EMOTIVE WOODWIND SOLOISTS BY FRACTURE SOUNDS

EMOTIVE WOODWIND SOLOISTS BY FRACTURE SOUNDS

KK-ACCESS REVIEW

The third outing in Fracture sounds series of solo Legato instrument libraries covers the Woodwind section in intricate detail.

Offering owners beautifully recorded and detailed multi microphone, Legato samples of Flute, Oboe, Cor Anglais, Clarinet, Bassoon, & even a Piccolo as an instrument bonus. This new release makes an perfect companion for it’s previous siblings, Brass band Soloists and soft String Soloists.

TECH SPECS

Emotive Woodwind Soloists will require Kontakt 6.7 or higher, either the full version, or the free Kontakt Player edition.

It is compatible with all versions of Komplete Kontrol hosting the appropriate Kontakt version.

The library requires 32GB of disk space for installation, and uses the NCW lossless compression file format.

There are single master Kontakt NKI preset files for each of the 5 Woodwind instruments, with a further 5 additional articulation presets for each.

The single Piccolo preset is included as a bonus instrument, giving you 6 in all.

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

Emotive Woodwind Soloists can be downloaded and installed entirely using Native Access, which makes the whole thing simple and accessible, all that needs to be done is to paste in your post purchase serial number to begin the proceedings.

After installation, loading up an instance of Komplete Kontrol will add the new library to your factory browser ready to use.

FULL KOMPLETE KONTROL PLUG-IN EDIT NKS PARAMETER MAPPINGS CAN BE FOUND AT THE END OF THIS REVIEW FOLLOWING THE MEDIA SECTION

ACCESSIBILITY

Emotive Woodwind Soloists once again utilises the same NKS mapping template seen in the previous two releases.

This effectively gives us complete access to all of the user interface controls, whilst the inclusion of keyswitches will take care of any articulation switching.

EMOTIVE PERFORMANCE

As the library title suggests, Fracture Sounds have, rather than going for a more common bigger, bolder Woodwind sound, opted instead to record a more emotive style of playing, ideal for making use of their own smart legato engine, which can help users to put the players performance central to any intimate sounding melodic score.

This is ideal for contemporary composition styles like modern TV dramas and the like, where subtle nuances rather than brash punctuation’s are called for.

As with other recent releases in their solo series, Fracture Sounds have been careful to select some of the UK’s leading exponents of their craft, boasting some impressive credentials which also correlate with their performance and playing expertise.

In terms of articulations, then all of the prerequisites are included within the core individual instrument presets, and with the extra ‘additional articulation’ patches, these will provide you with various trill performances to allow you to build upon those more traditional types.

ARTICULATION LIST

Here are the full articulation listings for the library, courtesy of the product page:

Legato

Sustained notes with legato intervals and same-note repeats. Features multiple round robins for intervals smaller than a 3rd.

Sustain

Sustained long notes with a medium dynamic and emotive tone.

Staccato

A very short note with a sharp attack. Dynamics are controlled by velocity.

Tenuto (Short)

A short articulation with a rounded attack and extended decay compared to the Staccato. Dynamics are controlled by velocity.

Tenuto (Long)

An extended Tenuto with a more rounded attack and longer decay. Dynamics are controlled by velocity.

Performance Shorts

A multi-articulation that contains all three shorts. Shortest notes are triggered by low velocities; longest notes by high velocities. Dynamics are controlled by CC1.

Sustain (Slow)

Sustained long notes with a slow and more emotive attack and release. This can also be accessed on the main Sustain and Legato using the green momentary keyswitch.

Trills

Automatically selects a trill interval when two or more notes are held (up to a major 3rd on the flute, or up to a major 2nd on all other instruments). For single notes, or notes outside the supported trill range, sustained notes will be triggered instead. On high velocity, trills will have an immediate attack; on low velocities, they will have a slower ramp-up.

ADDITIONAL ARTICULATIONS

Short Trills

Two types of short trill bursts (min2 and maj2)

Performance Short-Sustain

A multi-articulation that triggers staccatos on low velocity, and sustains on high velocity. Dynamics are controlled by CC1.

Swells

Slow crescendo and diminuendo. Releasing the note early will shorten the swell.

Individual Trills

Access the individual trills from the main trill patch with min2 and maj2 intervals (up to min3 and maj3 on Flute). On high velocity, trills will have an immediate attack; on low velocities, they will have a slower ramp-up.

PICCOLO BONUS

A bonus patch with individual Piccolo articulations and combined Flute articulations. There are eight altogether- here are the ones which are unique to this patch:

Sustain (Mono)

Sustained notes played on the piccolo, triggered monophonically, which allows for pseudo-legato playing.

Sustain (Poly)

Sustained notes played on the piccolo, triggered polyphonically.

Performance Short-Sustain

A multi-articulation that triggers piccolo staccatos on low velocity, and sustains on high velocity. Dynamics are controlled by CC1.

MICROPHONE MAGIC

The included microphone positions will once again offer you the choice to blend between close, mid, & far, with the addition of a perspective control to refine things still further.

Each of the instruments were recorded in their traditional seating positions referred to as In-situ, as the first mode choice).

however Fracture Sounds do of course acknowledge the demand for a flexible range of production scenarios, and as such it is important for users to be able to adjust this to suit a variety of project needs.

With this in mind, the unique placement feature offers two additional modes, Centre is exactly as described, or alternatively when switched to custom mode, the placement settings allow you to choose the seating positions to taste, such as row 1 or row 2, followed by left, left mid, middle, right mid, and right, which again adds to the realism.

These seating perspectives have been achieved not just through pseudo stereo panning trickery, but by capturing the real spatial impulse responses which reflect these alternative seating positions.

SMART LEGATO

I mentioned the Smart Legato in the review for Brass Band soloists, and Emotive Woodwinds also makes excellent use of this bespoke Fracture Sounds scripting.

Also included, and Particularly notable, is the Smart Trills engine, which enables you to invoke realistic trills when playing, if the correct technique is adopted, as described within the user manual.

Stravinsky is referenced as an inspiration for the more modernistic influences of the library, and both the smart legato & Smart Trills engines certainly will allow you to pull off some very convincing ‘rite of spring’ reminiscent musical brushstrokes.

I will again refer readers to the excellent Smart Legato walkthrough presented by Fracture Sounds founder Will Bedford, who does a far better job of describing this system than I could possibly do meaningful justice to here, the link is in the media section, at the end of the review.

REVERB & EXTRA CONTROLS

The reverb section offers traditional spaces such as Room & Hall, with Shimmer being available for a more luscious artificial sounding , yet still pleasing to the ear ambient wash.

There are also Convolution reverbs, with a selection of additional real world impulse responses to broaden your choices still further.

Controls for Dynamics, Stereo Width, and the very handy feature of being able to move the position of the grouped articulation keyswitches to a key range position that suits your controller, round off the NKS template.

Do ensure that you checkout the walkthrough videos linked in the media section, to explore and hear the library in greater detail.

CONCLUSION

Emotive Woodwind Soloists is yet another excellent edition to Fracture Sounds portfolio of intuitive to use sample libraries.

The recording and sampling quality is as always top notch, and with the emphasis of this library being on a more intimate and evocative sound style, this certainly becomes evident throughout the library both with it’s audio and expressive playable qualities.

The accessibility is once again solid, and provides blind & visually impaired users complete access with the NKS mapping and workflow being well designed, to allow us access to all of the products features.

Emotive Woodwind Soloists can be purchased from the Fracture Sounds website for the introductory price of £129.00 inc VAT (regularly £179.00) Until 25th March.

Emotive Woodwind Soloists Product Page:
https://fracturesounds.com/product/emotive-woodwind-soloists/

Emotive Woodwind Soloists Walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR_nf5BSFtg

Fracture Sounds Smart Legato Explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJneejab0G0

Emotive Woodwind Soloists User Manual:
https://fracturesounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Emotive-Woodwind-Soloists-User-Manual.pdf

Komplete Kontrol NKS parameter mappings

Page One – Sound, Microphone Mixer

Knob 1 – Dynamics
Knob 2 – Colour
Knob 3 – Stereo Width
Knob 4 – Reverb
Knob 5 – Close Microphone
Knob 6 – Mid Microphone
Knob 7 – Far Microphone
Knob 8 – Perspective

Page Two – Placement, Legato

Knob 1 – Placement Mode: In-situ, Centre, Custom
Knob 2 – custom: row 1, row 2 (when custom placement is selected)
Knob 3 – Seat: Left, left mid, middle, right mid, right
Knob 4 – Unallocated
Knob 5 – Legato Mode: Smart, Classic
Knob 6 – Latency: in ms values (smart mode only)
Knob 7 – Delay CC (smart mode only)
Knob 8 – speed: (classic mode only)

Page Three – Reverb Settings, Global settings

Knob 1 – Reverb Type: room, Hall, Shimmer, Convolve
Knob 2 – Reverb size
Knob 3 – Damping
Knob 4 – Modulation
Knob 5 – Impulse Response Selection: (when convolution is selected)
Knob 6 – Unallocated
Knob 7 – Volume range
Knob 8 – Keyswitch range

(c) Chris Ankin

KK-Access.com

1ST March 2025

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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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