"...A very comprehensive package... Fans of dark and moody atmospherics are especially well catered for; there are some stunning pads and leads that have a fantastic dark and menacing feel - perfect for drum 'n' bass or hard-edged breakbeat... Highly usable for those who prefer their beats to be slightly out of the ordinary... Plenty of funtionality for altering sounds... The samples are mapped, chopped and ready for use. The material here has been edited superbly.. A package that covers many bases well... You're getting ten sample CDs and lots tasty instrument functionality... Good value. Highly recommended. Rated 8/10- Computer Music Magazine, October 2004" 

 

"...A huge library of virtuoso sound design samples presented in a great sounding virtual instrument at a giveaway price... Altered States must be on your shopping list...Sound/Results rated 9/10" FUTURE MUSIC MAGAZINE

ALTERED STATES is an instrument that will inspire you!! First, it is absolutely VAST (almost 5 Gb, and thousands of unique source sounds). Second, it is a plug-in virtual instrument powered by a custom high-performance NATIVE INSTRUMENTS interface for shaping and manipulating the sound. Third, the source material is extremely organic, unique, ultra-creative, and virtuoso sound design. And the diversity and flexibility of this stunning resource has to be experienced to be believed.

 

Much of ALTERED STATES is brand new, and much is from highly-acclaimed and award-winning Zero-G libraries never before available in this format. All sounds have been reorganized and re-categorized from the original ten (yes, 10) incorporated Zero-G libraries and integrated with over a gigabyte of outstanding brand new material. In the rhythm department of the resulting monster library, there are thousands of loops and all are presented in sliced format (via the NI INTAKT Beat Machine) or via the Time Machine, so they will automatically sync to your songs, and you can apply sound-shaping to each slice if you wish.

 

 

Altered States: User interface (magnify...)

The contents of all of the following 10 libraries, all of which scored either 4 or 5 stars in review in Sound On Sound magazine (UK), are integrated into this mind-bogglingly powerful instrument:

 

Zero-G Ambient Volume 1

Zero-G Ambient Volume 2 (and ProSamples Volume 36 'Chillout')

Zero-G Cuckooland Unhinged

Zero-G Cuckooland Ghost In The Machine

Zero-G Cuckooland Asylum (and ProSamples Volume 6 'Experimental & FX')

Zero-G Cuckooland Ambience

Zero-G Malice In Wonderland

Zero-G Fields of Motion (and ProSamples Volume 9 'Future Beats 2')

Zero-G Junk Percussion

Zero-G Dream Zone (from Creative Essentials)

Ibiza Chillout (approx 1 Gb of extra brand new material)

The programming, conversion, and organisation of this vast product has been expertly carried out by IAN BODDY, one of the UK's leading synthesists, and has been designed to be as user friendly and logically creative as possible.

 

ALTERED STATES is simply the single most powerfully creative sample-based virtual instrument ever created, a claim which can be justified, even in the face of competition like Spectrasonics' very fine 'Atmosphere'. How? ALTERED STATES has an extremely large and incredibly diverse library of sounds; it has the best software interface, created by NATIVE INSTRUMENTS, the leaders in software synthesis; it's engine is based on the KONTAKT audio engine (the same as in the world's finest and most highly-acclaimed sampler); and all the sounds can also be loaded into NI KONTAKT if desired (see below), meaning it is NOT a closed system. Also, the loops, the LFOs, the FX, everything can be automatically synced to the tempo of your song (making other techniques like Groove Control look cumbersome!), and you have total recall of everything you do, in your sequencer.

 

The whole of the ALTERED STATES library is presented within a stunning new state-of-the-art plug-in interface by NATIVE INSTRUMENTS which is specifically optimized for, among other things, rhythmic loop playback, manipulation, and creative mayhem. The convenient one-screen interface (a version of NI INTAKT) provides tremendous sound shaping abilities without disrupting the creative flow, including a first-class multimode filter, an envelope follower, two LFOs, effects, and much more. All of the loops in the library have been set up so that they can be automatically synced to tempo, either via the Beat Machine or the Time Machine. The Beat Machine has loops divided into their individual hits (slices) which means they can be played at a wide range of tempos without change in pitch. It also allows the user to give each hit individual settings for pitch, playback direction, pitch envelope, amp envelope, distortion, delay, and more; a MIDI file of each loop can be easily exported so that groove, accent, and feel can be manipulated in any host sequencer. The Time Machine time-stretches or compresses loops in real time.

 

Not only can you sync, stretch, and pitch the loops, but also filter, effect and modulate them as well! A powerful sound-shaping filter, flexible envelopes, syncable LFOs, and distortion, syncable delay, and lo-fi effects can inject even more energy and individuality into the loops, as well as into the synths, pads, textures and everything else in this absolutely vast and inspiring sound library. Since the software interface is a version of NI's superb INTAKT engine, working with it is fast, easy, and sounds great!

 

FEATURES:

Library Content:

Almost 5 Gigabytes of world-class uniquely creative rhythm loops, instruments & samples produced by multi award winning sound designers Ian Boddy, Cuckooland, and others, including 3499 instrument patches!! Includes the following sound categories:

 

Atmospheres: 

Aqueous, Bells, Ethnic, Fantasy, Horror, Mechanics, Percussive Ambience, Space and more...

 

FX:

Altered States, Instruments, Natural World, Sci-Tech, Synthi, Voices and more...

 

Loops:

Ethnic, Machines, Weird, Cuckooland, Synthi and more...

 

Pads:

Ambient, Bells & Ethnic, Synthetic and more...

 

Percussion: Analogue, Bells & Metal, Ethnic, FX, Hats, Hits, Kicks, Snares and more...

 

Features of NI Interface:

Access to individual hits (slices) within loops,

Easy and intuitive user interface

User interface is a version of Native Instruments' INTAKT, whose engine is based on KONTAKT, the world's finest software sampling engine,

Loops use one or more of the three sampler-modes: Beat Machine with ISE (Individual Slice Edit), Time Machine and standard Sampler mode,

Easy synchronization of loops to MIDI tempo,

MIDI file export permits groove, accent, and feel manipulation in any host sequencer,

Integrated effects: Group filter including low-pass, high-pass, band-reject or band-pass modes, global filter, lo-fi, distortion, syncable delay,

Modulation section provides AHDSR envelope, two individual syncable LFOs, envelope follower and a DBD pitch envelope,

Total Recall

Sound Library can also be loaded into other Native Instruments samplers including KONTAKT version 1.5 (which is scheduled for release by NI in November 2003), for even greater flexibility and more options for working with the material.

 

Supported Interfaces: - VST® 2.0, DXi, ASIO, Audio Units, Core Audio, RTAS

- Sound Library will also be loadable into Native Instruments' KONTAKT sampler (from version 1.3 of Kontakt onwards), so owners of those great tools can enjoy even greater flexibility and more options for working with the material.

 

Minimum Requirements 

Windows XP, Pentium III/ Athlon 400 MHz, 256 MB RAM - Mac OSX, G3 500 MHz, 256 MB RAM 

 

Recommended System

Mac OSX, G4 733, 512 MB 

 

*PLEASE NOTE NATIVE INSTRUMENT'S KOMPAKT PLAYER IS NOT INTEL MAC COMPATIBLE, IF YOU WISH TO USE THIS PRODUCT WITH AN INTEL MAC YOU NEED TO OWN KONTAKT 2.2 OR LATER.

IMPORTANT: To avoid confusion, we would like to point out that the Native Instruments software powering the Zero-G Virtual Sound Modules is not a "PLAYER" but an INSTRUMENT. The software included is a complete Virtual Instrument called either KOMPAKT INSTRUMENT or INTAKT INSTRUMENT, which are specialized and streamlined versions of the NI KONTAKT sampler and also use the KONTAKT audio engine. Neither the KOMPAKT INSTRUMENT nor the INTAKT INSTRUMENT should not be confused with the much more basic "KONTAKT PLAYER" interface as included with some other companies' products, which is simply a 'player' of libraries in Kontakt format and has very little editing functionality. That is obviously very different from the KOMPAKT INSTRUMENT or INTAKT INSTRUMENT, which include the most used controls from KONTAKT and even many powerful new features, and allow massive editing of the included sound library. The KOMPAKT INSTRUMENT and the INTAKT INSTRUMENT, one of which which powers each Zero-G Virtual Sound Module, are much more powerful creative tools than the "KONTAKT PLAYER".