Wellencraft
sound creation
Alegre
Wellencraft sample libraries and virtual instruments are an expanding collection with unique content at affordable prices. Read about our sample libraries, their origin and production process!
Alegre
It’s finally here! We are proud to present the Alegre for Kontakt Full 6.8 and later.
We recorded the Alegre in its homeland Colombia, capturing its organic and authentic sound. The Alegre is a traditional conical drum from the north coast of Colombia, a region in the Caribbean and South America. We have designed this virtual instrument to be easy to play and to offer you a variety of ways to use it. In short, you get one multisampled Alegre, two mixes of six mics, 191 loops, 275 MIDI grooves, 51 sound design elements, effects, advanced loop editor and more!
New World Collection
Alegre is part of the New World Collection. The New World Collection is a growing series of sample libraries dedicated to the musical instruments of the “New World” (mundus novus), named “America” after Amerigo Vespuccio. In our productions we collaborate with musicologists, composers and performers to integrate the cultural and historical background into the final product. This means that additional material such as sheet music and learning resources will be available alongside the virtual instrument, plus updates.
Continuing our New World Collection series as promised, we now release Alegre, the next link in the chain of musical ensembles from the northwest coast of Colombia. The “tambor Alegre”, also called “hembra”, “mayor” or “quitambre”, is a membranophone percussion instrument of African origin used in the traditional music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It is the drum that marks the melody; it plays with the notes of the melodies dictated by the lead instruments and voices. Alegre’s role is to support the melody with complex and joyful improvisations, especially at the end of the melodic phrase, during its execution.
Patterns, Loops, Grooves & Sound Design
Colombian rhythms are vibrant, unique and contagious. Alegre includes 191 traditional loops and rhythm patterns, some previously unknown to music industry audiences. You can stretch the loops at will to match them to the desired tempo and edit the loop range in the Loop Editor, plus they run in sync to your DAW. It also comes with 275 grooves, fully editable in the sequencer (seven sequencers to load different grooves, activated by key switches). And you can also export your grooves as MIDI files to your favorite folder and by drag and drop to your DAW!
To go beyond the traditional palette, Alegre comes with a collection of 51 sound design elements, stretchable and routable to all effects and mixes. Use them in your cinematic tracks!
See the List of Patterns & Loops, Sound Design and Grooves elements below!
Mixes, Effects & Performance
The two mixes (A and B) allow you to find the desired sound in your composition. Mix A is a stereo mix recorded with six microphones (three pairs – near, mid and far) that capture the depth and space of the recording hall. Mix B is a tight mix of spot mics (two membranes and a wood side). With the help of EQ and built-in FX (punch, delay, convolution) the desired sound is at your fingertips. Additionally Alegre has a membrane pitch function with a range of up to three octaves in both directions (treble and bass) allowing you to generate different drum sounds.
The velocity response tab allows you to adjust and customize both your MIDI controller and your playing, facilitating the proper pressure of your hand on the keyboard. You can also choose a velocity range to play the Alegre in defined dynamic zones, e.g. piano only or fortissimo only.
Loop Editor(s)
The Loop Editor allows you to edit the loop section and sample start of Alegre loops. Our Loop Editor serves as a central hub for your loop settings. Here you can define where to place the Sample Start, Loop Start and Loop End markers. Each Pattern and Loop is displayed with an underlying slices grid, which you can use as a reference to decide where to place the desired loop markers. The Snap Button activates the magnetic marker behavior, which helps you to place the markers on a slice start/end position. And you can return to Wellencraft’s default settings by pressing the Default button on the loop editor’s display. Within the slices grid you can see the number of slices of the loaded samples and the loop editor’s display shows you their BPM (beats per minute), signature (2/2, 6/8, etc.) and sample mode (loop, one-shot).
Loop Editor features:
– Sample Start, Loop Start and Loop End markers for manual setting
– Default Button for resetting loop points to Wellencraft original settings
– Snap Button activates the magnetic marker behavior, which helps you to place the markers at a slice start/end position
– Works in Pattern & Loops and Sound Design samples
– Stretch and Auto Stretch
Loop Editor (from the Wellencraft_Alegre_Manual_v1.pdf pag.36)
Sequencer(s)
Our sequencer is fun and easy to use. You can enter your own rhythmic creations in three easy editing modes: manual, step or sync. You can copy/paste grooves between the seven sequencers, drag and drop MIDI to the DAW, save MIDI to a custom folder, and save grooves to the user preset banks so you always have your favorite combinations at hand. Humanize your grooves, swing them, apply double time, it’s all possible!
The Step Sequencer allows you to play different grooves without having to play them manually, simply by pressing and holding down a green key or triggering it with the same notes as the green keys in the DAW’s piano roll editor. You can also load grooves from the groove drop-down menu, which has a large list of varied rhythms, or create them yourself from scratch. The sequencer allows you to set the MIDI velocity of each note and use all of the Alegre articulations in it. There are seven sequencers assigned to the seven green keys, so you can load different grooves at the same time to play them in your project.
Step Sequencer features:
– Manual Edit, Step Edit, Synchronized Edit
– Clear, Copy, Paste, Save (10 user slots)
– Rate, Step and Swing parameters
– Humanize (3 modes)
– Groove Drop-Down Menu (275 grooves)
– Drag & Drop MIDI to DAW
– Save the grooves in MIDI format to desired system path (PC, Mac)
– Crossfade between articulation velocities
Step Sequencer (from the Wellencraft_Alegre_Manual_v1.pdf pag.31)
Walkthrough
Production
Alegre was proudly played by award-winning Master of Percussion, Alexander Duque and recorded by Grammy sound engineer Jorge Enrique “Kike” Toledo. Read more about them at Artists!
We recorded the Alegre in Dial Music Studios in the city of Cali, getting the true classic warm tones, presence, and punch sound of the highly regarded Trident Series 80B Console and the recording hall where Grupo Niche, Guayacán and other latin artists have recorded.
We have sampled the Alegre in such a way that you can easily play it, offering multiple ways of use.
Summary:
- Content
– 1 GB
– Round Robins for multi-sampled articulations (blue keys)
– Different velocity samples
– 275 MIDI groove presets organized in 10 categories of traditional Alegre rhythms
– 191 loop recordings playing rhythms from beginning to end
– 51 sound design elements created from Alegre samples - Loop Editor (Looper)
– 14 Loop Editors with default Wellencraft presets:
– 6 categories of traditional rhythms (Bullerengue Sentao, Cumbia Binaria, Cumbia Ternaria, Chalupa, Tambora Tambora, Guacherna)
– 6 categories of sound design sounds (Hits, Loops, Pulses, Halos, Waves, Wooshes)
– Auto stretching script for the loop editor, which keeps the sample in time with your DAW - Sequencer (Groover)
– 7 multi-sample sequencers with editing and beat creation functions
– Humanizing timing script with different modes - Mixes
– 2 different mixes (Mix A and Mix B) of the Alegre with their respective mix controls
– Volume, Pan, Attack, Release, Mute, Link - FX
– Independent EQ per mix (three band EQ)
– Independent Reverb per mix (Wellencraft originals and N.I. factory)
– Independent Delay per mix (Milliseconds and musical) )
– Independent Punch per mix (Transient Shaper, Saturation)
– Pitch Knob
– Velocity Response (Performance Tab for adjusting controller behaviour) - Info/Support
– Wellencraft Alegre User Manual (PDF)
