Little Pump Reeds

Little Pump Reeds is a collection of instruments Soundiron have stumbled across over the years that happen to fall on the smaller side of the wonderful and under-appreciated world of hand-held air-driven reed-based instruments. This library ranges from fine quality hand-crafted traditional Indian Shruti Boxes, to a mini accordion and what Soundiron refer to as the Plastisax (something vaguely like a child's plastic soprano saxophone, but sounding more like a harmonica).

This library also includes a lovely 14-note concertina of which Soundiron sampled 3 dynamic layers and multiple articulations. Soundiron also implemented a powerful user interface that allows quick access to all of the instruments in a single preset. As always, Soundiron have sampled each instrument lovingly and thoroughly, with attention to playability and musicality.

Obviously, Soundiron took these instruments much farther than they were ever designed to go. These sample sets are surprisingly rich, full and playable in a way that one would normally only be able to expect from top-notch, full-range instruments. In the end, Soundiron just decided it was high time somebody give these little misfit toys the respect and attention to detail that they truly deserve.

Contents

The Kontakt interface includes a suite of automation-ready sound-shaping controls to give you total creative flexibility. You have control over swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse & fine), articulation switching, cross-fading and layering, and so much more. Soundiron have also included 20 unique sound-designed custom FX presets to give you lots of creative options.

This library comes with an adaptable LFO system, with selectable LFO shape, modulation target parameter, speed, intensity, tempo-syncing and fade-in time. You can also apply your choice of 12 low-pass, high-pass and FX filters, with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, modwheel, expression, after-touch, key position and step-sequencer table control. Our customizable arpeggiator offers a velocity table and control over arp direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. Soundiron have included a key and scale lock system to constrain your notes to common scales and keys for easy melodic composition and live performance.

The interface is rounded out by our modular FX rack panel, with 18 different DSP effect modules that you can assign in any of 10 available slots, in any order that you wish. You’ll find classic phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator and so much more. The Reverb effect includes our favourite convolution reverb impulse responses, including 99 different rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor environments, plus another 40 custom FX impulses to radically transform the sound and open up whole new worlds of musical possibility. Soundiron have added a great bank of FX rack chain factory presets to get you started!

Instruments

• Concertina
• Shruti Box (related to the harmonium)
• Mini Accordion
• "Plastisax" (related to the melodica)
• 2-Tone Paper Squeeze Box

The Concertina includes 14 notes, sampled at multiple dynamic levels and a variety of articulations. It is gentle on the ears and evokes the calm of a night in the Italian countryside.

The Shruti Box is a traditional Indian instrument that is similar in nature and tone to the harmonium. It's most commonly used as a drone instrument to accompany voice and other solo instruments in Indian classical music, as well as a growing variety of new age and Celtic folk music.

Our mini accordion is actually quite the little giant. It has 14 keys and 4 bass drones, naturally spanning three octaves. With a warm, fat tone that belies it's humble size, this little instrument is a real diamond in the rough. The deep sub-bass octaves have to be heard to be believed.

The Plastisax is vaguely like a child's plastic soprano saxophone but sounds more like a crisp, clear harmonica crossed with a reed organ. It has 13 keys, spanning roughly 2 octaves. With it's rich, warm, playful sound and expressive playability, it's ideal for children's music and programming, or even layered with woodwinds or organs.

Soundiron also have a small palm-sized cardboard and paper ‘concertina’ found in a local toy store. It really only has two tones; a single note and a chord. The notes sustain for about a second at most. Soundiron decided to use this little guy as a hand percussion instrument as well and have included it as a “Paper Squeezebox.”

Features

• 1 master NKI instrument bank in open Kontakt format.
• 20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets.
• Multi-sampled acoustic articulations.
• 1,222 stereo samples.
• 1.68 GB Installed.
• 24-bit, 48 kHz Stereo PCM Wav Format.
• Flexible and intuitive multi-layer user interface controls, with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator.
• Full FX rack with convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers & FX environments.

System Requirements

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10.9 or higher.
• Dual-Core CPU, 2 GB System Ram, SATA or SSD hard drive recommended for this library.
• Kontakt Full Version 5.5 or later