Native Instruments has debuted Scene: Lotus, a new, Japanese-inspired cinematic instrument. From the breathy shakuhachi and hichiriki to the delicate plucks of the koto, this hybrid scoring palette brings to life timeless instruments from Japan, blending them with orchestral swells and radiant synths. The central XY pad morphs between textures and effects for evolving soundscapes that transition from serene to intense.
FutureMusic loved the first product from this series, Scene: Saffron review, which earned a Power Award — so let’s see what NI has cooked up for their next instrument.
Native Instruments Scene: Lotus
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Designed with media composers in mind, the Scene series offers cinematic sounds in a simple and easy-to-use interface. Centered around an XY pad, each instrument comes loaded with carefully-designed presets and streamlined controls, enabling you to quickly blend, layer, and shape the perfect sound for on-screen moments.
Scene: Lotus allows you tp play melodies with automatic scale key mapping. Get creative with polyphonic aftertouch parameters, adding volume, pitch, motion, and filtering expression to notes after they’ve been played.
An extensive selection of scales and modes matches playback to the key of your music. As part of Native Instruments’ Scene series, Lotus provides play through across the dual-layer instrument with automation handled by macros and parameter assignments. The curated presets are a great place to begin. Use these as jumping-off points and then tweak away for your project. With pre-mapped NKS controls and a central pad for creating your own bespoke blends of sounds while manipulating the XY pad. (The macros blend between the sounds on the X-axis, and macro transformations on the Y-axis.)
The randomization icons throughout the interface give an instant hit of inspiration. Randomize individual A and B source sounds, or use the central randomization filters to conjure never-before-heard combinations and macro movement. There are a host of creative micro-modulation controls across the bottom of the interface, including attack, release, motion, masking, filter, tape saturation, and two effects sends. Additionally, any of these can be individually adjusted. The two effects routings have randomization and entire preset browsers. Choose simple or complex chains, with a focus on either reverb, delay, degradation, or modulation.
Heritage Audio i73 Pro 2 Audio Interface Review
Heritage Audio released their i73 Pro 2 computer audio interface a few months back and we subjected it to a long-term test with six reviewers to provide a balanced, objective and wide-ranging evaluation. The USB-C Two-In / Four-Out audio interface has two built-in Class A transformer-coupled 1073-style preamps and attempts to bridge the gap between vintage and modern in one compact, desktop unit. The Neve-flavored knobs, green stone covered transformers, dank blue, powder-coated chassis and wood side panels provide just enough vintage vibe to be convincing, but does the i73 Pro 2 actually deliver on the sound? Find out!
Native Instruments Scene: Lotus Features:
- Hybrid Sound Design – Explore the fusion of authentic Japanese instruments, rich synth pads, and orchestral textures.
- Streamlined Interface – Blend 16 hybrid sound layers, effects and controls using the XY pad.
- Tuning modes – Stay perfectly in key with an extensive selection of scales and modes.
- Versatile palette – Ambiences for film scoring, game soundtracks, or music production.
