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Apr.12
2008

Soniccouture Scriptorium mini-review...

Just installed my shiny new copy of Scriptorium, the latest from our good friends Soniccouture. Scriptorium is actually more a collection of KSP scripts for Kontakt 2/3 rather than a big fat sample set, but there are sounds in the package, 60 of 'em. I assume the main purpose is to show off the obvious uses for the individual scripts, but they're quite usable in their own right. I haven't had a chance to do anything but take a quick browse through the included instruments, so I can't really speak to the usefulness of the scripts yet.

Perhaps this mini-review is a bit premature, in that event. So, let's just consider this a notice that it exists, and once I get my head around what some of these little guys do, I'll report back. Just in a brief browse, though, there are some very cool drumming utilities, and the cellular automata patches are absolutely ludicrous. Scriptorium is £49.00, which unfortunately translates to US$99.00. This is the point in time where European companies are going to start paying the price for the declining dollar, I hate to say. Or American consumers, one or the other. But TANSTAAFL. In any event, on an initial examination, this appears to me to be well worth the money. I mean, hell, people paid twice that for that ridiculous Oberheim arpeggio thing, and this is hundreds of times more powerful.

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To go OT based on a point you made in your post (and this is fairly rhetorical). Recently, the weak dollar along with companies pricing in Euros has me not buying stuff I otherwise would have. This makes me wonder, considering how big a market this US is, is it wise for companies to do this? At what point does it start cutting into sales?

Example: The Scarbee Spring sale. I would have picked up EEP if the dollar wasn't so weak right now. Is Scarbee's pricing in the stronger currency offsetting the cost of these lost sales?

Big ups to you guys for keeping your prices pegged to the dollar.

posted April 13, 2008 by Funkybot

Well, as I said previously, half of our customers are in the US, and the rest are evenly spread through about 30 countries, with the obvious weight on UK, Germany, France, Japan, and Australia. How on Earth do we take all that in to account? It's just as possible that, in the next 8-odd months, we'll experience a boom, and the dollar will go through the roof; 'tis the way of things. Then our shit will be expensive to Europeans, and we can live high on the hog for a while.

(I know, a boy can dream.)

My only concern is that our products are perceived as "cheap" to Europeans rather than "inexpensive." I know I see plugins that are $10 or whatever, and I go "well, shit, that _has_ to suck." I know that's completely foolish, but it's a mental thing.

-CR

posted April 13, 2008 by Chris Randall

Sonic Couture does great work --- and this is not their fault, it's mine --- but I've always found the whole Kontakt "script" concept a little bit confusing. I imagine I'm not alone in that respect.

I guess this Scriptorium thing is designed to break through that learning curve barrier for dummies like me.

My bandmate Jean is way into Max/MSP and I find it just intimidating and vertiginous, but she does cool shit with it. Her screen is filled with numbers, lines and squares, etc. Me, I just get a headache looking at it.

I love getting intense with sound design (which, in my case, generally involves taking "found sounds" and manipulating them) but I'm primarily a musician and composer at heart and when things get too "science-y," I lose interest.

I'm a fan of Sonic Couture, and I'm gonna pick up Scriptorium with a hope that they explain the whole concept and open a new door. If anybody can do that, they can.

- c

posted April 13, 2008 by beauty pill

SC are brilliant cause they decided to go the route of giving the users to tools and learning supplements to help people sculpt their own sound.

this is cool cause while i've seen lots of glitchy libraries centered around drums, not many are centered around instruments like this one is. i also think that the script concept from NI is brilliant when you see how it can get used by other companies like SC

posted April 13, 2008 by mrtunes

btw what's the oberheim thing?

posted April 13, 2008 by mrtunes

@mrtunes: If I can easily use scripts then anyone half-competent can. Keep in mind that you don't actually have to edit the scripts themselves - no programming involved, all the controls you need are right there on the front-end. Some of them are based on CC routing but, really, that's the most confusing thing about them. They are essentially MIDI plugins that act on the data being fed into Kontakt. Right?

Anyway, there are 4 video tutorials to get you started, and they're really quite good.

posted April 13, 2008 by puffer

Oh, sorry, addressed the wrong person.

posted April 13, 2008 by puffer

Oberheim thing?

I suspect he means the cyclone arpeggiator box.

The weak dollar sux. I'm glad I picked up a set of schoeps from germany and the buzz ma-2.2 when the dollar was at its height in 2000.

posted April 13, 2008 by Porco Rosso

i'm really excited about this - i almost bought the two abstrakt drums sets this week, but they are *just* loop libraries... then i wanted konkrete drums...then which one... and i want all of these. i won't even look at the gamelan package, damnit.

anyway i've been interested in the kontakt scripting for a while, but i never use kontakt as much i think i will. this seems like a really cool, unique package . i can't wait to get this come pay day this week.

i'm actually bummed this wasn't a full review, since i knew you be on this as a sc fan. oh, well, i'm getting this anyways. reading the scripts manual, these sound like very versatile tools.

posted April 13, 2008 by dumafuji

With a couple exceptions, I own everything Soniccouture makes, so I can actually give you a little guidance there. While I would mention that it's all easily worth the money and then some, speaking strictly for myself, the following products get used a lot, in order of how often I feel myself going to them:

Konkrete 2, Abstrakt Bass, Abstrakt vol. 1, Konkrete 1.

I'll use most everything here and there, but it's rare a song will go by and not get _something_ from at least one of the above sets. I tend to use my own scripts a lot, and I'll also tend to peel back the effects (especially on Konkrete 2) and use my own stuff or AD effects, but yeah.

As far as the other stuff goes, it's all specific-use stuff for the most part. I mean, how often can an electronic musician who dabbles in blues reasonably be expected to use a hang drum? My general feeling on the matter is that if I got something, and I used it on one song, and that song got used by MTV (and thus went full circle and came back as ASCAP royalties) then I got my money's worth. It's really up to you as to whether you need an exhaustive e-bow collection or whatever; personally, I find use for most everything eventually.

I will say that I use the Abstrakt Breaks stuff quite often, but I'll go in and take apart the Rex loops and reorganize them; they're handy because you get the full loops and also the parts, so it's quite easy to go and replace one set of sounds with your own or rework the effects or whatever. And Abstrakt Breaks, well, they love their Replicant.

-CR

posted April 13, 2008 by Chris Randall

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