Zero-G Morphology KONTAKT

Zero G's Morphology is one of the new breed of software instruments that combines a large sample library with a software-instrument front-end, and as with many of these new-style libraries, the playback engine in this instance is Native Instruments' Kompakt. The man behind Morphology is none other than Ian Boddy, long-standing UK electronic musician, analogue-synth fanatic, and sample-library creator (Ian was previously responsible for Zero G's Ambient 1 & 2, Malice In Wonderland and Dream Zone).

As its name suggests, Morphology provides evolving and morphing soundscapes and dreamy-sounding synths, but its library of original 24-bit 44.1kHz sampled sounds, which is over three Gigabytes in size, goes rather further than that, spanning both beautiful-sounding and gritty industrial sounds. It also includes some of the most generously sampled analogue synth oscillators around — reasonably long notes are provided so that the notes in a chord beat and breathe just like they do on a real analogue instrument. If comparisons had to be made, I'd say those who like the Spectrasonics Atmosphere and Distorted Reality products would also like Morphology, but they are still very different in approach.

Morphology's instruments are arranged by category, and most of the categories are divided into further sub-categories. The main categories (the content of which is fairly self-explanatory) are 'Atmospheres', 'Drones', 'FX', 'Harmonic Loops', 'Industrial', 'Pads & Synths', 'Virtual Synths' and 'Voices'. Each of the sub-categories typically contains between six and a dozen instruments, though where there are no sub-categories, there tend to be many more instruments — there are over 30 synth pads, for instance. With the exception of the 'Industrial' and 'FX' categories, most of the sounds on offer are either analogue-sounding and solid or atmospheric and gentle, but Ian Boddy wouldn't be who he is if there wasn't the occasional 'visit to the dentist' example of sonic terrorism in there somewhere! My favourites were the 'Harmonic Loops' and 'Atmospheres' sections, though the 'Virtual Synth' samples sound great played as chords. The 'Harmonic Loops' section contains some wonderful processed new-age style beds that could almost be used as minimalist tracks on their own (especially in the 'Calm' and 'Beauty' sub-categories), but at the same time, they also integrate well with other sounds and instruments. If you like Wavestations and similar synths, you should find a lot to like here.

While it may not take too long to trawl through the sounds and identify your favourites, the real joy of Morphology is the simple way in which you can tweak the synth-like controls for each instrument to bend it to your will, or layer different sounds to create something new. In short, it was easy enough to use, although I found the text used on some of the Kompakt menus to be on the small side, and the menus had a habit of slipping out of my grasp as I was trying to navigate through them. However, in its favour, there is only one screen to deal with, so I guess there have to be some compromises.


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