Curio: Cinematic Toy Piano
Curio: Cinematic Toy Piano
A prepared miniature toy piano that can create tonal textures, sweeps, impacts, and more.
A prepared miniature toy piano that can create tonal textures, sweeps, impacts, and more.
$59
$59
Hear Curio: Cinematic Toy Piano In Action
Hear Curio: Cinematic Toy Piano In Action
- Falling Into Blue (Dressed) Jason Cullimore 1:55
- Time Flies (Dressed) Ian Dorsch 1:04
- Waltz of the Horse Tornado (Dressed) Brad Jerkins 1:55
- Time Flies (Naked) Ian Dorsch 1:05
- Falling Into Blue (Naked) Jason Cullimore 1:55
- A Dollhouse Life (Dressed) Henning Nugel 0:56
- Meet Fred the Ghost (Naked) Frank Herrlinger 2:09
- Claustrophobic (Dressed) Blake Ewing 1:08
- Labyrinth Andrew Aversa & Steven Burns 1:15
- Waltz of the Horse Tornado (Naked) Brad Jerkins 1:55
- Claustrophobic (Naked) Blake Ewing 1:08
- Curiosity (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:07
- Lurker (Naked) Steven Burns 1:20
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
- Falling Into Blue (Dressed) Jason Cullimore 1:55
- Time Flies (Dressed) Ian Dorsch 1:04
- Waltz of the Horse Tornado (Dressed) Brad Jerkins 1:55
- Time Flies (Naked) Ian Dorsch 1:05
- Falling Into Blue (Naked) Jason Cullimore 1:55
- A Dollhouse Life (Dressed) Henning Nugel 0:56
- Meet Fred the Ghost (Naked) Frank Herrlinger 2:09
- Claustrophobic (Dressed) Blake Ewing 1:08
- Labyrinth Andrew Aversa & Steven Burns 1:15
- Waltz of the Horse Tornado (Naked) Brad Jerkins 1:55
- Claustrophobic (Naked) Blake Ewing 1:08
- Curiosity (Naked) Andrew Aversa 1:07
- Lurker (Naked) Steven Burns 1:20
Overview
A hidden world of sound generated from a miniature toy piano, prepared, mangled and deconstructed to create tonal textures, sweeps, ambiances, impacts, deep percussion, and more! Perfect for film, TV, and game scoring.
A hidden world of sound generated from a miniature toy piano, prepared, mangled and deconstructed to create tonal textures, sweeps, ambiances, impacts, deep percussion, and more! Perfect for film, TV, and game scoring.
Product Info
Intimate micing
23 unique instrument patches for KONTAKT 4+
- Deep-sampled mallets and plucks
- Bowed ambience, tapping, shaking textures
- Processed and natural percussive hits
- Tonal and atonal textures / sweeps
- Deep bass plucks and FX
- Hybrid airy/synthesized and chromatic sounds
1,400+ samples available as both NCW and standalone WAV
Intimate micing
23 unique instrument patches for KONTAKT 4+
- Deep-sampled mallets and plucks
- Bowed ambience, tapping, shaking textures
- Processed and natural percussive hits
- Tonal and atonal textures / sweeps
- Deep bass plucks and FX
- Hybrid airy/synthesized and chromatic sounds
1,400+ samples available as both NCW and standalone WAV
Features
Seven FX and processors, MIDI controllable
Multi-mode filter and envelope
Easy 3-band EQ for quick shaping
Tempo synced delay tap
Spatial and modulation FX
Seven FX and processors, MIDI controllable
Multi-mode filter and envelope
Easy 3-band EQ for quick shaping
Tempo synced delay tap
Spatial and modulation FX
Requirements
1.2GB of disk space
7200 RPM hard drive or solid state drive recommended.
Kontakt 4+ Full Version
This library is NOT compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
Kontakt Requirements - Mac OSX
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 & Patch Walkthrough
Featured Artists & Composers
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.”
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.
ShadyCicada
“Impact Soundworks software is an absolute mainstay in my work when it comes to Video Game and Anime-inspired tracks! The amount of ease and wonderful sounds these plugins offer allows me to get straight into writing and brainstorming.”
Featured Artists & Composers
Mike Reagan
Invincible Fight Girl, Powerpuff Girls, Trials Evolution, God of War, Twisted Metal
“A big thanks to the team at Impact Soundworks for putting inspiration at my fingertips! Your sample libraries are in heavy use in my Orchestral, Rock and Pop templates, and always visible in my top-tier Cue-specific Kontakt. Layering your Shreddage libraries on top of my live guitar tracks creates so much depth, and I get so much out of so many of your other libraries – too many to name. A+ programming and sonic goodness gang!”
Mike Gonsolin
(Snoop Dogg, T-Pain, Playboi Carti, Migos)
“Impact Soundworks’ libraries are truly in a league of their own. I’ve been a long time user for as long as I can remember and it would take me a whole other producing lifetime to build the depths of these libraries on my own. As a Kontakt enthusiast who owns just about every library out there I can confidently say that Impact Soundworks’ libraries stand in the top 1%, and that’s saying something! No snake oil here. Just meticulously assembled libraries that are overflowing with creative sound design options and inspiration igniting presets.”
Mike Gonsolin (Mike G)
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!
Welcome to CURIO: Cinematic Toy Piano, a rare collection of custom-designed tonal and atonal material for Kontakt 4+. Designed by Ali Lacey, Curio features a miniature grand piano recorded naturally, then prepared, deconstructed, and mangled beyond recognition using acoustic and electronic sound design techniques.
In addition to atmospheric plucks, haunting and subtle mallet hits, and other traditional chromatic sounds, Curio contains a huge variety of percussive hits. These sounds, which range from light taps to earth-shaking subs, are ideal for epic cues and subtle underscore alike. The beautiful UI provides further editing controls, allowing for instant customization and shaping of any sound with just a few clicks.
With over +1400 samples provided in both NCW and WAV format (for further editing and mangling), Curio is a treasure trove of inspirational material.
The Curio interface includes a wide range of toggled effects along with an ADSR envelope. These features in tandem provide a powerful way to shape and create sounds out of the pre-existing patches in Curio.
Reviews
Curio – Film and Game Composers
“If you’ve heard the other libraries available from [ISW] you know their sound design skills are very good. Listening to [Curio] makes me hold them in even higher regard… to create such diverse sounds from a little toy piano is nothing short of amazing. [It] never sounds ‘created’, ‘mangled’ or ‘re-sampled’ … all sounds are in a way their perfect representation of themselves … I really like the palette of sounds, and there are many to choose from … Don’t let the words ‘Toy Piano’ fool you, this isn’t a toy, it’s a tool. A very well made tool for the cinematic composer.”
Thomas Mavian (Film and Game Composers)