I’m buying the MusicTech magazine from time to time since I like their articles. They don’t write contradicting Pro’s and Con’s boxes to their reviews which I found Computer Music doing, as I wrote in this post. But in the latest issue of CM they’ve actually shaped up. I wonder if they’ve read my post?

Anyhow. Attached to every issue of MT there’s a DVD. Every DVD contains samples ready to use in Kontakt 2.20 and Reason NN-XT by PinkNoise Studio. On the cover of the lastest issue it says “Summer Chill - Beat the heat with this pro-quality collection of laid-back leads and pads”. If you then open the folder where the samples are (there are both 44.1 kHz, 16 bit and 96 kHz, 24 bit - so no doubt about the pro-quality .. regarding the file formats at least) you’ll find a nice and tidy PDF file stating the following:

“You may use this sample library and patches in a non-melodic, solo-ed context in a musical recording”

What is a non-melodic lead? Why have they bundled that on the DVD? How should I use it then?

I guess I could run the lead sounds through a couple of nice plugins, like CamelAudio CamelSpace and OhmForce Ohmicide and turn it in to a distored pad which by definition should be non-melodic (I hope), but I already have enough pad sounds (haha - just kidding - you can NEVER have enough pad sounds - but still).

Feel free to add a comment saying your story of what a non-melodic lead really is.