Durk Kooistra

2012 and retrospective

Durk — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:29:01 +0000

Upcoming Project

Hello all, and let me start by wishing you all a happy holidays and best wishes for 2012. A little blurp about my upcoming projects and some reflections about this past year.

This year was a busy one! Focus was on synthesis and SFX & sampling for my upcoming Audiomotif projects (more on that later). I’ve yet again worked so many great people, truly inspiring!. Music also took a more important role, after being in the background for some time.

2012: Sample libs, VST’s and Music

Oskilator (my collab with Bart Knol) will be releasing an EP on a UK Dubstep label. Another more NeuroFunk oriented project called Tachyon is slowly taking shape. More on this in 2012. Polymass is defunkt.

Audiomotif is my outlet for sampling products. I have worked on this for month’s and am keen to share it with the world. Being an utter perfectionist when it comes to sound planning such products is much like predicting the weather. All I can say at this point; It will be a pretty complete bundle for any electronic music producer.

I’m also nearly finished with my first VST freebie. After using modular software to create custom midi routing and advanced synthesis projects I thought it would be nice to share a little plugin I created to help my workflow. I hope it will help you guys out too! For more info on this see this DOA thread.

Juicy Beast Update

Durk — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:51:21 +0000

I did some more SFX work for our friends over at Juicy Beast . A sound logo that will be used before the game starts and all the new SFX for Juicy Beast new game, the sequel; Burrito Bison 2. Audiomotif also did the SFX for part 1.

Make sure to keep an eye on their homepage or facebook for the launch of the game (I-phone + Flash, so i guess android too )

Sound logo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI12es9EoKg

Gentle Giants Video Featured on Vimeo frontpage

Durk — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:07:12 +0000

I did a collaboration with Gerrit Elbrink and Uwe Schweer. Gerrit and I composed music and Uwe was kind enough to make some amazing geometrical art video for it! The people over at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfL5xvj4sdk

More free VST GUI knobs – Freebie Pack Vol 2

Durk — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:24:47 +0000

2 more free GUI knobs

Wrapping up and archiving all the GUI design related files I decided to add a last batch of knobman files on the website. First credits where credits are due; Theordor Kreuger shared some inspiring knobs utilizing various aspects of knobmaker like animated value displays and an animated glowing index ring. And KVR’s Knobman/Skinman thread.

The knobs are loosely based on the design by U-he (Uhbik). Kind of reminiscent of a vault dial. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy! (Freely usable, do not distribute or sell as is)

Download (zip)

Free VST UI knobs and sliders for knobman (& Targa)

Durk — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:16:33 +0000

Time for knobs! free ones as a matter of fact. They can be used in VST’s, or programs that let you script your own interface (Max MSP, Reaktor etc). In the free zip you’ll find different sizes of knobs and and a slider. The formats are Targa and knobmans .knob files.

Knobman is a nice free, and easy to use program designed for making stitched images and comes with all the right tools to make a semi realistic knob. There are excellent knobs by a japanese Knobman user called AZ (Moog to 303 style knobs). The knobs I made are a bit futuristic ;)

All the UI elements in the ZIP

The knobs will be used for the update of the very first kontakt instruments I ever made, back in the day for Humanworkshop. Now 2 versions of Kontakt down the line you can use your own images for the parameters.

3 knobman templates
5 rendered Targa files (stitched images incl Alpha)

The knobs are licensed under Creative commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0. You may alter them to your own taste for use in non-commercial projects. For commercial use contact me! Changing colors etc is easy in knobman - since it’s free you don’t have any excuse not downloading it!

.Targa, .knob – KnobMan ver.1.49

Download

FreeBee – A free Kontakt instrument (3d flying insect simulation)

Durk — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:09:12 +0000

X-Y Control

Since I have been working on a set of Kontakt instruments for Audiomotif I became more and more interrested in Kontakt as a sound design tool. While mainly engineered towards the chromatic instrument simulations – Kontakts built in effects and scripting language allows you to create very effective sound design tools. Besides sound design tools designed for post production there is also a new line of synth’s and drum instruments coming out next month. (Audiomotif – Electro Tech Vol 01)

What else but a bee would be our simulation? A freebie bee – Right enough with the wordplay. The instrument is using a HP filter to mimic the size of the insect (more bass equals a bee – medium a wasp and only high’s for a fly). There is panning control and X-Y shifts; going from wide to narrow relative of it’s center. There is an EQ section you can use to enhence some frequencies when using a more extreme pitched keys (C1>C2 – C5>C6). The sample used is a synthesized sound and is being looped.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwl1zXN2Ml4

Download

Please Note: This ZIP contains both K3.5 and K4.1 versions of the instrument. Please note this product is not affiliated with Native Instruments Gmbh.

Download

Electro Tech Sneak Peak

Durk — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:31:12 +0000

Some of you might have been in the loop already; I am working on a new sample pack for Audiomotif. It’s nearing completion and there’s some graphic stuff for you all to have a look at. Make sure to subcribe to mailing list if you want to stay up to date about any new products!

Detail below; There will be a couple of Kontakt drum kit’s with articulation options (flames, rushes, note release etc). The synthesizer sounds all have a LP filter and Resonance control. I have also made some Live triggering patches in Kontakt and Kick, Snare an Hi hat menu (100 1shot sounds per category)

Working on the kits in NI K3

Also a picture taken in Bart Knol’s Studio while doing snare recordings.

Double miked snare @ Bart Knols' Studio

Free Kick Maker (VST)

Durk — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:55:34 +0000

While working on a sample pack (Electro Tech Vol.01) I have been synthesizing my ass off. Doing kicks and snares with a hybrid of acoustic and sytnhetic sources I eneded up downloading this plugin created by Teragon Audio. A nice company that also has some tut’s about creating your own VST host.

The plugin is simpel and effective. There are 4 OSC’s and a general ADSR. No filtering or shaping tools besides the modulations so a acoustic sample is needed to give it some much needed presence in the higher mid’s.

http://www.teragonaudio.com/p/plugins.html

Harmor in Alpha, looks promising.

Durk — Sat, 28 May 2011 12:17:44 +0000

There’s a really interresting sampler/synth coming our way from the folks at Image Line. You got to hand it to them; creating very unique and solid software for a unbeatable price, incl lifetime free updates. And no, I am not endorsed by IL This synth will most likely not be for sale via the “pay what you think its worth” system though.

Anyway, enjoy this video playlist demonstrating the synth in Alpha:

Razor is out – freebies coming [Update]

Durk — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:48:52 +0000

There are some freebies coming up for Razor, the new additive synth by Native Instruments. And not just for the people with Razor. I’ll be sharing some presets (or snapshots as they are called in Reaktor) and I will be making a loop pack. featuring one shots and loops of FX, bass and drums. Additive synthesis is great for modelling crazy synthetic sounding drums to semi realistic instruments. Since the player version of Razor does not handle snapshots, I figured I’d please everyone and record some loops. If people want to contribute midi, drop me a link at info[at]durkkooistra.com.

[update] Chad and Jesse both contributed to the project – still waiting for final loops and working out some minor promotional stuff. Keep an eye on this space!

video

Torley doing his preset routine.