Checking Out: Action Woodwinds by Native Instrument/Sonuscore

by B Free

Native Instruments / Sonuscore’s latest in the Action Series is a scoring wonderland with 1,000 phrases and access to the multi-sampled instruments. Action Woodwinds takes the series to the next level with phrase editing options and will be great for adding run, falls and ornaments – the kind of playback you just cant fake with a multi-sampled instrument.

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Checking Out: Action Woodwinds by Native Instrument Sonuscore

Get Action Woodwinds by Native Instrument Sonuscore for just €19 until June 3, 2024

Many of us are familiar with Action Strikes or Action Strings (from hereon referred to as the Action Suite). I actually believe these two libraries were the first orchestral libraries I ever composed with when I plunked down my hard-earned cash for Komplete 10 Ultimate. I’ll be honest, I was definitely not expecting a woodwind library as the next installment in the Action Suite… not because I don’t love woodwinds, but in todays ultra modern/hybrid music trends, especially in ACTION music, they’re rarely used as often as strings and brass! So while I’m surprised, I certainly welcome bringing the focus to the often under-appreciated winds!

Action Woodwinds is, at its core, a tool for creating rhythmic woodwind phrases. Each pattern is split into high and low winds, so you can solo and mute either layer and adjust the mix of each, but there’s no splitting them into sections- you won’t be able to isolate just the flutes, for example. There are 160 different “themes” to choose from, each offering a good source of inspiration for writing new cues. Everything syncs seamlessly to your tempo, adjusts to any key you play it in, and they offer patterns in different time signatures such as 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, and more.

What takes Action Woodwinds to the next level is the editing options they’ve added for each pattern. While patterns are a good source of inspiration and help with sketching, I know quite a composers grow wary of using too many “stock patterns”, and editing a pattern in Action Woodwinds is quite deep and complex, offering a somewhat staggering amount of mini-phrases you can splice together in the library’s editor. From simple whole, half, quarter, and 16th notes, to complex ornaments like runs, falls, trills, and more- there’s a ton of content here. I especially loved the tempo synced runs, falls, and playable diatonics- there’s a lot of really great stuff you really can’t find in any other library. I like that these are all recorded as part of the performance- in your final product, you’ll have real humans playing the run naturally, so it will sound more realistic than programming it in with legato patches or splicing together articulations like I’m used to doing.

While I said the editor certainly is complex, it’s not necessarily easy to use. I’m the kind of composer who would rather just program everything into the DAW’s own sequencer, so keep that in mind- your workflow may differ, but I found it a bit cumbersome and tedious to scroll through the tons of parts to create the phrase I wanted. Again, everyone’s workflow will be different and every library has a learning curve.

What I see myself personally using this for the most is for accenting my current template- as I mentioned before, the run, falls and things like that- instead of programming a whole 8 or 16 bar phrase, I found myself using these runs as just “one shots”, triggering them as needed and having them effortlessly sync to the tempo and end just at the right spot- that’s going to be a huge time saver and brought a big smile to my face.

Action Woodwinds normally sells for $299 from Native Instrument
Action Woodwinds normally sells for $299 from Sonuscore

Crossgrades for $199 are available for owners of other instrument in the Action Series.