Dark Horizon

The Cosmic Darkness

A journey into the future of sound turned dark and gritty fast. In Best Service - Dark Horizon, by Sonuscore, Elysion’s famous ensemble engine has been hijacked, augmented, and vaporized. With the drifting cosmic remains, Dark Horizon molds the future into a dystopian atmosphere of massive basses, cosmic arps, and drifting pads. Turn simple chords into unreal, nightmarish space-scapes, while moving the mod-wheel bends time and transports you into the dark, disparate corners of eldritch furies.

• Experience the diversity of 80 instantly playable, bass-heavy instruments.

• Experience the infinite depth of over 1.2GB of sample content.

• Experience the flexibility of 180 complex animated and fully customizable themes.

Dark Horizon is an earth-shattering bass-heavy synth built using synthesizers and a variety of sounds bent and warped into fascinating soundscapes and powerful low ends. Dark Horizon is built from the same engine as ELYSION, creating an even darker sound palette with new presets, themes, and effects. 

For Extraordinary and Dark Bass Sound

With a focus on dark, dirty bass sounds, Dark Horizon pushes levels and tones not yet explored by the Elysion series. Space engineer Tobias Menguser sent wavs into the far reaches of the cosmos, beyond the known universe, where only the terrifying nightmares and figments of reality lurk. In those unknown places, the sounds were twisted and experimented upon, crafting a full sound palette of dark and low basses. They mutated into growling instruments, screaming oscillations, and ground-shaking subs.

For Modern Producers and Score Composers

For ambient, modern electronic, and experimental music, Dark Horizon can bring a new power into your work with its library of grinds and grooves. For scoring and blockbusters, these sounds make for perfect tension-building underscore.

Dark Horizon  - What´s Included?

As the deep underbelly of the Elysion series, Dark Horizon is a powerful Kontakt instrument that resynthesizes orchestral sounds and sound FX along with a great variety of rare analog synths and FX boxes. The resulting instruments are mind-crushing sounds, gut-wrenching themes, rhythmic arps, whirling pads, and a set of effects to push them even further beyond the imagination.

• Ambient - Resynthesized - Cinematic - Dark Horizon pushes sounds into unrecognizable extremes, utilizing analogue rack effects and the dark powers of eldritch gods. Use Dark Horizon as a scoring tool for any project that needs a dose of profound bass and gritty depth or use it as a really exceptional synth to create innovative melodies with outstanding sonic power.

• Layered - Dirty - Powerful - With four layers of sounds and an onboard compressor, delay, and hall reverb, create unique and disturbing combinations for a truly original experience. Each layer is linked to an independent arpeggiator and two pan engines, allowing you to easily create complex, evolving pads.

• Sampling Redefined - Bursting with Expression and Variety - We recorded, sampled and produced the sounds, treating them like acoustic instruments. This results in an unimaginable dynamic and unprecedented sound. Integrated into the pathbreaking ensemble engine, Dark Horizon further expands our strongest composing lineup, together with Elysion 2 and The Orchestra.

Score the Dark with a Familiar User Interface

Users of Elysion and The Orchestra will find Dark Horizon’s user interface familiar, with all the essential controls in the same places or intuitive to find.

• Main Page - Select instruments, presets and control all layers from the main page. Play up to 4 instruments simultaneously.
• Ensemble Engine - Modify and perfect your sounds to the very last detail with the critically-acclaimed ensemble engine. Create exciting new sonic experiences by simply playing some chords.
• Mix Page - Mix & pan your layers and breathe live and dynamic variation into every single pattern.
• Motion Engine - Customize the instruments fundamentally, steering e.g. attack or decay vi MIDI CC.
• Preset Browser - Explore the massive selection of presets using intuitive filters and categories.
• Pan Engine - Create outstanding motion and effects by controlling and automating the panning of the sounds.

Powerful Features - Supernatural Workflow

Dark Horizon features the critically acclaimed ensemble technology, empowering you to create complex sounds by playing simple chords.

• Modified Ensemble Engine - Dark Horizon uses a modified version of the Elysion ensemble engine. This means you can play up to four different instrument modules at the same time, and each module allows independent controls for arpeggiators. Using the mod-wheel unlocks an astounding filter effect that produces a great number of kinetic, digital possibilities.

• Motion Engine - Dark Horizon comes with its own unique dynamic FX engine. It allows the fundamental customization of the instruments, e.g. steering attack or decay via Midi CC. Besides other FX the Motion Engine includes also two Pan Steppers, breathing live and variation into every pattern in no time.

Once you have been inspired by a theme in ’, drag and drop the arrangement of your performance to your DAW. Now you are free to use it within every library you own. Unleash the power of the ensemble engine onto your personal template, change notes, combine different patterns and make them your own. Experience the incredible efficiency of Dark Horizon, Elysion 2 and The Orchestra merging together within your DAW.

Maximize Your Creativity

Dark Horizon comes with 180 complex animated and fully customizable themes, spread across five different categories. Each category has its unique style and purpose, providing you with either rhythmic elements, dark textures or sounds that are perfect for playing melodies.

• Poly Animations - Complex rhythms for chords that push the audio floor with movement and vibration. The modwheel modifies the arps and filters, increasing the tension, while introducing horn blasts, braahms, and drones.

• Rhythmic Pulses - Low pulsing basses with complex arpeggiations reveal great dynamic range when the modwheel is pushed, morphing the rhythms and raising the filters.

• Mono Arpeggios - Legato arpeggios arranged in danceable grooves with the modwheel pressing the frequencies and creating a much sharper tone.

• Lowest Textures - Dark, tension-filled drones complimented by screeching impulses, filter swipes, and stellar reverb effects at the turn of the modwheel.

• Playable Sounds - Wide cosmic pads and gently gliding legatos, this set includes the bulk of the playable content. The modwheel releases all the built up anger and tension as the frequencies push.

Tobias Menguser has been working in sound design since the 1990s and started out programming synths for companies like Waldorf, Ensoniq and Clavia and did pioneer work in producing sample CD-ROMs for Ensoniq EPS16+ and ASR10. In the early 2000s Tobias has been working for Native Instruments for over 10 years, he helped make Komplete what it is today and in the last ten years he has contributed sounds for over 450 US movie trailers.

Tobias’s latest projects mainly focus on software instrument building and include work for Sonuscore, Softube, Heavyocity, Steinberg, Presonus, and Arturia. “Working in my studio and designing samples and instruments is not work for me,” Tobias tells us, “It’s big fun – knowing those samples and instruments will inspire musicians to create exciting tracks and scores!

Dark Horizon Key Features

• Earth-shattering bass-heavy synth for extraordinary and dark bass sound.

• Designed by renown sound designer Tobias Menguser.

• Built from the same engine as Elysion with a modified Ensemble Engine, the Motion Engine, and the Pan Engine.

• Familiar and intuitive user interface known from Elysion and The Orchestra.

• 180 complex animated and fully customizable themes, featuring up to 4 fully controllable instruments.

• 80 instantly playable bass-heavy instruments.

• 765 individual samples. All carefully recorded, sampled, and handcrafted.

• MIDI-Export: Unleash the power of the ensemble engine onto your personal template.

Dark Horizon was developed for Best Service by Sonuscore / Dynamedion, the makers of The Orchestra, ELYSION, Trinity Drums, Strings of Winter, Horns of Hell as well as NI Action Strings, Action Strikes and Emotive Strings.

Works with the Free Kontakt Player Version 6.6.1 or higher.

System Requirements

Required Registration

All Best Service products require you to register with the manufacturer at www.bestservice.com for downloads or activation.

Best Service products for Kontakt Player Only require you to additionally register with www.native-instruments.com.