The story
When I sampled my M&W Piano (https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/monington-and-weston-mw) I didn’t really get Christian’s message which I now call “Sample and Mangle” so here is my attempt to mangle and I find they complement the M&W Piano well (when the volume is set at the right level for the pads). Also please could you add a YouTube link (https://youtu.be/Yq70oXdZhok?t=836) to my Monington and Weston page as Christian reviewed it at minute 14 🙂
The folder contains two Kontact Instruments:
1. Toolkit. Using the drop down menu which contains:
* Decay Pad with Reverb
* Slow Build Pad is “Decay Pad” reversed
* Swell Pads 1/2/3 are “Decay Pad” and “Slow Build Pad” layered together but with different effects and in particular Pad 3 is detuned
* M&W GM Drum Kit is made up entirely form the Original M&W Piano samples and mapped to General MIDI
*Seq for arpegiator use
* Bass Seq for Bass use though I think this a weak sample
2. Pad. This uses the Swell Pad 2 and Swell Pad 3 with the Mod Wheel mixing between the two
Sorry I didnt label the samples correctly but the “C” should read “C3” and the images are for the GUIs.
Reviews for Monington and Weston (M&W) Toolkit and Pad
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
Good sound, weird execution!
The piano pad, awesome. It has quite the character inside it, and you can blend the two different sounds with the modwheel. Nice! As for the Toolkit pad... I find that some stuff inside are almost irrelevant for my taste and very awkward to use. For example, on this patch the volume is controlled by the velocity, not by the modwheel which seems counter-intuitive, especially since the other patch has the modwheel do something. But that's not the problem at all.
Inside that patch there is a setting that lets you pick between 8 different instruments, 5 pads, which are really nice and work really well, 2 weird synths that I don't know why they really exist, and an awkward synth-like drum kit which you don't get to see the key-range because it highlights the entire keyboard - possibly because of the other instruments.
With that said, these are extras and you can just ignore them. Or maybe you find something in them, you never know!
Interesting Delays
These sounds are nice and theres nothing wrong with them but they didn't jump out to me either. The first pad has a pretty interesting outerspace sound that keeps evolving and stays interesting. It would be perfect for anything space themed. The second patch is pretty similar but it has some interesting bouncing delays which are cool and could be nice to just layer one note into an arrangement as a kind of ambient throw. The low end of both instruments is chill but i don't really like the high end. Its a bit piercing and i think could do with slower attack. Its an nice instrument but not one of my favorites.
An Unusual pad with extras
This pad sound is really somewhat unusual sounding. The stereo spread seems extra extra wide to me. If I was going to use this in a production, I'd definitely feel the need to make it narrower sounding for fear it would eat up too much space in the mix. It's also super bassy, so I'd get in there with shelving EQ or maybe even a highpass to shape it. The included pads are all average to good, but the drum kit and sequence sounds, while interesting, are a bit odd sounding and in some ways kind of dated sounding. Even so, this is a good and usable pad and a worthy download.
