Hundreds of authentic Yemenite Jewish melodic phrases, improvisations and spoken words
Please note that this library has been programmed for Kontakt 4.2.4. & Kontakt 5 and is not compatible with Kontakt Player.
With this library Sonokinetic is back where it all began. At the cradle of cultural history they found another intriguing and mystical vocal art form. Mr. Abraham Acharak blessed them with a divinely stunning performance and showed music’s true meaning in multiple inspiring recording sessions.
The proven concept of vocal performances based on copyright free songs, improvisations, in all keys and multiple speeds combined with cinematic vocal fx like poems, shouts, whispers and much more, is now crammed into just one instrument patch.
Over the last few years, Sonokinetic found that having multiple performances and fx available in one comprehensive instrument makes work as a composer much easier and more structured. Therefore they´ve invested in the first ‘built-in-one’ ethnic vocal library.
Sonokinetic specializes in cinematic soundscapes filled with rich cultural diversity and with much respect for historic musical heritage. As such, “Yemenite” will happily stand alongside its peers “Tigris & Euphrates, Desert Voice, Voices Of Israel, Haka and Maasai”.
“Yemenite” has mainly been built around traditional Yemenite Jewish music tradition.
This collection consists of hundreds of unique and authentic melodic phrases, improvisations and spoken words. As far as tradition goes, Sonokinetic keeps its tradition alive by providing you with word-by-word translations, with lots of ancient texts translated to English for the first time.
Content
Monolith patch spanning:
Main categories in traditional Yemenite style:
Traditional Songs
Improvisations
Poems
Effects
Full key range. Varies from 2 to 5 songs per key*
Tempo synced by time machine
Time signature selector and automatic BPM group selecting (HOST slave)
10 copyright-free traditional songs
Improvisations spanning 2 to 3 octaves
Voice fx: whispers, shouts, cries, soft speech, mumbling, praying
Kontakt 4.2.4 & 5 patches + aif accessible pool
Kontakt 5 with Timemachine Pro settings and presets
2400+ samples. (1,45 GB sample content)
All songs and poems in Jewish and English translation (pdf).
Royalty and copyright free content license.
Format: All files in 48 kHz, 24bit aif format.
Programmed for Kontakt 4.2.4. & Kontakt 5 (not compatible with Kontakt Player!)
*limitations of a vocal cord limits the amount of song options in keys outside the cantors range.
The Main UI
The main Yemenite GUI consists of an instrument group selector on the left, a sample behavior control in the middle, and a performance control unit at the right.
Vocal performance Selector: is a section in which you select a specific voice performance by clicking the button. By default we saved the instrument to load the “Songs” patch. It purges only the samples that are needed for the part of the instrument you choose to use. Songs are based on traditional Yemenite songs, selected for their text content and complementary character for cinematic use. Improvisations are delved from hours of creative inspired chanting and filled with decennia of musical cultural heritage of the cantor. Poems and fx fill this collection with creative vocal sounds and fx of spoken words and typical very usable voice performances like whispering, hissing, shouting, calling and praying.
For the songs Sonkinetic designed a Song Selector (picture left) option. When a harmonic key is chosen by pressing the corresponding keyswitch (Red: see keyboard explanation) the box displays the available songs for that particular key by displaying a group of switches in the main instrument panel. The amount of songs available in each key differs, due to the limitation of the Cantors vocal range and the setting of the songs. The amount will vary between 2 to 5 available songs in any key. When you select one of these switches a message will appear in the activity monitor on the leftmost bottom corner of Kontakt, displaying the name of the song linked to that switch in that key, allowing you to look up the translations for the song. Translations are found in the 2.additionals/documents/translations folder.
Harmonic Key and Time
The Yemenite collection spans the full harmonic range and supports all tempi. When a harmonic key is chosen by a key switch (red on keyboard) it displays this in the section at the bottom left of the ‘wave orb’. At the right bottom the tempo, set by the host (DAW or Kontakt Stand alone) is displayed.
Wave Orb
Taken from the concept we introduced in the Tigris & Euphrates IR sphere we developed a new way to display the length of a phrase. We found it particularly intuitive, when composing to see what length a phrase would be. Since not all phrases are cut out with computer science in mind, they are more focused on musical and artistic expression, there’s a lot of variety in length and duration of a phrase. Hence the “Wave orb” that shows you the remaining length by steadily following the phrase progression, filling the sphere with a transparent ‘hour glass’ like substance.
Keyboard Mapping:
1. Red keys are key switches to select a harmonic key (for Songs and Improvisations). They range from A to G#. The green key displays the activated key switch.
For Poems the red keys let you select a different poem. And in FX it toggles between different types of vocal sound effects.
2. Blue keys mark the available amount of phrases per song, per harmonic key.
3. The blue keys at the end of the keyboard will trigger phrase endings. (There are actually 5 different endings for each song/improvisation, they are mapped chromatically above the shown key, and as such fall off the Kontakt keyboard view when it’s set to +1 oct like in the example below, to show all the keyswitches on the left).
Performance control
For this instrument we provide you with a default setting of “Time machine” to On and “Auto endings” to Off.
Auto Ending: A melodic phrase is different from a melody. Melodies are built from phrases. So to perform a correct musical vocal melody it is essential to have an option to end a phrase with a proper and logical finish. This can be automated by pressing the “Automatic Ending” knob. It will trigger a random ending (samples found at the utmost right of the keyboard marked in blue).
Time Machine: Tempo syncing made possible by the intelligent new engine “Time machine” by Native instruments created a massive amount of options for the composer. In each key and tempo “Yemenite” provides you with a proper amount of musical material to choose from. We initially build this instrument on the Time machine Pro settings available in Kontakt 5 and up. But we also provided Kontakt 4 patches.
Compatibility
Sonokinetic dedicates its formats to a select few formats. We take high standards in selecting what sampling software engines to program for and base these investments on usability , flexibility , stability and effective use of computing power. We are constant looking to evolve and ways to invest in more users friendly ways to make our libraries accessible for production and performing.
MAC & PC
Kontakt 4.2.4. & Kontakt 5 (not compatible with the free Kontakt Player!)
System recommendations for the Kontakt 5 patches: Host/DAW 64Bit, >8GB RAM
All files in 48 kHz, 24bit aif format
For more information or support please check our FAQ or support service
Available as DOWNLOAD ONLY!
DISCLAIMER:
Due to algorhythms used in the Native Instrument Kontakt 4 Timemachine 1 & 2 feature some of the perfectly looped and zero crossed loop files available in this sample pool may still sound with unwanted digital artifacts. Sonokinetic is trying to work around these issues as much as possible. But some may still occur. They are not able to fix this 3rd party software issue for the time being and hope on a suitable solution in the near future. Make sure you update your Kontakt software to the latest available released version. Please follow instructions in your 3rd party update tools. Native instruments are aware of this and are currently working on an update that will fix this issue.
Kontakt 5 patches use the new timemachine pro settings, which are considerably better and do not show any artifacts as tested in our studios. We highly recommend using Kontakt 5 for “Yemenite” to prevent any artifacts.
