More new stuff from Hollow Sun – Moog Taurus Mk.1 & Speak & Spell
Moog Taurus Mk.1
This afternoon I got first dibs at the newest addition to the ever increasing catalogue of commercial releases from sample legends Hollow Sun. This pack features the iconic Moog Taurus Mk.1. This bass pedal device was originally intended for sole use underneath an organ called the Constellation, but this Moog product never surfaced. The Taurus came with a 5 octave range and 3 presets plus a single user programmable patch.
It’s woofer trembling power soon found it’s way into many classic pieces of prog rock, electronica and dance music. It was often used both as a pedal board and also mounted and played by hands.
I can confirm that this a faithful, knee tembling recreation of the legendary Taurus sound 
Incidentally, Moog are hoping to have 1000 newly built Mk.1 Taurus units for sale this November.
TI Speak & Spell
The other offering to come out of Hollow Sun is the free Speak & Spell pack for Alesis Fusion, Akai S5/6000, Z Series, MPC4000 & MPC5000 and Kontakt 3.5. This weighs in at 10MB approx. and includes every sound made by the Texas Instrument Speak and Spell toy.
A great, fun set of sounds
Little Boots – Live
The delectable Victoria Hesketh, aka Little Boots, performing “Remedy” on Later… with Jools Holland.
Note the Yamaha Tenori-On, MicroKorg XL, DSI Prophet 08 and Moog Little Phatty
Things afoot at Hollow Sun
Some new and interesting developments over at Hollow Sun recently.
First up, Steve has started a blog. Now, if you know Steve as I know Steve, this is certainly not his “thing”. He views blogs, much like Twitter and any other form of Social Networking, as a lame and vacuous, self serving waste of time! Personally, I don’t agree, but that old Welsh git, purveyor of fine sampling products though he is, can be an old stick in the mud at times. So, for him to do this must mean something bigger lays behind it. And I can confirm that it does, although I can’t say what it is, but it will be good, I can guarantee you that!
Next is the Reaktor Korner, a small but perfectly formed repository of Reaktor ensembles, created over the years by Steve. Recreations of an ARP Axxe, ARP Odyssey and an emulation of classic string synths await you, all free of charge!
The following two new libraries I know VERY well! When I first met Steve, all those years ago, it was these samples that were my foot in the door, so to speak. Being a complete Fairlight whore, I wanted as many top notch samples as I could get, and Steve had loads of ‘em. It’s these samples that now feature, along with a big bunch of samples that also made me salivate uncontrollably, the Emulator EII, in his new release, Vintage Samplers.
Here’s the instrument list…
EII Arco Strings
EII Blown Bottle
EII Choir
EII Orch Chords
EII Shakuhachi
EII Strings
EII Waterphone
IIx ARR1
IIx ArrBass
IIx Bar
IIx BasClear
IIx Basso
IIx BassRick
IIx BobStrin
IIx BowdBass
IIx Drums
IIx ElBass
IIx FltCf
IIx Glock
IIx Kalim
IIx MarBlock
IIX Orch 5
IIx Piztwang
IIx Quartet
IIx Shatter
IIx StlBell
IIx Swanee
IIx V3Sus
IIx VibMid
IIx ViolHi
IIx ViolSus
IIx Wineglas
String Synths is a small, yet prefectly formed library featuring samples of such classics as a Moog Opus, Eminent 310, ARP String Ensemble, RS202 and a Roland VP330.
01 ARP String Ens
02 ARP String Ens Phaser
03 Eminent 310 Strings
04 Eminent 310 Phaser
05 Moog Opus 4′
06 Moog Opus 8′
07 Moog Opus 8+4′
08 Moog Opus 4′ Phaser
09 Moog Opus 8′ Phaser
10 Moog Opus 8+4′ Phaser
11 RS202 Strings I
12 RS202 Strings I+II
13 VP330 Choir
Finally, the Freepacks section of the Hollow Sun site now features, courtesy of Joeri Peters, the awesome PolyMoog Vox Humana patch, as well as the PolyMoog Strings I & II patches, all available in Akai, Alesis Fusion & Kontakt formats.
Missing you still, Bob
Sorry it’s a day late, but yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of the passing of Dr Robert Moog.
This is how he should be remembered…
…doing what he loved.
And we should never forget his fantastic smile….
When searching for these pictures, I couldn’t help but notice the abundance of pictures of Bob with regular people. You know, the kind of pics where you see someone famous and ask them if you can have your pic taken with them. Bob always obliged and was just the happiest, genial soul you could ever meet. The fact that he revolutionised electronic music seemed to pass him by. He just did what he did and loved that so many people enjoyed it.
We still miss you Bob, but we will never forget you or the gift you gave us. I’ve said it a thousand times if I’ve said it once….thank you Bob.
Bob Moog introduces the Fairlight
Bob Moog introduces the Fairlight CMI in 1983.
Just a shame there isn’t more of this footage.
And whenever I see footage of Bob, even though I never knew him, I miss him. He was such a genuine, self deprecating person and a joy to sit back and listen too.
