Sounds & Samples

Output have created quite a storm over the last few years with their great-looking and immensely playable, Kontakt instruments. Their fondness for good design has also taken them into the furniture market with Platform, an attractive yet functional studio desk. Recently they have also dived into the subscription-based arena, with their Arcade loop synthesiser.

Luckily Output haven’t forgotten their roots, and continue to release expansion packs for their sample-based sound libraries. This time it’s the turn of their vocal engine Exhale to get a sonic boost with three packs – Indie Vocals, Ambient Vocals and Barely Vocals. These all utilise the original’s underlying audio content, and only add presets applicable to Exhale’s Notes mode. With this in mind, it is understandable that there is a certain amount of overlap in styles here, and like the factory presets, they cover long evolving elements, rhythmic effects and single hits. The Output instruments are powerful, but also hungry when it comes to your CPU, though it’s fair to say that an individual preset carries a lot of sonic weight, and therefore requires little further processing.

Overall though, the quality is high and the presets make a worthy addition to those provided with the original library. Sadly, there are no discounts on buying multiple expansion packs unless you purchase the entire Output Collection bundle, so if I had to choose one pack then Indie Vocal would be it. Bruce Aisher www.output.com