Name: Phoenix: Mirage
SKU: 28244
Price: 35.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Videos
Description
Powered by Mirage
Requirements
Endorsments From Phoenix Classic

Videos

Video explaining what Mirage is, and what its key features are

A demonstration of a selection of Phoenix presets

Description

Phoenix features six instruments and three waveform instruments

A toolkit of cinematic sounds

The core sounds of this library are six synthetic strings and choirs instruments. These sounds are useful even before processing. Ethereal choirs and lush string pads can be made instantly. However, the three-layer structure of Mirage allows you to take these sounds even further. Complimentary sounds can be layered together and modulated with LFOs and filters, and reverbs can be applied. Using these features, it is easy to create rich textures and soundscapes with movement. But this is by no means the extent of Phoenix’s capabilities.

Keys and bass sounds can also be produced. In the included presets you will find many examples of these types of sounds such as low rumbles, plucky staccatos and clean subs. Phoenix also works excellently when layered with real instruments. The smoothness of the sounds of this product gell superbly with them, enhancing their richness and width.

Uses of Phoenix

You might make use of Phoenix in a film/TV/video game score. A preset such as Shimmering Cavern could be used to create a sense of wonder and beauty. This preset uses three sound layers spread across three octaves. LFOs subtly modulate the volumes of these layers, and a touch of bit-crush distortion is used, resulting in a sound that shimmers in the high frequencies. Similarly to this, there are many other presets included in this product that have an emotional character. This track could be added to by using the Bass Pluck preset with a low pass filter applied to it. This would work excellently as a driving ‘underscore’ element.

Another possible use for Phoenix might be in an ambient track. A preset like Smoothest Pad might be used to play wide-spanning chords, gently transitioning into each other in the background. A Keys preset like Melody Drops could be used on top of this for a distant emotive sounding melody. A Bass preset such as Sub Bass Repeater could be used to fill out the low end, and give drive to the track with its pulsing pattern.

A third possibility might be in a track outside of the ambient or cinematic genres. Phoenix can be used to add character to your electronic/rock/hip hop track. It can be used as something to bring depth to the background or to layer up with your real performances. The various strings presets of Phoenix, in particular, might be useful in these situations. These synthetic strings have a smooth organic sound to them, similar to their real counterparts, but with a softer character. Phoenix might also be useful in writing a breakdown in a track – add atmosphere and a sense of open space – before bringing back the drive of your track.

Specifications

80 presets, saved as separate mirage-phoenix files
Mirage sample-based synthesis engine included
Phoenix Mirage library (closed format mdata file) which features six multi-sampled instruments
~70MB file download

Buy now, and download whenever you like

Phoenix 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 Phoenix 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 Phoenix instantly. On top of this, you will automatically gain FP Credits which can be redeemed for a discount on future purchases from this site.

Already own Phoenix as a Kontakt library?

This product was initially created for Kontakt and has now been moved to Mirage. This new version of Phoenix is a reinterpretation of the old samples. We believe this new version is slightly better for rapid sound design and for ease-of-use.

If you’ve already bought Phoenix for Kontakt on frozenplain.com, you can pick up Phoenix for Mirage for only $5. Log into your account on frozenplain.com and visit the Phoenix: Mirage page to see the price change to $5.

What is different about the Mirage version?

The core sound is essentially the same except for the following two changes: the tuning of one of the instruments has been improved, and all samples have been trimmed of unnecessary length. The Kontakt version and the Mirage version are powered by different engines with different architectures; however, the features of each are roughly comparable.

Why might you want to purchase the new version?

If you own the Kontakt version, you might consider purchasing this new version if you would like to access the Phoenix sounds in Mirage, a new engine that will continue to grow and improve. Mirage is excellent for rapid sound design and ease-of-use. It is also a consistent interface that is used by other FrozenPlain products.

You might also consider the new version if you would like access to the 80 brand new presets. These presets are production-ready. They demonstrate the capabilities of Phoenix are an accessible gateway to mastering your own sound design using this tool.

Mirage libraries are loaded from a side panel

What is Mirage?

Mirage is our sample-based synthesis engine. It is a VST/AU synthesiser plugin that features a powerful set of controls for processing our custom sample libraries, such as Phoenix or Wraith (currently libraries can only be made with our internal tools). Mirage is designed for rapid, flexible sound design and for ease-of-use.

What does powered-by-Mirage mean?

Products which are powered-by-Mirage run as libraries inside Mirage. Mirage is not an additional cost to a powered-by-Mirage product – it comes in the installer. This means that any powered-by-Mirage product features everything you need for full sonic customisation and sound design. It also means that if you own multiple powered-by-Mirage products, they are controlled with the same interface.

Access to free updates

We intend to improve and grow Mirage over time. Many more libraries will be released for Mirage. 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 not break.

Three independent sound layers can be layered together

Designed for sound layering

As sound designers and foley artists know well, layering is an excellent way of designing new sounds using existing samples. 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.

Nine effects can be used to shape the sound

A rack of built-in Effects

Another technique that sound designers use to shape the character of sounds is by applying effects. Mirage features a rack of such effects for this purpose. 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 effect to the signal by using samples of real spaces (impulse responses). However, by substituting the sample of a real space with an abstract sample, interesting effects can be produced. Mirage features both realistic impulse responses and abstract ones for creative sound design.

Designed to be played

For compelling and dynamic performances, you often want to control the parameters of the sound as you play. We naturally do this in real life. For example, when singing a melody, we make some parts louder and vary the tremolo intensity. Mirage helps with enabling this type of modulation too. The volume at both the layer level and the master level can be controlled with MIDI velocity. Sustain pedal (MIDI CC 64) is also fully supported, enabling you to hold notes using a foot pedal. On top of that, any parameter in Mirage can be controlled by knobs or sliders on your physical MIDI controller. This is simply a matter of right-clicking the parameter, selecting ‘MIDI learn’ and then moving your controller. And of course, Mirage can also be automated by your DAW.

Minimum friction from your mind to your DAW

Mirage is designed to not get in your way. It is fast to load up and is CPU efficient. It has a vector-based GUI that can be resized so that it will work on any size screen. The controls are laid out in an intuitive way, and a full description of what each control does can be viewed by hovering the mouse over it for a moment. Mirage also comes with a PDF user manual with all of the nitty-gritty details covered.

Presets can be easily loaded and saved

Use pre-built sounds or create your own

Mirage helps you with finding the right sound quickly. Presets can be browsed and loaded using the menu at the top of the GUI. However, to avoid navigating through a menu every time to load a preset there are a couple of important features. Firstly, there are easy-to-access arrow buttons for cycling through presets. And secondly, there is a multi-mode button to load a random preset. This button is brilliant for finding quick inspiration. It can be set to work in one of three ways. It can load any random preset at all – even of different libraries. Or it can load a random preset that is of the same library that you currently have loaded. Or lastly, it can load a random preset in the current preset folder (the folder might contain all bass presets for example).

There are also randomisation buttons for loading sounds. Each of the three sound layers can load a random sound at the click of a button. This is great for sound design as it makes trying a different source incredibly easy. There is also a button at the top of the GUI that performs this action for all three of the layers simultaneously.

Download Mirage PDF Manual

Requirements

Phoenix 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 – Phoenix is not available in the AAX plugin format yet, and so will not run in Pro Tools. Here are the specific requirements:

A computer running Windows 7 or higher (either 32-bit or 64-bit), or a Mac with macOS 10.8 or higher (64-bit).
A host that can play either a VST2 plugin or an AudioUnit v2 (AU) plugin. Examples of such hosts are Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, Reaper, Reason, FL Studio, Logic X, Garage Band, and many more.

Endorsments From Phoenix Classic

Phoenix was previously released as a Kontakt library. This updated version makes use of the same samples in a new engine that is comparable to the Kontakt version. Here’s what people had to say about Phoenix-for-Kontakt on KontaktHub:

★★★★★ – NEED A CHOIR? HERE IT IS!

I am a big fan of Frozen Plain. This instrument is one of my favourites. It gives you ethereal choirs, pads and sounds, that induce a solemn atmosphere in a minute. If you love such stuff, just buy it! – Martin Juenke

★★★★☆ – SUBTLE AND POWERFUL

Perfect ambient/underscore/cinematic instrument to lay a wide, atmospheric basis to your track. The impulse responses and additional FX are top notch as are the instrument sounds! There’s just 6 instrument sounds and it’s basically all choir or orchestral strings, but they’re surprisingly versatile. I’d be completely satisfied if there’d be a brass sound, too. – Marius Schlossbauer

★★★★★ – PAAAAADS

Yeaaah! Pads for everyone. Nice and lush sounding huge pads with different timbres. Very good! – Michael Wiedme