A canvas for exploring the beautiful imperfections of an old machine
An electro-mechanical keyboard classic from the '70s with 16 dynamic layers, and a set of 60 additional sound design sources created by mangling the original material using Eurorack modules and tape loops, embellished with resonators and physical modelling synthesis.
All of this is housed in an MPE-compatible sound engine with two independent looping / granular cores, designed for both slow, evolving textures and fast bursts of sound. Further expandable by loading your own samples.
Go ahead, embark on an adventure far from well-worn paths.
An exploration of a 70s classic
We’ve long wanted to capture the essence of this electro-mechanical classic - and by essence, we mean all the mechanical clicks, noises, and beautiful imperfections of a machine over 50 years old.
At first, we saw it as a natural evolution of our Cassette series, taken few steps further: 16 dynamic layers, release and mechanical samples - all still passed through tape in the end. Then, out of curiosity, we loaded the raw samples into the Tapes engine and started playing around - and it quickly became clear how we should shape its final form.
The result? A deeply sampled, expressive instrument - a playground of evolving textures, all housed in a sound engine built for discovery and experimentation.
Just the way we like it.
Two independent granular engines
While themkI builds on the engine introduced in Tapes.01, it’s not meant to be version 2. Instead, it takes things in a different direction, better suited to the sampled material.
Animated mode (known as Swarm mode in Tapes) now features polyphonic modulation, with each layer running on its own independent engine (which also makes it MPE compatible). This setup allows you to combine standard polyphonic playback (Single mode) with sequenced / granular, two Single modes or two sequenced / granular.
We’ve also introduced a system of instrument modes, 16 at the moment, designed to keep things simple and fun while still encouraging deep sound exploration.
Two independent sequencers
Each layer has its own 16-step sequencer, available in both Animated and Single mode, where it can act as a voice-specific modifier. For example, you can set it to play one sound source on notes 1–3, another on notes 4–6, shift every third note up an octave, reverse every fifth note, detune the last few notes, or set a unique sample start position per note. The list goes on.
Another example, first layer might play single notes with a classic ’70s soul vibe, while the second is faded in via the mod wheel or an MPE controller, scanning through the waveform in a granular fashion or playing micro-loops with duration and position set by the voice sequencer / modifier.
It took a lot of work, plenty of trips back to the drawing board, and a good dose of nerdy joy to bring this instrument to life - and we genuinely hope it'll inspire you as much as it inspires us.
Feel free to check out the videos below, where we show a few ways to work with the instrument.
Main instrument sample sources
DI
Captured clean through a Universal Audio tube preamp and Apogee Symphony. Pristine sound that’s perfect for catching every little imperfection.
Deck A
Recorded on an old cassette deck used in schools, adding noticeable noise (especially on the transients) and a little bit of saturation.
Deck B
Captured using a malfunctioning old Polish Unitra cassette recorder (the same we used in our Cassette series), introducing a healthy dose of wow and flutter, along with other tape imperfections.
Specifications
Works in free Kontakt Player 7.10.7 (or higher) - Kontakt Player download
10.50GB Size
500 Presets
12507 Samples
Main sources:
- clean (DI through tube preamp) plus two recorded on different cassette decks (deck A, deck B)
- 16 dynamic layers
- 16 dynamic layers release samples
Mechanical samples:
- 6 dynamic layers
- 6 dynamic layers release samples
- 4x round robins
- additional pedal noise samples with 4x round robins
Sound design sources:
- 60 sound sources in 7 categories: stacked, tape loop, pulses, mechanical, slices and one shot
- up to 5 dynamic layers
Noise samples
- 126 noise samples in 5 categories: hardware, tape loops, vinyl, industrial and natural
System requirements
macOS: 12, 13, 14, and 15 (latest update)
Windows: 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack)
Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU, or Apple Silicon
At least 8GB of RAM
An internet connection is required to download, install, and activate the product. Once installed, product can be used offline.
