Bentside Spinet

Bentside Spinet derives from Spinetta, a word used for all quilled instruments in 17th-century Italian. The spinet was a preferred household keyboard since it took up less room than the harpsichord, produced a dark & quiet tone, and was aesthetically stunning. As one of the precursors of the pianoforte, the oldest artefact is dated 1490 but started to gain popularity around 1631. By the 18th century, bentside spinets were found all over Europe and were used for daily home entertainment and musical instruction. The instrument shape resembled a harp laid horizontally, with the keys in the position of the sounding-board. As a result, the spinet produced a rich and sustained timbre, but was darker and less brilliant than the harpsichord. It had a five-octave range with natural keys re-covered with ebony and ivory topped accidentals, giving it a strikingly memorable look.

Soundiron recorded each key of Bentside Spinet in stereo close and far mic positions with 8 round-robin, as well as note releases and key sound effects. Then they rounded out the natural tone of this baroque keyboard with 20 ambient soundscapes and 20 custom FX presets to launch your musical time machine right into a European parlour… Good luck at your dinner party.

The Artist - John Valasis

Bentside Spinet was recorded by John Valasis. John is a Greek-born composer, producer and sound designer. From his Athens based studio, he delivers scoring, foley and sound design services for many local and international clients. John's clientele includes prestigious brands like Native Instruments, Ableton, Soundiron, Virgin, Amazon Prime Video, Vice Magazine and BBC. John is also roster of Ninja Tune's imprint Just Isn't Music, alongside artists like Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Flying Lotus and The Cinematic Orchestra.

John's professional experience began in the 90s as a composer and producer for popular music and gradually expanded his skill-set across a large variety of genres. With the abilities he acquired through his 20-year professional career, as well as his genuine love for soulful music, he has crafted a strong, personal and diverse musical identity. When not working on tight deadlines, John uses Poordream as a vehicle to freely express his emotions and influences, to explore sound and composition beyond the boundaries of conventional electronic music.

Features

• One master NKI instrument bank in open Kontakt format
• Spinet sustains, releases, key up & down SFX
• 20 Ambience patches created from the source content
• 24 bit / 48 kHz uncompressed PCM wav samples
• 25 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets
• 1,247 Stereo WAV files
• 4.6 GB installed
• Flexible and intuitive multi-layer user interface controls, with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator
• Full FX rack with convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers & FX environments

System Requirements

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10.9 or higher.
• Dual-Core CPU, 2 GB System Ram, SATA or SSD hard drive recommended for this library. 

Important Notes: 

• The FULL version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5 or above is required to run this software.
• This software will not function in full within the FREE Kontakt Player engine and will only be available in DEMO mode.