Zero-G announces Phaedra

Zero-G has announced Phaedra, a new, sample-based, virtual analogue synth / sound module powered by Native Instruments' Kontakt Player 2 Audio Engine.

Phaedra is a Zero-G/Xfonic Kontakt Player 2 based virtual instrument featuring over 4 gigabytes of sounds, 21,000 samples and over 800 patches.

Unhappy with the lack of raw sonic power in virtual emulations of VSTi analog synths, producer Sam Spacey set out on a three year journey to make the ultimate synth.

Constructed with the same attention to detail as a huge orchestral sample library, each of the 21,000 samples has been edited and looped by hand, with loops being very long so as to extract that lovely random analog magic. Nearly every single preset has each separate note sampled so as to eliminate aliasing within the instrument's range. With Kontakt 2's engine being fully exploited the library is a full synthesizer in its own right.

This library is based on no particular Electronic genre and would lend itself well to any style.

Synths used in the making of Phaedra:

• Mini Moog D - Was very hard work to sample due to the fact that if you looked at it, it went out of tune.
• Welsh Moog - A prototype Re-issue Moog made in Wales, but had a unique PWM mod done to it.
• Yamaha CS5 - Very snappy and fast attack and surprisingly bass-y oscillators.
• Yamaha CS-15 - This one was delivered in a terrible and broken state, but sounded great for it.
• Yamaha CS-30 - Sometimes all 3 Yamahas were stacked up over CV voltage for a huge sound.
• Korg Monopoly - 4-osc howling beast.
• Korg MS-20 - Very quirky with a great filter.
• Studio Electronics SE-1 - Modern rack-mounted Moog that could store presets and stay relatively in tune.
• Studio Electronics SE-1 - as above but with filter input. Often two stacked.
• Roland SH-101 - Wet and squelchy, a really good little workhorse.
• Crumar Multiman - 70's string synth with Arp filters, surprisingly interesting palette of sounds.
• Akai AX-73 - Cheap and nasty; evil filter.
• Analog Phaser - Home-made, based on the Small Stone that was modded and used by Jarre on everything he did.
• Roland analog chorus pedal - Subtle but lovely.

Plus the only thing digital to get used:

• Ensoniq Esq-1 - 8-bit grungy samples going through complete Curtis analog circuitry.

Programming Notes:

• Sound Quality: All the sounds were recorded and processed at 24-Bit resolution and 44.1 KHz sample rate.
• Organisation: The Instruments list groups the sounds into categories. Each category has a different coloured GUI, for example the Synth category has a red interface, Leads are blue, Bass are grey and Pads are green.
  
  The categories are:
  • 01 Synth 1
  • 02 Synth 2
  • 03 Bass
  • 04 Leads
  • 05 Pads
  • 06 Sequences
  • 07 FX
  • 08 DnB
  • 09 Synth Builder
  • 10 Multis
• Memory Size: All programming has been carried out with the samples loaded into RAM. However, Direct from Disk (DFD) functionality is available thereby enabling the streaming of the samples direct from your hard disk drive.
• Modulation Wheel Assignments: Every single instrument has the Modulation Wheel assigned to a function. This gives a lot of dynamic control over the character of the sound.
• Polyphony: All instruments have unlimited polyphony except for a selection of patches from synths that were originally monophonic and some bass sounds which have thus been programmed as monophonic.
• Multis: Up to 64 instruments can be combined in a Multi giving a vast array of possible combinations of the supplied single instruments.

PHAEDRA will have a recommended retail price of $199.95 / €169 / £114.95 and is expected to be released this month for Windows and Mac OS X in VST, DXi, AU, RTAS and stand-alone formats.