Cassette Mallets.02 for SFZ

The Idea & Process

Cassette Mallets.02, a successor of Cassette Mallets.01 further explores the sound of experimental mallet instruments with different sounds, more decks to choose from and the .02 interface. Like in the case of Cassette Keys .01 and .02, both of those instrument libraries complement each other very well.

Cassette Mallets.02 contains three instruments, each one covering a different sound territory. Sound 01 is a mix of old glockenspiel plates recorded on a thin steel plate, Sound 02 is a 2 octave xylophone mixed with some corrugated sheet resonances and Sound 03 is a mix of the same xylophone, but recorded using three mallets attached to an old bed mattress spring with a copper wire to create a random, 'granular' pattern. All three sounds are also spiced up with additional synthesis techniques for a fuller sound and to widen their range on a keyboard.

Both Sound 01 and Sound 02 contain 5 dynamic layers, while Sound 03 contains 4 dynamic layers - all sounds were recorded using 3 different cassette decks. Overall, there are 2565 samples - 305 samples per deck for Sound 01 and Sound 02, and 244 samples per deck for Sound 03, plus there are also 3 noise samples from each deck (1,63 GB of uncompressed 24-bit WAV files).

Every note has been carefully denoised with a high-quality algorithm to avoid noise stacking when playing more than one note (there’s still some noise left in the samples to avoid denoising artefacts). Noise can still be added with the noise knob - it’s much more flexible this way and allows the ability to adjust the volume of the noise independently whilst also applying parameters such as filtering. It also creates a more realistic sound, so when playing a five-voice chord, only one sample of noise instead of five stacked on top of each other will be heard.

The End Result

Useful and Fun Production Tool

If you like vintage sounds and you're looking for something to enhance your production toolbox, then this product will be for you.

Simulated Round Robin

Makes faster note passages sound more realistic and adds to the overall nonlinearity of the instrument.

Features

• 1,63 GB of uncompressed 24-bit WAV samples (2565 samples in total)
• Recorded on 3 different decks
• 3 instruments
• 3 noise samples (each 2 minutes long)
• 4-5 dynamic layers
• Organic sound with lots of little imperfections
• Simulated round-robin
• 18 basic presets (with and without simulated round-robin for each deck)

Requirements

• Compatible with any SFZ player, for example: Plogue Sforzando