SonicCouture – November Sky add-on pack for Haunted Spaces by The Unfinished
SonicCouture’s Haunted Spaces was released late last year and has proven to be one of their most successful libraries in the genre of atmosphere and sound creation.
it followed in the wake of it’s predecessor GeoSonics with both libraries featuring a wealth of stunning and eclectic audio samples from sound recordist extraordinaire Chris Watson.
Earlier this year SonicCouture gave the renowned British sound designer and musician Ian Boddy the opportunity to create a further 128 preset snapshots, still using the original Haunted Spaces sample set, a challenge which he rose to admirably.
This time around the baton is passed to another well established sound designer namely The Unfinished aka Matt Bowdler.
For those of you unfamiliar with the work of The Unfinished he has very much been a leading light in sound design over recent years particularly with his ongoing Omnisphere patch libraries as well as other popular soft synths. Not only this but Matt has also created numerous bespoke sounds which have been commissioned and used in many major movies and TV productions, providing further testimony to his sound sculpting talents.
The Unfinished has also recently contributed presets to SonicCouture’s own newly released NYCKELHARPAS SCANDINAVIAN KEYED STRINGS library (see link at review footer).
As a follower of his creative output I was intrigued to discover what he had done with the core pool of sounds from Haunted Spaces, surely there was little else that could be squeezed from the samples of this library?
Tech Specs…
Usually at this point of my reviews I am entertaining you with the in’s and out’s of how much hard disk space a library will consume, alongside the minimum specs and sample rates.
In this case however it’s important to remember that this is an add-on pack of Kontakt snapshot presets that total just a few megabytes (remember those tiny things!), there is no additional sample content to install. You must already own the Haunted Spaces library for these to work, and installation is a simple matter of dropping the November Sky folder into the master Haunted Spaces snapshot folder, and performing a rescan.
In my case I did find that I needed to force a manual rescan of my factory library path as for some reason they did not get picked up straightaway by the standard autoscan of Komplete Kontrol in standalone.
Haunted Spaces has only one standard Kontakt NKI file, so once loaded these snapshot presets will load quite quickly allowing for system variations of course.
Browser Exploration…
Existing Haunted Spaces owners will already be familiar with the NKS mappings, as they are identical in this library, However for those who do not own Haunted Spaces and are curious, I will link to my original review so that you can find out more details.
Knob 1 & 2 – Vendor and Product
Knob 3 – Banks, dependant upon what you have installed, here you can select ‘all banks being the original HS presets, Ian Boddy Ghost Planet (if installed) or the latest November Sky
Knob 4 – Unallocated
Knob 5 – Types, Bowed Strings, Percussion, Sound Fx, Soundscapes, Synth Lead, Synth Misc, Synth Pad,
Knob 6 – Sub Types, Synth Strings, Other Percussion, Nature, Noise, Other FX, Shots, Insanity, Wind & Noise, Dirty Lead, Other Lead, Soft Lead, Melodic Sequences, Other Sequences, Evolving Pad, Layered Pad, Other Pad,
Knob 7 – Modes, Long Evolving, Sample based,
Knob 8 – Presets x 128
Sky Diving…
Let’s dive straight in and run through some of the sounds and presets you will find within November Sky.
As with previous Haunted Spaces presets, the key to exploiting the full spectrum of sounds lies in the way in which many of the patches sonically evolve over a period of time, often in conjunction with velocity,
The essential sound blending controls are sensably located on the first page of parameters allowing for convenient realtime level mixing of the four sound layers, which can also be intermorphed with one another using the X and Y controls, giving us good creative expression of the patches.
There are some fantastic ambiences in this collection, with many of The Unfinished trademarks present, in fact if I had to participate in a preset patch audio identity parade I think I might well be able to spot his work. I mean this in a good way of course, the whole collection has an air of the cinematic about it, moods transcend between tempo synced rhythmic pulses suitable for action and tension building tasks, to natural laid back washes perfect for your down tempo ambient tracks, just ad drums keys or guitar!
It’s not all sweetness and light of course, in the true ‘Unfinished’ style, there is a wealth of darker edged material to be found lurking within the library, and although they are not classified as traditional jump scare shock inducers, they will certainly be perfect for suspense building, either centre mix or underscore.
If you are looking for something a little less spooky, that still possesses shedloads of character, then there are some wonderful pads with a smattering of what I can only describe as ‘audio dust’, having a quirky nature with a hint of pitch drift that is synonymous with old analog synths, and these would sit well in a hybrid music score.
Conclusion…
If you already own Haunted Spaces then the asking price of this preset pack is an inexpensive way of breathing some fresh air and inspiration into a library that is still a long way from going stale.
The Unfinished has added his own unique and distinctive style to the product which will please fans of his work, and undoubtedly enlist some new ones.
If you do not currently own Haunted Spaces then it is certainly a worthy contender when looking to add a library of this type, and with Black Friday once more on our doorstep it will likely be on many a shopping list.
The original Haunted Spaces library contains over 400 presets, add to these either or both of the inexpensive add-on packs and you have a formidable cinematic and ambient sound tool in your collection.
There is a link below for a preset walkthrough of the sounds to be found within November Sky,
Haunted Spaces, Ian Boddy Ghost Planet and The Unfinished November Sky can be purchased as a download from the SonicCouture website at http://www.soniccouture.com/en/
The Unfinished November Sky Preset Tour:
Ian Boddy Ghost Planet Preset Tour:
Haunted Spaces Library Preset Tour:
KK-Access Haunted Spaces Review
https://kk-access.com/2018/07/27/haunted-spaces-by-soniccouture/
KK-Access Ian Boddy Ghost Planet Review
https://kk-access.com/2018/07/27/ghost-planet-by-ian-boddy-add-on-sound-bank-for-soniccouture-haunted-spaces/
NYCKELHARPAS SCANDINAVIAN KEYED STRINGS
http://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/28-rare-and-experimental/g61-nyckelharpas/
(c) Chris Ankin
November 20th, 2018
http://www.kk-access.com
Disclaimer
The author accepts no responsibility for subsequent purchase decisions made as a result of reading this article,or Any inaccuracies found within this review. All opinions or product functions stated are based soly on information perceived as a blind user whilst using the product in combination with information gathered from official factual sources on the web or product manual.
About the Author
Chris Ankin has worked previously as a freelance review contributor with articles published in Sound On Sound, Home & Studio Recording and ST Format Magazines.
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