Hear Resonance: Emotional Mallets In Action
- Meditation Andrew Aversa 1:05
- Midnight Andrew Aversa 0:56
- Enchanted Forest Andrew Aversa 1:00
- 4th and Mission Mick Gordon 2:01
- 4th and Mission (Naked) Mick Gordon 2:03
- Tensionance Dirk Ehlert 2:19
- Tensionance (Naked) Dirk Ehlert 2:19
- Haunting Bells Simon Russell 1:07

Reviews
Simon Franglen
Titanic, Skyfall, Spectre, Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water
Impact Soundworks make detailed, emotive instruments. I’ve happily bought over two dozen of their libraries which should say everything. They get used every day.
Mark Portmann
Ariana Grande, Luis Fonsi, Celine Dion, Quincy Jones
"[ISW]'s instruments consistently deliver the sound, feel, and reliability I need to do my best work. Thank you for raising the bar and making tools that inspire."
Neal Acree
World of WarCraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Overwatch
"Impact Soundworks has some of the most creative and innovative libraries out there. From world instruments to the insanely deep sampled Shreddage guitar series the Impact catalog is full of must-haves and unexpected and inspiring surprises. Highly recommended!
Stewart Winter
Co-founder, VideoHelper
"I'm a keyboard player -- I can't even make a REAL guitar sound convincing. But Telos and Rosette are my go-to guitars because they sound incredible, sit well in a mix and are so easy to configure to my personal playing habits. I'm constantly discovering new ways to play them and they've saved my ass more times than I can count. And the pedal Steel is still my favorite library of its kind for Country, Folk and organic layering behind synths."
Brian Pickett
PAW Patrol, Lucas the Spider, Daniel Tiger
"I never would have thought that sampled guitars could sound as good as ISW's do. The fact that I can use them to lay down a realistic solo is unprecedented. They’ve pushed the boundaries of realism."
Rosette Mandolin – Sound on Sound
Rosette Mandolin review
"The sound of the library is very pleasing...the more I used the library the more I felt I was learning how to write idiomatically for the instrument." "Rosette Mandolin provides a good sound that could have many applications, with versatile input options that cater to writing realistic mandolin lines, impossible 5+ note chords and everything in between." Thomas Field, September 2024
Richard Jacques
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Mass Effect, Overwatch 2, James Bond 007: Blood Stone
"I'm a huge fan of the Ventus Winds series. They feature rare instruments deep-sampled to an incredibly high level of detail. It's so liberating to have such a wide range of articulations & phrases that perfectly capture the nuances and performance style of these instruments... from beautiful to haunting, celebratory to sorrowful. Each is expertly recorded and the sound quality is superb, sitting in the mix with ease. If you want to add authentic world winds to your palette, then look no further."
Kevin Manthei
Angry Birds Mystery Island, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Villainous, Neverwinter, Star Trek Online
"ISW creates some of the most inspiring & realistic guitar sample libraries. I had to write a bunch of really gritty, angry heavy metal & sports action rock cues. I used Shreddage 3 Serpent for leads and was blown away by its onboard processing, programming, and amazing live-sounding leads. I also created a signature sound based on the lead guitar in David Lynch's Twin Peaks series, originally played on baritone guitar. [Serpent] built a convincing replica of that sound just using on-board FX. It was so fun and easy to do!"
Audio Demos
- Meditation Andrew Aversa 1:05
- Midnight Andrew Aversa 0:56
- Enchanted Forest Andrew Aversa 1:00
- 4th and Mission Mick Gordon 2:01
- 4th and Mission (Naked) Mick Gordon 2:03
- Tensionance Dirk Ehlert 2:19
- Tensionance (Naked) Dirk Ehlert 2:19
- Haunting Bells Simon Russell 1:07
Product Info
Over 4,000 pristine 24-bit samples
Deep sampled velocity + RR layers
14 diverse instruments
A variety of creative articulations
48 special sound design patches
Features
Extremely lightweight and easy-to-use
Straightforward tone-shaping controls
Natural, acoustic sound design
Instantly responsive and highly playable
Tonal, atonal, pitched, and unpitched percussion
Requirements
2.4GB of disk space
7200 RPM hard drive or solid state drive recommended.
4GB RAM
Kontakt 5.5.2+ Full Version
This library is NOT compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
Kontakt Requirements - Mac OS
Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11 or 12 (latest update).
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11 or 12 (latest update)
Kontakt Requirements - Windows
Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit). Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU. Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher. Windows 10 strongly recommended.
Tutorials
Introduction & Walkthrough
Featured Artists & Composers
Jimmy Hinson
Black Ops 4, Mass Effect 2, There Came An Echo, Borderlands 2
“Between Shreddage, Super Audio Cart, Juggernaut, and Mega Brass I don’t remember the last time I haven’t used an Impact Soundworks instrument in a track. The attention to detail is astonishing and it’s all so easy to use out of the box, which is a big deal.”
Lena Raine
Celeste, Chicory, Minecraft, Guild Wars 2, Deltarune
Instruments from ISW are a staple of my soundtrack work for games. Vocalisa has been a mainstay vocal aesthetic of nearly every game I’ve worked on including Celeste & Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Shreddage 3 has also given me the confidence to write some really fun guitar riffs & solos despite not being able to play a real one. I’ve started incorporating Tokyo Scoring Strings into the acoustic side of my scoring work, and can’t wait to try out more from ISW in the future!
Mark Portmann
(Ariana Grande, Luis Fonsi, Celine Dion, Quincy Jones)
“[ISW]’s instruments consistently deliver the sound, feel, and reliability I need to do my best work. Thank you for raising the bar and making tools that inspire.”
When we set out to create a new library built from custom, unique instruments, we were initially planning on just a few deep-sampled sounds. However, as the vision for Resonance became clearer, we decided that a whole collection of such deep-sampled instruments would be an incredible tool for all types of composers and producers working in any number of genres. As the recording sessions progressed, we constantly experimented with new techniques, mics and tools; each new sound we discovered was inspiring and had to be included.
As we combed through the recordings, we found that the wealth of sounds were ripe for further sound design. With the help of programmer and sound designer Iain Morland, we took it upon ourselves to create a suite of versatile textures, ambiances, pads, basses, leads, impacts and percussion built from the original audio. As with our other libraries, we intended for Resonance to be immediately playable, useful and intuitive.
This library was not designed to be “epic” – though you can certainly use it for that. There are countless sample libraries available that focus on big, loud percussion, or dramatic sounds soaked in reverb. Our vision was instead to capture these amazing found & custom instruments in a more intimate setting; close-miced with a touch of room air (and in great depth, of course!) Inspired by composers like Thomas Newman and Danny Elfman, we hope you will find the wide variety of timbres in Resonance to be as usable as they are inspiring.
Resonance contains a total of 33 “Natural” patches and 49 “Designed” patches built from 14 distinct instruments or ensembles. Many of the instruments were created by Jim Doble of Elemental Percussion, to whom we are very grateful for his fantastic craftsmanship. Others were more simple found metals, such as sheets, pot lids, a music stand, bolts and snare wires. We played the instruments using our fingers, hands, and of course, various mallets (soft, wood, rubber and metal). We also used a cello bow to evoke very different sustained tones.
The Natural patches include multiple mallet types where applicable, as well as tuned/chromatic vs. natural versions and “FX” patches. These FX patches do not include external processing, but include things like scrapes, impacts, glissandi and various other non-traditional or ‘prepared’ playing techniques. We used a minimum of external processing and editing, instead choosing to leave the natural sound of the instruments untouched aside from minor noise removal and EQ where needed.
The Designed patches are split into six categories: Impacts & FX, Leads & Basses, Tonal Pads, Percussion, Textures & Ambiance, and Keyboards & Mallets. These patches are built on the Natural samples, but in many cases include entirely new audio processed extensively with a variety of tools. We think you’ll find these sounds very useful in any number of styles!
Reviews
Resonance – Sound On Sound
“Impact Soundworks didn’t stop with the natural sounds of [Resonance]. Comprehensive scripted interfaces let you modify each sound, and add carefully chosen convolution reverb. ISW has also designed a further 49 new instruments using software processing. These include some truly atmospheric impacts and keyboards, inventive leads and basses, epic percussion and evocative textures and drones. If you’re looking for fresh and unusual instrumental inspiration, you should definitely put Resonance on your shopping list.”
Martin Walker (Sound On Sound)
