Pro-Sounds Release Essential Basses Version 2 for Bass Station

Pro-Sounds has announced the immediate availability of Essential Basses v2.0 for the Novation’s Bass Station VSTi, Keyboard, and Rack Synthesisers.

Essential Basses v2.0 is the long awaited update to one of our first releases here at Pro-Sounds. Designed by Frank Genus, Essential Basses v2.0 is comprised of 100 presets in FXB, FXP, and Midi format and is compatible with the Bass Station VSTi, Bass Station Keyboard, and Bass Station Rack synthesizers. Frank redesigned the original bank from the ground up to bring users a solid collection of classic analog bass sounds for a wide variety of music genres. With basses ranging from Moog-type classics to roaring D&B, Essential Basses v2.0 has it all!

Registered users of the old Bass Station soundset can update to version 2 by logging into their download accounts and re-downloading the set. Please contact support with any update issues.

Essential Basses v2.0 is available from Pro-Sounds for $19.95.

Product Page

Popularity: 1% [?]

Planet Earth sound library released on ‘pay what you want’ model

Plenty of bands have released albums on the “pay what you want” or “pay what you think it’s worth” download model, and now Camel Audio is doing the same with its Planet Earth sound library.

As an incentive to dip into your pocket, 50% of anything spent on the product will be donated to the Friends of the Earth environmental charity.

Soundwise, Planet Earth is jammed with jungle soundscapes and tribal rhythms, industrial basses and warped machines. From ancient ritual to glimpses of alternate futures, it offers a world of new sounds for modern electronica, ambient and dance, yet manages to be both warm, lush, light and airy, as well as dark, dramatic and icy, just like Planet Earth itself.

Featuring gamelan bowls and oriental bells, bamboo bongos, glass instruments, mechanical pianos, electronic and vocal drones, Planet Earth features 320MB of new samples, including rich pads, ethnic loops, inventive soundscapes, powerful electronic basses as well as synthesisers and broken machines. It was created by a talented team of sound designers from around the globe.

Planet Earth sound sample library

Popularity: 1% [?]

Synth Basics: What is polyphony?

Whenever you buy a new digital piano, keyboard or synthesiser, one of its key specifications is the amount of polyphony.

But what exactly is polyphony?

In pure musical terms, polyphony is used to describe two or more independent melodic voices. This is in contrast to monophony (a single voice) or homophony (a single melody with chords).

However, when it comes to electronic musical instruments, we’re simply concerned with how many tones can be sounded at any one time.

These sounds don’t have to be melodic — in fact they don’t even necessarily have to be audible to the human ear!

Polyphony is the number of sounds an instrument can generate simultaneously.

That’s the theory, and in principle it’s pretty simple. In practice, however, things get a bit more complicated.

Let’s take a look at a digital piano. It may say that it has 64 note polyphony. That sounds rather a lot, right? After all, you only have ten fingers so you can’t play more than ten notes at any one time.

Correct — in part.

However, consider how most pianists play the piano, with judicious use of the sustain (damper) pedal.

Now consider that, in a digital piano (as opposed to an acoustic one, which effectively has unlimited polyphony) every single note counts towards the total polyphony from the moment it is first played, when a key is struck, to the moment its sound finally decays.

Long passages of music with heavy use of sustain could have tens or even hundreds of notes sounding at any one time, which is why a high polyphony count is generally considered a good thing.

If any instrument “runs out of sounds”, then generally new sounds take priority and currently playing sounds are abruptly cut off. This can produce an unnatural, clipped sound.

Now let’s look at a synthesiser instrument.

You may assume that every note you play is a single sound, but your selected sound might be a composite of several sounds. That eats into polyphony.

As a further complication, some manufacturers “bank” polyphony into two or more groups. So, an instrument that claims 128 notes of polyphony may in fact offer two distinct groups of 64 notes. Some sounds may be available in one group but not the other, so, depending on which sounds you select, you may not always get full polyphony.

Now consider the use of rhythm and other accompaniments on home keyboards.

Every auto-accompaniment you play could be using multiple sounds at any one time, reducing the amount of polyphony remaining for the sounds you wish to play over the top.

And finally, it’s fairly obvious that if you are using either an on-board sequencer, or one on your computer that uses the keyboard’s own sounds, then you’ll need more polyphony in order to play two or more tracks of sounds simultaneously.

So, when purchasing a keyboard instrument or synth unit, consider its polyphony and whether it will be sufficient for your needs.

Generally, the higher polyphony the better, though you will pay more for the privilege.

Image by Horla Varlen

Popularity: 5% [?]