Checking Out: Abbey Road Orchestra Cellos Pro by Spitfire Audio

by Sam Burt

Spitfire Audio add cellos to the line of their flagship Abbey Road Orchestra. It brims with the authentic sound of cinema; emotive, lush, detailed, and incredibly playable.

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Checking Out: Abbey Road Orchestra Cellos Pro by Spitfire Audio

Like the percussion and 1st violins previously, this group of 10 cellos was recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studio One by the renowned engineer Simon Rhodes, using the best mics and outboard you could wish for. There are 25 articulations, including a number of deep legato variations.

16 microphone options enable you to dial in the desired amount of detail and ambience for a truly widescreen experience. It also makes it ideal for creating pop mixes, vintage styles, and close, focussed mixes.

It is worth noting that the library has a dual tiering system, offering Pro and Core versions, with the former having many more mic choices and extended techniques, particularly in the legatos. For this demonstration we have the Pro version loaded up.

Abbey Road Orchestra Cellos normally sells for £249 / £149 from Spitfire Audio

Thoughts

Articulations

My first impression of the library is just how enjoyably playable it is and when an instrument responds so well, with such a beautiful tone, that really helps in the creative process. The vibrato is super smooth, as is the cross fading between five dynamic ranges. The ability to adjust the the release, tightness and legato offset is very welcome to add further control. Abbey Road Orchestra Cellos really excels at full bodied and lush legato lines and has some powerful shorts too. On the lighter side, the pizzicatos bounce energetically and the flautando makes it easy to create an emotive, hazy pad of low end. End users should be aware it is not quite as expansive in the number of articulations compared to other Spitfire offerings. Instead, they have put the focus on deep sampling the playing techniques most used in traditional scoring, especially the legato.

I prefer the Spitfire player to Kontakt, not least as it is much easier on the eyes. The only aspect perhaps not quite as good as Native Instruments’ famous sampler is the relatively slower load times, which can take a while.

Mic Mixer

The playing and recording has a classy sheen throughout and manages to be detailed whilst retaining plenty of film score gravitas too. It seems to be a less wet sound and with more clarity compared to Spitfire’s AIR studio libraries, and with plenty of close mic options also, perhaps more versatile. Certainly, it can work for lavish pop productions, retro inspired cues and more intimate moments, alongside the typical modern cinematic style it excels at. These cellos sound so lush it leaves me pondering whether this library even needs layering with another, as many of us are in the habit of doing with other samples that arguably lack the completeness on offer here. Do I want to smear the nuance of the legato types with something else that only has one standard legato option? Only time and contextual use will tell I guess.

Abbey Road Orchestra Cellos is up there with the best of them and arguably presents us with the greatest sampled legato cello we’ve ever heard. Of course, such quality comes at a price and although it’s much cheaper than the 1st Violins (perhaps down to having less players to pay royalties to) it’s still a sizeable investment for just a single instrument. With that in mind the Core is an alternative option for those on a tighter budget; you still get that lovely sound, just with fewer of the more specialist features and mics. For those shopping for the Pro version, it is best viewed as a very high end main workhorse library and would be a savvy investment for something that would have regular use for many years to come. Indeed, the beautiful sound of the cellos here is truly timeless.