PORPHYRA HYBRID BY OCEAN SWIFT

PORPHYRA HYBRID BY OCEAN SWIFT

KK-ACCESS REVIEW

Some of our readers may recall the name Ocean Swift, possibly from the KK-Access news section, where we reported that their early instrument releases had become free to download and use, despite them actually being really quite promising products, (there is some more news on those original instruments later in the review).

Now Ocean Swift have once again pulled up the anchor, and set sail, with this first new release taking full advantage of the new features of NKS2 & Kontakt 8, making it a potentially powerful instrument and sound design tool for those willing to dive more deeply into it’s many controls and facets, and there are lots of factory presets for those who don’t.

So, step aboard and join us now, on this voyage of discovery, as we take a look at Porphyra Hybrid.

As an incentive, if you keep reading until the end, Ocean swift are also generously offering KK-Access readers an exclusive discount on top of the intro price, full details to be found at the end of this review.

THE PORPHYRA PEDIGREE

Ocean Swift have a long and impressive pedigree when it comes to their association with both electronic music and instrument design.

Both of the company founders are already individually established music producers, and until recently one was working as a product manager at Native Instruments, being deeply involved in development for Kontakt 8 and the Kontrol MK3 keyboards,bringing with them valuable knowledge and skills for this newly focused launch.

TECH SPECS

Porphyra Hybrid runs in Kontakt 8, either the full version or the free Kontakt Player, it is compatible with all versions of Komplete Kontrol.

The library weighs in at a modest 1GB , and uses wav files rather than the more typical NCW format for the sample content, for very good reason as we shall discover.

There is a single master Kontakt NKI preset, with more than 400 further NKSN Kontakt snapshots, and I am told there are even more due to be added in a not too distant update.

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

Porphyra Hybrid is quickly registered, downloaded and installed entirely through Native Access, making the whole process very painless and fuss free.

The library will be added to your Komplete Kontrol factory browser through the auto scan, after loading either the KK standalone application, or simply running a KK instance within your DAW.

Full Komplete Kontrol NKS parameter mappings are available at the end of this review following the usual media links

ACCESSIBILITY

Ocean Swift have gone to painstaking lengths to ensure that quite literally every available parameter within Porphyra Hybrid has been made automatable within Kontakt.

There are however a couple of caveats to take into consideration, which I will elaborate on.

There are 21 pages of NKS 1 mappings available for MK2, A-Series & M32 users within Porphyra Hybrid, which does cover a good portion of the important controls and modifiers for working with the included factory presets.

The availability of the further and considerably extended NKS 2 parameter set, (at least where the MK2, A-series, & M32 are concerned), although unmapped for NKS 1, can still be accessed using the parameter list within your DAW, provided you are running the newer Komplete Kontrol 3 versions.

Although somewhat of a thorny topic among blind & visually impaired users at the moment, due to the excessive delays, every single one of these parameters will be routinely accessible directly via NKS 2, using the Kontrol MK3 keyboards, as and when access finally becomes possible for blind users with the accessibility helper.

For the immediate time being however, for those users who really want to roll up their sleeves and delve deeper into Porphyra Hybrid’s expansive sound design potential, then bringing up the DAW parameter list will still offer an ultra detailed control set, albeit without the tactile immediacy of the Komplete Kontrol knobs.

During my review testing, I noted that if I wanted to indulge in my own ground up sound design, then using Porphyra Hybrid directly in Kontakt, outside of the usual Komplete Kontrol environment, offered a better overall creative understanding in terms of parameter descriptions.

I am not altogether certain if this was a by product of using the parameter list while Komplete Kontrol is acting as a host for Kontakt, with a subsequently loaded Porphyra Hybrid preset, or whether Reaper my DAW was somehow filtering out the more descriptive labelling. once I discovered this, it was not a real show stopper, and became a much better overall experience, and I could still save a preset out as a Kontakt NKI file.

THE PORPHYRA HYBRID ENGINE

At the heart of the Porphyra Hybrid Kontakt engine, is a dual layer instrument, one layer handles the selection of over 200 Wavetables, the other draws from the included pool of more than 500 samples in uncompressed wav format, and if you haven’t guessed already, it’s the melding of these two distinct sound generation styles that is responsible for the term hybrid in the library title.

So what’s the reason for using open format wav samples?, Well, Porphyra Hybrid does also offer the ability of loading in your own user samples and wavetables, or you can also optionally choose to use the included Porphyra Hybrid open format wavs in other instruments.

This however, is currently only achievable using the frustratingly inaccessible drag & drop method.

Ocean Swift told me that this could potentially be addressed in the future, by adding a dedicated load button within the parameter list, if this gets done, this would finally solve this longstanding and unreachable feature that we have frequently seen in many other Kontakt based libraries, and Ocean Swift would certainly be setting a standard for others to follow.

Returning back to the Porphyra interface, these dual layers are blendable, and can be modulated and routed in various ways, using the available LFO’s, filters, Envelopes, and copious selection of FX.

There are also several advanced tuning and morphing options, and harmonisation controls, which can dramatically change the overall tonal output.

Worthy of particular mention, is the inharmonic control, which in it’s two extremes can pitch a sound up or down by plus or minus 1 octave, nothing there that’s too unusual you might think?.

However, these finite and in between tunable inharmonics and subtle tonalities that this coaxes from the engine, make for some fascinating and unusual timbres which morph the sound far from it’s original static starting point, and there are some excellent examples in the factory sounds that demonstrate this nuance really well.

PORPHYRA Hybrid has been designed from the ground up to take particular advantage of the poly aftertouch features of the Kontrol MK3 keyboards.

This has not only been reflected in the factory presets, but also in the parameter user options, which allow for a more enhanced user playing experience when interacting with the performance and expression controls via the dedicated aftertouch and mod wheel pages.

Me telling you this may of course seem like somewhat of a tease right now, but I prefer to think of it more as an instrument investment, which should be a veritable Pandora’s box of delights when accessibility finally does land upon the Kontrol Mk3 keyboards.

PORPHYRA FX

It’s often the case that the FX we find within Kontakt libraries are quite limiting, providing only the bare rudiments as options, however Porphyra Hybrid via it’s extended control set (rather than NKS 1), can offer access to many of the inbuilt Kontakt rack FX, including the ability to select and choose the provided .NKA file based presets from those automatable DAW parameters.

Raum, Phasis, dirt, Freak, Choral, and all of the usual favourites are here, there are 21 in all, 1 each of which can be inserted into Porphyra’s 4 available effect slots, and you can also select their associated preset browsers, making PORPHYRA HYBRID’s effects probably the most comprehensive that I have seen thus far that are accessible directly from within a Kontakt library.

PORPHYRA HYBRID – SOUND BY DESIGN

Ocean Swift have closely collaborated with Alessandro Mastroianni from Sonora Cinematic to create many of the Porphyra Hybrid presets.

Alessandro has also presented an insightful series of video tutorials on how to make the most of Porphyra Hybrid’s myriad of features, alongside Ocean Swifts own series.

There is an abundance of presets included with Porphyra Hybrid, the wavetable side offering the clean and sparkling clarity of sound that they are renowned for, whilst the sample side of things caters for an eclectic collection of real instrument tones, waveforms, synth sounds, noise, and organic textures.

There is definitely plenty to play with here, whether looking for something overtly electronic, warm pads, or FX, there are options to cover a decent cross section of genres.

There are even some thoughtfully provided initialised starter presets that have the basic building blocks pre-configured for Absolute, ambient, Bell, Lead, Pad, Percussion, and Risers, which serve as welcome time savers when designing your own sounds.

Another little undocumented bonus that I came across, is that because all of this content is in Wav format, if you switch your factory browser to loops, they will all show up here tagged under Porphyra Hybrid, enabling you to load them into the Komplete Kontrol audio and sample modules, where they are tempo synced to your project, and there are some nice loops and sequences in here to play around and experiment with.

As always do make a point of checking out the various media links, the preset walkthrough will demonstrate the variety of sounds that Porphyra Hybrid has to offer, and the deep dive tutorials lift the lid and go into high detail on the nuts & bolts.

Finally, do stay tuned to the KK-Access newsfeed, or the Komplete Kontrol google Group, as Ocean Swift will soon be making their original legacy instruments available as a free download bundle, and they have been updated for VST3, we will let you know when this goes public (they are already available for Ocean Swift newsletter subscribers).

CONCLUSION

Overall, I was pretty impressed with Porphyra Hybrid, the realisation of the sound design possibilities dawned more on me as I worked with it, and despite the full and rather huge extended set of parameters not being available immediately in a hands on capacity through the current Komplete Kontrol hardware, I can nevertheless foresee it’s even greater potential when we can use it entirely from a Kontrol MK3 keyboard.

The union between wavetable and sampled sounds provide an interesting blend, it will work well across electronic genres, and would be great for game, and app sound design, and also for various fields of cinematic scoring.

Porphyra Hybrid offers good value in terms of preset quantity versus price, and there are more than enough parameters and controls for those technically minded or with a desire to get stuck into sound design to keep them occupied for a good while.

EXCLUSIVE OCEAN SWIFT DISCOUNT CODE FOR KK-ACCESS READERS

Ocean Swift have generously offered KK-Access readers an additional 30% discount over and above the current (at the time of publication) introductory price.

Just use the code ‘FEEL’ without the quotes at checkout.

The code will remain active for KK-Access readers, but to obtain the maximum reduction, consider using it during the intro period up to October 31st 2024.

Please be assured, that this discount code is purely for the benefit of KK-Access readers, we do not receive any renumeration for it’s use, that’s not how we roll here, reviews are based on genuine recommendations or otherwise, and we pledge never to personally profit or gain from affiliations or manufacturer associations for any of the free work that we do.

Porphyra Hybrid can be purchased directly from Ocean Swift for the intro price of 79.00 € (regular price will be 99.00 €)

Use discount code FEEL at checkout to receive an additional 30%

Porphyra Hybrid Product Page:

Porphyra Hybrid Preset Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNpiUwPsaXA

Porphyra Hybrid Ultimate Deep Dive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSi_4R1rMlc&t=988s

Using Porphyra Hybrid Samples in a DAW or Sampler:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Kn499AtVM

Porphyra Hybrid with Kontrol MK3 Keyboards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNq5nwKTRsw

Porphyra Hybrid – Sonora Cinematic Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9RBhX8PC60

5 Porphyra Hybrid Sound Design Tips from Sonora Cinematic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFGbIllnG8U

Komplete Kontrol Plug-in Edit Mode NKS Parameter Mappings

Page One – Filter & Layer

Knob 1 – Cut-Off
Knob 2 – resonance
Knob 3 – Keyboard Tracking
Knob 4 – saturation
Knob 5 – Layer Mix
Knob 6 – Volume
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated

Page Two – Wavetable

Knob 1 – Wavetable Gain
Knob 2 – Tune
Knob 3 – Fine Tune
Knob 4 – Pan
Knob 5 – Morph
Knob 6 – Phase
Knob 7 – Phase Random
Knob 8 – Width

Page Three – Wave Modulation & Wave Inharmonic

Knob 1 – Wave
Knob 2 – Amount
Knob 3 – Tune
Knob 4 – Frequency
Knob 5 – Wave Inharmonic Power: On/Off
Knob 6 – Wave Inharmonic amount
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated

Page Four – Wave Stereo, Wave Filter, Wave Shaper

Knob 1 – Wave Stereo Power: On/Off
Knob 2 – Spread
Knob 3 – Mix
Knob 4 – Wave Filter Power: On/Off
Knob 5 – High Pass
Knob 6 – Low Pass
Knob 7 – Wave Shaper Type
Knob 8 – Amount

Page Five – Sample

Knob 1 – Sample Gain
Knob 2 – Tune
Knob 3 – Fine Tune
Knob 4 – Pan
Knob 5 – sample Start
Knob 6 – Start RND
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated

Page Six – Sample filter & Sample LOFi

Knob 1 – Sample Filter Power: On/Off
Knob 2 – High Pass
Knob 3 – Low Pass
Knob 4 – Unallocated
Knob 5 – Sample LoFi Power: On/Off
Knob 6 – Frequency
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated

Page Seven – Wavetable ADSR & Sample ADSR

Knob 1 – Wave Attack
Knob 2 – Wave Decay
Knob 3 – Wave Sustain
Knob 4 – Wave Release
Knob 5 – Sample Attack
Knob 6 – Decay
Knob 7 – Sample Sustain
Knob 8 – Sample release

Page Eight – Filter Envelope

Knob 1 – Wave filter Attack
Knob 2 – Wave filter Decay
Knob 3 – Wave Filter sustain
Knob 4 – Wave filter release
Knob 5 – Sample filter Attack
Knob 6 – Sample Filter decay
Knob 7 – Sample filter sustain
Knob 8 – sample Filter Release

Page Nine – Modulation Envelope

Knob 1 – Modulation Attack
Knob 2 – Modulation Decay
Knob 3 – Modulation sustain
Knob 4 – Modulation Release
Knob 5 – Decay Sample
Knob 6 – Release Sample
Knob 7 – Depth
Knob 8 – Destination: Pitch A, Pitch B, Pitch A & B, Wavetable Morph, Wave Inharmonic, Wave Width, Wave Shaper, Wave Depth, Wave Freq

Page Ten – LFO 1

Knob 1 – Wave
Knob 2 – Sync On/Off
Knob 3 – Rate Hertz or Beat Value (depending on sync switching)
Knob 4 – Depth
Knob 5 – Phase
Knob 6 – Re-Trigger
Knob 7 – Destination: Amp A, Amp B, Amp A & B, Pitch A, Pitch B, Pitch A& B, Pan A, Pan B, Pan A & B, Filter Cut-Off, Wave Morph, Wave Inharmonic, Wave Width, Wave shaper, Wave Mod depth, Wave Mod Freq,
Knob 8 – Unallocated

Page Eleven – LFO 2 (As per LFO 1)

Page Twelve – LFO 3 (As above)

Page Thirteen – LFO 4 – (As above)

Page Fourteen – LFO X (As above)

Page Fifteen – Velocity LFO 1 to LFO 4

Knob 1 – LFO 1 Depth
Knob 2 – LFO 1 Rate
Knob 3 – LFO 2 Depth
Knob 4 – LFO 2 Rate
Knob 5 – LFO 3 Depth
Knob 6 – LFO 3 Rate
Knob 7 – LFO 4 Depth
Knob 8 – LFO 4 Rate

      Page Sixteen - Velocity Extra

Knob 1 – Cut-Off
Knob 2 – Resonance
Knob 3 – Morph
Knob 4 – Inharmonic
Knob 5 – Depth
Knob 6 – Frequency
Knob 7 – Shaper
Knob 8 – Start

Page Seventeen – PolyAftertouch LFO LFO 1 to At LFO 4

Page Eighteen – Poly Aftertouch LFO Extra

Page Nineteen – Mod Wheel LFO 1 to Wh LFO 4

Page twenty – Mod Wheel Extra

Page Twenty One – Play, Portamento, Pitch Bend

Knob 1 – Mode: Polyphonic, Mono, Legato
Knob 2 – Portamento Glide
Knob 3 – Pitch Bend Range: 0 to + or minus 1 Octave
Knob 4 to 8 – Unallocated

(c) Chris Ankin

KK-Access.com

15TH October 2024

KK-ACCESS Our Transparency Statement

KK-Access believe in integrity, and through respect for our readers,that our product reviews should strive to be be honest and unbiased, and that any of our opinions should not be influenced by financial reward or other incentives from a plug-in or sample library developer for which a review of their wares may be a subject matter.

Therefore, we do not accept,, and will continue to decline any offers of affiliation links, for all products under review for publication on this website.

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.
E&OE