Metaphorium: The sounds of The Matrix Resurrections for U-he's Hive

[joeyluck]

https://u-he.com/products/soundsets/hiv ... etaphorium

Over two years in the making and heavily featured in “The Matrix Resurrection” score, METAPHORIUM for Hive 2.1 is now available. 220+ presets programmed by Howard Scarr, Viktor Weimer (TUC) and Urs Heckmann himself.

A staggering variety of rhythms, chugging basses, melodic loops, atonal and tonal pads, dreamy soundscapes, dramatic and ambient effects. However, meticulous XY pad programming in METAPHORIUM makes many of the presets defy categorization.

Metaphorium for Hive 2 contains 220+ presets programmed in-house by u-he team members Howard, Viktor (TUC) and Urs himself. The soundset includes a wide variety of rhythms, chugging basses, melodic loops, atonal and tonal pads, dreamy soundscapes, dramatic and ambient effects. However, meticulous XY pad programming in Metaphorium makes many of the presets defy categorization: You can create radically different versions with ease, bending presets so they become suitable for any genre of music.

The Metaphorium story

Summer 2019: Composer Johnny Klimek approaches Urs about Zebra2 presets for a secret film music project. He describes the kind of sounds he is looking for, and asks Urs whether he knows of any u-he sound banks that would fit the bill - or failing that, the names of sound designers who would be capable of creating such presets.

After some thought, Urs recognizes the sonic gap in u-he's portfolio… u-he could make those presets themselves, to be released as a soundset after Johnny's project hits the cinemas. A win-win for both parties. For it to become a viable product, the soundset would have to be for one particular synthesizer: It was decided on Hive.

Autumn 2019: Viktor, Howie and Urs start programming new Hive presets. Urs adds features to Hive so that it can deliver all sound types Johnny described. Howie and Urs fly off to Gran Canaria to polish the sounds and integrate them into Johnny's workflow. Howie and Johnny sit together and tweak the presets until everyone is satisfied. By the end of 2019, a bank of over 200 presets is ready for the composers.

Spring 2020: Johnny and Tom Tykwer's project Babylon Berlin airs, with some episodes already featuring the new presets.

Summer 2021: IMDB quotes Johnny and Tom as co-composers Link for The Matrix Resurrections movie! Clearly, this was the secret project! And sure enough, Hive features heavily in the score.