NEWS ARCHIVE
March 3, 2024
Kontakt Crystal Tones and Bowls Instruments
I have recently built a new Kontakt instrument and is available now for FREE. Crystal Tones was born out of a recent recording session for a friend who wanted them recorded and made into a Logic X Sampler instrument for her SoundBath meditation workshops. I have recorded each bowl using their 7-note scale, IE the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B. The original ‘Sampler’ and Kontakt 5 RAW instruments contain a combination of long drones and short hits with a felt mallet. I then ran the recordings through some guitar pedal effects, and back into Kontakt, all of these instruments are available via our TUTS page. ​
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February 4, 2024
Cornwall Council Promotional films.
We are currently working on some more promotional films for Cornwall Council's Adult Education. The commission is to project manage, record and post produce 6 new short films highlighting the journeys of students on a wide variety of courses across the county. Alongside videographer Adam Drake we are dealing with all sound and compositional elements.
More news as and when we get the work completed.
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February 2, 2024
Songstarter MIDI templates for Bandlab.
We recently completed another Songstarter contract for Bandlab Industries. The project involved composing over 50 MIDI templates in the 'Pop' and 'Sub-Pop' genres. This amazing AI led project is going from strength to strength with the platforms 60+ million users and is a very clever songwriting process giving users initial musical ideas for their lyrics and more. Since the projects conception we have now written over 200 compositions. Find out more here:
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https://www.bandlab.com/songstarter
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February 4, 2024
Studio desktop refresh.
Our main desk top and howe we route and control all audio sources in the main studio has received a well deserved upgrade. Gone is the old digital desk centre piece, it's been replaced with Audient ADAT expansion connected to the UA Apollo X8. On top of this we have brought in the SSL UF1 controller for our DAW's and routed all of our monitoring I/O's into the new Audient Nero system.. it's rather lush and much more intuitive for the future.
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December 20, 2023
Sampl'd - Come join the network
We are launching an exciting project at some point in the new year, a network based FREE resource of sampler instruments for Kontakt, Decent Sampler, Logic Pro's Sampler, Cubase's Groove Agent, Halion and more.
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Everyone can be involved and contribute sampler instruments made from any sound and instrument, we will have a submission and moderation process in place to control quality as our main aim is to make a platform full of FREE high end instruments
More news as and when we get there..:)​
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December 1, 2023
Bandlab Univerb Impulse Responses.
We recently helped develop a new impulse response plugin now available in the Bandlab FREE DAW. All of the reverbs within the plugin were recorded by ourselves within a selection of indoor acoustic spaces and a selection of outdoor impulse responses. We are really quite proud at how these turned out and intend to put together a video soon for you all to enjoy on how we record, process and use impulse response reverb.
If you are interested in join the millions of other Bandlab users worldwide and sample our reverbs, create an account HERE
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November 19, 2023
Vochlea Dubler 2 Education resources
We have recently worked with the amazing Vochlea guy's and completed some new education resources for the Dubler 2 Voice to MIDI software/hardware. The resources and Scheme of Work are aimed at KS3 & 4 staff and students to aid in the learning and use of the tool in music composition where students may not have been able to play a physical instrument before. We are a HUGE support of this innovative new tool and the resources will be rolled out to schools nationally in the new year, we are very proud to be involved.
If you are interested in finding out more about Dubler 2, check out the noise HERE
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October 24, 2023
New students settling in well..
Our new cohorts of Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 diploma students are now fully engaged in their courses and progressing well in the first term. They are already engaged in a vast amount of live studio work, songwriting with various DAW's, and are already composing music and recording foley sound for synchronisation to some short film projects. Our courses are really well attended this year with a great mix of ages, genders and cultures which is fantastic to see and further supports the diversity of this wonderful industry.
If you are interested in knowing more about the various courses we run check out our 'Education' page... HERE
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February 21, 2023
MODE Music Technology Conference
Black & Gold Audio are leading on MODE, a new Southwest of England Music Technology in Education Conference delivered by ASONE Hub in partnership with Devon & Torbay, and Plymouth Music Education Hubs. The conference will take place on 23rd May 2023 in Plymouth UK and will feature a range of keynote speakers, panellists, and presenters who are experts in the field of music technology education. Ableton, Steinberg, TIME, Vochlea, Sennheiser and more will be sharing their insights, research, and strategies for incorporating music technology into the classroom and providing hands-on training sessions for attendees.
More Information and SIGNUP HERE
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February 7, 2023
Sound & Music for Visual Media Short Course
Starting after Easter we are delivering a short 6 week non-qualification course on Saturday's from 10am-3.30pm which explores the world of music composition and sound recording for Film, TV & Games. Learn how to create, arrange and use music for a visual narrative and record sound (field & foley recordings) to manipulate and syncronize with media.
For information and to enrol click HERE (click on the 'Music & Dance' box)
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January 18, 2023
Songwriting & Production Course
During the forthcoming February Half term on Monday 13th & Tuesday 14th February 2023 we are delivering a songwriting & production masterclass course for the ASONE Hub. The short two day course from 10am - 3pm on each of the days is aimed at youngsters studying KS3/4 at school. Tickets are a very generous £20 and spaces are limited. If you are interested please click the link below to register... See you there!
Sign Up HERE
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October 4, 2023
Tunis SpacePipe Kontakt 7 Sampler Instrument
After a recent holiday in Tunisia, inspiration to build another FREE new sampler instrument for Kontakt 7 came about with Simon after purchasing a crafted pipe in a medina. Back in the studio the pipe was sampled, run through some external guitar pedals, resampled and then built into Kontakt 7, adding effects on our unique GUI, testing and then releasing to the world for FREE. You can download the instrument HERE
If you are interested in seeing how it was done and a walkthrough check out the tutorial video on our 'Tuts' page... HERE
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July 20, 2023
Grandma's Toothbrush Kontakt 7 Sampler Instrument
We have just completed a new sampler instrument for Kontakt 7 users, Grandma's Toothbrush was created by sampling an electric toothbrush and running it through our trusty Moog Grandmother in the main studio, shaping the sound further before then re-sampling two layers of every note on the Grandmother and then building into Kontakt 7, adding effects on our unique GUI, testing and then releasing to the world for FREE. You can download the instrument HERE
If you are interested in seeing how it was done check out the tutorial video on our 'Tuts' page... HERE
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May 23, 2023
Foley Percussion Sample Pack for Bandlab
In the last month, we have completed even more sampler instruments and sample packs for Bandlab and their 50 million plus users. One of the packs that Simon had the most fun putting together was the 'Foley Percussion' pack which was a process of lots of field recordings both internally and externally collecting a whole host of diverse one shot sounds of which were then, processed, loaded into a digital sampler and ran through an arpeggiator to get a multitude of grooves and patterns from the raw files, the result really is quite impressive. If you are interested in seeing how it was done check out the tutorial video on our 'Tuts' page... HERE
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July 12, 2022
Cornwall Council / Adult Education Promotional Films.
In the last 18 months, we have worked on a series of promotional films for the Cornwall Adult Education Service, alongside videographer Adam Drake we were responsible for recording all interviews, processing and synchronising the audio from these, and also composing the music for each film.
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View a selection of the films HERE.
August 05, 2022
Horns & Woodwind Sample Packs for Bandlab & Mixxed
In the last month, we have completed a series of sample packs for both the Bandlab and Mixxed platforms who have a combined user population of over 50 million. Working with musicians Mark Hadley, Nathan Fitzgerald, and Matt Harrison we recorded, edited, and processed Saxaphone, Trombone, Trumpet, Flugel and Flute packs, each containing over 100 loops and phrases.
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Check out on Bandlab Sounds HERE
December 17, 2022
Ice Organ FREE Kontakt Instrument
Simon has recently finished creating a new and original Kontakt instrument made from a 1960's Magnus Chord organ. After recording old girl he went about processing through a series of guitar pedals in the studio to achieve a beautiful ice-sounding pad instrument that sounds truly beautiful. You can watch how it was created on the tutorials page and also download both Kontakt instruments for FREE on the same page
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View and download HERE.