ZEN MEDITATIONS BY FRACTURE SOUNDS
KK-ACCESS REVIEW
It’s time to roll out your Yoga mat, take a deep breath, salute the sun, and discover your inner self, as Zen Meditations the new release from Fracture Sounds takes you on a relaxing journey of musical exploration.
Zen Meditations contains no fewer than 14 exotic & inspiring meditative instruments, enhanced in greater depth than ever before with 24 lush atmosphere layers to provide a warm & rich blendable palette of complementary pads.
TECH SPECS
Zen Meditations runs in either the full version of Kontakt 6.7 and above or the free Kontakt Player, and is Komplete Kontrol compatible.
8.5GB is required for the installation, the library uses NCW lossless compression of the original 10GB source samples.
There are 16 Kontakt master NKI instruments, with a further 14 NKSN sound designed snapshot derivatives.
DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION
The entire download and installation process is handled via Native Access upon authorisation of your post purchase license key.
Komplete Kontrol will auto scan your database when launched, and Zen Meditations should be available almost immediately.
KOMPLETE KONTROL PLUG-IN EDIT NKS CONTROLS
Due to there being 16 main Kontakt NKI presets (as well as a further 14 sound design snapshot presets), and each of these 16 individual instruments having slight variations in the NKS mappings, I decided that rather than listing each and every parameter, I would instead set out a basic NKS map, and added some comments that are pertinent to each instrument.
Page One – Main, Feel & Articulation
Knob 1 – Scatter
Knob 2 – Attack
Knob 3 – Damping
Knob 4 – Dynamics
Knob 5 – Feel: Sample Start
Knob 6 – Feel: Dynamic Response
Knob 7 – Articulation: Select Type
Knob 8 – Sustain Settings: Drift
Page Two – Volume & Atmosphere
Knob 1 – Raw Volume
Knob 2 – Atmosphere Layer 1 Volume
Knob 3 – Atmosphere Layer 2 Volume
Knob 4 – Atmosphere Layer 3 Volume
Knob 5 – Atmosphere Intensity
Knob 6 – Atmosphere Layer 1 Selection
Knob 7 – Atmosphere Layer 2 Selection
Knob 8 – Atmosphere Layer 3 Selection
Page Three – Reverb
Knob 1 – Reverb
Knob 2 – Size
Knob 3 – Modulation
Knob 4 – Damping
Knob 5 – Type: Room, Hall
Knob 6 to 8 – Unallocated
Instrument Variations
Tank Drum: includes open and muted strikes according to which articulation is chosen, along with sympathetic resonance & tonal shift controls
Tabla – Does not include the atmosphere layers due to the percussive nature of the instrument
Wine Glasses – include Speed & Motion controls
Tibetan Bowls – Feature Speed & Rust, the latter being the scraping of the wooden mallet on the side of the bowl in the sustain articulation
Tuned Gongs – Have both soft & Hard articulations, with an additional auto on/off toggle to trigger articulation switching via velocity
Bamboo Chimes – Do not include the atmosphere layers, again due to the nature of the instrument, they do however feature a sync on/off toggle, which syncs the duration of the sustain to your project if desired
Bamboo Chimes (single hits) – As above there is no atmosphere layer, the delay feedback has a sync control with various rate options including triplets, useful for developing a rhythmic pattern
LAYER BLENDS
Page One – Layers & Reverb
Knob 1 – Blend
Knob 2 – Atmosphere Layer 1 Source Selection
Knob 3 – Atmosphere Layer 1 plus or minus 1 octave (whole octave transposition not individual notes)
Knob 4 – Atmosphere Layer 2 Source Selection
Knob 5 – Atmosphere Layer 2 plus or minus 1 octave (whole octave transposition not individual notes)
Knob 6 – Atmosphere Layer 3 Source Selection
Knob 7 – Atmosphere Layer 3 plus or minus 1 octave (whole octave transposition not individual notes)
Knob 8 – Reverb
Page Two – Reverb & Envelope
Knob 1 – Reverb Type: Room, Hall
Knob 2 – Size
Knob 3 – Damping
Knob 4 – Modulation
Knob 5 – Atmosphere Layer Attack
Knob 6 – Atmosphere Layer Decay
Knob 7 – Atmosphere Layer Sustain
Knob 8 – Atmosphere Layer Release
*Note that Reverb & ADSR Controls are global across all three atmosphere layers
ACCESSIBILITY
Considering the number of instruments included within Zen Meditations, Fracture Sounds have done a great job in stepping up to the mark with a very respectable NKS template implementation that covers the vast majority of what is possible with this library.
There is a shuffle button available for the atmosphere layers in the GUI which has not found it’s way across to the NKS template, however it has been included as a keyswitch which does serve as an adequate alternative.
EXPLORING ZEN’S CHAKRAPOINTS
Most of the included instruments also feature a number of articulations, which can be selected from the NKS controls, however Fracture Sounds have thoughtfully included these as keyswitches, making it easy to switch between them in a performance or recording situation.
Typical examples of these are the availability of tapping an instrument with fingers, or mallets, or for something like the Tibetan Singing Bowl sustains, with a clever addition of what FS call a rust control, that gentle scraping sound you get when moving the wooden mallet around the rim of the bowl.
If like me, you have ever played that little game to amuse yourself at a noisy party by running your finger around the rim of your wine glass, and then impishly stopped at the precise moment when folk begin to realise there is a strange noise in the room, then you’ll be delighted to discover that there is such a sample articulation within Zen, and even more usefully that you can now play it as a chord!
The extensive collection even includes a couple of stringed instruments in the guise of a Sitar and also a Tanpura.
Both of these are not easy beasts to capture, however the team have managed to pull it off pretty well, with the inclusion of additional performance traits such as realistic ornamentations, and glissandi alongside the sustained notes.
Here is a list of the included instruments (*text taken from product page):
- Handpan – A large, inverted steel pan drum that produces a resonant metallic tone. Played with hands and soft mallets.
- Tank Drum – A smaller rounded steel drum that produces a brighter tone. Played with hands and soft mallets, in both muted and un muted variants. This instrument has been intricately sampled with an advanced sympathetic resonance engine, which allows the tonal centre of the instrument to be set to any key.
- Sitar – An Indian plucked string instrument with resonating strings, containing normal sustained notes, ornamentations (bends), and glissandi.
- Tanpura – Resembling the shape of a Sitar, the Tanpura is a 4 stringed instrument used to create drones that have a deep and dark resonance.
- Tabla – Two traditional Indian drums. The ‘bhaya’ drum is larger and deeper in pitch, whilst the ‘tabla’ drum is higher pitched and has a distinctive resonance. Both drums were sampled with different hand techniques and programmed with an intuitive performance engine.
- Wine Glasses – By rubbing the rims of crystal glasses with water, this patch produces a sustained sound similar to a Glass Harmonica. Finger and mallet hits add short variants to the articulation options.
- Tibetan Bowl – A traditional, large Signing Bowl that has a dark metallic timbre played with options for soft and hard hits, sustains, and a rust layer to add more scraping noises for added realism.
- Tuned Gongs – An array of Tibetan gongs, suspended horizontally with a distinctive spiritual tonality, sampled with soft and hard mallet hits.
- Bowed Vibes – An orchestral vibraphone bowed with a cello bow to create ambient and mellow, sustained metallic textures.
- Bowed Crotales – Similar to the timbre of Bowed Vibraphone, the Crotales offer a brighter and higher-pitched metallic sound.
- Meditation Chimes – A set of cylindrical bells performed with a hard mallet.
- Tingsha Bells – A small set of bells used in ritual meditation that have a clear, metallic timbre.
- Tuning Forks – Metallic resonators that produce a clear fundamental frequency are combined into one sample instrument that produces a very pure Celeste-like tone.
- Bamboo Chimes – Wooden windchimes. With a variety of performed phrases and multisampled 1-shots
ZEN, SOUND MEDITATION BY DESIGN
The natural sound of the Zen instruments are perfectly usable in their own space, however it is the unification with the extensive selection of atmosphere layers that particularly transcends this library into something uniquely special.
We are able to add up to three additional layers of bespoke complementary atmospheres, and then seamlessly blend between them to create a fantastic sounding backdrop, which highlights the real life timbre’s of these instruments.
There is only a small selection of instruments where the atmosphere layers are not included, such as the Tabla and Bamboo Chimes, and this is an understandable decision, as the fast percussive transients of these sounds do not lend themselves to the slow attacks of the atmospheres.
LAYER LOVE
It is pleasing to see that Fracture Sounds have included the Layer Blends atmospheres preset within Zen. This means that you can use them on their own, or even alongside any third party instrument that could benefit from a little extra warmth in the background.
The layer Blends preset includes the option to tune each of the three layers to either minus 1, or plus 1 whole octave, as well as the simultaneous global ADSR for all three atmospheres.
There are no separate pan controls for the three layers, which would perhaps been a nice extra addition.
I always advocate that layering instruments is one of the easiest yet most powerful ways to create your own unique sound, just as an artist will mix various colours on their paint palette, the same is equally true for music.
Simply throwing a decent sounding piano onto an armed track loaded with an instance of the Layer Blends atmospheres can often instantly yield some impressive results, which is why I find that the inclusion of this Layered Blends patch is so welcome.
ZEN, CURATED PRESETS
The Fracture Sounds team are all themselves creative composers, and it is quite evident that they all relished and rose to the challenge of creating their own Zen snapshot presets for inclusion within the library.
There are some gems amongst them which truly demonstrate the potential of Zen, and of course you can also go on to use these as starting points for your own further sound design adventures.
Do make a point of checking out the Fracture Sounds Zen walkthrough video linked at the review footer to learn more of what can be achieved with the library.
CONCLUSION
Zen Meditations is a well crafted and unique sample library with plenty of useful features and sound design possibilities for any composer looking to bring musical tranquility into their workflow.
The entire compendium of collective instruments has been well balanced between the availability of sustains, bowed, tinkling taps, gentle mallets and light percussion.
In terms of your creative use case, Zen will prove to be ideal for soundtracks, soundscapes, game & media design, and perhaps even your next gig at your local Spa 🙂
Zen Meditations can be purchased from the Fracture Sounds website for the introductory price of £89.00 until November 30th (regular price £119.00)
Zen Meditations Product Page:
https://fracturesounds.com/product/zen/
Zen Meditations – Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUfgscptg4k
(c) Chris Ankin
KK-Access.com
14TH November 2023
Disclaimer
The author can not accept any responsibility for subsequent purchase decisions made as a result of this review,or Any inaccuracies found therein. All opinions and product functions stated are based solely on information perceived as a blind user whilst using the product and/or gathered from official factual sources such as the developer, web or supplied product manual.
About the Author
Based in Buckinghamshire, England, Chris Ankin has worked as a freelance review writer and contributor with articles published in Sound On Sound, Home & Studio Recording and ST Format Magazines.
He has also successfully worked extensively in and around the music, recording, film Soundtrack scoring, Game & media composition, the creative arts, Charitable trusts,publishing, music streaming and property investments since 1982 whilst continuously and deliberately managing to evade any mainstream recognition under his own name by the use of various pseudonyms.
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