Ambient Keys is a synthesizer which produces dreamy sounds, either beautiful or just strange.
Are you using
VST plugins or
Audio Units and need an organic and beautiful sounding instrument?
Then Ambient Keys is one of the plugins you should check out.
Lush pads, interesting leads which sound almost organic or wonderful sound effects - these are the type
of sounds which you may play using Ambient Keys.
Ambient Keys includes 256 presets and you may purchase new soundpacks which expand
the plug-in. Each soundpack adds new waveforms and 256 new presets.
Three soundpacks are available for Ambient Keys.
Listen to the MP3s further down on this page.
The synth is available as VST plugins for Windows and Mac OS X and as an Audio Unit for Mac OS X
(compatible with software, such as Logic, Garage Band, Digital Performer, Cubase SX etc).
About Ambient Keys
Ambient Keys was tailor made for sounds which sound beautiful or strange but nevertheless good and interesting.
They are full of tension and drama and they're suitable for those who are looking for sounds they've never heard before.
Basically the synth follows the same tradition as our popular
Space Synthesizer, but
unlike the Space Synthesizer which features an evolving wave oscillator, Ambient Keys plays hundreds of ambient
waveforms/samples and processes these using the plug-in's powerful synth engine and its advanced
effects processor, which has 133 (!!!) different effect modes, including our unique crossfading effects.
Ambient Keys includes a number of electronic drum kits, bass sounds, noise and mechanical sounds etc and not just pads. However, they all have an ambient character. They're different. Not the stuff you're used too.
These sounds are unusual, swirling, fat, lush, fantazy sounds, which sound almost organic. They'll definitely
work as a source for inspiration when you need new ideas.
Sound Examples
Each demo was created using one or more instances of Ambient Keys, as the only instrument.
The drums were played by Ambient Keys too. What you hear is what you get. No other plugins were used and there's no processing except Ambient Keys built-in effects.
Symphonic (953 KB)
(full length, 3.4 MB)
Preset G14-SubGold4 (534 KB)
Preset G8-DistMetal (264 KB)
Preset G10-SubStars4 (392 KB)
Flows (886 KB)
Into the Unknown (4 MB)
Electronica 2 (324 KB)
Preset G5-BandpMagica (350 KB)
Dramatic (444 KB)
Choir plus seq (637 KB)
Techno (kind of) (480 KB)
Acoustic (356 KB)
Preset G1-ResoCycle (244 KB)
Preset G16-AmpPad3 (447 KB)
Preset G14-ResoSynString (640 KB)
Electronica 1 (590 KB)
Presets
Ambient Keys includes 256 presets.
They will last for a long time. Play around with them and when you feel ready
for more, then you may buy new soundpacks. A soundpack expands the plug-in with
a new set of ambient waveforms and 256 new presets. Three soundpacks are available
for Ambient Keys for only $39 for all three of them. Buy them at the same time as
you buy the plug-in and you'll get a discount. That will give you 1024 ambient presets to explore.
Effects
The effects section features 133 (!) different effect modes, including crossfading effects and layered effects.
The effect section was tailor made for ambient sounds, featuring a large set of filter banks, a resonator, flanger, reverb, pitch shift, a sub oscillator, amplitude modulation, distortion, plus layered and crossfading versions of these effects.
Crossfading effects means that Ambient Keys can alternate between effects. That opens up for a new range of interesting sounds. Many of the presets make use of this feature.
The sound of the filter banks can be adjusted. The effects (except the reverb) may be controlled by an LFO with 7 different waveforms and two variations of each (14 in total). The reverb includes a lowpass filter for realistic damping. In addition, the plug-in has a dedicated ensemble section and a built-in stereo delay.
Voices
The number of voices that you'll get from the plugins voice allocator is only dependant on the power of your CPU.
However we have introduced a feature in Ambient Keys which allows you to set a voice limit, for example maximum 8 or 16 voices or any number.
MIDI Controllers
The plug-in features an easy-to-use "learn mode" to support MIDI controllers. That makes it easy for you to, say, draw a waveform in your sequencer and then let it control any of the knobs. Or hook up a a cheap external MIDI controller and control the plug-in with it.
Selecting Patches
Patches are organized into groups and they are selected using two drop down menus (one for the group and one for the patch itself). The drop down menus make it easy for you to browse through the patch collection. If you download a new
soundpack, then you just have to run the installer and then the new presets appear as new patch groups
(new menu choices).
Other
Each voice has its own resonant filter, which can be controlled by an envelope or with velocity. You may adjust the
waveform pitch and there's a traditional amp envelope there too. A manual (PDF) is included.
You may download a demo here, but the demo contains only 5 presets and 5 samples. And it has a 3 minute limitation. All these restrictions are of course removed when you buy and download the full version.
