Spitfire Audio Orchestral Swarm £199

A year ago Spitfire began work on the first of their ‘Swarms’ libraries that explored a semi-random ‘flutter’ approach for creating instrumental washes. The idea was to get individual musicians each playing their own choice of note length and repetition timing, that when combined, create a shifting, cloud of sound. This resulted in a series of libraries that includes harps, mandolins and marimbas. This time the palette has been expanded to include a series of distinct orchestral clusters: Bones & Tubas, Brass, Horns, Strings and Woods (both in high and low pitched versions). As you would expect from Spitfire, the recording quality is excellent, with sessions recorded via the Neve 88r desk and an enviable selection of vintage mic preamps at British Grove studios. The interface follows the usual Spitfire layout (which is sadly still to make use of Kontakt 5.6’s larger GUI possibilities), and provides access to the articulations for each group of instruments. These extend from longer and more recognisably pitched notes to shorter airy blasts and atonal oddities. Whichever you choose though, the results are always engaging, and potentially useful. It is no surprise therefore that the collection was a result of collaboration with Bleeding Fingers, the Zimmer-helmed composer collective, and is featured in the latest Blue Planet series.

It’s easy to ignore libraries like this and assume they only work in more media-oriented contexts, but for lovers of off-centre electronica, and inventive sonics it is well worth a look. Bruce Aisher www.spitfireaudio.com VERDICT 8.8