Audio Brewers – Tangent Drum (Stereo) (KONTAKT)
We are extremely proud to present “Tangent Drum”. “Tangent Drum” is the only reed drum you will ever need, and we say this with confidence! Recorded from several microphone positions, some traditional, some bold and original, we brought out as much color as possible from this beautiful instrument.
But that’s not all – we’ve also broken down each sample into three layers: pitch, drum and root tones of the instrument, to be able to create advanced and flawless patches that will help you create music with crystal clear quality!
Thanks to our decomposition technique, we’ve assembled multiple reed drums with resonances in different keys (C, D, E, F, G, A, B), as well as a vast 6-octave range, free of any pitch stretching artifacts that were once used to produce transients.
The result is an extremely high-quality sound, as well as incredibly clean playability!
And what about articulations? Well… are you ready? Not only did we play the drum with our fingers (in different ways) and mallets, but we also created a prepared patch played with an insane amount of different objects! We even managed to wiggle the reeds! Finally, we’ve ALSO developed over ten unique sound design articulations in native Ambisonics for a fully immersive experience!
Any more questions? Continue reading below to learn the concept in detail!
The Recording Phase
First, our starting point was to do what others have done in the past: we used a pair of overhead mics to capture the drum sound… However, we also added an Ambisonics overhead mic, which means we collected the sound coming from every possible angle to capture perfect realism, even when working in stereo mixes.
From here, we decided to raise the bar and worked on a new concept called macrosampling, where we used extremely sensitive microphones as close to the sound source as possible, we’re talking 1-2 millimeters, and we customized the mic for each tongue we played. Finally, we mixed our macrosamples in a 3D environment where you can feel the drum of the tongue all around you.
Finally, we went overboard with the experimentation by placing another Ambisonics mic inside the drum, this gives an amazing feeling of being completely surrounded by the sound produced by this immersive instrument – it’s a unique feeling as no matter how you rotate the sound source, you always feel engulfed by it.
We created a mix using all the mic positions so you can quickly get to the instrument if you don’t want to spend time mixing – it’s a turnkey solution!
All of the above was done not only in native Ambisonics so you can create music in ANY speaker array you want (stereo, surround, spatial, etc.) but also in stereo if you want to focus on that format for your music.
The icing on the cake
In addition to the extensive dedication to our recording technique, we also went overboard with the playing technique (articulations) and post-processing of the samples, and we are very excited to share this with you.
Not only did we play the drum with fingers and traditional mallets, but we also created prepared articulations to bring out as many sonic colors as possible! Hot Rods, Brushes, Wrenches, Bowed, Pens, Drum Sticks, Finger Nails, Sticky Fingers and even a Bowed Tongue are some of the organic articulations we prepared – all in multiple Round Robin and Velocity… Additionally, we created a set of Sound Design articulations for even more madness…
Almost 30 unique articulations make up this instrument (5 Core, 13 Prepared, 10 Sound Design).
The icing on the cake
We spent a lot of time researching and analyzing the resonance of the original instrument and samples to break down each sample into three main layers: the tonal part (what produces the note), the atonal part (transients and atonal resonance) and the tonal resonance of the instrument itself. The sound design samples were also broken down into tonal and atonal layers.
Since the instrument is in a key, it resonates differently with notes that are consonant with the key, by extracting this information as well as the tonal and atonal part of each note, we were able to create reed drums that will resonate in several keys (C, D, E, F, G, A, B). In addition, we created patches to give you 6 octaves of flawless sound, without any pitch artifacts on transients often caused by extreme pitch.
With all of the above, Tangent Drum is a “full package” instrument, giving you the ability to play a huge range on your MIDI keyboard, helping you create unique sounds by mixing, combining and playing with each of the sample layers (they are fully controllable and customizable) and providing crystal clear audio quality for any of your mixes. Whether it’s stereo, surround, spatial or even individual voice arrays, you’re fully covered!
- 5 basic articulations (fingers, fingertips, mallets, etc.)
- 13 prepared articulations (drumsticks, wrench hits, bowed, hot rods and more)
- 10 sound design articulations
- 25 individual presets
- Multiple looping algorithms and speeds
- Disassembled samples for detailed control and no pitch artifacts
- 6 octaves of flawless playing
- Comes in multiple keys for consonant resonance (C, D, E, F, G, A, B)
- Multiple mic positions (inside, overhead, macro, mix)
- Mixed and transmitted in ambionics and stereo
- Native compatibility with stereo, spatial audio, surround sound, binaural sound, VR and any speaker array configuration
