Valve 4 Op is a detailed sample library of sounds from the Yamaha TX81Z, developed for Native Instruments Kontakt 4 and higher. In total, there are 112 instruments made from 2,342 discrete samples. All samples were recorded in 24 bit at 44.1 kHz through an Inward Connections Vac Rac 4000 valve pre-amp.
The TX81Z was originally manufactured in 1987 and was ubiquitous on House music tracks in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. It was also used widely in Hip Hop and RnB. Editing on the hardware was a tortuous process because of the small LCD – a bit like trying to decorate the inside of a house through a letter box. Because of this, many producers just used the presets, and many of those just used one preset – Lately Bass, (later, Wood Piano was also used on many Detroit Techno records, following Derrick May’s track, Nude Photo).
All of the instruments are multi-sampled, but with Lately Bass we have gone to extremes – 12 velocity layers and 420 un-looped samples.
