In today's music landscape, software instruments play a pivotal role in the creation of captivating sounds, from Top 40 hits to Hollywood Blockbusters to Triple-A Games. Among the diverse array of digital instruments, sample-based instruments have emerged as versatile and influential, transforming the way music is made.
Simply put, sample-based software instruments allow you to play real instruments realistically: when you need a violin to play a line, but you don't have the time or resources to go through the recording process, sample instruments are here to help! To create these instruments, we record the musician playing every note at every dynamic level with every technique. It's like recording a whole symphony, one note at a time.
One of the biggest challenges when creating these instruments is not only making them sound realistic, but making them sound human. When you play a solo live, you're emotionally invested. The nuances of phrasing, dynamics, details like vibrato and tone... it's all too easy to lose all of these when you're sitting in a studio for hours on end playing one note at a time. That's why one of our guiding principles here at 8Dio and Soundpaint is emotional realism - we make sure that the human element is maintained all the way from recording to editing to programing, so that your final product will have the emotional authenticity it deserves.
But it's not just about re-creating the acoustic instruments. One of the coolest things about sample instruments is recording things that would be impossible otherwise. Your production probably doesn't have the time to find over 200 musicians for an incredibly epic orchestra (never mind the cost), but our 240-piece epic orchestra and 200-piece epic choir are ready to play any time!
Beyond the orchestra, we also record analog synths, sonic experiments, and have a line of industry-defining Hybrid Tools for cinematic, epic, and trailer music and sound design.
8Dio instruments run in and require a sample engine called Kontakt, created by Native Instruments. This software runs as a plugin in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). You might also hear plugins referred to as VST, AU, and AAX - which are different plugin formats for different DAWs.
Kontakt is an industry standard, tried and true. We have developed hundreds of instruments for Kontakt, and while we love all of these instruments, we also wanted to do more. That's why we created Soundpaint, a new sample engine for a new generation of software instruments. From ultra deep-sampled synths to innovative strings and custom instruments, Soundpaint takes sample instruments to the next level with even more emotional realism, customization, sound design options, and speed. It's also free, so you only need to buy the instruments (or pick up some for free).