Fracture Sounds present the 2nd free instrument to be added to their recently launched Kontakt Player-oriented series of instruments, Blueprint.
This time, they have decided to introduce us with some very warm and celestial sounding chimes.
The Greenhead Chimes are a set of stationary outdoor tubular bells, sampled at a playground park by the same name in the city of Huddersfield, England – the Fracture Sounds headquarters.
These beautifully recorded bells come as a single Native Instruments Kontakt patch, which offers a dry signal along with several atmospheric ambient soundscapes that you can mix together, or isolate.
Atmosphere Intensity (mapped to modwheel by default) is your dynamics parameter, and it allows you to blend the original, raw sound of chimes with 3 layers of differing ambient textures and pads.
Each of these layers incorporates a unique, time-manipulated interpretation of the original samples. The first layer (“Aether”) appears to be a “clean” or more simplified timestretched version of these outdoor chimes. It does seem to have some degree of post-processing to it, which is reflected in this mellow sounding type of chorus and the subtle echoing delays.
The second atmosphere (“Haze”) is quite similar sounding, yet introduces an additional higher octave, that sits on top of the base root note/s. The sound, in this case, is fairly saturated and prominently richer compared to the previous one – which is rather soft – and generally more on the bright side, timbre speaking. What they also proceeded to incorporate with this particular one, is some sort of a wind sounding instrument, and possibly a few more external sounds – some synthesized, while the rest being acoustic (or acoustic-ish).
“Mirage” is a bit different, and seems like a more of an acoustic-based type of layer, while the others are mostly pure ambient sounding. The time-warped samples used in Mirage appear to be a bit less processed and “stretched” than the aforementioned. It also seems to make use of various pitch manipulation techniques, and a quite prominent use of reverse type delays. This layer is probably the one I would use the most out of the three, along with the second atmosphere.
Blueprint – Greenhead Chimes is available at the Fracture Sounds website for Kontakt and the free Kontakt Player 7. It requires registration, newsletter subscription and Native Access activation.
If you wish to download the previous Blueprint edition, which features a Fender Rhodes electric piano, please make sure to follow the link below.
