# Free instruments? How come I never heard about this guy?



## ScarletJerry (Mar 10, 2018)

I came across this awesome site:

https://www.xperimentaproject.com/

This very talented 19 yr old student created a bunch of Kontakt instruments as donationware. I'm not only impressed with his Kontakt sampling skills, but you should also check out his YouTube channel. He is super talented!

https://www.youtube.com/user/flaliv

-Scarlet Jerry


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## Steinmetzify (Mar 10, 2018)

Thanks for the heads up!


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## leon chevalier (Mar 10, 2018)

Thanks for sharing!


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## HiEnergy (Mar 10, 2018)

Thanks. Subscribed his YT.


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## DSmolken (Mar 11, 2018)

Does seem like very nice stuff.


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## SchnookyPants (Mar 11, 2018)

Cool schtuff. Thanks.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 11, 2018)

Also a funny guy, too. Says his psaltery can be used for all kinds of music (except metal). I happen to know quite some metal bands which use zither-like instruments like kantele and so on in their music, ehehe.


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## ScarletJerry (Mar 11, 2018)

His psaltery and harpsichord are better than many commercial libraries. I would say the same about the upright bass, and the guitar is pretty realistic as well.

I downloaded some of his stuff for free to test them out, but I am going to send some $$$ his way. I wish I was that talented at 19.
I was also going to send him a thank you note using Google Translate to convert my English phrases.

Scarlet Jerry


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## imagegod (Mar 11, 2018)

OMG...the vibra and harpsichord are precisely what I was looking for! I've been limping along on a GPO H'chord, but this sound smells like Bach to me! Seriously good stuff. 

:D


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

ScarletJerry said:


> I came across this awesome site:
> (xperimenta project)
> This very talented 19 yr old student created a bunch of Kontakt instruments as donationware. I'm not only impressed with his Kontakt sampling skills, but you should also check out his YouTube channel. He is super talented!
> (youtube flaliv)
> ...



Hi Scarlet, I'm Flavio! Thank you! :D :D 
Really, when i saw that post I became so happy and excited. If you have any feedback, tips or bug reports, i'm here!

What instruments now i could sample? I can choose from:
- Orchestral instruments (Horn, Bassoon, Flute, Violin, Pianoforte)
- Ethnic Instruments (duduk, ney, voices from tunisy, zither)
- Choir
- Pianoforte preparato (broken and old pianos) with fx

What instruments would you like to have in your kontakt?  Your feedbacks are really helpful

p.s. I had to change by biography in the website, now i'm 21yo lol sorry 4 my english


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## DSmolken (Mar 12, 2018)

If you can do a choir, do a choir! Not so much because I really like choirs, but because choirs are logistically complicated, and if you do a decent free choir, you will pretty much conquer the world.


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## kimarnesen (Mar 12, 2018)

Ethnic!

Or become the first to sample the big bass marimba :D


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

kimarnesen said:


> Ethnic!
> 
> Or become the first to sample the big bass marimba :D



OMG ahahah it would be nice! Or this


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## DSmolken (Mar 12, 2018)

Oh, absolutely. If I could sample one of those, it would definitely be my first priority, since I'm also a bassist.


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## KarlHeinz (Mar 12, 2018)

Flute would be wonderful


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## rrichard63 (Mar 12, 2018)

+1 for more non-European instruments. The phrase "ethnic instruments" sound Euro-centric to me. "World instruments" is only a little better.


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## Arviwan (Mar 12, 2018)

If you feel like recording/sampling choir, i'd be curious &delighted to hear the result 
Keep up the good work !


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

I tried to sample a choir, you can download it from my website in ("XPERIMENTA Lab"). Sadly that day we had few time and there are only few articulation and mics. P.s. hapsicord and vibrafono was sampled only with zoom h4n in my conservatory in Rome, during a pause from lessons (i'm studing double bass). The hapsicord is an ancient model that maybe I could not have played. (edit. I was joking, I could do it.)


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

DSmolken said:


> Oh, absolutely. If I could sample one of those, it would definitely be my first priority, since I'm also a bassist.


I'm a bassist too! :D If you had one of that instrument, sure! I would sample also my ukubass


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## DSmolken (Mar 12, 2018)

Well, there are only a few in playable shape, and I think they're all owned by museums. I've wondered if they'd give permission to make some recordings for a free sample library.


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## JEPA (Mar 12, 2018)

+1 voices


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

DSmolken said:


> Well, there are only a few in playable shape, and I think they're all owned by museums. I've wondered if they'd give permission to make some recordings for a free sample library.


Probably yes! This hapsicord is in a study room, everyone can access and play it and it is in good conditions. it was not so ancient.


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## bigcat1969 (Mar 12, 2018)

Thanks Flavio. I love free or a bit of a donation instruments and these are very nice!

I agree a free choir would be excellent. They are quite rare. I've messed about with some from CC samples and people seem to really want them.

If you ever want to expand to folks who don't have Kontakt, Maize sampler makes decent stand alone VSTs. It isn't as nice or as easy as Kontakt, but it opens up a whole new set of potential users.


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## DSmolken (Mar 12, 2018)

Well, there's an octobass in Paris and one in Vienna. If you're in Italy, then neither one of those is all that far. And since you have a double bass library that works, I think it might be possible to convince a museum to let you record for a few hours and create something that will get thousands of downloads a year. I don't know - I've never tried to talk to anybody important at a museum. But what's the worst that could happen if you ask?


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## synthpunk (Mar 12, 2018)

Keep up the nice job. Donation coming.

For archival purposes could someone please also Post in the kontakt freebies thread here please ?
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/important-all-vi-freebie-contributions-here.27876/


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

DSmolken said:


> Well, there's an octobass in Paris and one in Vienna. If you're in Italy, then neither one of those is all that far. And since you have a double bass library that works, I think it might be possible to convince a museum to let you record for a few hours and create something that will get thousands of downloads a year. I don't know - I've never tried to talk to anybody important at a museum. But what's the worst that could happen if you ask?



Uhhhmm...thank you for the tips, i will try! What mic to use for an instrument like that? an xy with 2 subkick? ahah


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

bigcat1969 said:


> Thanks Flavio. I love free or a bit of a donation instruments and these are very nice!
> 
> I agree a free choir would be excellent. They are quite rare. I've messed about with some from CC samples and people seem to really want them.
> 
> If you ever want to expand to folks who don't have Kontakt, Maize sampler makes decent stand alone VSTs. It isn't as nice or as easy as Kontakt, but it opens up a whole new set of potential users.



Great! I will search for it, thank you. I sing in a choir, i will ask to them. I would like to sample it with legato, is there a free script for legato in Kontakt?


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## fcangia (Mar 12, 2018)

synthpunk said:


> Keep up the nice job. Donation coming.
> 
> For archival purposes could someone please also Post in the kontakt freebies thread here please ?
> https://vi-control.net/community/threads/important-all-vi-freebie-contributions-here.27876/



Posted!


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## kimarnesen (Mar 12, 2018)

What about a free jazz upright bass?


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## ScarletJerry (Mar 12, 2018)

I vote for a hollow body archtop jazz guitar or a bassoon or clarinet.

Scarlet Jerry


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## creativeforge (Mar 12, 2018)

I would like to see a VST effect using a tuned upright piano, taking out the action (as an IR reverb maybe)...


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## bigcat1969 (Mar 12, 2018)

You have to mess with them a bit but the late Big Bob wrote some lovely scripts called WIPs which work quite well for simulating legato. 

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/big-bobs-wips-scripts.64537/
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/bobs-legacy.60988/#post-4071757

If you want to know more about them you could post on the Kontakt forum here as Evil Dragon and others really know how all this works and are very helpful and friendly.

I'm not sure if you are recording all the legato transitions how that works as far as scripting that is well out of my realm. I just look at what guys like Paulo do with legato and shake my head in admiration. Again the Kontakt forum might be a good place to ask.


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## AdamAlake (Mar 13, 2018)

fcangia said:


> Hi Scarlet, I'm Flavio! Thank you! :D :D
> Really, when i saw that post I became so happy and excited. If you have any feedback, tips or bug reports, i'm here!
> 
> What instruments now i could sample? I can choose from:
> ...



Bassoon, Flute, any woodwinds.

Very nice stuff you have, by the way.


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## Eptesicus (Mar 13, 2018)

Can't seem to download any of these. Are you having server issues? They either don't start, or fail half way through.


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## Steinmetzify (Mar 13, 2018)

Eptesicus said:


> Can't seem to download any of these. Are you having server issues? They either don't start, or fail half way through.



I grabbed the Psaltery yesterday; was used to doing things like this in the background and was doing other things and it kept saying ‘network error’ and stopping. Finally just let it run while watching it and it worked. Maybe give that a shot?


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## synthpunk (Mar 13, 2018)

I cannot seem to get a complete download of the psaltery. Any chance of a alternative download please?


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## ScarletJerry (Mar 13, 2018)

Just watch the download. If it stops, quickly hit the resume button. That worked for me.

Scarlet Jerry


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## ScarletJerry (Mar 13, 2018)

Flavio,

How about sampling your own voice? Some oohs and ash’s in the style of the American group, The Beach Boys? You have a great voice!

Scarlet Jerry


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## synthpunk (Mar 13, 2018)

Getting bad gateway error is now in Chrome and SSL certificate errors using a Download Manager. FyI.


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## fcangia (Mar 13, 2018)

synthpunk said:


> I cannot seem to get a complete download of the psaltery. Any chance of a alternative download please?



Too many download these days! Thank you! I stayed all day to talk with my hosting provider and I'm thinking to upgrade my plane (that does not support that traffic of data, 300GB only today!) - or my hosting provider 

I really apologize for that, retry or contact me ([email protected]/[email protected]) and i will send you the direct link.


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## fcangia (Mar 13, 2018)

synthpunk said:


> Getting bad gateway error is now in Chrome and SSL certificate errors using a Download Manager. FyI.



Strange...SSL is installed in all the website (try to put https://). I tried now and I had no problems, download speed seems to be good.


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## fcangia (Mar 13, 2018)

ScarletJerry said:


> Flavio,
> 
> How about sampling your own voice? Some oohs and ash’s in the style of the American group, The Beach Boys? You have a great voice!
> 
> Scarlet Jerry



I did it so many years ago, it would be a nice idea! It would be funny to sample "Sanc-tus-kyr-ie" like epic-church-demoniac-spiritual-soundtrack-medieval choir libraries but with a jazzy mood


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## DSmolken (Mar 14, 2018)

300 GB a day, eek. It is hard to find hosting that will handle such amounts without costing you an arm and a leg. We average about 50 GB in a typical day and might hit a few hundred GB on days when a new instrument is released, but one of our label guys works for a hosting company and they let him have a server for "personal projects" and don't mind if it chews up more bandwidth than their paying customers.

You could look what Ivy Audio is using for hosting, the Piano In 162 also caused a lot of issues with hosting when it was first released but now it seems stable.


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## synthpunk (Mar 14, 2018)

Flavio, I really like your Hapsicord so much so it went right into my current project. I went into the wrench and played with some release times and got some really cool Ghost Notes that were unintentional but sound neat. It needs a little high EQ but is really nice.

Hope the Psaltery will download one day soon for me.


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## DSmolken (Mar 15, 2018)

Could also consider uploading your samples to Audiobombs - they host free synth presets and samples, and we used them as basically a free mirror for some of our older samples. Probably can't handle massive traffic, but could be a way to take some percentage of the load off your host.


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## evilantal (Mar 15, 2018)

DSmolken said:


> You could look what Ivy Audio is using for hosting, the Piano In 162 also caused a lot of issues with hosting when it was first released but now it seems stable.



They're distributing via BitTorrent now with a donation required for a direct download.
Smart to let the community provide their own bandwidth. Although, I'd expect many people to be wary of torrents.


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## Rainmaker (Mar 15, 2018)

back to actual Topic:

Does it make sense to sample things again like strings, brass or woodwinds in the Freeware-Domain ?
Don't think so. 
Or let me say it in this way: you can of course sample what you want; the 1.0000000000 Piano, a solo flute, or whatever - no problem. As long as you sample the real important things first 

From my viewpoint what we need in Freeware, cause there are very few or no offerings until now:

1. choirs, choirs, choirs. Cannot agree more ! If it's a small modular library with extensions for the more exotic
articulations from time to time (FFFF if possible), that would be lovely.

2. CIMBALOM !!! (the biggest dulcimer, John Barry's instrument) - if it's in any way possible to sample it like
sonic.musicae.french had done it with their harpsichords !

3. Morricone Whistler: you are from Italy, right ? So for the guys who cannot do it the right way themselves,
it would be a very nice addition to the freeware community to give us the original vibrato ! 

Cheers and thank you for listening.


PS.: Did I already mentioned that we desperatly need a Cimbalom ?


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## synthpunk (Mar 15, 2018)

Spitfire makes a really good Grand Cimbalom on for $49. Check out the recent Embertone Whistler instrument as well.



Rainmaker said:


> back to actual Topic:
> 
> Does it make sense to sample things again like strings, brass or woodwinds in the Freeware-Domain ?
> Don't think so.
> ...


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## fcangia (Mar 15, 2018)

My uncle gave me this...


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## bigcat1969 (Mar 15, 2018)

I dunno pianos have been one of my mainstays for years and VSCO2 with strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion and keyboards is probably my biggest hit ever. Lots of folks who can't afford Hans Zimmer Strings or Pianos.


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## DSmolken (Mar 16, 2018)

bigcat1969 said:


> I dunno pianos have been one of my mainstays for years and VSCO2 with strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion and keyboards is probably my biggest hit ever. Lots of folks who can't afford Hans Zimmer Strings or Pianos.


In our case, the relative popularity goes bowed strings, then saxes, tuba, and then after that normal instruments seem to be generally more popular than weird ones. So, yeah, especially for free, people can never get enough of the things we all use a lot.

Having said that, there are still instruments which are fairly common and don't have a good free version AFAIK. Choir, solo viola, fiddle-style violin, pop-style trumpet...


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## KarlHeinz (Mar 16, 2018)

Again would like to throw my head in for a nice sounding, affordable and easy to use (I hate key switches...) 
transverse flute for a non-flute player, for melodies in front of ambient/soundscapish background. Maybe I just overseen something, but I think I have tried out all free ones so far, I have the Auddict solo flute but still there is something else in my head. It must not been "for evry case", something like the Spitfire lab trumpet which is just magic where it fits.....


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## Rainmaker (Mar 16, 2018)

to be clear here:
I have nothing against commons like strings & pianos etc, but there are still some white areas like the mentioned
above, where there never exists a Freeware Version; and those are more important imo. 

@DSmolken
solo viola: there are already two or three free ones, not too bad.
fiddle-style violin: already one, don't remember the name.
pop-style trumpet: maybe, but I mean mainly orchestral instruments here.

I'am still working on the Morricone Trumpet, and I have pretty enough material for this, and (thanks to VSCO) I can use it for orchestral also.

@KarlHeinz
Do you have a link/demo for the transverse, how it should sound to you; maybe you not heard ALL the free flutes that are out there.


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## KarlHeinz (Mar 16, 2018)

> Rainmaker:


I am afraid I dont have a konkrete example actually. Its more kind of an imagination: "ethereal - ambient - celtic" sounding (I know how that sounds, but just in lack of sound example), and the picture for this is long in my head: an irish hostel at the westcoast decades a go, a "french" guy from Bretagne (so not really "french" ), not able to speak english, half in this world, half in the other world, sitting there with his wooden transverse flute he could not even really play but it just sound ..... out of this world ......

Of course I could not be sure to have heard all free flutes (must restrict this statement to kontakt available ones anyway), but just tested all I ever heard of in a lot of forums over a lot of years. So maybe you have some personal favourites you could recommend ?


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## gregh (Mar 16, 2018)

there is no good reasonably extensive prepared piano that is free that I am aware of. There used to be one from Post Musical Instruments that was okay and maybe free (can't remember) and there is a bigcat one that is okay, but not extensive. Similarly for prepared guitar.


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## fcangia (Mar 16, 2018)

I would like to sample a prepared piano, but I think I will sell it for a few euros because i will need to pay a recording studio for a lot of hours.

My uncle (another one!) have a really old and super-crashed piano in his home, for sound desigh and cinema-purpouse it could be wonderful!


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## gregh (Mar 16, 2018)

fcangia said:


> I would like to sample a prepared piano, but I think I will sell it for a few euros because i will need to pay a recording studio for a lot of hours.
> 
> My uncle (another one!) have a really old and super-crashed piano in his home, for sound desigh and cinema-purpouse it could be wonderful!



strange as it seems I prefer to pay people for their work - not very much it is true  but I do think it is good for people to be paid


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## CGR (Mar 16, 2018)

gregh said:


> strange as it seems I prefer to pay people for their work - not very much it is true  but I do think it is good for people to be paid


Yes, I've never felt comfortable with the idea of taking something for nothing, and justifying that with the notion that it's great experience or exposure for the creator. Similar to the dodgy practice amongst some venues who offer a musician a gig for no pay, and qualify that with "but it will be great for your profile!" - meanwhile making a fortune on the bar from the punters who are there enjoying the live music.


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## Rainmaker (Mar 16, 2018)

@KarlHeinz 
nothing special, that's why I like to hear some examples; there was this known freebie from freesounds.org with a few transverse samples recently - it doesn't sound too "outer-worldish" to my ears 

@gregh 
I dunno how extensive you want it to be, but I remember to collect a pretty list (I'am talking 10-15 years here) with not too few entries for the prepared piano. Sure, a single free one cannnot cover it all, but if you combine them in some way ? There are so many, i cannot remember them all, would have to look at the backups.


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## gregh (Mar 16, 2018)

Rainmaker said:


> @gregh
> I dunno how extensive you want it to be, but I remember to collect a pretty list (I'am talking 10-15 years here) with not too few entries for the prepared piano. Sure, a single free one cannnot cover it all, but if you combine them in some way ? There are so many, i cannot remember them all, would have to look at the backups.



I would love to see what you have found - I have the (expensive) IRCAM one which is a bit tedious to edit but very good and the PMI one is good as well. Also ZVON did a prepared Rhodes that has a lot of character


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## Eptesicus (Mar 17, 2018)

I still have not been able successfully download the psaltary as i wanted to try it out and now it says my download link has expired which is a shame. 

I am a bit apprehensive about donating seen as i haven't been able to successfully download anything yet.


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## fcangia (Mar 17, 2018)

Eptesicus said:


> I still have not been able successfully download the psaltary as i wanted to try it out and now it says my download link has expired which is a shame.
> 
> I am a bit apprehensive about donating seen as i haven't been able to successfully download anything yet.



Hi, there was a cache issue. I'm talking with technical support team for resolve all that bugs. Donations are useful for that  Thank you

Now it works, I will send you the new download link


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## DSmolken (Mar 19, 2018)

Once you get the hosting and downloads sorted out, I realized there's one category of instrument which hasn't been sampled much, and it happens to be probably easier to find in Italy than anywhere else in the world, except maybe Japan. Classical mandolin (and also mandola and mandoloncello - or what non-classical-mandolin people call "mandocello") with very smooth tremolo. It would be nice to have a small classical mandolin library with regular plucks, plus tremolo.


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## Nougat (Mar 19, 2018)

fcangia said:


> Hi, there was a cache issue. I'm talking with technical support team for resolve all that bugs. Donations are useful for that  Thank you
> 
> Now it works, I will send you the new download link


Hi Flavio.

I also attempted to get the psaltery, but my link didn't work and now it is no longer valid. Would you mind sending me a new link as well?


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## synthpunk (Mar 19, 2018)

Flavio and others, here is a Steve Reich Philip Glass abstract inspired improvisation with Eventide treatment of Flavio's Hapsicord instrument.

https://app.box.com/s/qo4vvi9gqa1jtwa5yqd48h1tjmzhgrqq


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## Mandaman (Mar 22, 2018)

Really like the sound of the Fretless Harmonics instrument. Is it me or does the RR1 group not play back? I only hear a sound for every other note I play.. 

Anybody know how to fix this?


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## Jake Johnson (Mar 22, 2018)

Afrter hearing the choir, I must ask that you sample a piano. That's already been done a few times? Yes, but your version of what a piano sounds like will not, ideally, be the same as anyone else's version.


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## Silence-is-Golden (Apr 4, 2018)

Hi,

I like to purchase the xbass but when I put it in the basket, I can't find the basket anywhere on the website?
Where is it hidden? 

PS: the psaltery purchase was via a different system ,not via the basket....

thanks


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## sagebaggott (Apr 5, 2018)

Hi Flavio - Love the samples, but you should definitely fix the xass purchase button! It's broken. Love the psaltery.


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## fcangia (Apr 6, 2018)

Silence-is-Golden said:


> Hi,
> 
> I like to purchase the xbass but when I put it in the basket, I can't find the basket anywhere on the website?
> Where is it hidden?
> ...



Hi, Yes, I'm building the site on these days and some functions might not work properly. 
I'm building up the Cart function, but you can purchase it clicking on "ADD TO CART" (it will redirect you on to the checkout page).

*GUYS! Here're few updates*


*XPERIMENTA Project* will now have pro-products. Free products (except for XPsaltery and XBass) will still be available: it is in the philosophy of XPERIMENTA! _New pro-instruments will be available very soon_! Working to the XVibes Pack... _(you can subscribe newsletter on website for more :D)_
*New, *fast, cool and user friendly website (do you like it? ) 
*XPERIMENTA Psaltery and XBass* will no longer be free, because of the investments for new and very cool instruments and technical support/hosting improvement/site management and security services (Cloudfare, SSL, TLS 1.3, HSTS, FastSpring Checkout)/data traffic, storage/etc.

(but don't worry, they will be available at a ridiculous price and with new improvements: 8.99$).


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## DSmolken (Apr 6, 2018)

Sounds like a reasonable plan that solves your hosting problem. Looking forward to what you do next.


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## bigcat1969 (Apr 6, 2018)

All the best. Always great to have free and low priced fun instruments.


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## ScarletJerry (Apr 6, 2018)

Sounds like a great plan, Flavio. You are very talented, and I know that many of us are looking forward to hearing more of your instruments. When you become a famous sample library producer, please remember that I'm the one who "discovered' you! 

-Scarlet Jerry


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