Goldbaby Synth Purveyor review

Goldbaby – the super indie sample creator from the other side of the world, has just released a new sample pack of a variety of analog and digital synths. There are 166 sounds made from over 1800 samples all in 24 bit, and can be used in Kontakt 4, and EXS24. (The raw samples are available if you want to use within another sampler.)

The synths used represent a fairly wide range of sound and history. From classics such as the Roland Jupiter MKS 80, through to the fresh-out-the-oven OP-1, from Teenage Engineering. Other synths from Moog, Dave Smith, Yamaha, and Ensoniq are represented well here.

The sounds are split into 5 different folders –

1 layer Mono
1 layer Poly
Drums FX
*Multi Mono
*Multi Poly *Kontakt only

With the Kontakt sample pack set-up, each preset has been worked through the Kontakt engine, and the important parameters are right there at your fingertips – the Amp and filter Envelope, filter choice, from Kontakt’s excellent sounding filters, voicing, LFO, and master volume. It is possible to dive deeper into the Kontakt’s architecture to meddle with the sound more, but it’s recommended to start another patch if you’re going to do that, as it may mess up the lovely GUI. Unfortunately the Multi-layers aren’t available for the EXS, however there is a work-around; more information on that on Goldbaby’s site (see below).

Within these 5 folders there’s a wide variety of sounds – pads, bass, fx, string, leads, bells, hits, etc. all labeled according to the synth they came from. And what a great sample pack it is. The sound quality is fantastic. Warm squelchy analog in one corner, meets crisp digital brilliance in the other corner. I saw a glimpse of a UBK fatso in one of the promo pictures, but whatever else these synths were run through really did the job. I did a quick comparison of the Slim Phatty samples to my own Slim Phatty, and I thought they were excellent – very hard to tell the difference!

I recommend going through the sounds individually, as I think that the choice of presets really displays the sonic qualities of each synth. The presets are aimed vaguely at the electronica vibe (of course there’s the almost compulsory Dubstep Bass in several varieties), but the huge advantage of this sample pack is that the sounds really have a nice edge over other softsynths, because of the filthy rich analog signal path they’ve endured. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good softsynth, but I’m still not sure they can quite capture the full richness of true analog – which this sample pack has in spades.

There are some really lovely sounds in there. There were a few that really stuck out to me: I particularly loved the analog brass samples from Yamaha’s CS-10. It’s a mono instrument, but the advantage of sampling is being able to play poly! But perhaps the highlights of the sample pack for me were the FX samples. They are awesome hits, rises, drones, mostly tempo-synced, and still lush and warm with analog tone. Instantly usable stuff.

Conclusion
If nothing else, if you can’t afford the thousands of dollars to purchase the hardware – this is a great chance to compare the tones of a small set of some fantastic synths. After listening, I’m definitely keeping my eye on Ebay for a couple of choice tone makers. With the ‘VOL 1’ extension on the title, I hope this is an ongoing collection that will deepen the choice of sounds from the present keyboard line, and extend the range of keyboards. The sound quality is Excellent, and for instant ‘go-to’ sounds that you might need to pop in to tracks, this is a great addition to the arsenal.

Price
$49

… With the ‘VOL 1’ extension on the title, I hope this is an ongoing collection that will deepen the choice of sounds from the present keyboard line, and extend the range of keyboards. …

Product page

PROS

• Gorgeous lush analoguy warm vs Crisp digital brilliance. Really well captured sound.
• wide variety of presets representing a wide history of synthmania
• Kontakt and EXS24 ready

LOVE IT OR HATE IT

• If you want a good selection of usable classic sounds from a rich variety of classic and modern synths, this is a great selection. Obviously if you want more out of one particular synth, then you should go get that instead!

CONS

• You need the full version of Kontakt 4 to use the sample