Two New Hollow Sun CD's

During my formative years, when I used to watch Top Of The Pops religiously, not for the music so much but as a form of self teaching, watching the musicians hands, studying the instruments and trying to figure out "how they did that", I started to put together a list of instruments that I simply had to have to make the noises I wanted to make. These included the SH-101, the Jupiter 8, the Prophet 5, the Fairlight, the Emulator II, the PPG Wave, the DX7 and a few more. I guess this formed the bulk of many young aspiring musicians wish lists, but there were two on my list that might not have been on many others at the time. Probably because they weren't "cutting edge" or didn't look that "cool".

The first on this list was the Yamaha CP70. Why ? Well, you simply can't beat a good piano sound and the CP70 represented a great piano sound in a compact size. I remember seeing Benny of ABBA hammering away at his CP70, loving that crisp sound or even Peter Gabriel and his chorused version. More recently, Keane used the CP70 to fantastic effect as the central instrument in their sound and style. You see, the CP70 not only sounds great but also looks kind of cool too. All other electric piano's look stunted and so is their sound. Although unique, let's face it, an electric piano doesn't actually sound like a piano. They have their own sound and it's a great sound, but it's nothing like a piano. The CP70 though "looks" like a piano, with the same shape and form as a grand, and sounds like the real thing too. Maybe because it is so close to a real piano in design....it has strings and hammers and is heavy and needs more than 2 people to lug it about. True, it's no Bosendorfer or Steinway, but it is unique and well admired and loved.

So, you might say it would be easy to sample a CP70. I mean, it only has one sound, nothing flashy. But you'd be very wrong. A piano may only have one voice, but it's probably the most expressive voice out there. Play it hard, play soft and everything in between. Use the pedals, open the lid, mic it up, change the room acoustics....many variations. Steve Howell, Hollow Sun's owner/founder/sole employee bought a used CP70 at his own expense last year and proceeded to sample every note at full length. Then using the Akai S5000's extensive range of tools and tricks (many of which were designed, created or inspired by Steve himself) he has crafted a replication of the CP70 that other library producers have used Gigabytes of data to achieve. Steve's sample sets take up a mere 100MB approx. each.

So we have a full on CP70 set, with a "lite" version for the memory conscious. We then have a set played through a Boss/Roland chorus pedal. This is/was the technique used by Peter Gabriel to achieve his signature CP70 sound. One can only speculate whether the fact that Steve used to work with Peter was the inspiration behind this. But I do know for a fact that the set up used by Steve is as close to Gabriels method as possible.

And there's more....

Owners of Akai's Z Series and MPC4000 will benefit from a "note off thunk", the sound made when each hammer comes back to rest after the key has been released. Although barely audible, it's cleverly mixed in and adds the finishing touch. This is clever use of the Z Series' features that allow this kind of trickery.

Finally, there is a selection of sweeps across the strings using a guitar plectrum, giving some interesting effects. A nice little bonus.

How do they play and sound ? Bloomin' marvellous, that's how. Especially if you use a weighted keyboard. These are really great samples. The space and depth of the sounds are big and clear and powerful. The chorused version is sparkling and the Z Series stuff is just superb with the note off addition. This really is a dream to play. Expressive, full and inspirational. What more could you want. This is an instrument you can compose with.

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Another instrument on my list was the Mellotron. This weird beast of a machine was and still is legendary. Still used today and flourishing with a new Version VI out now, the Mellotron is one of those strange creations that shouldn't exist. It is unbelieveably difficult to use and notoriously hard to service and transport. It's mechanics are the stuff of legend and have frustrated it's many users. But, despite all that, it has an endearing quality and does something that not very much else does.

The Mellotron was arguably the first proper keyboard sampler. In simple terms, sounds were recorded on strips of tape. A number of these strips were then assembled on a rack, inserted into the Mellotron which would then play them back like a tape player, but depending on the key struck, the appropriate tape strip would play. These strips lasted about 8 seconds, and when you released the key, there was an almighty thud as the mechanism dropped away. Even so, these machines have been used to great effect, most notably I guess in the intro to The Beatles classic "Strawberry Fields Forever" where John used the Flutes tapes to provide the eerie melody.

As a former Tron owner/user, Steve assembled a small collection of samples and decided to use them to assemble a faithful recreation of the Tron, minus all it's shortcomings. Although there are only seven tape racks recreated here, they are real good ones. Yes, the Flutes are there, as are the Choirs used by Isao Tomita. So is that ethereal sound used by Tony Banks in the Genesis classic "Watcher Of The Skies". There is also another Choir set, Strings, Violins and a Brass set here too. All immaculately sampled and looped so you too can have these legendary sounds that have been sought after for years and usually only obtainable in a raw or expensive format.

One play of the Mixed Choir and I could swear I WAS Tomita !! To give you more bang for your buck, Steve has used the Akai's amplitude envelope settings to give you some lush treatments of the sounds, all instantly recalled at the touch of a button or turn of a dial.

These samples had me thinking I was actually playing one of the ageing beasts. Close your eyes and you could almost feel Tomita, Banks or Lennon brushing you aside ;o)

So, yet again, Steve comes up trumps with two legendary instruments perfectly sampled and represented on the king of hardware samplers. Oh, and if you are one of the ever increasing number of software sampler users, don't fret. MFI (Multi Format Installer) versions of these will be out very soon to cater for your needs.

Ultimately, these are two highly detailed, respectful and versatile recreations of two legendary instruments. At last you can own these at a price that can't be denied. Check out the Hollow Sun webstore now for details, demos and of course, the order forms !

CP70

NewTron Bomb