The story
Poly Sirin is my first attempt at creating a sample library. My Moog Sirin was sat on my desk and It occurred to me how great it would be if I could play chords with it. Three days later, after starting as a Kontakt and sampling novice, I had the final version ready.
The library was created using Kontakt version 5.8.1. The samples were created using the Auto Sampler plugin within the Apple MainStage software, and have been noise reduced using Izotope RX7.
This represents all four oscillator states, sampled with fully open filter cutoff:
VCO1 Sawtooth
VCO1 Square
VCO2 Sawtooth
VCO2 Square
These are selected on the interface by clicking the relevant buttons. A volume control for each oscillator is provided, along with coarse (semitone) and fine (cent) tuning for VCO2.
An ADSR volume envelope is provided. The Kontakt engine includes a Hold control, which can be accessed at the bottom of the drop down after clicking the wrench to enter Instrument Edit mode. I decided not to include Hold as a parameter on the main interface in order to keep things more simple.
The filter used is the Kontakt LP4 ladder filter, and I have also included a Chorus button so that this can be switched in and out if required, at the default Kontakt settings.
There are many functions of the hardware that were beyond the scope of what I could mimic with my limited Kontakt knowledge, such as filter envelope, LFO and Glide controls. If anyone would like to have a go at adding these, please feel free to edit the script accordingly.
Reviews for Poly Sirin
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Awesome analog sound
I really love this, just put a little distortion and you'll have the gritty synth of your dreams. Thanks a lot!
Very well sampled synth waves
This patch provides the very basic square-ish synth you might be familiar with, but it's done in a very well executed way. It plays well, and it has enough options for you to tweak and customize the sound without breaking it too much. I also have to admit that the GUI design is the smartest way to include and even compliment the default Kontakt knob design, and honestly I respect!
Cool library, some missed opportunities
There's a lot of like about this library. The waveforms from the Sirin are well recorded and edited, and the instrument is very playable. The GUI is great and usable. The addition of chorus is awesome; it really brings the sound to life! The big thing that seems to be missing, however, is an envelope to control the filter. I would almost rather sacrifice the amplitude envelope for envelope control of filter cutoff. It just seems like a no-brainer here. It would have also been nice to have the mod wheel linked to cutoff, but that can be accomplished easily enough through MIDI learn. That's not the same as having envelope control of cutoff, though, because there's really audible stepping iff you use the mod wheel to control cutoff. So, this is a great library, an impressive first attempt at sampling, and very usable, but it could have been so much more.
Personally not into this but its objectively good
My music is for the most part pretty chill and dreamy, for the most part im not a huge fan of these more in your face, angular synths. So while i personally dont love this instrument i think alot of others will. Its a pretty basic sound but its definitely good to have around for east access. The GUI also offers alot of control both on the actual synth design and on effects. Its awesome to have these instruments on pianobook even if we all have a similar stock synth in our DAW because its just cool that pianobook has mostly any sound you would ever need for music production and scoring.
