Night Bells

A few years ago my parents moved to France to retire, in a “fixer-upper” house in a small village.

Every time I visit the church there plays the Angelus Bells at 7am and 7pm, as well as the chime of the clock bell all day and all night!

Each visit to help fix up the house and see my parents for the first time in months-at-a-time is accompanied by the familiar sound of the church bells from the Garden, and faintly indoors when waking up too.

A little loud, but rich and full of deep tones, no doubt affected by years of constant chiming and a bit of weathering.

I often thought “I really must record these, one day, when I start sampling”.

Thankfully I finally did. But all didn’t quite go to plan, and my trusty Zoom recorder had one or both mics broken and crackly, and the wind-shield had long since gone.
I had my iPhone as backup, without which there would be no samples at all, and no instrument!

The recordings were taken at 3 points in the village; the square next to the church, my parent’s garden, and down one of the long roads in the village. Each has a direct line-of-sight to the tower.

It’s a quiet village, but there is still much less noise at night, so a much better opportunity to record. Midnight and 1:00am. Also I recorded the morning Angelus bells.

The result is 8 groups as described above;
6 original recordings,
and 2 processed “synthed” bell samples,
All able to be mixed and matched to your liking!

35 Patches across various themes.

I already want to do Version 2, which will have better recordings (once I replace my recorder!) and more ideas for patches.
A new interface also, with perhaps custom knobs etc.

Please see the script editor for notes and credits for the script sources! I have only just learned very basic Kontakt scripting, and used a template for the majority.

If you have any questions at all please do feel free to ask through my profile links, or the Crowhill network.

I hope you Enjoy making things with Night Bells!!