Review: Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion Pack by Spitfire Audio
The Spitfire Symphonic Woodwind Expansions not only allow for an amazing amount of control but also has my new go-to mic selection: the Jake Jackson mixes!
Jump to the Videos of Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds
Jump to the Demos of Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds
Jump to the Demos of Music Example in Video
Review: Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion Pack by Spitfire Audio
In a world of bold brass, lush strings and epic percussion, the most overlooked section in scoring for modern media is the woodwind section. With the release of Spitfire Audio Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion Pack users can now utilize 10 different Microphone positions to take control of sculpting the wind section in a way that was previously unattainable.
With the new Spitfire Symphonic Woodwind Expansion Pack, the developer adds the additional microphone positions allowing for selection that can determine depth and space in playback from the original Air Studio’s Hall.
In this video, I compare the original instruments with some of the new mic positions included in the expansion, playing through them freestyle as well as listening back to the different mic mixes in a project I am working on.
Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion sells for $399 from Spitfire Audio
Thoughts
So often I get emails from composers asking me how to mix or master their music using virtual instruments to get that “broad cinematic” sound. One of the pro mixing secrets is not that there is some mixing magic recipe or mastering plugin trick, but more often the case it is a matter of utilizing the extended microphone positions in a virtual instrument the same way a skilled mixing engineer would.
This allows for a finished mix with depth, space and balance which is unable to be faked by any amount of gear with the same realism.
As with the rest of Spitfire’s Symphonic series of libraries, the sample set in Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion was originally recorded in ‘The Hall’ at Air Studios, London. The sample set was originally released in the BLM libraries series (no longer available). Then, Spitfire reimaged and streamlined their entire BLM series releasing Spitfire Symphonic Strings, Spitfire Symphonic Brass and of course the Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds.
The first releases of Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds came with CAT microphone positions (Close, Tree & Ambient). With the release of the Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion Pack, the developer has added several microphone positions to enhance the libraries sonic capability.
This expansion contains over 167.26 GB of additional content so you will need to make sure you have nearly 320 GB of space for the downloading and uncompressing process.
New microphones in the Expansion are the following:
(Alt) – Close Ribbon (Cr), Stereo Pair (St) and Gallery (G) signals
(CTAO) – Outrigger signal added to the Close, Tree, Ambient signals in the core version, for the ‘classic’ Spitfire setup. The inclusion of those Outrigger mics transforms the CTA into CTAO for the ‘“classic Spitfire setup”.
But what really got me excited was the inclusion of the Fine, Medium and Broad stereo mixes (mixed by Jake Jackson) that really do add some great sounding mixes and surprisingly low CPU/RAM usage.
The Jake Jackson Stereo Mixes include a Fine (F), Medium (M) and Broad (B) stereo mixes
Playing through a variety of solo tests and ensemble playback I found the Jake Jackson mixes to be just fantastic. There is plenty of up-front detail and character with a nice warm mix of the room. While flipping through the Fine, Medium and Broad options of the Jake Jackson mixes, I fell in love with the Broad selection. And what makes this even more of a WIN is the fact that each of the instruments loads up with a RAM footprint of around 300 MB making them extremely sleek while delivering great sound.
While the Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion Pack won’t be for everyone, I can see how these extra mic positions are going to be perfect for professionals looking for tweaking out the balance and depth in their tone. Or for those who are looking at having the additional microphone positions hand to bounce down additional tracks for a skilled mixing engineer to work magic with.
Facts
The Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion Pack downloads as 167.11 GB. The Expansion does require the core Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds library.
This library is a Kontakt Player Instrument compatible with both the full and free versions of Native Instruments Kontakt.
Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds Expansion sells for $399 from Spitfire Audio
Demos of Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds
