Spitfire Audio – Aska Matsumiya – Crystal Bowls

A unique palette of expansive, otherworldly textures created from the rich internal vibrations of high-purity quartz crystal singing bowls, curated by award-winning composer Asuka Matsumiya (Home, After Yang, Betty).

Traditionally known for their use in meditation and sound therapy practices, we have brought these otherworldly instruments into the cinematic realm, capturing in detail a variety of performance styles in the resonant acoustics of Hackney Round Chapel in London.

Mix and switch between a wide range of textures in our intuitively designed plugin to create intense, atmospheric soundscapes – from percussive, shimmering short sounds to deep, long-lasting resonances and a range of modern distortion presets. It is designed to breathe new life into any musical genre, from ambient minimalism to ethereal cinematic scores.

Inner Vibrations

This library is based on the deep resonant tones of a set of seven crystal singing bowls, recorded in an A=432 Hz tuning fork. With a sound close to a raw sine wave, its synth qualities can be easily molded into any shape.

Thanks to the innovative vision of Japanese-born, Malibu-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Asuka Matsumiya, who has used these instruments extensively in her scores and sound installations, we set out to expand the language of the instrument and discover a rich new palette of otherworldly tones and textures, presented in an intuitive and inspiring plugin developed by to create long-lasting ambient soundscapes and rich cinematic atmospheres.

Using various combinations of traditional mallets, modern drumsticks and brushes, we capture both percussive, rattling internal vibrations and sustained shimmering layered textures that sing, evolve and resonate throughout the body. A range of modern warps offers further inspiration, transforming these echoes into stunning, alien textures.

Main Features

• Rare 7-piece crystal singing bowl set made of high-purity quartz
  
• Tuned to C, D, E, F, G, A and B with A=432 Hz
  
• Recorded in the magnificent acoustics of London’s Hackney Round Chapel with clear and resonant reverb
  
• Presented in an elegant, user-friendly interface with intuitive controls
  
• Four controls to help shape your sound – attack, release, offset and reverb (using IR signal obtained from the Round Chapel)
  
• 5 playing styles in Crystal Bowls
  
• Combination of six traditional and modern mallets – brushes, soft mallet, sticks, rubber mallet, plastic mallet, hot rods
  
• Two tuning fork sounds for higher, sharper tones
  
• A single signal created from a combination of positions nearby, in a room, on a gallery
  Six distorted sounds were created by controlling crystal bowls with guitar pedals and granular synths