PHAEDRA is een op Kontakt Player 2 gebaseerd virtueel instrument van ZERO-G en XFONIC, met meer dan 4 GigaByte aan geluiden, 20.000 samples en 720 patches. Phaedra: de ultieme reïncarnatie van de analoge synthesizer. Samengesteld met enorm oog voor detail: elk van de 20.000 samples werd handmatig bewerkt en gelooped, waarbij de loops zo lang mogelijk zijn gelaten, voor een levendig, analoog geluid. Voor bijna elke preset werd iedere noot afzonderlijk opgenomen, zodat de instrumenten nergens dat goedkope, vervormde geluid van slecht sampling werk vertonen. Door de Kontakt 2 engine ten volste te benutten, is Phaedra zoveel meer dan ‘gewoon een sample player’…
PHAEDRA is suitable for all types of music and would enhance any producer's sonic armoury.
Categories include:
01 Synth 1
02 Synth 2
03 Bass
04 Leads
05 Pads
06 Sequences
07 FX
08 DnB
09 Synth Builder
10 Multis
PHAEDRA is the most complete virtual analogue synthesizer ever created. Sit back, plug in and enjoy!
Producer Sam Spacey writes:
PHAEDRA was primarily born out of two of my frustrations.....
1. The lack of raw sonic power in virtual emulations of analog synths
2. Sloppy MIDI timing of external analog synths under modern computer operating systems (all is forgiven Atari ST1040)
I set about making a personal library for the dance releases I was working on at the time. A few of my producer friends managed to try out some of my presets and ended up using them a lot on their releases.
After finding myself more and more unable to satisfy my producing needs with soft synths I found myself relying more and more on the small number of sampled presets I had made from my old MiniMoog D for bass sounds. One oscillator from a Moog seemed to sit so nicely in a mix without me having to throw loads of EQ or compression at it.
It seemed that to get the same amount of sonic energy for a bassline using one oscillator on certain VSTi analog emulations required a lot more volume and headroom that I wasn't about to give up, not to mention the time taken in compressing and EQ'ing just to get the virtual synths to sit right in the mix. The analog samples just seemed to sit in the mix so much easier.
I was also getting very frustrated with so called "sample accurate" MIDI interfaces that were anything but sample accurate. No matter how I tried to set up the interface it was never tight on timing. In the days the Atari it was tighter but also there was no sample accurate audio then so much as there is now. And MIDI just comes across even looser when put up against a modern sequencer's sample accurate audio and VSTi's.
So.. I spent a few weeks making a load of my favourite patches in Kontakt 1. This worked really well and I was really considering selling my analogs again (been there before though lol). After constant pestering from friends to make more presets I decided to pitch my idea for a library based on analog synths to Zero-G. Nothing new I hear you say.... but I wanted to go about this with the same attention to detail as say an orchestral sample library developer would:
1. Hand looped and hand edited, with loops being very long so as to extract that lovely analog randomness magic.
2. Nearly every single preset has every note sampled so as to eliminate aliasing within the instruments range.
3. Very high quality A to D converters from Lynx 2 sound card used for library.
4. Unique vel/modulation source to sample start so as to use the actual analog synths filter bringing great flexibilty and playability.
5. I feel that I came at this library from a composer/producer's point of view so presets are designed to be used and not to just sound good on their own.
6. Convolutions were made of the actual units I use in my productions, other devices were hired in to have convolutions made from them, but FX have NOT been plastered all over this library, they have only been used when they are a part of the sound rather than making a normal preset sound better by just sapping reverb on it!
7. With Kontakt 2's engine being fully exploited I was able to get a library that was not just for playing back recordings, but is a full synthesizer in its own right. This gives the product huge longevity as I feel its strengths are in using the presets as building blocks or starting points for your own presets.
8. I wanted the library to be able to be controlled by external controllers like say the Novation 61SL which I used a lot to make the presets. All parameters use smoothing so as to eliminate stepping.
9. All the presets 'move', that is to say, they can have the sound altered by either velocity, mod wheel or aftertouch.
10. All the samples were taken raw from the analog synths with no enhancing or EQ'ing. I prefer to let the producers who will use this make their own decisions on EQ.
11. 20,271 individual samples were recorded over a 12 month period (yes I now have RSI lol), over 4.1gb of raw samples.
12. No duplicates in any of the raw recording samples, this library is not padded out to make it look bigger.
13. I stopped at 720 presets in the following presets folders: Synth 1, Synth 2, Bass, Leads, Pads, Sequences, Fx, DnB (bonus), Synth Builder (for starting off with raw settings for your own creations) and a Multi folder.
14. Multi is where the magic happens by stacking presets on top of each other.
15. This library is very efficient due to the lack of re-sampling needed by Kontakt 2 as a result of total overkill in multisampling :)
This library is based on no particular Electronic genre and would lend itself well to any style.
Synths used in the making of Phaedra:
Mini Moog D - Was very hard work to sample due to the fact that if you looked at it, it went out of tune.
Welsh Moog - A prototype Re-issue Moog made in Wales, but had a unique PWM mod done to it.
Yamaha CS5 - Very snappy and fast attack and surprisingly bass-y oscillators.
Yamaha CS-15 - This one was delivered in a terrible and broken state, but sounded great for it.
Yamaha CS-30 - Sometimes I stacked all 3 Yamahas up over CV voltage for a huge sound.
Korg Monopoly - Still getting to grips with this 4-osc howling beast.
Korg MS-20 - Very quirky with a great filter.
Studio Electronics SE-1 - Modern rack-mounted Moog that could store presets and stay relatively in tune - hurray!!!!
Studio Electronics SE-1 - as above but with filter input. I stacked these two a lot, as the sound combinations were awesome.
Roland SH-101 - Wet and squelchy, a really good little workhorse.
Crumar Multiman - 70's string synth with Arp filters, surprisingly interesting palette of sounds.
Akai AX-73 - Cheap and nasty but I love it for that fact; evil filter.
Analog Phaser - Home-made, based on the Small Stone that was modded and used by Jarre on everything he did :)
Roland analog chorus pedal - Subtle but lovely.
The only thing digital to ever get used was:
Ensoniq Esq-1 - 8-bit grungy samples going through complete Curtis analog circuitry - I love this synth.
PROGRAMMING NOTES:
Sound Quality
All the sounds were recorded and processed at 16-Bit resolution and 44.1 KHz sample rate.
Organisation
The Instruments list (which can be viewed by clicking on "Instruments List PDF") groups the sounds into categories. Each category has a different coloured GUI, for example the Synth category has a red interface, Leads are blue, Bass are grey and Pads are green.
The categories are as follows:
01 Synth 1
02 Synth 2
03 Bass
04 Leads
05 Pads
06 Sequences
07 FX
08 DnB
09 Synth Builder
10 Multis
Memory Size
All programming has been carried out with the samples loaded into RAM. However, Direct from Disk (DFD) functionality is available thereby enabling the streaming of the samples direct from your hard disk drive.
Modulation Wheel Assignments
Every single instrument has the Modulation Wheel assigned to a function. This gives a lot of dynamic control over the character of the sound. Please try out the modulation wheel when playing each patch. The Mod Wheel may be assigned to one of several different controllers including Tune LFO, Filter Cutoff, Pan and Volume depending on the patch in question.
Polyphony
All instruments have unlimited polyphony except for a selection of patches from synths that were originally monophonic and some bass sounds which have thus been programmed as monophonic. If you wish to increase the polyphony please do so.
Multis
Up to 64 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.
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.
List of INSTRUMENTS:
For the complete table of contents, listing all of the instrument patches included in the PHAEDRA LIBRARY, click on "Phaedra Instruments List (PDF)".
Supported Interfaces & Standards:
VST 2.0, DXi, ASIO, Soundmanager, OMS, Audio Units, Core Audio, RTAS.
Recommended Retail Price:
$199.95 US Dollars (169 Euros / 114.95 pounds sterling)
Minimum Requirements:-
Windows XP/Vista, Pentium III 1 GHz/ Athlon 1.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM
Mac OS 10.4 or higher, G4 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive.
Produced by Sam Spacey, Phaedra was born out of its creator’s frustration of virtual emulations of analogue synths, which he considered
to lack the raw power of the originals. Approached in the same manner as sampling a large orchestra, it took him three years to
make, meticulously hand-looping and editing 20,000 samples.
The loops are very long – in order to extract what Sam describes as ‘the magic of analogue randomness’ – and almost every preset has
Sam’s obsessive attention to detail seems to have paid off, because Phaedra is certainly a fine analogue synthesizer capable of producing
some very exciting sounds. We’re not told exactly which instruments were sampled, but the overall sound is rich and powerful. And the
presets – conceived from a composer/producer’s perspective as opposed to just impressive sounds for their own sake – are both useful
and easily edited using the proven and flexible Kontakt Player 2 interface.
Although this is essentially a playback library, Sam’s overall concept was to build a complete instrument in its own right. He’s pretty
much achieved it, too, by recording raw analogue samples without EQ or enhancement, resulting in resets that can be used as building
blocks for creating your own sounds.
Verdict: A powerful virtue analogue synth containing plenty of raw, exciting presets suitable for a variety of electronic and pop music
Review :
Phaedra
Music Tech Magazine, April 2008
Produced by Sam Spacey, Phaedra was born out of its creator’s frustration of virtual emulations of analogue synths, which he considered
to lack the raw power of the originals. Approached in the same manner as sampling a large orchestra, it took him three years to
make, meticulously hand-looping and editing 20,000 samples.
The loops are very long – in order to extract what Sam describes as ‘the magic of analogue randomness’ – and almost every preset has
every note sampled to eliminate aliasing within the instrument’s range.
Sam’s obsessive attention to detail seems to have paid off, because Phaedra is certainly a fine analogue synthesizer capable of producing
some very exciting sounds. We’re not told exactly which instruments were sampled, but the overall sound is rich and powerful. And the
presets – conceived from a composer/producer’s perspective as opposed to just impressive sounds for their own sake – are both useful
and easily edited using the proven and flexible Kontakt Player 2 interface.
Although this is essentially a playback library, Sam’s overall concept was to build a complete instrument in its own right. He’s pretty
much achieved it, too, by recording raw analogue samples without EQ or enhancement, resulting in resets that can be used as building
blocks for creating your own sounds.
Verdict: A powerful virtue analogue synth containing plenty of raw, exciting presets suitable for a variety of electronic and pop music
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