Hey there,
Have you ever wanted to make music in a similar style to Nintendo’s Animal Crossing?
I wanted to bring attention to this really neat virtual library developed for Kontakt, that samples the voices and notes of the famous Animal Crossing guitarist and singer, K.K. Slider.
If you’ve ever been wondering how to make Animal Crossing music, this library will make things a lot easier! In this article, we’ll discuss what makes it so great, and how you can begin using it.
Where To Get The Library + Installation Instructions
If you just want to get straight into it and see everything for yourself, you can grab the library from the description of this video, and install it the same way you would any other Kontakt library.
We didn’t make this and don’t want to claim responsibility, but the link above should have the latest version.
Note that the KK Slider library requires the full version of Kontakt from Native Instruments – the free ‘Kontakt Player’ will not be sufficient.
If you do not yet own Kontakt, we recommend purchasing it in a bundle with the latest version of the Native Instruments Komplete bundle, which makes it a much better value.
What Makes This Library Great?
Other than the fact that you’ll probably never see Nintendo sell their own Kontakt libraries, there are a few things that make this particular library a pleasure to work with – and a lot of fun for writing catchy Animal Crossing insipired tunes!
1. Fully Control Each Word K.K. Slider Says
If you’ve ever listened to K.K. slider sing any of his hit songs in your Animal Crossing town, you’ll know that he makes up his melodies by singing a variety of different words.
This K.K Slider library includes the words ‘Nah’, ‘Now’, ‘Way’, ‘Hm’, two different versions of ‘Oh’, and two different versions of ‘Me’.
These are all controllable by keyswitches, allowing you to fully customize the exact noises that come out on a note-by-note basis.
This means you can really get into detail with how the song comes out, which is nice if you want to get serious about putting together a piece!
2. ‘Playable’ Version
If you don’t want to take the time to chart out each different word for each note, this library also includes a ‘playable’ version.
This will automatically randomize the different words, allowing you to play straight melodies that sound like they’re coming directly out of the game.
If you’re just messing around or you’re performing live, this version makes it a lot easier to simply focus on the notes rather than the words themselves.
This can also give you a base to work off of if you only want to change a few notes later on.
3. Extras
Finally, this neat Animal Crossing Kontakt library includes some extra sampled sounds, including K.K. Slider’s howl, his guitar, and his whistle.
Although these are authentic to the actual sounds of the game, I have to admit that I preferred to use a separate guitar and whistle library that were a bit higher quality.
A normal listener probably wouldn’t be able to tell that these separate libraries weren’t actually from the game, in all honesty.
Still, although I won’t personally use them much, it is still neat that these extras were included along with the library.
Conclusion
Animal Crossing New Horizons has become a huge hit across the world. The wonderful soundtrack it includes only serves to enhance the Animal Crossing experience.
Therefore, it’s no wonder that musicians could have a lot of fun composing their own music in the same style.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this library if you decide to try it out. It’s free, so there’s no excuse not to give it a go.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer:
As the soundfont may contain copyrighted samples, consult with a legal expert to ensure you are not infringing on any entity’s copyright before publishing any music. This article is for informational purposes only. For further reading, see this article: Is Animal Crossing Music Copyrighted?