Review: Northern Lights Pad Machine by Zero-G

Northern Lights gives you a massive amount of pad sounds to work with and guarantees that everyone will find something useful for their productions. This is the quintessential pad library.

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Review: Northern Lights Pad Machine by Zero-G

I always get excited when I receive a Zero-G product to review because I haven’t received one yet that I was disappointed in. This is mainly because of the high-quality nature of their libraries, but it’s also because they always seem to scratch a musical itch that I didn’t know I had. Zero-G excels at creating libraries that easily span the gap between the esoteric and the mainstream. This versatility allows them to create products that shine at the forefront of a musical production or ones that rest comfortably underneath everything else, filling in gaps, and providing support where it’s needed.

Northern Lights Pad Machine by Zero G sells for $65.95 from Time + Space

Thoughts

I am a huge fan of pad sounds and I had actually been eyeballing this one when I got tapped to review it, so I was beyond thrilled at having the opportunity to thoroughly examine it. Northern Lights sounds great and is good enough to operate solo as an underscore instrument, but it unquestionably shines in a supporting role and plays really well with other libraries.

One way Zero-G accomplished this is by providing high-quality samples with a simplified GUI to make it easier to morph them to your needs. On the GUI, there’s 7 controllers laid out symmetrically for easy access. The top left controller is labeled Complexity and controls the volume of the layers. The one beneath this one is called the Movement controller and uses various effects like filters, envelopes, delays, convolution, and an LFO to change the sound to various degrees.

On the upper right is the Color controller and it also uses various filters, EQ, convolution, envelopes, and a phaser to alter the color of each sound. Beneath this one is where you will find the Storm controller and this one produces the most noticeable changes in my opinion. The Storm controller adds distortion, saturation, an LFO, effect, and controllers to make dramatic changes to the samples. Along the bottom, you will find an attack and a release controller and both do as their name suggests. In addition to these, many of these patches use key pressure and pressure length to further alter how these samples are played.

With just these 7 controllers, you can come up with almost any pad sound you can think of and Northern Lights makes it easy to figure out where to start with their well-organized preset categories. These presets are broken up into 14 different categories that features names such as Airy, Arpeggiated, Complex, Dirt, Metallic, Pure, Soundscape, String, etc…and they did a great job of labeling the folders and grouping the appropriate patches in them. These folders actually make it really easy to target the exact feel or type of pad you need and saves you a lot of time that would have been spent going through the patches and trying to identify the character of them.

This organization coupled with the simplified GUI makes this library a breeze to use and shows Zero-G’s skill in making high quality, easy-to-use libraries that serve one purpose, to make music in all its forms. Northern Lights is particularly suited for film scoring and trailer music, but will fit everything from church music to metal as well. It truly amazed me with how well these pads worked when layered with other libraries. I found they worked especially well with string samples and seemed to make them come alive and breath a little. Overall, I really enjoyed reviewing this library and as usual, they really impressed me with the quality of the samples, the price point, and the value you get for your money. This library is a valued addition to anyone’s toolbox and should somebody have a personal affection for pads, then this library will quickly become a beloved and faithful friend that is used for years to come.

Facts

Northern Lights clocks in at almost 6 GB of content and features 970 sounds to work with. It is available for Mac and PC and requires the full version of Kontakt 5.8.1 or higher. This library will not work with the free Kontakt Player.

Northern Lights Pad Machine by Zero G sells for $65.95 from Time + Space

Demos of Northern Lights Pad Machine by Zero-G

Videos of Northern Lights Pad Machine by Zero-G

Contributor T. M. K. Davis reviews Northern Lights Pad Machine by Zero-G
“Northern Lights gives you a massive amount of pad sounds to work with and guarantees that everyone will find something useful for their productions. This is the quintessential pad library.