U is shiny steel lamellophone, created by the master-inventor of instruments Bart Hopkin. Instead of one prong per note, this creation has 14 closely spaced prongs per note. Each group of tines is tuned to octaves and fifths in the range of three to four octaves. The sound is created by sliding across multiple prongs of a selected note using a thin stick-like plectrum. There are twelve such groups forming a chromatic scale.
Since each group spans several octaves, melodies can be played creatively by focusing on specific notes. Teeth are made of narrow stainless steel fixing screws, adjustable in length with hex nuts in the base. In addition, most screws are tone-tuned with additional hex nuts that serve as adjustable length weights.
The end result is a mesmerizing liquid metallic tone perfect for your next song that calls for a truly unique tone.
We started with a close-up of The U in wide-angle stereo. For the second microphone position, we used a tetrahedral binaural microphone to give you a first-person experience with an intimate and enveloping sound.
We’ve included a range of playable tuned and un-tuned articulations to give you complete freedom. And in the classic Soundiron tradition, we’ve also included sonic textures, pads and tones that take the concept beyond its material source and into the realm of pure imagination. They can be played, layered, modulated and mixed together with natural acoustic articulation to achieve an endless variety of new sound combinations.
U offers you a wide, flexible palette of musical colors and is equipped with easy-to-use layer blending, performance tools and special effects that awaken your creativity.
The Kontakt interface includes a set of automation-ready sound shaping controls for complete creative flexibility. You have control over swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse and fine), articulation switching, crossfading and layering, and more. We’ve also included 20 unique sound effect presets to give you tons of creative options.
This library comes with an adaptable LFO system with selectable LFO shape, modulation target, rate, intensity, tempo sync and decay time. You can also apply your choice of 12 low-pass, high-pass and FX filters with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, mod wheel, expression, post-tap, key position, and step sequencer table control. Our customizable arpeggiator offers a velocity table and controls for direction, timing, swing, randomization and arpeggio duration. We have included a key and scale lock system to limit your notes to common scales and keys for easier melodic composition and live performance.
The interface is complemented by our modular FX rack panel with 18 different DSP effect modules that you can assign to any of the 10 available slots in any order. You’ll find classic phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cabinet simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator, and more. The Reverb Effect includes our favorite convolution reverb impulse responses, including 99 different rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor environments, plus 40 more customizable FX impulses to radically transform sound and open up whole new worlds of musical possibilities. We’ve added a great bank of factory presets for the FX chain to get you started!
• 2 Master presets and 20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets
• 1 Unique Hand-crafted steel lamellophone
• Plucks, Bowed Shorts, Bowed Sustains, Glisses, Percussion, FX
• 24-bit, 48 kHz Stereo Lossless NCW Format.
• 7,694 Stereo Samples
• 5.04 GB Installed (8.89 GB Uncompressed)
• Made for the free Kontakt Player (version 6.1+), Komplete Kontrol, all S-Series Keyboards and NKS software and hardware by Native Instruments