Time for another big fish friday baby!

This week we looking at some percussion

world percussion!

I’m checking out World Impact Global Percussion from Vir2

What is World Impact?

It’s a super deep toolbox of percussion sounds from all over the world.

Asia, Africa, South and North America, Europe, Middle East, and a folder dedicate to the Taiko drum!

In addition to all the authentic sounding drums, shakers, and tuned instruments like steel drums, vibraphones, glocks, etc…

you also get a mini sequencer!

Well, it’s like a 16 step sequencer that you can use to trigger patterns of the percussion instruments.

You get access to humanization features, eq, and the ez room reverb engine.

Quick Specs

• Content: 13GB of 24 bit wave samples
• Format: Kontakt Player instrument
• Price: $399

How does it sound?

Like they recorded real percussion instruments and put them in my computer…

Well that’s what the did lol.

No really, the recording quality is superb and the programming of the instruments is great.  You may think there isn’t much you can do do a percussion library, but it sounds really good.

Most of the instruments were recorded dry, so it’s not drowned in fx. This allows it to keep it’s natural sound…yet you can add any fx you wish.

The sounds work well for anyone from film scoring ninja composers to bedroom house producers.

Anyone that like realistic and high quality percussion samples….

What’s the bottom line?

This is a very decent library, there are tons of instrument in here that I had no idea even existed…let alone how to pronounce their names!

If you’re like me and always looking for some really good percussion to sprinkle in your music, at least check out the demos of this library.

I give it a 4 out of 5 subs, well recorded, tons of variety, and actually useful.

I can see me layering these sounds with my other drum samples to spice things up…as well as letting them roll on their own.

Any way you do it, these samples just work out right.

Go on over and listen to the demos and see for yourself.  World Impact: Global Percussion

leave me a comment below, let me know what you think

Today I’m checking out another instrument Big Fish sent over, from Vir2.

Ever since I got it I’ve been playing with it, it’s a dedicated horn instrument called Mojo.

Every time I used to buy a new keyboard workstation, I would always checkout the brass/horns.  Some of them had great sounding brass sections, and others were okay.

In the digital realm with all the samples available, you would think a great horn instrument would be easy to find, but it’s not.

Many of the brass sample available are either loops, or geared towards orchestral brass…nothing for that jazzy, funky, rnb style of music.

Until Mojo….

What is Mojo?

Mojo is a dedicated, versatile, and innovative horn section instrument.  This means it’s dedicated to the same type of horn sounds you would use for funk, jazz, soul, rnb, etc.

These are instruments, not just a dvd full of loops, so they respond to your playing and give you access to a huge and authentic collection of horn and brass sounds.

The instruments covered in the instrument are: Trumpet, Trombone, Trumpet Muted, Trombone Muted, Piccolo Trumpet, Bass Trombone, Soprano Sax, Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Bari Sax, Clarinet, and Flugelhorn

It’s easy to control every aspect of the instrument from the instruments panel.

You can adjust it from solo to 10 players, right in the interface…allowing you to create an instant section of instruments.

You also have control over the various articulations like crescendo, trill, sustain, swell, stab, staccato, doit, etc.

There is a built in fx section for you to get your tweak on, including an “ez room” section that has multiple reverb space presets. it also has saturation, distortion, chorus, limiter, delay, eq, and reverb.

Quick Specs

• Content: 15gb of 24bit stereo samples
• Format: Kontakt powered virtual instrument
• Price: $499

How real does Mojo sound?

I’m not a sax player, or any type of brass instrument, but I’m always looking for the best and most realistic sounding to my ears.

The recording and production of these instruments is incredible, not to mention it’s easy to tweak them and just plain fun to play them.

You can load one of the core instruments, and it will load all articulations for that instrument, which are all keyswitchable.

In addition, you get premade ensambles, as well as some instrument special fx.

Another dope feature is that it comes with over 1600 riffs mapped across the keys.  The riff instruments are labeled by instrument type, tempo, and key.  And they are amazing.

There is also a folder of instruments labeled “wind controller” which work with midi wind controllers.

You can also go very deep tweaking the instrument with micro tuning, changing the vibrato, pretty much every characteristic of the sound can be altered to your liking.

So what’s the final verdict on Mojo?

Mojo delivers the goods and has become my favorite instrument from Vir2 to date. I love how real the sound, the quality is fantastic, but even more…it’s really just fun to play these sounds.  It’s fun to pretend you have the chops to play these amazing brass instruments and being able to add convincing horn sections to your music is creatively inspiring.

It comes in Kontakt player format, so even if you don’t have the full version of Kontakt you can still use this product, which I like.

Mojo gets a 5 out of 5 subs from me, I just love it!

It’s high quality, easy to use, fun to use, and easy to tweak.  It’s sounds super realistic and doesn’t lean towards “orchestral brass” like most libraries I’ve come across, which is a good thing, as there are many of those types of libraries available.

Bottom line is this: no Mojo isn’t cheap, but the quality speaks for itself.  If you really like to add realistic brass and horn sections to your music, I can’t see any other instrument outshining Mojo.

They way the instrument’s built in humanization responds to your playing and the ease at which you can access various articulations, riffs, sound fx, and playing styles is simply unmatched by any brass instrument I’ve come across to date.

I suggest you check it out, if you love brass and have been looking for an ultimate horn section library, look no further.

Go listen to the demos: Mojo Horn Section

leave me a comment below, let me know what you think.

Big Fish Friday…on a Saturday?

I know it’s late! But it’s still Friday where I’m at while writing this! How long the video will take to upload is a different story!

I had some crazy stuff going on today (Friday)…but I couldn’t leave ya hangin!

Technical difficulties…but I still got it done…the video took forever to export/render for some reason. The review and video was done on Friday, but everything with the video export and upload didn’t finish until after 12 midnight lol. I still had to post it!

Anyway…today we aren’t looking at a sample library, per se…. it’s a sample based workstation instrument that big fish sent me!

What is VI One?

Well just think of your fantom, motif, triton, kurzweil, etc.. and all around work horse of an instrument with sounds covering every different instrument type from pianos and orchestra to drums and synths.

This collection comes in the popular kontakt player format…so you don’t need the full version of Kontakt to play it.

The Kontakt player can be loaded as a plugin in your favorite host.  Of course if you have the full version of Kontakt then this library will show up.

according to the site:

Far more than just a sound library; consider this a major studio upgrade.

Vir2 Instruments’ VI.ONE is a massive multi-disc sample library encompassing over two thousand instruments, kits, and other sound effects, and is designed to be of maximum usability to musicians across a wide span of genres.

What’s in VI One?

Everything! lol..like I said this is basically your all in one rack module.

If you’re just getting into virtual instruments this is a great place to start because you get tons of sounds.  If you have a lot of specialty instruments but need a general bread and butter workhorse this is your instrument as well.

It’s great

How does it sound?

Vir2 is a division of Big Fish Audio, so you know the quality is where it needs to be. I am really a fan of the Vir2 instruments, they are easy to use and a very high quality.

Multiple velocity layers and nice fx are a good touch.  The recordings are done right so everything sounds tight with no weird artifacts.

How about the value?

I think it’s a great value… this instrument drops in at 199, pretty normal for a virtual instrument.   Folks like me that come from the school of $1000+ instruments welcome a plugin like this with arms wide open.

The amount of sounds you get for the price is incredible..and it’s not like a collection of loops and riffs…these are sounds that will remain useful forever, synths, pianos, bass, horns, strings…that stuff doesn’t get old, or you can’t “overuse” it.

What’s the bottom line?

I don’t really give a sub rating on virtual instruments…I just tell weather or not I like it.

If I put it on the site and take the time to give you information on it, then you can pretty much bet that I highly suggest the plugin.

This is a must have, 5 star plugin… if I had to rate it with subs it would definitely be a 5 out of 5 and would be on my “must have” plugin list.

If you need a good collection of quality instruments that can last you a long time, and give you a great alternative to all those thousand dollar rack modules you keep buying…look no further.

Vir2 Instruments’ VI One is that workstation… cuz I said so!

Every once in a while you can catch it on sale at places like musiciansfriend for 99 bucks… either what it goes, it’s a great workstation to have.

let me know what you think about it. Leave me a comment below