Way back in January of last year, when Native Instruments introduced its Kore sound product, they promised the software/hardware tool would become a new “sound platform.” The idea makes sense: part of the point of Kore is the ability to easily catalog presets for NI and third-party instruments and effects, which would be a logical pairing with big sample libraries and plug-ins that otherwise have lots of presets. (And this is potentially useful if you’re managing settings you’ve created yourself.) About a year after the launch of KORE, though, third-party support hasn’t really materialized. I had speculated sample makers might embrace the format, but that never happened — and one of my likely candidates, East West, abandoned NI’s own Kontakt sample engine for their new “PLAY” engine.

One significant developer is announcing support for KORE, however: Camel Audio. The makers of the terrific CamelPhat distortion/EQ/fatten– erm, “phattening” effect and the deep Cameleon 5000 morphing/resynthesis additive synthesizer have built a number of new KORE-savvy products.

Camel KORE: For Cameleon 5000, CamelSpace and CamelPhat, they’ve built 35 free KORE plug-ins for registered users of the software, all programmed by Biomechanoid with controller assignments ready to go. These use their plug-ins, demonstrating the potential of KORE for use with non-NI software. (Camel users, if you’ve got KORE, do let us know how these are and whether they give you reason to jump into KORE with your Camel plugs or not.)

and KORE and Absynth-ready sounds: The Biolabs Absynth sound collection is now in KORE format for use with either KORE or Absynth — meaning you can have either tool and get the benefits of both. This is, honestly, a bit more like what I originally imagined KORE would do: you get a sound engine, a preset manager, and the ability to easily manage sounds and performance settings.

Camel Audio

All bets are off until NI ships KORE 2, the re-vamped version of the hardware and software that adds integrated sound engines and a lot of new features. (When I brought up the new release, it sparked a vibrant discussion here on CDM — and plenty of questions we hope to answer once the new tool ships.) Given the mixed response to KORE 1, we’re very anxious to see how that product evolves. And even if other third-party manufacturers don’t ship presets, KORE could be a sound platform of its own — provided it can provide enough utility that you’d want to program your sounds via KORE rather than just within each individual plug-in as we’ve all done in the past.

CamelCrusher for Mac (AU/VST) and Windows (VST)

Even though it’s free, CamelCrusher has some pretty fantastic features:

1. Distortion: Tube and “mech” for analog- and digital-style crunch
2. Filter: Analog-modeled for a warm sound


3. Compressor: The compressor actually sounds quite nice; there’s just one knob (“amount”) but it’s likely to be extremely versatile … see also the “phat” mode
4. Performance and exploration features: A set of presets (including some more subtle sounds like “British Clean”), a randomize feature, plus MIDI Learn.

The inclusion of MIDI Learn and the simplicity of the design could make this especially useful for live performance / DJing in tools like Ableton Live. I threw it on some drums in a Live project so you can hear how it sounds with a few of the presets:

Camel Drums

Yes, you can crunch the soul out of your drums, but there are some subtler effects in there for when you calm down and decide to behave yourself. Camel is hoping you’ll upgrade to their excellent, musical CamelPhat effect or one of their other nice products.