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American Beauty - sample libraries

Mr. Edinburgh

Active Member
Purely for educational purposes - I'm wanting to recreate the instruments and sounds of the American Beauty music as close as I can - just for vibe and understanding....

I know the score will mainly be real instruments but can any genius here list the main libraries that would get me close to the score?

Mallets, Guitars, Tablas .... ?

You guys are fountain of knowledge and it's AMAZING....

Thanks
 
Well, here is someone else’s knowledge: instrumentation pulled from Quora:

1 Answer

Didier Gusset
, "Life is good. Sometimes I forget."
Answered Feb 7 2015 · Author has 270 answers and 259.6k answer views

Hello, I have the CD. The lists I found on the web about the instruments used in this soundtrack are uncomplete, so I transcribe them all from the booklet:

tablas, kim-kim drums, bird calls, mandola, appalachian dulcimer, lap steel guitar, banjo ukulele, bass tin whistle, flute, processed bass flute, phonograph, pedal steel guitar, ewi, arpeggiated violin, detuned mandolin, saz, piano.
 
I would look at spitfire Audios producer portfolio series for a lot of this stuff. E.g. Kitchenware series for the pitched glass and metal percussion elements.

Also their inder gold finger percussion for tablas and bird calls etc
 
Purely for educational purposes - I'm wanting to recreate the instruments and sounds of the American Beauty music as close as I can - just for vibe and understanding....

Definitely a useful exercise. Don't forget the marimba...

And for the ambient sounds, check out SonicCouture's Xtended Piano. At one time they had a bowed piano patch called "Any Other Name". Not sure if it is still in the package. Very similar texture to the bag scene ambience.
 
I would take NI Mallet Flux for the mallet sounds - it contains marimba, vibraphone, and other mallets plus lots of presets with great mallet ensemble ostinatos and even full arrangements. I think this gets close to theAmerican Beauty style. I bought it recently and I absolutely love it!
 
And for the ambient sounds, check out SonicCouture's Xtended Piano. At one time they had a bowed piano patch called "Any Other Name". Not sure if it is still in the package. Very similar texture to the bag scene ambience.
My build is from 19th of September 2011 and there's no patch called "Any Other Name".
Would be great to hear it @soniccouture ?
Skärmavbild 2019-01-26 kl. 09.36.00.png

Best,
Anders
 
Taking the list of instruments from Paul's post:

tablas - Evolution Series World Percussion Asia or Crypto Cipher Tablas
appalachian dulcimer - Embertone's Whiskey Series Mountain Dulcimer
lap steel guitar - Orange Tree Samples SLIDE Lap Steel
bass tin whistle - Ilya Efimov Irish Low Whistle
detuned mandolin - Orange Tree Samples Evolution Mandolin with the detune knob turned down is about as close as samples would go I think.
saz - Soundiron Acoustic Saz
pedal steel guitar - Wavelore has one, but I don't know if the company is still going. I did just follow the purchase process as far as the Paypal button, but I think it's a risk as there may be no support. Also it's $299!

piano - just way too many options to list
flute - as above
arpeggiated violin - also as above


banjo ukulele - ?
kim-kim drums - ?
bird calls - ?
mandola - ?

processed bass flute - ?
phonograph - ?
ewi - ?
 
My build is from 19th of September 2011 and there's no patch called "Any Other Name".
Would be great to hear it @soniccouture ?
Skärmavbild 2019-01-26 kl. 09.36.00.png

Best,
Anders

Hi Anders,
The demo was for the Array Mbira product, but included a pad sound from Xtended Piano:

demo number 2.

The patch is indeed now included in Xtended Piano, after users requested it. Existing users can download the updated product for free from their accounts.

James

Screenshot 2019-01-30 13.25.16.png
 
There's a super Newman Beauty patch in CFX that is perhaps the best piano sound I've heard for moodier, slower pieces.
 
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