The Ruler

The Ruler is a deeply sampled ruler and tape measure library that takes our love of exploring sonic world even further. We recorded 30 notes with our 6-inch ruler (15.24cm) and 38 notes on our 12-inch ruler (30.48cm), plus percussive taps, rattles and drops. We also recorded a wide variety of sound effects and percussive articulations with our 25-foot (3m) and 10-foot (7.62m) tape-measures for a more modern take on the concept.

We've all played with rulers and tape measures and noticed all of the satisfying sproings and wobbles they can produce. When you brace a ruler over the edge of a flat surface so that it can oscillate freely, it can produce a musical tone at a frequency in proportion to the distance it's able to vibrate up and down. The longer the section of tine that can freely vibrate, the lower the note and the longer it can sustain. As you slide the ruler farther onto the surface and reduce the length of the freely-vibrating overhanging segment, the pitch increases and the duration of the note shortens. Tiny adjustments can result in large jumps, so you need to go millimeter-by-millimeter to produce a wide musical scale.

We sampled every inch with millimeter precision, using finely calibrated microphones and pristine preamps to capture even the most minute details. We recorded 30 notes with our 6-inch ruler (15.24cm) and 38 notes on our 12-inch ruler (30.48cm), plus percussive taps, rattles and drops. We also recorded a wide variety of sound effects and percussive articulations with our 25-foot (3m) and 10-foot (7.62m) tape-measures for a more modern take on the concept. We also tried to record a laser range-finder, but it turns out microphones aren't quite sensitive enough just yet. I guess the exception proves the rule: if it moves matter, it can make music.

We've included a collection of uniquely sound-designed ambient pads and tonal atmospheres created by manipulating the source recordings, along with plenty of custom FX presets to let you take the sounds even further. By any measure, The Ruler goes the distance! And now I think we've stretched these puns far enough.

Listen to demos of The Ruler on our Soundcloud page

Product Specs:

• One master NKI instrument bank in open Kontakt format.
• Pings, plucks, slaps, drops, rattles, taps, and FX sampled from rulers & tape measures.
• 20 Ambience patches created from the source content.
• 24-bit / 48 kHz uncompressed PCM WAV samples.
• 20 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets.
• 4,825 Stereo WAV files.
• 1.1 GB installed.
• Flexible and intuitive multi-layer user interface controls, with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator.
• Full FX rack with convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers & FX environments.

{See video at top of page}