Checking Out: VWinds Flutes by Acoustic Samples
With incredible playability, this library can basically do anything you ask it to, and it sounds very realistic while doing so. Contributor Brian Freeland reviews VWinds Flutes by Acoustic Samples
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Checking Out: VWinds Flutes by Acoustic Samples
VWinds Flutes is a new stand-alone library for Kontakt 7, using the NOVO engine with all new solo string samples.
VWinds Flutes normally sells for $219 from Acoustic Samples
Thoughts
Acoustic Samples’ VWinds libraries combines the best of sampling and audio modeling into one lightweight, easy-to-use package. This time they’re covering the flute instruments, and not just the standard C flutes and piccolo, either. You get two C flutes, two piccolos, two alto flutes, two bass flutes, and one contrabass flute- all coming in with a download of only 1.6 gb of space, and the library is equally light on RAM use as well, which is really impressive.
Each of the instruments comes with some great sound presets, such as one preset that’s close and bone-dry, and another that’s got a hall reverb and is seated in the correct orchestral seating position, among other, more experimental choices. In addition to these mix presets, you get multiple mic positions such as ORTF or AB, and the option to place the instrument in any position within the virtual space by simply clicking on a chair in the seating diagram. You also get a great sounding hall reverb, and another hall sound that’s very dry (as far as reverb tail), yet still provides a sense of space, so you can use your favorite third-party reverb plugin with the samples.
The main star of the show, to me, is the sheer playability and programming options of VWinds Flutes. No keyswitching is needed, you can trigger a short note with a quick press, legato transitions by overlapping notes, or a soft, natural attack with a light press of the keyboard (alternatively by programming g lower CC velocity values). Trills can be performed in real time by simply holding a root note and quickly pressing the second note of the trill, and it sounds fantastic. Runs and rips are equally easy to program in manually and sound incredibly realistic. We’ve got many sampled instruments on the market today, along with audio-modeling VSTs and even libraries that have combined the two technologies into one, but none of them have sounded quite as realistic as VWinds when it comes to manually programmed runs and rips in my opinion. They can perform virtually anything you can think of, and the super-light resource consumption makes them an easy recommendation from me. If you’ve got critical ears, you probably will run into some instances where you think “oh I can tell that’s modeled and not samples”, but I found it can usually be fixed with further programming of vibrato, adjusting the legato transitions or note attacks, etc, and the sheer ability and versatility of VWinds Flutes, as well as having such a light RAM footprint, more than makes up for the minor shortcomings. Really next-gen stuff.
VWinds Flutes normally sells for $219 from Acoustic Samples
