Soundiron has unveiled Aquae Organ, a free instrument library designed for the Kontakt Player. The company, known for its innovative approach to sound recording, has once again pushed boundaries by experimenting with unique recording techniques to create this new library.
The Aquae Organ was developed during the production of the Alpha Organ library, which features two distinct, century-old, full-sized pipe organs located in Saint Paul’s Catholic Church in San Francisco. Seizing this unique opportunity, Soundiron decided to experiment with a stereo pair of high-grade hydrophones to capture something new in their favorite hall. The result of this experiment is the Aquae Organ.
Three different organ stop combinations were recorded with the Alpha and Omega organs in unison, each intended to highlight a different aspect and distinct tonal quality of the phenomenon. The source recordings were then manipulated using various sound-design techniques to develop, bend, and warp the sounds into a variety of pads, atmospheres, synth-like leads, and ambient dreamscapes. These range from lush and harmonic to brittle and discordant, expanding the creative potential of this virtual instrument. Additionally, the library includes 12 wavetables, as well as basic synthesizer sustains and staccatos in a number of distinct waveform shapes.
The Kontakt interface of the Aquae Organ includes a suite of automation-ready sound-shaping controls, offering total creative flexibility. Users have control over a variety of parameters including swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse & fine), articulation switching, cross-fading and layering, and more. The library also features an adaptable LFO system, with selectable LFO shape, modulation target parameter, speed, intensity, tempo-syncing, and fade-in time.
Users can apply their 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. The customizable arpeggiator offers a velocity table and control over arp direction, timing, swing, randomization, and duration. A key and scale lock system is included to constrain notes to common scales and keys for easy melodic composition and live performance.
The interface is completed by a modular FX rack panel, with 27 different DSP effect modules that can be assigned in any of 8 available slots, in any order. The modules include classic phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator, and more. The Reverb effect includes convolution reverb impulse responses, including 99 different rooms, halls, chambers, and outdoor environments, plus another 40 custom FX impulses. A bank of FX rack chain factory presets is also included to help users get started.
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