Exclusive & Exciting! Novachord in more formats!
Hollow Sun’s brilliant Novachord library is going from strength to strength by encompassing even more formats all the time, bring this exquisite library of vintage synthesis to an even wider audience.
It is looking increasingly likely that the library will soon be available in three more formats, to complement the existing EXS24 & Kontakt versions.
Last night I was given an exclusive sneaky peek at a Reason ReFill of the Novachord and it certainly looks pretty! 
I hear work is progressing apace and we should hear something very soon regarding a release date. Keep checking back here and at the Novachord website for the latest info. You can subscribe to my RSS feed right here.
Suffice to say, Reason is an extremely popular tool. It’s been my weapon of choice for some time now, with it’s immediacy and unrivalled stability. Some bemoan it’s closed format but in all these years, I have never felt restricted by it. Everyone has their own preferred tools for music making that suit their ideal work flow, and Reason ticks all my boxes 
And if that wasn’t enough, it looks like we will see the Novachord gracing the Akai S5000/6000 format soon, which means instant compatibility with the MPC4000 & MPC5000 production tools as well as the legacy Z Series rack samplers. The other beauty of the Akai format is that it will be readable by many other samplers and converters so this will increase the catchment of this unique library.
And finally, the Alesis Fusion will see it’s own version of Novachord soon after. Even after it’s untimely “death”, this vastly underrated workstation, which is rapidly gaining cult status and still commanding high used prices on eBay, is still getting up to date library from not only Hollow Sun, but places like Back In Time/KPR too.
Whilst I held Hollow Sun to ransom and squeezed this info out of them, they let slip of a number of high profile users of Novachord of which they are rightly proud, so who knows where we might hear this sublime collection of sounds soon??
Hollow Sun Novachord now available in EXS24 format
The master of sampling, Steve Howell, has been busy beavering away in the lofty confines of Hollow Sun Towers, fashioning new formats of his unique and superb Novachord library. You may recall from previous posts that Steve has been collaborating with Dan Wilson, owner of Novachord NC346, and has come up with a library of beautifully haunting samples, presented both in their original form and also with new and exciting twists programmed in. Until recently, they have only been available in Kontakt 3 format, but Steve did promise more formats, including EXS24, Pro Tools Structure, Akai (S5/6000, MPC4/5000, Z Series) & Alesis Fusion.
The EXS24 offering is available now at the Hollow Sun store for the measly sum of $90 USD/£59 GBP.
The EXS24 version can also be imported into Kontakt 3 but will need patching up and some tweaking of certain parameters, but the mapping and basic amp envelopes are there, making it a good entry level pack for those Kontakt 3 users prepared to put the work in and get jiggy with their samplers!
Korg M1 Piano Samples
Remember that classic piano sound from 90′s house records? The ubiquitous Korg M1 Piano patch was the 90′s equivalent of the DX7′s EP patch or the Fairlight’s Orch5 stab.
A long time ago, a cohort on the KvR forum, a guy from Norwich by the name of Kriminal, sampled his M1 keyboard and made the piano patch available as a soundfont, I believe. Being an avid Akai user, I asked him if I could convert to the Akai S5/6000 and Z Series formats, to which he agreed. Those are still available here:
S5/6000 (16 bit)
Z Series (24 bit)
Today, Nick at SonicState.com put out a call for the M1 piano sound and he has converted them to EXS24 format and shared them accordingly:
So I thought I’d share the love too
Thanks to Kriminal, Nick and of course Korg
