Berlin, Germany (MuseWire –­ Native Instruments today introduced GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES, a new software instrument that makes the charismatic keyboard work of soul legend George Duke available for any music production. Based on advanced KONTAKT sampling technology, the instrument provides over 500 exclusive licks that can be easily tweaked and re-arranged to suit any musical context, providing an inspirational resource of royalty-free melodic elements for Hip Hop, R&B, Soul, Funk, Disco, House and similar genres.

GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES captures the unique musical style of a living legend of the American jazz and soul scene, whose distinctive funky and soulful licks have been sampled relentlessly in recent and contemporary urban and dance music. Together with his sound engineer Erik Zobler, George Duke has recorded over 500 original keyboard phrases on his personal grand piano, electric piano, Wurlitzer and clavinet models exclusively for his signature software instrument.

GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES can be used both with the free KONTAKT PLAYER and in the full-featured KONTAKT 4 software sampler. Due to the advanced slicing and time-stretching functions in KONTAKT, all loops automatically sync to the song tempo of the sequencer, and can be modulated, re-pitched, and even completely re-arranged in real-time via an intuitive keyboard trigger scheme.

For creative sound mangling, various multi-effect chains can be activated through the keyboard on the fly, with a flexible filter section and a studio-grade convolution reverb offering further sound shaping options. Every lick in GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES is also available in an additional “Tubes & Tape” version that was processed through a sophisticated analog recording chain at George Duke’s studio, resulting in an even grittier authentic vintage sound.

GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES is available for purchase in the NI Online Shop on DVD and as a download for $119.

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