For the next few months, I’ll be living in London. The thing about taking long transatlantic trips is that at some point you start to miss your physical instruments. Lately, I’ve found myself missing my violin which I had to leave back in Philadelphia. My solution? Build a new one right here in my Airbnb.
Category: Videos
Video: Let’s Build A Synthesizer! + FREE Kontakt Library
How to Make Balloon Drums + FREE KONTAKT & SFZ SAMPLE LIBRARY
In this video, Dave Hilowitz shows how to make drums out of regular, run-of-the-mill party balloons. As a bonus, we’ve sampled some of our balloon drums and turned them into a free Kontakt / SFZ instrument.
Kontakt Tutorial: How to Make an Arpeggiator (sort of) + FREE TOY PIANO KONTAKT LIBRARY
In this video, I take some first steps towards coding my own arpeggiator script. I also show off the great arpeggiator script that comes bundled with Kontakt. Along the way, I turn some samples of a toy piano I sampled and turn them into a full-featured Kontakt library.
The Toy Piano Kontakt library I made in this video is available for free here.
At one point in the video, I reference a video about round robins that I made a while back. You can watch that here:
I also mention Big Bob’s fantastic Ultra TKT script, which is available here: https://nilsliberg.se/ksp/scripts/utkt/utkt.htm
If you’ve been enjoying these videos, remember to hit like and subscribe on YouTube.
See you next time!
– Dave
Kontakt Video Tutorial: How To Remove Unwanted Frequencies + FREE Kontakt Library
Have you ever had an audio file that contained a bunch of extra frequencies in it that you wish you could just remove? Spectral editing may be for you. In this video, I show how to use spectral editing to clean up a sample so that I can make a Kontakt instrument–but not just any instrument:
A few weeks ago, Christian Henson announced a competition: he challenged the internet community to try to turn two oddball samples he’d recorded into true sample-based instruments.
So this video serves two purposes: it’s both a quick introduction to spectral editing as well as my entry into Christian Henson’s Rusty Gate sample competition.
Here’s a link to the free sample (Kontakt 5.3 or higher).
Here’s a link to Christian Henson’s Rusty Gate Sample Competition.
Kontakt Video Tutorial: How to Do Modwheel Crossfades + FREE Kontakt & SFZ sample library
In last week’s video, I recorded my own voice and turned it into a free choir library. In this video, I work with those same samples to add modwheel crossfades to the instrument.
New Kontakt Video Tutorial: Piano Sustain Samples + FREE Piano Sample Library
In this video, I show a basic technique for implementing piano sustain samples.
Download the FREE version of sample: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/francis-bacon-baby-grand-piano-lite-kontakt-free/
Buy the full version of the sample for just $10: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/francis-bacon-baby-grand-piano-kontakt/
New sample library: Melodica!
The melodica is a free-reed instrument that became popular in the 1950s. We’ve sampled it twice and turned it into a Kontakt instrument.
Buy it here: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/melodica-kontakt/
Features:
- Compatible with the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.3.1 (or later)
- Two sample sets: Melodica I (4 round robins, 2 velocity layers) and Melodica II (4 round robins, 1 velocity layer)
- Voice controls allow you to choose between 1, 2, and 4 voices simutaneously
- ADSR controls
- EQ controls
- Custom convolution reverb with reverb level knob
- Chorus level knob
- Two versions of each instrument are included: 1) velocity controls dynamics; and 2) modwheel controls dynamics.
- Sample rate: 24-bit 48khz
- Library size: 148MB
Kontakt 6 Video Tutorial: Fun With Wavetables + FREE Wavetable MINI-Library
In this video, I explore the new Wavetable function in Kontakt 6. In the process, I make a series of 80s-inspired wavetable instruments.
The patches I made in this video can be download here: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/wavetable-experiment-mini-pack-kontakt-6-free/
Video Tutorial: How to Make Release Triggers + FREE Tea Kettle Whistle Kontakt Library
In this video, I show how to make release triggers in Kontakt. In the process, I create a full-featured Kontakt library out of the whistle from a Chantal tea kettle.
The instrument that I make in the video can be downloaded for free here.
– Dave