Introduction
Fracture Sounds is a company founded and run by composer and programmer Will Bedford. His previous releases include Granulate 2, Singing Bowl, Dream Zither and Water Glass. Now we have the Tiny Music Box; a quaint and wonderfully crafted music box VST. One thing I enjoy about Fracture Sounds is how intimately sampled and easy to use the libraries are. Like previous releases, Tiny Music Box has a crisp and clear sound that can be manipulated in many different ways to achieve the result you desire.
The Library
The library runs in Kontakt Player and it’s simplicity makes it instantly playable straight out of the box. It offers five dials in total: ‘reverb’, ‘damping’, and an ‘atmosphere’ section split in to ‘volume’ and ‘width’. To further explain the features, damping shortens the release of each note, creating a sharper and drier sound. The reverb does exactly what it says, but the type of reverb included is nicely chosen. It accompanies and enhances the atmosphere setting nicely, but can be also be set to 0 for a dry sound if you prefer a third-party reverb plugin. Atmosphere is an additional form of reverb but with a much more ethereal overtone. It provides a deeper and more reflective ambience, broadened even further by its ‘width setting’. Finally, age is a particularly nice feature that enhances the vintage aesthetic of the sound. All the settings included add something pleasant to the overall sound. The fact that all they have a 0 to 100 meter mean that you can quickly learn what percentage of each setting achieves what result and are a key element of why this library is so brilliantly straight-forward to use.
The sampling of the library itself is great, once again meeting the standard of all of Fracture Sounds’ previous libraries. It’s detailed, up-close and highly nuanced which is exactly what you want for a music box sound. You get the occasional authentic creak and churn that accentuates the realism, yet each note remains cleanly cut and separated to ensure that at no point does it sound repetitive or synthetic. Another thing I appreciate is how well Fracture Sounds’ libraries work together. Tiny Music Box sounds particularly lovely alongside the Dream Zither and the fact that the interfaces are mutual throughout mean that you can quickly operate any of Fracture Sounds’ products in unison.
Conclusion
Overall, for the low price and the excellent quality, Tiny Music Box is a no-brainer of a purchase. It integrates smoothly with any texture whilst still providing a prominent and noticeable dynamic. It has a unique sound, is beautifully sampled and sleekly designed. Created by one person, it is an absolute credit to Will’s talent both as a programmer and a composer, alongside the rest of his current products.
Check out a great set of demos of the Tiny Music Box library here:
LINKS
Official
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