I've been making Kontakt instruments

 

I’ve been teaching myself how to create instruments in Kontakt, and as I wondered what to start off with, I had a lightbulb moment - I should sample the lamp above my desk. So I recorded a few takes of playing that that and then had the bright idea of going round and sampling all the other lamps in the house. So, I can now shine the spotlight on I Love Lamp, a collection of 3 lamp instruments and an interface heavily inspired by the Ikea catalogue and a name that very loosely references Anchorman.

I Love Lamp GUI.png

PINNG has a bell-like tone and suits any room with a wooden floor or industrial elements

KLENK is a more percussive sound played on this lamp's base and makes for a very cosy living room

BUÖNNG has a glassy, rich tone and is the perfect addition to any home office workspace

Modwheel controls the dynamics of PINNG and BUÖNNG, so when KLENK is turned up you can change the overall instrument sound from sustained and ringing to dampened and percussive.

Sometimes it sounds like a hang drum, sometimes like tubular bells, so there’s a few presets in there for you to get started with too.

You can download it for Kontakt 6 on the Pianobook site along with loads of other quirky and slightly more common instruments.

They’ve done a great video demonstrating some of the features and different sounds in it.

Here's a demo of an instrument I built for Pianobook called "I Love Lamp", made using - you guessed it - lamps. You can download the I Love Lamp instrument here: https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/i-love-lamp/

Many thanks to Angus Roberts-Carey for his pianobook template, Dave Hilowitz for his video series on Kontakt, and our favourite Swedish furniture company for their tuneful lamps.

I’m sorry for all the lamp puns.

Alright, I’m not sorry at all.

 
Tim Steemson