Review: Dronar World Flutes Module by Gothic Instruments

Dronar World Flutes is the ultimate library for drones and textures based on wind instruments… for a very little price!

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Review: Dronar World Flutes Module by Gothic Instruments

Dronar World Flutes Module is the latest release from developer Gothic Instruments. Much like the previous installments of the Dronar series, World Flutes takes organic sounds like ocarinas, pan pipes, Irish whistle and more to create beautiful (or dark and cinematic) soundscapes, pads and textures.

Dronar World Flutes Module by Gothic Instruments is available for $66.00 from Time & Space

Thoughts

Dronar World Flutes is the most recent installment of the Dronar series from the developer Gothic Instruments. In case you are unfamiliar with the Dronar libraries don’t get fooled by the “world flutes” part of the name but focus on the “Dronar” instead!

This library takes organic sound sources like ocarinas, pan pipes, Irish whistle and other world instruments and transforms them into beautiful and aethereal or creepy and suspenseful soundscapes, pads and textures which are perfect in ambient or cinematic cues.

The library has one instrument patch and almost 200 expertly crafted presets which will completely satisfy every composer who needs to quickly sketch an ambient cue or lay down a texture-ish background.

The main page is very user-friendly and gives you control over the volume of low, mid and hi layers as well as FXs, intensity of the entire instrument, movement, reverb, and delay. It is worth mentioning that whatever note you play Dronar will add, until possible, all the higher and lower octaves to create a very thick sound!

If you are simply looking for a texture with a strong “world flute” character to it, chances are that you will stop at the main page or the sounds tab. Most patches, wisely grouped by kind and sound designer, will probably deliver what you are looking for but, in case you are not satisfied (or find that some patches sound less “world flute” influenced and more synthy) you can tweak them on the sounds tab.

In the sounds tab, you can select the instrument and sound sources for each layer to make that preset fit your taste. You also have the options to adjust the stereo image and volume of that particular layer (2 modules/2 sounds per layer with the option of changing how they blend). The sound sources are always textures or particular techniques from ethnic wind instruments hence it is quite hard to make this library sound like a specific “world flute”: whatever sound source you select you will always remain in the pad and texture realm.

If you are a seasoned composer and would like to further adjust the settings of your drone the Expert page is for you! You have envelope, filter, tone, and width for each layer and a “thick” option that will add that same sound an octave lower (or higher).

The LFO&FX page is pretty self-explanatory: you have an LFO with rate and shape to control pan, pitch and other parameters. You can also add chorus or distortion to thicken up the sound and adjust the sends to reverb and delay.

The ARP and RHYTHM tab is where things get interesting! The instrument syncs to your DAW and you can individually control each layer to add movement to your desired sound.

Last but not least we have the Master FX page where you have control over EQ, compression, delay, reverb and a gate. It is very nice to use the gate, in conjuction with the arpeggiator and rhythm tab, to achieve very creative and interesting sounds. The gate has a rate, amount, width, pan and sine wave or square wave to choose from.

As a very final thought here you have the complete list of the preset folders. As you can see they range from Atmospheric to Dark, Complex, Horror and Lead. There really is plenty of choice with some sounds having a lot of “wind instruments” character and others getting very dirty, distorted and gritty to the point that they almost resemble a synth!

It needs to be said that Dronar World Flutes has a very distinctive sound and I invite you to check out the videos on the developer website since they really encapsulate the soul of this library!

Dronar World Flutes Module by Gothic Instruments is available for $66.00 from Time & Space

Facts

Dronar World Flutes from Gothic Instruments installs at 5.9 GB via Continuata Connect, requires the FULL version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.8 or higher, the Kontakt Player is NOT supported.

Dronar World Flutes combines rich organic sound sources like Chinese dizi, Irish whistle, ocarina and pan pipes to achieve otherwordly atmospheres, pads and soundscpes with a very specific sound.

I would highly recommend it to any composer, beginner or experienced, in need of an instrument to create deep and rich textures ranging from Dark, to Dreamy and Inspirational without breaking the bank.

Dronar World Flutes Module by Gothic Instruments is available for $66.00 from Time & Space

Demos of Dronar World Flutes Module by Gothic Instruments

Videos of Dronar World Flutes Module by Gothic Instruments