4 reviews for Arctic Strings: Mirage
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$35.00 USD (including tax)
Designed for creating lush, ethereal backdrops and chords: Arctic Strings is a sustained strings instrument that’s housed in our powerful sample-based-synth engine, Mirage (a VST/AU plugin that is included for free). The whole string section was recorded playing long sustained notes both softly and loudly; we turned this into a single, uncomplicated virtual instrument with controllable dynamics. Furthermore, you can shape the sound to fit your track by using Mirage’s features, such as attack, release, reverb, and tuning.
Included are 42 presets featuring both realistic ways of using strings, as well as diverse sound design. This product is the dead-simple solution for adding warm, delicate, atmospheric tones to your track; either by itself or alongside other string libraries.
If you are a Kontakt user, you might consider the Kontakt version of this product.
Style | Ambient, Cinematic, Cross-genre, Realistic |
---|---|
Content | Pads, Strings |
Format | Mirage Library (VST/AU) |
Create moving string chords
Arctic Strings has a beautiful shimmering tone with ethereal high strings and powerful basses; perfect for playing chords and harmonies. Create swells of intensity and emotion using the dynamics knob, which blends the sound between real recordings of the strings playing softly, and playing loudly. As well as this, this instrument’s sound fits excellently with both synths and real instrumentation. This means Arctic Strings works well in anything from emotional cinematic scores to background elements in an electronic track.
The samples are wide and lush stereo recordings from a medium-sized string ensemble recorded in a church. It is not a deep-sampled and technical concert hall type library, instead, this library excels at strings for ambiance and atmosphere. They are incredibly easy to use and fill that gap between detailed realism and smooth, rich pads.
The string section very commonly plays large chords or is used to add additional texture to other more prominent instruments. This is where Arctic Strings excels: the entire realistic-sounding string section is available at your fingertips – from basses to violins. The attack and release can be controlled like a synth, and you can even set the instrument to play monophonically, allowing for a legato-like playing style.
With Mirage, you can take the sound beyond the realms of realism and create organic-synth instruments. You’ll find examples of this in the 42 included presets. These are arranged into 3 categories: Realistic, Realistic Processed and Sound Design. In the Realistic folder you’ll find patches for emulating real strings: wide chords, monophonic and octave harmony patches. The Realistic Processed folder explores the boundary between realistic and synthetic. Including washed-out string reverb instruments and filtered string sounds. The final category, Sound Design, contains synth-like presets that make full use of Mirage’s features: synth plucks, distorted leads and drifting detunes.
Powered by Mirage
Mirage is a sample-based-synthesis VST/AU plugin for Windows and Mac that comes free with any powered-by-Mirage product. It’s the control hub for FrozenPlain’s new sounds, offering a powerful set of parameters and effects for rapid, flexible sound design, no matter what the sound source is.
Once it’s opened up in your DAW, you’ll see all of your powered-by-Mirage products ready to click on and use instantly. There’s no subscription or log-in procedure, just instant access to the sounds and presets.
Three independent sound layers can be layered together
Mirage libraries are loaded from a side panel
9 effects can be used to shape the sound
Presets can be quickly loaded and saved
Mirage allows for up to three different sounds to be controlled separately and layered together. The layers in Mirage have the following controls unique to them: pitch, volume and pan, filter, volume envelope, LFO, EQ, sample loop settings and MIDI settings. These controls facilitate an incredible amount of manipulation over the original sound source.
Mirage is set up to make fully playable patches. Sounds will respond to both MIDI velocity and the sustain pedal (MIDI CC 64). On top of that, any parameter in Mirage can be controlled by knobs or sliders on your physical MIDI controller. This is done by simply right-clicking the parameter, selecting ‘MIDI learn’ and then moving your controller. And of course, Mirage can be automated with your DAW.
Mirage is designed to not get in your way. It is fast to load up and is efficient with CPU usage. It has a vector-based GUI that can be resized so that it will work on any size screen. The controls are laid out intuitively, and a full description each control can be viewed by hovering the mouse over it. In the rare case when you need some deeper info, a PDF manual with all of the nitty-gritty details covered is included.
For spontaneous inspiration, Mirage features controls for randomly loading presets and changing parameters. The random preset button has 4 modes for scoping the randomisation to your preferred level, whether that be a folder, a library or the given search text. Parameters can be randomised at various levels too: complete randomisation, just instruments or just the effects rack.
Mirage is simple on the surface, but has depth for complex sound design when you need it. Initially you might start with exploring the ready-to-use factory presets using the presets browser. But from there you can further layer, mangle and modulate the sound to be the perfect fit for your track; Mirage is a powerful tool for creating utterly unique organic instruments.
Built-in effects such as distortion, bit-crush, chorus and stereo widener can be used to enhance the sound with extra harmonics or extra simulated width. The compressor can be used to control dynamics or add punch, and the filter can be used to isolate just the frequencies you need.
Mirage also has reverb and delay effects for real space simulation. These are great for sound design too. One of the reverb effects is a convolution reverb; this is typically used to add a real-sounding reverberation to the signal by using a sample of a real space (AKA an impulse response). Mirage features both realistic impulse responses and abstract ones for creative sound design.
By purchasing this product, or any powered-by-Mirage product, you gain access to updates with new features and improvements. These will almost always be completely free. We will ensure these updates never break backwards compatibility. This means as the capability of Mirage expands, your old DAW projects or presets will still work just like they used to.
If you already have Mirage, you can visit this page to download the latest version. It’s worth noting that Mirage has no use unless you have a Mirage library; in the current version, these can only be made with our internal tools.
This product was initially created for Kontakt and now a Mirage version has been created too. This new version of Arctic Strings is a reinterpretation of the old samples, it is not an upgrade. Primarily, it allows us to offer these strings to people who don’t have Kontakt.
Here are the notable differences between this new version compared to the Kontakt version:
If you’ve already bought Arctic Strings (Kontakt) on frozenplain.com, you can get this Mirage version for free. Log into your account and visit this page. The price will automatically be discounted to $0.
Furthermore, if you buy this Mirage version (and don’t own the Kontakt version), you will be able to get the Kontakt version by just paying the difference in price ($14). When logged in, this discount will be automatically visible on the Arctic Strings: Kontakt page
Arctic Strings is distributed as a digital download only. It should only take a matter of minutes before you can start using it in your production. FrozenPlain has a streamlined checkout system, you only need to put in essential information. For the first product you buy here, you will be prompted to set a password in order to create an account. All products you buy on this site are added to your account and the latest versions can be re-downloaded at any time.
You can pay for Arctic Strings with a credit card, debit card, PayPal, or Apple Pay. The payment process is handled by our online reseller Paddle.com. Once payment has been completed successfully you will be able to download Arctic Strings instantly.
Arctic Strings is designed to be as accessible as possible to producers, composers, musicians, and sound designers. You probably already have what you need if you are producing audio on a reasonably modern computer. There is one exception – Arctic Strings is not available in the AAX plugin format yet, and so will not run in Pro Tools. Here are the specific requirements:
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Designed for versatile dark ambient and cinematic sound design, Wraith is a synthesiser for pads, drones and synthetic textures. Fill out the background of your production with an expansive pad, or create tension with an atonal drone, or even write a whole underscore sequence using Wraith. This product works inside our sample-based-synthesis VST/AU, Mirage (included free).
Wraith is made up of 230 synthetic instruments combining unsettling textures and drones with tranquil atmospheres. These are arranged into three categories: drones, tonal pads, and textures. This massive collection of instruments range from bleak and dissonant to ethereal and serene. As well as these instruments, any of the 80 included presets can be effortlessly customised using Mirage’s features. With it, you can mix three different layers, apply LFOs, envelopes, filters and a whole rack of effects to create the exact unique sound that you need.
Themed around 'radio signals from deep space', Isolated Signals provides you with tonal instruments that evoke notions of extraterrestrial civilisations, cosmic phenomena and retrofuturism. It's made from 197 samples - each playable as an 'oscillator' with the use of loops. These samples are mostly gritty, undulating, textural 'sustained' sounds. Also included are over 200 production-ready presets. Isolated Signals lives inside our engine: Mirage: a VST/AU plugin that's included for free in the installer. Mirage features a 3-layer architecture with envelopes, filters, loop controls and a whole rack of effects.
Ever opened a squeaky metal gate and thought, “I want to use that sound in my music”? Well, now you can! Various metal gate squeaks were recorded, cleaned and processed to make this genuinely useful sound-design sample library. Each sample is available as an ‘instrument’ inside our sample-based-synth VST/AU engine, Mirage – included for free. You’ll also find 40 presets, including plucks, pads, basses and leads, ideal for soundtracks, atmosphere or adding a unique edge to any genre. The resonation caused by the gate hinges produced a surprisingly clean and consistent tone – almost similar in character to a cello.
Most of the samples were put through a granular synth to lengthen them. As part of this, it was possible to capture both soft and intense versions of the same sound. You can smoothly modulate between these 2 states using Mirage’s dynamics knob, allowing for expressive performances.
Nightmares, dreams and obscure twisted illusions. In collaboration with Beautiful Void Audio, we bring you Deep Conjuring: a sound-design synthesiser for creating dreamlike instruments. It's ideal for designing beautiful, strange, and otherworldly tones that skirt the edge between sounding organic and synthetic. You'll find it useful for effortlessly adding mood to your music: everything from nostalgic melancholy to harsh horror dread. It's powered by Mirage (VST/AU), our sample-based synthesiser engine; which is included for free. Any of the 92 'instruments' that make up Deep Conjuring can be loaded into Mirage's 3 layers for further processing with features including as envelopes, filters and LFOs, and finally processed using the rack of included master effects.
Take your cinematic music to another level with this vast sample-library collection containing instrument-samples, atmospheres and sound design. All hosted inside FrozenPlain’s sample-based-synth, Mirage (VST/AU included free), which offers outstanding ease-of-access and control over the sounds.
Create horror scores involving jump scares, ominous instrumentation and eerie atmospheres. Take the listener to otherworldly realms with dream-like atmospheres. Design the sonic backdrop for a dystopian setting. Or even craft distorted sci-fi action effects. This library is made in collaboration with expert sound designer, Glitchedtones.
You can also buy each library separately. There’s a discount for buying more at once.
Designed unapologetically for one purpose, Lost Reveries provides you with customisable, playable, ambient-drone synthesis created by an expert of the genre, Hilyard.
It's a sample-based VST/AU synthesiser plugin containing 32 ambient 'oscillators' that can be combined in up to 3 layers: with controls such as ADSR envelopes, filters, LFOs and more. Furthermore, it features a rack of effects including a rich reverb algorithm, delay and a phaser. Lost Reveries also comes with 80 production-ready presets that can be selected from an in-built preset browser.
Lost Reveries lives inside FrozenPlain's sampler engine, called Mirage - which is included for free in the no-hassle installer.
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Slow is powered by Mirage, our powerful VST/AU sampler engine, which is included for free with this product. Each of Slow’s 63 “oscillators” can be loaded into Mirage’s three layers and processed with envelopes, filters, LFOs and a whole rack of effects. As well as this, there are 100 categorised presets and randomisation tools to find inspiration quickly.
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Music Box Suite is based on the samples from our old Kontakt library, Dual Music Box. Each sample has been re-edited and remastered. New sounds have been added and new presets made. If you own Dual Music Box you can get a discount on this product. See below for details.
Create realistic music box melodies and explore organic sound design with this free VST/AU. It consists of a multi-sampled victorian music box housed in our sample-based synthesiser, Mirage. This music box has a charming, mysterious sound to it – ideal for both cinematic music and adding an organic character to electronic music. Mirage offers a powerful yet easy-to-use set of features for manipulating the sound. Music Box Suite Free comes with 12 presets ranging from realistic music box sounds to keys and pads.
Alive with evolving kinetic energy, Scenic Vibrations has a unique sound that is perfect for cinematic and atmospheric sound design. Create tension for drama, ambience in an emotional passage and even evoke dread in a horror setting. This customisable tool is based on a set of unique ‘sustain’ recordings by sound design veteran, Si Begg. Materials such as sheets of metal, koto strings, bass guitar strings and suspended steel frames were made to resonate with a surface transducer. The sound is something beautifully organic yet unfamiliar.
Included are over 100 presets featuring intriguing tonal keys, dark pads, basses and pulsing rhythms. Scenic Vibrations is powered by our sample-based synthesis engine, Mirage (included free). The core of Mirage is three layers that can be used to blend sounds together. Each layer has LFOs, filters, a volume envelope, loop controls and more. Then at the master level, there is a whole rack of effects.
Organic, alive and earthy – Terracotta is an utterly unique melodic-percussion instrument made from terracotta pots. This instrument’s charming bell-like tones are ideal for adding a tangible vibrancy to percussion sections, arpeggios and melodic lines. It’s powered by our sampled-based-synthesis engine VST/AU, Mirage, which is included for free. This flexible engine has a 3-layer structure for blending sounds as well as all the features you’d expect from a modern synth, such as filters, envelopes and effects.
25 different pots were sampled to make this instrument featuring 4 round robin and 4 velocity layers. As well as this, Terracotta comes with a handful of ‘mixer’ instruments designed to be blended with the main sound. This product also comes with 40 presets for instant production-ready results.
Bring new lush atmospheric dimensions to your productions with Phoenix, an instrument based on a set of smooth synthetic strings and choir samples. It’s perfect for creating wide strings backdrops and ethereal choirs instantly. Phoenix is powered by our sample-based-synthesis engine VST/AU, Mirage (included free). This flexible engine allows you to process the ‘oscillators’ in three separate audio layers, with envelopes, LFOs, filters, and a whole rack of effects.
The result is a sound design tool perfect for creating cinematic pads, keys and basses, and for easy underscoring. Examples of such sounds are included in the 80 production-ready presets that come with the product. These are organised into five categories: basses, keys, leads, pads and sound effects.
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ken matsumura –
Really great sound!
I feel the infinite possibilities of layering.
damageaudio –
Great library and sampler
Daniel Corkery –
Yet another outstanding instrument in the FP Mirage stable..one that enables you to produce strings that can be as natural or as creative as your imagination will allow.
Right out the box the sustained sounds are very useful, but the real fun comes from playing around with the extremely intuitive Mirage interface, which will always sit out end results that will both surprise and delight in equal measure.
Long story short: I love it and I think you will, too, if you give it a try. 😉
farwind –
It sounds smooth and lush as it is, which is nice. But if you dive deep into the layers and built-in effects, you can create more experimental sounds.