American Heartland
Sample CD-ROM library in Akai Universal format

American Heartland is another fine offering from the Sonic Reality team, this time focusing on traditional, classic instruments of North America.

Here's the introduction on the CD-ROM's booklet:

"American Heartland is a respectful nod to America's past.  Its guitars, harmonicas, dusty keyboards and beefy drums help us recall the beginnings of what would eventually become popular Rock, Blues, Country and Folk styles.  These soulful instruments have a way of grounding us and helping us relate musically.  Regardless of what kind of music you do, they will add a touch of authenticity to your work, and give you a well-laid path to follow your muse.

The sound quality on this CD-ROM is really good.  They used some top notch recording equipment, and it shows.

The instruments presented in this collection include beautiful acoustic guitars (Taylor and Martin), dobro, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and other classic American instruments.  They are all very expressive and with a bit of sequencer work, you could make them sound very, very authentic.

Check out the following demos of individual patches from American Heartland:

 

Sonic Reality American Heartland audio demos

All examples were played from Propellerhead Reason 3's NN-XT sampler, going through the RV7000 reverb (running programs matched to the nature of the samples), then the default Mastering Suite.
 

 

Stream all mp3 examples below

Sound name with audio demo My comments
Partition A
TAY MAJDWN A beautiful Taylor acoustic guitar, strummed.  In typical Sonic Reality fashion, there are many versions of these patches, in different chords (maj, min, 7ths, 9ths and so forth - so you can mix and match, and build your song.)
TAYLCAPO-4CH Multi-sampled Taylor, very beautiful and ready to play.
Partition B
MARTIN12F Solid, sparkly Martin.
Partition C
BANJO LICKS Nice performances assigned to each key on the keyboard.
BANJO Banjo, sampled very well.
DOBRO LICKS Superb dobro guitar
MANDOLIN Very nice, hypnotic.
Partition D
DULCIMER Fantastic, dreamy mountain dulcimer
FEND ELECT F Standard Fender electric guitar
GRETCH TREM Superb Gretch electric guitar with tremolo
PDLSTL LICKS Standard pedal steel guitar
Partition E
BLUESHARPLKS Classic "dirty" blues harp licks
FIDDLE LICKS A very important component of American music.
Partition F
HONKYTONK Very realistic honky-tonk piano
JB HARMONIUM Nice pump harmonium
SRB3 RICH F Standard Hammond B-3, with fast Leslie
SRB3 RICH S Standard Hammond B-3, with slow Leslie
Partition G
P BASS+PK-H2 Very nice Fender Precision bass
UPRIGHT BASS Very warm and full-bodied contrabass.
Partition H
QJAZBRSHM D1 Realistic drum kit

 

Sonic Reality American Heartland specifications

 

Year of release: 2000
Polyphony: n/a
Sound generation method: sample CD
Preset memories n/a
MIDI: n/a
Sound expansion capabilities: n/a
Sequencer n/a
Arpeggiator n/a
Effects n/a


 

Sonic Reality American Heartland pictures (click on thumbnails to enlarge)

 

Sonic Reality American Heartland manuals

 

Links

 

SITE Type of resource DESCRIPTION
 www.sonicreality.com Home Page Sample CDs, Virtual instruments
     

 Sonic Reality American Heartland review with audio demo