YouTuber and musician Venus Theory has announced the launch of a new series of free sample instruments, kicking off with a free library of sounds sampled from the Arturia Polybrute 12.
In a new video, embedded above, Cameron explains that he was saddened to learn that Spitfire Audio had launched a paid subscription service, LABS+, alongside its free and long-running series of sample instruments, LABS.
Spitfire will continue to release free sample libraries as part of the LABS series and all previously released LABS content will remain free, but users have now been offered the option of subscribing to a paid-for tier to access additional content.
"I think that fucking sucks, really bad," he says. "Had I not had access to free music-making software like Audacity, or all the free plugins I've used over the years... I don't think I would be making music today.
"This is a huge loss for the aspiring musician and composer community. But instead of just sitting here bitching about it on the internet, I thought: why not just do something about it?"
Cameron's answer was Auras, his own series of free and professionally-recorded sample instruments designed to run in Decent Sampler, a free sampler plugin. The first instrument in the series is Auras:Polyscape, a collection of "deep and cinematic" sounds crafted with the Arturia Polybrute 12 synthesizer.
The sounds in Polyscape were sourced from Cameron's custom-built patches and recorded through analogue tube preamps to "capture the glorious and imperfect nature of analogue synthesis".
"The most expressive application of aftertouch technology": Arturia PolyBrute 12 review
"Featuring a brand-new UI design and editor, Polyscape brings the expressive nature of these custom patches featuring 'motion recording' to life with new dynamics and expression controls, a re-designed velocity response mode toggle for more organic and realistic velocity performance, custom IR's captured directly from the Polybrute 12, and a hand selected A-B layer system."
Cameron has put a hell of a lot of time and money into this project, so if you find yourself enjoying Polyscape, you can support him by becoming a patron.
