THE SHELL CAN CRACK THE SYNTH CODE
15 May 2013
UK-based Hollow Sun, which gave us the cool Sounds Of The Universe (SOTU) synth plug-in complete with alien writing, has come up with The Shell. The Shell is essentially a powerful, but straightforward synth engine for you to load your own samples into and tweak to your heart’s content. The attraction of The Shell is that it’s designed to demystify the whole zillion-knob synthesizer GUI and encourage relative novices to find a better understanding of what those oscillators, filters and envelopes actually do. So if you’re a musician who usually dials up a super-synth like Massive or Pentagon and never touches anything except the Preset drop-down box, then The Shell could be the best eight quid you’ve ever spent (yes, about AUS$12.00). To get you started, Hollow Sun included a few basic waveforms (sawtooth, square, ‘iSaw’, PWM and noise) and a handful of presets. With the power of The Shell’s synth engine, you’re promised a pleasant surprise with what’s possible with just those waveforms alone. The Shell comes with a comprehensive user guide to help you create your own sounds. For advanced users, there is more functionality. The Shell needs NI’s Kontakt 4.2.4 and while it will work with the free Kontakt Player you only get demo mode and the session will be time limited. The full version of Kontakt 4.2.4 (or higher) works perfectly. Hollow Sun is run by Stephen Howell, a one-man outfit who creates some impressive VSTi’s and effects. Check out The Shell and his other creations at www.hollowsun.com
