INSTALLATION 3 LIBRARY SPECIFICATIONS 4 THE XBOW GUITARS PROJECT 5 THE KONTAKT INSTRUMENTS 7 THE EFFECTS PANEL 18 SUPPORT 21

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2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INSTALLATION 3 LIBRARY SPECIFICATIONS 4 THE XBOW GUITARS PROJECT 5 THE KONTAKT INSTRUMENTS 7 THE JAMMER PANEL 8 A BASIC JAMMER TUTORIAL 11 THE GUITAR PANEL 12 THE OPTIONS MENU 16 THE EFFECTS PANEL 18 MODULAR EFFECTS INSERTS 18 THE SPACE MODULE 20 EFFECT PRESETS 20 SUPPORT 21 END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT 22!2

3 INSTALLATION #################################### #################################### #################################### #################################### #################################### #################################### #################################### #################################### YOUTUBE VIDEO: HOW TO ADD YOUR LIBRARY TO KONTAKT TO ADD THE LIBRARY AND AUTHORISE IN KONTAKT FIRST INSTALL KONTAKT PLAYER: Kontakt Player Download Link 1. Open NI Kontakt in standalone mode. In the Libraries tab, click Add Library 2. Navigate to the downloaded product and choose the Library folder 3. When the library graphic loads in Kontakt, click Activate 4. The NI Service Center app will launch. Login or create an account, and enter your product serial number ( shown in your SC account with the download product). 5. Restart Kontakt to complete the authorization.!3

4 LIBRARY SPECIFICATIONS 8 sampled instruments Bowed Acoustic (with 4 articulations) Bowed Electric (with 4 articulations) EBow Acoustic EBow Electric 1 EBow Electric 2 Vibrator Acoustic Vibrator Electric Gizmotron Electric 24 bit 48 khz stereo sampling 9 GB library (with NCW compression) Over 8,600 samples Custom KSP tools and effects: Jammer, Modular FX rack NI NKS support!4

5 THE XBOW GUITARS PROJECT This library is dedicated to exploring guitars played inappropriately. We began this project with our ebow Guitar library ten years ago. We ve often found that unique yet organic virtual instruments can be created by playing conventional instruments in unconventional ways. We ve followed this up with a Bowed Guitar instrument, in which both acoustic and electric guitars are played with a violin bow. We sampled several articulations like this, including playing with the wood of the bow (col legno). The main violin bow articulation is a dynamic crossfade patch, interpolating between the soft bow and the hard bow. Another unusual technique we ve put to good effect is Vibrator Guitar, in which an electronic massage device is used to stimulate the strings. It s quite an edgy sound, like a constant tremolo effect. Again here we ve explored this technique on both acoustic and electric guitars.!5

6 We also discovered a revival of the Godley and Creme gizmotron, a device that attaches to an electric guitar and uses tiny rubber wheels to bow the strings. You can vary the speed (velocity) of the wheels on the device itself, which we then sampled to create a dynamic crossfade system in the virtual instrument. These four techniques have been collected into this single library, which includes four master Kontakt instruments, one for each technique: Bowed Guitar, EBow Guitar, Gizmotron Guitar, and Vibrator Guitar.!6

7 THE KONTAKT INSTRUMENTS You can hover your mouse over any control in this library to get information about its function if you have the Kontakt Info pane activated. SNAPSHOTS Snapshots are presets. Remember that there are many presets in the Snapshots menu in main Kontakt title bar. Click on the little camera icon, and the snapshot menu will appear beneath the instrument title. You can choose Snapshot presets for any instrument here. Our own presets will appear in a submenu called FACTORY, and any snapshots you make yourself will be stored in the submenu called USER. XBOW GUITAR INSTRUMENTS All of the instruments contains three pages: Jammer, Guitar, and Effects. These pages are selected with the Kontakt tabs at the bottom of the instrument GUI.!7

8 THE JAMMER PANEL THE JAMMER is our custom generative arpeggiator. It uses notes you hold down on your keyboard to generate new patterns. You can then store these patterns in presets, either as evolving setups or as fixed pattern loops. The power button at the top left enables or disables the Jammer. When the Jammer is ON, all throughput of MIDI is disabled, you only hear the output of the Jammer. The five knobs along the top of the Jammer are global controls, these are: MODE This sets the type of arpeggiation used to create patterns. The original Jammer mode is Random mode, but you can also choose Up, Down, or Up Down, for somewhat more traditional arpeggiator results. This controls how the notes are selected from what you are holding down.!8

9 RATE controls the speed of the Jammer, this is always related to the tempo of Kontakt or the host sequencer. LENGTH is an offset to the duration of the created notes. In the centre position, the notes are created at the same duration set by the Rate knob, but using LENGTH you can make these longer or shorter. VEL OFFSET adds or subtracts from the velocity of the notes created by the Jammer. Automating this can be useful for creating fades. SWING adds some time to the offbeat notes to give a shuffle or swing feeling to the rhythm. The next five sliders are controls for the generative part of Jammer, which are essentially randomising various aspects of note generation. These are: NOTE add random offsets to the pitches you give Jammer (are holding down). This is in semitones, so if it s set to 1 the Jammer will output notes plus or minus 1 from the notes you play, as well as the note you play. OCTAVE add random octave offsets to the pitches created by Jammer. This control only ADDS octaves, it doesn t subtract octaves. TIME add random changes to the timing of the Jammer, so that the result is less stable and rhythmic. VELOCITY add random changes to the velocity of the output notes. This always uses the input velocity as a starting point, so if the VELOCITY range is small, it will just add small changes to your input velocity. GAPS add random rests or silent beats into the Jammer sequence. In the middle of this section you ll see a button titled EVOLVE, with the number 16 to the right of it (by default). EVOLVE mode means that the Jammer is working to generate new data constantly, the randomisers are always creating new patterns from your input notes. If you click on EVOLVE, the button changes to display LOOP. Now the Jammer is repeating the pattern it most recently created. The length of this pattern is determined by the number to the right, so by default it repeats the last 16 generated notes.!9

10 It s important to remember that the Jammer is not storing the notes themselves, but rather the choice of, and offsets to, the input notes you play into it. So even in LOOP mode, the Jammer will output different notes depending on what notes you play. The pattern is stored, not the exact notes themselves. This means you can created quite complicated patterns, but play them with any chord or input notes. THE PITCH FILTER The small keyboard ICON represents a pitch filter. Here you can limit the output notes of the Jammer to a certain key or chord or any selection of notes you like. At the top of the small keyboard is a drop down menu with some popular scales, but you can click on the keyboard directly to allow or disallow any pitch as you like. You can also use the MIDI input switch on the left of the keyboard to LEARN a scale by playing it into the Jammer. PRESET FADER AND STORE MENU This fader on the left chooses between 12 presets. You can automate this fader as part of your performance, flipping between different Jammer setups to vary your pattern in even more interesting ways. STORE: The menu at the bottom lets you store the complete Jammer setup into any of the preset positions. You can also copy and paste presets to different positions, or import / export patterns between various Soniccouture instruments that have the Jammer. DOUBLE NOTES will trigger two notes on each step, as if you are playing with both hands simultaneously.!10

11 A BASIC JAMMER TUTORIAL Setup : Set the Jammer to an Initialised state. Set the EVOLVE / LOOP length to 8 and put it in EVOLVE mode. Turn DOUBLE NOTES off, and make sure the Jammer power switch is ON. Now play and hold a simple chord. Play a major chord, say C, E, and G and hold that chord with one hand or else click on LATCH. You should hear the Jammer repeating those notes randomly every 16th note. Now bring the NOTE control up. Suddenly you should hear the Jammer playing other notes than the ones you played. NOTE tells the Jammer to add or subtract semitones from the given pool of notes. Move NOTE back to 0. Bring the OCTAVE control up. You should hear the Jammer adding octaves occasionally (randomly) to the input notes. Octaves are only added, whereas NOTES are added and subtracted. Now increase both the NOTE and OCTAVE controls, you should hear a pretty random crazy bunch of notes that don t make much sense. Use the SCALE drop down menu to choose something other than ALL NOTES, perhaps C MAJOR. Now you should hear the random notes are slightly less crazy, because the Jammer is forcing all the selections to the nearest note within that scale. If you reduce the note selection even further, say to D, F, and A, by clicking all the others off, the Jammer now can only randomise things on the notes of a D minor chord. Now turn EVOLVE off so that LOOP has 8 loops. that starts to sound more musical. Now you ve captured a short pattern Note that you haven t captured the exact notes, just the pattern. If you change the input notes, you ll get a different result, even with LOOP on.!11

12 THE GUITAR PANEL The Guitar page of the four instruments varies slightly, but always contains similar elements. The most elaborate instrument is the Bowed Guitar, so we ll use that to discuss the controls. GUITAR SELECT Click on the ACOUSTIC GUITAR title and you can also select other guitar types when available. Controls will vary according to which guitar is selected.!12

13 POWER In all the guitars there is a large knob named POWER. This controls the power or strength of the type of bow being used. Automating this knob, either by host automation or MIDI controllers, is the key to making the instrument expressive. Just like other bowed string or wind libraries, real time control breathes life to when used in your compositions. If you use a pedal, or wind controller, or other expression control, right-click the POWER knob and assign this to your favourite expression controller and then re-save the NKI. The assignment will then be permanent for that guitar, no matter which Snapshot you use. ARTICULATION FADER In the Bowed Guitar there are four articulations at the top of the main Guitar page: ARCO, SPICCATO, LEGNO, and MARCATO. You can select these articulations either by clicking on their name, or automating the fader to the left of the names. FRET FRET controls the hand position or minimum fret to be used for any note. The timbre changes slightly as a guitarists hand moves up the fretboard, so you can automate this for more variation in your sequence. VIBRATO VIBRATO introduces vibrato to the sound, and again is best automated and used sparingly. ENSEMBLE ENSEMBLE is a switch that triples the voices used, and alters their tuning and timing to give a kind of ensemble effect. This is very nice for thickening string sections.!13

14 MIC & PICKUP Some guitars are sampled with more than one signal at the same time. For example, on some acoustic guitars we have sampled both a Mic and a contact Pickup on the guitar, on some electric guitars we have sampled the Bridge and Neck pickups simultaneously. If this is the case you ll see two level knobs, like here on the right: Mic and Pickup. The bottom one will also have a Phase switch above it so you can change it s phase relationship to the upper signal.!14

15 EDIT CONTROLS Beside the guitar s title, near the top left of the page, you ll see a small arrow pointing to the left. If you click on this arrow, you ll open the synth editing section. This gives you access to many of the typical Kontakt playback control parameters you might use to further shape the sound: PANNER and RATE are auto-panning controls, they control the depth and speed of auto-panning respectively ATTACK and RELEASE amplitude envelope controls F ATTACK and F DECAY filter envelope controls. VELOCITY velocity to level CUTOFF Filter cutoff frequency FILTER TYPE is changed by clicking on the menu icon RES resonance of the filter ENV the depth of the filter modulation envelope HPF high pass filter VELOCITY to filter cutoff SLIM is a special kind of filter that removes only the fundamental frequency of the instrument. This is useful for exaggerating higher harmonics, which can both increase the essential character of an instrument while simultaneously giving it less dominance in the mix FOLLOW sets the depth of the filter s envelope follower!15

16 THE OPTIONS MENU At the top fight of the instruments, there is a small menu: Clicking on this opens the Options for the current guitar: All guitars include a PITCH BEND SETUP option that allows you to set how the pitch bend control works. Normal Pitch Bend behaviour is called ALL, which means that all notes played respond to the pitch bend wheel. Other options here are: LAST NOTE, in which only the last played note responds to pitch bend, TOP NOTE, in which only the highest note responds, LOW NOTE, in which only the lowest note responds to pitch bend, and HELD NOTE, in which any notes now released don t respond to pitch bend. You can set the range of the pitch bend with separate LOW and HIGH semitone limits. EXTENDED KEYRANGE This increases the playback area of the instrument on the keyboard. In some cases to the entire MIDI range of notes, but sometimes we had to restrict even the wider range for technical reasons. For a natural guitar range, turn EXTENDED KEYRANGE OFF. SOLO MODE SOLO MODE enables a MIDI solo mode, which can be useful for melodic performances.!16

17 ATTACK CLIP Many of the bow techniques sampled have their own attack characteristic, which is nice if you want to keep the natural behaviour of that bow. However there may be times when you want to start the sound quicker than the sample does naturally. ATTACK CLIP will move the start time of the sample inwards, beyond the natural attack, to create an artificial but sudden click at the front. This can be nice for certain voicing effects, and you can of course use the Attack Knob in the synth edit section to then shape this new attack as you like. ROUND ROBINS This is a popular method for increasing the sample variety in a performance and avoiding the machine gun effect sometimes heard when exact samples are repeated sequentially. Round Robins introduce a slight randomicity to the waveforms used for any given note. We generally like to have Round Robins on for more interesting, organic results, but in some cases it may be desirable to have precise repeatability, in which case you may want to turn of Round Robins. NATURAL VIB This is only available in the original two Ebow Guitars, which were sampled with a very subtle natural finger vibrato. You can turn this on or off as you like.!17

18 THE EFFECTS PANEL MODULAR EFFECTS INSERTS You can assign six insert effects in order, from top to bottom. The parameters for the currently selected effect appear on the far left, and you can choose which effect you re editing with the buttons on the right. You can place effect inserts in any order you like, which can be very creative. Switch the effect block ON using the square switch. Choose effects using the small menu icon. Select the effect for editing by clicking on it s name.!18

19 There are 21 types of insert effect available: CHORUS PHASER FLANGER DELAY SATURATION DISTORTION LOFI SKREAMER TWANG JUMP FILTER TAPE CABINET ROTATOR COMPRESSOR LIMITER EQUALISER STEREO REVERB TRANSIENT CONVOLUTION Note: you cannot have the same type of effect in two different blocks; if you choose an effect that is already in another effect block, the two effects will simply swap positions. All effect parameters can be automated, and all parameters are retained even if the effect is not currently being used. MAGIC DICE chooses a random set of effects. The dice icon at the top of the insert effect blocks!19

20 THE SPACE MODULE The SPACE section on the right of the screen is a convolution reverb. There are controls over the MIX level, the room SIZE, and High Pass and Low Pass filters of the reverb. The Space processor can be switched ON or OFF using the square switch in the top left. EFFECT PRESETS At the bottom of the effect panel, you can store effect presets separately from the instrument itself. So if you create an effects setup that you like, select the name and write your own name, then save the effect setup for use in other XBow instruments.!20

21 SUPPORT There are some helpful videos and FAQ on the Soniccouture Support Page If you have any problems or questions relating to the use of this product, please feel free to contact us. You can us at : support@soniccouture.com We will always endeavour to reply to any enquiry within 12 hours. We are based in the UK, so please bear in mind differences in time zones.!21

22 END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT PREFACE: This End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between you and Soniccouture LTD for the Soniccouture product accompanying this EULA, which includes computer software and may include associated media, printed materials, and online or electronic documentation ("Software"). By installing, copying, or using the software, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, you may not use the software. The software is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. The software is licensed, not sold. Soniccouture Ltd grants the Owner of a Soniccouture product the right to create finished musical works and performances using the sounds and software that comprise the Soniccouture product. The making of sample libraries in any form, commercial or otherwise, using Soniccouture audio or software (be they single hits, loops, fully mixed audio clips, or scripts) is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN without express written agreement of Soniccouture Ltd, and violations will be prosecuted to the full extent of international and local copyright law. The ownership of all title and copyrights in and to the Software (including but not limited to any images, photographs, animations, video, audio, music, text, and "applets" incorporated into the Software ) is fully asserted by Soniccouture Ltd. The Owner may only install and use Soniccouture libraries and software on multiple computers strictly under the following conditions: where multiple computers comprise part of a single composition workstation for a composer; or where the Owner has two non-concurrent sites of work, for example a studio desktop and a laptop for live performance. The Owner may not transfer, modify, rent, lease, loan, resell, distribute, network, electronically transmit or merge the Software. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The software is provided "as is" and without warranty of any kind. The entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the software and documentation remains with user. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Soniccouture further disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, with regard to the software, and any accompanying hardware. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Soniccouture be liable for any consequential, incidental, direct, indirect, special, punitive, or other damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of this EULA or the use of or inability to use the software, even if Soniccouture has been advised of the possibility of such damages.!22