Big Fish Audio - Phaedra - An over 4 gigabyte library of sounds, 20,000 samples and 720 patches
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Zero G

Phaedra

An over 4 gigabyte library of sounds, 20,000 samples and 720 patches
Phaedra - An over 4 gigabyte library of sounds, 20,000 samples and 720 patches
Instrument Type:
Synth/Electronic
$69.95
$69.95
INCLUDED FORMATS:
Kontakt Player 2
  Please make a selection above
QUICK DETAILS:
  • Instrument

 

PHAEDRA is a ZERO-G/XFONIC Kontakt Player 2 virtual instrument featuring over 4 gigabytes of sounds, 20,000 samples and 720 patches. Produced by Sam Spacey who also produced our award-winning EPICA virtual synth.

Unhappy with the lack of raw sonic power in virtual emulations of VSTi analog synths, producer Sam Spacey set out on a three year journey to make the ultimate synth and ended up creating a monster in PHAEDRA. Constructed with the same attention to detail as a huge orchestral sample library, each of the 20,000 samples has been edited and looped by hand, with loops being very long so as to extract that lovely random analog magic.

Nearly every single preset has each separate note sampled so as to eliminate aliasing within the instrument's range. With Kontakt 2's engine being fully exploited we have produced a library that is a full synthesizer in its own right.

Note: you DO NOT need to have Kontakt to use this product - it works as a plugin with your existing setup - see system requirements below.

PHAEDRA is suitable for all types of music and would enhance any producer's sonic armoury.

Categories include:
01 Synth 1
02 Synth 2
03 Bass
04 Leads
05 Pads
06 Sequences
07 FX
08 DnB
09 Synth Builder
10 Multis

PHAEDRA is the most complete virtual analogue synthesizer ever created. Sit back, plug in and enjoy!

Producer Sam Spacey writes:

PHAEDRA was primarily born out of two of my frustrations.....

1. The lack of raw sonic power in virtual emulations of analog synths

2. Sloppy MIDI timing of external analog synths under modern computer operating systems (all is forgiven Atari ST1040)

I set about making a personal library for the dance releases I was working on at the time. A few of my producer friends managed to try out some of my presets and ended up using them a lot on their releases.

After finding myself more and more unable to satisfy my producing needs with soft synths I found myself relying more and more on the small number of sampled presets I had made from my old MiniMoog D for bass sounds. One oscillator from a Moog seemed to sit so nicely in a mix without me having to throw loads of EQ or compression at it.

It seemed that to get the same amount of sonic energy for a bassline using one oscillator on certain VSTi analog emulations required a lot more volume and headroom that I wasn't about to give up, not to mention the time taken in compressing and EQ'ing just to get the virtual synths to sit right in the mix. The analog samples just seemed to sit in the mix so much easier.

I was also getting very frustrated with so called "sample accurate" MIDI interfaces that were anything but sample accurate. No matter how I tried to set up the interface it was never tight on timing. In the days the Atari it was tighter but also there was no sample accurate audio then so much as there is now. And MIDI just comes across even looser when put up against a modern sequencer's sample accurate audio and VSTi's.

So.. I spent a few weeks making a load of my favourite patches in Kontakt 1. This worked really well and I was really considering selling my analogs again (been there before though lol). After constant pestering from friends to make more presets I decided to pitch my idea for a library based on analog synths to Zero-G. Nothing new I hear you say.... but I wanted to go about this with the same attention to detail as say an orchestral sample library developer would:

1. Hand looped and hand edited, with loops being very long so as to extract that lovely analog randomness magic.

2. Nearly every single preset has every note sampled so as to eliminate aliasing within the instruments range.

3. Very high quality A to D converters from Lynx 2 sound card used for library.

4. Unique vel/modulation source to sample start so as to use the actual analog synths filter bringing great flexibilty and playability.

5. I feel that I came at this library from a composer/producer's point of view so presets are designed to be used and not to just sound good on their own.

6. Convolutions were made of the actual units I use in my productions, other devices were hired in to have convolutions made from them, but FX have NOT been plastered all over this library, they have only been used when they are a part of the sound rather than making a normal preset sound better by just sapping reverb on it!

7. With Kontakt 2's engine being fully exploited I was able to get a library that was not just for playing back recordings, but is a full synthesizer in its own right. This gives the product huge longevity as I feel its strengths are in using the presets as building blocks or starting points for your own presets.

8. I wanted the library to be able to be controlled by external controllers like say the Novation 61SL which I used a lot to make the presets. All parameters use smoothing so as to eliminate stepping.

9. All the presets 'move', that is to say, they can have the sound altered by either velocity, mod wheel or aftertouch.

10. All the samples were taken raw from the analog synths with no enhancing or EQ'ing. I prefer to let the producers who will use this make their own decisions on EQ.

11. 20,271 individual samples were recorded over a 12 month period (yes I now have RSI lol), over 4.1gb of raw samples.

12. No duplicates in any of the raw recording samples, this library is not padded out to make it look bigger.

13. I stopped at 720 presets in the following presets folders: Synth 1, Synth 2, Bass, Leads, Pads, Sequences, Fx, DnB (bonus), Synth Builder (for starting off with raw settings for your own creations) and a Multi folder.

14. Multi is where the magic happens by stacking presets on top of each other.

15. This library is very efficient due to the lack of re-sampling needed by Kontakt 2 as a result of total overkill in multisampling :)

This library is based on no particular Electronic genre and would lend itself well to any style.

Synths used in the making of Phaedra:

Mini Moog D - Was very hard work to sample due to the fact that if you looked at it, it went out of tune.

Welsh Moog - A prototype Re-issue Moog made in Wales, but had a unique PWM mod done to it.

Yamaha CS5 - Very snappy and fast attack and surprisingly bass-y oscillators.

Yamaha CS-15 - This one was delivered in a terrible and broken state, but sounded great for it.

Yamaha CS-30 - Sometimes I stacked all 3 Yamahas up over CV voltage for a huge sound.

Korg Monopoly - Still getting to grips with this 4-osc howling beast.

Korg MS-20 - Very quirky with a great filter.

Studio Electronics SE-1 - Modern rack-mounted Moog that could store presets and stay relatively in tune - hurray!!!!

Studio Electronics SE-1 - as above but with filter input. I stacked these two a lot, as the sound combinations were awesome.

Roland SH-101 - Wet and squelchy, a really good little workhorse.

Crumar Multiman - 70's string synth with Arp filters, surprisingly interesting palette of sounds.

Akai AX-73 - Cheap and nasty but I love it for that fact; evil filter.

Analog Phaser - Home-made, based on the Small Stone that was modded and used by Jarre on everything he did :)

Roland analog chorus pedal - Subtle but lovely.

The only thing digital to ever get used was:

Ensoniq Esq-1 - 8-bit grungy samples going through complete Curtis analog circuitry - I love this synth.
Details:

All the sounds were recorded and processed at 16-Bit resolution and 44.1 KHz sample rate.

Organisation
The Instruments list (which can be viewed by clicking on "Instruments List PDF") groups the sounds into categories. Each category has a different coloured GUI, for example the Synth category has a red interface, Leads are blue, Bass are grey and Pads are green.

The categories are as follows:
01 Synth 1
02 Synth 2
03 Bass
04 Leads
05 Pads
06 Sequences
07 FX
08 DnB
09 Synth Builder
10 Multis

Memory Size
All programming has been carried out with the samples loaded into RAM. However, Direct from Disk (DFD) functionality is available thereby enabling the streaming of the samples direct from your hard disk drive.

Modulation Wheel Assignments
Every single instrument has the Modulation Wheel assigned to a function. This gives a lot of dynamic control over the character of the sound. Please try out the modulation wheel when playing each patch. The Mod Wheel may be assigned to one of several different controllers including Tune LFO, Filter Cutoff, Pan and Volume depending on the patch in question.

Polyphony
All instruments have unlimited polyphony except for a selection of patches from synths that were originally monophonic and some bass sounds which have thus been programmed as monophonic. If you wish to increase the polyphony please do so.

Multis
Up to 64 instruments can be combined in a Multi giving a vast array of possible combinations of the supplied single instruments. For example try combining a couple of bass instruments for some really fat and thunderous sounds.

CPU Load
The exact CPU load of any given instrument depends on a myriad of factors - the power of your computer, notes played, complexity of the instrument etc.


Supported Interfaces & Standards:
VST 2.0, DXi, ASIO, Soundmanager, OMS, Audio Units, Core Audio, RTAS.

Minimum Requirements:-
Windows XP/Vista, Pentium III 1 GHz/ Athlon 1.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM
Mac OS 10.4 or higher, G4 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive.


Download Sizes


Version Compressed Download Size
 
Kontakt Player 2 Download includes
  Rar 1:  1.07 GB
  Rar 2:  1.07 GB
  Rar 3:  1.07 GB
  Rar 4:  1.07 GB
  Rar 5:  141 MB
  .Rar Extraction Instructions:  

*When ordering the download product from Big Fish Audio you will be given one or more links for each of your product purchases. The links will be active for 24 hours. During this time you should download the file and expand it. You can return to your Big Fish Audio account at any time and download your products. You will find your products in the "My Products" area of your account page.



License Agreement


The Following End User License Agreement is included with Phaedra. This License is only valid for the individual who has purchased an unopened, new and lawfully made copy of Phaedra from a dealer or distributor authorized by Big Fish Audio.

"ZERO-G LICENSE AGREEMENT 1. The sound samples included on this product remain the property of Zero-G Limited and are licensed, not sold, to you for use on your sampling software or equipment. 2. A right to use the enclosed sounds is granted to the original end-user of the product (Licensee) and is NOT transferable. 3. The Licensee may modify the sounds. and MAY USE THE SOUNDS FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES WITHIN MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS, subject to section 7 below. 4. This license expressly forbids resale, relicensing, or other distribution of these sound samples, either as they exist on the enclosed discs, or any modification thereof. You cannot assign, lease, lend, rent, upload or download to or from any database or server, or transfer any or all of the sound samples to another user, or use them in any competitive product. 5. Licensor will not be responsible if the sound samples do not fit the particular purpose of the Licensee. The sound samples are licensed 'as is' without warranties of any kind. Neither the Licensor, or any distributor of Licensor's products, can be held responsible for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss arising from the use of any sound samples licensed from Zero-G Limited in whatever form. 6. The Licensee may use these sound samples for Foley and sound FX in TV or movie soundtracks, video game soundtracks, gaming machines, or toys, but Licensee may not re-distribute the sounds as sounds, multi-sounds, samples, multi-samples, programs or patches – meaning the Licensee cannot re-sell them as part of a sound sample library of any kind thereby effectively competing against Zero-G. Note also that use of the sound samples in isolation in video game soundtracks, gaming machines, or toys where they appear in isolation or as sound effects as part of a music game or remixing game is not permitted without first obtaining a separate written License (subject to availability) from Licensor. 7. Use of the sound samples in 'library music' (also known as 'music libraries' or 'production music'), which is intended for commercial exploitation by relicensing to multiple third parties, is permitted PROVIDED that the samples are used within a musical context and are not presented isolated or 'solo-ed'. The sound samples must be used 'in combination' within musical compositions. For such usage, any rhythm loop samples (which Zero-G regards as being musical clips in themselves) must also be combined with other types of samples or sounds to effectively form a new composition, rather than simply being looped in isolation."


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