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47 mentions in 24 episodes.

100 gecs

14:32 · Guitar Rig · named · high confidence
“the guitar is, I think it's Guitar Rig, the plugin for one of the amps”
Guitar Rig amp-sim plugin provides one of the layered guitar amp tones on Hollywood Baby, especially in the verses.
56:40 · FM8 · named · high confidence
“All the sound effects are actually just made from sine waves... It's all FM synthesis. It's always FM8”
FM8 is the source of the sirens and sound effects on The Most Wanted Person in the United States.

A. G. Cook

15:01 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“That's a sort of laser bass. It's a Reaktor instrument that I've messed with.”
Reaktor hosts the 'Laser Bass' ensemble that provides the core bass/lead texture in Heartache.
32:06 · Laser Bass (Reaktor ensemble) · named · high confidence
“Laser Bass is another sort of free thing you can just plug into Reaktor by Native Instruments, and you can add more partials to it.”
He loads the free Laser Bass Reaktor ensemble live and explains how its harmonic-to-percussive dial inspires composition.
1:34:59 · Razor · named · high confidence
“I'm layering it with Razor, which is a Reaktor plugin that I used a lot, especially around then.”
Razor is layered with the DX7 plugin for Lucifer's slightly budget-sounding synth bass and chords.
1:35:04 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“Razor, which is a Reaktor plugin that I used a lot... the one I mentioned trying to ban off Brat.”
Reaktor-based Razor is such a signature sound that he tried to ban it from Charli XCX's Brat.
2:02:08 · Razor · named · high confidence
“Razor, made by Errorsmith, was a big part of the Charli mixtapes. Sophie showed me that plugin and she used it in really cool ways.”
Razor's additive synthesis and fast morphing partials are credited as central to the Charli XCX mixtape era, learned from Sophie.
2:02:08 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“Getting into Reaktor in general, but Razor was a big part of, I would say, the Charli mixtapes.”
Reaktor named among the plugins that defined his career.

Barry Cant Swim

1:34:01 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“They make incredible plugins for Kontakt, Native Instruments Kontakt”
The Slate + Ash libraries used on Kympton run inside Native Instruments Kontakt.

Bob Vylan

7:45 · Battery · named · high confidence
“In Battery, which is a VST that I use, it had this... that's just different notes or different chords that are just samples”
Bobby built the original organ chords of 'Humble as the Sun' from sampled note hits inside Native Instruments Battery.
44:05 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“There was some stuff that I had found in, I think it was maybe Kontakt... it gives you the ability to have the sample separately”
Bobby sourced the drum break and percussion samples for 'Rain' in Kontakt, valuing its ability to split out individual hits.
44:18 · Kontrol · named · medium confidence
“Yeah, Komplete Kontrol, which again, it was Battery”
Bobby browsed sounds via Komplete Kontrol and Battery when building the 'Rain' beat.
46:17 · Massive · named · high confidence
“That's from Massive. It's just another plugin that I use for different kind of synth sounds”
The scratch-like 'wobble' synth layers in 'Rain' were programmed in Native Instruments Massive, with low, mid and high versions stacked.
1:22:03 · Guitar Rig · named · high confidence
“Because it's recorded at home, it's all just through Guitar Rig, putting everything straight into the interface and going through Guitar Rig to get the different amp sounds”
Bobby records all home guitars and bass DI through Guitar Rig for amp and pedal tones.

Bombay Bicycle Club

49:13 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“This is just loads of different virtual instruments on Kontakt. But we've got a shanai... a shakuhachi... an oud... a zurna.”
Jack layered around ten Kontakt world-instrument libraries (shanai, shakuhachi, oud, zurna, nyatiti) to play the unison riff in Just a Little More Time.

Bonobo

1:55:48 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“They have Kontakt libraries, but it's all this textural orchestral recorded instruments.”
The Slate + Ash libraries he is currently loving run in Native Instruments Kontakt.

Bring Me The Horizon

1:04:49 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“This is a bunch of drums going on, basically. And it's coming out of Kontakt... but yeah, essentially Kontakt.”
All the programmed drums on Top 10 Statues run out of Kontakt, the core of their rock drum production.

Charli XCX

1:12:21 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“A lot of stuff in Reaktor, basically... so my Black Eyed Peas layer in there, maybe.”
Reaktor used to layer extra heaviness under the live synth take in 365.
1:22:58 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“I actually tried to ban a plugin that we used a lot on our mixtape. So I'd used Reaktor a lot. It's still a great synth.”
AG Cook tried to ban Reaktor from Brat because it had become the signature sound of the earlier mixtape era, though Finn kept sneaking it back.

Clean Bandit

19:36 · Alicia's Keys · named · high confidence
“And this is Kontakt Piano, Alicia's Keys.”
Alicia's Keys sampled piano identified as the piano sound in Symphony.
19:36 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“And this is Kontakt Piano, Alicia's Keys.”
The piano in Symphony is the Alicia's Keys library running in Kontakt.
1:24:43 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“Kontakt pizzicato strings... when you're playing bowed strings it's really hard to fake them with a plugin, but pizz you kind of get away with”
Pizzicato string parts on I Miss You layer real cello with Kontakt sampled pizzicato for extra body.

Danny L Harle

18:49 · Steam Pipe (Reaktor ensemble) · named · high confidence
“We have our lead synth here from my very trusty instrument, SteamPipe, possibly one of the greatest instruments of all time”
Steam Pipe is his favourite lead instrument, used for the flute-like lead line in 'La'.
19:03 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“That was just made by Reaktor”
Notes that his beloved Steam Pipe lead instrument is a Reaktor ensemble.
24:01 · Razor · named · high confidence
“the only synths that aren't bounced at this point is the Razor Bass”
Razor is used for the sub/low-end bass layer in the post-chorus section of 'La'.
24:22 · Plasmonic · named · high confidence
“That would be Plasmonic. Plasmonic is a synth that I absolutely love. It has its own particular relationship with high end”
Plasmonic supplies the distorted square-wave stabs after the first chorus and recurs across the album.
47:02 · Plasmonic · named · high confidence
“he's being doubled by this kind of tingly little plasmonic thing here, these brushed strings”
Plasmonic doubles the digital trumpet line at the end of 'La'.
1:08:08 · Razor · named · high confidence
“I just adore like Razor for a sub bass”
Razor is his go-to for making sub bass from scratch.
1:17:46 · Massive · named · high confidence
“I think this is a pretty simple Massive situation here”
The first drop synth in 'Starlight' is a Massive patch with hand-drawn tuning inflections.

Fall Out Boy

27:53 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“So I'm mostly in Kontakt instruments. I tend to play everything individually. That one trumpet line was one pass of me playing it.”
Patrick builds his orchestral demos entirely in Kontakt libraries, playing each instrument line individually rather than using pads.
31:03 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“Like I said, I'm doing this all in Kontakt. A function of that is, I'm a composer, but I didn't go to conservatory.”
Patrick explains how sampled Kontakt libraries let him write trumpet lines that push beyond comfortable real-player ranges.

Four Tet

26:43 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“So the harp's done with Kontakt, which has got all these orchestral sounds. And so you just select the harp on there”
The signature harp melody of Daydream Repeat is a Kontakt orchestral harp patch, with notes drawn into the piano roll rather than played in.

Fred

39:50 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“Yeah, that's on a Reaktor. With a few other things chopping in.”
The expressive lead note that clarifies the sampled chord in 'Solo' was made in Reaktor, a sound he says he's used on several tracks.

Imogen Heap

1:25:22 · Massive · named · medium confidence
“I added started to add in some of my own just lower stuff, using Massive”
Massive was used to generate the low drone layers that underpin Aftercare alongside Irene Amlas's modular sounds.

Jacob Collier

34:18 · Jacob Collier Audience Choir · named · high confidence
“I've been building this instrument with Native Instruments... Jacob Collier Audience Choir. There's me.”
Extended demo of the virtual instrument Jacob built with Native Instruments from crowd-sung vowels, with city-by-city venue recordings, stomps, claps, triads, vowel morphing and alternative tuning systems.

Joy Anon

1:13:06 · Traktor Kontrol S8 · named · medium confidence
“Lou is on this Traktor Kontrol... I think it's called the S8... it has stem separation faders as if it was on a DJ mixer”
The ten-year-old Traktor Kontrol S8 is the hub of their live show, letting them mix stems of their catalogue, change key and loop sections.

Kasabian

43:26 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“There's a little pullout of a really standard MIDI piano, and then I just use one of the Kontakts.”
Demo piano parts, including the 'Coming Back to Me Good' chords, were played on a pullout MIDI keyboard into Kontakt instruments before being replayed on a real piano at Mark Ralph's.

Lorde

39:18 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“the one thing in the box is these strings I did in Kontakt. Just for a little heart”
Sampled 'fake-ass' strings made in Kontakt add warmth to Favourite Daughter.

Maribou State

12:11 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“a lot of the time we'll write the string parts using keyboards or Kontakt with sampled strings or guitar”
Kontakt sampled strings are their sketching tool for string parts before arranger Matthew Kelly re-records them with real players.

Olly Alexander

4:06 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“It looks like we've got a lot of Kontakt happening here. We've got some glassy sort of pads, some really nice little flutes”
Danny L Harle's original writing file for 'Whisper in the Waves' is built largely from Kontakt instruments — pads, 'mms' and his signature flutes.

RDS

1:28:56 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“which is a really sick Kontakt plugin that we love”
Their Slate + Ash instruments run in Kontakt, which hosts the arpeggiated bell textures in Exhale.

Rudimental

49:02 · Reaktor · named · high confidence
“There was a program called Reaktor and you had to build a synth”
College music-tech coursework was building a synth in Reaktor; Piers built Kesi a simple one that scored better than his complex patch.

Sam Gellaitry

13:45 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“like how Kontakt samples real instruments and stuff, they do it with old synths”
Kontakt cited as the benchmark for detailed sampled instruments when describing UVI's approach.
33:23 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“How well I could emulate orchestral things using a lot of Kontakt... feeling like you've got this orchestra in front of you”
Before he sang, Sam's productions leaned heavily on Kontakt orchestral libraries.
1:48:25 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“It's on the legato function... in context to Kontakt, when it's on legato they actually record the notes bending”
Explains how sampled legato transitions in Kontakt-style libraries make the single choir voice sound natural.

The Favours

21:59 · Guitar Rig · named · high confidence
“He's running into Guitar Rig... found a great chorusy patch on Guitar Rig.”
Ricky's late-addition electric guitar part was recorded DI through a chorus patch in Guitar Rig instead of the mic'd amp.
1:22:35 · Kontakt · named · high confidence
“I found this Kontakt plugin called Fiddle that really slaps. It's really good.”
A Kontakt fiddle library was used to programme a reference part to send to the real fiddle player.