Morphestra

Morphestra is today´s cinematic virtual instrument. Sample Logic´s award-winning team presents a powerful collection of creatively new and inventive organic instruments.  Morphestra is derived entirely from orchestral recordings and psycho-acoustic sound design. In association with Kirk Hunter Studios and powered by Native Instruments Kontakt Player 3, Morphestra is an epic collection of over 27 GB and 1200+ instruments and multis.  

Out of the box, Morphestra is ideal for film, TV, video games,  electronic music, ambient music, multimedia genres, and much more... Its powerful instruments and multis stand on their own making it a "must have."  This makes creating an entire production possible without the assistance of any additional third-party instruments and effects. This "cine-organic" achievement surpasses any library of its kind.  Rather than reinventing the traditional orchestra, Sample Logic has created a modern-day virtual instrument using effectual techniques.  Morphestra includes: cinematic atmospheres, innovative arpeggiated/gated melodic and rhythmic instruments, thunderous percussive impacts, transition trailer effects, and  dynamic rhythmic loops, and lush evocative pads, just to name a few.  

As if this wasn´t enough... 

Morphestra´s scripted sound-sculpting interface breaks new boundaries, giving users unprecedented control achieved through the Native Instruments Kontakt engine.  With 5 full tabs of more than 40 onscreen effects and performance parameters, morphing and sculpting has never been easier.  Whether in the studio or on stage, this production-ready virtual instrument inspires and delivers on demand.  Not to mention, Sample Logic has collaborated with many of the world´s leading composers to provide a massive variety of multis created by composers for composers.

Additional multis have been created by:

Mark Isham - Grammy/Emmy award-winning composer whose works includes: FAME, CRASH, BOBBY, A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, MIRACLE, POINT BREAK, RESERVATION ROAD, BLADE, LIONS FOR LAMBS, NEXT, INVINCIBLE, OCTOBER SKY, OF MICE AND MEN, CHICAGO HOPE, and much more... 

Tom Salta - Renowned video game composer whose works includes: RED STEEL 2, TOM CLANCY´S H.A.W.X., GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER 1 & 2, NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND 2. 

Rupert Gregson-Williams - Award-winning composer whose works include: BEE MOVIE, BEDTIME STORIES, MADE OF HONOR, YOU DON´T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, CLICK, OVER THE HEDGE, HOTEL RWANDA, I NOW PROnOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY, and much more... 

David Lawrence - Award-winning composer whose works include: HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, AMERICAN PIE 1 & 2, VAN WILDER, CANE, JERICHO, THE CLEANER, HARPERS ISLAND, and much more... 

Bill Brown - Award-winning composer whose works include: CSI: NY, GHOST RECON, WOLFENSTEIN, RAINBOW SIX, COMMAND AND CONQUER, and much more... 

How was Morphestra created?

Sounds have been recorded from all over the world and include: Symphonic/World percussion, Vocals, Guitars, Waterphone, Animals, Warehouses, Strings, Brass, Winds, Tools, Machinery and an entire realm of World/Ethnic instruments. We then manipulated these sounds using various proprietary Sample Logic techniques and combined them with multiple electronic synthesis elements to create new, organic, never-before-heard instruments and ensembles.

What´s under the hood?
Morphestra is packed with 27+ GB of over 1200 instruments and multis. The library is divided into 3 main categories: Atmospheres, Instrumentals, Percussives 

All of these instruments are derived from orchestral studio and field recordings, many of which were manipulated, morphed, and processed at multiple stages of product development, including the sample production phase, the programming phase, and in real-time via Morphestra’s user controllable interface parameters. 

- Atmosphere/ambient soundscapes and stinger construction kits

- Melodic and rhythmic tempo-synced loops, loop construction kits, and arpeggiated/gated melodic and impact sequences

- Single impacts, cinematic impact ensembles, and percussive kits

- Morphed winds, strings, synths, mallets, bells, solo and ensemble pads and melodic instruments

- Swipes, scrapes, and reverse transitional trailer effects

- Performance-ready multis (playable interactive presets templates made from multiple instruments) 
 

 "Rich, evocative and expensive sounding. The new library from Morphestra is epic" - BT -

"Morphestra seems to have fused all that is great with AIR, Elements and Synergy, placed them into "Warp Drive" with a divine palette of orchestral textures and rhythms and placed it right in your lap with one elegant Plug In. The sonic integrity is deeper, wider and more transparent than anything Sample Logic has done before. This is a "must have" for any composer serious about  Film ,Television and Game scoring." -David Lawrence -

"I was really surprised at how cinematic and dramatic these instruments are. A highly cinematic original tool set with an impressive range of instruments" - Jesper Kyd -

"The guys over at samplelogic have done it ! - surprised me. I am looking forward to using MORPHESTRA on my next movie score. Finding original sounds to use while writing is essential and inspiring. MORPHESTRA is going to be my new go-to tool." - Rupert Gregson-Williams - 

"Sample Logic has impressed me yet again with Morphestra.  I´ve always loved the organization of SL patches, and was happy to see they had continued this tradition.  But they´ve certainly outdone themselves with these sounds.  When I´m scoring, looking for elements and sounds to add to the palette, I need diversity.  This is an incredibly diverse library and it will see some heavy use here for quite some time.  Well done gentlemen!" Mark Isham - 

"Morphestra carries on the Sample Logic tradition bringing more fresh and inspiring textures. I really appreciate the simple and intuitive controls making "morphing" quick and easy.  The Multi´s are great and really show off Morphestra´s power and variety of textures. This is a library I will be using for years to come." - Tom Salta - 

"Great morphing ambiences, great morphing pulses and another fast, intuitive Kontakt interface from Sample Logic..  all combine to make an exciting, relevant and useful library".  - Bill Brown
 

Video Demos

	Video: Trailer
	Video: Multis in action
	Overview
	Interview

More infos

Systemrequirements

NI Kontakt Player 3 is included in this product!

PC

• Pentium or Athlon 1.4 GHz
• Windows XP or Windows Vista
• min. 2 Gb Ram

Mac

• G4 1.4 GHz or Intel® Core™ Duo 1.66 GHz
• OS 10.4.x
• min. 2 Gb Ram

for all

• 300 MB free disc space for player installation
• additional hard disc space according to the library size
• DVD drive

You can use this library with the free Kontakt Player 4 or higher:

Download latest free Kontakt Player Windows (~ 450MB)
Download latest free Kontakt Player Mac INTEL (~ 600MB)

Note on Support for KONTAKT Player products:
Native Instruments only provides Registration/Activation support for KONTAKT Player products. Technical support is managed by the manufacturer of the respective products/libraries.

Product activation:
An internet connection on any computer is required to authorize / activate the product (Challenge/Response).

Reviews

WUSIK Sound-Magazine 06/2012 (English)

Review June 2012 - Conclusion:

.... All in all, there are over 1200 instruments in one package, and most of them are really useful and have a strong recognizable character (not so unusual for cinematic libraries – they have to be impressive, to support and, consequently, to sell the images). The library is organic, versatile covering all moods and all genres. It is definitely a must have collection. I know, it is a crying game to pay 499 Euros for a sound library, but after you play with it for a while, you will not regret the expenditure, especially if you are looking for some additional tonal colours to make your compositions a bit more professional and to give them something to stand out. OK, you get the point. I was really impressed with this library. The only thing that didn't impress me was the repetitive rhythmical structure of some of the included drum loops, but I found more than enough other goodies to take comfort in and if we take into consideration all those included effects that allow us to instantly cook some new versions of the implemented sounds, we've got a really fresh, and after all those years and still highly usable, "the alphabet of music production" library.

Complete review at www.wusik.com

Music Tech UK, April 2010 (English)

Morphestra offers a well-organised set of imaginative sounds that are ideal for media-based music (or, for that matter, any musical style that benefits from an unusual and abstract sound palette). By providing the samples o n a hard drive, Sample Logic has produced one of the fastest installations we’ve seen of a samples-based instrument (even if you factor in copying samples onto an internal drive, should you choose to do so), although there’s no doubt that this must contribute significantly to the cost of the package – which isn’t cheap at more than £400.

Although there are several strong alternative solution available, the sheer size of Morphestra means there’s plenty to explore – and, more importantly, enough breadth to make it a one-stop shop for anyone involved in contemporary cinematic scoring. From sinister-soundng waterphones to complex, textured soundscapes, Morphestra has it all, and a few composers will be able to resist its evocative ‘cine-organic’ charms.

Verdict: Full to the brim with high-impact hits, deep pulsing undercurrents, ambient effects and reverse stings that wouldn’t sound out of place on any Hollywood trailer.

Rating: 8/10

Keyboard Magazine 1/2010

Scoring From a Synthetic Pit by Jason Scott Alexander

PROS
Diverse, powerful, highly evocative material. Capable of huge textures right out of the box. Simple interface with easy controls for morphing. Mood-based preset organization is musically intuitive. Near-zero install time. No impact on current storage space.

CONS
Not as many electro beats as in previous Sample Logic libraries. Some redundancy in Instrumentals bank.

NEED TO KNOW
Who’s this for? Any film, TV, or video game composer looking for modern, edgy, relevant sounds. Creators of electronic and experimental music will find a lot to love here, too
How was it created? Samples were recorded in studios, concert halls, warehouses, machine shops, and natural habitats all over the world.
Can the included hard drive keep up with high track counts? Absolutely. Under the hood is 7,200rpm SATA-II drive with 8MB cache, bus power, and FW800 and USB2 connections.
What about street cred? Multis were programmed by Mark Isham, Rupert Gregson-Williams, David Lawrence, and Bill Brown, so if the street is in Hollywood, you’re set.

Morphestra puts a fresh spin on how we view and approach orchestral film scoring. Developed in association with Kirk Hunter Studios, it serves up an epic collection that’s anything but traditional. It comes pre-installed on a Glyph 80GB PortaGig hard drive, filling about a third of its capacity. The library itself is powered by Native Instruments Kontakt Player 3 (standalone, RTAS, AU, VST, DXi). Sounds come in three top-level categories: Atmospheres, Instrumentals, and Percussives.

The Atmospheres bin is arguably the crown jewel, containing around 230 presets grouped in subcategories such as Dark ’n’ Scary, Disturbed, Euphoric, Mystery/Suspense, and so on. What sets these programs apart from the rest is their deep internal movement and complex, evolving nature, ideal for initially building the mood of a piece. In “Days of Old,” for instance, random phrases of mournful sax are seamlessly, almost incidentally, woven between droning organ and reversed string loops, conveying a sense of blurred emotion.
The Instrumentals are less complex but just as animated. You get imaginatively tweaked renditions of solo and ensemble strings, metal and bamboo flutes, classical guitar, banjo, sitar, harp, vibe, chimes, music box, Clavinet, harpsichord, and more. Morphestra isn’t about usual suspects such as orchestral brass, woodwinds, or legato strings — all you get here is a trio of Kirk Hunter bonus programs. While the 225 main Instrumental patches loosely run the gamut of what you’d expect, there does seem to be a lot of repurposing from the same few dozen multisample sets, which results in some timbral redundancy.

Still, all the patches are all individually compelling. With five tabs of more than 40 onscreen performance and effects parameters to pick from on the clean and simple interface, Kontakt’s advanced scripting is leveraged to create exciting morphed material that you can further sculpt. Likewise, a built-in arpeggiator/gater is the secret weapon behind tempo-synced layers that give movement to many of the melodic instruments, in a stepping Wavestation-esque sort of way.

In the Percussives category are hundreds of dynamic impact sequences, world and symphonic drum loops, bowed and struck orchestral percussion, scraped and reversed transitions, altered and prepared instruments, and more.

Finally, over 130 jaw-dropping multis amount to ready-made soundtracks in construction kit form. You can literally hit any combination of keys in nearly any order and generate minutes of mind-blowing aural scenery. Morphestra truly impresses, offering some of the most inspiring and relevant modern cinematic material I’ve heard in any synth or sample library. If you can’t whip up a killer score to any edgy film, TV drama, or video game thrown at you using Morphestra, maybe gear isn’t the problem.