I’ve always found traditional Japanese music to be extremely beautiful in its tonality, as well as the instruments used. Many of my tracks have extensively incorporated sampled Japanese instruments, such as Flying Heaven, The Koto Chill and Bushido Blade. I noticed that while such samples existed as part of larger collections, they were all lacking in detail, and very few dedicated collections existed.

Koto Nation is a spiritual successor to the classical Indian instrument library I co-designed, Sitar Nation. Incorporating koto, bass koto (never before sampled) and jiuta-style shamisen, this new library includes thousands of recordings performed by master koto player Masayo Ishigure, who worked with John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma on the score for “Memoirs of a Geisha”!

I’ll be posting more about this massive project over at ImpactSoundworks.com as well as VI-Control and KVR Audio, but I’ll post here again when it is to be released in August!

Note: I know it has been a little over a week since my last update, so to make up for it, here’s another Grand Robot Master Remix Battle entry for your listening pleasure. This one is a club-oriented mix influenced by a particular Disco Dan track. Enjoy!

Download: “Tornado Man Goes Clubbing”

The result of our efforts is almost complete, and it’s called Shreddage: Electric Rhythm Guitar: Rock & Metal. You can read more about the library at the Impact Soundworks website, but here’s the summary: it’s a DI (clean), 24/44.1 electric guitar library with 8x round robins, tons of articulations, drop Bb tuning and, well, we think it sounds better than any other rhythm guitar samples out there. Listen for yourself to the demos below!

“Deep Impact” (Guitar Rig 4 + Studio Devil amps – almost all other sounds are from other ISW libraries)
“Shreddage Montage” (various demo clips in various soft amps)
“Shred it to the Ground” (Guitar Rig 4 amps) ((apologies to Nickelback))

You can expect the library to be released in February 2010 for the ridiculously low price of $49.

Also, check out a new addition to my Zebra 2 tutorial series:

This new collection contains all the presets I’ve ever done plus 65 new ones and 65 variations. The total count is over 330 sounds! Most of them are intended for dance and electronic music, and I’ve used almost all of them in my own tracks, so if you want a nice range of pads, leads, basses, analog and digital type sounds with my own personal flair, check ‘em out.

You can hear demos on the Soundware page, but here is just one example song done using ONLY the new patches and no external effects of processing:

“Z-Squared” (click to download)

Pick it up for only $30, or $5 as an upgrade from one of my previous Zebra collections!

Haven’t heard of Groove Bias yet? It’s a 4gb collection of old-school drum sounds, recorded using all-analog gear, vintage mics, busted consoles and, of course, TAPE. It took three separate studios to record the 3,500+ samples of 24/96 content, which comprise three custom acoustic drum kits and a set of assorted percussive instruments. Here’s a video of the library in action, courtesy of Brandon Bush:

All formats of Groove Bias are unlocked for your editing and re-mapping pleasure, and with 5-10 round robins and 5-16 velocities per switchable kit component, you’ve got a lot to play with!

You can find more audio demos and detailed product information at the product page. I’ve been having a blast with this library for months now, so I’m happy it’s now open to everybody else. :)