The story
So this may be the most time-intensive library I have ever made, for starters all the instruments were recorded in different time stamps.
01. The piano was recorded around 2020 in a studio based in Costa Rica (recorded with an sm57, also keep in mind I was 14 back then and didn’t have too much experience).
02. The cello was recorded this year around July with a great friend of mine also with the sm57.
03. And then lastly the pad sections are recordings of beaches in Costa Rica plus an ocarina that I sampled around 2021 before I came to the Netherlands.
When I look at this library I see how far I’ve come since my first compositions and my first instruments, I hope you can make the most out of it and I would love to hear what you come up with.
Cheers.
Nordia toolkit #pianobook demo
Interface
Reviews for Nordia Toolkit
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
AWESOME!!!
This is excellent regardless if you are 14 or 16. Nice work young man!!!
Makes my heart warm
I can't really describe the exact reason, but Ruben's instruments have that "something" that makes me warm, and this instrument is no exception. With up to 3 layers combined, the main three patches along with the 7 extra "mangled" ones are a fantastic tool to create instant ambience based on the sound you mostly prefer for your compositions. And even though it's a one-click instant-goodness thing, the user is free to create their own combinations through the handy and nicely designed GUI, Ruben-style.
In case you enjoyed this one, I highly recommend you check out Clarity and Complexe, which are more simple, but equaly evocative.
In case you get a missing files error, don't panic! Just tick the three buttons on the bottom left, click browse for files, and just go with the folder already selected. You will be good to go in no time!
Emotional Ambient Toolkit
This is a fantastic toolkit for ambient music. You get a piano and a piano pad and four interesting textures. The piano sounds soft and warm and blends really well with the other sounds in this library. It is not very responsive to velocity but for this kind of soft ambient music that is no problem. Like with Ruben's other libraries the pad sounds she created here are absolutely wonderful. I think Argomethra is my favorite among them. It has a lot of movement and sounds really emotional and a bit mysterious. Definitely check this one out if you like this style of music.
Beautiful, versatile, and inspiring
The story behind this library is totally awesome. When you read a story like that, your expectations are high, and this library did not disappoint. Ruben did an amazing job at combining different sounds to create a beautifully versatile toolkit. Especially the pad sounds are very well-made. I can also really recommend everybody to check out the mangled patches, as they allow for some more variation to the sounds in the library.
An Ensemble With Vibe
The Library
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An ensemble of 3 instruments - a vibey piano, pizzacato cello, and an adjustable pad blend (ocarina, ocean drone, and a misc pad).The Samples
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Piano - 29 notes (4 per octave) - C0-C7 x 3 vel layers = 57 samples.
Cello - 13 notes (all 'white' notes) - C1-A2 x 4 round robins = 52 samples.
'Ocarina' Pad - 9 notes (Cs & Gs) - C2-C6 = 9 samples
'Ocean' Pad - 7 notes (Cs & Gs) - C0-C3 = 7 samples
'Misc' Pad - 5 notes (Cs & Gs) - C4-C6 = 5 samplesThe Instrument
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The piano, cello, and pads are presented as separate patches.
The piano and cello UI includes an ADSR envelope, plus
delay, LP filter, HP filter, and reverb.
The pads patch includes the same envelope and effects as the piano/cello, but also includes a mixer which mixes the pad sounds 1, 2, 3 (ocarina, ocean-ish drone, misc buzzy pad).What I Liked
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I like toolkits, because they (when they are done well) create a pallette of sounds that go well together and quickly inspire the composer to create. This toolkit does just that. Using the pad as an underlying bed, the pizzicatos as either a bass or a higher-register 'pluck', and the piano as an anchoring instrument -- there's a lot here. And the pads are haunting and beautiful, and I'm always a sucker for that. The piano is just a right amount of 'out of tune' for me. Tuned enough to be very playable, detuned enough to give it good character.The breadth of this library gives lots of choice, and the total adds up to more than the sum of its individual parts!
What I Would Wish For
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There's a few technical issues here (or maybe some of it was on purpose? I'm not sure), and they really threw me for a bit.1 - In the pads patch, the mixer sliders ('1', '2', '3') are improperly scaled.
You can pull a slider down to zero, but the sound does not go away. You must pull the slider down way past zero for it to really silence. In the same way, when you pull a slider up, you hear the instrument much sooner than you 'see' it.2. In the pads patch, the playable range and the Kontakt keyboard coloring does not match up. For each of the three sounds, there are parts of the keyboard that will not sound, even though the 'blue' indicates they should. Same with the 'Mangled Patches' - for all the pads presets, the top almost-2-octaves of the 'playable range' do not make a sound.
Some attention to detail would elevate this library to one of the best I have come across. I encourage the samplist to spend the time to fix things, and then maybe get a buddy or two to field-test it to shake out any remaining issues. I think it would yield dividends with this library, as well as with future endeavors.
