INFINITE UPRIGHT PIANO BY EMERGENCE AUDIO

INFINITE UPRIGHT PIANO BY EMERGENCE AUDIO

KK-ACCESS REVIEW

It’s been a little while since the last release from Emergence Audio, but rest assured there has still been plenty going on behind the scenes out of the public eye.

Infinite Upright Piano the latest EA release, is one such result of this silence, and surprisingly despite the healthy number of other instruments that have already received the unique ‘Infinite’ treatment, this is the first time that the piano has taken centre stage.

I say surprise, as the Piano would seem to have been an obvious candidate for the unique Infinite Engine much earlier, however with an update of the user interface, Infinite Upright Piano is now in great shape to creatively exploit the benefits that this bespoke Emergence Audio Kontakt engine has to offer.

TECH SPECS

Infinite Upright runs in Kontakt version 7.7.3 or higher, either the full or Free Kontakt Player edition, and is compatible with all versions of Komplete Kontrol which of course needs to host the stated Kontakt version.

9.05GB of available disk space is required for the 24bit 48kHz samples, which are in the NCW lossless compression format.

There is a single master Kontakt NKI preset, with a further 183 NKSN snapshot presets.

Consistent with previous Emergence Audio releases, there are also 17 Kontakt NKM multi presets included as a bonus.

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

Being a powered by Kontakt Player library, download & installation is entirely handled by Native Access 2, and upon authorisation of the post purchase serial number everything will be taken care of for you.

Infinite Upright will be added to the Komplete Kontrol factory browser following the auto rescan after loading an instance of the plug-in.

FULL NKS MAPPINGS ARE LOCATED AT THE REVIEW FOOTER FOLLOWING THE MEDIA LINKS

ACCESSIBILITY

Emergence audio have been pretty mindful of the need for good levels of accessibility within their NKS mapping templates.

Major improvements had already been introduced sometime back, with the addition of the ability to select sample sources for each of the two sound layers directly using NKS.

The other useful feature was the mapping of the random control, allowing users to quickly auto generate new presets.

These features are once again carried forward, with a further newly added ability to apply certain FX to single or both layers simultaneously, where previously within the NKS interface they could only be applied globally.

This is a particularly useful feature for Emergence Audio to have incorporated, offering us the option to isolate certain treatments to a single layer, and thus expand the sound design capabilities further than was previously possible.

THE CRAFTING OF INFINITE UPRIGHT

Emergence Audio founder, Michael Vignola has been at the forefront of the entire Infinite Upright piano concept and design, being responsible for everything from the initial recording of the vintage 1980s Baldwin Upright piano used for the library, to the meticulous sample editing and final crafting of the presets found in the factory content.

If you already happen to own other emergence Audio libraries, then the more familiar preset categories are still present, Correlated, Alternates, Pulses, Swells, Keys, Drones, Pads, Clusters,& experiments, apart from the ‘Piano On Tape’ selection, (which is specific to Infinite Upright).

INFINITE UPRIGHT LAYERS

Being able to isolate or alternatively work jointly with the two sound layers helps tremendously with the creative process for Infinite Upright.

To this end, the Reverb, Delay, Distortion, Saturation, Lo-Fi, & Tape pages all allow the user to apply the effect either singularly or jointly to either of the layers.

Although quite understandably, from my own observations here, I was not able to apply two entirely different sets of FX adjustments for the same effect for each layer simultaneously, so the choice was either jointly, or a singular layer.

There is also another NKS page with extra effects which in this case are applied globally to both layers, and only offer minimal controls such as On or Off, Amount, or Wet/Dry mix.

these include Stereo, Rotator, Chorus, & Phaser, and as these FX get applied globally, if you really want more control for these type of FX, you could conceivably just insert a separate NKS based effect onto a second Komplete Kontrol FX slot in order to gain more options, provided you have the equivalent NKS effect product in your collection.

INFINITE DIVERSITY, INFINITE COMBINATIONS

Yes, I have to concede that I could not resist an all too obvious opportunity to insert a Star Trek phrase into this review.

However, it is with good reason, as this Trek ideology does in many ways for me at least, seem to encapsulate the working concept behind the Emergence Audio Infinite Motion Engine, which is at the heart of all of their products.

The Emergence Audio non static sampling technique, means that what you play can constantly evolve, and audibly morph over a period of time, and it’s this animated audio, in tandem with the retention of an instruments natural timbre & texture that grant the Emergence Audio libraries such a unique creative perspective for those that have already discovered them.

The included factory presets demonstrate the facets of the engine right from the get go.

Patches such as ‘a low place to fly high’ uses the pure piano sample on layer one, with it’s reversed counterpart on layer 2, the apparent simplicity of this combination is alluring in it’s Sparsity, and when played in a minimalist chord progression style with lots of pauses, it sounds particularly atmospheric as with the sustain pedal depressed, the delayed reversed notes will gently catch up and follow what you have previously played, this is just great for emotive scoring!

The mood shifts and turns more menacing with ‘Cosmic Drft I_Alternate’, here, the cosmic 1 and cosmic 2 sounds are used from the pool of sample sources.

this combines some random middle ground piano notes, playing against a backdrop of much lower pitched & random note generation, once again there are bags of atmosphere to be uncovered that invoke images of other worldly dark caverns and caves.

‘~solar Winds’ is one of the included experimental presets that help to launch the humble upright piano into the realms of avant garde, and while the samples remain derived from the Baldwin Upright piano, most would be hard pressed to identify the original source.

RANDOM ACTS OF PRESET GENERATION

If you are not among the most patient when it comes to the art of sound design, then without doubt the randomise feature is certain to appeal to you.

A quick twist of this control will automatically come up with a new preset for you, using most of the parameters of Infinite Upright, but most importantly the two underlying sound sample sources will be subject to and drawn from the sonic lottery.

I came up with a number of my own preset recipes, which I would love to be able to claim were down to my own sound design genius, however the truth is that the Infinite Upright randomiser really did most of the donkey work (no offence is intended here for any donkey loving readers!).

A couple of my creations initially had some unwanted audible clicks, however I believe that I managed to tracked this down to the distortion page, and it disappeared when I turned it off.

The resulting preset, ‘the Ghost of Liberace’ gave me a sweeping piano, which I then tempo synced to my DAW, after engaging the LFO sync, and adjusting the note values.

If my markdown abilities are improving, you may be fortunate enough to find a ‘play’ button here with a demo of my preset 🙂

Please make a point to check out the various media links at the end of the review to gain some more insightful information about the Infinite Upright library and workings of the engine.

also, if you would like to experience first hand some of the other instruments from the Emergence Audio collection, then grab yourself a copy of their free Infinite collection library, again the link is included below.

CONCLUSION

Infinite Upright is a much anticipated and welcome addition to the Infinite series, the piano is especially well suited, working really well as an instrument subject to be processed with the engine.

there are no real concerns regarding accessibility, with all of the corresponding automatable Kontakt controls finding their way to knob assignments within the Komplete Kontrol environment.

There is a huge world of fascinating instruments out there, and the Emergence Audio Infinite engine still has plenty to offer for the creative composer, it’s unique sample processing techniques can successfully meld movement with organic textures to add life to compositions.

Infinite Upright can be purchased directly from the Emergence audio website, the introductory price is $99.00 (regular price $149.00)

Infinite Upright Product Page:

Home

Infinite Upright Product Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGzIobsAJ2k

Infinite Motion Engine Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl9WdBZnawk

Infinite Upright User Manual:
https://emergenceaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Infinite-Upright-Quick-Guide.pdf

Infinite collection Free Taster Library:
https://emergenceaudio.com/product/infinite-collection/

KOMPLETE KONTROL PLUG-IN EDIT NKS PAGE MAPPINGS

Page One – Master, Main Fx

Knob 1 – Crossfade (between two sound layers)
Knob 2 – Expression
Knob 3 – LFO sync On/Off
Knob 4 – LFO speed: In Hz or beat values dependent upon sync value
Knob 5 – LFO Intensity
Knob 6 – Main FX LFO Wave: Off, Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square, Random
Knob 7 – Reverb
Knob 8 – Random: On/Off – applies the randomiser to the currently loaded preset

Page Two – Layer 1 & Layer 2 settings

Knob 1 – Layer 1 sound Selection
Knob 2 – Layer 1 Volume
Knob 3 – Layer 1 Pan
Knob 4 – Layer 1 tune plus or minus 1 Octave
Knob 5 to 8 – As above for Layer 2

Page Three – 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 to 8 – As above for layer 2

Page Four – Layer 1 & Layer 2 Filters

Knob 1 – Layer 1 Low pass cut-off
Knob 2 – Layer 1 Low Pass resonance
Knob 3 – Layer 1 High Pass Cut-Off
Knob 4 – Layer 1 High Pass resonance
Knob 5 to 8 – As above for layer 2

Page Five – Reverb

Knob 1 – Reverb On/Off
Knob 2 – Reverb Presets: multiple selections
Knob 3 – Dry/Wet Balance
Knob 4 – Pre-Delay
Knob 5 – size
Knob 6 – Low Pass
Knob 7 – High Pass
Knob 8 – Layer application: L1, L2, L1 & L2

Page Six – Delay

Knob 1 – Delay On/Off
Knob 2 – Dry/Wet Balance
Knob 3 – delay Sync: On/Off
Knob 4 – Time: Milliseconds or Beat values dependent upon sync mode
Knob 5 – Feedback
Knob 6 – Damping
Knob 7 – Delay Pan
Knob 8 – Layer Application: L1, L2, L1 & L2

Page Seven – distortion, Saturation

Knob 1 – distortion On/Off
Knob 2 – Drive
Knob 3 – Layer Application: L1, L2, L1 & L2
Knob 4 – Not allocated
Knob 5 – saturation On/Off
Knob 6 – Saturate level
Knob 7 – Layer application: L1, L2, L1 & L2

Page Eight – Lo-Fi

Knob 1 – Lo-Fi On/Off
Knob 2 – Bits: off, or selectable value
Knob 3 – Sample Rate: off, or a selectable value
Knob 4 – Noise
Knob 5 – Colour (tone)
Knob 6 – Layer Application: L1, L2, or L1 & L2
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated

Page Nine – tape

Knob 1 – Tape On/Off
Knob 2 – Gain
Knob 3 – Warmth
Knob 4 – Roll Off
Knob 5 – Layer Application: L1, L2, or L1 & L2

Page Ten – Extra Fx

Knob 1 – Stereo On/Off
Knob 2 – Width
Knob 3 – Rotator On/Off
Knob 4 – Amount
Knob 5 – Chorus On/Off
Knob 6 – Mix
Knob 7 – Phaser On/Off
Knob 8 – Mix

(c) Chris Ankin

KK-Access.com

*11TH June 2024 *

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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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