying this out is off the charts.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more inspiring package of pads and soundscapes for NI’s asking price of $59. Absynth Twlights would be ideal for movie and game composers, though it would bring inspiration to just about any musician. Highly recommended.
Check out NI’s sound demos here.
