# Sonokinetic releases Modal Runs



## Sonokinetic BV (Dec 10, 2019)

The most intuitive runs instrument out there. Realistic runs are hard to produce with a conventional multisampled instrument, and fast runs are hard to play if you're not an accomplished pianist. We produced this instrument to make fast runs extremely easy to play. They adapt to your composition's tempo and key, making completely realistic runs attainable for everybody. Whether it be just a single run up to a transition, or an intense flurry of up and down runs that are the centerpiece of a composition, these runs will deliver. Play them with just a chord in the left hand and a beginning and end note in the right hand. They are great fun to play around with, and the intuitive 'emphasis' slider dials in a mix between the recorded strings and woodwinds sections in one fluid motion.

Note the 'Modal' part of the name - these runs don't just play from major scales root notes - they can start and end on any note of the scale, making all modalities within the diatonic scale available. Additionally, when in Relative Keyboard mode, any note you press on the right hand side will be conformed to the nearest scale tone, making it really easy to play runs that adapt to changing chords in real time! With this new inventive and holistic approach to editing and scripting, we kept the sample count and RAM footprint extremely low for this instrument without compromising on the realism of the end result.

Returning to the superb recording space we employed for other Sonokinetic orchestral libraries, we gathered a selection of some of the greatest (and most precise) players to perform for us. With a full woodwind and string section at our disposal, we captured the full range of the instruments. Modal Runs is designed from the ground up, borrowing design aspects from our other instruments such as Ostinato. This script is an exciting new development that we are very proud of and stretches the limits of what you can achieve with traditional sampling.

This library coexists alongside both our Orchestral Series and our Phrase-Based libraries, being recorded in the same hall, with identical mic positions and even utilising some of the same players. Our orchestral libraries blend seamlessly together.

Modal Runs is compatible with the free Kontakt player version 5.8.1 or later and is also NKS compatible.

Modal runs is currently on introductory price of €49.90 until the 6th January 2020, after which the price will rise to €74.90

For further details visit https://www.sonokinetic.net/products/instruments/modal-runs

*Walkthrough*




*DAWCast*




*Demos*


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## dogdad (Dec 10, 2019)

Sounds Great!


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## GtrString (Dec 10, 2019)

Really nice and useful library! The tone of these samples is incredible.


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## h.s.j.e (Dec 11, 2019)

Messed around with it a tiny bit last night and I was blown away by how easy it was to use.


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## abrasounds (Dec 11, 2019)

I was lucky enough to get one of the 500 free copies and I couldn't be happier. It's super easy to use, a great solution for runs!


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## Sonokinetic BV (Dec 11, 2019)

abrasounds said:


> I was lucky enough to get one of the 500 free copies and I couldn't be happier. It's super easy to use, a great solution for runs!


there were 1000 actually  
great to hear you were one of the lucky ones!


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## ism (Dec 11, 2019)

Quite excited about the possibility this new library opens up. 

While I suppose technically, there was nothing stopping me from writing runs with my existing library, this adds a new dimension of musicality, somehow.


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## jbuhler (Dec 11, 2019)

ism said:


> Quite excited about the possibility this new library opens up.
> 
> While I suppose technically, there was nothing stopping me from writing runs with my existing library, this adds a new dimension of musicality, somehow.


Watching the demo, it was like "whee"! It all looked quite effortless, and there is something fun and almost magical about it.


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## Sonokinetic BV (Dec 11, 2019)

ism said:


> Quite excited about the possibility this new library opens up.
> 
> While I suppose technically, there was nothing stopping me from writing runs with my existing library, this adds a new dimension of musicality, somehow.



I think it comes into its own for fast passages with changing chords, especially in relative mode.

As long as you change the chords with the left hand you can play approximate keys in the right hand and it will traverse the correct scales at speed...that is something that is hard to do any other way I think.


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## ism (Dec 11, 2019)

So I think there's several dimensions to this.

1. Once again, first the sound. I have libraries that can do reasonably fast runs. But its never completely convincing, short of recorded runs. (I know OT has playable runs, but at an very different price point ). Having them recording and sounding perfect (within the context of the "sonokinetic sound") is itself a dimension of musicality.

2. Second, while I don't want to over emphasize this, there's is clearly an efficiency effect at the level of workflow - ie. the near frictionless ability to plonk in intervals and hear runs.

I'd argue thought, that at least for myself, the important thing isn't the time saved in programming runs that this plonkabiliy delivers. Rather it's the *performability*. Or more specifically, the ability to improvise in real time (so improvisability maybe is a better term).

Again, there was nothing stopping me from programming in runs before. But the iterative process of doing this note by note (my keyboard skills being what they are) would add a great deal of friction to the compositional process.


3. So finally, more subtly, but I think most importantly, there's something important here that goes well beyond mere workflow efficiency.

So how would I use runs? Well I've traditionally thought about runs in terms of a kind of Mozartian decorativeness, or Wagnerian uber-high-romance, or Williamsesque shimmering effect. All of which are lovely in their own right. But, in retrospect, this was kind of a reductive, maybe even slightly dismissive, way to think of runs.

But the lens through which I watch yesterdays' videos was the metaphors that Alain develops in the Orchestrating the Line 2 & 3 at scoreclub. I had the chance to skim through them over the summer, but unfortunately, didn't manage to find the time to work through them in the detail they need.

Partly, I think this is because of the subscription model - the incentive is to get through as many hours of lessons in a month as possible. And yet these orchestration lessons in particular really require spending considerable time actually composing after each lesson to truly absorb them. And the sheer laboriousness of programming note after note to build runs, and then iterating to get your chord and scale structure right, just really adds a lot of time and friction to the process of really absorbing what runs are meant to achieve orchestrationally.

Yet in particular, the way Alain builds an understanding of orchestrational effect of runs (and trills etc) in terms of metaphors of blurring and other effects was valuable in itself. Although I didn't manage to find the time to master the actual compositional processes of working with these orchestration effect, I did at least absorb a much expanded, metaphorical sense of how runs might actually be important in the (not especially Mozartian, Wagnerian, or Williamsesque) music I actually want to write.

So watching the videos yesterday, it wasn't the impressive uber-Wagnerian-ness of the demo that struck me as interest, per se. It was this sense that, yes this is what's going to let me explore this musical space in the way I need to get stuck into figuring out what I want to achieve orchestrally here (possibly in conjunction with a much deeper dive into Alain's OTL 2 & 3).

In fact, a sense of idea for a movement in a piece I've been working on - or at least a cense of the topos of a movement - which I'd been mulling for some time, started coming into focus within a few hours of watching the videos. No idea what it's actually going to sound like. But there's this sense of how, especially the woodwinds runs, are going to be central to its effect.


Of course, having missed the free Woodwind Ostinatos last year, this year I had Modal runs in the cart and checked out before I ever read the name to know that it was about runs. So it's an interesting question how much more intricately I would have theorized the above if I'd had to go through this before buying it, rather that after receiving it as a gift. 



TL;DR - fun library


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## filipjonathan (Dec 14, 2019)

Is this the only library Sonokinetic will give out this Christmas?


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## jbuhler (Dec 14, 2019)

trajev said:


> Is this the only library Sonokinetic will give out this Christmas?


If they follow their recent holiday tradition, yes.


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## Sonokinetic BV (Jan 4, 2020)

Introductory discount ending soon!


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## LudovicVDP (Jan 10, 2020)

Man I wish I had seen this 4 days earlier...
Sounds and looks very nice.


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## mralmostpopular (Jan 10, 2020)

LudovicVDP said:


> Man I wish I had seen this 4 days earlier...
> Sounds and looks very nice.



Me too. This seems great. Ah well. Maybe it’ll go on sale again in the future. If not, it’s still pretty affordable.


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## 5Lives (Jan 12, 2020)

Are these recorded runs (for every combination available) or are they scripted?


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## ism (Jan 12, 2020)

5Lives said:


> Are these recorded runs (for every combination available) or are they scripted?



There’s quite a lot of samples there, and the minimum length is 3 notes. And it clearly sounds better that a legato that stitches individual notes together.

so presumably there’s a combination of recorded scales and scripting to at least tack on a beginning and end note. Though the exact extend of the scripting is hard say.


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## Manaberry (Jan 17, 2020)

I'm looking for feedback about this library. Has anyone tried it already?


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## filipjonathan (Jan 17, 2020)

Manaberry said:


> I'm looking for feedback about this library. Has anyone tried it already?


I got it when it was still on sale. Not sure what to think about it tho. Mind you, I haven't spent a lot of time playing around with it, but it's definitely not bad. You can get some pretty nice results with it. It's got both strings and woodwinds and you can choose the amount of the sections ns you want to hear. What I have issues the most with is the fact tat the runs are not really fast enough. I was writing a piece and I needed a simple octave run but the fastest option in Modal Runs wasn't fast enough so I had to use a runs patch from another string library. Another thing is that it doesn't do very high passages. Not sure about ww but strings don't. So definitely has limitations but I guess it all depends on the piece you're working on and the passages you need. Using Modal Runs only, not sure how far you'd go, but combined with a runs patch will give you better results. Again, take all of this with a grain of salt since I haven't spent that much time with it.


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## Sonokinetic BV (Jan 17, 2020)

ism said:


> There’s quite a lot of samples there, and the minimum length is 3 notes. And it clearly sounds better that a legato that stitches individual notes together.
> 
> so presumably there’s a combination of recorded scales and scripting to at least tack on a beginning and end note. Though the exact extend of the scripting is hard say.



yes that's exactly what it is - they are recorded scales and many start and end bits with enough length to make the xfades in and out of the full scale inaudible. I think the main strength of the lib is that you can chain runs in any key, and even through a moving chord pattern, playing just a few keys, and that it sounds very realistic.


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## GingerMaestro (Mar 4, 2021)

@Sonokinetic BV 

Hi does anyone know if Modal runs can handle chromatic runs. The walkthrough videos imply not, but would love to discover otherwise...or any advice for libraries that have chromatic runs that you can piece together different phrases...thanks


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## mopsiflopsi (Mar 4, 2021)

Also, any update on the ability to drag&drop midi out of Modal Runs?


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