1 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

346 can be seen in all her glory here:

http://www.novachord.co.uk/photos.htm

I spent over 10 hours making yet another multisample from the Novachord having captured another 40 minutes of raw digital audio from the beast and the final results have blown my socks off - this is 100% Novachord, no extra filtering or LFOs - just 70 Mbytes of samples into chorus and reverb!! You can hear the Novachord's gorgeous 6 channel electomechanical vibrato in full swing (literally!) in a quick demo I recorded using a midi file I got off the net:

http://www.last.fm/music/D.A.Wilson/_/B … ?autostart

These have got to be some of the most beautiful vintage synth strings I've ever heard!

This multi-sample is available as a --FREE-- taster for Kontakt:

http://www.hollowsun.com/shop/Freepacks/index.htm

The sample archive is already being used in professional applications - it's all over the orchestral score for the multi-million dollar XBox 360 game "Alan Wake" due to be released later this year.

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2 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

neilbaldwin wrote:

Wow, amazing job. A beautiful instrument, sensitively and meticulously captured.

I'm finding it seriously difficult to justify NOT buying it.

Did you give in??? smile

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3 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

infradead wrote:
Hideaway Studio wrote:

That "Someone" is me......   the restoration thread and the Hollow Sun Novachord - are one of the same.......

                    .....Novachord #346 resides in my living room!! smile

oh wow!

you did an amazing job restoring it and it was documented so well.

Many Thanks - another VSE Novachord thread follower comes to the surface smile

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4 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Beware wrote:

As you said, "you get what you pay for."

Arfink wasn't saying "drop the price," he was saying "cut some samples and the price to give very basic functionality to more budget-minded people."  Half the samples, half price.  He wasn't saying it's overpriced and you should be ashamed of yourself, simply that it would be nice for the poor musicians (most) to be able to get a taste of the Novachords awesome power.

Steve and I have been considering exactly this smile - we're just not sure quite how to tackle it at the moment.  I suspect you will have to wait a while before a "lite" version is released as Hollow Sun are still developing the full version for several other platforms.

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5 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

arfink wrote:

I do have one on-topic question: Will there be a... umm, "value" sample set at all? $160 is very, very steep indeed. I know I'll probably get stoned for asking this, so please don't kill me everyone.

OK... I hope this doesn't seem to much like flying objects propelled at you..... smile

The library is in line with many other unique sample sets in this sector of the market.  The issue is that there are so many alarmingly inexpensive libraries out there now that they are distorting the market which is very unfair for some sample houses.  The reasons for this are many and range from low quality products through to the release of libraries which have been recycled so many times (often from the days of early samplers!) that their NRE was recovered years ago through to subsidised packages used as means of attracting new customers by the companies that make the samplers themselves.

The Novachord library is unique - it involved shipping a 70 year old 1/4 ton monster 1/3 way round the world across two seas to plough 250 hours of restoration work into and then going onto to spend twice this amount of time painstakenly capturing hours of raw digital audio from technology designed in the 1930's, selecting the usable material from literally thousands of sometimes mistriggered notes, dehumming, topping and tailing and then hand looping hundreds of extremely lumpy, click/pop ridden, electro mechanically vibrato'd waveforms because not even the best autoloopers would make a decent job of it.   Seriously, I doubt many realise just how much effort was required to produce what is the final product.

In short, there are a lot of expenses that need to be recouped and considering it's an exclusive niche product I think it's actually sitting in the right price band.

Life everything in life - you get what you pay for.

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6 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

arfink wrote:

I don't see how any self-respecting artist with $160 sitting around (which is very few in these days!) couldn't pick this up. It's so hauntingly stunning, especially in it's lower registers and with the slight amount of detune that was present in your earlier recordings.

Thank You...  actually the top end is very special too - some of the strings from the library are eye wateringly beautiful in the upper registers.   Steve Howell from HS did the most amazing job looping over 450 raw samples for the archive based on over 1.5Gbytes of my raw audio.  The looping pushed Steve's 20+ years as a professional sample producer to the limit as the Novachord's amazing 6 channel electromechanical vibrato makes smooth looping very very difficult.  The raw audio needed to be dehummed and 100s of takes rejected and elected for assembly into the final raw sample sets.  It was a true labour of love as, despite the instrument being amazingly noise free for a 70 year old electronic synth it still required a considerable degree of attention.

A lot of the beauty in the sound is that it's far from perfect.  Each note is different, each note has harmonics caused by the monostable tube divider circuits - there are 12 tube oscillators, 60 tube monostables, 72 tube VCAs, 3 resonant band bass filters and a centrally controlled envelope control - all gloriously analog!!

We are still adding more programs to the main sample set and it's really proving that the base sample pool is very flexible.  The Novachord was decades ahead of it's time and it really shows!

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7 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

tacticalbread wrote:

wow, that's impressive. big_smile

and I'm guessing you can't share the name of the game? tongue

Alan W...

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8 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

tacticalbread wrote:

lucky you!

That is an amazing piece of equipment.

Thanks... it was a pretty darn major job returning this amazing 70 year old, 1/4 ton 163 tube beast proto-synth to working order and she really does take pride of place now.  There really is nothing like it.  Novachord 346 is believed to be the only example in the UK and is one of less than 40 operational units world wide.

You can see/hear more at: www.novachord.co.uk

The Hollow Sun Novachord sample set is rapidly gaining a professional following.  One of the biggest game releases for the Xbox 360 this year, due to be released around Q2, features many of Novachord 346's darker/more tense sonic textures.  The HS Novachord library is the only one of its kind.

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9 Reply by Hideaway Studio

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

infradead wrote:

here is a great read by someone who bought one and restored it

http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewt … mp;start=0


That "Someone" is me......   the restoration thread and the Hollow Sun Novachord - are one of the same.......

                    .....Novachord #346 resides in my living room!! smile

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