Spitfire Orstphone (Aluphone)

A very special new member of the mallet family. This extraordinary array of aluminium bells played by a master of his craft in the hall at Air Studios, deeply sampled to Spitfire's strict 'definitive' code. A unique and essential magical addition to your sonic arsenal.

Key Stats

• 6312 Samples
• 14.6 GB Uncompressed .WAV
• 6.9 GB disk space required
• 13.8 GB disk space required during install
• Kontakt Full Required

Overview

Spitfire has always been about introducing music makers to innovation and talent. So it seemed only right that we bring forth the very special coupling of Paul Clarvis and this amazing new addition to the mallet family which we have called the Aluphone; an other worldly array of aluminium bells played in the glorious surrounds of the hall at Air Studios.

When reaching for tuned metallic percussion we often struggle with the sonic stereotype that a Tchaikovskyian celeste or a playful Glockenspiel can convey. So we're always very interested in conjuring similar sonic magic but without the instantly recognisable identity revealing itself. This next addition to our wonderful array of tuned percussion found in our seminal 'Spitfire Percussion' range and more esoteric discoveries including our 'Gallon Idiophones' takes our strict deep sampling code to provide you with the definitive representation of this instrument. Partnering again with our friends at Air Studios, this awesome set of recordings represent the best signal path and acoustic magic strived for by the greatest music makers the world over.

Background

Spitfire’s Definitive Range endeavours to offer the world a one-stop shop for classic and esoteric instruments played by the greats. As all these instruments are recorded in situ, in the same room, they’re designed to lock together sonically whether it be some timpani from the percussion range coupled with your Sable libraries. Or indeed a more curious band made up of the HG20, a plucked piano and a harp, it is designed to sound like they’re together in the same room. We provide a series of fantastic mixing options that allow you to dry stuff up or make it more ambient should you so wish, whilst preserving the acoustic integrity and perspective of a slavishly recalled microphone set up and room configuration. The instruments are all deep sampled but designed to play easily out-of-the-box, with easy integration into larger arrangements and templates without risk of demanding too much from your system resources. Recorded by Jake Jackson at Lyndhurst Hall – Air Studios, on one of the finest scoring stages in the world, through an array of priceless vintage microphones via Neve “Montserrat” pre-amps, to a beautifully serviced Studer 2” tape machine and then into digital at 96k via the best Prism AD converters: this is an unparalleled signal chain.

Our player Paul Clarvis is an institution unto himself having performed on countless blockbuster movies with a very special relationship being formed over decades working as part of Hans Zimmer's company of percussionists. Clarvis was also charged with the unenviable position of leading the London Olympics seminal drum corps; an infamous part of the opening ceremony. Clarvis not only brings his technical prowess to every session, he also brings a zealous spirit of generous collaboration to get the best out of any set of recordings.

Features

The instrument we have dubbed Aluphone is a two and a half octave chromatic array of aluminium bells usually played with marimba mallets. As per our 'deep sampling' code we have recorded the Aluphone with a selection of beaters both damped and sustained with a broad selection of dynamic layers and round robins. We've then coupled this with our easy to use GUI which gives you instant access to the many different mic selections available to mix together. From intimate and close to distant our interface allows you to instantly customise what we have recorded to suit the magic you're making!