Maleventum Pompeii is a Kontakt library based on horns and percussions from Ancient Rome. S+OS have collaborated with producer and ancient instruments expert Francesco Landucci to record a vast array of horns and drums in an original Roman water tank environment, at the archeological site of Cecina Italy.

Most of the instruments have been captured with both close and room microphones, to provide the flexibility to blend/switch from a more intimate, breathy sound to a more evocative one.

Maleventum Pompeii features the following original instruments:

– Horns : Roman Cornu, Lituus, Roman Tuba, Aulos, goat animal horns of various sizes and typologies.

– Flutes, whistles and pan-flutes (syrinx)

– Drums & Percussions: Timpana, Tintinnabula, Crotala, Sistrum

– Weapons: swords, spears, metals, helmets

• With the 15 meticulously crafted Kontakt instruments, Maleventum Pompeii allows a wide range of composition possibilities, from playable solo horns instruments to evocative horns layers, from war horns sound design instruments to phrases, percussion loops and one-shots. Following the concept and tradition of the acclaimed Maleventum 1 and Maleventum 2, the instruments in Maleventum Pompeii instantly evoke scenes of ancient battlefields, solemn pagan rituals, with a sonic palette ranging from the gelid colors of the norths to the warm lands of the Mediterraneum. Maleventum Pompeii is for TV, film , game composers and sound designers looking for a one of a kind instrument based on rare and meticulously recorded horns and drums instruments , to immediately set a ‘dark age’ and 'ancient' mood. It fits particularly well the epic genre, with specific regard to fantasy and dark age movies, but its versatility makes it useful also for post-horror, thriller, electronic and ambient music.

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Horns Layers is playable, MPE compatible instrument which combines 4 different horns, flutes and designed layers from a total of 79 available voices. Each layer can be edited independently (Volume, Pan, Volume Envelope, Filters and LFO) via the intuitive GUI. By using the intuitive Map panel, it is possible to quickly assign the control parameters to any MIDI Channel, and even configure the instrument for MPE. Vocal Layers feature a Convolution Reverb section based on 24 IRs, including Acoustic Reverbs, Digital Reverbs and Experimental Reverbs

The 2 War Horn builders in Maleventum Pompeii are sound design instruments that allow you to create your own playable war horns sounds. It's based on a stack of 3 horn layers (2 organic + 1 designed) that you can combine and manipulate independently.

By setting the close/room microphones balance and the release time, the War Horn Builders can generate a virtually endless combination of sounds.

Maleventum Pompeii features 4 solo instruments: Aulos (drone layers & solo, different models), Lituus Ritual Solo and Roman Tuba.

Both the SFX horns as the phrases instruments are baed on a one shot sample player, ranging from brutal, low-end war calls to rich and intricate phrases. The phrases instruments include: Roman Cornu, Aulos, Flutes, Whistles, Pan Flute (syrinx).

All these instruments feature a per-sample control on any parameter (Volume, Pitch, Low Pass Filter, High Pass Filter, LFO and Volume Envelope, Straight/Reverse play), plus the possibility to globally control any parameter by using the ‘Set Global Controls’ window. You can tune all the samples simultaneously to the same root key with the useful Global Tuning slider, Extend any sample to the keyboard and play it chromatically, or reverse all the samples at once.

The Percussion Loops instruments is divided in Big Drums Loops (Timpana), small percussion & shaker-esque loops (Crotala, Tintinnabula, Sistrum) and Weapons Loops (spears, swords, shields, chains etc). The three percussive layers can be combined in many ways to create interesting rhythmic combinations and instantly evoke the sound of ancient war drums.

The Percussion One Shots instrument is based on a similar structure (Big Drums, Small Drums and Weapons). The big drums are multi-sampled (velocity), whereas the others are simple one-shots.