Hellen

HELLEN – Ghostly Voices & Creatures

Hellen is a Kontakt library based on ghostly voices and creatures sounds. We have teamed up with vocalist Alessandra Cognetta a.k.a. Psamathes to record a variety of vocal styles: operatic/soprano (multisampled), screams, whispers, growls, gasps, yells plus several tonal and atonal vocal layers and a variety of found sounds ranging from animal recordings to metallic friction and bowed effects.

Most of them have been processed with advanced sound design techniques (spectral morph in Kyma, formant and vowel processing etc.) to create a huge variety of sounds: soprano textures and layers, demoniac screams, evocative laments and howling sounds, unsettling laughs, designed creatures effects, ethereal whisperings , elusive broken sentences, monster growls and vocalizations, hair-raising screeches and shrieks, breathing loops (tempo synched) and even syllables and phrases in a fictional language inspired to ancient Latin.

All the 12 instruments in Hellen (playable and sound design) fit particularly well the horror and thriller realm; they have been conceived and developed to cover the needs of the modern composer and ambient producer, from the vocal textures evoking scenes of haunted settings, to terrifying vocal stabs to create effective jump scares and impactful vocal effects.

12 KONTAKT INSTRUMENTS

Vocal Textures is a playable instrument based on two independent layers (L1 and L2) of vocal tonal and atonal sounds that can be blended, filtered and morphed from the intuitive main panel in the UI. Each layer features cutoff, resonance, LFO and Volume Envelope controls.

With the useful VOCAL MORPH knob it is possible to easily create interesting sonic combinations from any chosen pair of sounds.

Vocal Textures feature 56 Kontakt snapshots.

Hellen features 7 One Shot SFX instruments, divided by category of sounds: Screams, Laments-Howlings, Creatures, Whispers-Sentences, Monster-Growls, Shrieks-Screeches, Gasps-Yells.

The One Shot SFX instruments in Hellen feature a per-sample control on any parameter (Volume, Pitch, Low Pass Filter, High Pass Filter, LFO and Volume Envelope, Straight/Reverse play), plus the possibility to globally control any parameter by using the ‘Global Controls’ window.

By using the Extend switch, you can play any chosen sample chromatically along the keyboard.

Hellen features two vocal sequencers/builders: the Syllables Sequencer and the Breath Sequencer. They both allow to sequence short groups of tempo synched syllables and create a long, rhythmical spoken phrase and/or breathing sequence.

The Syllables Sequencer is based on a fictional language occasionally resembling ancient Latin, whereas the Breath Sequencers features short breathing sounds.

In both instruments, the two featured voices can be independently activated/deactivated per step. All the syllables  have been recorded at 70 bpm and use the Time Machine Pro in Kontakt (HQ), so the quality of the sound is not compromised by bpm changes.

The Vocalise Builder in Hellen is a sound design instrument conceived and developed to easily create customized demonic and creature-esque voices.

It is based on 3 independent layers featuring dry and less designed sounds in in order to provide useful source material and allow room for creative experimentation.

The 3 layers can be automatically stacked on the top of each other by simply pressing the green key on the virtual keyboard. Each layer can be played either with a regular sample playback or in Time Stretch mode, with control on the amount of time stretch and formants.

By using the several randomization options, it is possible to quickly create interesting combinations of sounds and customized sound effects.

The Breath Loops instrument in Hellen features tempo synched loops (original tempo 70 bpm) automatically synched to the master tempo in the DAW.

By using the Half Tempo and Formant controls (independent per each sample) it is possible to alter the timing and the gender of the voice and creating tensive vocal rhythms.