WATERPHONE BY SONICCOUTURE
KK-ACCESS REVIEW
There are already a few Waterphone libraries floating around in the sample library marketplace, although in many cases these largely consist of static recordings that feature little in the way of user interaction or sound design possibilities.
In this, their new release Waterphone, SonicCouture are aiming to treat us to the best of both worlds, by providing us with two versions of the instrument in the same package.
In no particular order, one is a phrase based instrument, offering a veritable plethora of sampled Waterphone phrases, the other is a finely sampled and playable instrument with multiple articulations, allowing users the opportunity to further sculpt the sounds to their personal taste.
ON THE WATERFRONT
The vast majority of us will certainly have heard the sound of a Waterphone, even if we don’t exactly know what it is.
This somewhat unusual instrument has a comparatively short history of existence, having finally come to fruition in 1975 following the invention, development, and marketing by it’s inventor Richard Waters.
The distinct discordant squealing and metallic textures have graced no small number of supernatural or horror soundtracks, and as someone who has scored more than one or two from this genre in his time, I can fully appreciate and vouch for it’s atonal appeal, even if for others it may not seem at all musical or pleasant upon the ears.
For the uninitiated, the instrument itself consists of a metal bowl with a cylindrical neck, with bronze rods of varying lengths and thick nesses around the rim of the bowl.
The bowl can also contain water, which gives the instrument it’s characteristic inharmonic’s and uniquely unworldly timbres.
Interacting with the Waterphone can take several forms, including bowing, tapping, and striking with wooden or rubber mallets, and this no rules approach lends itself to some good experimentation opportunities, this is apparent particularly as SonicCouture have gone to the trouble of capturing the sounds with various microphone types during the recording process.
TECH SPECS
Waterphone runs in either the full version of Kontakt 7.6 and higher, or the Free Kontakt Player, and is compatible with Komplete Kontrol.
Installation requires 6GB of disk space, being compressed in NCW format from the original 12GB source material.
The 3,545 samples are 24bit, 48kHz ensuring excellent clarity.
There are two master Kontakt NKI files, one for the Waterphone Phrases Instrument, the other for the Waterphone Unwrapped Instrument (more of which later).
There are a further 36 Kontakt NKSN snapshot presets for each of these instruments, giving a total of 72 patches as starting points.
DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION
Download & Installation is best handled entirely using Native Access upon serial registration, although it is possible to obtain your product from the SC website.
Komplete |Kontrol will quickly add Waterphone to your browser using auto scan, so you will be up and running in no time at all.
KOMPLETE KONTROL PLUG-IN EDIT NKS PARAMETER MAPPINGS
Waterphone Unwrapped
Page one – Mixer, Articulation & Amp Envelope
Knob 1 – Microphones
Knob 2 – Contact
Knob 3 – Resonance
Knob 4 – Articulations: Bowed Sustain, Bowed Accent, Mallet Rubber, Mallet Wood, Tuned Sustain, Tuned Accent
Knob 5 – Attack
Knob 6 – Decay
Knob 7 – Sustain
Knob 8 – Release
Page Two – Filter
Knob 1 – Cut-Off
Knob 2 – Resonance
Knob 3 – Velocity
Knob 4 – Envelope
Knob 5 – Attack
Knob 6 – Decay
Knob 7 – Sustain
Knob 8 – Release
Page Three – LFO, Pitch, Strum, & Expression
Knob 1 – LFO Rate (Expressed in Hz)
Knob 2 – Pitch
Knob 3 – Amp
Knob 4 – Filter
Knob 5 – Pan
Knob 6 – Pitch (Global)
Knob 7 – Strum
Knob 8 – Expression
Page Four – Harmonic & Water
Knob 1 – Harmonic X Fade
Knob 2 – Depth
Knob 3 – Rate
Knob 4 – Fade-In
Knob 5 – Water (Depth)
Knob 6 – Rate
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated
Page Five – EQ
Knob 1 – Frequency
Knob 2 – Gain
Knob 3 – Frequency
Knob 4 – Gain
Knob 5 – frequency
Knob 6 – Gain
Knob 7 – Frequency
\Knob 8 – Gain
Page Six – Space, Stereo & Saturation
Knob 1 – Space On/Off
Knob 2 – Mix
Knob 3 – Size
Knob 4 – Pre-Delay
Knob 5 – High Pass Filter
Knob 6 – Low Pass Filter
Knob 7 – Stereo Width
Knob 8 – Saturation
Page Seven – FX
Knob 1 – FX Insert 1 On/Off
Knob 2 – FX Insert 2 On/Off
Knob 3 – FX Insert 3 On/Off
Knob 4 to 8 – Unallocated
Waterphone Phrases
*The Waterphone Phrases NKS mapping is similar to that of the Unwrapped template, with the following differences pertinent to the instrument functionality:
Page One – Knob 4 – Pitch plus or minus 36 notes (instead of articulations)
Page Three – Knob 6 & 7 Pitch & Strum are omitted
ACCESSIBILITY
It’s always a real pleasure to write a SonicCouture product review, as they are mindful of accessibility needs during the NKS mapping process, generally anything missing is often due to the limitations of NKS itself.
I noted that the sample start, sample reverse and the focus feature were not included within the NKS template (the latter Focus control allows a single phrase sample to be spread across the range of your keyboard).
Assuming this is down to a technical limitation, SonicCouture have at least provided a good number of snapshots to cater for the needs of most users.
WATERPHONE – A DEEP DIVE IN
The available microphone controls allow us to blend between a traditional mic, contact mic and the sympathetic resonance samples (the sub harmonics of the direct sound).
The resonance is also assigned to the mod wheel, meaning that it is possible to introduce these additional dissidents on top of the direct sound, giving a sense of slowly unfolding dread.
The articulation control (found in the Waterphone Unwrapped instrument),lets us switch between a number of sampled articulations, these being Bowed Sustain, Bowed Accent, Mallet Rubber, Mallet Wood, Tuned Sustain, & Tuned accent.
The latter two articulations Tuned Sustain & Tuned Accent are worthy of note, as the unstable nature of the Waterphone as a chromatically playable instrument mean that the ability to achieve a perfectly tuned instrument is akin to playing Mozart on a set of Highland bagpipes, in the real world, it most likely ain’t going to happen!
However, through the wonders of modern sampling technology (ie Kontakt 7), Soniccouture have mostly been able to achieve the near impossible, giving the Waterphone an added dimension of tonality that should assist composers to fit the Waterphone into a more contemporary setting.
Also onboard the user interface are more traditional envelope generation tools in the guise of ADSR for amplitude and filter.
Actually, one of my favourite tools within the Waterphone NKS interface is the strum control, using this Kontakt Scripting code works quite effectively for the Waterphone, and dials up a multiple metallic note strum, the kind of sound you get when you rake a stick across some metal railings, much to the annoyance of passing tutting pedestrians.
I found that this could be a little tricky to do in a recording performance situation using just the single NKS control, so instead I assigned the Strum control (which incidentally is labelled as position in my DAW, Reaper), to the mod wheel, and this worked very well if I held down a few notes and then manually rode the wheel.
Further customisation is possible through the LFO, EQ, Space (Reverb), and Harmonic/Water Pages.
the latter Harmonic & Water page is a way of controlling the degree of harmonics, and the water control even increases or decreases the depth of H2O present in the bowl, (now that’s what I call detail!).
With the Waterphone Phrases instrument, the NKS mappings are quite similar, with only a couple of omissions where the same NKS controls are not relevant, such as the multiple articulations.
Here, the captured phrases have been assigned to there own key and spread across the octaves of your Komplete Kontrol keyboard, this I think is a fair compromise for us, as we are unable to access the GUI sample browser where sighted users can pick & mix their phrases, so SonicCouture have done their up most to include all of the sample phrases through the factory presets.
I was half expecting to see the inclusion of the SonicCouture Euclidian Engine, or some sort of sequencing mechanism within the control set, however this did not make the cut, and I’m sure there would have been an understandable technical reason for this, of course if you wish to experiment with automatic note generation, try hitting the arp button on your Komplete Kontrol keyboard, as this can occasionally yield interesting results!
Do make a point of checking out the walkthrough demos linked as always at the footer of this review, in order to gain further auditory insights into this fascinating instrument.
CONCLUSION
Without doubt, SonicCouture certainly excel in the creation and sampling of this type of leftfield instrument.
For those indulging in film, soundscape, media, game, ambient, & experimental avant garde composition, then Waterphone may well tick many of your boxes.
Waterphone by SonicCouture can be purchased from their website with an introductory discount of 30% at the time of writing for £79.00 (regular price £119.00)
Waterphone Product Page:
https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/35-rare-and-unique/g80-waterphone/
Waterphone Product Tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP6fyfLGzaA
Waterphone Preset Tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ign62Va1CNI
Waterphone User Manual:
https://www.soniccouture.com/files/pdf/Waterphone_User_Guide.pdf
(c) Chris Ankin
KK-Access.com
3rd November 2023
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 as a freelance review writer and contributor with articles published in Sound On Sound, Home & Studio Recording and ST Format Magazines.
He has also successfully worked extensively in and around the music, recording, film Soundtrack scoring, Game & media composition, the creative arts, Charitable trusts,publishing, music streaming and property investments since 1982 whilst continuously and deliberately managing to evade any mainstream recognition under his own name by the use of various pseudonyms.
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