Checking Out: Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins by Spitfire Audio
Spitfire Audio have created their most ambitious string library yet with the vast Abbey Road 1st Violins. As part of their new flagship Abbey Road Orchestra range it boasts the key ingredients of that line; playability, realism, detail and flexibility. Above all, is the typically emotive sound of modern cinema that few do better.
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Checking Out: Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins by Spitfire Audio
When a company like Spitfire Audio herald the arrival of “the absolute most detailed library we’ve ever made” then you know you’re in for a real treat, especially considering the already high bar they have set with such defining products as their comprehensive symphonic and chamber strings libraries. Following on from the three recent percussion collections it was recorded at Abbey Road Studio One, a world class stage for both film scoring and classical recordings, with stellar musicians and the great Simon Rhodes putting up the microphones and pushing the faders.
The Spitfire team have gone to town on legatos with no less than 8 included, using new capture techniques for transitions. Coming in at just over 85GB you’d be forgiven for thinking that Spitfire have included a vast array of articulations. However, if anything, this library omits many of the weird and wonderful playing styles that can be found on some of their other products. Instead, the focus is on workhorse articulations, but with a myriad of microphone options making it extremely flexible for creating pop mixes, vintage styles, and more intimate moments, alongside cinematic soundtracks.
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 first look we have the Pro version loaded up.
Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins normally sells for £349 / £199 from Spitfire Audio
Thoughts
The first thing that hit me when sitting down with this library is just how unbelievably playable it is. I’ve actually being jamming on the incredible Performance Legato and Lyrical Legato patches for a few evenings now just for fun! It is easy to get lost in the sheer beauty and refined elegance of the sound. Put more simply, it sounds very ‘expensive’. This can be exemplified by the smoothness of the vibrato and blending across five dynamic ranges. The ability to adjust the the release, tightness and legato offset adds a further element of clarity, revealing a great degree of malleability within the library. Abbey Road 1st Violins is a real workhorse excelling at everything from romantic legato transitions to tight, powerful, action sequence shorts and anything in between.
Mic Mixer
Overall, the playing and recording is very clear, polished and naturally open. The room is large and lush, yet never wooly, as the soundtracks to numerous movies will attest to. The result is a classy and smooth, Hollywood-esque scoring sound, so those looking for something more alternative and super characterful might be better served elsewhere. For all it’s epic shine however, it remains detailed and very tightly responsive to whatever is played on the keyboard. There is an indefinable fullness to the sound that leaves you asking whether this library needs layering with another string patch, something that most composers may be in the habit of doing with other libraries that lack the clarity on offer here. Indeed, there are only a few other developers out there right now that can compete with the quality of these violins. It comes at a rather high financial cost though, for just a single section, so the Core is a savvy option for those on a tighter budget who still want that Abbey Road sound, albeit with fewer of the more nuanced features and mic options.
Abbey Road 1st Violins can no doubt sit well as a feature library alongside others, but what is really exciting is what the full Abbey Road Orchestra so deeply sampled will sound like. But for now at least, it simply sits alone as the new benchmark for violin sample libraries.
Facts
196,000 individual samples
22 articulations with 8 legato types
Alternative attacks
Adaptable releases
16 mic signals (inc 2 Simon Rhodes mixes)
60 hours of session time, 3 days of mixing and 2000+ hours of programming
Available in the Spitfire Player for AU, VST, VST3, AAX
Two tiers: Pro (85.5GB, £349) and Core (3.9GB, £199)
Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins normally sells for £349 / £199 from Spitfire Audio
196,000 individual samples
22 articulations w/ 8 legato
Alternative attacks
Adaptable releases
16 mic signals
Runs in Spitfire Player
AU, VST, VST3, AAX
Pro Downloads as 85.5GB sells for £349
Core Downloads as 3.9GB sells for £199
Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins normally sells for £349 / £199 from
Demos of Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins by Spitfire Audio
Videos of Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins by Spitfire Audio
Contributor Sam Burt reviews Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins by Spitfire Audio
“Spitfire Audio have created their most ambitious string library yet with the vast Abbey Road 1st Violins. As part of their new flagship Abbey Road Orchestra range it boasts the key ingredients of that line; playability, realism, detail and flexibility. Above all, is the typically emotive sound of modern cinema that few do better.”
