Motu Instruments Soundbank

[Hyun Orth]

TheBrass Ensemble bank provides unison performances of the various orchestra brass sections, including French horns, trombones and trumpets. These presets provide the sound of the entire section playing the same notes in unison. Both staccato and sustained variations are provided. For each instrument (French Horns, Trombones and Trumpets), two different sections of four players each were recorded in order to provide a more broad variety of sounds. For the French Horns, an additional section of eight players was recorded for that big Hollywood orchestra French Horn sound.

Two very different classical guitars are provided. Classical Guitar 1 is a custom made instrument played with finger and nail. It can be used for a variety of classical guitar styles. With its more organic sound, it is well-suited for the Spanish/gypsy style. Classical Guitar 2 is more appropriate for contemporary classical styles. Both presets provide a variety of playing techniques, in addition to the normal plucked single string.

Two different harp instruments, each with a distinctly unique sound, are provided. Harp 1 is soft and emotional, a truly unique sound. Harp 2 has a more bright, conventional sound suitable for a wide variety of musical styles. In addition, a variety of playing styles are provided, including single plucked notes, glissandos, cascades and chords.

One of the most unique soundbanks included with the MOTU Symphonic Instrument, the historical instruments can add an extra level of authenticity to your classical compositions and recordings. Of particular interest are the extensive harpsichord presets, one of the most extensive harpsichord sample collections ever created. A wide variety of harpsichords were carefully multi-sampled, and many presets even include the authentic, mechanical sound made by these instruments when releasing each note.

The Mallet presets provide notes played individually for a variety of mallet instruments, as well as a number of glissando effects. Shieldmayer and Mustel instruments were recorded under the very best conditions to achieve an extremely clean and detailed sound.

The percussion bank provides a comprehensive and memory-efficient collection of orchestra percussion instruments, including several different types of gongs and timpanies. The Basic Percussions menu preset provides a wide variety of orchestra percussion sounds, each assigned to a different key across the keyboard.

Two beautiful concert grand pianos are provided: A Yamaha C7 and a Steinway D. These piano recordings represent state-of-the-art piano sampling, both in terms of the quality of the sound and the efficient use of memory.

The pipe organs are organized into two major categories: Baroque (chamber) organs and Romantic (cathedral) organs.A wide variety of baroque organ sounds are provided, each with a variety of stop configurations. These instruments were recorded in European churches and preserve the sound of the acoustics of the church in addition to the sound of the instrument itself. The romantic organs are larger cathedral organs recorded across Europe. These instruments provide organ sounds on a more grand scale and sound especially authentic with the cathedral reverb settings.

Due to its relative youth as a musical instrument, compared to its classical instrument bretheren, the Saxophone was not used in the classical music repertoire. However, contemporary classical music adopted the saxophone as its popularity grew in the 20th century. Therefore, it has been included in the MOTU Symphonic Instrument library to provide complete instrumentation, even for contemporary classical repertoire.

The String Ensemble bank provides unison performances of the various orchestra string sections, including violins, violas, celli and basses. These presets provide the sound of the entire section playing the same notes in unison. A variety of playing styles and techniques are provided. In addition, these recordings were made with each section placed in its proper position on stage. Therefore, when combined, they are spread across the stereo field in a manner that is true to their actual position on stage.

Tutti is a conventional musical term used to describe the sound of multiple instruments all playing the same notes in unison. The Orchestra bank provides tutti ensemble performances for brass, strings and the entire orchestra playing together. These presets sound big and, when employed judiciously in a musical score, can be used effectively for emphasis. Several string quartet presets provide a nice intermediate sound between the solo strings and the full strings (and full orchestra). The Orchestra Run and Orchestra Tremolo presets are exceptional.

The Woodwinds Ensemble bank provides unison performances of the various orchestra woodwind sections, including clarinets, flutes and oboes. These presets provide the sound of the entire section playing the same notes in unison. Both sustained and staccato playing styles are provided. The clarinet and oboe sections consist of three players each, while the flute presets consist of two different sections of four players each.

For many of us, heavyweight software samplers play a leading role in the studio. They handle our sound libraries of course, but can also be a platform for browsing, playing and manipulating audio loops, and for the most complex and creative sound design.

Like much of the software sampler competition, MachFive 3 is a pretty complex, 'deep' instrument. A detailed description of every single aspect is beyond the scope of this review, although I'll do my best to cover all the juicy bits. To get things going, I thought I'd attack MachFive as the majority of end users will, starting with its interface, the bundled sound library, and the fundamentals of loading and tweaking sounds.

Firing up either the stand-alone or plug-in version, you're presented with the same basic user interface: a list of 'parts' in a left sidebar, a multi-purpose Display Area to the right, a Master Section along the top, and a narrow Status Bar along the bottom. In the stand-alone app and some DAW hosts, the window is continuously resizable upwards from approximately 980 x 680 pixels. Four preset sizes are also available from a Master Section pop-up.

If you choose the multitimbral approach, but like to balance parts in your DAW's mixer, the 16 stereo audio outputs alongside the Main Out let you do that. Otherwise, there's a built-in mixer that presents each part as an individual channel strip. Four auxes and a master channel provide a good functional mix architecture, and you can add native effects via insert slots above channel faders and pans. Speaking of effects, I counted 62 different types, and they span pretty much the whole processing gamut (check out the 'MachFive Effects' box for a more detailed look). Chains of effects can be unlimited in length, and you can easily re-order them and save or recall them as an effects 'multi'.

The 2.9GB Star Drums soundbank is based on a Tama Starclassic drum kit.In fact, the entire shebang of parts, mixer settings and effects, of any complexity you like, can also be stored and recalled as a Multi. Live-oriented users can also switch to a dedicated Performance view there, too, and set up complex layers, splits and keyswitched programs that have the potential to see them through entire sets.

Going hand in hand with MachFive's 'universal' moniker is a hefty sound library that aims to cover all bases, delivered in the form of 10 separate UFS (universal file system) soundbanks. It's not compulsory, incidentally, to install all (or indeed any) of them.

The bedrock is the almost 6GB-strong Universal Loops & Instruments soundbank. This groups hundreds of instrumental sounds (which, in MachFive, are properly called 'programs') into 14 categories (visible in the screenshot at the top of this review), plus a separate one for drum loops. There's a lot of fine material on offer; a range of multisampled acoustic and electric pianos, clavinets, mallet instruments, solo and section strings, some really excellent woodwind and brass with variations that'll span classical and more popular styles, choirs, ethnic instruments... the list goes on.

The Telematic soundbank comprises 8.3GB of lovingly sampled Fender Telecaster.On the whole, this all-rounder soundbank is of very high quality; bright, contemporary, clear and classy. The drum loops are a distinct cut above the average (some in the Trip-Hop category are real works of art) and there's a good range of acoustic and electronic kits on offer too. However, there's unevenness in places; I heard some bum clarinet notes, some 'sus' articulations that actually don't sustain, a flute sample where someone accidentally hits a mic stand, and harps and pianos that sustain indefinitely! Perhaps the most unwelcome feature is that many brass and woodwind instruments load with a drunken-sounding portamento enabled. The Macro switch to turn it off, in MachFive's Info view, sometimes fails to appear until you click in and out of another editing view. It's a bug in the interface, as opposed to the individual sounds, but it's still a drag. I don't want to overstate these little gremlins, though; they're heavily outweighed by huge quantities of extremely fine, playable programs.

The Slice oscillator type gives you Recycle-style handling of looped audio. Entire loops can be MIDI-triggered or automatically sync'ed with your DAW's playback, or the individual slices can be converted to multiple separate Sample keygroups. You can also drag the audio and MIDI event-timing results directly into DAW tracks.If you're wondering about synths, they get a soundbank of their own: the 2.2GB MachFive Biosphere. Hundreds of programs are arranged into familiar categories such as Keys, Leads and Pads and the range of timbres on offer is impressive, with (apparently) about equal respect for synths from each of the last four decades, analogue and digital. What helps here is that MachFive isn't just a sampler; its synth architecture and broad range of filter characteristics are very much part of the sound on offer.

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