UVI Quadra – Metal and Wood: Organic Sounds, Rhythmic Layers and Cinematic Sequences

Updated Edition – August 2026

Some virtual instruments are designed to reproduce a specific acoustic instrument. Others begin with real sounds and use them as raw material for something much broader. UVI Quadra – Metal and Wood clearly belongs to the second category.

Part of UVI’s Quadra series, Metal and Wood is a four-layer multi-instrument and sequence designer built around an extensive collection of sampled metallic, wooden, mallet, keyboard and resonant instruments. Instead of presenting these sources as a conventional sample library, UVI places them inside an environment designed for layering, movement, rhythmic interaction and performance.

The result is an instrument particularly suited to cinematic scoring, ambient music, electronic production, game soundtracks and sound design, but its strength is not tied to a single genre. Quadra can move from delicate mallet textures and organic plucks to complex polyrhythmic sequences, evolving soundscapes and hybrid patches in which the original instruments become almost impossible to identify.

251 Sound Sources Built Around Metal and Wood

The foundation of Quadra – Metal and Wood is a collection of 251 multi-sampled sound sources. UVI has interpreted the Metal and Wood concept broadly, bringing together instruments whose timbres naturally complement one another rather than restricting the library to conventional percussion.

The collection includes Tubular Bells, Thai and Balinese gongs, vibraphone, marimba, large xylophone, balafon, resonant tubes and blocks, Congolese sanza, handpan, mbira and steel drum. There are also smaller and more intimate instruments such as music boxes, toy glockenspiels and wooden xylophones.

But the palette extends considerably further. Rhodes, Celesta, Claviset, Dulcitone, Glockenspiel, Mini Celesta, Papageno Bells, Pianet and Sanza Keys introduce keyboard-like colors, while modular, FM and PCM-based synthesizer sources expand the instrument into hybrid territory.

This diversity is important because Quadra is not simply about stacking four similar percussion sounds. Contrasting materials can be combined so that one layer supplies the attack, another the tonal body, another movement and another an atmospheric or synthetic component. It is this interaction between sources that gives the instrument much of its character.

Four Layers as a Single Instrument

At the center of Quadra is its four-part architecture. Each layer can host a different source and operate as a complete instrument, allowing four independent sounds to become part of the same performance.

The layers can be stacked to create complex composite timbres or assigned to separate keyboard zones. This makes Quadra equally useful for building one large evolving patch or creating a playable setup containing several complementary instruments.

Each layer offers amplitude ADSR and multimode envelope controls, unison and its own processing tools. UVI also provides frequency shifting, waveshaping, chorus, phaser and three-band EQ, together with reverb and delay sends. Additional performance-oriented effects can be controlled in real time, including vibrato, tremolo, frequency shifting and overdrive.

This architecture transforms sampling into something much closer to instrument design. A marimba does not necessarily have to remain a marimba, and a metallic hit does not have to remain percussion. They become components from which a completely different sound can be constructed.

Morphing and Real-Time Performance

One of Quadra’s most interesting features is the possibility of changing the relationship between its layers while playing.

A mappable XY pad can morph between sounds, allowing a patch to evolve continuously rather than remaining a static combination of four sources. A texture can begin with a soft wooden character, gradually introduce metallic resonances and eventually move toward a more synthetic or cinematic sound.

Global dynamics and transient emphasis controls provide another level of real-time expression. Instead of treating a preset as a finished sequence that simply starts when a key is pressed, Quadra encourages interaction. This is particularly effective for scoring. Movement can be introduced gradually underneath a scene, intensity can increase without changing the underlying harmonic material, and individual timbral components can emerge or disappear during a performance.

A Powerful 64-Step Sequencer for Every Layer

The sequencing system is where Quadra – Metal and Wood becomes considerably more than a layered sample instrument. Each of the four layers includes a multimode 64-step arpeggiator and phrase sequencer. Sequences can be shaped using parameters including velocity, pitch and octave offsets, gate, step repeats, harmonization and panning. Because the four engines operate independently, simple individual patterns can interact to create much more elaborate rhythmic structures. One layer might establish a steady wooden pulse while another adds sparse metallic accents. A third can introduce harmonic movement and a fourth can provide longer resonant notes.

The result can range from tightly synchronized grooves to evolving polyrhythmic structures particularly useful for contemporary cinematic composition.

Patterns can also be copied between layers, saved as presets and further modified without rebuilding the underlying idea from scratch.

MIDI Effects That Generate Variation

Quadra also includes a collection of MIDI processing tools designed to introduce controlled variation.

Euclidean Emphasis can create rhythmic accents, while MIDI Delay, Random and Pitch Drift can transform otherwise repetitive patterns into something more organic. Scale quantization keeps generated material within a selected musical scale, making experimentation considerably easier when several independently moving layers are involved.

The processed sequences are not locked inside Quadra either. UVI allows the resulting MIDI material to be dragged into a DAW track, turning an idea generated inside the instrument into editable MIDI data that can become part of a larger arrangement.

This makes Quadra useful not only as a sound source but also as an idea generator. A pattern created from handpan, wooden percussion and metallic resonances might eventually become the rhythmic foundation for completely different instruments elsewhere in a production.

From Organic Percussion to Cinematic Sound Design

The combination of sampling, sequencing and morphing gives Metal and Wood an unusually broad sonic range.

At its simplest, it can provide recognizable mallet instruments, bells, wooden percussion and resonant metallic sounds. Start combining the four layers, however, and the boundary between acoustic instrument and sound design quickly disappears.

Short attacks can become rhythmic pulses. Sustained resonances can form atmospheric beds. Mallets can provide tonal sequences while synthetic layers introduce movement underneath them. Metallic sources can add transient detail to softer wooden sounds, while long reverbs and delays transform small acoustic objects into expansive cinematic spaces.

This is one reason the library works especially well for film and game composition. Many modern scores live somewhere between orchestration, percussion, electronics and texture. Quadra operates naturally in that space without requiring the composer to construct every sound from several unrelated plugins.

335 Presets and More Than 53,000 Samples

Despite the depth of the engine, Quadra does not require every sound to be programmed from zero.

The factory library contains 335 presets designed to demonstrate different combinations of sources, sequencing techniques and performance controls. These provide ready-to-play sounds but, more importantly, serve as starting points for creating new instruments.

Underneath them is a substantial sample library: UVI lists 53,042 samples across the 251 available layers. The library occupies approximately 8.43 GB using lossless FLAC encoding; according to UVI, the equivalent uncompressed WAV content would occupy 35.67 GB. The samples are delivered at 44.1 kHz from recordings originally made at 88.2 kHz.

UVI Workstation and Falcon Compatibility

Quadra – Metal and Wood runs inside UVI Workstation 3.1.3 or later and Falcon 2.5.3 or later. UVI Workstation provides the straightforward route for loading and playing the library, while Falcon offers access within UVI’s broader synthesis and sound-design ecosystem.

As of August 2026, UVI lists support for macOS 10.14 Mojave through macOS 26 Tahoe and Windows 10 through Windows 11. Available formats include Audio Unit, AAX, VST, VST3 and standalone operation. An iLok account is required for authorization, although a physical iLok dongle is not necessary, and each license provides three activations.

Who Is Quadra – Metal and Wood For?

Quadra – Metal and Wood makes particular sense for composers and producers who enjoy working from sound rather than thinking exclusively in terms of traditional instruments.

For cinematic composers, it can provide rhythmic beds, pulses, evolving textures and unusual tonal percussion without requiring extensive programming across multiple instruments. For ambient and electronic producers, the combination of organic sources and sequencing creates material that feels less synthetic than a conventional arpeggiator while retaining precise rhythmic control.

Sound designers can go further, treating the sampled instruments merely as starting material and using envelopes, effects, MIDI processing and morphing to create entirely new timbres.

It is also an interesting instrument for anyone who likes the unpredictability of combining acoustic objects. Wood and metal naturally provide very different attacks, resonances and decay characteristics. Quadra turns those differences into a compositional tool.

Explore UVI Quadra – Metal and Wood

Quadra – Metal and Wood sits in an interesting space between sample library, multi-instrument, sequencer and sound-design environment. Its 251 sources provide the acoustic foundation, but the real instrument emerges from the interaction of four independent layers.

That distinction is what makes it compelling. The objective is not simply to reproduce a handpan, marimba, gong or music box as accurately as possible. It is to combine these materials, sequence them, transform them and perform the resulting sound as a unified instrument.

For composers working with cinematic textures, rhythmic sound design, hybrid scoring or evolving ambient material, it offers a particularly rich collection of colors while keeping experimentation at the center of the workflow.

Quadra – Metal and Wood in ONE Instrument®

Quadra – Metal and Wood fits naturally into the creative philosophy behind ONE Instrument®. Its layered sounds, organic textures and evolving sequences can become part of a broader workspace where virtual instruments and sound libraries remain accessible from a single creative environment.

Instead of treating each library as an isolated destination, ONE Instrument® helps keep your sound collection connected to the creative process. Explore your instruments, combine different sonic worlds and continue developing an idea without constantly moving between disconnected tools.

From resonant wood and metallic percussion to cinematic layers, hybrid textures and rhythmic sequences, the objective remains the same: spend less time searching for sounds and more time playing them.

Chosen by the creators of ONE Instrument®

Stop wasting time searching across websites. Open this library directly in ONE Instrument® Cloud. Preview every sound, watch videos and continue creating with the Browser, Performer and Recorder, all from a single interface.