Diving Deeperįor many users, the Main Page will be all you need to jump in and start creating music with Box Factory. The spread control randomises the panning and pitch of each stacked sample, resulting in a larger and wider ensemble. At the lowest setting, each sample is played at the same time at the highest setting, the ensemble will play with looser timing. The Looseness control adds random timing variation between each stacked sample. The Ensemble Stack feature allows the ensemble size to be increased by layering RR samples together. This gives you a lot more sound sculpting control than could be achieved with external effects alone. For example, pushing the Squash and Saturation on their own will add grit and character to the hits, but could result in the room tails building up or the transients getting lost, so combining these with the punch and decay trim controls lets you tame the room and add the transients back. These controls are very powerful when used in combination. Unlike the Saturate control, the Squash control is applied to the whole signal. The compressor’s settings have been carefully set up under-the-hood to match the source material perfectly, letting you easily dial in the desired amount of compression with a single knob. Squash – This adds compression to the signal, to add glue and cohesion to the ensemble.The saturation is applied to each voice separately (rather than to the whole output) which results in a ‘cleaner’ tone shaping effect which doesn’t break apart when multiple boxes are playing together. Saturate – From subtle tape warmth to aggressive distortion, this control can drastically change the flavour of each hit.This is especially useful if you want the large spacious sound of the Far mics, but without the long reverb tail getting in the way during fast playing. The Decay Trim control allows you to reduce the natural room decay, resulting in a tighter sound. Decay Trim – In some situations, the natural reverb tail from the samples may be less desirable.Punch – This shapes the attack of each hit, emphasising the transient and creating a punchier sound.When you first load the library, you’ll be presented with the Main Page, which houses all the essential controls for dialling in your own sound. The Interfaceįor Box Factory, we have built an intuitive Kontakt interface from the ground up, featuring some powerful new features for controlling and customising the included articulations, but with a familiar simplicity that should feel right at home if you’ve used any of our other libraries. These signals can be blended with ease using the ‘perspective’ slider, or controlled with greater precision using the separate microphone faders, letting you dial in the perfect amount of ambience, whether you want a dry ‘studio’ sound, or a spacious sound which sits at the back of a mix. With an emphasis on dynamic range, the Snappy mix is super responsive under the fingers and feels great to play.Įach of the four mixes include three individual microphone perspectives ( Close, Mid and Far). This mix offers short and snappy hits with sharp transients and a less roomy sound. Snappy – While the Aggressive and Gritty mixes are focused on hyping the raw recordings so they sound larger than life, the Snappy mix is the opposite.The Gritty mix is our personal favourite. Gritty – This mix chain uses some pretty unusual processes (including running the signal through a bass amp!), and offers a very powerful sound with some real mojo, and a particular emphasis on the mid-range.The heavy compression and saturation in this mix bring out the ambience in the room mics, and this can be manipulated further with the ‘Punch’ and ‘Decay Trim’ controls to yield a wide range of results. Aggressive – With a carefully selected processing chain, the Aggressive mix turns up the heat and adds some extra dirt and girth.With just some gentle processing to enhance and polish the raw recordings, the Natural mix is perfect for those situations where an organic, un-hyped sound is required. Natural – This mix is the closest sound to the source recordings.From these recordings, we created four distinct mixes – Natural, Aggressive, Gritty, and Snappy – giving you a diverse palette of sounds to complement any musical style. Using a selection of 32 top shelf microphones from Neumann, Coles, DPA and Senheiser, we captured the ensembles from multiple perspectives in the room. We returned to the same concert hall where we recorded Glacier Keys, Frozen Percussion, Dulciano, and many others.