Reviews & Testimonials

“Great sounds… I love learning about instruments I never knew about. Hideaway always does a great job of digging up the esoteric. This library is great for having some real character in your eighties homages and also is very useful for ambient. There are great features here and the character is this library is what makes it a triumph. Love everything Hideaway does.”

Nicholas Johnson (via LootAudio on MICRO-5K)


“Quality Sounds… Wow, as almost every synth from Hideaway Studio, this is really excellent, lush and warm sounding. Crazy good.”

Michael Wiedmer (via LootAudio on MICRO-5K)


“Huge Sound!!… Well, as the title says, this instruments lib as huge sounds. Gorgeous ‘spacy’sounds with nice ‘lil modulation here and there, big bottom, great Filters, EQ, sat touch to colour enough patches. Each sound is carefully mastered in the way that you open it and can play with it right away. Again well done Hideaway Studio (clap clap) worth the penny for sure who likes big sounds with a great large palette for ambient stuff but not only.”

David Aknin (via LootAudio on MICRO-5K)


“THE ULTIMATE STRING PAD LIBRARY!.. Pure fun to play with this ultimate string pad library. Smooth, expressive, with depth. A lot of diverse sources are interweaved to create a very unique, powerful collection of undeniably artificial, but nevertheless superb sounding (mostly) pads. Fun to play with and inspiring to explore it… Recommended!”

Martin Juenke (via Kontakt Hub on String Collection II)


“INSPIRATIONAL SOUNDS.. You know those special instruments you occasionally come across, which have the ability to inspire and trigger a burst of ideas and creativity? The Blue Zone is one such collection. In the short time since I purchased it, these sounds have made their way into a number of tracks I have in progress for a new album of production music I’m releasing next month. There is an expansive and indefinable quality to these sounds, and Dan from Hideaway Studio has a golden ear for creating highly musical & timeless virtual instruments, with the soul & essence of the original hardware from which they are derived. Great stuff.”

Craig Richards (via Kontakt Hub on The Blue Zone)


“Polivox is a nice surprise! I expected a more generic-sounding synth instrument, but this thing has tons of character. It can do rich/evolving or cheap/oddball equally well, with a nice depth and texture throughout. The whole thing sounds more interesting and has more variety then I expected. Hideaway Studio has done a fantastic job in both the patch programming and sampling, and a lot of the character and quality of the final instrument are due to this. By the way, my Russian isn’t so good either—but when you hover your mouse over a control, it is labeled (in English, of course) in the Info pane at the bottom of the Kontakt window. In any case the interface is nicely designed and simple to learn, and the user manual is well-written, with some nice advice on playing the instrument and using the GUI.”  

Loïc Forsyth (via Kontakt Hub on Polivox)


“I have to say I’ve fallen in love with the sounds you created for the Blue Zone, they’re beautifully recorded and sampled and by far my favourite Kontakt library right now.”

Neil Davidge (Massive Attack).


“These Blue Zone sound libraries are some of my favorites. Shimmering, murky, distant, distressed, and very evocative. I love sounds that feel like they’ve been through hell on their way to the speakers, and these are right on the money. Highly recommended, and such a bargain!”

Charlie Clouser, Film & TV Composer


“Like All Hideaway Studio Products… this is stellar. It is actually hard to overstate how excellent these sample libraries are. They are clearly a labor of love. They convey the “analog” spirit, while also adding originality, musicality and taste to the mix. All of the presets are done with care, but they can be tweaked considerably as well. In my opinion these are some of the very best sample libraries available anywhere and possibly the best value of any you will find.”

Stephen Barnard


“So Happy I Found This!.. I love playing strings and this instrument is one of the best if not the best I’ve found. Right out of the box, every patch is beautiful and I look forward to building on what was provided. Sonically everything is superb, as is the great efx included with the program. Even though synth-generated, some of these patches sound better than my orchestral string programs. You can tell the value of an instrument by it’s inspirational quotient. I am 100% inspired by these. Very nice software, Hideaway Studio. Looking forward to your next products. Well worth what I paid.”

KontaktHub Customer on the String Collection..


“Amazing Diverse Beauty – The snapshots in this instrument are so inspiring. You can hear the love the developer has for these old synths and all the cool outboard he uses as well to add great flavor to the sounds. Love it!”

Jacob Golden on The Blue Zone..


“BEAUTIFUL SAMPLING OF SOUNDS. I got no further than a handful of patches before I was compelled to start turning a couple (stacked) into song form. there’s inspiration in abundance here unless you lean towards the noisy and dissonant (at least that’s my initial impression). there’s plenty of pricey synths out there for that, this is rather more a treasure-trove of useful, elegant sounds, some with a very unique twist. all functions appear to automate with ease….the interface is spare but rich….and most-importantly these instruments are immaculately sampled and presented. indeed a bargain!”

Clay Colgin on The Blue Zone (via Kontakt Hub)


“Blue Zone was my very first Hideaway Studios Kontakt library. It’s the one that got me hooked! 🙂 The fact that you’re making these great libraries with all the esoteric sources and signal chains that you use, really takes the pressure off – it means I don’t have to! LOL. Seriously, its a huge thing for me.

Thanks again Dan for making such great tools out of your experiments.”

Aric Johnson, Anti-Matter Media, LLC

Chromatix is proving to be a popular new Kontakt library.

A review was recently published by David Baer in the on-line music magazine, SoundBytes: Chromatix Review in SoundBytes

And a selection from a string of kind feedback from customers over the past few weeks:


“Thank you for this collection! I have always wanted to play a Synergy and now I can. I have only been playing for less than an hour but already am incorporating the sounds into a piece I am working on. I also appreciate the history of the instrument you relate here. What a great job!”

Philip


“I’ve been playing around with Chromatix for some time now and I think this is the best Sample-library I’ve purchased for Kontakt.  Being the restless guy I am, I usually make small tweaks to existing patches to suit my needs.

But Chromatix have made me make quite a number of sounds of my own. (If you know some of the latest releases from Hideaway you’re also aware that the way you can build sounds with different layers of samples isn’t new, So I’ve had the opportunity to make sounds this way already, in other libraries.) But there’s something about the Rhodes Chroma that appeals to my taste and makes me dive deeper and deeper into a search for new sounds. Thanks Hideaway!

I know I’ve already made a comment on this library further up, but I haven’t used any other sounds for nearly two weeks now and I thought Chromatix (or Dan) deserved a ‘thank you’.”

M:)  KVR Forum


“Bought this last week -well into double figures with my Hideaway sound sets now and this is right up there with the best of them!

I’ve never actually got my hands near a Rhodes Chroma, but I have had the privilege of hearing one in concert on a couple of occasions and this sample set captures the warm, powerful sound very well indeed.

What I’ve always particularly liked about the original Chroma’s sound is its potential for complexity and movement – that layering system! Dan has captured this aspect perfectly -as always, the GUI is superb – simple and intuitive, with the layers feature adding lots of options for experimenting and creating your own sounds.

Already using some of the sounds in a new piece and starting to create my own patches!”

ChamMusic, KVR Forum


“Just to say, I’m absolutely loving the new Chromatix sounds, particularly the minute attention to detail you’ve put into every patch. Things like Trails of Light, Galileo and Unknown Territory have a wealth of things unfolding and then the decay will offer a fluttering twist to give you just an extra sparkle of magic. Wonderful stuff!”

Simon Power, Meonsound


“Sublime. majestic. flat out gorgeous. I’ve spent about an hour just previewing patches, and I’m only through the “N”s. 🙂 I can only hope to compose pieces that are worthy of these sounds.”

Stroker_ace, KVR Forum

Just received news of a nice review by David Baer on three of Hideaway Studio’s libraries at the Sound Bytes Magazine:

Three Hideaway Studio Libraries


Some of the Many Kind Testimonials Received From Customers on Other Hideaway Studio Libraries

“This is some of the purest, strongest ear candy I’ve encountered in years.” 

GreyLion, KVR Forum


“A Little Gem.. How did I miss this one? I own many Hideaway products, but somehow this one passed me by! This is a fantastic little synth – warm, rich, punchy sounds that have that certain magical ‘something’ that makes them very special! It’s based on the old Yamaha CS01, a synth that I owned and used a lot way back in the late 1980s! ZERO 1 goes way beyond the quality of sounds that the original could produce and this is all down to the post processing done by Dan at Hideaway… That touch of tube warmth and subtle tape delay movement have produced a very capable synth right across the board…use it for leads, bass, pads etc…sounds that gel very well together in the mix. A serious bargain!”

Mark Taylor, KontaktHub Customer on the Zero-1 Synth..


“Dan, I finally had the chance to purchase Synergenesis …WOW, this is even better than expected. I’ve only been playing around with the presets for an hour or so, and BOOM, Immediate inspiration! The Synergy has been my long time favorite Vintage Synthesizer for many reasons. Thank you for bringing the Synergy back to life, especially for those who have dreamed of actually playing/programming one. You will always have my support …Long Live Hideaway Studio!”

Michael


“Wow, Dan! What a fantastic story. I cannot thank you enough for going through such enormous efforts for not only preserving these unique technological wonders for the world, but also make them available for us to play them and enjoy them for such an affordable price!! Simply awesome!”

Basspartout


“Like many guitarists, I love the retro-analog world, but can’t always reside there. But thanks to Hideaway Studio’s Dan Wilson those ‘primitivo’ tones can flourish in my digital domains. Dan is easily one of my two or three favorite sound-mongers. He doesn’t just have access to the “right” gear — his recording, processing, mixing, mastering coupled with great GUI designs by Hollow Sun’s Stephen Howell are unfailingly hip and musical. At this point I don’t even audition Hideaway’s audio demos — I just buy everything Dan makes the instant he announces it. How convenient that his products are as affordable as they are awesome!”

Joe Gore [Tom Waits,Tracy Chapman, PJ Harvey, Eels, Courtney Love, DJ Shadow, etc.]


“GREAT JOB!!   I love these new old sounds. Wobbly, retro, noisy as hell in some   cases, worn, distressed, evocative of a bakelite world…

Death to the Giant Silver Workstation…

Just great programming from an enviable source library. Unique. Saliva-prompting. Above all a profoundly musical collection of refreshingly flawed tones.”

Harvey Jones, Synth player with Sex and Sorrow, Nadia Ackerman, and Blow Up Hollywood


“when I first came across them, I spent a whole afternoon listening through in absolute wonder. They are without a doubt, some of the best tones I have ever heard & so meticulous in their detail. I’ll look forward to using them on up coming film & media production cues and in a variety of other projects, too.”

Simon Power, Composer & Sound Designer for BBC’s Doctor Who audiobooks


“Some jaw-droppingly beautiful sounds, and highly recommended!”  DavyAch, KVR Forum


“This instrument is really made with the creative musician in mind , simple , efficient, reliable and inspiring…”   Claude Samard-Polikar Musical director, musician and arranger for Jean-Michel Jarre and award winning film/video games composer. www.claudesamard.com


“I have Gforce VSM, K8U, Synth Magic, Tronsonic, etc. But after playing the demo song against a few of my fav’s, I feel like hideaway really has its own identity and spin on a familiar territory. I like the sound of its playability. It just works! Check it out.”  KK, Chronic Audio NYCwww.chronicaudionyc.com


“Just to let you know – I hate you.  I was really only going to look at your page and admire the work.  Suddenly my mouse started clicking away.  Now I have spent all my “play” money and part of my food allowance.  Expect me for dinner at some point if I can ever get away from my computer.  This stuff is just Gorgeous!”  hueynym, KVR Forum


“This is startlingly beautiful! Well done – it’s a privilege to own such a great collection of synths, and I’m happy you share them with the world. I love the sound of real orchestras, but there’s something about the synthetic voices of the 1960s and 1970s that really works well with modal and minor key pop music.”  Ray Savage


“Thanks so much for yet another great sounding, great looking and very cleverly programmed instrument! The price is equally great.  11 stars (of 10)…”  Tpot, KVR Forum


“I love the The Pentodian Resonator Choir library. I thought it would be good, but I seem to be reaching for it every time I need a choir-like sound at the moment.”   Shangsean, KVR Forum


“Pentodian Resonator Choir … Love it, absolute no brainer!!”  don1thedon, KVR Forum


“Love this thing, and not the first I bought from Hideaway and really clicked with it straight away. Keep up the good work!”  Vicshere, KVR Forum


“The Bass Machine has an awesome analogue sound to it! Loving what you can do with a bit of tweaking. Congrats on a great product.”

Phil Meadley (aka Lucidity Lo-Fi)


“Sounds beautiful. If you keep makin’ them, I’ll keep buyin’ them.” bharris22, KVR Forum


“Quite pleased inventive and creative work still happens like this. Also pleased it happens to come at this price!” thisplace, KVR Forum


“a truly inspiring, deep and unique treasure trove of organic sound. In fact, I got stuck on preset #1, Apollo Strings, and time just flew…”   Joachim Smith


“I bought S-VX yesterday and am liking it a lot. I have only just scratched the surface but I can see lots of warm, moving tones and plenty of mangling opportunities. Well done. I look forward to more from you. And the Multis inspired me to try out a few of my own – there are loads of possibilities.”  DarkStar, KVR Forum


“just bought this (S-VX), and been playing around for a bit, and every single noise that comes out of this beast is warm, lush, and straight-up INSPIRATIONAL!  i have a suspicion i’ll probably be (over)using this beast for quite some time!”  Funky Lime, KVR Forum


“First, the Noble Horns would make any soundtrack maker very happy. It has exactly the right blend of “almost acoustic” and “ageless” and “epicness”. I really, really dig the “grrraaaawwwwrr” of the sound. Amalfi Strings… yum. I think you’re at something that speaks to me in the exact right words. I cannot describe it better.”  Petri Alanko, Game & Film Score Composer (Xbox 360 game, Alan Wake)


“Listened to the demo, concluded it was a bloody lovely sound library and bought it on the spot.  Great bargain!  I think it’s a lovely set of sounds.  Really.  Right in the zone for the work I am trying to do.  Gorgeous.  You have a very good ear.”  tropicalontour, KVR Forum


“Dan,  I saw your website on Rekkerd.org recently and checked out your demos. I got thru the first Orbitone example and immediately bought both of your sample sets. From earthy to epic, it’s all there. What really impresses me is the warmth of the samples.  I’ve had some real fun combining both the Orbitone and S-VX Hybrid patches. I think the best thing that can be said of your sample sets is that it inspires me to make music!  Great work!!! Keep them coming!”  Rick G


“The sounds are so human and expressive and made me want to record something/anything immediately. I think that’s a rare skill you have, to be able to create sounds of such delicacy, detail and warmth that are also eminently playable and feel so right under the fingers.”  maestroeden.com

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Much Going On In The New Synth Workshop…

Dear all – firstly may I heartily apologize for the lack of recent postings on the blog.   I want to make it very clear that I am still very much committed to my sound design and that a considerable amount of raw sample material for new products is very much in the can awaiting attention.   As many of you know, there are two sides to my passion in electronic music both in my sound design and returning cherished vintage studio gear to its former glory.   What with there only being so many hours in the day, it is sometimes very difficult to strike a balance between these two obsessions in my life and I often end up feeling like I have let the other side down during times of particularly hard graft.

The last couple of months have been exceptional but more importantly represent a once in a lifetime opportunity…

KS GDS Refinished

Some of you may already be aware that I have practically lived with two extremely rare early groundbreaking digital synthesizers in my new synth workshop for several weeks now working very hard to return them to their former glory.   The two instruments in question represent literally two out of the three known complete existing examples in the world.  They are 1979 General Development Systems (aka GDS) originally costing $30,000 and designed in part by members of Bell Labs and MTI/Crumar.   The GDS is the instrument that became the direct basis for the wonderful DK Synergy which you have all recently heard in sampled form in Synergenesis.

One of the two examples shown here in the recent photo was owned by a very famous pioneering German EM composer and founder of a very influential EM group.  It was used extensively in number of well known recordings from the early 80s.    This is just the keyboard console – the system comprises of a very large 8-bit computer with twin 8″ floppy drives running CP/M and a large serial terminal.  Both systems are now back up and running for the first time in very many years and have been retrofitted with HxC disk emulators which is most definitely a first for this particular model of synthesizer.   This has resulted in all of the original software and the factory sound library on 8″ floppy disks being safely immortalized in a modern digital format.

For those who are interested I have blogged the progress of both restorations at the Vintage Synth Explorer forum:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=77037″

It is worth pointing out that such distractions on the hardware front are actually a great thing because all of my time spent working on such technical wonders of yesteryear serve much potential for capturing new sample material and subsequently lead to the basis of new releases. With this in mind the hope was to release such a major release for Christmas based on a significant amount of material captured from a wonderful old beast I restored earlier in the year. This library is still due for release but will now be expected in the New Year.

That said, I hope to have at least a little something to allow you all to have the opportunity to play some material captured directly from the KS GDS during testing along with a small offering with a festive edge in the next few days captured from a very rare vintage tube amplified electromechanical instrument. Also lookout for some festive offers on libraries from Hideaway Studio in the near future.

IMG_3746

May I also take this opportunity to give you all my sincere thank yous for being so supportive over the past year.   It has definitely been a year of highs and lows and the tragic loss of Stephen Howell has been extremely painful for myself and Mario and his family.    During the summer I channeled a lot of my energy into building a wonderful new synth workshop which really helped to take my mind off of things.   I even managed to finally construct an area dedicated to all of my vintage test gear which has since grown substantially.   A large chunk of these vintage wonders were used in the making of The Blue Zone series and are now very much cherished so its great to finally have a dry and warm place to store them for future use.

Hideaway Studio Proudly Presents: Synergenesis

Synergenesis Logo

Groundbreaking Pure Digital Synthesis Technology from the 1970s… in 16-bit Audio!

The 1970s were to be a magical time when a string of groundbreaking technology was conceived and developed at Bell Labs (BTL), Murray Hill, New Jersey. Many of the developments at Bell Labs have been pivotal and have subsequently played an extremely important part in shaping modern life. This includes the famous UNIX operating system (the grandfather of Linux and all its derivatives), the C Programming Language, fundamental parts of the technology that form the internet, digital telephony, satellite communications and audio/video compression techniques to name but a few.

During this time a very talented research scientist called Hal Alles was working on means to implement echo-cancellation in digital telephone systems. This led to the development of an advanced high speed digital oscillator system. On experimenting with the concept it became apparent that it might have some merit as the basis of an advanced music synthesizer using real time digital control techniques. Incredibly, Hal was permitted to setup a side project with funding to explore this notion and after very much toil and expense the Bell Labs Synthesizer or Alles Machine was born. This 300lb behemoth was nicknamed The Blue Monster or Alice for short.

At the heart of the Alles Machine was Hal’s high speed digital oscillator technology implementing 64 digital oscillators. The instrument was hosted by a DEC PDP-11 minicomputer (the same range of computers UNIX was developed on at Bell) and literally programmed in C to perform whatever task the operator wished to undertake. Needless to say without any form of dedicated controls, synth engine or patch programming interface very few musicians indeed were able to realise the true potential of Alles Machine!

Two musicians that were gifted with the necessary combination of skills to handle The Blue Monster were Laurie Spiegel and Roger Powell. Very sadly almost no recorded material has survived but the few recordings that have reveal a machine capable of generating huge evolving digital soundscapes – this is particularly apparent in Laurie’s Improvisation on a Concerto Generator from 1977.

Towards the late 1970s a number of synthesizer manufacturers became aware of the instrument including the MTI division of Crumar who saw the new technology as a means to leap ahead of the pack. A talented development team was assembled and it was agreed that Bell’s Hal Alles and Max Mathews were to offer technical advice on the best means of essentially commercialising the Alles Machine whilst making it much more accessible to every day musicians. The first instrument to be developed was the GDS (General Development System). Although the instrument was hardly inexpensive (it cost around $30,000 in 1979) an ambitious cost down exercise was undertaken to reduce the 1400 or so integrated circuits to only a few hundred. Amazingly, the design team was able to meet the stringent material cost target and the GDS was born.

Only 10 or so GDS systems were ever built but it became the sound development tool for its derivatives, the Synergy, Synergy II+ and Mulogix Slave 32. The GDS had a small number of influential owners who were able to work wonders with the new technology. This included Wendy Carlos and Klaus Schulze who released a number of albums and film scores in the very early 1980s heavily drawing on the GDS as a source of digital textures, pseudo realistic timbres and percussion.

Enter The DK Synergy…

Synergy 01 lr

Following the GDS was the Synergy (DK-1) which relied on the identical 32 high speed oscillator subsystem but coupled to a dedicated Z80 controller thus enabling the instrument to operate stand alone relying on voice cards plugged into the front panel to permit the user to select between or layer up to 4 combinations of 32 patches. A few years later a clever upgrade was offered to basically return the programming ability of the GDS to the Synergy through the use of an external host computer manipulating a special memory area known as VRAM. This variant was known as the Synergy II+ but was not sold in great numbers thanks in part to the release of the considerably more affordable DX7.

More Than Additive…

All variants were more than simply large banks of digital sine wave generators as found in more traditional additive synthesizers. They were unusual in that the oscillators could produce both sine and distorted triangular waveforms which could be combined in a very flexible manner ranging from straight additive synthesis, phase modulation or combinations of both. This meant that far more harmonically complex sounds could be generated without having to resort to a massive array of sine oscillators. Not only was the oscillator topology complex but the modulation abilities were truly groundbreaking. Each oscillator had its own envelope and a whole raft of real time modulation could be applied to each control parameter including the notion of switching between low and high velocity parameter sets.

Risen from Near Obscurity – Reviving Synergy #01205

Time has not been kind to the Synergy with many examples having perished years ago. Needless to say that very few have experienced a working Synergy let alone a full II+ system first hand in recent times.

Quite by chance earlier in the year I stumbled across a now very rare 1983 Synergy II+ in a rather burnt out state with a very interesting past. After a few days of intense research I was able return this poor beast to working order and I set about the soon to be arduous task of finding a suitable Kaypro II computer to be coupled to it to run the infamous synHCS host control application. The task of tracking down a working Kaypro was tricky enough in the UK but the task of running an OS, finding working application software, making a suitable serial cable to connect the two machines, configuring the link and locating the factory patches in the correct format proved to be a major headache.

Into the 21st Century…

As has been such an effective retrofit on other vintage instruments such as the Emulator II, with the invaluable help of its inventor, Jean-François DEL NERO, I successfully managed to install a superb HxC floppy disk emulation system in place of one of the 5.25” disk drives and embarked on the ludicrously tedious task of manually converting the disk images of the entire GDS/Synergy Factory Sound Library to virtual disks. This permitted me to audition several hundred patches in awe of this groundbreaking digital wonder…

Sampling the Beast

Synergenesis GUI

I decided to capture a broad selection some of the more impressive sounds. This turned out to be a bigger task that I had envisaged and after many tens of hours of run time the beast died in front of my eyes and after several hours of mild panic I determined that the very elderly and rather grizzly switch mode power supply had failed. To my great relief the beast was returned to operation the following day having retrofitted a modern high efficiency equivalent in its place (which was half the size of the original!).  During my time sampling the Synergy a curious feeling crept over me that I have very rarely experienced whilst sat in front of a vintage instrument – that of sheer wonder that a team of engineers had the vision and bravery to develop an instrument so very ahead of its time and so different from those of the day. In fact, despite the number of wonderful vintage synths I get work on these days, the last time I felt this way was when I was returning the infamous 1938 Novachord #346 to life.

 In short, I hope you enjoy playing the sampled instruments as much as I’ve enjoyed making this library…

Synergy Percussion

The GDS/Synergy II+ is surprisingly capable of synthesizing all manner of percussive sounds including many of a similar but not identical nature to their analog counterparts from drum machines of yesteryear.

As well as the main body of instruments Synergenesis features over 220 percussive samples capturing a significant proportion of the drum patches featured in the original factory instrument library which dates back to the early 1980s. They have been presented as two main drum kits and as a series of sets primarily intended to permit the user to preview them and experiment with filtering and dynamics on select sounds. Multiple instruments can then be used in this manner over a number of midi channels if required. More technically minded users can remap the drum sets as they wish in Kontakt.

WAV Samples

The drum sounds in this library are also presented in .wav format.

As well as the original 24-bit samples the percussion is also presented in 16 and 8-bit formats (all at 44.1KHz sample rate) in their respective folders for use on a wide range of software based sample players and applications as well as a number of hardware samplers such as the MPC series.

System Requirements:

This library requires the full version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or higher.
Approximately 1GB of free hard disk space is required.

Download Contents:

952 24-bit Samples*
298 Drum Samples in 8, 16 & 24-bit .wav format
61 Example Instruments*
48 Example Layered Multis*
User Manual
Audio Demo
Live music demo “The Max Factor” – recorded directly from one of the recently restored ultra-rare G.D.S. instruments*

*includes a multi-sample from the recently restored 1979 Crumar GDS (see news section)

More Details & Purchase via Kontakt Hub

Credits

D.A.Wilson (Hideaway Studio) Synergy Restoration & Patch Design, Sample Capture, Example Patches & Demos. Stephen Howell (Hollow Sun, RIP) UI Concept, GUI Design & Graphics. Mario Krušelj Synth Engine Script

HS-4KL-A016 26/09/14HideawayStudioLogo

Hideaway Studio Proudly Presents: 6-Trax…

6-Trax Multi GUIPresenting: 6-Trax…

The Little Synth That Could…

In 1984 Dave Smith and his team at Sequential Circuits released the Six-trak which was one of the first instruments not only to feature the then new MIDI control system but was an early multitimbral offering. This was quite a technically advanced feature to be seen on what was a relatively affordable synthesizer in those days. Although we all know Dave Smith as a master of analog synthesizer design, whilst working on his designs, I am often left thinking that in fact he really should be better praised for his programming skills! Fitting a whole multi-timbral synth control system with patch recall, an arpeggiator, a sequencer, a stack facility and an extremely full midi CC implementation into a humble Z80 microcontroller running at 4MHz with its code residing on one tiny 16Kbyte EPROM is really quite an accomplishment!

Although very much overshadowed by the infamous Prophet 5, the Six-trak offers 6 real VCOs and analog filters courtesy of Curtis (CEM3394) which much to my delight self-oscillate in such a controlled manner that they can easily double up as second oscillators with a bit of careful programming.

As is so often with my ever growing collection of vintage synths at Hideaway, Six-trak number 1551 came in dead and was singing sweetly again after a few days of attention on the slab armed with the oscilloscope and soldering iron.

Having rescued this little beasty from the grave I was confronted with an empty patch memory so I set about programming up 100 new patches which resulted in a mammoth sampling session rendering over 4Gbytes of material that was auditioned in Kontakt. Having cherry picked some 70 or so of my favorites I set about looping some 870 or so samples and programming up 100 new instruments in Kontakt.

SixTrak_Repaired

I have to say I was quite surprised by what I managed to get out of what on paper is quite a humble 1-OSC per voice polysynth. I think there are a few reasons for this – firstly I found the Six-trak to have quite a dark nature to its sound and the filters are great with the whole self oscillation thing launching it into sometimes complete instability but on other occasions rendering bells and percussive sounds aplenty. The way the VCAs are also setup permits the filter to be somewhat overdriven which adds another dimension to its sound.

The decision was made to capture almost all of the material directly from the Six-Trak as the instrument has quite a warm nature right out of the box. A small handful of the patches were post processed by feeding the audio through the wonderful triple chorus stage of the 1972 Eminent 310U to impart an extremely rich texture.

It is worth noting, as with all of my sampled vintage synth collection, that although the raw captured material is totally authentic many of the instruments in the library explore many new avenues. That said, I think many would be quite surprised what I managed to conjure out of this little wonder.

It has indeed been a fair while since my last release.   Behind the scenes I have been extremely busy overhauling and restoring a whole raft of vintage synths including two rare and very special old beasts.  These and others will form the basis of several planned major releases over the next few months…

System Requirements:

This library requires the full version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or higher.
Approximately 650MB of free hard disk space is required.

Download Contents:

871 24-bit Samples
69 Example Instruments
31 Example Layered Multis
User Manual
Audio Demo

More Details & Purchase via Kontakt Hub

“Some jaw-droppingly beautiful sounds, and highly recommended!”  DavyAch, KVR

Credits

D.A.Wilson (Hideaway Studio) Six-Trak Restoration & Patch Design, Sample Capture, Example Patches & Demos. Stephen Howell (Hollow Sun, RIP) UI Concept, GUI Design & Graphics. Mario Krušelj Synth Engine Script

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Hideaway Studio Presents: Aliasonix…

Aliasonix Promo Pic 04An Early Soft Synth… Running on a 30 Year Old Home Computer!?

Most should realise by now that I have a fascination for rediscovering old technologies and combining the best of them in a constant attempt to create something new and unusual. Some of you will also know that I’m a big fan of the retro computing scene and especially the demo music scene that grew up around it during the mid ‘80s and into the ‘90s. Almost all of the time my technological foraging involves trawling up some physical lump of hardware but on recently rekindling my love of ProTracker on the Amiga I got curious one day and wondered if perhaps someone had attempted to not just play back samples as in Karsten Obarski’s pioneering Ultimate Soundtracker (that came close to bringing Fairlight Series II functionality to the unwashed masses on two floppy disks in 1987!) but rather to synthesize them from scratch…

What I was expecting to find was some sort of crude utility that took some basic settings and then went off and slowly processed a few waveforms to load into a sampler. To my amazement what I actually found was a relatively unknown program called Aegis Sonix released circa 1989 that managed to implement a full 4 voice subtractive soft synthesizer with a digitally modeled low pass filter and realtime dynamics control running purely in software.. on a 30 year old Amiga 500!! This predates even Dave Smith’s first soft synth for the PC by several years and surely must be one of the earliest ever examples of a purely software based real time subtractive synthesizer running on a home computer. It even has some pretty nifty features such as hand drawn oscillator waveforms and LFOs and a cool feature to add 2nd and 3rd order harmonics to any waveform.

So what does it sound like? Having finally tracked down a working copy of this relatively rare software my expectations were not that high but to my surprise what transpired was so primitive in nature that it imparted significant character in its gloriously aliased 8-bit audio. The filters really worked but in an odd way, the dynamics control and phaser effects full of steppy artefacts and most excitingly of all – it sampled beautifully rendering two octaves of MC68000 generated goodness.

I ended up programming up some 40 or so patches and set about capturing 630 samples in 24-bits directly from the line outputs of a recently acquired Amiga A1200.

It must be noted that Aliasonix is entirely based on waveforms captured from a low sample rate 8-bit source and therefore noise, glitches, stepping and aliasing are very much part of the intended charm and character of this library.

But what about combining technologies old and new?.. Feeding the raw aliased nature of the original 8-bit waveforms into smooth filters in a modern synth engine results in something more similar in nature to early digital/analog hybrid instruments such as the PPG Wave, µWave I and Mirage.

Introducing a Powerful New Synth Engine

Aliasonix GUIAliasonix is the first release from Hideaway Studio to feature a powerful new synth engine developed by Stephen Howell at Hollow Sun and his scripting guru, Mario Krušelj. Dubbed “Solo” the new engine is particularly well suited to serving lead and solo instruments with powerful real time modulation in a highly intuitive user interface.

More Details & Purchase via Kontakt Hub

Download Contents

630 24-bit Samples, 70 Instruments with edit and save ability, 31 Layered Multis, New feature rich synth engine, Audio demo & Manual.

Credits

D.A.Wilson (Hideaway Studio) Sonix Patch Design, Sample Capture, Example Patches & Demos. Stephen Howell (Hollow Sun, RIP) UI Concept, GUI Design & Graphics. Mario Krušelj Synth Engine Script.

HideawayStudioLogoHS-4KL-A014 14/12/13

Hideaway Studio Proudly Presents: The Blue Zone 01-25 Special Edition

“These Blue Zone sound libraries are some of my favorites. Shimmering, murky, distant, distressed, and very evocative. I love sounds that feel like they’ve been through hell on their way to the speakers, and these are right on the money. Highly recommended, and such a bargain!”

Charlie Clouser, Film & TV Composer.

“when I first came across them, I spent a whole afternoon listening through in absolute wonder. They are without a doubt, some of the best tones I have ever heard & so meticulous in their detail. I’ll look forward to using them on up coming film & media production cues and in a variety of other projects, too.”

Simon Power, Composer & Sound Designer for BBC’s Doctor Who audiobooks

TBZ0125_Promo ImageThe Blue Zone, was originally incrementally released as an on-going series of one-off experimental electronic textures and instruments which grew over a year to form a unique sound library. It proved to be extremely popular with well over 4000 releases sold to date and now being used in TV, Film and Media studios across the world.

Since release The Blue Zone Series instruments found their way into a number of high profile projects…

Most of the sounds in the series have been created from scratch using unusual combinations of custom tube hybrid equipment, experimental analog circuits, tape delays, ring modulators, vintage analog gear and test equipment. These sounds and textures in this series are mostly but not exclusively aimed at Ambient, New Age and Sound Score genres. Each instrument is presented with a basic subtractive synthesizer interface permitting the user to further tweak the sound to suit his needs.

In celebration of the first year of the series a Special Edition release of the first 25 incremental releases are presented as one library along with their original audio demos. The instrument names have been prefixed to indicate their release number. 44 bonus layered multis have been included that span across the library – these have been prefixed with TBZxx and include several complex arpeggiated offerings. A “rogues gallery” of much of the equipment used to make TBZ01-25 can also be found in the documentation folder along with some production notes giving clues on what gear was used for each sound.

The Blue Zone 01-25 Special Edition presents all of the original incremental releases in the series and some extras…

Download Contents:

A full pre-installed download of all 22 instruments officially released to date along with the following extras is now available:

• 1GB of 24-bit samples
• TBZ13 Area_13 “The One That Got Away”
• TBZ24 Crystallum Modus
• TBZ25 Snow Flakes
• 44 New Layered Multis blending cross library textures with TBZxx prefix
• Original 78 .nkis & 56 .nkms now prefixed for easy identification of release
• Original demos for the first 25 releases (in mp3 format)
• 28 minute long compilation of select demos from the series (mp3 format)
• “Rogues Gallery” of much of the equipment used in the making of the series
• Production release note summary for clues on how each sound was made
• List of instruments and layered multis along with original release dates

More Details & Purchase via Kontakt Hub

System Requirements:

• Approximately 1.2GB of free hard disk space is required (full library)
• Kontakt 4.2.4 (full version)
• A Velocity Sensitive Keyboard is Highly Recommended
• A Sustain Pedal will prove very effective in many instances

Credits

D.A.Wilson  Custom Equipment, Sound Design and Audio Demos
Stephen Howell (Hollow Sun, RIP)  Conceptual GUI Design & Graphics
Mario Krušelj  GUI Script

HS-4KL-BZ99 (SE) & HS-4KL-BZ98 (BP) (25/11/13)

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Introducing The Hideaway e-Grand…

e-Grand GUIThe Hideaway e-Grand…

The 1938 Hammond Novachord, 1974 Farfisa Syntorchestra  and 1976 Polymoog 203A are all examples of three early polysynths capable of producing piano like timbres. The Novachord was without question the world’s first commercial all electronic polyphonic instrument designed to emulate the piano amongst other timbres.  To design something that electronically synthesized anything even remotely sounding like a piano in 1938 is nothing short of miraculous and a huge credit to the incredible ingenuity of Laurens Hammond and his fellow engineers!!  If you think I ever overstate this then look up his patents from the era – one of which is pretty much the definition of the basis of the modern analog synthesizer.  All have one thing in common in that they rely on formant synthesis to produce these tones. As is often the case, such instruments tend to exhibit sweet spots over relatively narrow registers. For while now I thought it might be interesting to try and carefully blend the best of these registers captured from the three instruments in an attempt to try and create something where an evocative, expressive and playable nature was more the end goal than realism. As it turned out the grainy organic nature of Hideaway’s very own and rather infamously “vintage calibrated” Novachord #346 provided a special ingredient in the lower registers, the Polymoog added much of the mid-range warmth and the really quite beautiful highs were thanks to the Syntorchestra with the help of the Omega 8. After much play testing the samples were carefully layered and tube equalised.

Hideaway e-Grand Wall

After bringing together such a rare combination of instruments I thought it might be quite fitting to introduce some equally unusual signal processing technology. I recently rescued a 1960’s Baldwin all tube “Panoramic” stereo spring reverb. After building a high voltage power supply and modifying the spring to be centrally excited with a piezo ceramic transducer a pseudo stereo signal could be picked up from the two ends. What is particularly unusual about Baldwin’s patented design is that the signal is AM modulated at 20KHz and passed over the spring as an ultrasonic wave. The signal at the end of the spring is then received and demodulated back to audio.

The advantage of this technology is that the spring, rather bizarrely, is nothing like as sensitive to vibration as a normal spring reverb tank. It is also much less prone to the usual ricochet effects caused by high energy transients. The frequency response is a little flatter too. Although I found the reverb was a little noisy, it sounded surprisingly dense and complex so I created a series of impulse responses and was very excited to hear they worked remarkably well as a convolution reverb.

Almost by luck it turned out that the reverb worked nicely not only on vocals but also with piano. In Kontakt some careful velocity to filter and attack mapping was applied along with sustain damper emulation. All in all, an unusual combination of instruments resulting in a nique electronic piano with quite a lot of heart.

Please note this instrument ideally requires the use of a sustain pedal.

Equipment Used

1938 Hammond Novachord #346
1974 Farfisa Syntorchestra
1976 Moog Polymoog 203A #3211
Studio Electronics Omega 8
1960’s Baldwin “Panoramic” stereo ultrasonic tube spring reverb
Two Hideaway Studio TEQ-9B Rackmount Active 9 Band Tube EQs

Sampled in 24-bits and presented in a simple but effective GUI along with 8 example patches which the user may edit and save.

Download includes a user manual and demo mp3.

System Requirements

Kontakt 4.2.4 or above
Sustain Pedal (not essential but strongly recommended)
62MB free hard drive space

More Details & Purchase via Kontakt Hub

D.A.Wilson Synth Restoration  Equipment & Sound Design
Stephen Howell (Hollow Sun, RIP)  Conceptual GUI Design & Graphics
Mario Krušelj  GUI Script

HS-4KL-A012 (11/11/13)

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A New Addition to The Blue Zone: Alien Waterscape…

Alien Waterscape GUIAlien Waterscape is the latest atmospheric addition to The Blue Zone for Kontakt 4.2.4 and above. A series of tube processed mostly white noise based SFX made with the Hideaway Studio Triple Tube Hybrid Phaser, a gorgeous 1966 Krohn-Hite 310-C all tube swept BPF, a White Noise Generator, TL Audio Tube EQ, an old 78 on a 1955 Garrard RC80M (well why not!), a very mangled bit of Blofeld and a recent very wet Atlantic Front!!

Tubed White Noise Setup

D.A.Wilson Equipment, Sound & Patch Design, Stephen Howell GUI Design & Graphics, Mario Krušelj TBZ Engine Script.

HS-4KL-BZ23 (07/11/13)

A New Addition to The Blue Zone: Panoramic Tones…

Panoramic Tones GUIPanoramic Tones was the first opportunity to try out a new (old!) piece of kit I’ve been working on – a 1960’s Baldwin all tube “Panoramic Stereo Tone Converter“.  The PTC  is an extremely unusual spring reverb in that the audio is passed over the spring as a 20KHz ultrasonic AM modulated carrier using piezo ceramic transducers.  As a result it is much more complex than the usual offerings and has a considerably more tortuous signal path.  Having built a high voltage power supply to drive the chassis I modified the spring tank itself to add a transmit transducer in the middle of the spring with receivers at the ends to impart a pseudo stereo effect.  This very clever and almost forgotten technology has a number of advantages… firstly the spring is almost totally immune to vibration and it’s quite unnerving how the occasional accidental knock doesn’t result in the usual cacophony of clangs.   Secondly the frequency response appears to be flatter and the results somehow more musical.   I have had other success with this unit but that’s for later…

Hideaway Baldwin Panoramic Tone Convertor

Panoramic Tones was made by feeding patches I dialled up in the SE Omega 8 and Supernova blended and fed hot via a tube EQ into the ultrasonic reverb.

Credits

D.A.Wilson Sound & Patch Design

Stephen Howell GUI Design & Graphics

Mario Krušelj TBZ Engine Script

HS-4KL-BZ22 (03/11/13)

A New Addition to The Blue Zone Series: Radio_TBZ…

Radio_TBZ_GUIRadio_TBZ was made with a gorgeous 1950 Pye P35 all tube short wave radio set to the 31M and 19M bands and capturing a long sample of a data carrier tone submerged in DX radio noise along with some heavily distorted distant Morse code.  Several loops were made and a number of random round robins setup.

1950 Pye P35 ChromeCredits

D.A.Wilson Sound & Patch Design

Stephen Howell GUI Design & Graphics

Mario Krušelj TBZ Engine Script.

HS-4KL-BZ21 (14/10/13)

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