What is Mysteria?
Mysteria is a collaboration between Native Instruments and Galaxy Instruments, the same development team behind Thrill, another cinematic instrument that focuses on orchestral and hybrid sounds. Mysteria, however, is built from specially recorded vocal samples that span the epic to the intimate. The vocal samples clock in at 30GB and are drawn from a large symphonic choir (male and female sections), a smaller chamber choir and vocal quartet. The scale of the underlying sounds can therefore span the epic to the intimate.
Mysteria harnesses hours of specially-recorded choirs, curated to convey the entire spectrum of human emotion from the intimate to the sublime. You can fine-tune your sound with pitch, envelope, and fade controls, mix selection, and different sound sources for each layer. You can also morph between vocal layers on the X-axis, and increase their emotional intensity on the Y-axis. Mysteria comes with over 350 master presets made up of 600 layers from over 800 sound sources, each designed for specific emotional impact. You can also tweak each voice in a cluster for meticulous fine-tuning and screen-ready effects, or create chords and tonally-playable transitions. Mysteria also features six modulatable effects, plus EQing, a convolution reverb for intricate soundscape creation, and REPLIKA built in.
How to use Mysteria?
The X-Y control forms the centerpiece of Mysteria. While the X axis morphs between the sound sources, the Y axis increases the emotional intensity, depending on the sounds youre using. It means creating everything from continuously evolving atmospheres, to quick bursts of energy, intimate vocal shifts, and epic, building walls of sound, can be done with a single intuitive control.
The presets are divided into three main groups: Clusters, Atmospheres and Clusters + Atmospheres. Each preset draws upon two layers but a layer itself can actually be made up of multiple sample voices so things can get pretty dense if that's what's required. As with Thrill, the X-Y pad aside, you also get a full complement of creative and conventional effects with which to customise your sound.
The vocal samples offer plenty of darkness and demonic overtones. There are massive vowel sounds, weird chants or melodic phrases and all sorts of abstract vocal sound effects. There are also more melancholic sounds with lighter elements so you can build tension before going in for the sonic kill. That said, this is perhaps not going to suit your next romcom soundtrack, unless, of course, it's a romcom involving devil worship and serial killers.
It should be noted that MIDI notes are just triggers and do not control pitch. There is pitch variation within the samples themselves; this is a sound design tool rather than something for writing epic vocal harmonies and melodies.
Where to get Mysteria?
You can buy Mysteria from Native Instruments' website for $299. You will need Kontakt 6 or Kontakt 6 Player to run it. You can also download a free demo version from [here] to try it out before buying. If you are interested in learning more about how Mysteria was made, you can read this [blog post] by Galaxy Instruments.
Conclusion
Mysteria is a unique and powerful cinematic vocal instrument that can deliver some truly terrifying sounds. Whether used on its own, or combined with other sonic elements, it can create high-tension shifts, angelic transmissions, and soaring transitions that are imbued with the innately human. It is a very specific type of tool that might be best suited for serious media composers who need dark, demonic and disturbing sounds for their projects.
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