We're big fans of Slate + Ash here at MusicRadar. This Bristol-based developer, headed up by film composers Will Slater and Simon Ashdown, is the name highly inventive software instruments like Cycles, Choreographs and Landforms.
Slate + Ash's latest release is Primaries / Strings, the inaugural instrument in a new series dubbed Primaries that "treats performance as a fundamental colour in the orchestral spectrum".
At the heart of Primaries / Strings is an extensive library of multisamples made up of solo bass, cello, viola and violin recordings, with a focus on unique articulations, unconventional performance styles and extended techniques.
Primaries / Strings is built on a powerful sound engine that's capable of layering multiple sound sources with individual settings for tuning, filtering, mic placement, key-zone and envelope controls for amp, filter and pitch, along with an onboard time-stretcher.
Four input modules can be used to create scale-locked harmonies, generative patterns and arpeggiated sequences, while an array of fifteen effects that includes a delay, reverb, tremolo, bitcrusher, pitch-shifter and much more can be manipulated using XY pads, modulated using the instrument's LFOs, tweaked via external MIDI controllers or randomized completely.
The recording that make up Primaries / Strings' library were re-amped in a variety of spaces to further expand the palette of sounds available; these include the echo chamber of Berlin's Funkhaus Studio and Real World Studio's Wood Room.
Individual sounds can be blended in virtual space using the instrument's spatial mixer, enabling you to position sound sources on an XY grid to precisely control their reverberant characteristics.
Though the extensive sample library and the instrument's 150+ presets should keep you occupied, a real bonus here is the ability to drag and drop your own samples into the instrument's sound engine, giving you a versatile and powerful tool with which to manipulate and reimagine your own sounds.
Primaries / Strings is priced at £249, but it's available now at a discounted price of £149. The instrument runs in Kontakt 6.8.0 or higher, or in the free Kontakt Player. To find out more, visit Slate + Ash's website or check out a preset demo below.
