Samples From Mars 360 From Mars MULTIFORMAT

One of the Earliest Multi-Sampled Synthesizers
The 360 Systems Keyboard is a rare, sampled-based synth made in California in the early ’80s, featuring real strings, flutes, brass, electric piano, basses, guitars, percussion, and more. Sharing similar components (EPROMs and an analog filter) as some of our favorite vintage drum machines, it’s no wonder the 360 is as punchy as our favorite samplers, and as silky as our vintage synths.

So why then, have we never heard of it? Because, despite its grandiose vision to be a smaller and more portable alternative to the Mellotron, the 360 ultimately missed the mark for commercial success. Only 200 were made, and as a result, its epic sounds have gone largely unused…until now!

Adding External FX
Once we’d covered our bases capturing all of the presets cleanly, we experimented with processing some of our favorite patches – the goal being to create an inspiring, alternate version by introducing external processing and modulation.

Keeping almost everything in the chain vintage, we reached for our Otari tape machine to re-pitch and pan the strings, adding Space Echo and H3000 chorusing. We even ran the electric piano patch through our trusty CS5 synthesizer, which allowed us to filter and add a nice tremolo effect.

Formats:

ABLETON 10,ABLETON 11,ABLETON 9,FL STUDIO,KONTAKT 5,LOGIC EXS24,REASON NN-XTSFZ,WAV SAMPLES

Contents:

37 total 360 patches, organized into 7 categories

20 original Factory clean patches

12 clean patches with additional 360 filtering, vibrato, and chorus

5 patches externally processed through Moog MF103 Phaser, Yamaha CS-5, Otari 1/4″ Tape machine, H3000 and Space Echo

Classic vintage and orchestral sounds: Strings, Flute, E Piano, Clav, Trumpet, Saxophone, Timpani and more

Brass & Woodwinds, Keys, Strings, Guitars, Bass, Stacked patches and Percussive instruments

2,065 24 bit WAV samples

WAVs are trimmed, looped, named by note, and mapped to various samplers

WAVs feature mapping and looping metadata, for easy drag n drop into unsupported samplers

Recorded cleanly through an API 1608 console to Apogee Symphony Conversion

Modwheel parameters and FX routing on all software instruments