Fracture Sounds – Sleigh Bells
KK-Access Mini Review
UK based developer Fracture Sounds are rapidly emerging as a notable contributor to the world of sample libraries, their recently upgraded Midnight Grand and Woodchester Piano libraries were extremely well received by both industry and customers alike, including plaudits from this very web site for their welcome inclusion of NKS support.
After what has been a pretty dreadful year for everybody, Fracture Sounds have decided to brighten everyone’s holiday season with a nice little freebie, in the shape of Sleigh Bells.
Tech Specs…
The 113MB library does require the full version of Kontakt to run, but has had it’s parameters enabled for host automation, and as such will work within Komplete Kontrol to provide hardware assignments for the available parameters.
There are two NKI files included ‘Instant Christmas’ and ‘Sleigh Bells’.
Download…
Download is direct from the Fracture Sounds web site, after adding the zero priced item to your cart and checking out with a registered account.
No authorisation is required, just add the whole library folder to a designated user content path, and rescan Komplete Kontrol. The library should then appear on the user side of KK, under Native Instruments/Sleigh Bells/Presets.
Plug-in Edit NKS Parameters
There are no browser categories to consider here , so we will crack on with the NKS mappings
Page One – Sound & FX
Knob 1 – Tightness
Knob 2 – Damping
Knob 3 & 4 – Unallocated
Knob 5 – Stereo Width
Knob 6 – Reverb
Accessibility…
It’s true that there are minimal controls available, but how many controls do we need for a sleigh bells library, seasoned campanologists may argue with me here, in fact do sleigh bells even come under the remit of campanology?… discuss!
Suffice to say, the controls simplistic as they may be, do what they are intended to do, and Fracture Sounds have even taken the time to create pre-hear sounds for the two available presets!.
Calling Rudolph…
There are two presets that come with Sleigh Bells, the ‘Instant Christmas’ patch, and the standard ‘Sleigh Bells’ preset.
Instant Christmas is synced to the tempo of your host DAW, and can also be triggered by an on/off keyswitch, pressing the various keys on your controller provides access to the selection of Sleigh Bell samples, with the choice of 1/4 or 1/8 timings.
The standard Sleigh Bells preset is a static selection of the same bells, this time the tempo and playing is down to you.
The tightness control allows for adjustment of the attack/sample start, dampness adds some, errr, damping to the overall sound, and stereo width and reverb are self explanatory.
Jingle All The Way!…
The bells sound jolly, bright, bouncy and festive to my humble ears, they have the essential cheery rattle we traditionally associate with the impending arrival of a herd of ravenous carrot fuelled reindeer, driven by an equivalently whisky fuelled mad, white bearded man in a red suit.
By the way, I’m pretty sure Santa does drink whisky, as a child, I always left a glass in my bedroom on Christmas Eve, that glass was always empty in the morning, however the reindeer’s carrot was generally discarded uneaten on my bedroom floor!
Conclusion…
What’s not to like, we can definitely conclude here that the old adage of ‘if it’s free it’s probably no good’ is definitely incorrect, and instead apply with sincerity the equally old adage that says ‘the best things in life are free’ is the most reliable of the two.
My advice, Never look a gift reindeer in the mouth, go grab this cute little library right now, and do keep Fracture Sounds in mind for future NKS releases, finally go forth and make some Yuletide tunes, Peace!
Sleigh Bells by Fracture Sounds can be obtained free from their Web site
Sleigh Bells Product Page:
Fracture Sounds Sleigh Bells Product Announcement:
(c) Chris Ankin
KK-Access.com
December 4th, 2020
Disclaimer
The author accepts no responsibility for subsequent purchase decisions made as a result of this article,or Any inaccuracies found within this review. All opinions or product functions stated are based solely on information perceived as a blind user whilst using the product or 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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