For all 'proglodytes', the ultimate collection...

The Lowrand Suite brings together a bunch of old 80s classic analogue synths from a certain Japanese manufacturer. Rich and vibrant, thick but also capable of great subtlety. Great synths not surpassed by modern VSTIs. We've captured every detail of the raw material, added some twists and turns to revitalise these for the modern age with more than a retro flavour.

I bought an old MKS70 and PG800 from a friend a little while back. What a fabulous synth - up there with the big boys and the (optional) PG800 programmer makes it as tweakable as any old analogue polysynth. We've emulated that combination with a few 'twists'. Gorgeous strings and pads, punchy brass and massive basses and sriking leadlines and that's before we get into SFX.

An American friend of mine gave me a rare, old MTI clone of the the ARP/Solina ensemble unit recently ... and it is gorgeous. It adds such richness to any sound you throw at it. Also, being distinctinctly analogue with 'bucket brigade' delay lines, it clips and overdrives very nicely, a feature we have exploited - It just seem to have the ability to smudge and smooth a sound.

Long before some of you were probably born, a certain Japanese manufacturer was dabbling with what we now call Physical Modelling. It first found a place in their RD1000 digital piano (Elton John's favourite stage piano for quite a while) but also made into a module. It's job was simple - to produce realistic piano sounds and in that, they pretty much succeeded.

Samples from an 80s Japanese analogue polysynth named after a gas giant planet. They were given to me by an old American friend of mine some years ago and I'd forgotten all about them. I found them recently, had a play with them in Kontakt and they sounded good so, 30 presets later, I thought I'd put them out for others to enjoy at a silly price as a 'special'.

One of the greatest strengths of Kontakt is its scripting. The trouble is that it's pretty damned tricky for most of us.

So what better than to have a fully scripted panel made by one of the best Kontakt scripters in the industry. Just assign YOUR samples and use the panel to tweak them into shape.

The very rare sounds from the Vako Orchestron, a kind of optical disk Mellotron with technology derived from the Optigan.

Layering, comprehensive functionality, a good chain of multiFX including chorus, phaser, echo and convolution reverb with custom impulses. Optomotron brings the scratchy. lo-fi sounds from the Orchestron tnto the modern age.

The gothic splendour of the legendary Tron which has now been updated dramatically.

SOUND ON SOUND found "the overall character of these samples to be superb" and "this set beat mine hands down for sheer presence and clarity within a mix."

Now with layering, improved functionality and multi-FX

Big and cinematic basses, sub-audio basses so low that they grumble and click, tight funky little numbers, oscillator sync and filter sweeps, thick and open multi-oscillators, deep bowel wobbling bass pedal replications, bombing raid drones, hard sounds, soft sounds, odd stuff, filters modulated with FM, sine and sub basses, slightly clipped and dirty basses and solid square wave basses - it's all there in Bass6, a veritable cornucopia of 'go to' true analogue bass sounds from a living, breathing modular synth for almost any modern musical genre.

Tubelitzer is a valve/tube-based Wurlitzer 120 electric piano from the late 50s/early 60s. It differs from the later and more well known EP200A in that it has a mellower sound without the distinctive 'bark' of the later models.

Chromatically sampled with full length samples and up to 27 velocity layers and release samples, it also comes with a virtual stomp box pedal board comprising distortion, cab simulation, chorus, phase shifting, rotary speaker, echo and convolution reverb.

An exciting drum product that allows you to mix and match hundreds and hundreds of samples from classic, rare, obscure and toy drum machines from the last couple of decades.

Ten channels that can be mixed and panned and individually tuned with a PRESENCE control on every channel that adds punch and a MUTILATE control (again on every channel) to mangle the sample(s) with lo-fi grittiness. Samples can also be layered to create BIG drum sounds and assigned to individual outs for further, external processing.

Vermona made organs back in the 60s and early 70s along with amps and spring reverbs. They made quite a range of transistor organs that included quite complex dual keyboard models to single manual portables like the ET3 here.

With various drawbars to combine different registers, the ET3 is capable of a wide range of organ sound from brittle tranny to steaming, distorted rock and eerie tones. But we've gone a step further and have added synth facilities to expand its sonic palette.

The RMI Electrapiano was the electric piano of choice with a lot of prog keyboard players in the 70s... players such as Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks, Dave Greenslade, Jon Lord and others. Not exclusively, however - Sparks, Todd Rundgren, John Lennon, Chick Corea and many others also used this curious electronic piano/harpsichord hybrid.

Hollow Sun's RMI Electrapiano offers almost without doubt the finest recreation of this instrument with a faithfully replicated front panel.

A new concept in electronic drum libraries...

No static snapshot samples of Simmons or drum machines but total control over the sounds you want to create with the extensive control panel of this 5-channel drum synthesiser that brings together all the basic building blocks required to carve, craft and sculpt a powerful range of vintage and contemporary electronic drums, percussion, sweeps and effects.

The, errrmmm, 'classic' sound of the Dubreq Stylophone stylus organ.

The electronic musical equivalent of a very pissed off wasp in a jam jar, this is a must have for afficionados of sonic fromagery at a totally silly price!

Surf's up!

The 'beatniktastic' sound of the Vox Contintal transistor organ complete with full control over drawbar settings and amp and cab simulations for a variety of classic 'Connie' sounds

The much underrated sound of this little-known Italian string synth.

The unique sound of the Roland VP330's soaring strings and ethereal choir.

Hollow Sun's unique Novachord has to be heard to be believed. 163 tubes, over 1,000 capacitors, miles of wiring in hand sewn looms in a stunningly beautiful cherrywood cabinet weighing 1/4 ton, this incredible instrument from 1939, the world's first analogue polysynth and much loved by film scorers in the 40s and 50s, has been lovingly restored by Dan Wilson of Hideaway Studios near Bath, England, and is possibly the only working Novachord in the UK and one of only a few in the world.

A sumptuous collection of pads. From simple, warm analogue to delicious layers and swirling and atmospheres, 'Nebulae' is a must have collection for anyone scoring music for picture or creating ambient electronica or new age textures. "Each and every sound plays as smooth as silk right across an 88-key MIDI controller, offering rich textures, swirling layers, and bags of subtle, evolving details." Sound On Sound

The original samplers...

When 512kb of RAM was an amazing spec and a 20MB hard disk drive cost over £1,000, these 8-bit samplers changed the way music was made for ever. And their low spec sounds oozed character.

Trouser flapping bass!!!

Used by Genesis, Yes, ELP, The Police, Rush, Led Zep and many more, the original Taurus pedals provide what is arguably the biggest bass sound anywhere that will trouble even the most ribust of woofers and rarely emulated by anything else.

Retro string synths .

From a time that pre-dates polysynths comes this stunning collection of classic string synths from the 70s that include the venerable Solina String Ensemble, Eminent 310, the Moog Opus, Polymoog Strings and Vox Humana and the Roland 'Vocoder Plus'.

With long, natural, unlooped samples for every key, leading music tech UK magazine SOUND ON SOUND described Hollow Sun's 'Definitive CP70' as "...amazingly accurate and an instantly recognisable representation, which is a real pleasure to play."

By far, one of HS's most popular collections.

Pure analogue!

Despite the M1000's diminuitive stature, it makes great big analogue sounds worthy of its Oberheim heritage. Whatever genre of music you work in, there's something in here for you.

Classic S+S.

Beautiful retro textures from these S+S masterpieces which, according to SOUND ON SOUND, "include a varied and nostalgic selection of bells, electric pianos, string and vocal pads, atmospheres, basses, and hybrids of these."

FM on steroids!

SOUND ON SOUND said "clanky basses, delicate electric pianos and shimmering bells rub shoulders with evolving pads, haunting sound effects and warm, analogue-style textures."