STUDIO ELEMENTS

Water, metal, glass, stone

• Rare & unique instruments from the VI Elements Collection

• Extended by extraordinary instruments

• Archaic sounds from spherical shimmer to the clap of thunder

• Perfect sound out-of-the-box

• Powered by Vienna Synchron Player

The unique instruments of the VI Collection Elements have always been an insider tip for composers and sound designers to achieve extraordinary effects with archaic sounds from ethereal shimmer to thundering violence. For the SYNCHRON-ized version, not only has the selection of special instruments been increased, but also completely new organic sounds have been created with the internal effects of the synchronous player.

The included instruments use the elements water (waterphone), metal (e.g. singing bowls, crotales, steel rails, tam-tams), stone (litophones) and glass (glass harmonica, verrophone, bottles) to generate sound. The many mixer presets, with the help of which each instrument can be easily placed in nine different positions in the Synchron Stage Vienna, also ensure a balanced and perfect sound.

The waterphone was invented in 1967 by Richard Waters, who was inspired by the African kalimba, the nail or needle violin and the Tibetan water drum. The instrument consists of a water-filled body made of stainless steel or bronze, a hollow cylindrical neck and metal rods of different lengths that are attached vertically around the neck, which are usually made to vibrate with a bow. The high-frequency, sharp sound, similar to the triangle or the piccolo, asserts itself through a large orchestra in the tutti and can be changed by swiveling the water-filled body. The Bass Waterphone is a particularly large model with a diameter of 35 cm.

The glass harmonica was invented in 1761 and was extremely popular in Mozart's time. Glass bells of different sizes rest on a common horizontal axis and are set in rotation with a pedal to generate sound and made to sound with the attached fingers. Another rarity is the Verrophone , which consists of chromatically tuned, vertically arranged glass tubes, which in shape and arrangement are reminiscent of the resonance tubes of the stick games. The set of glasses, on the other hand, is composed of tuned, specially made wine goblets and differs from the Verrophone in that it has a much more delicate sound. The bottles were blown using many different playing techniques, including flutter tongue.

The two lithophones have sound plates made of stone. Litophones were first used by Carl Orff (1895 - 1982) in his Greek drama "Antigone". The large version is unique, copied from a marimba and has a range of almost five octaves. Thanks to the resonance tubes, the tonal possibilities range from extremely soft, full and dark tones in the depth to hard and light high tones.

The "Metal" category offers steel rails that have been struck with a steel hammer, thunder plates in various sizes and in various ways of playing, crotales and a Japanese singing bowl set . The series of Tam Tams includes instruments with different diameters and ranges from 85 cm to the 200 cm XXL tam-tam . The latter was made to sound with metal rods, cardboard boxes, fretwork, chains, fly swatters, an egg cutter, and even a massage stick.

Rounding out the collection through a series of exotic percussion instruments such as Ocean Drums , Spring Drums , Cuicas and Waldteufel and Schwirrholz and lion's roar .

In addition to the “classic” presets, there are also a large number of “FX presets” based on the design options of the integrated mixer and specially created by the experienced sound experts and engineers at VSL. The “Combined FX” category in particular is a real treasure trove for composers and sound designers with a total of 24 newly created instruments in which elements of different genres have been combined.

Scope of the library

• Standard Library: Samples 9.355 | Download size 3.3 GB | Installed file size 12.7 GB