Deep Impact – Music Tech – August 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Cinematic sound design is an art that often pushes production skills far beyond what is normally heard in most modern music. Whether it’s a morphing metallic squeal or a low and menacing rumble, a great deal of time and effort is spent in creating complex textures and movement. All of these techniques can be found in the new sample library from Zero-G, Deep Impact, which follows on from the successful Dark Skies pack released last year.
Due to the massive 4.26GB of 24-bit audio, you get two DVDs to cover both ACID WAV and Apple Loops formats, plus 650 mapped instruments for Kontakt, EXS24 and NN-XT. The bulk of the pack comes in the form of 40 construction kits, each around one minute in length and containing a complete cue plus between two and five component parts. These mostly fall into the ambient and tense category, with the odd upbeat action cue.
Although you’ll find masses of extremely high-quality audio in the construction kits, be aware that the constant movement in each part does mean that you may need to do a lot of work to make it fit with a particular scene.
In addition to these cues, there are also eight folders packed with excellent atmospheres, beats, drones, explosions, hits, reverses, room tones and whooshes. The production throughout is simply stunning, with each sample having been finely crafted to give it character, shape and purpose. Many of the sound effects found here would lend themselves perfectly to horror or action movies – and especially to sci-fi.
If you are looking for a wide variety of foley sounds then you may want to consider a larger professional library. That said, there are some fantastic hits and atmospheres here that would work well if you are working on a dark or moody project. Although arguably a little too niche for some, this is a large and well-produced collection that will appeal to soundtrack composers and modern producers who want to bring something different to their tracks.
Verdict: Stunning production and plenty of dark, twisted sounds and foreboding atmospheres.
Rating: 9/10
Click here for more information on Deep Impact
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