forms:tongues by Venus Theory [Decent Sampler]

Description

forms:tongues Demo Track (100% forms:tongues)

Resonant Percussive Textures

Organic Detail. Intimate Decay.

The latest addition to the FORMS series, Tongues explores the delicate, hypnotic world of the tongue drum. Why? Well because I use mine all the time and never bothered sampling it because sampling them is really hard…but then I couldn’t stop thinking about it and now a month later here we are.

Captured in high-resolution with a focus on extreme detail and careful attention to preserve what I love about this instrument, this library brings the soul of melodic percussion into a flexible, modern interface designed for both traditional performance and more experimental cinematic sound design. I know ‘cinematic’ and ‘venus theory’ put together is a real shocker, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The Beauty of the Tail

Most percussion libraries cut off right when things get interesting. It’s not without a good reason, but still. For Tongues, each sample underwent a meticulous individual denoising process (aka: massive pain in my ass) to preserve the “true tails” of the instrument. By isolating the natural decay of the metal, this library offers the full, unadulterated resonance of the drum allowing notes to ring out into a natural silence without the interference of noise floors or artificial gating. I’m not sure why this became such a weird obsession for me, but once I actually heard it in action I knew I had to make it happen for the entire library.

Was it fun? No. Worth it? Debatable. Would I do it again? God I hope not.

Two Worlds, One Source

The heart of Tongues lies in its dual-source architecture borrowed from the much loved AURAS series. By blending between two independent sounds, you can morph between the pure, fundamental strike of the drum and more complex, textured tonal profiles. Whether you need a simple tongue drum-y thing or subtle metal-tinged pad, the balance is up to you. Free will and all that.

Precision Sculpting

If you dive into the Edit pages you’ll find deeper controls over each source. With each layer having independent controls for pitch, pan, and random panning, you can create wide, shifting stereo fields that feel alive or soft blossoming metallic overtones skipping the percussive attack altogether. Sometimes you don’t want the ‘bonk’ you know?

The signal then hits a multimode resonant filter with its own dedicated ADSR envelope, allowing for everything from subtle filter movements to ridiculous sweeping filter movements. Combined with full dynamics adjustments for each layer, the instrument responds naturally to the nuance of your playing.

Atmospheric Expansion

The FX tab transforms the dry recordings into a variety of unique iterations of the tongue drum sound. Mix in dedicated Room and Hall mic positions for natural spaces, or push the boundaries with onboard Drive and Chorus. The Delay effect also includes a new stereo spread option for more immersive (and almost granular sounding) echoes, while the Convolution Reverb features a curated set of Impulse Responses. I love convolution, so I put in many of my favorites for reverbs ranging from real-world spaces and hardware captures to creative (and sometimes weird) sound-shaping IRs that turn a simple strike into a shimmering mess of overtones.

Deep Detail, Light Footprint

As with every release in the FORMS series, Tongues is highly optimized to deliver professional library sound while remaining light on your system resources because who the hell can afford RAM right now.

Anyways, point being:

It’s simple, resonant, and organic and brings you the sound of metal and air, refined with the mustache secret sauce.