SPITFIRE AUDIO Aska Matsumiya Crystal Bowls User Manual

SPITFIRE AUDIO Aska Matsumiya Crystal Bowls

USER MANUAL

INTRODUCTION

A new age sound re-imagined for modern settings

Meditative and new-age crystal bowls and tuning forks recorded in a large resonant hall with varying mallets, brushes and sticks. These powerful instruments will provide unique tools to write atmospheric and ethereal music for all genres.

Recorded in The Round Chapel, a unique and beautiful building in Hackney that offers a clear and resonant reverb making the bowls sing.

QUICK SPECS

Size – 2.1GB
Free Kontakt Player install required
Kontakt Player 6.7.0 or higher

For system requirements please refer to the Native Instruments website:
https://www.native- instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/specifications/

WELCOME

Created in collaboration with composer and multi-instrumentalist Aska Matsumiya (After Yang, Betty, Fastest Woman On Earth) this distinctive collection of instruments captures the ethereal and resonant tones of crystal bowls, tuning forks and percussion, meticulously curated and designed to inspire composers, producers, and musicians alike.

“The essence and magic of crystal bowls lies in their unique vibrations — intrinsically linked to nature, their frequencies resonate at a cellular level, producing intense physical reactions. I was excited to see how we could expand the language of these stunning instruments to create unique textures.” – Aska Matsumiya

Traditionally known for their use in meditation practice and sound therapy, we’ve transported these otherworldly instruments into the cinematic realm by capturing a detailed and diverse range of performance styles in the resonant acoustics of the Hackney Round Chapel, London.

Mix and move between a full spectrum of textures within our intuitively designed plugin to create intense atmospheric soundscapes — from percussive, shimmering shorts to deep, long-lasting resonances, as well as a range of contemporary warped presets. Designed to breathe new life into any genre of music — from ambient minimalism to ethereal cinematic scores.

DOWNLOADING & INSTALLING

Thank you for buying Aska Matsumiya – Crystal Bowls. If you are new to Spitfire Audio you can get up to speed here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/about/
First though, grab the ‘Spitfire Audio App’ from this link, this app will enable you to download the library: http://www.spitfireaudio.com/info/library- manager/

THE SPITFIRE AUDIO APP
When you launch the app you will be prompted to login using the same details you use at our site. Then you’ll see the page pictured below:

1. TABS the default tab is My Products, which shows all of the libraries on your Spitfire Account. Downloads will show currently downloading products.
2. FILTERS Clicking these filters will quickly display products you’ve yet to install, those already installed, and any available updates. Clicking again will remove the filter.
3. LIBRARY All libraries and plugins in your collection will appear with their artwork on the My Products tab. Clicking this artwork will open the product page. This is a great place to find information such as system requirements and instructions as well as Reset and Repair options.
4. INSTALL/UPDATE buttons allow you to quickly start a download directly from the My Products tab, instead of clicking through to the Library. Next to the button the size of the download is shown.

THE SPITFIRE APP PREFERENCES

If this is your first time using the Spitfire Audio App for a download you may wish to first navigate to the Settings tab. Here you can set the Default Content location for where you wish to download your libraries. You can also you can set the default VST2 install location to the folder where your DAW expects to find VST files.
Here you can also enable Auto Login to save time in future.

Once you are happy with your preferences, click the Install button for the library. This is either directly on My Products tab under the library artwork, or it can be found by clicking on the library image and clicking the install button on the page that appears.

Clicking either of these will prompt you for a location, the default content location in your preferences will be suggested but you can select any suitable location. If installing from a hard drive, ensure that you choose the drive as the location.

Once you are happy with the location click Download.

After clicking install you will be directed to the Downloads tab where you can watch the progress if you like. You can of course leave the Downloads tab and start other downloads but at this point you should leave the Spitfire App open until the download completes.

REGISTERING WITH KONTAKT PLAYER

If you have never used one of our libraries before and you don’t own a copy of Native Instruments Kontakt, you’ll need to download the free “Kontakt Player” here:
https://www.native- instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/
To find out more about the differences between Kontakt and Kontakt Player, go to Appendix A.

1. Install Kontakt Player (skip this step if you already have it)
2. Open the player (or Kontakt 6 full version if you have that) and click Manage Libraries in the library browser window, then click Launch Native Access in the window that opens:

3. Once you have opened Native Access, click Add Serial in the top left of the window.
4. Enter the serial number in this format:

It can be found in your ‘ready to download’ email and at the following link:
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/my-account/seri-al-numbers

5. You will then be prompted to navigate to the not installed products in Native Access. From here, add library for Aska Matsumiya – Crystal Bowls. Browse for your downloaded Aska Matsumiya -Crystal Bowls folder and select this to complete the authorisation.

6. Your library is authorised.
If you have never used Kontakt before we whole-heartedly recommend that you familiarise yourself with the basics of patch (or instrument) loading, multi management, outputting and midi routing de-tailed in the Kontakt user-manual and native instru-ments website:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7/
If you are an established Kontakt user please make sure you absolutely have the latest version of it downloaded via NATIVE ACCESS apps.
For more information about NKS and integration with Native Instruments hardware controllers and keyboards please checkout their online instruc-tions:

FOLDER STRUCTURE

OPENING YOUR FIRST INSTRUMENT.

Simply double click an ‘nki’ file (this is Native Instruments’ file extension for a Kontakt instrument) to load, or drag the instrument (it’ll have the little keyboard icon and the suffix .nki) from the left pane into the right pane.

If you can’t hear anything double check first that the midi channel you are transmitting on with your key-board is the same as the one in the Kontakt Instrument!

QUICK LOOK

This library was recorded using a selection of Neumann, Schoeps and Royer micro-phones spread out across the chapel floor and blacony, mixed into one signal to pro-vide a balanced sound. The crystal bowls have been recorded using six different mallet and stick styles which can be mixed together. There are also several different playing styles, such as several minute long longs, short hits, rolls and swells, as well as damped versions. In addition to the bowls, there are also tuning forks and a selection of warped sounds created from the source material.

There are four main controls you can use to shape the sound, including Attack, Release, Offset and Convolution Reverb.

THE USER INTERFACE

1. MAIN CONTROLS
Attack – Control the length of the attack of your sound
Release – Control the length of the release of your sound
Offset – Move the sample start forward. This is useful when wanted to skip ahead to the peak of the crystal bowl sound, or when wanting to craft new sounds in combination with the Attack and Release controls
Reverb – Dial in a convolution reverb of the Round Chapel we recorded during the session

2. MALLET MIX PANEL
Click on the images or sliders to dial in the six dif-ferent mallet and stick styles. Command click to reset the sliders back to their default state.

ASKA MATSUMIYA – CRYSTAL BOWLS

3. ARTICULATION MENU
Click on the different sections to toggle between the different playing styles such as normal longs, rolls, swells, normal and damped shorts, tuning forks and warped pads.

ARTICULATIONS

The following is an explanation of all of the terms used when naming our ‘articulations’ in the library. (An Articulation is basically a way of playing the instrument, captured as a standalone ‘patch’ like you might have on a synth.)

SHORTS (NORMAL)
Short hits with the sticks.

SHORTS (DAMPED)
Short hits with the sticks, with one hand damping the bowl.

LONGS
The traditional way to play crystal bowls, created by rubbing the mallet around the rim of thebowl. These samples are several minutes long and get louder the longer you play!

LONGS (SWELLS)
Swelling rolls played with two mallets on either side of the bowl.

LONGS (ROLLS)
Consistent rolls played with two mallets on either side of the bowl.

FORKS (NORMAL)
Hitting two tuning forks together.

FORKS (TREMOLO)
Hitting two tuning forks together and then moving them around the close microphones to cre-ate a tremolo effect.

WARPS
A selection of warped sounds created using the source material. We used various combinations of granular synthesis, guitar pedals and reverbs.

APPENDIX A — KONTAKT VS KONTAKT PLAYER

Kontakt Player is a free version of the Kontakt sample playback engine available to download:
https://www.native- instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/
It works with libraries that the developer has paid a license fee for. Essentially, you’ve bought this play-back engine along with your library.
The Kontakt player gives you full access to all the sounds and all the editable parameters on the front panel. Also, unlike non-Player libraries, these libraries will also have a banner that appears on the Kon-takt Libraries pane.
If you want to go deeper into editing you’ll need a full version. As you will already own the free Kontakt player and have bought one of our ‘player’ libraries you will be eligible for a discount upgrade to Kontakt via the NI website. See here for more details:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-6 /pricing-kontakt-5/cross-grade-offer/
If the library you want to use is NOT a ‘Player’ library then you need to buy the full retail version of Kon-takt.
Then you can also load ‘non-Player’ libraries like some of our other ranges, Harp, Piano, Harpsichord, etc.
Please note that non-Player library instruments will not appear on the Kontakt libraries pane and so can’t be added as a library as Player libraries need to be. Instead, these libraries will simply need to be loaded via the Kontakt files browser or you can add the library as a favourite to the Kontakt Quick Load window.

APPENDIX B — FAQS AND TROUBLESHOOTING

Q: WHAT ARE THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS?

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.15 – OS 14
Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 (quad-core), 8GB RAM
Recommended: 2.8GHz i7 (six-core), 16GB RAM

PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows 10 and above. (latest Service Pack, 64-bit)
Minimum: Intel Core 2.8GHz i5 (quad-core) or AMD Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM
Recommended: Intel 2.8GHzi7 (six-core) or AMD R7 2700, 16GB RAM

Q: CAN I INSTALL ON MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER?
With our products you have two licenses. This means that you are allowed to download and install on two computers you own, say your main rig and your mobile rig. If you have purchased the library on a hard drive, you should copy the contents of the drive on to the destination machine before completing the download with the Spitfire App. If you downloaded Aska Matsumiya – Crystal Bowls, you can copy the library folder over to the second machine and then use the “Repair” feature in Native Access.

Q: I CAN’T SEE THIS IN THE PLUGINS SECTION OF MY DAW?
This library is a Kontakt Player library so it does not have its own standalone plugin. Instead you will find the library in the Kontakt or Kontakt Player plugin.

Q: HOW DO I AUTHORIZE ASKA MATSUMIYA – CRYSTAL BOWLS ON A MACHINE NOT CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET?
It not possible to authorise Aska Matsumiya – Crystal Bowls on a machine not connected to the internet. Authorisation is done through the Spitfire Audio App and Native Access, and an internet connection is required.

Q: HOW CAN I REDOWNLOAD A PRODUCT?
This can easily be done via your Spitfire Audio App. To reset both your entire library download or the latest update;

• Open up the Spitfire Audio App and log in with your account email and password.
• Select the product artwork you wish to re-download
• On this page is a “cog wheel”. Select this, choose “reset” from the menu. Then “Reset Entire Download” (for a full download) or (Latest Update) for the latest update.

This will reset your latest update ready for install again. You can repeat this process for any of the libraries you own.
Note that there is a limit to how many times you can reset your downloads in a certain time frame. If you do exceed your reset limit please get in touch.

Q: HOW DO I DOWNLOAD PRODUCTS ON MAC OSX 10.9?
The version of the Spitfire App needed to install Aska Matsumiya – Crystal Bowls only supports Mac OSX 10.13 and upwards.

Q: DIFFICULTIES IN DOWNLOADING / INSTALLING

Customers may find that they have some difficulties in the downloading process. If you find that you are having some trouble, please check the list below for possible causes:

• The formatting of your drive, if it is FAT32 this will cause errors, because there is a maximum file size with this format of 4GB and our download files will exceed this limit. To solve this problem, reformat your drive or use a different drive. We recommend NTFS on PC and Mac OS Extended on Mac. Other possible issues:

• Spitfire App freezes in the “Extracting” stage for hours. This may be because our libraries are often very large files, and this is the stage where the compressed files are extracted and placed in their final locations on the hard drive. There could be hundreds of GB of content to unpack, so it really can take hours. If you’re unsure whether it has crashed or is extracting files, visit
  the installation folder you chose when you started the install. If everything is working normally you’ll see various files appearing in the folder (or one of its sub-folders).

• If your download gets stuck and is continually cycling and not resuming, please get in touch with us, giving us as much detail as possible about your set up. It would be helpful if you can tell us your operating system, where you are downloading from (your country, and also whether you’re at home or work), your ISP, and whether there are any proxy servers or firewalls between your computer and the internet.

Q: I HAVE FAST INTERNET, WHY IS MY DOWNLOAD SLOW?
We have no direct influence on your actual download speeds, our libraries are hosted on Amazon S3 servers which are normally very quick but it may well be that at certain times of the day when traffic is particularly busy, your ISP may throttle your connection speeds.

We would advise you to leave your download running overnight as speeds should ramp up at less busy times. Our Spitfire App downloader aims to use as much of the available bandwidth as possible to give you the quickest possible speeds, and may take several minutes to reach its peak.

Q: CAN I TRY BEFORE I BUY?
No – it is not currently possible to demo our products.
If you go to our Youtube channel you’ll see many walkthroughs containing detailed info about all our products — you can hear them being played in real time with no smoke and
mirrors!

Q: MY LIBRARIES ARE NOT SHOWING UP IN MY SPITFIRE APP
A handful of customers may find that when they log into their Spitfire App, some of their previously purchased products do not show up in the ‘Installed’ section or in the
‘Download Ready’ section either. It may
be that you have purchased these under another email address. Checking other possible email addresses for your previous purchases may help to find these missing products. If this is not the case, and these missing products were purchased a few years ago, please create a support ticket telling us your account email address, and any serial numbers you may have to go with these missing products. Our support team can also merge one or more accounts together if you’d like to consolidate all your purchases in one place.
The more information we have, the quicker we can get you back up and running!

Q: HOW DO I UPDATE MY PRODUCTS?
The main premise of downloading our products is that our Spitfire App downloads into the folder you choose, so it is important to choose the folder above where you want

a manual order check, and this can delay the processing of your order for up to 24 hours.
You should however receive an order confirmation email IMMEDIATELY upon placing your order. This confirms that
your order has successfully been logged
in our system and that your payment was successfully taken. Please check your junk folders before contacting our support.

Q: CAN I DOWNLOAD ON A PC, THEN TRANSFER TO A MAC OR VICE  VERSA?
Yes, you can copy the library folder and plugin files over to the second machine and then use the “Repair” and “Locate Library” features in the Spitfire Audio App. Please note that although the majority of the download can be done on a separate machine, you will always need an internet connection to finish the authorisation process.

Q: I HAVE FOUND A BUG
In some cases we can’t squash them all and bugs shamefully make their way through.
If you think you have found a bug, please contact us with all the relevant information;

• A description of the bug you have found
• A screencast (video) of the bug happening, or an audio example
• The exact preset name (or presets) in question and also the library giving us as much detail as possible will help us get to the bottom of the issue.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR REFUNDS / RETURNS POLICY?
If you have NOT completed the download / installation process, and bought within 14 days then we CAN refund / return your product, please contact support with your account email address and order number so we can handle this quickly. If you HAVE completed the installation process (even if you’ve not yet registered your serial number), please see our EULA in regards to why we do not accept refunds and returns. We can refund hard drive orders up until the point when the drive is dispatched from our office. This is usually 1-2 days after you order.

Q: I’VE FORGOTTEN MY PASSWORD?
If you have forgotten your password, please see this link spitfireaudio.com /my-account/login/, and click ‘Forgotten Password’. If
at some point in the past you asked us to merge two or more accounts but have since forgotten, you MAY find that the forgotten password isn’t working for the email address you asked us to merge FROM. In this case, please contact support with your name, and any email addresses you think we might know about, and we’ll work out what has happened.

References

• Spitfire Audio
• Sign in — Spitfire Audio
• Spitfire Audio app — Spitfire Audio
• Native Instruments - Software And Hardware For Music Production And Djing
• OVERVIEW Full Catalog of All Products | Native Instruments
• Native Instruments
• Kontakt 7 Player: Free sample player
• About Spitfire Audio — Spitfire Audio

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