The story
When my dad, Colin, retired he dedicated a lot of time to repairing orchestral stringed instruments for Leeds/Bradford schools and youth orchestras. Charging the bare minimum to cover the costs of the parts, but not his time. When he died a few years ago the majority of his tools, strings, horse hair and bridges were donated to a school for violin repairers. However, a few bits and bobs remained, undiscovered in a storage locker, for the next 7 years. I recently unpacked these and stumbled across three tuning forks. All tuned to A440. Nearly. Hmmm…My first Pianobook instrument – here I come! I decided to experiment to see if I could get a recording of interfering standing waves at the centre of a triangle of these three forks – a la the Yamaha logo… Mic’d with a single AKG Perception 150, small diaphragm condenser, my experiments did finally yield one sample that captured the essence of my aspiration. Naturally gently modulating, however still in need of some variations… Undeterred I resampled the “Pure” sample through my synthesizers.com modular, adding gentle distortion and modulating filtering. Then I did it one more time with an octave shifted version to get more grit you can never have too much of a bad thing. I know that Dad would have loved the process, and the technology, behind this sample – even though, as a classical purist, I’m not so sure what he’d have thought of the, rather raw, final result that is ”Colin’s Forks”
Reviews for Colin’s Forks
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
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Crunchy!
Not only does this give that nice pingy metal sound you'd expect--with the added twist of weird crosstalk-y action between the different sound sources which are definitely noticable within the normal sample tails--But!! Great distortion/filth crunchy layers that are easily faded in through the GUI. Very playable with wide-ranging utility.
Beguiling and unique metal/bell/chime sound
I love this. I really didn't think I needed another bell/chime/tine sound but I most definitely need this one. I love the effort that's gone into providing the GUI and the alternative tones too. Though my favourite is the pure - which instantly transports me to another place - I can see myself occasionally using the driven/filth settings for a one off ominous tone. Excellent work and also love the backstory.
Soft, ambient and fragile library!
I really love this!!! Maybe not versatile, but I really like this fragile, ambient, soft texture. This can be used as a background for many situation!
Simple bell sound with a game changing twist
Thanks for the story behind these. The "Pure" sound is nice, I think would enjoy using it in place/addition to chimes. The low end is obviously not as massive as a full size set of tubular chimes, but this instrument shines when you make use of the GUI. Pure/Driven/Filth.. why do I feel like this is inspired by one of Christians instruments? Excellent job implementing these sliders, and it can create endless potential combinations. Personally, I didn't even think about needing an attack control, but bringing the Pure all the way down has a very shot attack style sound. Returning to that low end I mentioned not having massive presence.. bring the drive 3/4 up and 1/3 on filth, that is a sweet combo for massive low wobbling chime!
I love it!
This instrument offers a fantastic and very unique, thin bell-like sound that has a very majestic resonance, pristine sound and also comes with a few options to play with. The attack is very prominent and deep, so this might turn some away, but I find the overall signature wonderful. With the delay and verb settings you can also create a shimmery soundscape with note repetitions, but that's just one idea of the many that might come off while playing on this.
The GUI is alright, though I am sure a different, more minimal design forthe sliders would greatly improve the overall aesthetics.
