Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars
I first became aware of Glow Worm’s sample packs at SynthFest UK last year, which was fitting enough as they’re all based on analogue synths. Arranged for playback in NI’s Kontakt, the files for each preset are presented as a monolith so there’s just one item per preset to load into Kontakt, either by browsing to it or simply dragging it into the Kontakt window. The sample sets on offer are taken from analogue synths, some well known and others less so, and in the case of instruments that don’t offer presets, suitable patches have been created.
Where the original instrument is monophonic, the samples can be played polyphonically if required. In many cases each note of each instrument is sampled over a long time period, with velocity layers if appropriate, to include all the slow modulations and filter effects that make these analogue instruments sound so rich. Because of that some of the sample packs are very large, but once downloaded, the individual presets load pretty quickly. The smallest instrument packs are under 3GB, with the largest being Dave Smith’s Mono Evolver, which comprises over 300 patches in total. This large size is explained by considering an example that has five sample layers, with each key sampled individually, which can amount to 380 samples just for one patch. If each sample averages 25 seconds long, a single instrument preset could take up to 1.5GB, so these won’t load as quickly as the more typical smaller ones.
The samples themselves, which are supplied as compressed archives, were created at the Glow Worm Studio using RME interfaces and the respected Sample Robot software. It is evident that a huge amount of care has gone into both selecting the presets/patches to sample and into the sampling process itself. Kontakt’s envelope shapers, filters and modulation facilities may then be used to further modify the sounds as required. Instructions on how to use the samples within Kontakt are available on the Glow Worm site.
The use of long samples, where needed, means that the notes evolve naturally without running into unnatural‑sounding loops.
Amongst the sample sets you’ll find instruments by Analogue Solutions, ARP, Behringer (System 100 clone), Dave Smith, Dreadbox, Futuresonus, Hypersynth, Jaysis, Korg, MakeNoise, Moog, Oberheim, Roland, Studio Electronics and Vermona. These all come across with the weight and focus of the analogue synths used to create the samples, and the use of long samples, where needed, means that the notes evolve naturally without running into unnatural‑sounding loops. The sounds chosen provide a good representation of what each instrument is capable of, so if you’re looking for no‑compromise analogue synth sounds that you can access from within Kontakt, this is a great place to start.