Impact Soundworks have released Super Audio Cart 2, available for $199.00.
From the Atari 2600 (1977) to the Game Boy Advance (2001), Super Audio Cart 2 encompasses multiple generations of legendary audio hardware — even obscure chips such as the VRC6 (a Japan-only add-on to the Famicom), SampleCell II (a hardware-based sound card), and the MSX Home Computer.
Far beyond mere pulse waves, bleeps, and bloops — although it has plenty of those, too! — Super Audio Cart 2 includes virtually any instrument you can imagine, taken straight from the worlds of your favorite games and systems.
Many of the included systems used PCM sample playback rather than pure synthesis. We did not ‘rip’ samples from existing games; we spent years painstakingly recreating thousands of classic sounds from scratch using our own sample catalog and careful editing. Where applicable, these sounds were then played back directly from the original hardware for maximum authenticity.
In other words, the sounds in Super Audio Cart 2 are as close as possible to the sounds you remember from your favorite retro games, without any need to worry about copyright infringement or royalties.
Systems like the Nintendo 64 and original PlayStation could play full audio tracks, rather than individual samples. In this era, composers used gear like the Roland JV-1080 and SC-88, Korg M1, Akai S1000, E-mu Proteus, and many others, which were then colored by playback on the consoles themselves to create the distinctive (and now nostalgic) music of this generation.
We followed a similar process to ensure that Super Audio Cart 2 was equal parts authentic and usable. But rather than merely ‘ripping’ sounds from these hardware units, we took an insanely difficult (but much more versatile) path: we created our own virtual dream hardware with its own “Impact Factory Library” (IFL).
The IFL covers all General MIDI sounds and much more, just like the hardware that inspired it. We recorded and edited samples to match the style of a mid-90s sampler.. and then re-sampled them for the N64, PSX, SNES, and GBA, exactly as would have happened for video game music at the time — thus giving us the highest possible authenticity.
These are sounds you’ve never heard before. And yet they will seem immediately nostalgic if you’ve played games from that era or used classic MIDI hardware from the ’80s to the ’90s!
Every developer who worked on Super Audio Cart 2 has a deep connection to video game soundtracks. Over the years, we have arranged video game music, studied it, owned an array of consoles and MIDI hardware, and written our own retro-inspired game soundtracks. We are obsessive perfectionists, especially about things we care about, and we care a lot about video game music.
Simply put, this is our ultimate passion project, a true labor of love. It’s everything great about the original Super Audio Cart and its later expansion Super Audio Cart PC, plus so much more.
Features include:
- Four layer power synth architecture
- Independent settings for every layer, including arpeggiator and sequencer
- Intelligent sound browser
- Extensive performance configurations, including synth legato and portamento
- Eight macro knobs and two XY pads
- Four channel Console FX rack plus master channel, over 40 effects modules
- MODRIX with unlimited sound design and performance design capabilities
Super Audio Cart 2 requires a free full version of Kontakt 7.10.7 or later.
For more information on Super Audio Cart 2, click here:
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