Soprano Textures By Emergence Audio
KK-Access Review
Emergence Audio have followed up on the success of their previous release ‘Violin Textures’ (reviewed here back in February), with the release of Soprano Textures, which offers composers the ability to add beautiful vocal Soprano ambiences to their productions.
The library which is again housed within Emergence Audio’s bespoke ‘infinite Emotion Engine’, provides owners with 55 NKI based presets with a further 14 NKM multi’s all delivered with an exceptionally small data footprint of a mere 173mb, which is further testimony to the power of the engine, and ample evidence that good things can indeed come in small packages, which in this case if you grab it now also includes the very modest launch price.
Tech Specs
Soprano Textures runs in Kontakt 6.6 or later, either full or free Kontakt Player, and is NKS ready for use within Komplete Kontrol.
The 173mb source samples were recorded at 24bit 48kHz
Download & Installation
Download is courtesy of Native Access, meaning it is a simple matter of pasting in your post purchase license code, and then installing the library to your preferred system location, and with such a small download the whole process takes literally minutes, including the scanning into the Komplete Kontrol database.
Plug-In Edit NKS Parameters
Page One – LFO/Master/Main FX
Knob 1 – LFO Cross fade Expressed as a percentage
Knob 2 – LFO Speed Expressed as Hz or beat values (dependent upon loaded preset)
Knob 3 – LFO Intensity expressed as a percentage
Knob 4 – Master Volume
Knob 5 – Main FX Reverb
Knob 6 – Delay
Knob 7 – Distortion
Knob 8 – Stereo Width
Page Two – Layer 1 & Layer 2 Envelope
Knob 1 – Layer 1 Attack
Knob 2 – Layer 1 Decay
Knob 3 – Layer 1 Sustain
Knob 4 – Layer 1 Release
Knob 5 – Layer 2 Attack
Knob 6 – Layer 2 Decay
Knob 7 – Layer 2 Sustain
Knob 8 – Layer 2 Release
Page Three – Layer 1/Layer 2
Knob 1 – Layer 1 Volume
Knob 2 – Layer 1 Pan
Knob 3 – Layer 1 Tune
Knob 4 – Layer 1 Unallocated
Knob 5 – Layer 2 Volume
Knob 6 – Layer 2 Pan
Knob 7 – Layer 2 Tune
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Four – Layer 1 Filter/Layer 2 Filter
Knob 1 – Layer 1 LP Cut-off
Knob 2 – Layer 1 LP Resonance
Knob 3 – Layer 1 HP Cut-off
Knob 4 – Layer 1 HP Resonance
Knob 5 – Layer 2 LP Cut-off
Knob 6 – Layer 2 LP Resonance
Knob 7 – Layer 2 HP Cut-off
Knob 8 – HP Resonance
Page Five – Secondary FX/Tape FX
Knob 1 – Saturation
Knob 2 – Chorus
Knob 3 – Rotator
Knob 4 – Phaser
Knob 5 – Tape FX, Tape Warmth
Knob 6 – Tape FX, Tape Gain
Knob 7 – Tape FX, Tape Roll-off
Page Six – Lo-Fi FX
Knob 1 – Bits
Knob 2 – Sample Rate
Knob 3 – Noise
Knob 4 – Colour
Knob 5 to 8 – Not Allocated
Accessibility
As already mentioned the NKS mapping outlined above is identical to that of Violin Textures, so rather than repeating verbatim my previous comments, I will instead provide the link here:
https://kk-access.com/2022/02/12/violin-textures-by-emergence-audio/
I would still like to see the preset types tagged into banks as an additional means of speedy filtering, and the user manual remains in an image based pdf format which is sadly not screen reader friendly.
Hitting the High Notes
The presets are divided into the three and now familiar distinct types of Infinite, Correlated & Pulse flavours, the Dimension variants found in Violin Textures appearing to be omitted from this particular release.
There are six available vowel types Ah, Oh, Eh, Oo, Hm, Ee all of which were performed by singer/songwriter Arwen Fonzen as the sample sources for the library content.
Although perhaps at first glance, on the surface, this may sound simplistic in comparison to those large phrase driven and keyswitched articulation libraries, however the intent with Soprano Textures is to offer exactly that, a collection of well crafted vocal ambiences which will add that human and emotive touch to your tracks.
Despite the clear labelling on the tin stating ‘Soprano’, some of the presets do offer some creepily low pitched drone voicing’s, which can quickly transcend the vibe from beauty to beast with the simple change of patch.
CC11 expression is assigned by default, which if you are not using a pedal for Komplete Kontrol S-Series owners will be your horizontal touchstrip underneath the pitch and modwheels.
elsewhere, the modwheel is assigned to various parameters within the presets, but in general appears to use frequency cut-off to provide the opportunity to add timbre and tonality to your playing, which works really well with those infinite pad presets which will already constantly evolve over time.
Deserving special mention is the Soprano Vibrato preset, which has been set up to cleverly mimic vocal vibrato using LFO as a modulator via the modwheel, this one works quite convincingly in practice, definitely one for the Enya fans!
Do make a point of checking out the Emergence Audio preset walkthrough video linked at the review footer. There are also some other great alternative YouTube reviews that cover the content in greater detail.
Conclusion
I finalised my last Emergence Audio review by saying there was no real limits to the sample sources that could be processed within the Infinite Motion Engine.
Soprano Textures is another fantastic testimony of how a relatively meagre pool of samples can be stretched, manipulated, texturised and pitched far beyond the realms of the raw recordings.
Offering evocative shades and animated textural layers of the human voice that by far outweigh the library size and cost, Soprano Textures is another welcome addition to the Emergence Audio collective that many composers will enjoy incorporating into their music.
Soprano Textures by Emergence Audio is available to purchase at their website for the introductory price of $24.00 (at time of publication(
Soprano Textures – Product Page:
https://emergenceaudio.com/product/soprano-textures/
Soprano Textures – Preset Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz8ql1oBf9I
Soprano Textures – User Manual:
https://emergenceaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Soprano-Textures-User-Manual.pdf
(c) Chris Ankin
KK-Access.com
April 26th, 2022
Disclaimer
The author can not accept any responsibility for subsequent purchase decisions made as a result of this review,or Any inaccuracies found therein. All opinions and product functions stated are based solely on information perceived as a blind user whilst using the product and/or gathered from official factual sources such as the developer, web or supplied product manual.
About the Author
Based in Buckinghamshire, England, Chris Ankin has worked previously as a freelance review author and contributor with articles published in Sound On Sound, Home & Studio Recording and ST Format Magazines.
He has also worked extensively in, and been associated with music, recording, film Soundtrack, Game & media, the creative arts, publishing and investments since 1982 under his own name and various other pseudonyms.
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