Modwheel releases Windpipes for Kontakt

Modwheel has announced the release of Windpipes, their latest virtual instrument library for Kontakt. Windpipes is a collection of wind blown instruments loosely based on the idea of pipe organ stops.

In 2023 we were given a small bellows operated wooden pipe organ, similar in size to an Indian Harmonium but with wooden pipes instead of reeds. Initially we thought it could make a nice, simple, cheap and cheerful Kontakt library but once we started recording we knew this could be something more.

David Donaldson

A full size pipe organ has stops that create the variations in tone and a similar thing was achieved, but using real sounds as opposed to the facsimiles produced by a real pipe organ.

We settled on a range of sounds that could be produced by the movement of air, so we recorded real voices for Vox Humana and euphonium for Brass for example, with the idea being to combine and blend the sounds in the manner of stops or drawbars on an organ. It's way more than that though because by adding the Arpeggiator and the Rhythm Step-mod you can have all sorts of fun creating layered pads and drones to dynamic rhythmic patterns and pulsating textures at the touch of the mod wheel.

There are 13 patches covering 10 different instruments. These were not intended to be deep sampled but each patch is designed to work as a potential layer within the context of the instrument, to work equally well by themselves or when used with other timbres such as strings, pads, etc.

Instruments:

• Pipe Organ Wooden.
• Indian Harmonium.
• Harmonium Bass.
• Melodica.
• Euphonium.
• Bottle.
• Voice Hi1.
• Voice Hi2.
• Voice Low.
• Whistling.
• Mouth Perc 1.
• Mouth Perc 2.
• Bugle.

The Instruments were recorded in the Stella Maris Chapel with two different microphone positions (Near, and Far) which are controlled on the main GUI. When not in use mic positions can be switched off by clicking the on/off button which unloads the samples to conserve CPU. Each mic position can be independently transposed + or - 1 octave, panned and has its own envelope.

There is a Drive level control for Distortion as well as controls for Replika, the Native Instruments delay unit. An FX tab gives access to the filters, a Rhythm Step-mod and Scatter Box. The Filters are a High Pass, a single band Mid Freq and a Lo Pass.

The Rhythm Step-mod works on volume and can be used to create effects from a simple tremolo through to more complex rhythms.

Included in the library is a folder of Multis for use in a surround environment. The Multis have "4.0" in the name (e.g. 01 Pipe Organ Wooden_4.0.nkm) to denote they are 4 channel or quad. The outputs have been assigned as follows: Near mic - Out 1-2, Far mic - Out 3-4. These Kontakt outputs can then be assigned to track inputs within your DAW so you can have independent control as to where they are placed in the soundfield.

Library format and contents:

• Audio recording format: stereo, 48 kHz / 24-bit.
• Size of recorded sample pool: ca. 3.83 GB ncw compressed.
• File format of samples: 2942 samples .ncw/lossless compression format.
• File format of instruments: .nki (built with Kontakt v6.7.1).
• Please note WINDPIPES requires a full version of Kontakt 6.7.1 or above.

Windpipes is available for a limited time intro price of $48 (Reg. $69).