Review: ATOM Kontakt Instrument by Audiomodern

In this review, we are going to be going over a new Kontakt virtual instrument made by Audiomodern called Atom, which is a hybrid library targeted mainly at film and video game producers.

Atom’s unique and somewhat unusual sound sources produce tones, timbres, and atmospheres that are really one of a kind and can be useful to any producer trying to create a unique soundscape in their tracks.

Atom is comprised of a large collection of field recordings, custom made acoustic instruments and analog machine noises all put together into a stunningly unique library that can create intricate organic textures that are sure to captivate the listener’s ears no matter what genre of music you choose to set Atom loose on.

The Presets

Atom utilizes over 3,000 samples to create the 180+ presets/sound-sources that are separated into 6 different categories Atmospheres, FX, Keys, Perc’s, Synthetic and Sequences these sound-sources can then be mixed and matched to create unique patches of your own.

Atom’s presets sound intricate, unique and have a lot of musicality to them and they will surely provide you with some great ambiances for your break downs or just fill up the soundscape of your track creating vibes ranging from scary and eerie to sparkly and light depending on the mood you are going for.

Atom’s presets sound awesome right out the box but can be tweaked to your needs with little effort at all because you get allot of control of each layer with Eq’s, Compressors, filters and a nice Convolution Reverb plus a few more effects and processes.

The Mix Tab

Atom’s mix tab is where you can combine two of the available sound sources together with the volume, tuning and ADSR controls you can shape and get the right tuning for each of your sound sources there is also an equalizer hidden away which you can turn on or off and access by clicking the gear icon.

At the bottom of Atom’s mix tab, you have access to four other tabs that pertain to the mixing and shaping of your sound-sources.

The LFO tab opens up the global LFO which has five different wave types to choose from Sine, Triangle, Square, Saw and Random these can be synced to your host tempo or set to a rate between 0.01 Hz up to 213.1 Hz.

In the Filter tab, you can switch the filter on or off, set the Cutoff and Resonance of the Filter, and set the filter ADSR envelope.

Playing around with the filter and putting it on a high resonance shows that the filter does not go through its Cutoff ranges very smoothly but the steppy nature of it does provide some neat effects when modulated which does fit with the kinds of sound that Atom produces.

The mode tab is where you can set what kind of performance mode you would like to employ to your sound Monophonic, Polyphonic, legato and you can adjust the glide between two notes with the slider underneath.

The Master tab is where you can adjust the main volume and panning of your sound and then feed it through a compressor.

The Effects

Each layer in Atom virtual instrument has its own set of effects to further manipulate your sound and create something unique that fits the project you are working on. Let us go through all of the effects starting from the top.

Another filter with controls for the Cutoff and resonance and comes with 3 settings High Pass, Low Pass, and Band Pass.

The stutter effect has three controls Amount, Gate and Rate and works a treat on the Atmos presets.

Atom instrument provides each layer with two delays with Time, Feedback, Panning and Dry wet controls, having two delays is really great when you want to have some intricate delay work on both sides of your stereo image.

Unison allows you to control up to eight voices of unison to detune as you see fit this can really beef up your sound if you need it.

The chorus has three controls Depth, Speed and Dry wet and is nice to add some shimmer o your sound.

Lo-Fi is great if you need to add some grit and noise to your sound source giving it that old timey feel which can be really nice in some cases especially if you are trying to fill out the spectrum a bit.

The Convolution reverb that comes with the Atom Kontakt instrument is really nice it doesn’t have all the settings that a stand-alone reverb plugin would have but Audiomodern has thrown in 20 amazing presets to shape and control with the High pass filter, Size, and Dry wet controls and it just sounds amazing with all of the sound sources.

The Arpeggiator that comes with Atom provides you with all the options that you need from a good Arp there is one for each layer and allows you to change each notes Tone, Volume, Octave and Play style. Each sequence that you create can be played by only one layer or linked to both.

You can save your sequence which is a nice little touch and pressing the random button is really nice for when you feel experimental and are looking for those happy accidents.

In conclusion

Atom is an amazing hybrid library to have and I know I will be using it allot in my own projects, it is amazing at creating custom vibes that can really steer the whole direction of your track. Now I know that it is mainly geared at cinematic and gaming producers but I believe that it can be an extremely useful tool to have in any producer’s arsenal even if it’s just used as an inspiration source.