Soundiron Circle Bells v2 KONTAKT

The Circle Bells library was recorded with a rare and unique instrument called “Blossom Bells”, created by local SF Bay Area metal working artisan Pete Engelhart. This hand-welded tuned percussion instrument features six steel conical bells tuned to different keys and spread out in a fan arrangement. Each bell has a deeply rich, warm and sonorous tone with a long sustain and crystalline clarity. We recorded them with soft mallets, hard picks and viola bow with both single-strikes/staccatos and rolls/sustains for each articulation. Its distinctive sound evokes the feel of a steel Marimbaphone or Celeste when played with mallets and a glass armonica when bowed, yet its character and undulating resonance defies any direct comparison to any other instrument.

The bells range in size from 2″ to 3 1/2″ in diameter and each about 10″ long. Each note can sustain for up to 10 seconds or more and carries a deep blend of beautiful overtones. We recorded each one up close in wide stereo. It’s divided into three articulation sections: bows, mallets and picks. We used a viola bow to produce sustains and staccatos. We used a soft cloth mallet to play single notes and sustaining rolls and a hard pick to play single tapes, scrapes and sustaining effects. All articulations feature extensive round robin variation and deep dynamic velocity layering.

CONTENTS:

Cloth mallet strikes: an average of 12 velocity layers with our standard 10 round-robins

Cloth mallet rolls: modwheel controlled loops with 3+ velocity layers and 2+ round robins with release triggers

Twin metal guitar pick strikes: an average of 12 velocity layers and 10x round-robin

Twin metal guitar pick scratch effects: 8 layers and 8 round robins per layer

Twin metal guitar pick scratch “rolls”: modwheel controlled loops with 3+ velocity layers and 2+ round robins with release triggers

Bowing sustains on all bells (fundamental notes and harmonics): 2+ velocity layers and 2+ round robin with release triggers

Bowing staccatos on all bells (fundamental notes and harmonics): 2+ velocity layers and 2+ round robin

Custom sculptable ambient drones, created using only the circle bells as source material

Each articulation is available in a standalone preset or as part of a powerful dual-layer instrument which allows users to shape and blend any two articulationsm each with completely independent controls. Every preset offers a full DSP effects rack, layer blending, tuning and envelope shaping controls. Our advanced ARP system gives you instant adaptive arpeggiation, step-sequencing, scale/chord constraint and auto-roll functionality, with custom preset saving and loading. You’ll also find a great selection of ambient and atmospheric FX presets, created by the Soundiron team and veteran sound designer and instrumentalist Steven Tavaglione.

Product Specs:

5.56 GB installed

2,893 Samples

22 .nki instrument presets

24 bit / 48kHz uncompressed PCM wav samples

Unlocked Kontakt presets and wav samples to allow user customization

System Requirements

The full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt version 5.1.0 (or later) is required to use .nki instrument presets included in this library.