The story
This is my submission for Pianobook’s Global Swarm event. The instrument is broken up into 4 units. Users are provided with a blue sequencer that triggers percussive sounds of a restaurant such as cutting vegetables, sharpening knifes, and hitting pans. The green unit is a granular synthesizer that utilizes a recording of a coup glass being hit with a muddler. The yellow box controls the speed and articulation of a cello performed by the bartender, Holden Bitner. These three units are routed to an orange mixer that includes delay, reverb, and a fourth fader controlling the volume of a recording of the dinning room on a Tuesday night.
This instrument is a love letter to the service industry and its magnetic pull to creative people.
Requires KONTAKT 6.7+
Update 1.01:
– Drag and drop samples to granular synth
– New NKI preset “Alex” that opens with no automatic sound from sequencer and mixer noise channel
Creating In The Weeds
Walkthrough
Interface
Reviews for In The Weeds
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
What an incredible effort
Woah there is such creative depth here. You truly can get lost in the weeds ( in the best sense ).
After a quick watch of the walkthrough video you'll be able to get a hefty dose of inspiration and joy with minimal effort.
There really is nothing quite like this on pianobook and I can only imagine the level of talent and genius required to craft this instrument. Thanks for this!
The king of GUI design strikes again!
Owen is an absolute genius, and his designs have set a new standard for quality on Piano Book. I love this instrument not only because of its impeccable design, playability, and inspiring sounds, but also because of the awesome story behind it. I really enjoyed watching Owen's video talking about the restaurant where he works and his many talented co-workers whom he sampled for this instrument.
Don't be fooled by Owen's comments in his video that this instrument isn't the best instrument for composition. It's completely and totally inspiring, and as is the case with everything Owen does, the granular synthesizer is absolutely next-level.
This is in every way a professional sample library, and Owen is definitely one of the MVP's of the Piano Book community.
Download it, be inspired, and tip Owen. Oh yeah, and don't forget to vote for his Global Swarm submission on Discord.
4 boxes to rule them all
At first you might say, ok what is going on? Take a deep breath, because it is totally worth it!
Once you load up the instrument, noises will start to play. Don't panic!
- To stop the rhythm, hit the Pause button in the blue box
- To stop the background noise, turn down the last fader in the orange box.Now you can take your time and explore this magnificent instrument. It might take a few minutes, but it's worth it. The only complain I have is that, for such a complex instrument there should be a "quiet" main patch so the user doesn't go full panic mode!
The creativity behind everything is insane. From the fantastic percussion engine, to the little details in the cello's performance. It's all incredible, and it's really, really a premium quality instrument for the price of nothing. There are no other words.
Can't find words
And not only because my English is poor (sorry for that in advance), but because this instrument is so creative, inspiring, complex, well designed and programmed, that I just can't believe you offered it for free. Well it's not an "itcanbeusedineverytrack" instrument, but one can definetly use it in a Chillout or Lounge track, or with a little processing and tweak in any electronic music. Thanks for your effort, and for the video, I enjoyed it very much, your friend's cello playing was touching! Take care and best wishes to your career!
A beguiling and intriguing instrument of textural exploration!
Any one of the 3 main parts of this could be an excellent instrument on it's own! But combined they create something really beguiling and intriguing!
The Cello goes from rich and atmospheric to percussive and punchy, with the three different playing techniques provided, and the speed setting is really cool! I don't know how it works, but I'm impressed! Then there's the true percussion, set out in a 'simple', elegant sequencer, with an array of unusual culinary samples, at once industrial and yet somehow warm and intimate. Just how intimate you want to get with a kitchen knife is debatable, but somehow the rhythmic chopping, sharpening, and so on is strangely comforting, like the lulling rhythm of a train. Or something like that. Then you've got granular synthesis! This really adds to the 'texture' of the sound I thought, giving an organic unpredictability or evolution to the sonic pallet, again it's super cool! Anyway, lastly there's a 'noise' slider, which can be quite interesting if just the right amount is used, again adding to the texture, to build up an atmospheric susurration and really get lost 'in the weeds'.
Finally there's the overall look and aesthetic, and I must say it's beautiful! It looks so tactile, you just want to twiddle those knobs and feel the chipped paint beneath your fingers! There's something pleasing about that worn, "relic'd" appearance, as though it really is a physical collection of well loved, well used gear. There's a sense of a cherished workhorse that someone's kept by their side for years, and you want to have a go for yourself! Anyway, aesthetics aside, it's all laid out very sensibly and all more or less intuitively. The 'patch cables', though entirely cosmetic, are a really clever way of showing the relationship between the different modules, and fit so naturally with the rest of the aesthetic.
I will admit that it took me a little while to get my head around everything, because there is quite a bit going on, but the explanation video made everything clear, and I'm really enjoying experimenting with this thing.
All in all a truly impressive and inspiring instrument, and a joy to explore!
