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wordsSHIFTminds
wordsSHIFTminds is Auckland, New Zealand-based composer and musician Chris Bell. Electronica, ambient, downtempo and synthwave also released under the artist name The Vorticist. Tracks recorded and mixed at The Universal Mango Research Kitchen UMRK. I don't submit sample packs to pianobook - simply because I'm too busy making pianobook demos and releasing my own tracks via Distrokid to appear on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, You Tube Music and all the usual streaming platforms.
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wordsSHIFTminds’s Reviews
My favourite user interface on the pianobook site
If I had to describe my perfect instrument it would probably be something pretty close to this. As with his superb 'WLP - Whole Lotta Pads' contribution, Francesco has supplied numerous patches and each of them is eminently inspiring and characterful. I was so impressed with the sounds in 'Mellow FM' that I've used it on multiple projects and just know I'll be returning to it again and again. I love the simplicity, elegance and functionality of the delay and reverb sliders, to me the ideal marriage of form and function. Once more, thank you, Francesco.
Sounds better than a lot of people playing a 'real' guitar
This is so inspiring and a pleasure to use. I found myself instantly trying to channel Soft Machine-era John Etheridge, and Michael Milburn is spot on in his review about the built-in vibrato ‘arriving’ in the samples at natural points. I can see – and, more to the point, hear – myself using Risto’s instrument again and again in my projects, it’s just so soulful. A nice variety of patches old and new strings, hi-gain amp and a deceptively simple and easy-to-use interface.
My favourite pianobook piano, bar none
Thank you, Christian. I found myself hardly wanting to do anything to this apart from play it and get something down. Just a bit of my favourite splosh Native Instruments RAUM, the Tony Visconti grand piano preset on Waves Audio’s Scheps Omni Channel and Ableton Live’s piano eq setting. Job done. The GUI has everything you need, although Kontakt's circular pots are cranky to adjust; business as usual on a PC. Could there be anything lovelier than creating something out of nothing more than the sound of a beautiful instrument lovingly sampled? I don’t think so.
Somehow it's the Slinky
I’m not sure how it makes this violin sound so intimate but I guess it must be that Slinky tugging on my heart strings. He did it, then: David finally found a use for a Slinky that doesn’t involve stairs. And so much more musical, too. I like this, a lot, and it gets an extra star for an elegant, ergonomic GUI.
If less is more, just think how much more more could be...
What a selection! There are some real gems in this package and it’s going to take a while to explore them all – possibly longer than I have left… Most composers probably think they already have enough synth pads to last them several lifetimes. When you hear WLP you almost instantly concede you can never have too many. Just your basic Kontakt interface but there are so many patches included in a whole lotta that it would be churlish to quibble about something merely cosmetic. I’m looking forward to experimenting with some of the others for upcoming projects. Thank you, Francesco!