Q: Where can I purchase Plectrum V2?

 

A: Plectrum V2 is be available for $299 right here on the Vital Arts site, and through dealers and distributors worldwide.

 

Q: I already own Plectrum for the PC. Can I get a crossgrade?

 

A: Yes. If you have registered your copy of Plectrum with Vital Arts, or if you can provide proof of purchase, you will be eligible for a crossgrade to the new version. If you haven't received our crossgrade offer by email, click here to apply.

 

Q: What is an "original acoustic instrument"?

 

A: Each Plectrum instrument is original in the sense that it brings to your fingertips unique sounds from prepared instruments and found objects, tuned and voiced to play with a responsiveness, ambience, and decay comparable to a piano. Each Plectrum instrument is acoustic in the sense that it was constructed from high-resolution recordings taken of physical materials in real environments. Multiple takes and articulations of each sound are set up for “round robin” playback, offering the texture and aural richness of an acoustic instrument. These are virtual instruments then, not only because they run in software, but because they can only be played in software. These instruments do not exist anywhere else. It is up to you to explore and discover what they can do.

 

Q: Can you tell me more about the content of the library?

 

A: Plectrum contains nine categories of instruments. Instruments in the first four categories, Strummed Strings, Struck Strings, Plucked Strings, and String Harmonics, were created by playing conventional stringed instruments, such as piano and guitar, in unusual ways. The strings were tuned and detuned, sometimes muted, and then hit, scraped, tapped, plucked and strummed to capture harmonics and timbres that are rarely available when playing the instruments as they were designed to be played.

Instruments in the second four categories, Glass, Ceramics, Metals, and Found Objects, were made from sounds produced from strikes and collisions between various materials and objects that were then programmed to play as tuned percussion instruments. Even those sounds with no obvious center pitch are designed to work well when played along with other tonal instruments.

The ninth category, Habitats, features natural world environments such as marsh, hillside, forest stream, rain, and thunder. You can play them much as you would play a synth pad, and what you hear is an ever-evolving environmental sound to place behind other tracks in your music.