Now here’s something that will be thoroughly excellent when it is released. And as luck would have it, I get to be one of the first to talk about it in public.

It’s a VST instrument called Morgana, being developed by 112dB. Currently it’s still in a pre-beta stage, so won’t be released for at least a few months. I’m one of the testers for this thing and I’ve grown to absolutely love it.

Morgana is a sampler inspired by the first wave of 8-bit samplers, and modeled to spit out something like their noisy 8-bit beautiful ugly flavour. In fact, it’s modeled most closely on one specific first wave 8-bit sampler (the first affordable one, hint, hint), which of course will go without explicit mention to help ward off those trademark lawyer demons, but go and google Fata Morgana and you should have a good idea of which one. Or just have a look at the GUI and it probably won’t take you long to figure it out.

Most surprising to me, music software trainspotter that I am, is that this is really the first full software model of an old sampler (there’s at least one SP12-like clone out there, but it didn’t really offer much more than playback of some treated samples).

It isn’t a specific emulation, mind you, as they’ve decided to make it functionally less limited, while remaining functionally similar. And it sounds dirty, dirty, dirty. It hasn’t hit a feature freeze yet, so stuff will inevitably change, but here’s a quick run down of some of its greatness:

• It will be able to do inline recording, i.e. a sampler that samples
• Samples are 8-bit, but sample rate is variable and so is its mic input pre-amp model
• An excellent modeled filter, very squishy sounding, with a cool feature to recalculate its character, so that every user’s copy of Morgana can sound slightly different (and while I haven’t tried yet, I’m guessing that those calculations will save in presets (given the way the function is implemented), so that patches can be shared and still sound the same)
• Has several key split/sample layering functions, and a good/handy (if not elaborate) synth control section
• Models old sampler interpolation methods, so transposing can make quite a bit of flanging noise
• Features a really simple but deep sample editor

There are plans for implementing a sort of pseudo-slicer, too, based on old sampler methods of dealing with sample data, and even a limited mode to restrict deviations from the old school method, but I’m not sure how that will look in the end since they are working on it still.

I recently released a track in my Machines series made entirely with a sample of a flute played in Morgana called Dust Machine (click here for the mp3). I just can’t get enough of the sound of Morgana, makes everything sound like it’s coming apart at the seams.

This of course won’t be the last time I talk about it. Click on the picture to take you to the 112dB site, which has a write up on Morgana.