The story
I’ve been given a highly damaged and noisy vibraphone recording by a fellow sound developer (Sam Gossner, owner of Versilian Studios). Using the power of spectral repair, I manually fixed each note to its original state giving this vibraphone sample set a rebirth, hence its name Vibraphone Renaissance.
Three variations of this vibraphone have been created: the original vibraphone sound, a looped version that can be sustained, and a granular drone version perfect for soundtrack scoring.
The original recording has been provided by Versilian Studios.
Interface
Reviews for Vibraphone Renaissance
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Renaissance Brothers
In a very similar fashion as the Marimba Renaissance instrument by SampleScience, this is a great, deeply sampled mallet, with an incredibly big range that focuses on the mid-low section, yet its highs are very prominent and definitely much clearer than the Marimba brother, which is very base-oriented. I'd say that in this case, I'd very much prefer the instrument to be shifted at least one, if not two octaves lower, so the access to the higher keys is easier by default.
The GUI is identical, with what you usually see in a well-made DecentSampler instrument. Filter, Delay, Reverb and the always welcomed Attack and Release knobs.
I really like this!
They say that you haven't really succeeded until something you say returns and you hear it said back to you! Well, having promoted the cause of making the whole of the range of the keyboard available in sampled, instruments (instead of restricting the range to what sounds good), then I figured it wouldn't belong before I would see some interesting examples.
Well, I don't need to wait any longer. Recording restoration specialists SampleScience have now made their cleaned-up vibraphone available as a Decent Sampler virtual instrument, and it has the vibraphone sound you were expecting, but lots more!
Doorbells. Yep, doorbells. In my youth, I was raised in a world where doorbells were analogue, nay, electro-mechanical. A solenoid moved a sprung metal plunger between two metal chime bars tuned (I think) a third apart, and was activated when you pressed the doorbell switch by the front door. Bing-bong. It was used as part of the marketing for a major cosmetics company for years, and it sounds just a bit like a vibraphone. Not that anyone was ever going to use a doorbell in an orchestral performance, but the sound is so ingrained in my head that the two are forever entangled.
From F#3 upwards to E6, then you get a 4-semitone interval sampled vibraphone - that's 10 samples over the range. Metal bars hit with mallets - a gorgeous sound, a close second to my love of the wooden 'alter-ego', the marimba. Outside of the 'detail' range though, and especially lower, then you enter an unusual world of metallic sounds where echo and reverb can produce some fascinating soundscapes.
I'm obviously not the only one who likes to go outside of the usual range and beyond, because whilst the first preset is a Vibraphone (complete with low end all the way down), the second preset is a looped Vibraphone. Not just looped with a perfect and sanitised sustained sound, but cyclic loops that slowly go round and round, and each interval is different. Very nice! The third preset goes even further, with the 'Vibradrone', a granular processed sound that reminds me of the sound effects used to suggest 'strangeness' in soundtracks of the 1960s. If notes around C3 don't make you think of Thunderbirds, dream sequences, or the Star Trek transporter, then you need to get a subscription to a suitable streaming service and do some catch-up!
The UI has the usual, array of Decent Sampler standard effects: Low-Pass Filter, Delay, and Reverb. If this was me, then I would have added a Chorus effect as well, but I'm already notorious for making over-complicated UIs! Suffice it to say that there's a lot of tweakbility here.
Conclusion-time. Well, this was a very pleasant nostalgia trip, combined with a very usable instrument that is equally at home in an orchestra or as far away from orchestral as you can imagine (and way beyond that). I found it an immersive and inspiring experience, and I don't think you could wish for more from a free virtual instrument sample pack. Recommended.
Beware though, you may end up wanting a real Vibraphone!
