Soundiron, the new ToneHammer

[mazz]

Many of you probably already know about this having just received the e-mails. For those who aren't familiar, Tonehammer makes some very cool and excellent libraries. They have been replaced and reborn as Soundiron:

http://www.soundiron.com/instruments/


I had the pleasure of hearing the mastermind of Tonehammer, Troels Fohlmann speak at the Game Developer's Conference last winter in SF, and he seems like a very cool, smart and talented guy. He comes from the trailer industry and was the lead composer on the latest "Need for Speed" game as well.

If you are a sound library connoisseur, check out Soundiron. Many of the ToneHammer libraries are still available and some have been upgraded via Soundiron.

Rock on!

Mazz

[kclements]

Hey Mazz -

They actually split into 2 companies (maybe you know this already).

Troels Folmann has started 8dio (http://www.8dio.com) and has some of the original tonehammer instruments, while Mike Peaslee, Gregg Stephens and Chris Marshall (all formally from Tonehammer I believe) are now with Soundiron (http://www.soundiron.com).

The strange thing to me is 8dio has Requiem Pro and Soundiron has Requiem Lite. Otherwise, it looks like they split the product range between them and both working on new titles. Great stuff. Seems like they split on good terms, but I haven't read anything explaining why they have gone their separate ways.

cheers -
kc

[mazz]

Didn't know about Troels' new company, thanks for the head's up. I must have missed that somewhere. I thought it was strange that Troels wasn't mentioned in the new company e-mail. Cool.

At the GDC, Troels mentioned that he had done a bongo library once with something like 15,000 samples!! OMG! That was in response to someone asking him what he meant by "deep sampling". He's a pretty intense guy!

Cool!

[Cruciform]

8Dio's new taiko ensemble sounds wonderful. Pity I recently bought Drums of War 2.

[Cruciform]

FWIW, I did an official demo for SoundIron's Bamboo Stick Ensemble. Second track in the player. http://www.soundiron.com/instruments/pe ... -ensemble/ All sounds are made with only the instrument, no creative fx used.

[keithl]

too funny...I just got done ordering some stuff from there....I love the outside of the box thinking when it comes to things they sample.

[partyofone]

Was just admiring Emotional Piano 2.0. I could kill myself for not getting it when it was 50% at the Tonehammer site. I'm working on a "reveal" cue for a reality bridal show and I'm just not 100% feeling the stock Kontakt piano.

[mazz]

Do you have Omnisphere? It has some really nice "emotional" pianos that work well with very simple melodies and chords. Otherwise, I would recommend using EQ to soften the highs and add subtle echo and long reverb to the stock piano. It's a sound I call "pillowy", and works well for emotional stuff.

They will always have stuff coming out and they will always have sales. Usually holidays are good times to buy stuff from these folks.

[partyofone]

Unfortunately, not yet, but it's on my wishlist. That's a good idea on EQ so I'll give that a shot. Increasing the built-in hall verb definitely helped it. In some ways I like EWQLSO Steinway B, but something about the mids seemed odd compared to the Kontakt piano. Thanks.

[partyofone]

I just discovered the August Foerster Grand in Kontakt. It sounds really nice and for this piece the more ambient, less in your face sound is more what I'm looking for.