Vintage Vibe Review

Vintage Vibe is a collection of multi-sampled instruments based on the retro sounds of funk, soul, R&B, jazz, classic rock and country that samples rare and collectable instruments from yesteryear.   Manufacturer Big Fish Audio Price £125 (download or DVD) Contact Time+Space 01837 55200 Web www.timespace.com Amazon.co.uk Widgets The 12GB library comes as either a DVD or a download […]

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Vintage Vibe is a collection of multi-sampled instruments based on the retro sounds of funk, soul, R&B, jazz, classic rock and country that samples rare and collectable instruments from yesteryear.

Manufacturer Big Fish Audio
Price £125 (download or DVD)
Contact Time+Space 01837 55200
Web www.timespace.com

The 12GB library comes as either a DVD or a download and runs in Kontakt 5 or the Kontakt 5 Player, with a Reason ReFill version also available. Essentially, you get 97 instrument patches that cover Fender and Gibson guitars and basses, Rhodes, Hammond, Clavinet and Wurlitzer keyboards, a handful of studio percussion instruments, and a massive list of drums, including a 1958 Rogers, a 1970s Ludwig and many more. To be fair, there are far more instruments than we can list here, including some rarities and even a 1960s electric sitar. Where relevant, most of the instruments have been multi-sampled with several layers, and many have multiple keyswitches to change between different versions. The guitars and basses, for example, have open and muted versions recorded through a DI box as well as through crunchy old amps for extra character.

All of the instruments bar the drums share the same Kontakt interface, with a main page showing the effects plus a page for portamento controls on the guitars and basses. There’s also a Display page that shows you what keyswitch and sample you are currently playing. However, it seems a bit ridiculous having three pages for these items as everything would have easily fitted on one.

Many of the patches use the same raw samples but get their personality via Kontakt’s effects, although, if we’re honest, we’re not huge fans of the distortion in Kontakt. Luckily, they’re all beautifully recorded, with rattles and buzzes left in for character, so you could feed these through an amp sim or FX of your choice.
For the drum section you have a much more complex set of windows that allow you to swap/pitch individual kit pieces, humanise playback and change the mapping, plus there’s a mixer for balancing and effecting each drum mic.

Although you might not be able to program a realistic solo guitar riff, this is an astonishing collection for producers or media composers looking to easily combine sounds for an authentic, vintage-sounding track

Verdict

A great-value collection covering a broad range of vintage instrument sounds that will instantly transport you to the 50s, 60s and 70s.

8/10

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