Desk Bell!
Desk Bell!
Desk Bell!
Desk Bell!

Desk Bell!

Open Format
$ 0
Desk Bell is a humble library featuring a 3-inch polished brass bell with a simple, yet loud "ding!." We sampled this instrument in the lush halls of St. Paul's Church and up close in a dry studio, and designed warm ambiences to provide maximum playability.
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The Desk Bell, occasionally known as a call bell or table bell, is a simple and quite old device, designed to command attention at the push of a button. For at least the last couple of centuries, classic push-button desk bell have been used widely in classrooms, hotel desks, shops and homes. It's a simple device, with a small brass bell affixed to a base or flat pedestal. Centered on top is a mechanical button mounted to the top of the bell, which when pressed will actuate a small pewter, lead, bronze, or brass clapper into the bell to produce a simple yet loud "ding!". While not exactly a musical instrument in the strictly classical sense, we think it counts.

The Soundiron Desk Bell library does exactly what it says on the tin, and then so very much more. We've sampled this 3-inch polished brass desk bell from up close in a dry studio, as well as in St Paul's Church, a cathedral located in San Francisco. It's the same lush and pristine hall that we recorded Requiem Light, Symphony Series Brass Collection, Alpha Organ and a number of other classic Soundiron libraries. The primary ding articulation includes 10 round-robin variations per velocity, with 9 velocity layers for the close position and 5 velocities for the 3 separate cathedral positions (close, mid-hall and far). We also recorded loosely and tightly muted dings and mechanical clapper sound effects up close in our dry studio to give this little desk bell maximum playability.

However, we didn't quit there. We've also crafted 20 unique sound-designed ambient pads, soundscapes and textures from the acoustic source recordings, as well as 26 outstanding custom FX presets that take this little library to another world, with rich layering, deep textures, dynamic musicality and inspiring flavors. It all comes packed into our intuitive and powerful multi-layered user interface with 4 independent sonic layers packed with their own performance controls including arpeggiator, filter and LFO modules and a master DSP effects rack with 17 plugins to allow complete sonic transformation. This humble library is feature-packed enough to create entire compositions all by its lonesome. It's perfect for any style or genre of music and ideal for any tier of musician, from beginner to master.

It also has a special place in our hearts, belonging to our founder's mom, who received it as a memento for her decades of tireless service as an elementary school teacher in under-served communities, where she specialized in remedial education for kids struggling to overcome poverty, learning and behavioral issues and abuse. This one's for you mom!

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Contents

The Kontakt interface includes a suite of automation-ready sound-shaping controls to give you total creative flexibility. You have control over swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse & fine), articulation switching, cross-fading and layering, and so much more. We've also included 26 unique sound-designed custom FX presets to give you lots of creative options.

This library comes with an adaptable LFO system, with selectable LFO shape, modulation target parameter, speed, intensity, tempo-syncing and fade-in time. You can also apply your choice of 12 lowpass, high-pass and FX filters, with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, modwheel, expression, after-touch, key position and step-sequencer table control. Our customizable arpeggiator offers a velocity table and control over arp direction, timing, swing, randomization and duration. We’ve included a key and scale lock system to constrain your notes to common scales and keys for easy melodic composition and live performance.

The interface is rounded-out by our modular FX rack panel, with 18 different DSP effect modules that you can assign in any of 10 available slots, in any order that you wish. You’ll find classic phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator and so much more. The Reverb effect includes our favorite convolution reverb impulse responses, including 99 different rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor environments, plus another 40 custom FX impulses to radically transform the sound and open up whole new worlds of musical possibility. We’ve added a great bank of FX rack chain factory presets to get you started!

Kontakt Format

This library is designed for the full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5.5 or later. Kontakt is an industry-standard advanced virtual instrument software platform. You can view screenshots of this library's custom graphical user interface in the image gallery above. This library is packed with features to provide you a wide range of sound shaping parameter controls, each one totally automation-ready in your host environment or Kontakt's stand-alone mode. Learn more about Kontakt by Clicking Here.

This is a standard Kontakt open-format library, so the free Kontakt Player does not fully support it and can only run it in a limited "demo mode". However, the sample directories are unlocked so you can use them in other wav-compatible software, sampler and synth formats. The special Libraries tab doesn't support this open-format Kontakt library, but you can use the standard File browser tab and import this library into the Kontakt Quickload window for easy loading and navigation.

Product Specs

  • One master NKI instrument bank in open Kontakt format
  • Bell rings, tight and loose muted dings, clapper SFX
  • 20 Ambience patches created from the source content
  • 24 bit / 48 kHz uncompressed PCM wav samples
  • 26 Custom Sound-Designed FX and Ambient presets
  • 409 Stereo WAV files
  • 512 MB installed
  • Flexible and intuitive multi-layer user interface controls, with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator
  • Full FX rack with convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers & FX environments

Documentation

System Requirements

The full retail version of Native Instruments Kontakt version 5.5 (or later) is required to use .nki instrument presets included in this library. The free Kontakt "Player" and "Add Library" import process do not support this standard open-format Kontakt library. Windows 7 or higher. Mac OSX 10.9 or higher. Dual Core CPU, 2 GB System Ram, SATA or SSD hard drive recommended for this library.

Note: This digital product is delivered as a download via the Amazon S3 cloud network. A broadband internet connection is required. Please see our Help Page for licensing information, download and installation instructions, tutorials and to read our End User Licensing Agreement before ordering. All sales are final.

Videos

Walkthrough: Desk Bell

Composing With Desk Bell