FIELD RECORDING: Clashing Rails – Kontakt Instrument by KLANG

KLANG describes the station as a wide space that creates a large sound scenery, and the instrument keeps that sense of scale. The sources are rough and mechanical: the low rumble of heavy locomotives, the rattle of wagons crossing switches and the high squeal of brakes.

Because the recordings are field-based, the sounds carry natural noise and movement that is hard to synthesize from scratch. This makes the instrument useful for adding grit, atmosphere or rhythmic metallic accents to a track.

The developer also added an old construction compressor to the sound palette, which adds another layer of mechanical character to the recordings.

Clashing Rails is a Kontakt instrument, so it is played and shaped inside Native Instruments Kontakt like other sample libraries. Producers who already work in Kontakt can load it directly into a session and play it from a keyboard or MIDI controller.

The instrument suits experimental music, sound design and projects that call for found-sound textures. Its industrial and noisy character fits producers who want to build songs around everyday sounds, in the way KLANG describes field recordings opening up new creative ideas.

The full version of Kontakt is required, so producers using the free Kontakt Player should plan accordingly.