COMPOSER ESSENTIALS BUNDLE BY AVA MUSIC GROUP
KK-ACCESS OVERVIEW
The current Native Instruments partner promotion (running until August22nd 2024), on the Native Instruments website, is a new partner promotion between themselves, and the Ava Music Group.
I have to confess that AVA Music Group, as a sample library developer had not really been on my radar until recently, after a well known industry Kontakt scripter got in touch with me.
He mentioned that he had been following the KK-Access reviews with interest over the past few years, and in doing so had gained an appreciation for the need for good levels of NKS implementation for accessibility, and as a consequence he now always endeavours to work out the best ways to deliver this where possible through his Kontakt KSP scripting and NKS mapping.
Amongst the several companies he codes for, was AVA Music Group, so I was keen to take a deeper look at this new promotional bundle, hopefully whilst remaining reasonably safe in the knowledge that the NKS mapping would have been applied with a good level of access.
I have decided to take a slightly different approach for this particular review, making it more of a quick overview due to the promotion period time constraints, as there are 7 products included, which would simply take so much time to work through with the usual depth of detail that I would generally favour.
WHATS INCLUDED
The composers Essential Bundle consists of 5 drum products from their Prism Series, Unity Trailer Modern Trailer Synth, & Unity Nostalgic Synth.
TECH SPECS
All of the products are Kontakt based, running in either the full or free Kontakt Player, which also means that they are Komplete Kontrol compatible.
The Prism Drum Series vary in installation size, from 67MB up to 260MB, which is pretty small compared to many modern libraries.
Unity Modern Trailer Synth is around the 560MB mark, and finally Unity Nostalgic Synth is 3.61GB.
Size of course, is not always an essential factor when it comes to sample libraries, as all of the libraries are recorded at perfectly respectable and standardised sample rates, so try not to make the mistake of judging quality with the amount of drive space a product gobbles up in the installation.
In terms of included factory presets, each of the Prism Drum products feature 10 different kits, however, there is as we shall discover later, a bit more of a detailed story going on here.
Unity Modern Trailer Synth includes around 311 snapshot presets, and Unity Nostalgic Synth has 310.
Also included with the Prism Drum libraries, is a folder that contains genre relative midi pattern files for the library in various suggested tempo ranges.
Finally to add to these flexible options, there are also wav format one shot samples for you to use as you see fit.
DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION
As you would expect, following your purchase the entire bundle including registration will be automatically deposited to your Native Instruments Native Access account.
All that you really need do, is to login, locate the bundle, hit install all, grab yourself a cup of your preferred beverage, note that if you have fast fibre then you may not even finish your drink, then after rescanning Komplete Kontrol, it’s job done, and you are all set to go and play!
ACCESSIBILITY
rather than attempting to summarise the whole bundle with a few words here, I will mention the accessibility as we progress through the content.
PRISM DRUM SERIES
Looking first at the Prism Drum Libraries, there has been some intuitive scripting work carried out here.
Each drum kit has ten different kits which also have 10 instruments, and you can select one drum sound at a time from the choice of 10 for each category, Kick, Snare, Hat, Toms etc, and then add individual FX and processing to just that one sound, rather than just the global FX total wash we sometimes see in other libraries.
Without wishing to overstate the obvious, this means that put simply you can have a dry Kick, with a massive reverb on the Snare, ping pong delay on the Hats, or whatever combination you prefer to choose.
The kits are named individually in their preset tag, but because you can select any available drum sound from any kit within each preset, it means you can mix & match and customise them to your hearts content, or at least to the limit of the available included samples!
The kits are all punchy, well recorded and in a modern style, by that I mean great for Pop, Hip Hop, Lo-Fi, Darkwave, EDM, Indie, and so on, but not in a realistic and dynamic and expressive way that you would expect to get from say the Abbey Road series, instead think of Battery style drums but with bags more access options.
The NKS mapping covers controls for compressor, Stereo, Exciter, Pitch, Transient, Reverb (with selectable presets), Delay, High & Low Pass filters, Equaliser, Master Compressor, Master Tape, Master Limiter, (the master FX being global for all kit pieces).
There is also a page labelled Groove settings, which at the moment baffles me somewhat.
With no user manual present in the documents folder, I was unable at the time of writing to verify what I think maybe the ability to drag & drop those aforementioned midi patterns into the library, which would possibly make these controls functional.
similarly, there is a final page called Secret Source, which may offer the option to use one of your own wav files as a one shot, in practice this would most likely be another drag & drop operation.
Overall, the Prism Drum libraries provide users with twelve pages of NKS controls.
The titles speak for themselves with respect to their genres, Modern Pop Drums, Organic Lo-Fi Drums, Retro Pop Drums, Taped Indie Pop Drums, & Urban Legends.
UNITY MODERN TRAILER SYNTH
This instrument as the title suggests is a useful tool for creating all manner of trailer style sounds, from Risers, Pulses, Bramms, Hits and other big, bold, brash cinematic material, there is plenty of content here to work with and forge to your own personal style.
At the heart it features a three layer sample engine, which Ava Music have defined as Red, Purple & Blue in their choice of naming conventions.
Each layer allows you to select a sound category, which is quite an extensive range, and within the category, a subsequent sample sound preset.
Blend these three possible layers together, and add your individual selections of reverb, delay, distortion, and motion FX to create and shape your own next cinematic motif.
There is an impressive amount of controls available, with a good collection of over 300 factory patches for which you can use as start points.
The only disappointment for me, was that the randomise function which is touted in the walkthrough and also the product blurb, is mysteriously absent from the NKS mapping.
Not to worry I thought, it might still be a viable option if I just bring up the automatable Kontakt parameters list in my DAW, but nope, it has definitely gone AWOL, I can sense a developer email coming on!
I also discovered that there was also a little mapping quirk, where a couple of NKS controls were reading as hash symbols, the kind we see within Battery where there are no knob assignments.
It turns out from my testing, that the category and sample preset controls for the Red layer have not been assigned to NKS controls. This is actually not a big a problem as it might have been, as those same controls are also available on a prior page.
To summarise the available NKS mapping, per layer (or colour if you prefer), there is Mix, Distortion, Reverb (with selectable presets), Delay, Movement, Shape, & Filter.
there is also a page entitled Attitude, which looks to be a globally applied Tape style effect.
Overall, there are 21 pages of NKS parameters.
UNITY NOSTALGIC SYNTH
The final offering in this bundle, is the Unity Nostalgic Synth, which has been created using samples from classic synths.
The instrument interface has much in common with the aforementioned Modern Trailer Synth, in as much as it employs a three layer Kontakt engine, this time however, the layers are referred to more conventionally as A, B, & C.
Each layer has the same category and relative preset selection mode of operation, and again there are fairly extensive per layer choices for delay, reverb, distortion, pan, filter, tune, & glide, all of which can be applied on a per layer basis.
The Shape section works as the gateway to the conventional ADSR envelopes, with the ability to first select a preset that dictates the sound type, such as short, long, long sustain, pad, short, and you then have the traditional ADSR controls to add the final touches to the envelope.
Some nice patches can be designed using a combination of long pad sustains, in tandem with shorter staccato type timbres.
The Unity Nostalgic Synth is a really useful tool which can create some perfectly functional synth sounds, without getting bogged down with an overly complex set of controls, where you just want to quickly achieve a workable solution.
Do checkout the Native Instruments walkthrough by Reuben Cornell (surely there must be some other presenters available?), linked in the media section at the review footer.
CONCLUSION
the AVA Music Group Composers Essential Collection I feel represents excellent value for money,given the original value of it’s assembled component products.
For the cost of what might be the price of a typical single sample library, you are getting a fairly comprehensive compendium of 7 useful instruments.
Although there is perhaps a leaning toward the contemporary cinematic synth genre, there is still plenty of content here that can adapt equally well to other music styles.
These Native Instruments new partner intro promotions are often the best opportunity to grab a bunch of products at a knockdown price, and while some do come back in various future formats, there is no guarantee of what and when.
In terms of overall NKS accessibility, it was evident to me that much intuitive thought and planning had been put into how the mapping could be best implemented for all users.
For me at least, it has always been the number one aim to educate, encourage and promote to developers the best practice in accessible design and application of the NKS format, which appears to be in evidence here.
The Composers Essential Collection by AVA Music Group can be purchased directly from the Native Instruments website, for the limited time 75% discount price of £89.00
Composers Essential Collection Product Page:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/komplete/ava-music-group-sale-2024/
AVA Music Group Composer Essentials Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9iw9fJRFLQ
AVA Music Group Website:
https://avamusicgroup.com/?gad_source=1
(c) Chris Ankin
KK-Access.com
**7TH August2024 **
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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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