Dulcitone Pro by Wrongtools In Depth Review

Norway-based Wrongtools is a developer of sample libraries. They aim to create innovative sampling tools for you to explore and master. They are songwriters who have won awards and who are obsessed with music. Additionally, they have more than 20 years of expertise handling samples.

Talent abounds in Norway’s music sector, and they have the opportunity to collaborate with the finest of the greatest. All music is created by ardent musicians who are as committed to their craft as yours. It’s great when your art meets their emotions.

What is Dulcitone Pro Plugin?
Celesta and dulcitone sound similar, but dulcitone has a sweeter, softer, and rounder tone. The tuning fork, which creates the sound when pounded with felt-covered mallets, vibrates. They employed a variety of hammers. The piano has undergone a thorough restoration by a trained piano technician.

Squeals, key noises, mechanics, and pedal sounds were recorded and assigned to certain songs. Think of a curtain made of little bell-shaped strands you can slip your fingers through. They attempted to replicate this feeling in the Sculpt FX settings. However, XY motions that are straightforward can have complicated and unanticipated effects.

When was the Dulcitone invented?
A dulcitone is a keyboard instrument that produces music by striking tuning forks with felt-covered hammers that are actuated by the keyboard. Around 1860, Thomas Macell created the dulcitone in Glasgow, Scotland. Like a piano, it is a percussion instrument. However, a Dulcitone does not have strings like a piano; instead, it features a tuning fork.

It has a highly distinctive sound as a result, and it also stays in tune. Sometimes mistakenly named the celesta, the typophone is a comparable, softer-toned instrument with graded steel tuning forks in place of bars. Victor Mustel, Mustel’s father, created it in 1865 and patented it in 1868 after modifications.

User Interface

Dulcitone Pro has a simple layout that lets you access most of its functions directly from the home page. As a result, you get a peaceful visual experience with cold, vibrant hues that helps you reach a deep trance. The tranquillity of the interface will undoubtedly make the time you spend using this plugin extremely personal, and you’ll be incredibly creative while you create.

The options for adjusting the sound are located on the left side, as shown in the figure. Since they were seamlessly included into the primary surface of usage, the key effects essentially serve as the Dulciton’s ultimate sound. We also have some simple sliders on the right side that can be separately routed to change the mixer and purge tracks.

Whether you’re using the MIDI keyboard or only the keys listed on the plugin’s home page, you’ll have access to all of the plugin’s features, and it will begin generating sounds right immediately.

These elements are thoughtfully positioned and designed. You may change these sliders’ volume, reverb, delay, LFO, vibrato, and dynamics. In addition, you may use the SHIFT button for a more exact adjustment. You can find all these settings on the left side of the main interface.

As I mentioned, we have mixing possibilities on the right side. The primary mixer of your DAW has unique routing options for these parameters. The Mics, Key, Ped, Hammer, and Klang sliders are all adjustable.

Features

Dulcitone Pro has many tools that enable you to sculpt the sound in a way that is as intricate and natural-sounding as possible. First, let’s examine the contents of this sound collection.

Articulations

In the bottom row, there will be a row of articulation toggles for instruments with them. By using the Keyswitches that you have specified in the settings view or by clicking the buttons, you may switch between them. When performing a right-click on the articulation buttons, you may also configure your custom host automation CCs. Hold down SHIFT while clicking the articulation buttons to play many articulations simultaneously.

Alternately, select “latch KS” from the Articulation menu to use the key switches to turn on and off the articulations. You must hit the same articulation key to turn off KS after locking it. You may layer many articulations on top of one another with this configuration. You may always accomplish this by holding down SHIFT while clicking on the buttons on the GUI.

Channel Strip

A reset button, left-right shift, pan, stereo width, and a 4-band EQ are included. An EQ on-off button may be used to disable the EQ on the chosen channel because virtual instruments should have the clearest route to audio possible. EQ is, by default, turned off.

• Pan
  Controls how each track is placed in stereo. This might be used in conjunction with the width control below by experienced users. Individual tracks might sound fantastic when panned differently for creative sound patches and pads with many tracks.
• Stereo Width
  Expand the stereo picture by 200% from mono. For more realistic stereo placement, experiment with the width slider in conjunction with the pan slider.
• 4 Band Equalizer
  Click the drop-down menu beneath the EQ wheel to select equalizing parameters. As you move the controls, the numbers you dial will appear at the top of the mixing track. Because the equalization is skipped by default, you may also turn it on or off using the ON/OFF switch.
• Phase Inverter
  The signal is 180 degrees inverted when activated, and it could be a helpful mixing device. But keep in mind that if the output is changed to mono, L/R phase-reversed channels may cancel one another out.

Shape your sound

By selecting the “FX” button, you may launch and participate in a sound sculpting frenzy. It will teach you novel methods to change the sound of things. The majority of them are constructed using different random motion factors that concurrently activate Kontakt’s inherent modulations, effects, and envelopes.

You may alter the sound in various ways using the effects menu. These defaults are disregarded when you launch the interface, so you should examine and employ them yourself. Nøkken, Huldra and Polygon are smears from the movies. These three models are distinct, and Polygon includes an overdrive. Additionally, there are modes like Sadist, Tracker, a Pitchtracker that tracks your motions, Digiust, which adds noise elements and combines them with a filter, and Flakes, which activate notes in octaves at random.

Each setting for sculpting has a related appearance and feel.
You may automate and record live motions from the XY pad by assigning MIDI CC from the menu below. To easily assign MIDI CC to the X-axis or Y-axis, use the LEARN buttons. Alternately, pick a CC number straight from the number row. Clicking the “LEARN” button will cause CMND to erase the jobs once more.

Controls

This plugin has controls that are extremely change-sensitive. They also include fine tweaking settings, which can be accessed by simultaneously pressing the Shift button and the sliders. The sliders are quite sensitive to adjustments in this mode, which is to be praised. For example, it is simple to hear even slight volume increases.

• Volume
  The volume of the instrument as a whole is managed via the “VOL” slider. integrates all mixer sliders into a single master fader. The slider is by default pre-mapped with CC11. You won’t run the risk of getting cut since Wrongtools always have adequate headroom.
• Dynamic Control
  The “DYN” slider’s default mapping is to CC01. This will further alter the dynamics of the game. The DYN slider is used to toggle between various sounds or dynamic layers for patches with the prefix in the filename. Patches with markings have two, occasionally three, and sometimes four levels you pass. Go to settings-view and select a flat speed from the keyboard speed option if you’d rather disable the key speed and only use the DYN slider for dynamics.
• Amount Slider
  To change the strength of the effect, drag and click the slider. Keep holding SHIFT while sliding the slider for finer changes. The control will revert to its default position if you continue holding down CTRL while clicking any tool settings.
• Mix Sliders
  The amount of mixing sliders and the sources or mic signals will range from instrument to instrument. These regulate the loudness of the playback. Keep holding SHIFT while sliding the slider for finer changes. The control will revert to its default position if you continue holding down CTRL while clicking any tool settings. Each track’s loudness is indicated via the VU meters. In the settings view of some instruments, there may be an additional mix-slider for further volume cutting of release samples.
• Purge
  Track maintenance frees up samples from memory, lowers the number of voices, and conserves RAM. Clicking the square next to the mixer fader will make a track inactive and muted, clearing it. To purge instead, move the blending slider to zero. To cancel it if the track has been cleaned, move the cursor a little bit. You may automate cleaning by sliding the slider to zero to clean or relocating the slider of a cleaned portion to cancel it.

Sustain Pedal

The CC64 MIDI sustain pedal standard is the default setting for the sustain pedal. The majority of their keyboard instruments provide pedal noise samples. These may be used to quickly change the loudness or reduce noise caused by the pedal because they are assigned to certain mixer sliders. When the sustain pedal is pressed on instruments with dedicated pedal samples, you’ll see a slight flicker in the lower right corner.

Effects

We discover the right effects in its interface, which are well thought out and simple to locate. When you wish to include the Dulcitone sound into your song, they will make it easier for you to do so without using any additional settings. Let’s explore the effects this plugin offers.

• Preset Menu
  You may access the send-reverb setting and a drop-down panel with 16 unique IR reverbs from the “REV” button and each one has its own personality. To suit your tastes, change the duration, pre-delay, and reverb.
• Vibrato
  When trying to make the sampled instrument cohesive, pitch vibrato can be immensely helpful. Likewise, in producing a wider variety of sounds, by right-clicking, the control may be given its controller.
  
• Filter
  Some of the tools have integrated filters as a possible replacement for dynamic controls, a low-pass filter, most commonly.
• Delay
  Amount, pace, and duration are the settings for the delay. They utilize the parameters that we think sound best and that we like using to manage the Kontakts Replika-delay.
• LFO
  The LFO position is reset when the music is turned on, no notes are held, and it starts over when you play. Shape selects the dynamics of the LFO, and modes include Sine, Rectangle, Triangle, and Saw. Rate controls the LFO’s speed and is synchronized with your DAW.

Compatibility

The Dulcitone Pro plugin is available for macOS 10.10 or higher (64-bit only) and Windows 7 or higher (64-bit only). It runs in standalone mode and VST2, AAX, and AU plugin formats.

Conclusion

Finally, we arrived at the destination of our voyage through the lovely realm of the dulcitone sound. We have a significant number of adjustments to the tone that the contemporary dulcimer provides. Although I haven’t researched the market to find Dulcitone Pro’s competitors, I can claim that it is already among my favourites based on my plugin use.

I learned about the Dulcitone sound in the most original way imaginable because of its interface’s stylish, compelling, and vivid design. In addition to the quality of the plugin, this experience with intricate compositions outside of my usual style is crucial for me.

Warm tones that are simple to change are current with the style of virtual instruments available on the market, and Wrongtools’ instruments undoubtedly have elements that leave an impression and a sound that may be singular.

Alex Soare

Death metal enthusiast here. I am a Romanian musician and producer with over 13 years of experience in the music industry. I’ve experienced all types of Metal up until now, playing Melodic Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal, and Black Metal with different bands. Learning by doing is my base principle, which is why I’ve been drawn to sound design from an early age. Read more…