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In recent Soniccouture instruments you will find a feature called ‘Focus’ – unique to SC, this is an extremely useful way of working with larger collections of related but different single samples; drum sounds in Konkrete 3, field recordings in Geosonics and now hits and one shots in Attic: Synthi AKS (coming soon).

As instruments designers, we had always been niggled by a certain issue: how to present a collection of single samples in a usable way? Historically, developers only really had one choice – to make one patch or instrument for each single sample,with it stretched over the keyrange, centred on C3 ready for playing. This is functional enough for the single sound, but presents the big problem of having to load a new patch to audition the next single sample. In a collection of 200 or 300 (or more) samples this would make the exercise of stepping through looking for inspiration very long-winded, and in many cases, totally off-putting.

I suspect that this had the knock-on negative effect of devaluing sample libraries composed solely of  one-shot samples in the minds of the users. People are understandably not so happy to pay much for a more or less unsorted mass of samples, even if they are broken down into folders etc – the end product inevitably lacks cohesion and smooth work-flow.

Which is why I breathed a sigh of relief the day that Dan told me about his ‘Focus’ idea. Suddenly all those product ideas we had previously dismissed because we didn’t like to present endless single-sample patches became viable again.

How The Focus Feature Works

A Soniccouture Focus instrument is a large collection of single samples presented on the MIDI keyboard, mapped to one single key each. So, as you play each key you hear a different sound. Very easy.

If you find a sound you like and want to use, just hit the ‘FOCUS’ button and that sound is automatically mapped across the entire width of the keyboard, tuned chromatically and centred on C3. Just the way you like it (probably). All the other sounds are no longer audible, unless you turn ‘FOCUS’ off again. You can edit all, or just one, of the samples at once.

And that’s it – a simple solution that has really revolutionised how we design products based around single samples. Geosonics, for example, would not be nearly as simple to navigate without it; either the user would have to listen through 10+ minutes of field recording for each patch, or we would have had to present each recording as 50 to 100 different excerpts, in the old-fashioned long list.

You can see a video demonstration of Focus mode in Geosonics in this video, from 1m 40s onwards:

Focus On Drums

In Konkrete 3 its function is subtly different – because the single sounds are already organised and presented as drum kits, Focus operates more as an ‘instrumentizer’ – you can instantly make a melodic, tuned patch out of any single percussion sample, and play a bassline or lead.

A video demonstration of Focus Mode with drums in Konkrete 3

Focus With Synthesis

Focus implemented in Synth AKS

I’m excited all over again by Focus and its possibilities as we come to the end of working on the somewhat epic Project Attic. A venerable old SC product, Synthi AKS, has had a major refurb and update, and has really been brought to life by Focus technology. Part of the original Synthi product was a collection of one shot effects and hits made by patching the famous ‘pin-matrix’ of modulation routings on the original unit. This is not really suited to multi-sampling or any 21st century ‘deep-sampling’ treatments; it’s just about very cool individual sounds that often only happen once, such is the unpredictability of the E.M.S. machine. Here we were able to gather together the most characterful sounds of the Synthi and put them all into one Kontakt instrument, where they can be played one key at a time as a kind of mad all-in-one Doctor Who patch, or then converted instantly to very playable tuned patches with Focus mode.

Look out for the new Synthi AKS ( in The Attic) coming Q1 2014.

This is an effect often found in new-age binaural beating meditation recordings.  Folk wisdom suggests that when these frequencies are perceived by the brain within binaural audio, the brain becomes entrained by the frequencies and enters a similar resonant pattern itself, thus putting the listener into a desired mental state.  There is absolutely no medical or scientific evidence for this.

In Brainwave Detune we offered a few fixed Brainwave choices, but in the remarkable Binaural Beats II update you can now dial in an exact Hertz value for the Detune amount.   Note that for the Hz values to be absolutely correct you need to be playing in A440 equal temperament, although the effect will work in any tuning.

Typical areas of interest are:

Delta,  0.5 to 4 Hz.   This is region of your brainwave resonance when you are extremely relaxed or in a very deep sleep.

Theta, 4-8 Hz.  This region of frequencies is displayed when you are in deep meditation or thought.

Alpha, 8-12 Hz. A relaxed but alert state of mind.

Beta 13-20 Hz.  Highly alert or perhaps agitated mind.

The Width control pans the signals out in the stereo image.   For truly binaural beats, they should be panned 100%, but often the effect is more obvious in mono (0%).   It is a rather subtle effect if you don’t already know what you’re listening for.

Oddly enough, traditional Balinese gamelan is detuned in the same way, that is with a constant beat frequency between instruments (and octaves).   Typically Balinese tuners aim for a beat frequency of between 6 to 8 Hz, which they liken to a shiny or glimmering effect on the music.

DOWNLOAD:

Binaural Beats

Works with Kontakt 4.2.4 or later.

This is another idea that works best at the Multi level, so this is our multi script post number 2, Channel Rotate:

You can set the type of rotating “direction” with the pull-down menu on the left.  The choices are Forward, Backward, Back and Forth, or Random.   The range of start and ending channel are set with the Start and End Channel menus.   Note that it’s up to you to make sure these channel slots are occupied or not: the script rotates through the defined channels, NOT the loaded instruments.    You can use up to 64 MIDI channels in Kontakt.

Continuous Controllers are slightly strange for this script.   I’ve decided to route them to the current channel, that selected by the last received note-on message.   Since you can hold down many notes, this means that the current channel can be changed before a given note is finished.    The Sustain Pedal (CC 64) is therefore a particularly dangerous controller, so if the Disable Sustain button is switched on all Sustain Pedal messages will be ignored.   You can turn this off tho, if you like living dangerously.

DOWNLOAD THE SCRIPT

Works with Kontakt 4.2.4 or later.

After receiving a lot of requests to produce Maschine 2 preset files for Konkrete 3, Ed, Le Maschinier, has produced the full set. Konkrete 1, 2 and 3 kits preset files are now available to download for Konkrete 3 users.

The update can be downloaded from the your Soniccouture account.

The main, perhaps obvious, difference is that Multi scripts are loaded and saved with a Multi, whereas Instrument scripts are loaded and saved within an Instrument.   But this also means that they are able to do and access slightly different things.   An Instrument script has access to the synthesis engine within the Instrument itself, you can adjust filters and so on.   A Multi has none of that, because it lives on a higher level of the structure.   It doesn’t really “know” what Instruments are within it, and is only able to adjust incoming MIDI data itself.

  But this is useful for some functions that are not so convenient to do within an Instrument.

It’s very important to remember that you cannot use a Multi script as an Instrument script, nor vice versa.   They will each only work if in their proper location.  Multi scripts have the same extension as Instrument scripts (.NKP) which sometimes adds to the confusion, so be sure you know what type of script you’re dealing with before you try to install it.

Multi scripts also need to be in a different directory than Instrument scripts, they live here:

/ Documents / Native Instruments / Kontakt 4 / presets / multiscripts /

Once you’ve downloaded a new Multiscript from somewhere, drop it into that folder and re-start Kontakt.    You then need to open the Multiscript window by clicking on the little “paper scroll” icon at the top right of the Kontakt window.

Then using the Preset menu on the far left, you can then choose Presets from the “user” submenu, which will list everything you’ve put in your “multiscripts” folder.

KEYBOARD SPLIT

We’ve had several emails requesting this function, so here’s our version of a handy Multi script.

Sometimes it’s convenient to have one sound on the upper part of your keyboard and a completely different sound on the lower part.   Live players often need this kind of feature, and many controller keyboards have this functionality built in.    If you don’t have a controller keyboard that can do it, it can be a bit tedious to edit all your Instruments to the range you want, and also to transpose them how you need, etc.

Multi scripting is ideal for this kind of job.   All the script does is check the incoming note, if it’s above the split point it’s routed to one MIDI channel, if it’s below the split point it’s routed to another.  This means you can have two Instruments loaded in Kontakt, on different MIDI channels, and arrange these as you like on the keyboard.

You’ll notice in the screen grab that you can adjust the split point (default middle C).  You can also shift the octave of the upper and lower sections of the keyboard, which is handy for getting each sound in the desired range.  I’ve layered a Broken Wurli lead type sound with a Novachord Pad in the above example, and for my purposes I wanted to play the Novachord an octave up from my left hand’s input, so I set the left knob to +1.

Controllers (Mod Wheel, Aftertouch, Pitch Bend, etc) are by definition “channel wide”, so you can’t route these based on an input pitch.   The last menu on the right allows you to choose one of three options for the controllers.  They can be routed to the Upper or Lower Instrument, or both.

If you save a multi, the settings of this script will be saved with the multi.   But remember that this script is not saved with the Instruments included in the multi at all.

I’ve left this script unlocked, so curious users can have a look at how it works, and edit it if they like.   It’s conceivable, for example, to edit this script so that each individual note could be set to any output note and MIDI channel, thus allowing you to build large Multi drum kits from many Kontakt Instruments.    I may do that in a future example.

DOWNLOAD THE SCRIPT