Hollow Sun vKS70 KONTAKT

Several decades ago (1985 to be precise), a certain Japanese manufacturer released their JX8P which did ok. A year or so later, they brought out their JX10P quickly followed by the rack mount MKS70 'Super JX' MIDI module...

Fabulous synths and up there with the company's legendary Jupiter 8. Ok ... this new breed used digitally controlled oscillators (DCOs). Nothing to concerned about - not digital oscillators but analogue just controlled digitally for better tuning stability ... but otherwise all analogue through and through. And it sounds mighty. We've extensively multi-sampled the raw waveforms from subsonic, clicking lows to tweeter worrying highs and the samples are long - up to a minute each for some - so that they can breathe. The waveforms are quirky which add to the character of the original instruments as well as the sample set.

We then pass all those through Kontakt's synthesis and modulation functions. And they sound fab.

Unforunately, these synths were parameter access (as was the fashion back in the 80s) and they were bastards to program. But the company reacted with their PG800 programmer...

It connected via a six-pin DIN cable and allowed hands-on tweaking and fiddling and was (is) fabulous. It pre-dated MIDI controllers by some 30 years or more

We've emulated this in the PG800's GUI...

But we've added a few twists, most notably a sub-octave and also the 'Extras' - extra waveforms that include sync sweep, cross mod and PWM, the latter of which was sorely lacking from the otherwise juicy JX / MKS. We've also added pink noise to DCO2 to give some more flexibility and the highpass filter (HPF) is variable rather than switched. We've also added various monophonic and unison playback modes for some seriously fruity basses and leadlines. And, of course, there are the effects...

DISTORTION > EQ > CHORUS / FLANGE / PHASER > DELAY > CONVOLUTION REVERB

We've also added multiple LFOs. You can have one LFO (as per the orginal) but also dedicated LFOs for pitch. filter and output amp (for tremolo and/or autopan. Far more than the orginal offered and not the six / twelve limit on polyphony the 8P and 10P / MKS had.

And it all comes with 70 presets, six more than the original and as well as our own, we've had patchmeister, Ingo Weidner, on the case - he's made some top stuff for the likes of NI and Waldorf and other. Lovely bloke too!

FEATURES:

* 48 kHz/24-bit samples, 1 GB
* Advanced Retro Synthesis Engine
* Full length, some lasting a minute or more for 'breath'
* 70 presets, extensively editable with save options
* Multi-FX with distortion, EQ, modulation effects and delay
* Convolution reverb with room, spring, plate and hall


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