Spitfire Audio completes blockbuster symphonic anthology as SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL at AIR Studios spiritual home

LONDON, UK: Spitfire Audio is proud to announce availability of SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL — returning to where it all began by completing its definitive anthology that provides the tools to create blockbuster symphonic works for film, games, and television with additional choice and control above and beyond the musically matured four-year-old original SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA release recorded in the hallowed (Lyndhurst) Hall at London’s legendary AIR Studios, supplemented with (up to) eight microphone positions capturing strings, brass, and woodwinds warm embrace with that room’s reverberative lushness like no other, together with three expertly engineered mixes by the award-winning Jake Jackson to create an exhaustively-sampled single package extended in both name and execution, effectively bursting with an encyclopaedic offering of techniques that is surely set to prove popular as another standout collection of libraries loved by many professional composers, comfortably priced to readily represent a 50%-plus saving over purchasing its included libraries individually — as of April 22…

An appreciation of why AIR Studios’ Lyndhurst Hall has found favour in film scoring circles will, without doubt, help foster an appreciation of what went into making SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL what it is and why it is that Spitfire Audio makes sounds for film composers. Company co-founder and composer Paul Thomson is perfectly positioned to lend a helping hand in making that musical connection, clarifying why the fabric of Lyndhurst Hall is woven so tightly throughout the sound- specialising British music technology company’s completed blockbuster symphonic anthology with more techniques therein than any of its other libraries: “Architecturally unique, the acoustic properties of the interior of AIR Lyndhurst Hall were spotted by Sir George Martin, and he created a recording studio in this location that has been the destination of choice for film composers from all over the world for many years. Many of your favourite scores will have been recorded in this beautiful room. Players love playing in this room because of the acoustic feedback that they get from the surroundings. There is a gentle reverberation in the room that just adds beauty to literally anything you play in there. It could be a single instrument, or it could be a small chamber group that expands and blooms inside the space. When you have a full orchestra going in there, such as on How to Train Your Dragon by John Powell, you get the most enormous, epic, thunderous, colourful sound. It’s a very beautiful acoustic space.”

By building upon the core SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC STRINGS sample library that was initially individually available as of 2016 before becoming part of the SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA anthology a little later, SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC STRINGS PROFESSIONAL — produced with 60 of the world’s finest strings players performing over 175 articulations, including 59 shorts and 94 longs, captured in situ courtesy of AIR Studios’ signal path par excellence featuring priceless valve and ribbon microphones, Neve ‘AIR Monserrat’ preamps feeding a Neve 88R large-format console, and recorded digitally at 96kHz via two-inch Studer tape, before being presented as individual sections and ensembles with multiple layers and round robins, not forgetting five legato patches programmed by British film composer Andrew Blaney — is included in SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL as a new professional-level library packed with 152 GB of additional content, featuring Fine, Medium, and Broad curated mixes by award-winning engineer Jake Jackson to offer an immediate and recognisable blockbuster sound. Such mix perspectives, crafted using single voices per note for low CPU (Central Processing Unit)/RAM (Random Access Memory) usage, are indispensable for realising readymade mixes that work across the entire orchestra. Of course, it is perfectly possible to create custom mixes using the 11 signals featuring eight classic microphone positions providing a diverse range of palettes from a single room, including four alternative (ALT) microphone signals — namely, a microphone placed close to the leader of each section (L), warm close ribbon (Cr), close stereo pair (St), and spacious gallery (G), as well as adding outrigger signals to the common close tree ambient (CTA), creating CTAO for facilitating access to the classic Spitfire Audio setup. Says Paul Thomson: “I’m often asked, ‘What are outriggers?’ They are a kind of sideways extension of the Decca Tree that stands just behind where the conductor stands, above the conductor’s head — three microphones that capture the whole soundstage of the full orchestra. Many engineers will add the outriggers to the Decca Tree as a matter of course, but we’ve kept them separate here because it’s sometimes one of those things that you want to add to taste.”

Equally extended is SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL’s included SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC BRASS PROFESSIONAL library, tastefully formed from the 2016- released SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC BRASS — created using AIR Studios’ signal path at Lyndhurst Hall with the world’s finest brass players — with 173 GB of additional content, 10 signals featuring seven microphone positions, and also featuring Fine, Medium, and Broad curated mixes by Jake Jackson to offer an immediate and recognisable blockbuster sound suited to those looking to creatively channel their inner John Williams or Hans Zimmer zeal. Similarly, SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL’s also-included SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS PROFESSIONAL library — leaning on the world’s finest woodwind players, presented with essential and versatile microphone positions — brings a new level of customisation to bear upon the also-still-available SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS which first saw the light of day in 2016, thanks to 167 GB of extra content, 10 signals featuring seven microphone positions, plus Fine, Medium, and Broad curated mixes by Jake Jackson to offer every articulation for every ensemble and section in a single encyclopaedic compendium. Clearly, working with real-world woodwinds can afford composers — film scoring or otherwise — the luxury of reaching deep down into the lowest of lows wherever and whenever deemed appropriate, an attribute that has been enhanced still further when working, for example, with SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS PROFESSIONAL’s thunderous ContraBassoon (CTAO) patch. Posits Paul Thomson: “When we go right down to the bottom B-flat, that really resonates the room when the player plays loud — like a kind of amp signal, or something like that. It really is a fantastic effect, lower than the string basses can go — even with the C extension; the ContraBass Clarinet and the ContraBassoon can get you a whole tone lower.”

Lending further flexibility for those seeking a chamber strings-led sound, as opposed to SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC STRINGS PROFESSIONAL’s sizeable — 16 1st violins-, 14 2nd violins-, 12 violas-, 10 cellos-, and eight basses-based — symphonic string section, the simultaneously-released SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHAMBER STRINGS EDITION PROFESSIONAL package pairs SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC BRASS PROFESSIONAL and SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS PROFESSIONAL perfectly with SPITFIRE CHAMBER STRINGS PROFESSIONAL, hitherto only available on its own as of 2018.

An appropriately affecting closing commentary aimed at potential SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL purchasers comes courtesy of an understandably proud Paul Thomson: “The room is bound to the sound of the players; the players respond to the room; the instruments vibrate in sympathy with the room. It’s really one wonderful, virtuous circle. And when you’re after this epic scoring sound, the room that you record in has such an enormous effect on the end result, so a no- expense-spared production with the same players playing through the same mics, the same preamps, and same desk through onto tape will get you the sound of The Crown, The Dark Knight, and Gladiator. If that’s the film score sound that you want then this is absolutely the collection for you.”

Pricing and Availability:
SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL — comprising SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC STRINGS PROFESSIONAL, SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC BRASS PROFESSIONAL, and SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS PROFESSIONAL — can be purchased at an RRP (Recommended Retail Price) of £1,299.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$1,499.00 USD/ €1,499.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — representing a 50%-plus saving over purchasing all of those titles individually at their respective full pricing — from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/spitfire-symphony-orchestra-professional/

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROFESSIONAL needs Native Instruments’ KONTAKT PLAYER (5.6.8 or higher) — a free version of the KONTAKT sample playback engine (included in its purchase) — to run as a fully NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®) supporting plug-in instrument for Mac (OS X 10.10 or later) or Windows (7, 8, or 10 — latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit), while Spitfire Audio’s free Download Manager application allows anyone to buy now and download anytime.

SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC STRINGS PROFESSIONAL, SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC BRASS PROFESSIONAL, and SPITFIRE SYMPHONIC WOODWINDS PROFESSIONAL can be individually purchased at time-limited introductory promo pricing of only £599.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$659.00 USD/€659.00 EUR (inc. VAT), £539.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$599.00 USD/€599.00 EUR (inc. VAT), and £479.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$539.00 USD/€539.00 EUR (inc. VAT), respectively, until May 30, 2021 — respectively rising thereafter to an RRP of £999.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$1,099.00 USD/€1,099.00 EUR (inc. VAT), £899.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/ $999.00 USD/€999.00 EUR (inc. VAT), and £799.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$899.00 USD/€899.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — from here: