Boutique instrument developer Virharmonic it is joining UJAM, the music technology company behind instrument lines like Virtual Guitarist and the development platform Gorilla Engine co-founded by Hans Zimmer.
The companies have signed a binding agreement for Germany-based UJAM Music Technology to purchase the assets of Virharmonic, a Czech company trusted by film composers for its uniquely expressive instrument plug-ins.
For Virharmonic founder Ondrej Švec and his team, the move means a new home for the growing creatively driven business that’s based on labour of love. With UJAM, he had built on a partnership that’s already run for more than seven years. A similar philosophy has long connected Virharmonic to UJAM leading to Virharmonic building its acclaimed instrument line on UJAM’s Gorilla Engine.
‘Over the years of our close relationship, I have seen how UJAM operates. I’ve grown deep trust in their values-based approach, respect for artists, and fiercely independent stance,’ Švec says. ‘UJAM has everything that Virharmonic needs to get to the next level – especially the market reach, resources, culture and professional network.’
‘What Ondrej’s team has built goes deeper than most people realise,’ says UJAM CEO, Axel Hensen. ‘The way they’ve made instruments genuinely playable, with real expressive control, is some of the most sophisticated Gorilla Engine-based instrument mechanics we’ve seen. That’s exactly the kind of engineering prowess that we hope will make the UJAM ecosystem even stronger.’
Virharmonic instruments are known in the film-scoring world for a rare quality: they don’t just capture an instrument, but also the artistic personality of the musician behind it. Where much of the industry has chased ever more exhaustive sample libraries, Virharmonic’s approach has been to make classic solo instruments genuinely playable, preserving the character, nuance, and human expression that make a performance unmistakably an artist’s own. That focus on creative expression has earned Virharmonic a faithful, appreciative and ever-growing user base among musicians and composers, many of them professionals. The team at UJAM value this as a critical advantage in the age of generative AI.
The Virharmonic brand and product line will remain under Švec’s creative direction, with new instruments already in development. ‘Ondrej and team are true artisans, they make instruments with real character that resonate with people on an emotional level – that’s rare and precious. Our job now is to give them more room to do more of just that,’ says UJAM founder, Peter Gorges.
More: www.ujam.com