- very detailed sampling of a very unique instrument.
- the glissando-chord scripting is really cool.
- the interface is a bit too dark and textured which can get in the way of the text.
Leave it to Soundiron to come up with new and interesting things to sample. Twine Bass contains a modified cello and a Kenyan Bolon. The unique thing about these is that they have been strung with twine. The resulting sounds are wonderfully textured. They can be deep and resonating bass tones or if you play up in the higher range they can sound almost GuZheng or Koto like. As usual Soundiron has added many tone-shaping tools to the interface as well as their Uberpeggiator. New though in this instrument is a really cool Glissando-Chord patch. You can create chord strums for up to 6 strings and play 26 different chord types with controls for the tightness(length of strum), stroke direction as well as a table for setting the dynamics of the individual strings. In glissando mode you can set it for up to 24 strings, direction of gliss(up, down, up/down, down/up), speed and lock it to 13 different scales. Many percussion, FX and ambience patches make for a very detailed instrument. The Twine Bass is composed of a pair of very special instruments: a modified cello and a traditional Kenyan fretless stringed instrument called a Bolon. We strung the cello with rough hemp twine in various tunings and played it as a stand-up bass. The resulting sounds are deeply sonorous, with rich, warm resonance, powerful low end and a woody, soft quality. The bolon has a cow’s horn for a neck and a gourd as a body, with four twine strings and a goat-skin resonating head that the strings pass directly through. In addition to deep-sampling the strings with 10x round-robin and up to 14 velocity layers, we sampled a number of other sounds such as legato slides, string mutes, tuning peg pluck/twists, finger taps and brushes, and other percussive effects on the instrument’s body. This unique custom instrument collection features our brand new, exclusive glissando/chord generator. This powerful tool gives you deep control over a wide variety of chord and glissando functions such as speed, range, scale, stroke direction, string dynamics, humanization and more. You can choose from 26 different chords and 13 different scales. The number of strings is adjustable from 1 to 24 in Glissando mode and 1 to 6 in “guitar” Strum mode. There is also a bank of 16 assignable key-switches for instant access to your favorite selection of chords. The Twine Bass is a massive library, containing over 2000+ samples and weighing in at over 2 GB. As usual, it comes complete with a full range of performance shaping and effects controls, including full control over our custom convolution reverb impulses, allowing you to take the sound in any number of new directions. We’ve also included a collection of ambient pads, atmospheric drones and evolving soundscapes, giving this library a vast array of tonal possibilities.
