Emergence Audio Envoy

Percussion lacking a certain something? Emergence Audio’s new Envoy instrument could be just the thing...

Emergence Audio have built quite a fan base within the film and media composer community. This is primarily built around their Kontakt‑based libraries that combine the company’s bespoke Infinite Motion Engine with a specific sample‑based instrument. Many of the instrument sources might appear fairly conventional — violin, cello, flute, piano, guitar, for example — but the engine means that those sounds are playable in some unique and often textural ways.

With some 18 titles currently built around the Infinite Motion Engine, Emergence Audio have now developed a new engine — the Cadence Engine — which they describe as a ‘Rhythmic Variator’. The first product that utilises this new engine is Envoy. The underlying sample library features some 600 analogue percussive synth and Eurorack sound sources and occupies approximately 2.5GB of drive space. It requires Kontakt 8.1 (or later) to run but will also work with the free Kontakt Player.

Make It Flow

The Cadence Engine features two identical sound layers. Each layer can hold its own sound preset from the Envoy sample library and, in very broad terms, these consist of low, mid and high (in a frequency sense) percussive sounds. Each layer also has its own sequencer, sophisticated randomisation options, envelope, modulation and effects chain. There is also a Master Effects section.

It’s the sequencing engine where things get really interesting...

It’s the sequencing engine where things get really interesting. Each layer can be set to a different step count, rate, direction and feel, and this means you can just as easily create polyrhythms as you can standard rhythms. In addition, each of the sequencing engines is divided into four ‘blocks’, each with up to eight steps, but the step count can be set independently within each block. You can also set velocity, pitch, length, pan and a combi low‑pass/high‑pass filter independently for each step within each layer. A master LFO provides modulation options and, if required, its rate can be set independently from that of the sequencers.

Even with a static configuration, triggering the two layers can create some very interesting rhythmic options. However, the icing on the rhythmical cake is the Flux Randomizer. This allows you to apply a user‑defined degree of randomisation to every parameter lane within the step sequencer, and it can be enabled for all four blocks of the sequencer, or just for selected blocks. Again, these randomisation options can be applied independently for each layer. With low Flux Randomizer percentage values, the changes add subtle variation that just feels ‘human’, and you can wind it up from there, eventually arriving at more experimental or unsettling results. I’ve barely scratched the surface here but, once you get the hang of it, it’s both impressive and rather addictive.

In A Heartbeat

You know those ‘heartbeat and ticker’ rhythms that always have you on the edge of your seat in modern drama, crime and action TV/film scores? If I had to briefly give a sense of what Envoy’s sounds — driven by the Cadence Engine — can do, then that would capture the essence of it, although there’s lots more besides. You actually get four versions of the Kontakt front end — Omni, Zoned, Split Omni and Split Zoned — each of which presents you with the sound presets mapped in different ways across the keyboard. This gives you plenty of options, from easy, one‑finger, triggering of both layers, through to split triggering and the ability to load multiple percussive sounds for triggering by each layer for additional sonic variation.

Even a quick look at the UI will tell you that the Cadence Engine is going to come with something of a learning curve. The PDF documentation is a must‑read when getting started but it’s well worth the investment of time. While Envoy is not a casual purchase, working film and media composers will love it. Yes, it is something of a niche sound set, but it’s deep, powerful and rhythmically creative. I’m already impatient for the next Cadence Engine product, but Envoy provides a very impressive debut.