This month we've taken it upon ourselves to hire in three accomplished string musicians and put them through the involved process of multisampling their precious instruments.
We've got a cello, a viola and a violin at semitone intervals and in four different playing styles: loud, soft, plucked and stabs. The loud and soft samples will layer up perfectly in any software sampler and you can find tutorials on how to do this is Reason and Project 5 in CM67's Software Studio Masterclasses.
Alongside the sample files are all the instruments mapped and bundled into DS-404 format, and you can find out how to make the most of these by turning to the tutorial in CM67, page 24.
What's more, you'll also find a folder containing a load of chords, in various keys featuring all three of the instruments in tandem, for the ultimate strings backing.
Thanks to Alex Lyon and friends for their unwavering commitment and unquestionable instrumental skills. We could have done it without them.
Also to Cyclick Samples for doing such a sterling job of recording them and to The Electronic Garden for editing, keymapping and building the DS-404 patches.
Those programming fiends over at Patch Arena have produced a host of truly excellent patches for our CM-101 and CM-505 synths and are offering them exclusively to CM readers.
There are over 1010 CM-101 sounds and 10 complete CM-505 drum kits.
There are loads more patches available from the Patch Arena site, many of them completely free. Head on over to
www.patcharena.com and get downloading.