Axé by Audio Brewers brings Epic Music and Latin American instruments together for the first time.
Our aim was to sample a massive ensemble of powerful drums in a wet hall to create a massive-sounding ensemble that will bring composers a new take on what Epic Soundtracks can be.
$ 149.00 – $ 229.00
Ambisonics + Stereo Version
Over 21.300 Samples
16GB Compressed to 8.4GB
Stereo Version
Over 14.100 Samples
7GB Compressed to 3GB
Requires FULL Kontakt 6.2.1+
CPU: i5+
RAM: 4GB+
We are proud to introduce Axé (pronounced ash-eh), our biggest production of 2021!
Axé brings Epic Music and Latin American instruments together for the first time. Our aim was to sample a massive ensemble of powerful drums in a wet hall to create a massive-sounding ensemble that will bring composers a new take on what Epic Soundtracks can be.
With 81 instruments in total, divided in 5 categories (Low Surdos, High Surdos, Dobras, Caixas and Repiques), Axé contains a gamma that covers the whole frequency spectrum, from roaring Low-Frequency Surdos all the way to the massive High-Frequency transients the Repiques can produce when in ensemble.
Additionally, we have designed 11 Drum Kits and 15 Tonal Articulations using Axé as source, which combined with our powerful egine, can provide even richer results to any piece.
Axé was performed by acclaimed percussion ensemble ‘Batalá Atenas’, and was recorded in a wet hall to provide powerful resonances in a never-heard-before configuration, our aim was to capture new colours for music that needs to be… simply huge.
From the sessions, we created three types of mixes aimed to offer as many options as possible to any composer. Mono Spots, Stereo and Ambisonics Mixes.
Finally, we’ve also created a Smart Sequencer that will help you write your own rhythmic sections, randomise them (with musical coherence), save them as MIDI and even drag and drop them to your DAW, all from within the interface!
Axé contains a total of 90 Instruments divided in 5 categories.
17 Low Surdos: The Surdo (or Fundo) is a large bass drum with a very deep sound and beefy tails. To be able to tune it ‘Low’ (Primeiro), it should be around 20-26 inches (50-65cms) in diameter. Although traditionally the heads would be made from goat skin, nowadays they are made from Nylon for better resonance.
17 High Surdos: The Surdo can also be tuned to be ‘High’ (Segundo) when their diameter is between 16-20 inches (40-50cms), usually a perfect 4th-5th from the Low Surdo, and together, they beat the base rhythm of a Samba Reggae band.
17 Dobras: The Dobra (or Surdo Terceiro) is an amazing drum that, although still low in Pitch, has a much more dry sound and it’s perfect for playing syncopations in Samba Reggae and even being in the foreground of music. The Dobra is slightly smaller than the Surdo Segundo and the beaters are less ‘spongy’ to produce louder transients and shorter tails.
15 Caixas: The Caixa is the most familiar instrument to non-Brazilian audiences: A Snare. For Samba Reggae and other Brazilian Rhythms, they are in charge of creating a rhythmic background “mat” in around which music revolves.
15 Repiques: The Repique (Also known as Repinique) is the front-person of the ensemble – the ‘melody’. They are a small drum that is usually hit with a Nylon stick (some types of music use Wooden sticks). Repiniques have a huge Transient and when played in ensemble, create a massive and aggresive sound.
As usual, we’re always trying to develop cutting-edge mixes for composers who want to dare and dive in the immersive-music world, which keeps growing rapidly, however, we also aim that our products are top-notch for those composers who prefer to stick to Stereo and thus, we craft every single mix independently.
Axé contains 4 Mono Spot mixes for very localised sounds. Each of the Spots aims to a different section of the ensemble, providing powerful transients with a lot of presence.
We also crafted four Stereo mixes for different perspectives: Close, Mid, Far and ‘Mix’, which provides a balanced sound between focus and space. The Stereo Mixes are a great way to start your composition before you can start adding and swapping other mixes and perspectives.
As our main aim to offer tools for composers wanting to create immersive music (such as Surround, Atmos, etc.), we recorded and mixed Axé using also Ambisonics Microphones, and created four immersive Mixes that offer the perfect sensation of being right there with the percussion ensemble.
A 180° Immersive Mix creates a half-surround immersive experience with the ensemble. Here, you can feel as if the instruments were from your left to your right, in front of you.
A 360° Immersive Mix puts you right in the middle of the ensemble, where you can listen to the instruments all around you.
A 360° Presence Immersive Mix works just like the 360° Mix, but the instruments have much more presence so their transients are much more aggressive.
A Front Immersive Mix places the ensemble right in front of you, for a more localised placement of the ensemble – a great way to be able to pan the ensemble in the sonic spatial field.
Because we’re a hungry bunch of developers and musicians who want to provide users with the best of the best, we also took the liberty to create a Smart Sequencer aimed to assist composers in sequencing rhythms.
Our Sequencer is different from other sequencers as it offers up to 16 different tracks that are completely Assignable, Muteable, Soloable, Clearable and Randomisable.
But wait! When we mean Randomisable, we do not mean ‘it will add random hits here and there’. We’ve spent a great amount of time to create what we call a ‘Smart Sequencer’ – every time you randomize a track (or the whole session), a completely musically-coherent rhythm will be generated, meaning it will always be usable with your music, and at the same time, it will always be unique!
Once you’re done creating your Rhythm, you can Save it as a MIDI file or you can even Drag and Drop it directly into your DAW, making your workflow straight and simple.
Finally, you can load your rhythms (any MIDI, for that matter!) into Axé to play with them without the need of a DAW, modify them if you will, and manipulate the results.
‘Axé’ (pronounced ash-eh) is a word that comes from the Yoruba term àṣẹ, and today it’s widely used in Brazil’s artistic and martial-art world to describe ‘good energy’, ‘good vibes’, ‘soul’, or ‘light’.
And this is exactly what our aim was when chosing this name: As Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) is one of the cradles of Brazilian percussion music, we wanted to chose a name that would completely make sense to this special project.
BATALÁ ATENAS is part of an international music project called Batalá Mundo that plays samba reggae – traditional music from Salvador da Bahia in northeastern Brazil. The music has its roots in traditional African percussion, and is accentuated with a heavy dose of Brazilian Samba.
BATALÁ plays this music on 4 types of drums, creating a powerful, dynamic sound that excites the senses. The music, combined with the dynamic dance and the colourfull costumes, create a visual and acoustic experience hard to forget.
The ‘Batalá Mundo’ Project was created by Mestre Giba Goncalves, percussionist from Salvador da Bahia (Ile Aiye, Olodum, Muzenza, Male Debale, Jimmy Cliff, Tupi Nago and Kaoma), who started the project in 1997 in Paris, France. Ever since, the project kept growing steadily to other cities of France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, South Africa, Australia, the USA and through the South American continent.
BATALÁ ATENAS was born in 2010 when Mestre Stavros Parceiro decided to bring these rhythms of Samba Reggae to Greece.
Today, Batalá Mundo counts with over 6 studio albums and has participated in important events all around the world, such as the Salvador Carnival in Brazil, the Olympic Games in Athens. Other than that, the Notting Hill Carnival in the UK, Lavagem do Bonfim in Salvador, Lavagem do Bonfim in Paris, the Christmas Parade in Vienna, and the Day of the Dead in Mexico to name a few.
Currently, more than 1.500 percussioninsts conform the ‘Batalá Mundo’ project worlwide, with a total of 36 bands in 14 countries and 3 continents, bringing authentic Bahia music and culture to the general public.
For more info about Batalá Atenas, click here.
* Ambisonics Format is natively compatible with any speaker array configuration as long as a third-party decoder can support it.
‘Ambisonics Version’ is delivered both in Stereo (2-channel samples) and RAW Ambix Ambisonics (4-channel samples). As Kontakt doesn’t natively support Ambisonics decoding, a third-party plug-in might be needed if your DAW cannot decode natively. Fortunately there are several ways to achieve this. Please go to our Support section and learn how you can decode Ambisonics in your DAW
Please make sure your DAW supports multichannel tracks, as for Ambisonics to work, a 4-channel (or more) track is needed. Please find out about DAW compatibility in our Support section.
A full version of Kontakt is needed to load this library. It will NOT work with Kontakt player. Please make sure you own the latest version of Kontakt before purchasing.
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François (verified owner) –
Very nice percussion!