You are here

Zero-G Extreme Environments

Kontakt Instrument By Paul Nagle
Published October 2014

Created for Zero-G by producer and composer Si Begg, Extreme Environments is primarily a Kontakt instrument for soundscapes, drones and atmospherics. It’s supplied with over 150 highly usable presets and bundled with Reason and Logic sample instruments, plus loops in Apple and Acid formats, impulse responses, Space Designer presets and Logic channel strip settings. The whole package is available as either a download (of approximately 1.65GB) or as a boxed DVD.

Starting with the Kontakt component, it’s split into two modes: Sampler and Time Machine. Sampler mode behaves like a traditional sampler, while Time Machine employs Kontakt’s time-stretching, and is consequently far more CPU-greedy. Source material is taken from 142 possible loops and there’s one small difference in layer handling. For a bit of variation, the second layer’s loops play backwards.

Zero-G Extreme EnvironmentsThe presets are divided into categories: Atmospheric Leads, Bad Places, Beautiful Pads, Complex Bass, Complex Tuned and Hypereal (sic) Environments. If you choose Time Machine mode, each sample can be time-stretched between 25 percent and 400 percent, giving further scope for warped variation. Each layer has an amplitude envelope and pan, and its sample can be transposed by 36 semitones up or down. There’s also a (rather unsubtle) overdrive, resonant low- and high-pass filters (complete with a filter envelope), and a send level to the convolution reverb. Since this send is ‘pre-fade’, it’s possible to drop the sample’s volume and hear only its effect on the reverb. With such variety and complexity amongst the supplied convolution reverb patches, this can be an awesome source of ambient drones with no further work required.

The base samples are taken from processed field recordings, real sounds and old analogue synths, to name but a few. The result is an instrument that combines playable tones with textures and atmospheres, often with an industrial, alien or otherworldly theme. Composers scoring post-apocalyptic games can take their pick of backdrops that include gurgling industrial pipes, haunted music boxes, pulsing subs and seemingly deserted space stations. When you want a break from the atmospherics, there are a selection of string, bass and vocal pads, all of them odd and most drowning in strange reverb.

The interface is a breeze to get around. To make it better I’d have liked a faster way of auditioning samples and reverb responses. If I were being greedy, I’d also like an assignable LFO to add even more movement.

Leaving Kontakt aside for a moment, Logic users should find the EXS24 instruments, Space Designer presets and Apple Loops worthwhile. They’re built from the same processed sample material but are much easier on the CPU. Similarly, the 86 impulse responses are suitable for any convolution reverb and although I didn’t get a chance to try the Reason instruments, I’ve no reason (ho ho) to doubt their quality. However, the processor requirements might be off-putting for some. My six-year-old Mac Pro suffered random crackles with some patches and as a workaround I often had to reduce the number of layers, maximum polyphony or reverb time. Still, at just under £60, Extreme Environments represents great value for money and anyone in need of a fresh batch of advanced, slightly off-kilter sound-design patches should check it out. Paul Nagle.