Instruments

Discover one of the biggest collections of bells ever recorded with nearly 6 hours of sound.

Beautiful Bells BUNDLE contains the solo ringing of 76 swinging bells and 135 stationary bells, captured in 62 bell towers, carillons, chapels, churches, cathedrals, basilicas and clock towers across France, with unprecedented quality. Most of the sounds were recorded inside bell towers.

Swinging bells are struck by a hanging clapper. They have a natural pitch modulation due to the Doppler effect, and a timbre modulation due to varying orientation. They produce a deep and lively sound and are mostly used to announce masses, religious holidays, weddings and funerals.

Stationary bells are struck by external hammers. They have a steady and rich tone, with a long sustain. They are mostly used as musical instruments in carillons, to indicate the hour in clock chimes or to alert the population in tocsins.

Every bell size and pitch is represented in this library, from huge 10 ton bourdon to tiny carillon bells weighing a few kilograms. You will find bells founded from 14th to 21st century with a great variety of timbres and tunings, over a range of more than 5 octaves. The sounds are sorted by note from D2 to G7.

The library contains 2 carillons with 54 bells and 10 bells, available as sound files and virtual instruments (NI Kontakt and EXS24 with round robin).

You will also get 15 peals of multiple bells, called plenum.

By sorting the solo sounds by location, you can recreate authentic bell combinations. You also have the freedom to create any custom combination or use the sounds as instruments in musical scores.

All the sounds in this library were recorded in bell towers or as close as possible to provide great sonic precision and optimal signal-to-noise ratio.

Over 12,000 kilometers were traveled during six months to get you one of the most exhaustive swinging bell collection ever recorded.