Hollow Sun Altaerion KONTAKT

Once again, we have requisitioned an ageing relic which we have re-fashioned for our purposes. This time, from a 1950s of the future where science fiction and science fact were somewhat blurred … a portable communications device intended for an over-ambitious and abandoned manned mission to Mars.

With two oscillators offering a wide variety of true analogue, ring modulated waveforms which can be tuned and mixed, modulated further by a multi-wave LFO and envelope as well as FM and AM modulated, there's a broad palette of sounds to play with and mix and match before these pass to an ADSR envelope and an array of speaker simulations and lo/hi cut filters to create a wider range of antiquated, retro sci-fi sounds that could have originated in an old black and white B-movie or the early experimental electronic music studios of Europe.

These then pass to a comprehensive chain of effects…Featuring distortion, chorus, phase shifting, echo and convolution reverb with an extensive collection of custom impulses, these allow further sound shaping. At the heart of Altaerion, however, are the 'serendipty' functions. Click on the radar scope in the main panel, and the synth will re-program iself at random; click on it in the effects section, and the effects will randomly configure themselves. In this way, sounds can be made entirely from random. Of course, this doesn't mean the perfect sound for your needs but can lead you off in directions that can and will be inspirational. These can be saved for future use if you wish. But as with so many HS MLMs, this is not an instrument to expect funky synth basses and cutting edge leadlines. Instead, expect all manner of sublime electronic tonalities, strange pads and odd textures to fill out your tracks irrespective of genre in a unique, quirky and unusual GUI that's just rife for creative experimentation.