Many people consider 8DIO to be the masters of deep sampling, and that reputation has led to collaborations with iconic manufacturers like Sequential (Prophet X). Now, you can get Synthetic Shadows, their cinematic synth orchestra for Kontakt, for free for a limited time.
The downside of that stellar reputation, for the average bedroom producer, is that 8DIO products can be relatively pricey, and we don’t often come across many freebies.
With that in mind, picking up Synthetic Shadows (usually $39) for free is a nice treat, especially for media composers.
Synthetic Shadows is a Kontakt library that requires the full/paid version, so it’s not compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
If you can get past the first hurdle, you’ve got over 7.5GB of sample content at your disposal. The library is something of a cinematic toolkit, featuring drum kits, synths, orchestral instruments, and cinematic FX.
The cinematic FX fall into three categories: Hits, Transitions, and Boomers.
With an 8DIO library, it’s unlikely you’ll ever have a quality issue, so, as expected, the risers, downers, boomers, and ambience all sound great.
The sounds are quite modern/futuristic and industrial, so, although it’s a varied library, it lends itself well to gritty dystopian soundtracks.
There are four master drum kits plus a nine-drum industrial kit, and while they offer different things, they all lay the foundation for that gritty dystopia.
The interface offers control over Attack, Release, Speed, Pitch Envelope, Glide, and sample Offset. But one of the things I like about the library is that many of the instruments have inherent movement/evolution before you even get into automation.
Good examples of those sounds are the Long/Short Breath Arcs patches.
The synth category includes basses, leads, textures, plucks, and more.
Then you have the orchestral section with brass, percussion, strings, and winds.
For me, most of the best patches come from the synths, but the built-in FX engine allows you to stack sounds, and combining synth and orchestral elements works beautifully.
There are standard FX and Time Machine FX, and the latter can be relatively memory-hungry.
You also have DRUM and ARP sequencers.
It’s kind of a one-stop shop for cinematic scoring; you have the sounds, FX, and tools to create rhythmic patterns and sequences in a single library.
If you have the full version of Kontakt, it’s worth grabbing Synthetic Shadows while you can.
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Last Updated on April 14, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
