Tonehammer

It's that time again, because we just can't seem to stop. I wanted to let you guys know about our latest instrument library, known simply as: "Cylindrum". The Cylindrum is a massive custom built tuned percussion instrument with over 3,600 samples, ranging over 4 octaves, so it's a percussionists dream come true. Our super advanced crack team of experts spent quite some time figuring out how to build and record the whole thing, since there is a rather complicated set of mathematics behind cutting and tuning all of the pipes to create each note. It operates using the principle of open and closed air column resonance. The sounds you get with it range from monstrous bass whumps to chirpy "donks" and "plinks" in the upper register. Overall, it sounds like some kind of strange organic synthesizer morphed into a broad array of tuned tom-toms.The closest instrument I can think of is a convoluted PVC contraption that the Blue Man Group uses from time to time. Our Cylindrum library contains three separate variations of the instrument (light, dry and wet). The light version is made from a series of 1-inch Schedule 40 PVC water pipes that were played by tapping fingers over one end, with a microphone positioned at the opposite end. The dry version was made a series of 4-inch ABS corrugated plastic tubes with an open-ended rubber head played with a paddle. The wet version was a series of 3-inch ABS corrugated plastic tubes with felt mallets on a a 3/8" thick rubber head, performed in our signature hall. It has more overtones and percussive feel than the dry and light versions - resulting in a sort of tuned tom-tom sound. The 1" light version was recorded in mono for a more focused sound, while the larger 4" dry and 3" wet versions were recorded in stereo. Check out these demos to get a feel for what it can do. Each demo has two versions, one with full orchestration and one with just the Cylindrum all by itself, although more than one patch included in the Cylindrum library may be used at a time: Cylindrum Demo 1 (full) http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_cylindrum_demo_1_dressed.mp3 Featuring: Cylindrum (Wet), Anti-Drum 1, Epic Tops 1 & 2 and Bamboo Ensemble. All vocal sounds are from the first of our Tongue Series: "Francesca" due out in March 2009 Demo by Troels Folmann Cylindrum Demo 1 (solo) http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_cylindrum_demo_1_naked.mp3 Featuring: Cylindrum (Wet) Cylindrum Demo 2 (full) http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_cylindrum_demo_3_dressed.mp3 Featuring: Cylindrum (Wet/Dry), Hang Drum, Live Guitar & Drums Cylindrum Demo 2 (solo) http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_cylindrum_demo_3_naked.mp3 Demo by Gregg Stephens Cylindrum Demo 3 (full) http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_cylindrum_demo_2_dressed.mp3 Featuring: Cylindrum (Wet, Dry, Light) and Anti-Drum 1. All vocal sounds are from the first of our Tongue Series: "Francesca" due out in March 2009 Cylindrum Demo 3 (solo) http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_cylindrum_demo_2_naked.mp3 Demo by Troels Folmann Things to know about the Cylindrum: - 10 x round robin and 6-10 velocities per note for dry and wet versions - 2x round robin and up to 20 velocities per note for light version - Cylindrones (long looping ambient drones made from bending, stretching and warping actual Cylindrum samples) - Extensive read me install, patch and hint documentation (http://www.tonehammer.com/docs/tonehammer_cylindrum_readme.pdf) - 8 instrument patches, 3,362 samples, 844 MB installed, 266 MB .rar download, Kontakt 2 .nki files and .wav audio format A full stand-alone version of Native Instruments Kontakt 2 or 3 is required. We don't use encrypted or locked patches or samples, but be aware that Kontakt players that come bundled free with other software or sample libraries don't work with any of our libraries, since those players are designed by Native Instruments to ONLY work with the encrypted .nki files or samples that originally come with them. You'll need a full stand-alone version of Kontakt to open any non-encrypted 3rd-party libraries like ours. Our libraries may also work properly in many other sampler programs that can open Kontakt 2 patches, such as EXS24 and Halion 3. Just be aware that some adjustments may be needed on the user side. Make sure you read your sampler software owner's manual to be sure. There's more info here: Cylindrum (dry/wet) | Tonehammer Cheers, - Mike

Hi again everyone. This is Mike from Tonehammer with a new batch of musical toys. We've just launched a brand new Kontakt-based sample instrument library for the new year and adding up a huge update to one of our favorites. The Kalimba (aka Thumb Piano) is a tuned percussion instrument and a variant of the African Mbira. It

we've released the Rust and Antidrum libraries today!

we're soo soo cheap though, compared to pretty much all other sample developers :( As for TR, I don't know about unofficial releases (and don't quote me on this, because we have no control over it), but I was asked to compile and in fact did deliver a bunch of the music in a soundtrack-like form at some point in the recent past. So expect something to be maybe officially released at some point in some format... someday? I have no control over such things. Once again :(

Hot damn, our two new December releases - Anti-drum and Rust - are finally out. Yay! The libraries are a compilation of highly unconventional percussive instruments ranging from soda-cans to bowed saw, from boot stomps and scrapes, to water cooler drums, to stairwell railing percussion, monkey balls and baby toys. Together, Anti-Drum and Rust contain 38 unique instruments with a total of over 5,000 samples. Both collections are awesome if you're into way out of the ordinary percussion and there are a few quasi-melodic instruments in both libraries as well. Also, before I get into the libraries, we're going to be rounding up some people to help us with porting and beta testing EXS24 ports of these and the rest of our libraries after the Christmas break, so if anyone has experience with porting or using EXS24, let me know. We could use the help, since we're PC people. Tonehammer Anti-Drum contains 19 unconventional percussive instruments sampled in a variety of ways, in various locations. It is a celebration of every day objects and sounds transforming into new- and interesting musical instruments. The Anti-Drum instruments ranges from work boot stomps to water bottle thwacks, clicking baby toys, wall balls, ukulele- and guitar drums, to shock mount thunks and clapping ensembles. It contains just about 1GB and includes 2400 samples. Tonehammer Rust is a hymn to man-made metal. The library contains 18 different metallic “instruments” ranging from huge sounding Stairwell Railings to a tiny Soda Can Ensemble, from dumpster percussion to an old coal mine air shaft, from Bowed saw to Monkey balls and much more. It contains nearly 2700 samples, totaling over 1 GB. Here are a few demos again, to give you an idea of the kinds of sounds the libraries offer: Anti-Drum Demo 1 (by Troels Folmann): http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_anti_drum_1_demo_naked.mp3 Featuring: Water Cooler Ensemble, Drum Circle, Stomp Ensemble, Clap Ensemble, Baby Toys, Evil Male Voices, Shouts, Ukelele Drum, Shock Mount. Anti-Drum Demo 2 (by Troels Folmann): http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_anti_drum_2_demo_dressed.mp3 Featuring: Clicky Toy, Guitar Drum, Handball Court Drums, Shockmount, Ukelele Drum, Wall Ball, Water Cool . This demo contains additional samples from Tonehammer Hang Drum and Solo Vocals (future release). Anti-Drum Demo 2 alternate version (by Troels Folmann): http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_anti_drum_2_demo_naked.mp3 Featuring: Clicky Toy, Guitar Drum, Handball Court Drums, Shockmount, Ukelele Drum, Wall Ball, Water Cooler. Rust Demo 1 (by Troels Folmann): http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_rust_2_demo_dressed.mp3 Featuring: Paint Can Drum, Soda-Can Ensemble, Monkey Balls, Brass Rails, Ukelele Drum, Baby Toys, Solo Clap, Shock Mount, Black Diamond Airshaft, Bowed Saw, Stairwell Railing, UMSI Observatory, Handball Court Drums and Tonehammer Hang Drum. Rust Demo 2 (by Troels Folmann): http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_rust_1_demo_dressed.mp3 Featuring: Bottles and Chairs, Black Diamond Shaft, City Museum, Dumpster / Junk Yard Percussion, Paint Can, Soda-Can Ensemble, Willow Bridge and Tonehammer Tom Ensemble Vol. 1 and 2. Rust Demo 3: (by Mike Peaslee) http://www.tonehammer.com/demos/tonehammer_rust_3_demo_naked.mp3 Featuring: Monkey Balls, Stairwell Railing, Brass Rail, Solo Claps. This is just a small taste of the huge array of unusual but extremely playable instruments in Rust and Antidrum. And of course, we've got a bunch of other libraries for you at www.tonehammer.com

It's been discontinued and very few people responded that it was the only sampler they used. Within a year or so, it's going to be more or less lost to history. For the Tonehammer libraries, we're planning on supporting EXS24's format, but we'll need a group of mac users to help us port and beta test our instruments over from Kontakt. It'll probably take us about 2 months to start rolling out EXS versions of everything. We're also going to start supporting Battery 3, Sampletank 2 and sfz+ over the next month or two as well. It'll be much easier for us, since they're all pc based.

I ran this poll in a few different places over a couple of days and compiled the results. I think I have a pretty decent final result, so I figured I would share it with everyone. I'd guess the margin of error to be somewhere around +/- 5% 120 votes total Kontakt 3: (50 votes) 41.6% Kontakt 2 (22 votes) 18.3% EXS24 (11 votes) 9.2% Battery (7 votes) 5.8% Sampletank (7 votes) 5.8% SFZ+ (6 votes) 5% Ableton Live Sampler (6 votes) 5% Halion (2 votes) 1.7% Mach 5 (2 votes) 1.7% Short Circuit (2 votes) 1.7% Digidesign Structure (2 votes) 1.7% Yellow Tools Independence (2 votes) 1.7% Reason NN-XT (1 vote) 0.8%

Nuendo is a host. It's the software you'd use to load a sampler plug-in. The sampler is a program that organizes and allows you to trigger individual wav files, using midi notes and controllers

I'm pretty much a Kontakt guy, so it's easy to have blinders on as far as the other sampling tools and formats people like using. I'd love to hear about what people are using (or wish they were using), both to help us decide how to improve Tonehammer releases and just to know what my other options are for deep sample library construction and editing. Of course there are tons of options out there, but I think that it's important that they have a pretty deep user base and are supported by other developers, if anything so there are other people out there to learn from and collaborate with. while we're at it, what things do you like or dislike about the sampler software you're using right now?