Peace

Demos in Dolby Atmos

Demos in Stereo

‘Peace’ is an artistic statement against armed conflicts and the current state of the world.

‘Peace’ might be one of the most beautiful and meaningful projects we’ve ever taken part in - from its core concept all the way to its execution.

Artist and Luthier Stamatis Stringaris, Founder of DustBowl Cinematic, created a one-of-a-kind bowed instrument using the shell of a missile and extended its sonic range with an extra resonator inside a military helmet above the musician.

We partnered with DustBowl Cinematic to sample this instrument and bring it to life with the utmost detail to honour its unique colours and resonance.

Peace was developed in several stages, from the design and craft process of the instrument itself, to finding its best sonic spots, to sampling and mixing using our immersive techniques.

Keep reading below to find out more about the development of this project.

A unique world in Stereo, or Dolby Atmos.

This is an absolutely unique instrument, because it has 2 completely separated resonance boxes, each emanates sound from a different angle, with a unique colour.

For starters, the main resonance box is the shell of a missile. A cylindrical body made out of metal creates a completely unique sound.

Secondly, the instrument’s arm raises three metres above the ground, where there’s an additional resonance box using springs and a military helmet. Imagine a harsh, natural-sounding reverb.

So if you work in Stereo, thanks to TRUE PANNING, you’ll be able to freely rotate the sound to fit your music.

If you work in Dolby Atmos or other immersive formats, you will hear the “helmet” resonances coming from above your head, while you will be embraced by the sound of the instrument itself. It’s a beautiful sensation.

The Instrument

‘Peace’ is a custom-made bowed instrument crafted by hand by DustBowl Cinematic.

The idea was to use something originally created to destroy, to create art as a statement against armed conflicts and the current state of this world.

DustBowl Cinematic created a beautiful instrument with two completely independent resonance boxes. One of them being the empty shell, located where a Cello resonance box would be, and a second resonance box 3 metres high from the ground, projecting sound downwards toward the musician through a military helmet.

A unique sensation as the real instrument already feels immersive, since sound is projected not only from the musician’s perspective, but also from above.

‘Peace’ offers a metallic sound with a unique harsh colour, an amazing detail happens especially with the Sul Ponticello articulations, as you can hear the metallic resonances of the body boiling.

‘Peace’ was interpreted by Stavros Parginos, one of the cellists who participated in Crescent’s recordings - with a lot of experience in experimental music, Stavros was able to uniquely make ‘Peace’ shine.

‘Peace’ was recorded to be completely compatible with Crescent, meaning all the arcs, crescendi, decrescendi, etc. fit perfectly when used together.

The Recording

‘Peace’ was recorded meticulously to capture all the resonance and colours the instrument can offer.

Because the instrument consists of two resonance boxes, we created Mixes both in Stereo and Ambisonics to fill your music in innovative ways.

4 Stereo Mixes.

A Mix offers great balance from the Musician’s perspective. You’ll feel embraced by the sound of the instrument plus you will hear the sound of the helmet complementing it with a reverb-like sensation.

A BODY Mix offers the sound the shell emanates. The sound contains much more body and colour in the lower end.

A HELMET Mix offers the sound that comes from the military helmet. Filling your music field with a thin reverb-like sound.

A BINAURAL Mix offers the best Immersive type of sound if you are wearing headphones.

4 Immersive Perspectives.

And here’s where things become completely real! Five immersive mixes prepared and delivered fully in Ambisonics, contain real three-dimensional representations of different perspectives that will offer you not only completely different levels of immersion but also TRUE PANNING possibilities!

Regardless of whether you work in Stereo, Binaural, Surround or even Atmos setups, true panning is complete realism, nothing is emulated, and if you are on a stereo setup, you can use our free ‘ab Decoder Light’ to quickly pan the signal with utmost realism.

A Mix offers great balance from the Musician’s perspective. You’ll feel embraced by the sound of the instrument plus you will hear the sound coming from above your head. Perfect for feeling as if you were playing this unique instrument.

A BODY Mix offers the sound the shell emanates. You will feel surrounded by the sound without having the specific Helmet sound coming from above. The sound contains much more body and colour in the lower end.

A HELMET Mix offers the sound that comes from the military helmet, from above your head. It fills the upper part of your sonic field with a thin reverb-like sound. Additionally, from below, you can barely hear the Shell, so if you rotate the sonic sphere, you can adapt the sound uniquely.

An AUDIENCE Mix places the Instrument right in front of you, for a more localised sound - a great way to be able to pan it in the field when you want the sound to be in front of you as opposed to all around you.

Next-gen Adaptive Polyphonic Legato

Created from the ground up - designed, coded, and adapted by and for musicians, we’re proud to introduce our newest polyphonic legato, a new take focused toward freeing you from being a slave to the Mouse and the DAW. Our Polyphonic legato adapts to your playing style and is always aware of your intended interval - even if you overlap voices!

Additionally, you can switch legato styles and legato Articulations on-the-fly, never having to leave your MIDI controller!

No matter if you are using 1, 2, 4, 8 or as many voices as you want, our Polyphonic Legato is always aware of your voice movement.

True Panning and Dolby Atmos

Thanks to our recording and mixing techniques, Crescent comes with immersive perspectives that benefit every user: On one hand, composers who work in Stereo, can use the Ambisonics version to be able to three-dimensionally place the ensemble anywhere around the listener’s head. This is what we call True Panning, and after you’ve experienced it on a strings ensemble, going back to the good old-fashioned stereo hard panning, is just a deal-breaker!

Additionally, Dolby Atmos mixes can be done in a matter of seconds, while keeping the spatial capabilities only our products have. It’s not about simulating spaces, and putting a Stereo signal in them, it’s about unfolding an already spatial recording in all around your head - nothing beats realism.

Ambisonics Version

Over 10.200 Samples
39GB Compressed to 18.88GB

Articulation List

Sustains

Sustain (p, m, f)
Sustain Expressivo (m, f)
Sustain Flat (p, f)
Con Sordino (p, m, f)
Sul Tasto (p, m, f)
Sul Ponticello (p, f)
Harmonics
Upside-Down Bow
Tremolo
Tremolo Sul Ponticello

Special Sustains

Arcs Long (p>m>p)
Arcs Short (p>m>p)
Sforzando
Crescendo
Decrescendo
Crescendo Sul Ponticello
Decrescendo Sul Ponticello
Crescendo Soft -> Sul Ponticello
Decrescendo Sul Ponticello -> Soft
Marcato
Free Dynamics Sustains
Free Dynamics Sustains Sul Ponticello
Detuning Sustains
Detuning Sul Ponticello Sustains

Shorts

Pizzicato (p, m, f) CC1 or Velocity, RR5
Bartok Pizzicato (f) CC1 or Velocity, RR3
Spiccato (p, m, f) CC1 or Velocity, RR5
Spiccato Con Sordino (p, m, f) CC1 or Velocity, RR5
Spiccato Sul Ponticello (f) CC1 or Velocity, RR5
Saltando (p, f) CC1 or Velocity, RR3
Col Legno (m) CC1 or Velocity, RR3

Legato (Slow-Fast Portamento / Slow-Fast Finger On-Off)

Sustain (p, m, f)
Sustain Flat (p, f)
Sustain Expressivo (m, f)
Con Sordino (p, m, f)
Sul Tasto (p, m, f)
Marcato
Sul Ponticello (m, f)
Tremolo
Tremolo Sul Ponticello

Ostinato

Ostinato 1/4
Ostinato 1/8
Ostinato Sul Ponticello 1/4
Ostinato Sul Ponticello 1/8

Misc

Hits
Hits (Tonal)
Bowed
Bowed Tonal
String Harmonics
Bounces
Seagulls

Sound Design (Loop)

Detunning
Ripple
Stuttering
Sewers
Speckles
LFE
Whirlwind
The Cave
Unfinished
Strict

Mix Perspectives

Stereo

Mix (Production Ready)
Body
Helmet
Binaural

Immersive (Ambisonics)

Mix (Production Ready)
Body
Helmet
Audience