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Chocolate Audio releases Celestial - Sampled Celesta for Kontakt

Simone Coen

Simone Coen

Owner of Chocolate Audio
Chocolate Audio has announced Celestial, a sampled celesta designed for balanced sound and ease of fitting in any mix.

Features:
  • 0.5 GB (lossless compressed) library size, 449 samples.
  • 4 Layered channels: Spot mics with AKG C414EB, Decca mics with AKG C451E-CK22 and 2 additional sound-designed options, Hyped and Diffuse.
  • Sustaining sounds, chromatically sampled.
  • Release trails, chromatically sampled.
  • Independently controllable sustain-pedal noise.
  • Sampled with Millennia preamps fed directly into Apogee converters.
  • All of the details of the celesta recreated through the use of custom advanced scripting.
  • Recorded at 24-bit / 96 kHz, released at 24-bit / 44.1 kHz.
  • Easy-to-use mixer for extreme sound-mangling.
Engine:
  • Custom User Interface.
  • Velocity curve management.
  • Fine-tuned three-band EQ for each channel.
  • Many under the hood techniques to make the instrument true to the original (release trails attenuation, intelligent release and pedal action...).
  • Master realism control and specific control over release trails, key off, resonances and pedal noise levels.
  • Envelope controls.
  • 101 custom, high quality IR reverbs.
  • 22 (+ 22) compressor + tape presets.
  • 17 factory presets + user-savable presets.
Price: $49 USD Introductory offer for 40% off at 29 USD until April 30th, 2019.

https://www.chocolateaudio.com/products/celestial.

Requirements:
  • 4 GB RAM (more if in need of loading more sample sets).
  • Core2Duo or equivalent Mac or PC.
  • Kontakt Retail Version: v. 5.5.2 or newer.
Hi quality uncompressed audio demos available at:
https://fidbak.audio/chocolateaudio/player/dfe9a7e1f446bfda3feeb693

Walkthrough video:
Click to read more...
 
whitewasteland said:
Very nice !
Is it possible to assign the channels to different Kontakt outputs ?

Edit : I'm a sucker for celestas so I bought it anyway. Guess I'll find out :)
Click to expand...

Hi,

It’s not possible from the UI but it’s possible from the Kontakt editor.
I can build an NKI with outputs pre-assigned to stereo outs 1 to 4.
 
whitewasteland said:
That would be great, thank you !
Click to expand...
ok, thanks to another early adopter we identified another little problem (F4 is a little bit on the heavier side).
I will update the instrument next monday and push it as soon as possible.

Cheers,

Simone
 
Simone Coen said:
ok, thanks to another early adopter we identified another little problem (F4 is a little bit on the heavier side).
I will update the instrument next monday and push it as soon as possible.

Cheers,

Simone
Click to expand...

Thank you Simone. Made some tests yesterday and I noticed I had to cut some lows to get rid of this hammer noise (some people may adore it as it is but I prefer it lighter). But once I had done that the tone was delightful :) Good job !
 
whitewasteland said:
Thank you Simone. Made some tests yesterday and I noticed I had to cut some lows to get rid of this hammer noise (some people may adore it as it is but I prefer it lighter). But once I had done that the tone was delightful :) Good job !
Click to expand...
yes, we chose to have this perspective and have it cut in the instrument... there's already quite a bit of cut in the EQ - effect page but you can deepen it inside the instrument or outside with a simple EQ. We needed to have that since we think it's lovely to have it in more "intimate" and close-up scenarios, widening the potential use of this single instrument.
 
Simone Coen said:
yes, we chose to have this perspective and have it cut in the instrument... there's already quite a bit of cut in the EQ - effect page but you can deepen it inside the instrument or outside with a simple EQ. We needed to have that since we think it's lovely to have it in more "intimate" and close-up scenarios, widening the potential use of this single instrument.
Click to expand...
Of course, that very up front sound works perfectly for intimate stuff ! My EQ move was just to help make the instrument seat in an orchestral setting.
 
whitewasteland said:
Of course, that very up front sound works perfectly for intimate stuff ! My EQ move was just to help make the instrument seat in an orchestral setting.
Click to expand...
did you try the second preset (Orchestrated)?
Do you think there's too much low end also in that one preset?
 
Hi Simone, sorry for the late reply !

Please just see this as my humble opinion, but I think so, yes :) Even if is clearly in the right direction, in the "Orchestrated" preset, I still have quite an important amount of that hammer noise at 80hz.

Actually, the root frequency of the lowest note (C4) being around 260hz, I applied a low cut filter at 200hz, with a slope at 24db per octave. That works for me :)
 
This is a very nice celesta.

In an orchestral setting as whitewastland suggested it needs some adjusment, but the good thing is it has defenition and thus anyone can adjust its sound according to need and taste.

There is an update coming I noticed due to a note having a slightly higher strike sound.
Do you send emails out for customers regarding updates?
 
Silence-is-Golden said:
This is a very nice celesta.

In an orchestral setting as whitewastland suggested it needs some adjusment, but the good thing is it has defenition and thus anyone can adjust its sound according to need and taste.

There is an update coming I noticed due to a note having a slightly higher strike sound.
Do you send emails out for customers regarding updates?
Click to expand...

Hi!
I will update the sound of the orchestrated preset to make it fit better. Thanks.
We are also updating that key with a separate sample since some users wrote to me they liked that unevenness.
So there will be the full balanced version and the original one.
Working on the updates tomorrow and, yes, pushing the news via email.
 
Simone Coen said:
Hi!
I will update the sound of the orchestrated preset to make it fit better. Thanks.
We are also updating that key with a separate sample since some users wrote to me they liked that unevenness.
So there will be the full balanced version and the original one.
Working on the updates tomorrow and, yes, pushing the news via email.
Click to expand...
Terrific. Thanks for the reply!
 
Although there are so many celesta libraries on the market, this is an instrument that varies in sound (between models/brands) almost more than pianos do, so I find myself reaching for different libraries for different projects.

I completely forgot to check out these audio demos, but having run into a roadblock with the one in VSL Synchron Percussion (I am waiting to see if I get a response on their forum), and having thoroughly canvassed all that I have late last night, it will not surprise me if this is now the deepest celesta library available. Great price!
 
Last edited:
For more context then, with what else is out there, I heard back from VSL, and it turns out the original VSL Celesta is a Yamaha model and the Synchron Celesta is a Kohlberg, so that explains why the dynamics response is so different.

The overall level being low on Synchron, is so that it retains its original balance relative to the other orchestral percussion.

The most common model to sample seems to be the Schiedmayer (Stuttgart).
 
Ok,

we just released an update to Celestial.

We created a 'fork' to Celestial since there is one key with a little bit more bell to it.
But some customers and testers found that a feature rather than a drawback.
So we created a separate set of NKIs for this.

This is the list of NKIs now coming with Celestial:
  • 01 - Celestial.nki: the product as it originally shipped
  • 02 - Celestial - Hi-Pass.nki: an hi-pass filter makes sure the key-down noise is reduced - best in an orchestral scenario - this was a much requested update
  • 03 - Celestial - Multiout.nki: separate Kontakt outs 1 to 4 (stereo) are mapped from each channel - all internal processing is bypassed
  • 04 - Celestial - Multiout - Hi-Pass.nki: same as 03, with 02
  • 05 - Celestial - Re-peat Custom.nki: same as 01 but with a “fixed” key (F4 - midi key 077) due to a request from Piet De Ridder. The "problem" with that key is that it sounded with more 'bell' to it than nearby keys. We decided to keep both versions, since a few testers found that sound a plus feature rather than a negative one.
  • 06 - Celestial - Hi-Pass - Re-peat Custom.nki: same as 02, with 05
  • 07 - Celestial - Multiout - Re-peat Custom.nki: same as 03, with 05
  • 08 - Celestial - Multiout - Hi-Pass - Re-peat Custom.nki: same as 04, with 05
Current customers should already have received an updated download-links email + email notice from me.

I hope this update is welcomed by current and future users.

All the best,

Simone
 
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