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New DRONAR: Live Strings from Gothic Instruments - new video!

Time+Space

Senior Member
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Hi all, we are pleased to announce the release of the third DRONAR module 'Live Strings' from Gothic Instruments!

This is an expressive, highly playable module that creates a massive range of strings-based textures ranging from natural live strings and live-played effects to awe-inspiring soundscapes.

Expect foreboding evolving atmospheres loaded with suspense, otherworldly pulsating pads, haunting swarms and face-melting scrapes and screeches that will strike horror in to your audience. On the lighter side, complex shimmering soundscapes abound alongside magical melodic strings brimming with emotion and rich tranquil textures.

It´s simple! Just play a few notes and move a few dials to achieve a rich, evolving universe of sound but move beyond the shimmering immediacy of the ‘Main Page’ and a whole other world of expert control awaits turning DRONAR into a vast modular multi-timbral synth/sampler with multiple independent arpeggiators.

DRONAR Live Strings requires the full Kontakt v5.6 and is available now with 20% off until 4th April. If you already own a DRONAR module, you can use your loyalty discount to double up and save 40%!

Gothic Instruments' Dan Graham will be hosting a Facebook Live session on the T+S Facebook page this evening at 7pm (GMT) - he'll be showing off the sounds and features and answering your burning questions :)

All details can be found on the product page here:
https://www.timespace.com/product/D...struments_dronar_live_strings_(download).html

We also interviewed Dan Graham for the T+S blog here:
https://blog.timespace.com/2017/03/gothic-instruments-dan-graham-introduces-dronar-live-strings/
 
Thanks to Don at SampleLibraryReview.com for this great first look video (and sorry for making you late for your family dinner!)

 
Downloader started then stopped and had to be restarted about 20 times. Patches then loaded very slowly, far beyond normal. Did a batch resave and it took 'forever' (30-40 minutes)....longest one yet, and it's not even a huge library. Patches still loading somewhat slowly, so something isn't right there.
 
Download went fine here, but the batch resave took a couple of hours, which is unique to this library (most batch resaves go relatively fast). Perhaps snapshots would be a better approach, which provides for many presets with a single or a few Kontakt instruments. Just a thought...
 
From Dan Graham:
"Hi all sorry to hear if there are any glitches. I'm the developer behind this. Some of the problem might be the nature of Dronar where on every preset it effectively loads in the entire sample collection but in a purged state. The problem with this is that you can get fairly long load and save times and have to play a note once or twice after loading in a new sound on the Expert page. The upside is having access to all the sounds quickly via the expert page instead of having them all separated on different .nki patches, but by being purged they don't take up too much RAM. I'm not the Scripter but he assures me that we're pushing Kontakt to the edge of what's possible. I can only say that it works well for us and a lot of beta testers, if you can accept the problem of slow loads (maybe 10s per nki preset)."
 
Dan's explanation makes sense but sadly I had exactly the same issue with the previous two Dronar packs also. It was extremely slow to load, I batch re-saved which took an age - and they were still running really really slowly. It's a shame as I absolutely love the sounds but tend to find myself drawn to other libraries just because I can sample them so much quicker. Wasn't planning to pick up the strings pack as a result of this - but if the issue can somehow be fixed...?
 
Tbh I might have bought all the Dronar products because I'm a big fan of how they sound, but it's a pretty poorly optimized library. Bought the first one because I really enjoyed the walkthrough, but it's been left pretty much untouched because even after a batch resave the patches load about 10x slower than similar collections.

The sample content is actually fantastic, but they really need to get their scripting figured out. I wouldn't mind having countless separate NKIs if it meant having reasonable load times.
 
Similar situation here, where the load times being slow push one away from using the product as much. Helpful to understand why it's slow loading.
 
The batch resave took a while (I didn't watch it), but the load times for me are not noticeably long. Maybe it's dependent on one's particular computer setup.
 
Hi I'm Dan Graham, the developer of this. To explain a bit further, the library works by 'loading' thousands of unused samples in the background in a purged state. The purpose of this is to make them all instantly accessible from the Expert Page, to quickly combine any sounds.

The downside is a slower load time, but for me it is still lower than 10 seconds per nki preset, and each nki preset contains 12 'drones' (that is, individual presets) allowing very fast auditioning and live switching within a sequence.

Having spent hundreds of hours in my own world playing with this I also strongly recommend creating your own sounds by loading in new sounds into the slots, mapping the knobs to MIDI controller knobs and just playing. It's very rewarding to create a sound you have in your head and for experimenting.
 
Bought. Like. Working OK here. Did the batch resave thing (which did take a while) and have it on SSD. There is an occasional slight jitter-stop and delay between patch loading from the Kontakt menu, but nothing longer than a second or so.

And yes, can verify here that if you load and combine the various available low, mid hi & fx patches in the "Expert" area it seems to work seamlessly, though I'm certainly not an expert and for me it's very early experimentation. Dronar clearly has both some organic aleatoric as well as synthetic string capabilities ... Cool library.
 
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