40GB of dark, moody, and offbeat virtual instruments for something different.

Created and produced by Doug Rogers (EastWest) and Grammy Award-winning record producer David Fridmann (MGMT, The Flaming Lips etc.), THE DARK SIDE is the first of its kind: an unconventional, hip and exciting collection of virtual instruments, some dark and eerie, and some which have been purposely—and skillfully—mangled, distorted, or effected out of all recognition.

THE DARK SIDE provides inspiration for all composers and artists that are looking for unique instruments, designed to work for everything from alternative to progressive rock, and of course, film, TV, and game music production.

THE DARK SIDE includes a vast, 40GB collection, including haunting instruments, as well as highly processed drums and percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboard, strings, and effected instruments&mdash:all organized into instrumental groups so you can create complete tracks.

To produce THE DARK SIDE, Rogers partnered with David Fridmann, whose unconventional—and successful work with the likes of MGMT, The Flaming Lips, Weezer, Mercury Rev, Saxon Shore, Ammonia, Ed Harcourt, Sparklehorse, Café Tacuba, and many other, he had long admired. The concept for THE DARK SIDE: Creativity without limits!

THE DARK SIDE idea came to Rogers when he was mentoring a young alternative group about some demos they sent to him. The tracks didn't sound tough enough for their intended market, so he told them they needed to toughen up their sound. He looked around for sounds that could accomplish this and found absolutely nothing, even in his own company's vast collection. Seeing a gaping hole in the market that needed to be filled, he made it his next project, a complete aural turn-around after working on a pristine orchestral productions.

The Dark Side user interface combines intuitive handling and functions as a plug-in instrument, without the need for a sampler. The producers used Fridmann's "no rules" style of production to produce THE DARK SIDE instruments. Once they got started, they were like bulls in a china shop: mass aural destruction was the name of the game. They turned traditional instruments into highly processed drums, percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboards, strings, and FX, all organized into instrument groups for easy audition and recall.

Rogers and Fridmann not only tapped into a wealth of recording and producing experience for THE DARK SIDE, but had the gear to match. Many individual instruments were processed through 5 or 6 effects units, some through the vintage and esoteric tube variety owned by the pair.

THE DARK SIDE distorted and mangled instruments are intended to be used with cleaner instruments to make them really stand out in a mix, or to disturb the senses. With today´s brick-wall limiting, distorted instruments may be the only production trick left to make an instrument stand out in a mix, a successful technique used often by bands like Radiohead, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, etc.

As the project progressed, the producers realized the instruments would work for almost every style from alternative to progressive rock, and THE DARK SIDE name was chosen as a play on words between both styles of music. However, most of these instruments would be equally at home in pop, dance, Eeectronica, and even hip-hop.

EastWest The Dark Side Virtual Instrument Collection Features:

• Produced by multiple award-winning producer Doug Rogers and Grammy Award-winning producer David Fridmann (MGMT, Flaming Lips etc.)
• Many instruments were purposely mangled, distorted, or effected out of all recognition (plus a selection of dark and eerie instruments)
• Easy-to-use browser displays all of your instruments
• Interface automatically changes to display current instrument
• Perfect for pop (to toughen up the hook), alternative (everything you need), and, of course, film, TV, and game music production
• Included are 40GBs of highly processed drums and percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboard, strings, and FX instruments and sounds, all organized into instrumental groups
• Includes PLAY 2 32-bit and 64-bit* sample player, plug-in and standalone (*64-bit is PC only at this time)
• Easy authorization system puts licenses on hardware iLok, allowing you to use the software on any computer.
• AU, VST, Standalone, Intel Mac, Windows XP, Vista and 7

Take your music in a different direction with this collection. Order today!

EastWest The Dark Side Virtual Instrument Collection Specifications:

• System Requirements
• This library includes "PLAY" as a sample-player
  
  Minimum Requirements for Mac
• G5 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, Mac OS 10.4 or newer
  
  Recommended Mac System
• Mac Pro Quad-Core Xeon 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM
  
  
• Pentium 4 3.0GHz, 2GB RAM, Windows XP SP2 or Vista, sound card with ASIO drivers
  
  Recommended PC System
• Intel or AMD Quad Core 2.0GHz, 8GB RAM, 64-bit OS and host
  
  All Systems
• iLok required (not included), internet connection required for one-time product activation (a free soundsonline.com account is required for retrieving and managing iLok licenses)
• Hard disk space for library content
• DVD Drive
  
  Included for both Mac & PC
• 32-bit standalone and plug-in versions included
• 64-bit PC VST (host must support 64-bit VST plug-ins) and standalone versions included
• Check the following compatibility chart for availability of other 64-bit versions and updates
  
  Supported Interfaces
• WIN: VST, ASIO, DirectSound, RTAS
• MAC: VST, Audio Units, Core Audio, RTAS