Review Uproar by Chocolate Audio
Spot-on metal flavored guitar phrase library with unique samples for each key performance included. Housed in the new Choco-matic phrase engine. Mic'd cabinets or DI output & effects send controls for manipulations and sculpting.
I would have liked to have seen more collections (songs) included in the library and wish the engine was set up for full 12 step chromatic playback.
With UPROAR Chocolate Audio have created a great sounding set of spot-on metal flavored guitar phrases with mic’d cabinets or DI output & effects send controls for manipulations and sculpting. All in a new phrase engine with lots of future possibilities.
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Review Uproar by Chocolate Audio
Uproar sells for $79 (USD) from Chocolate Audio • Special intro price 25% OFF at time of review $59
Thoughts
UPROAR is spot on for the genre with samples from guitar virtuoso Gianluca Ferro performing on his one-of-a-kind, custom made 8 string ESP Baritone Guitar. The library has all the grit and growl you would expect from a metal guitar but I found that the Choco-matic engine (Chocolate Audio’s new kontakt script) was just as much in the spotlight as the great sounding phrases.
Anyone who has tried to work with loops in kontakt will understand what I am saying. It can be difficult to do much more than just sync to host tempo and trigger playback. With UPROAR Chocolate audio have created a great sounding set of spot-on metal flavored phrases and the choice to playback the mic’d guitar cabinet or DI coupled with the effects send controls give loads of options for manipulations and sculpting.
Uproar Interface with colored keys for easy navigation (BETA shown)
I had a chance to check out the beta for the review and found that the color coding of the keys and the ability to change keys in realtime made this library really fun and easy to work with. Unlike so many other phrase libraries programming was simple with the playback notes right where I wanted them (as opposed to having to adjust midi to get the phrases to trigger properly).
The other thing that stood out was that the different key options sounded natural and real. I found out this is because each of the different keys is a separate performance. Most phrase libraries in this price range just pitch shift from the center out to cover playing back in different keys.
The Black Keys let you change the key. Not just pitch-shifting the same loop for all keys, the library is set up with unique performances for each of the included keys.
The benefit of this natural sounding playback is great, but would have liked to have seen the engine set up for full 12 step chromatic playback some how.
Uproar contains 6 Collections (I referred to them as Songs as they were listed in the beta) ranging 60 to 157 BPM. I found that they stretched across higher and lower bpm pretty cleanly. Of course, exaggerated tempo shift will show as with all loops/phrases but I have a feeling the Choco-Matic engine was designed with a few tricks under the hood to help tempo stretching as it held up for further than I expected.
The custom made 8 String ESP guitar sampled for the library
After testing out all of the Collections (Songs) for the review main only con I found was that I would have liked to have seen more collections (songs) included in the library. The Choco-matic engine does what it set out to do really well with unique performances for each of the different keys presented – so for that, I won’t judge too harshly as the library does contain a healthy amount (1309) of samples for a phrase lib at this price point.
I found the instrument inspiring and if I am inspired to write a track or able to more quickly work on a cue for a score with the library it is well worth the asking price.
On a final note, I am excited to see what other phrase libraries Chocolate Audio has in the pipeline now that they have Version 1 of the Choco-Matic engine running!
Uproar is metal guitar phrase library with 6 collections ranging 60 to 157 BPM.
Each of the collections contains 4 Parts that features up to 5 Tonal Centers and each Center with up to 11 Variations for a total of 1306 Phrases weighing in at 1.65 GB uncompressed content (985 MB compressed).
The library allows controls for playback of both the amp (MIC) and DI version (so you can re-amp or process it with your favorite plugins)
or each part can be routed to a separate output from Kontakt to your DAW or manipulated with the effects sends and tremolo settings.
Uproar uses version 1 of the Choco•Matic phrasing engine and requires Kontakt 5.5.2 and up (Full Version)
The sample set was recorded at 88.2 KHz/24 bit and released at 44.1 KHz/24 bit.
Uproar sells for $79 (USD) from Chocolate Audio
