Santa Croce Soundscapes Sample Pack

The “Santa Croce Soundscapes” sample pack is the result of recordings made during my stay in Tuscany at the impressive Santa Croce Church in Florence. The acoustics and atmosphere of this Gothic church are exceptional and have served as the inspiration for this sound project. Santa Croce Church stands as an impressive example of Italian Gothic architecture and is a place of historical significance, being the final resting place of many famous Florentines.

## Overview

The foundation of this auditory journey is built upon original background sounds captured within the church, including subdued conversations, gentle footsteps, and the echoing sound that reflects the solemnity of the surroundings. I intricately wove these natural sounds into a sound collage to encapsulate the unique aura of Santa Croce.
I simply sat there in various places for a few minutes, with my Zoom H6 beside me, allowing myself to be carried away by the soundscape

To expand the sonic diversity, I integrated specially edited sounds from my Arturia Microfreak synthesizer into the mix. The synthesizer sounds were carefully adjusted and interwoven with the natural background noises to create three unique soundscapes dedicated to the famous Florentines: Michelangelo, Dante, and Galileo – all of whom are interred in this church.

## Additional Reverb

A notable highlight of this sample pack is the additional reverb generated from a recording in the nearby Capella Pazzi. There, I seized a rare moment when no one was present in the chapel to create an Impulse Response (euphemistically: “I clapped my hands loudly”) that adds an extra dimension to the sounds.

## Soundscapes

The resulting sounds – “Michelangelo,” “Dante,” and “Galileo” – are characterized by their droning qualities and evolve slowly and gently. Multiple round robins come together to create ever-changing collages and a new interplay, sometimes with surprising effects as during the sample creation, I extensively explored the diverse modulation possibilities of the Microfreak, adding an experimental element to the sound.

## Sound Customization

I have endowed each individual sound with various editing capabilities. The presets are as they appealed to me during the course of creation but can naturally be altered to one’s preferences. The knobs for Attack and Release are self-explanatory. The Chorus affects the “musical” aspect of the sound collage; adjusting the Lopass can significantly alter the sound character. CAPELLA provides the sounds with an additional dimension and is a convolution reverb based on the clap in the Capella Pazzi (s.o.), affecting the entire sound. For Dante and Michelangelo, I have added controls for a Pitch Glide, which leaves the ambient sounds from the church unaffected.

## Usage

Press some keys and enjoy 🙂

Contributors

derScheuch

Fieldrecordings with a Zoom H6, edited Synthsounds and sample pack