Slate and Ash PRIMARIES STRINGS v1.0.1 [KONTAKT]

PRIMARIES / STRINGS explores solo strings as a fundamental colour in the orchestral spectrum. Notes behave like vibrant rays of light, merging together into abstract expressions of colour and texture.

NEW ORCHESTRAL COLOUR

With a focus on intricate performance, expanded techniques, and spatial exploration, PRIMARIES / STRINGS blends solo performances into rich, ensemble arrangements.

Spanning over 100 multisampled articulations and immersed in a variety of distinct spatial environments, each member of the string family – bass, cello, viola, and violin – provides a range of unique tones and experimental performance approaches, capturing an expansive gradient of emotive colour.

REFRACTED IMPRINTS

Beginning at our state-of-the-art Bristol studio, articulations were recorded as concept-led explorations, each capturing a naturally unfolding performance in hyper-detail.

Each articulation is a standalone exploration: a fluid, organic encounter – every note a freeform performance that disrupts the confines of mechanical reproduction. Space, silence and human nuance play an active role in shaping each sound, adding depth and texture that thrives in the margins.

EXPANDING THE CANVAS

Every recording was re-amplified through a series of iconic spaces and physical processes, transforming them into an extended palette of shade and tonality.

Each space unlocks a new perspective, refracting and imprinting its presence onto the string recordings, expanding the spatial palette of each articulation.

The iconic Funkhaus studios in East Berlin, designed by Bauhaus architect Franz Erlich, was historically used as a broadcast complex for German radio. Its cavernous echo chamber is a cathedral of brutalist concrete and cubist angles, imbuing recordings with industrial reflections that are simultaneously haunting and beautiful.

FULL SPECTRUM PERFORMANCE

PRIMARIES / STRINGS is a full-spectrum collection of uniquely expressive string articulations.

It offers everything from layered, evolving textures to lyrical, flowing melodic phrases; from rich, resonant intervallic shifts to deep, cinematic gestures with booming low tones, haunting atonal slides, and percussive pizzicato swarms.

Space is deliberately built into each articulation, enabling phrases and dynamics to intertwine, creating a pointillist interplay where instruments complement each other in a layered, dimensional soundscape. This approach results in an arrangement where each instrument’s voice blends distinctly within the bigger picture.

The full capabilities of the articulations are realised in the EXPRESSIONS presets, enabling unparalleled emotive performance using the mod wheel. Beyond typical dynamic control, each preset creates dynamic gestural moments in real-time. This opens up a new level of natural depth to live performance, shaping sequences that adapt effortlessly to your control.

A KALEIDOSCOPE OF ORCHESTRAL MANIPULATION

Through a multitude of processing options, PRIMARIES / STRINGS opens up avenues of possibilities that blur the line between acoustic and electronic, organic and synthetic.

In over 150 sound-designed presets, the raw string sounds are transformed into a wide palette of reinterpreted textures, drones, statements, and synthetic pulses, each fully malleable ready to be explored.

IMPORT YOUR OWN SAMPLES

Simply drop a sample onto the interface to load it into the PRIMARIES / STRINGS engine.

Up to ten separate samples are supported simultaneously – five for each layer – or individual elements of the native orchestral patches can be swapped with custom samples. From there, samples can be pitch-shifted, mixed, enriched with effects, and transformed through the sound design engine into something entirely new.

Requires free NI Kontakt Player or NI Kontakt FULL v6.7.0 or higher!