Native Instruments Thrill £239

Native Instruments’ Kontakt is at the forefront of sample playback technology, and with comprehensive sound library support – not least because of its excellent scripting and user interface capabilities, it’s therefore not surprising that NI are keen to commission content that shows off it capabilities.

The latest of these comes from Galaxy Instruments, well-known for their excellent piano-based libraries and the scoring-inclined Rise & Hit. Thrill is again firmly aimed at the cinematic, but this time with more tuned content, and with real-time dynamic control. The library consists of 1000 sample sets (totalling 41GB when uncompressed) that may be combined in a number of interesting ways.

There are nearly 350 snapshots to get you started, each made from two ‘Thrills’ (which in turn consist of up to 2 sound sets). At the centre of the main window an X/Y control crossfades between the two Thrills (X) and builds energy or tension (Y). Even before delving into creating your own palette of snapshots, the results are fantastic, and if you’re lazy, the randomize feature is only a button press away (with undo, for the overzealous).

Thrills come in two categories: Atmospheres, with no discernible pitch, and Clusters (with up to eight individually tunable voices) that can be have their pitch parameters controlled by the Y-axis ‘Thrill Factor’. Atmospheres offer a range of blending, spread and mic position options. Each Thrill is also passed through a modulatable effects section consisting of Mutate (convolution), Color, Drive, Stereo and Phaser alongside EQ and Space (an IR-based reverb and delay). These are then combined for the Master FX page consisting of EQ, Saturation and Dynamics.

With so many great sample sets including orchestral, synth, vocal and field recording sources, Thrill impresses even before the dynamic controls come into effect. These then add another powerful sonic layer that still manages to be easy to use.