Westwood Instruments – Novella Blackwater (Review)

Westwood Instruments just released a new sample library called Novella Blackwater. As the second entry in the highly acclaimed Novella series, this composition toolkit is a new take on contemporary Western film music, with influences from Nick Cave and Jonny Greenwood.

Featuring a diverse range of instruments including a chamber-sized ensemble recorded in an intimate studio, Novella Blackwater aims to offer a unique approach to this peculiar sound and much more. Let’s have a closer look!

OVERVIEW

Novella Blackwater was designed around a chamber string ensemble (7 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 3 basses), available both as a playable ensemble and separated into low and high sections. This ensemble is supported by various solo instruments: a solo violin, a harmonium, 2 electric guitars, 2 acoustic guitars, a mandola, a trumpet, a harmonica, a hickory piano, and various drums and percussion.

Each instrument was recorded with a generous selection of inspiring articulations (many of them centered around motion and evolving sounds) ranging from long to short, percussive techniques.

All players were recorded in situ at The Nave studio (Westwood Instruments’ go-to recording space) giving the library a very direct and raw sound. This is perfectly in line with the rest of Westwood Instrument’s catalog.

Novella Blackwater was made for Kontakt and Kontakt Player version 6.6.1 (or higher) and is NKS-compatible. As with previous releases, after purchase, the library can be downloaded by using the free Pulse downloader tool and registered in Native Access. All in all, Novella Blackwater requires almost 33 GB of hard drive space.

INTERFACE

For the sake of commonality, Westwood Instruments kept the same successful layout they used in their recent previous releases like Novella Origin, Alt Piano, or Rotor. The interface is easily readable and has a nice vintage visual style to it. Apart from the articulations’ names, the interface relies heavily on graphical cues, making it extremely easy to use.

The first page we see as we load up a patch includes the most commonly used controls displayed all in a single page.

The layout is the same as Westwood‘s previous “Novella” and “Alt” releases. The far left part displays the navigation menu, the top of the screen features the articulation selector, and the bottom shows the dynamics, microphone signals, and mix settings.

Individual advanced settings can be found by clicking the pen icon in the top right corner of any technique. This will open a menu where users can tweak dynamic control, ADSR, and tightness. It is also possible to see specific round robins that are being played in real-time (and to include or exclude some, as required). A new way to control dynamics has been added for the string ensemble: the “Motion” setting. This allows composers to use their two hands to play and improvise, while dynamic swells are automatically triggered, emulating a rising modulation control! This makes the ensemble patch a great patch to start sketching tracks.

The second page contains the master effects. Common effects such as EQ, reverb, delay, and stereo width are included. A transpitch setting is also present. What this essentially does is that it plays the samples as if they were recorded pitched down then pitches them back up for a tape-style effect. This results in a sound that will play in tune with the key pressed, but with a darker and grittier texture.

Finally, the third setting page contains additional general settings like velocity sensitivity, key switches, and purge controls. The fact that you can purge unused articulations is a great feature, especially for users building templates with disabled tracks.

THE SOUND OF NOVELLA BLACKWATER

Novella Blackwater’s huge array of instruments on offer is illustrated with the 15 NKI patches the library includes:

As we can see from this list, the library includes many solo instruments that are typically used in Western cinema among which are the tack piano, harmonica, acoustic guitar, trumpet, and the harmonium. A lot of these are sampled using playing techniques typical of this genre as well, such as the peculiar Morriccone-style trumpet motifs leading a heroic charge for example. All of the patches sound cinematic and contain plenty of dynamic energy. Another highlight is the mandola. It sounds excellent with its variety of round robins and very varied articulations. Some of our favorites were the fantastic rhythmic phrases. These phrases represent a nice way of adding motion to a track, and can obviously sync to the users’ chosen tempo.

As the library is designed around its chamber string ensemble, the Fairview Ensemble strings patch is a must to check naturally. Using the new “motion” dynamic control, it is very easy to sketch the entire foundations of a track from this patch alone. The ensemble has 6 articulations, including 2 short(er) ones. It’s worth mentioning that all the long techniques involve a sense of evolution and motion and they sound superb, a true joy to play. The separate low and high string patches have even more articulations. Here again, a great selection of evolving long techniques, driving motors, and a couple of short articulations. A distinct legato patch is also present and offers violin, viola, and low-string legato separately. The legato is smooth, a transition speed control is present as well as an alternate attack, which are both very welcome options.

A gut violin rounds up the bowed string instruments on offer. This stunning instrument from the 1800s has a very peculiar timbre, perfectly fitting the Americana imagery. The gut violin also offers a legato articulation.

All in all this array of sounds and playing techniques is brilliant for scoring to picture and is meant to complement the instruments in the first Novella Origin library. This is particularly evident in the choice of short articulations and the evolving nature of the longs in Blackwater. The two libraries share a common sound signature: the timbre of all string sections has this beautiful sheen and brightness that is very unique to Westwood Instruments style sampling and post-processing.

While Novella Blackwater has a very clear theme in terms of the choice of its instruments and its marketing approach, it also feels it could fit many more musical and cinematic styles beyond that. To that end, I’ve drafted a quick demo, leaning more on the contemporary scoring style. The demo uses the high and low string sections, along with the gut violin as a lead, accompanied by an evolving mandola patch.

All instruments share a common set of microphones that we recognize from Westwood Instruments’ earlier releases: a production-ready mix, and close, room, and gallery signals. Some instruments also have an overhead and copperphone signal (a very vintage-sounding mono microphone). The Nave studio, being quite intimate, offers a close-mic signal sound that is dry and direct. This is perfect if you like to hear the subtle variations introduced by the different players performing together.

CONCLUSION

With Blackwater, the Novella series gets a remarkable sequel. Created around an original theme, the library has a very interesting set of instruments, apt for the genre. It also possesses the beautiful and unique Westwood Instruments signature sound, nicely highlighted by the qualities of the Nave studio, where it was recorded.

Featuring a very diverse set of instruments that are fun to play and surprisingly versatile, Novella Blackwater is a must-have, way beyond the traditional Western movie genre. On top of that, it is very easy to use, thanks to a great user interface and smart workflow options. All this combined makes Novella Blackwater one of the greatest surprises of the year, and an absolute recommendation from us for every media composer or film composer out there.

RECOMMENDED: 10/10

Novella Blackwater is available for €349 through the Westwood Instruments online shop.

NOVELLA BLACKWATER – SHORT VIDEO WALKTHROUGH

NOVELLA BLACKWATER – LONG VIDEO WALKTHROUGH