Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Manualv2

USER MANUAL
SPITFIRE
SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 1 USER MANUAL

CONTENTS
Introduction 3
Welcome 4
Downloading & Installing 6
The Spitfire App Preferences 7
Registering with Kontakt Player 8
Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Folder Structure 9
Symphonic Strings 10
Symphonic Brass 21
Symphonic Woodwinds 31
Performance Patch Overview 40
Ostinatum overview 42
Symphonic Percussion - Kickstart view 45
Symphonic Percussion - Harp 53
Symphonic Percussion - Piano 59
Articulation Mapper 63
Mic and Mix details 64
Appendix A — Kontakt vs Kontakt Player 65
Appendix B — FAQs & Troubleshooting 66
Appendix C — UACC 70
Appendix D - Legacy content 71

INTRODUCTION
Behind award-wining composers…

Are world-class musicians.
Revered by the world’s best composers, Spitfire Symphony Orchestra features a full
symphonic string, symphonic brass and symphonic woodwind sections including solo
instruments, plus harp, piano and all core elements of percussion needed to complete the
band — giving your music the professional sounds that stand out.
Recorded in Lyndhurst Hall, at AIR Studios, London, performed by a gold generation

of musicians who have featured on some of the top film scores of the last decade. This
definitive selection of blockbuster sounds are some of the best, most classic recordings by
Spitfire Audio, a set of flagship virtual instruments which are already used by the worlds
top composers and music-makers, and have already played a part in the productions of the
hundreds of AAA film, game and TV scores over the past decade.
QUICK SPECS MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 11, 12 or 13
(latest update).
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on
ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it):
macOS 11, 12 or 13 (latest update).
4 GB RAM (6 GB recommended for large
KONTAKT Instruments).
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack), Intel Core
i5 or equivalent CPU.
KONTAKT Instruments).
64 bit DAW required (32 bit DAWs not

supported)
• Download Size: ~345GB

• Kontakt Player library (free to download from
NI website or Native Access)
• Min Kontakt version is 7.5.2
• NKS Compatible

WELCOME
A modern classic
With this relaunch you can now explore the stunning performances of these incredible musicians, in one
place with a new UI, a review of all sample content, all-new legatos created by Andrew Blaney, and all
presented in Native Instrument’s Kontakt 7:
Symphonic Strings
60 of the worlds best, recorded in situ.
The strings in this library captured has been created with 60 of the world’s finest strings players — 16
1st violins, 14 2nd violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos & 8 basses — performing over 175 articulations, including 9
legato patches programmed by Andrew Blaney, and presented with four versatile microphone positions.
Symphonic Brass
Bold, detailed and powerful.
The world’s finest brass players, covering solo, chamber, symphonic and cinematic instrument groups.
The full range of brass instruments, from classic to lesser known.
Symphonic Woodwinds
Timeless, melodic and expressive
World class woodwind players, from traditional piccolos, flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons to a con-
temporary selection of instruments, from alto, bass flutes, bass clarinets, contrabass clarinets and a
thunderous contrabassoon.
Percussion, Piano and Harp

The definitive orchestral extras
This comprehensive orchestral percussion library performed by award-winning percussionist Joby Bur-
gess features 9 tuned, 13 drums, 12 ‘toys’, from agogo to shakers, 14 unpitched metal instruments, and 3
unpitched wood instruments.
Harp performed by London’s leading harpist Skaila Kanga, featuring a comprehensive range of articula-
tions and pedalling, with glisses in every key.
Orchestral Grand Piano is a very realistic “contextual” piano designed specifically to fit proudly within
your full orchestral arrangements.

AIR LYNDHURST HALL
The Crown, Wonder Woman 1984, The Trial of The Chicago 7, James Bond, Interstellar, The Grand
Budapest Hotel, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, Gladiator—all were recorded in Lyndhurst Hall at
London’s AIR Studios, Spitfire Audio’s spiritual home and a room where blockbuster scores are
born. Architecturally unique, the acoustic properties of the interior of Lyndhurst Hall are renowned
globally, loved by composers and musicians alike.
There is a gentle reverberation in the room that adds beauty to anything played there. The sound
produced by a soloist, or a full symphonic orchestra expands and blooms inside the space, a truly
versatile palette giving access to a range of textures from delicate and intimate to thunderous and
epic.

DOWNLOADING & INSTALLING
Thank you for buying Spitfire Symphony Orchestra. If you are new to Spitfire Audio, you can get
up to speed here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/about/
First though, grab the ‘Spitfire Audio App’ from this link, this app will enable you to download the
library: http://www.spitfireaudio.com/info/library-manager/
THE SPITFIRE AUDIO APP 2. FILTERS Clicking these filters will quickly
display products you’ve yet to install, those
When you launch the app you will be already installed, and any available updates.
prompted to login using the same details Clicking again will remove the filter.
you use at our site. Then you’ll see the page
pictured below: 3. LIBRARY All libraries and plugins in your
collection will appear with their artwork on
the My Products tab. Clicking this artwork
will open the product page. This is a great
place to find information such as system
requirements and instructions as well as
Reset and Repair options.
4. INSTALL/UPDATE buttons allow you to

quickly start a download directly from the My
Products tab, instead of clicking through to
the Library. Next to the button the size of the
download is shown.
1. TABS the default tab is My Products, which
shows all of the libraries on your Spitfire
Account. Downloads will show currently
downloading products.
1 2

THE SPITFIRE APP PREFERENCES
If this is your first time using the Spitfire

Audio App for a download you may wish to
first navigate to the Settings tab. Here you
can set the Default Content location for
where you wish to download your libraries.
You can also you can set the default VST2
install location to the folder where your DAW
expects to find VST files.
Here you can also enable Auto Login to save

time in future.
Once you are happy with your preferences,

simply click the Install button for the library.
This is either directly on My Products tab
under the library artwork, or it can be found
by clicking on the library image and clicking
the install button on the page that appears.
Clicking either of these will prompt you for a

location, the default content location in your
preferences will be suggested but you can
select any suitable location. If installing from
a hard drive, ensure that you choose the
drive as the location.
Once you are happy with the location click

Download.
After clicking install you will be directed to

the Downloads tab where you can watch the
progress if you like. You can of course leave
the Downloads tab and start other downloads
but at this point you should leave the Spitfire
App open until the download completes.

REGISTERING WITH KONTAKT PLAYER
If you have never used one of our libraries before and you don’t own a copy of Native Instruments
Kontakt, you’ll need to download the free “Kontakt Player” here:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/
To find out more about the differences between Kontakt and Kontakt Player, go to Appendix A.
1. Install Kontakt Player (skip this step if you already 5. You will then be prompted to navigate to the not
have the latest version). installed products in Native Access. From here, add
library for Spitfire Symphony Orchestra. Browse
2. Open the player (or Kontakt 7 full version if you for your downloaded Spitfire Symphony Orchestra
have that) and click Manage Libraries in the library folder and select this to complete the authorisa-
browser window, then click Launch Native Access tion.
in the window that opens:
6. Your library is authorised.

3. Once you have opened Native Access, click Add
Serial in the top left of the window. If you have never used Kontakt before we whole-
heartedly recommend that you familiarise yourself
4. Enter the serial number in this format: with the basics of patch (or instrument) loading,
multi management, outputting and midi routing de-
tailed in the Kontakt user-manual and native instru-
ments website:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/
komplete/samplers/kontakt-7/
If you are an established Kontakt user please make

sure you absolutely have the latest version of it
downloaded via NATIVE ACCESS apps.
...It can be found in your ‘ready to download’ email For more information about NKS and integration
and at the following link: with Native Instruments hardware controllers and
keyboards please checkout their online instruc-
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/my-account/seri- tions.
al-numbers

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
FOLDER STRUCTURE
If you click the Instruments bar to expand, you will

see that you have 7 categories of instrument sub-
folders to choose from.
Click on the instrument of your choice (in this

case, Symphonic Strings), where you will next see
all available Symphonic Strings patches.
OP EN IN G YO UR F I R ST I NST R UM E N T.
Simply double click an ‘nki’ file (this is Native Instruments’ file extension for a Kontakt instrument) to
load, or indeed drag the instrument (it’ll have the little keyboard icon and the suffix .nki) from the left
pane into the right pane.
If you can’t hear anything double check first that the midi channel you are transmitting on with your
keyboard is the same as the one in the Kontakt Instrument.

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: SYM PHO N I C ST R I N G S VI E W
1.
8.
6.
4.
3.
7.
10.
2. 9.
11.
12.
5.
All of the libraries that we track at AIR Studios are chestral preset you’ll be greeted with this GUI.
recorded via priceless ribbon and valve mics via
Neve Montserrat pre-amps, the largest 88R Neve ASSIGNING CONTROLS IN KONTAKT.
console in the world and onto pristine 2” tape be-
fore being converted with the top-of-their-class All GUI controls can be assigned a unique control-
Prism AD converters at 96k. The orchestra is pre- ler number so you can automate or adjust via an
sented in carefully orchestrated sections, some- external controller (vital when playing in virtual Or-
times in unison across the entire orchestral range chestral parts). To un-assign, assign or just to see
sometimes in high low and middle sections. Along- what CC number is assigned to any control RIGHT
side many ‘work horse’ long and short articulations or CTRL CLICK.
are expertly prepared legato patches; a menu of
You can then alter the controller parameters in the
effects and a huge selection of string runs. There
are five mic positions (Close, Tree, Ambient, Outrig-
“Automation pane” want your mod wheel to go all
gers and Leader), to load and mix to suit the type
the way from top to bottom but the control to have
restricted bandwidth change default of 0-127 to
of music you’re writing and the scale you want to
achieve. 20-100 say. Or if you want the controller to make
the GUI control in the reverse direction change
When you first load up a Symphonic Strings or- from default 0-127 to 127-0.

1 . KO N TA K T H EA DER 6. CONT ROLLE RS
This area at the top of each instrument is where The following controls are included in this library
to set your audio and MIDI routing as well as see to allow you to control and automate various pa-
whether the patch is loaded, loading or purged. rameters:
On the right you can solo, mute, pan, tune and
adjust volume. Dynamics - probably the most important control-
ler you have. This crossfades between the differ-
2 . S I D E BA R ent dynamic layers recorded.
The side bar is where you select and change mic Vibrato - where appropriate this crossfades from
mix/signals views(as described on page 14). no (or senza) to lots (molto) vibrato.
3. A RT I C U LAT I O N SWITC H ER Release - allows you to change the amount of re-

lease trigger you and your listener hears.
These musical note icons are the available artic-
ulations in your patch. These icons also corre- Tightness - the start of a note is often not the start
spond to the red keys in the Kontakt keyboard of the ‘sound’ of the instrument. This cuts further
(see point 5.) into the note to make it tighter. But does detract
from realism. Worth tightening up when playing
- Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the purge in, then loosening and putting a negative delay
button for an articulation will SOLO LOAD that ar- into your DAW to compensate for ultimate reality.
ticulation.
- Holding SHIFT and clicking an articulation icon Expression - ostensibly instrument trim (CC11), so
will allow multiple articulations to be activated si- this adjusts the volume within the instrument vol-
multaneously. Mileage may vary depending on ume (CC7).
articulations picked.
- Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the articula- 7. SLID E R
tion icon will pop up the ARTICULATION MAPPER
(page 63) and allow you to customise how the ar- When the articulations overrun the screen, a slid-
ticulation is activated. er is provided underneath to access the non-visi-
- Holding ALT and clicking on the articulation icon ble articulations.
will toggle an existing ARTICULATION MAPPER
setting on and off. 8. PAGE BU T TON
4. PATC H / ART I CULATION LA BEL This allows you to toggle the page view between
the Controllers and the Ostinatum. This Page but-
Displays the name of the loaded patch and the ton will only appear on articulations that support
currently selected articulation. the Ostinatum (shorts).
5. KO N TA K T K E YBOA RD
With the Kontakt keyboard displayed you should

see a red range of keys and a blue range. The
red range is your Keyswitch range for selecting
articulations, holding more than one red key will
select multiple articulations. The blue range is the
playable range of the selected articulation.

9. R O U N D R O BIN S A N D LEGATO TIMED SHORT ARTIC RTS - This option allows
you to toggle whether staccato/tenuto/marcato
NO EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY(NEIGHBOURING notes have a release trigger that plays on release.
ZONES)- This is the menu for RR behaviour. Next This lets you tighten up staccatos or end marca-
to this lies a drop-down menu with some useful tos/tenutos earlier than they were recorded.
functions:
• “No extra Functionality” - Is the standard de- 10. OPT IONS
fault where round robins are used as they were
intended. PURGE UNUSED - This control keeps unload-
ing any samples you are not using to keep your
• “Neighbouring Zones” - pulls from neighbouring memory usage as low as possible.
zones, so for an ‘8RR’ instrument, you effectively
cycle through up to 24 different sounding notes TRANSPOSE - Toggle this on and adjust the num-
when pressing a key. It’s still just playing the one ber to the right to transpose your instrument. Note
RR at a time, though giving you more of them. In this is not the same as tuning, the instrument will
legato mode this also alternates between 3 lega- actually offset the samples to the selected pitch.
to intervals to give a fake round robin.
KEYSWITCHES - Change, if needed, where the
• “2x Round Robin With Skip” - plays two RR si- keyswitches begin on your keyboard.
multaneously, so you get a thicker sound, it’s the
equivalent of plopping two notes on top of each CC MAPPED VEL(OCITY) - Click this to control
other in your DAW (and it drops the overall vol- note velocity with the Dynamics slider. If you have
ume ~6db so that the levels remain the same but re-assigned the dynamics slider, that same CC
it just sounds thicker). NB THIS IS NOT AVAILA- will control velocity now.
BLE TO LEGATO TRANSITIONS. This plays the
pairs and moves ahead by 2 RR. In this mode RR SYNC TO TEMPO - Toggle whether the loaded
is effectively halved. E.g., if you press a note it patch uses TM to sync to tempo (where available)
would play RR1/RR2 then RR3/RR4 ,etc.
HALL TRIGGER - In patches where available, tog-
• “Layer 2x Round Robins With No Skip” - As gle whether room ambience is added when fad-
above but this plays a pair but doesn’t move ing out dynamics quickly.
ahead by 2 so that RR isn’t halved. So if you press
a note it would play RR1/RR2, then RR2/RR3, then 11. M IC M IX
RR3/RR4.
This is a more advanced mixer than the Easy Mix
ROUND ROBINS - This refers to the number of (page.... ), with individual faders for each mic. Like
round robins (multiple recordings of the same the Articulation Switcher the toggles beneath the
notes that cycle around as you repeatedly play faders load and unload different microphones
a note) your instrument uses, the number can be and the faders above to tweak the balance of
dragged up and down (1-8) to save you memory. them. Turning a fader all the way down will also
unload the mics and turning the fader back up
RESET FROM xx - This enables you to control the will reload.
round robin cycle (so it sounds identical every
time you play) toggle on & play the key selected Right clicking the faders allows you to assign CC
(default displayed) to reset. controllers so you can mix these live for shifts in
the spacial nature of the samples. Click on the
RESET ON TRANSPORT - As above but resets mic letters to assign a different output for each
every time you press play in the DAW. mic.

- Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the purge
button for a mic will SOLO LOAD that Mic.
- Holding ALT/MENU and dragging the sliders
will move them WITHOUT toggling the mic purge
buttons.
- Holding SHIFT + ALT/MENU and dragging the
sliders will drag all mic sliders up and down to
match that setting.
1 2 . UAC C / K S MA NAGEMENT
Click on this to reveal the menu to change the

keyswitching/articulation management mode:
- Normal Keyswitching - Is the standard setting,

select articulations via the front panel or key
switches.
- Articulation locked - This locks your articulation
so it doesn’t change at all.
- Custom KS & UI only - This locks your articula-
tion via keyswitch but you’re free to switch via the
front panel.
- UACC & UI only - This is a standard developed
by Spitfire and detailed in appendix E. The de-
fault controller channel is #32.
- UACC KS & UI Only - The functionality of UACC
with the flexibility of a keyswitch. When activated,
a single keyswitch is available. Pressing this key
at varying velocities (corresponding to the UACC
standard) changes articulation. Unlike standard
UACC this allows for layering of articulations.
- Program change & UI only - This locks your ar-
ticulation via program change but you’re free to
switch via the front panel.

SI D E BAR
C. STEREO IMAGE CONTROLS
This additional set of views provides more mic mix
options:
A.
B.
C.
D.
The mics are a stereo mix and this menu allows
you to refine how the stereo image is handled. All
E.
our musicians are recorded in situ, i.e. where they
would be seated on a standard scoring session,
giving you a fantastic spectral spread when putting
A - MIXER PRESETS all the elements together. This panning tool helps
you to manage and tweak this to your own tastes/
needs.
STEREO WIDTH - Allows you to control how far

the stereo image reaches. All the way to the right
would be like having your two pan pots panned
hard. All the way to the left would be like having
both pots centre,
STEREO PAN - Then allows you to control where

This menu is a way to transfer mixer settings be- in the pan field the centre of this image is placed.
tween patches, or save and load presets to or from
disk.
D. MIC MIX TO ARTICULATION LINKER
B. VELOCITY RESPONSE CURVE
Toggle this on and off to mix per-articulation or
globally.
E. MIC MIX VIEW
Pick from 5 different velocity curves to suit your Toggle between signal and easy mixer mode.
controller.

Welcome to the wonderful world of orchestral strings. Here’s a quick crib sheet of the instruments that
we’ve recorded with some quick facts. We’ve curated ranges that fit within the reasonable demands
of professional players in London. If you’re looking for further reference sources for string writing we
recommend ‘Orchestration’ by Walter Piston and ‘The Study Of Orchestration’ by Samuel Adler which
both have a very easy “at a glance” approach to taking you through the orchestra.
1st Violins (or Vn) G3 C#7 16 players 2nd Violins (or Vn) G3 C#7 14 players
Usually the largest of the string sections with the widest expect- Exactly the same instruments as the 1sts, but in a slightly more
ed range. They sit to the left of the conductor and their principal ‘supportive’ role sitting to the right of the 1sts and next to the
player is referred to as the orchestra ‘leader’ violas.
Violas (or Va) C3 F#6 12 players Cellos (or Violoncello or VC) C2 Bb5 10 players
Similar in shape, but much larger in size than a violin. These sit Arguably the most versatile of the string instruments with a
straight ahead and slightly to the right of the conductor. They huge range from very low to heartbreaking highs. They sit to
often play the simpler more ‘pedalling’ harmonic lines. the right of the conductor and in front of the basses.
Basses (or Contrabass or CB) C1 F#3 8 players

Huge and monstrous instruments that sit to the right of the con-
ductor and behind the cellos. CBs recorded for Spitfire all had
the low C extension, hence the range.
WHICH CLEF?
A. B. C.
Violins read from the treble clef (A.), violas from
the ‘viola’ (C.)or ‘alto’ clef (where the middle line
is middle C). Cellos play from the bass clef (B.)
as do the basses. However the basses sound an
octave lower than written. Want cellos and bass-
es to play in unison octaves? Give them both the
same music and it will happen!

The following is an explanation of all of the terms used when naming our ‘articulations’ in the library.
(An Articulation is basically a way of playing the instrument, captured as a standalone ‘patch’ like you
might have on a synth.)
L E GATO bow continues without change.
Legato in the context of a sample instrument re- Bowed - this is when the bow changes direction
fers to a technique of capturing the sound of an while changing note with the left hand - this pro-
instrument moving from one note to the next. duces a slightly more defined and strong change.
Capturing this detail gives a lot of added realism,
but means that you need to play monophonically Portamento - this is a sliding transition from one
(one note at a time). note to the next. This is achieved by literally slid-
ing the finger on the fingerboard. It is necessary
To trigger these transitions, you must make sure on larger intervals to cross the strings as well.
that you hold down the first note while playing
the key of the second note. As long as you over- Runs - these short transitions are recorded for
lap the notes in this way, the engine will know semitone, tone, and minor third intervals to allow
that you want to trigger a legato transition. you to play very fast stepwise runs.
We have recorded a number of different types Sul G/C - the expression ‘Sul G’ means ‘played on
of transition, to help you play really expressively the G string’ - on the Violin, the G string is the low-
and musically using the library. est string. Playing a melody solely on this string
gives a very characteristic ‘throaty’ sound that
Fingered - this is the most basic kind: simply add- can be very expressive. The lowest string on the
ing or removing a finger on the left hand while the Viola and Cello is tuned to a ‘C’.
PE R F OR M A N C E LEGATO
SLOWER transitions - if you are playing slowly,
In the latest version of the Symphonic strings we the velocity of the note you move to in the phrase
have developed special patches called ‘Perfor- affects the type of note transition you hear: 1-19
mance Legato Patches’. Using the legato transi- gives you the portamento, 20-84 is the stand-
tions above to help you play really expressively ard slurred ‘fingered’ transition, and 85-127 the
and musically using the library in a ground break- bowed heavier transition.
ing and intuitive way.
FASTER transitions - if you play faster, vel 1-84
These patches are designed so that you can for- gives you a slurred ‘fingered’ fast transition, while
get about keyswitching - and just play. The patch 85-127 gives you a faster fingered legato with a
will follow your playing and attempt to select slight accent.
the most appropriate sound. You can play short
notes, long, loud, soft, trills, runs, arpeggios, you
RUN transitions - if you play very fast, you enter
name it. Here is how it works in practice: this mode, where vel 1-84 gives a fingered ‘runs’
style for fast realistic runs, and vel 85-127 a more
ATTACK - your velocity (how hard you hit the key- accented transition.
board) controls the opening attack of the phrase:
vel 1-9 is smooth, then 10-127 goes through 3-4 Your playing speed will automatically select the
dynamic layers of spiccato/staccato attack, with 6 correct set of transitions. Check out this video tu-
RR (round robins - alternating recordings to avoid torial:
the ‘machine gun effect’ or hearing the same
sample again and again!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLvPstdnnSs

LON G A RT I C U LATION S CON SORD SUL PONT - This combines the ‘on
the bridge’ bowing with the mute attached - and
NORMALE - This is the most vanilla of the ‘long has a very nice and unusual sound.
notes’ we have recorded. The basic standard
playing style, recorded with and without vibra- CS BLEND - A very beautiful sound - we asked
to, and sometimes with ‘molto vibrato’ or a lot the players to divide themselves ‘by desk’ and
of vibrato! Occasionally you’ll see ‘senza vib’ half of them to apply their mutes. So, of a ‘desk’
which means ‘without vibrato’. You’ll sometimes of two players, one will be muted, and one ‘nor-
see ‘dolce’ which means ‘sweetly’ and this refers male’. This gives you the beauty of the Sordino
to a tasteful amount of vibrato. You can use the sound, with the full body of the unmuted sound.
Modwheel, or a slider set to CC1, to control the A great combination!
‘dynamic’ of the sound, this smoothly crossfades
between very soft (or ‘pp’) recordings, through to SUL PONT DISTORTED - Playing on the bridge,
very loud (or ‘ff’). Also you can use a slider set to but really grinding the bow hard onto the strings
CC21 to control the amount of vibrato, smoothly to produce a more distorted sound. This varies
crossfading between no vibrato all the way up to over the range, you’ll hear where it makes the
the maximum vibrato. most difference.
FLAUTANDO - This refers to a soft ‘flute-like’ way SUL TASTO - Playing with the bow over the fin-
of performing on a stringed instrument. Often the gerboard, to produce a thinner more delicate
bow will be near or over the fingerboard, which tone. This is different from ‘Flautando’ in that it is
gives a very different character to the sound from not specifically required to be ‘flute like’ or ‘har-
the usual bow position. Sometimes we describe monic like’ and therefore is more of a very soft
this to the players as ‘harmonic like’ and this gives delicate but yet ‘normale’ sounding tone.
them a steer toward a more ‘glassy’ and delicate,
often non vibrato sound. SUPER SUL TASTO - Taken to the extreme! The
players asked to play as softly as humanly pos-
HARMONICS - If the player holds down lightly on sible, so that a large proportion of the sound is
the string a perfect 4th interval up from the note the lovely ‘hiss’ of the rosin on the bows. A very
they are fingering, you hear what is called an exciting and delicate sound.
‘artificial harmonic’ sound - two octaves up from
the note being fingered. This is called ‘artificial’ RACHMANINOFF MOLTO VIB - This is taking the
to distinguish it from the natural harmonic series molto vib to its logical conclusion, a super appas-
of the open string. These ‘natural’ harmonics can sionata sound, with a lovely wide vibrato, played
be heard by moving the finger up and down the in the late-romantic style!
string lightly while bowing.
MARCATO ATTACK - Played with a very heavy
CON SORD - This is short for ‘con sordino’ which accented and abrupt start to the note.
means ‘with the mute’. A small rubber mute is at-
tached onto the bridge, and this has a damping
effect on the strings, that produces an extreme-
ly beautiful sound. This is softer than the ‘open’
sound, but still very dynamic in range.
SUL PONT - Short for ‘sul ponticello’ - meaning

‘on the bridge’ - here the player bows very close
to the bridge which produces a brittle and edgy
sound, always reminding us of nails on a chalk
board!

SHORT A RT I C U LATIONS 1.0’ - A longer staccato. Having these differing
lengths gives you more options. Very useful to
SPICCATO - Spiccato techniques can create ex- combine with the ‘Time Machine’ version of the
tremely heated discussions! For Spitfire, we de- short notes in their own patch, where you can
fine our Spiccs as having a nice very tight sound, shorten or lengthen the actual recording to get
with the bow bouncing on the string. This creates an infinitely variable set of shorts!
a sound that can be used either as a nice short
staccatissimo, but also as part of a sequence of T RILLS AND T RE M S:
fast short notes.
TRILL Minor 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Major 3rd
SPICCATO CS - The same as above - with the - A Trill is where the player alternates between
mutes applied. two notes with the left hand very quickly, we’ve
recorded a number of options for this interval.
CON SORD - A staccato muted note - not as short These can be used as accented performance
or tight as the Spiccato. embellishments, or you can play them very softly
and create a lovely ‘cloud’ texture with them.
BRUSHED SHORTS - A more delicate sound,
brushing the strings with the bow in a leisurely TREMOLO MEASURED 150bpm / 180bpm - This
fashion, that reminds us of soft baroque period Tremolo is where the player rapidly moves the
playing. bow while keeping the left hand fingering a sin-
gle note. The effect is a shimmering one when
BRUSHED CS - As above, but with the mute on. played softly, and a very aggressive one when
played loud.
COL LEGNO - Literally, ‘With Wood’ and short for
‘Col Legno Battuto’ or ‘hit with the wood’. This The “measured” trems are played strictly to a
style of playing is to turn the bow over and strike tempo, as sixteenth notes (or ‘semiquavers’). You
the string with the wood of the bow. Usually play- can lock these to tempo on the GUI so that they
ers will bring a practice bow or a less expensive will be in time with your piece. You can use them
one for this, as their main bows can cost tens of in a lot of different ways, one way is to perform
thousands! a sequence of 8th notes (‘quavers’) with them,
and if you get the timing right you’ll hear that very
PIZZICATO - Plucking the strings with the finger. characteristic ‘John Williams’ style that produces
a ‘scattery’ effect and can be incredibly exciting
PIZZICATO BARTOK - In this technique, the play- in a track.
er plucks so hard that the string ‘snaps’ back
onto the fingerboard producing a characteristic TREMOLO MEASURED CS 150bpm - As above -
percussive noise almost like the ‘col legno battu- but muted.
to’ sound. To be used sparingly unless you want
your players to all develop blisters! TREMOLO SUL PONT - Played unmeasured and
close to the bridge to get that nice ‘edgy’ and
HARMONICS: slightly crunchy sound.
The short version of the artificial harmonic de- FX:

scribed earlier in the Long notes section.
A collection of various FX, from slides through to
0.5’ - This is a staccato played to the length of unusual ‘chattering’ and ‘cluster’ sounds. Have
half a second (approx!) an explore through these patches.

VIOLINS 1: VIOLAS: BASSES:
FX FX FX
Long CS Blend Long CS Blend Long Flautando
Long CS Sul Pont Long CS Sul Pont Long Harmonics
Long CS Long CS Long Sul Pont Distorted
Long Flautando Long Flautando Long Sul Pont
Long Harmonics Long Harmonics Long Super Sul Tasto
Long Rachmaninoff Molto Vib Long Rachmaninoff Molto Vib Long
Long Sul G Long Sul C Marcato Attack
Long Sul Pont Distorted Long Sul Pont Short 0’5
Long Sul Pont Long Super Sul Tasto Short 1’0
Long Sul Tasto Long Short Bartok Pizz
Long Super Sul Tasto Marcato Attack Short Col Legno
Long Short 0’5 Short Harmonics
Marcato Attack Short 1’0 Short Pizzicato Bartok
Short 0’5 Short Brushed CS Short Pizzicato
Short 1’0 Short Brushed Short Spicc-Pizz
Short Brushed CS Short Col Legno Short Spiccato
Short Brushed Short CS Short Staccato Dig
Short Col Legno Short Harmonics Tremolo Measured (150bpm)
Short CS Short Pizzicato Bartok Tremolo Measured (180bpm)
Short Harmonics Short Pizzicato Tremolo Sul Pont
Short Pizzicato Bartok Short Spiccato Tremolo
Short Pizzicato Tremolo CS Trill (Major 2nd)
Short Spiccato Tremolo Measured (150bpm) Trill (Minor 2nd)
Tremolo Measured (150bpm) Tremolo Measured (180bpm)
Tremolo Measured (180bpm) Tremolo Sul Pont ENSEMBLES:
Tremolo Measured CS (150bpm) Tremolo Long CS Blend
Tremolo Sul Pont Trill (Major 2nd) Long CS
Tremolo Trill (Minor 2nd) Long Flautando
Trill (Major 2nd) Long Harmonics
Trill (Major 3rd) CELLI: Long Sul Pont
Trill (Minor 2nd) FX Long Sul String
Trill (Minor 3rd) Long CS Blend Long Super Sul Tasto
Long CS Sul Pont Long
VIOLINS 2: Long CS Marcato Attack
FX Long Flautando Short 0’5
Long CS Blend Long Harmonics Short Brushed CS
Long CS Sul Pont Long Rachmaninoff Molto Vib Short Brushed
Long CS Long Sul C Short Col Legno
Long Flautando Long Sul Pont Short Harmonics
Long Harmonics Long Super Sul Tasto Short Pizzicato Bartok
Long Rachmaninoff Molto Vib Long Short Pizzicato
Long Sul G Marcato Attack Short Spiccato CS
Long Sul Pont Short 0’5 Short Spiccato
Long Super Sul Tasto Short 1’0 Tremolo CS
Long Short Brushed CS Tremolo SulPont
Marcato Attack Short Brushed Tremolo
Short 0’5 Short Col Legno Trill (Major 2nd)
Short 1’0 Short CS Trill (Minor 2nd)
Short Brushed CS Short Harmonics
Short Brushed Short Pizzicato Bartok
Short Col Legno Short Pizzicato
Short CS Short Spiccato
Short Harmonics Tremolo CS
Short Pizzicato Bartok Tremolo Measured (150bpm)
Short Pizzicato Tremolo Measured (180bpm)
Short Spiccato Tremolo Measured CS (150bpm)
Tremolo CS Tremolo Sul Pont
Tremolo Measured (150bpm) Tremolo
Tremolo Measured (180bpm) Trill (Major 2nd)
Tremolo Sul Pont Trill (Major 3rd)
Tremolo Trill (Minor 2nd)
Trill (Major 2nd) Trill (Minor 3rd)
Trill (Minor 2nd)

PERFORMANCE LEGATO PATCHES
Violins 1 - Sul G - Performance

Violins 2 - Performance
Violins 2 - Sul G - Performance
Violas - Performance
Violas - Sul C - Performance
Celli - Performance
Celli - Sul C - Performance
Basses - Performance

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: SYM PHO N I C BR AS S VI E W
1.
8.
6.
4.
3.
7.
10.
2. 9.
11.
12.
5.
All of the libraries that we track at AIR Studios are tral preset you’ll be greeted with this GUI.
effects and a huge selection of string runs. There You can then alter the controller parameters in the
are five mic positions (Close, Tree, Ambient, Outrig- “Automation pane” want your mod wheel to go all
gers and Leader), to load and mix to suit the type the way from top to bottom but the control to have
of music you’re writing and the scale you want to restricted bandwidth change default of 0-127 to
When you first load up a Symphonic Brass orches- from default 0-127 to 127-0.

2. S I D E BA R ent dynamic layers recorded.
mix/signals views (as described on page 25). no (or senza) to lots (molto) vibrato.
3 . A RTI C U LAT I O N SWITC HER Release - allows you to change the amount of re-
ticulation.
setting on and off. 8 . PAGE BU T TON
4 . PATC H / ART I CULATION LA BEL This allows you to toggle the page view between
5 . KO N TA K T K E YBOA R D


9. R O U N D R O BI NS A ND LEGATO TIMED SHORT ARTIC RTS - This option allows
functions:
RR3/RR4.
RESET FROM G-1 - This enables you to control will reload.
the round robin cycle (so it sounds identical every
(default G-1) to reset. controllers so you can mix these live for shifts in

buttons.
match that setting.
1 2 . UAC C / K S MA N AG EMEN T


switches.
front panel.

S I D E BAR
options:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
needs.

both pots centre,

disk.
globally.
E. MIC MIX VIEW
controller.

Welcome to the wonderful world of orchestral brass. Here’s a quick crib sheet of the instruments that
we’ve recorded with some quick facts. We’ve sampled the ‘staples’ (Trumpets, Horns, Trombones)
both as solo instruments as sections of two players (a2) and as large (a6) sections. Want three players,
combine the solo and a2, want 9 players combine the solo, a2 and phalanx! We’ve curated ranges
that fit within the reasonable demands of professional players in London. If you’re going to work with
live players, the main catch with both wood and brass is that they are often transposing instruments.
This means the note you write on the stave is different to the note that sounds? This is because play-
ers will often switch between different sizes of instruments (say the Tenor and Bass trombone), by
transposing for them it means the same fingerings apply to what they read. So when a horn player
see a C he actually plays an F (we’ve illustrated transposing instruments in brackets with the note that
sounds when they play a C).
TRUMPET Bb Db3 D6 solo, a2, a6 HORN (F) D2 F5 solo a2, a6

The highest member of the brass family. From plaintive and an- The most stately and noble of the brass family. With the kind of
themic solo lines in its mid range to blistering mariachi up top. range and timbral diversity of the cello many would say horns
Great in octave unisons with the horns. are the principals of the brass choir.
TROMBONE (TENOR) F1 C5 solo, a2, a6 BASS TROMBONE (Bb) Eb1 Ab4 solo, a6
A deeply versatile brass instrument with warmth and depth Because of its different bore size the timbre differs from the
when played in lower dynamics, switching very quickly to rasp- tenor trombone. Great for lower passages but also in a unison
ing tones when louder. Great for solo or accompaniment. blend with the tenor bones.
CONTRABASS TROMBONE (F) C1 F#3 solo CIMBASSO C1 C4 solo, a2

A lesser used, but no less awesome instrument. It requires huge Becoming more popular over recent years for its shattering
amounts of puff so be careful when writing low and continuous rasping quality which, when doubled with the trombones and
drones at fff! tubas can provide monster bass!
TUBA (F) C1 Eb4 solo CONTRABASS TUBA C1 Ab3 solo

It doesn’t get more noble than a tuba. From super fat bottom Less articulate than its smaller cousin, the contrabass tuba is a
end, to farty comedy, chocolatey harmonic potential to a rasp- true giant of the orchestra. Great for super low and monstrous
ing lion from the depths of hell. long notes.
WHICH CLEF?
NB ranges may differ between solo, section

treble bass tenor
and phalanx versions of the instruments. All
ranges given with middle C = C4 Trumpets and horns are notated in the treble clef
(occasionally for long low passages horn players
will read the bass clef). For the rest of the brass
choir its bass clefs! Save anything above G4 for
the trombones where you should switch to tenor.

(An Articulation is a way of playing the instrument, captured as a standalone ‘patch’ like you might
have on a synth.)
L E GATO longer finishing note. Round Robins are handled

automatically.
Legato in the context of a sample instrument re-
fers to a technique of capturing the sound of an LONG ART ICULAT IONS:
instrument moving from one note to the next.
Capturing this detail gives a lot of added realism, NORMALE
but means that you need to play monophonically
(one note at a time). This is the most vanilla of the ‘long notes’ we
have recorded. The basic standard playing style,
To ‘trigger’ the in-between sounds, you must recorded with and without vibrato. Occasionally
make sure that you hold down the first note while you’ll see ‘senza vib’ which means ‘without vibra-
pressing the key of the second note. As long as to’. You can use the Modwheel, or a slider set to
you overlap the notes in this way, the engine CC1, to control the ‘dynamic’ of the sound, this
will know that you want to trigger what we call a smoothly crossfades between very soft (or ‘pp’)
‘legato transition’. recordings, through to very loud (or ‘ff’). Also you
can use a slider set to CC21 to control the amount
PERFORMANCE LEGATO patches: of vibrato, smoothly crossfading between no vi-
brato all the way up to the maximum vibrato.
These patches are designed so that you can for-
get about keyswitching and all that jazz - and just CUIVRE
play. The patch will follow your playing and at-
tempt to select the most appropriate sound. You Literally, french for ‘Brassy’ - this refers to a style
can play short notes, long, loud, soft, trills, runs, of playing where the player will go for a much
arpeggios, you name it. edgier, more nasal and aggressive sound than
usual. Hence, it is usually louder!
For these patches we have recorded different
types of transition, to help you play really expres- BELLS UP
sively and musically using the library.
This refers to the Horn players. If they turn the in-
‘Slurred’ - this is the most basic kind: simply strument so that the bell (the widened ‘end’ of the
changing note without interrupting the airflow. instrument!) is pointing in the air and towards the
‘Fast’ - these are recorded in a unique way that audience. It gives a loud and hearty sound. The
Spitfire have developed to enable the very fast hand can still be left in the bell for accuracy. Early
playing of instruments. These can be used when examples are Mahler’s 1st Symphony and Stravin-
you want to play fast arpeggios for example. sky’s Rite of Spring. Its an exciting sound!
FANFARE patches: And we’d say: if you can hear the loop point, you
are holding the note down too long and will have
These are designed to play very fast passages in an unrealistic part!
a fanfare style. Load up the individual patch and
have a go. You can play two handed (the range
is repeated on the keyboard) and the main con-
trol is via your keyboard velocity: Vel 1-99 is a
very quick staccato for rapid notes, vel 100-110
is a static staccato good for starting and finishing
notes, and 111-127 a marcato that also serves as a

CON SORD / MUTED / STOPPED SHORT ART ICULAT IONS:
Con Sord is short for ‘con sordino’ which means STACCATO / STACCATISSIMO
‘with the mute’. Mutes are placed into the bell of
the instrument to provide a different sound. With The shortest note style, a nice tight staccato - or
the Horn, quite often ‘Stopped’ is the instruction, an even shorter staccatissimo.
which means to use the hand to ‘stop up’ the bell,
giving the effect of a mute, but more intense. TENUTO
Horn mutes are of course still available as an
alternative, but the ‘stopped’ sound is arguably The intermediate short length - literally it means
more popular. ‘hold the note for its full duration or even slight-
ly longer’ and implies some form of accent. We
TRILL Minor 2nd, Major 2nd think of this as a nice rounded attack.
A Trill is where the player alternates between two MARCATO

notes very quickly, we’ve recorded a number of
options for this interval. These can be used as ac- The longest of our short notes, this has a slightly
cented performance embellishments, or you can harder attack while still keeping a round shape to
play them very softly and create a lovely ‘cloud’ the note start. Think of this as the longest note in
texture with them. a fanfare passage.
A general note on looping: We have looped all of RIP / FALL

these long notes, so that you don’t have to worry
about the note running out when the player runs These are either sweeping fast up to a target
out of breath. However! Please do note that for note, (RIP) or falling fast off a target note (FALL).
example on the ContraBass Trombone playing Sometimes there are two speeds for this, select-
low at FF you can literally get about 1.5 seconds ed via the ‘variation’ slider.
in one breath. So its worth noting that some of
these are very hard to loop without you hearing MULTI-TONGUE
the loop points.
Unique to Spitfire and one of our favourite tools!
And we’d say: if you can hear the loop point, you We have recorded double, triple and quadruple
are holding the note down too long and will have tongued notes. You select which one using the
an unrealistic part. ‘variation’ slider. If you hit the keyboard hard, you
get an accented final note, if you hit more softly,
MARIACHI you get a tight ‘snatched away’ final note. This
combination of controls make this patch incred-
An extravagant style of vibrato in the Trumpets ibly useful!
that calls to mind the great Mariachi style of West-
ern Mexico. This dates back to the 19th Century. FX:
FLUTTER A collection of various FX. Have an explore

through these patches!
The player rolls a silent ‘R’ with the mouth while
playing, giving a throbbing airflow that create a
very characteristic sound.

HORN SOLO: TENOR TROMBONES A2: Short Tenuto Muted
Fall Falls Short Tenuto
Long Flutter FX Gliss Trill (Major 2nd)
Long Long Cuivre Trill (Minor 2nd)
Rip Long
Short Marcato Multitongue TRUMPETS A2:
Short Staccatissimo Rips Falls
Short Staccato Short Marcato Long Mariachi
Short Tenuto Short Staccato Long Muted
Trill (Major 2nd) Short Tenuto Long
Trill (Minor 2nd) Multitongue
BASS TROMBONE SOLO: Rips
HORNS A2: Falls Short Marcato
Bells up Crotchet Long Cuivre Short Staccato
Bells up Long Long Flutter Short Tenuto
Bells up Quaver Long Trill (Major 2nd)
Bells up Staccatissimo Multitongue Trill (Minor 2nd)
Bells up Staccato Rips
Fall Short Marcato TRUMPETS A6:
Long Cuivre Short Staccato Fall
Long Flutter Short Tenuto Fanfare
Long Stopped Long Cuivre
Long BASS TROMBONES A2: Long
Multitongue Falls Multitongue
Rip FX Gliss Rip
Short Marcato Long Cuivre Short Marcato
Short Staccatissimo Long Short Staccato
Short Staccato Multitongue Short Tenuto
Short Tenuto Rips
Trill (Major 2nd) Short Marcato
Trill (Minor 2nd)
TUBA SOLO:
Short Staccato Falls
Short Tenuto Long Stopped
HORNS A6: Long
Fall CONTRABASS TROMBONE SOLO: Rips
Fanfare Falls Short Marcato
Long Cuivre Long Cuivre Short Staccato
Long Long Stopped Short Stopped
Multitongue Long Short Tenuto
Rip Rips
Short Marcato Short CS
Short Staccato
CONTRABASS TUBA SOLO:
Short Marcato Falls
Short Tenuto Short Staccato Long
Short Tenuto Rips
TENOR TROMBONE SOLO: Short Marcato
Falls TROMBONES A6: Short Staccato
Long Cuivre Falls Short Tenuto
Long Flutter Muted Fanfare
Long Flutter Long Cuivre
Long Muted
CIMBASSO SOLO:
Long Falls
Long Multitongue Long Cuivre
Multitongue Rips Long
Rips Short Marcato Rips
Short Marcato Muted Short Staccato Short Marcato
Short Marcato Short Tenuto Short Staccato
Short Staccato Muted
Short Tenuto
Short Staccato
TRUMPET SOLO:
Short Tenuto Muted
FX Gliss CIMBASSI A2 SOLO:
Short Tenuto
Long Flutter Falls
Long Mariachi Long Alt
Long Muted Long Cuivre
Long Long
Multitongue Rips
Short Marcato Muted Short Marcato
Short Marcato Short Staccato
Short Staccato Muted Short Tenuto
Short Staccato

PERFORMANCE LEGATO PATCHES
including Legatos:
Trumpet Solo - Total Performance
Trumpets a2 - Performance
Trumpets a6 - Performance
Horn Solo - Performance
Horns a2 - Performance
Horns a6 - Performance
Trombones a6 - Performance
Tenor Trombones a2 - Performance
Bass Trombones a2 - Performance
Tuba Solo - Performance

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: SYM PHO N I C WO O DWI N DS VIEW
1.
8.
6.
4.
3.
7.
10.
2. 9.
11.
12.
5.
All of the libraries that we track at AIR Studios are orchestral preset you’ll be greeted with this GUI.
effects and a huge selection of string runs. There
You can then alter the controller parameters in the
are five mic positions (Close, Tree, Ambient, Outrig-
“Automation pane” want your mod wheel to go all
gers and Leader), to load and mix to suit the type
the way from top to bottom but the control to have
of music you’re writing and the scale you want to
restricted bandwidth change default of 0-127 to
When you first load up a Symphonic Woodwinds from default 0-127 to 127-0.

2. S I D E BA R ent dynamic layers recorded.
mix/signals views(as described on page 35). no (or senza) to lots (molto) vibrato.
3 . A RTI C U LAT I O N SWITC HER Release - allows you to change the amount of re-
ticulation.
setting on and off. 8 . PAGE BU T TON
4 . PATC H / ART I CULATION LA BEL This allows you to toggle the page view between
5 . KO N TA K T K E YBOA R D


9. R O U N D R O BI NS A ND LEGATO TIMED SHORT ARTIC RTS - This option allows
functions:
RR3/RR4.
RESET FROM G-1 - This enables you to control will reload.
(default G-1) to reset. controllers so you can mix these live for shifts in

buttons.
match that setting.


switches.
front panel.

S I D E BAR
options:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
needs.

both pots centre,

disk.
globally.
E. MIC MIX VIEW
controller.

Welcome to the wonderful world of orchestral woodwinds. Here’s a quick crib sheet of the instruments that we’ve recorded with some
quick facts. We’ve sampled the ‘staples’ (C Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon) both as solo instruments and with two different players as a
pair (A2). Combine the solo and A2 to get a trio section. We’ve curated ranges that fit within the reasonable demands of professional
players in London. If you’re going to work with live players, the main catch with both brass and woodwinds is that they are often trans-
posing instruments. This means the note you write on the stave is different to the note that sounds? This is because players will often
switch between different sizes of instruments (say the C Flute and the Alto Flute), by transposing for them it means the same fingerings
apply to what they read. So a flautist sees a C on the stave, he plays a C, even if, on an Alto flute, it sounds the G below (we’ve illustrated
transposing instruments in brackets with the note that sounds when they play a C).
PICCOLO D5 G#7 SOLO FLUTE C C4 C7 SOLO & A2

or Piccolo Flute, is a half sized flute that plays an octave high- or Western Concert Flute. This size, the most common variant
er than written. The loudest and highest instrument in the or- of the flute family. It is a massively dynamic and versatile instru-
chestra, this little bastard can help you take it beyond epic. ment suitable for lyrical and section work.
ALTO FLUTE (G) G3 G6 SOLO BASS FLUTE C3 C6 SOLO

A larger version of the C Flute with mellow undertones, no less the less common bass flute offers up low and rich undertones.
dynamic or versatile than its smaller brother. A transposing in- Arranged well it has other-worldly qualities. Difficult to play,
strument sounding a perfect 4th bellow written. keep it simple, it sounds an octave lower than written.
OBOE Bb3 G6 SOLO & A2 COR ANGLAIS (F) E3 Bb5 SOLO

A double reed instrument that is less dynamic than other wood the Cor or ‘English Horn’ is oft mistaken for an Oboe. Handling
cousins. The oboe is an awesome lyrical top liner with ‘period’ top lines just as well, but with richness, the cor is less refined
connotations, also good as a bright section texture. and predictable at times. Sounds 5th lower than written.
CLARINET (Bb) D3 F6 SOLO & A2 BASS CLARINET (Bb) Bb1 F5 SOLO

A single reed woodwind with a very regal tone. When used solo This stunner has an extraordinary sonic ‘switch’ when played
it can have a very period drama sound to it. Fantastic also as quiet; smooth and rich, played loud and short it rasps almost
part of a section. Plays a whole tone lower than written. like a synth. Plays 1 octave & whole tone lower than written.
CONTRABASS CLARINET (Bb) Bb0 C4 SOLO BASSOON Bb1 D5 SOLO & A2

Less common and difficult to play, this immensely rich instru- Yet another versatile instrument that is often painted into a
ment can sit under your double basses adding complexity in staccato comedy corner. As Stravinsky proved with “The Rite
undertones. Plays 2 octaves & whole tone lower than written. Of Spring” it can be hauntingly melodic.
CONTRABASSOON Bb0 Bb3 SOLO WHICH CLEF?

Producing the lowest tones in the orchestra, this beast can go
Extraordinarily, pretty much all the woodwinds in SSW read from
from producing rich bass qualities to barking pure low end hor-
the treble clef. Even the monstrously low contrabass clarinet
ror that shakes the room.
(which sounds 2 octaves and a whole tone lower than written!)
only the Bassoon and Contrabassoon read from the bass clef.

(An Articulation is basically a way of playing the instrument, captured as a standalone ‘patch’ like you
might have on a synth.)
L E GATO FLUTTER - The player rolls a silent ‘R’ with the

mouth while playing, giving a throbbing airflow
Legato in the context of a sample instrument re- that create a very characteristic sound.
fers to a technique of capturing the sound of an
instrument moving from one note to the next. HARMONICS - Harmonics can be produced on
Capturing this detail gives a lot of added realism, wind instruments. These vary by instrument so
but means that you need to play monophonically have a play and investigate!
(one note at a time).
HOLLOW - A characterful and slightly mournful
To ‘trigger’ the in-between sounds, you must technique particular to the flute family. Produced
make sure that you hold down the first note while by varying the embouchure.
pressing the key of the second note. As long as
you overlap the notes in this way, the engine TRILL Minor 2nd, Major 2nd - A Trill is where the
will know that you want to trigger what we call a player alternates between two notes very quickly,
‘legato transition’. we’ve recorded a number of options for this inter-
val. These can be used as accented performance
LON G A RT I C U LATION S embellishments, or you can play them very softly
and create a lovely ‘cloud’ texture with them.
We’ve separated this list into Longs and Shorts
as they are operated to slightly different princi- A general note on looping: We have looped all of
ples. Namely the dynamic layer of the longs artic- these long notes, so that you don’t have to wor-
ulations are controlled by CC1 (your modulation ry about the note running out when the player
wheel). Imagine this as a kind of mixer / toggle runs out of breath. However! Please do note that
hybrid. When you hit a note, all the different vol- for example on the lowest woods playing at the
umes we sampled play. You simply use the mod- bottom of the range at FF you can not get huge
wheel to fade between them. long notes in one breath. So it’s worth noting that
some of these are very hard to loop without you
NORMALE - This is the most vanilla of the ‘long hearing the loop points. And we’d say: if you can
notes’ we have recorded. The basic standard hear the loop point, you are holding the note
playing style, recorded with and without vibrato. down too long and will have an unrealistic part.
Occasionally you’ll see ‘senza vib’ which means
‘without vibrato’. You can use the Modwheel, or
a slider set to CC1, to control the ‘dynamic’ of the
sound, this smoothly crossfades between very
soft (or ‘pp’) recordings, through to very loud (or
‘ff’). Also you can use a slider set to CC21 to con-
trol the amount of vibrato, smoothly crossfading
between no vibrato all the way up to the maxi-
mum vibrato.
OVERBLOWN - Played with much more air than is

usual - an aggressive sound - hence, it is usually
louder!

SHORT A RT I C U LATIONS
Unless specified on the expert panel. Short ar-

ticulations have their dynamic layer controlled
by how hard you play your keyboard.
STACCATO / STACCATISSIMO - The shortest

note style, a nice tight staccato - or an even
shorter staccatissimo.
TENUTO - The intermediate short length - liter-

ally it means ‘hold the note for its full duration
or even slightly longer’ and implies some form
of accent. We think of this as a nice rounded at-
tack.
MARCATO - The longest of our short notes, this

has a slightly harder attack while still keeping a
round shape to the note start. Think of this as
the longest note in a fanfare passage.
MULTITONGUE - Unique to Spitfire and one of

our favourite tools! We have recorded double,
triple and quadruple tongued notes. You select
which one using the ‘variation’ slider.
If you hit the keyboard hard, you get an accent-

ed final note, if you hit more softly, you get a tight
‘snatched away’ final note. This combination of
controls make this patch incredibly useful.

PICCOLO FLUTE: Short Staccato Multitongue
Long Short Tenuto Short Marcato
Long Flutter Trill (Major 2nd) Short Staccato
Long Harmonics Trill (Minor 2nd) Short Tenuto
Multitongue Trill (Major 2nd)
Short Marcato OBOES A2: Trill (Minor 2nd)
Short Staccato Long
Short Tenuto Long Flutter
Trill (Major 2nd) Short Marcato BASSOON A2:
Trill (Minor 2nd) Short Staccato Long
Trill (Major 2nd) Short Marcato
FLUTE SOLO: Trill (Minor 2nd) Short Staccato
Long Short Tenuto
Long Flutter COR ANGLAIS:
Long Harmonics Long CONTRABASSOON:
Long Hollow Short Marcato Long
Multitongue Short Staccato Short Marcato
Short Marcato Short Tenuto Short Staccato
Short Marcato Sfz Short Tenuto
Short Staccato CLARINET SOLO:
Short Tenuto Long
Trills (Major 2nd) Long Flutter PERFORMANCE LEGATO:
Trills (Minor 2nd) Multitongue Flute Solo - Total Performance
Short Staccato Flutes a2 - Performance
FLUTES A2: Trill (Major 2nd) Alto Flute - Performance
Long Trill (Minor 2nd) Piccolo Flute - Performance
Long Flutter Tongued Bass Flute - Performance
Long Harmonics CLARINETS A2: Oboe Solo - Performance
Long Hollow Long Oboes a2 - Performance
Long Overblown Multitongue Clarinet Solo - Performance
Multitongue Short Marcato Clarinets a2 - Performance
Short Marcato Short Staccato Bass Clarinet - Performance
Short Marcato Sfz Short Tenuto ContraBass Clarinet - Performance
Short Overblown Trill (Major 2nd) Bassoon Solo - Performance
Short Staccato Trill (Minor 2nd) Bassoons a2 - Performance
Short Tenuto ContraBassoon - Performance
Trills (Major 2nd) Cor Anglais - Performance
Trills (Minor 2nd)
CONTRABASS CLARINET:
Long
Short Marcato
ALTO FLUTE: Short Staccato
Long Short Tenuto
Long Flutter
Long Harmonics
Long Overblown
BASS CLARINET:
Long
Short Marcato
Short Staccato
Short Overblown
Short Tenuto
Short Staccato
Trill (Major 2nd)
Short Tenuto
Trill (Minor 2nd)
Trill (Major 2nd)
Trill (Minor 2nd)
BASS FLUTE:
Long BASS FLUTE:
Long Flutter Long
Long Overblown Long Flutter
Short Marcato Long Overblown
Short Staccato Short Marcato
Short Tenuto Short Staccato
Short Tenuto
OBOE SOLO:
Long BASSOON SOLO:
Long Flutter Long
Multitongue Long Flutter
Short Marcato Long Harmonics

PERF O R M A N CE PATC H OVE RV I E W
1.
3.
2.
4.
7.
8.
5. 6.
9.
10.
1. KO N TA K T H EA DER Vibrato - where appropriate this crossfades from

no (or senza) to lots (molto) vibrato.
This area at the top of each instrument is where
to set your audio and MIDI routing as well as see Expression - ostensibly instrument trim (CC11), so
whether the patch is loaded, loading or purged. On this adjusts the volume within the instrument vol-
the right you can solo, mute, pan, tune and adjust ume (CC7).
volume.
This section also contains visual representations
2. C ON TR O LLE R S of:
The following controls are included in this patch to Attack & Interval - Performance Legato patches
allow you to control and automate various param- react to your playing without having to switch ar-
eters: ticulations. Refer to this guide for information on
how to trigger each playing style included in each
Dynamics - probably the most important controller patch. Attacks and Intervals can also be ‘locked’ by
you have. This crossfades between the different hovering the mouse over an articulation and click-
dynamic layers recorded. ing the padlock. This restricts the playable velocity
of an attack or interval to the range locked.

Vibrato: As you move the Vibrato intensity slider, 8. ROUND ROBINS
you will see here this moving from/into non-vib,
vib and molto-vib as a visual aid. NO EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY: This is the menu
for RR behaviour. Next to this lies a drop-down
3. PAG E BU TTO N menu with some useful functions:
• “No extra Functionality”
This allows you to toggle the page view between • “Neighbouring Zones” -
the Controllers and the Ostinatum. This Page but- • “2x Round Robin With Skip”
ton will only appear on articulations that support • “Layer 2x Round Robins With No Skip”
the Ostinatum (shorts).
ROUND ROBINS - This refers to the number of
round robins (multiple recordings of the same
notes that cycle around as you repeatedly play
a note) your instrument uses, the number can be
dragged up and down (1-8) to save you memory.
4. PATC H / ART I CULATION LA BEL RESET FROM C0 - This enables you to control
5. S I D E BA R time you play) toggle on & play the key selected
(default C0) to reset.
The side bar is where you select and change mic
mix/signals views(as described in previous sec- RESET ON TRANSPORT - As above but resets
tions). every time you press play in the DAW.
6. M I C MI X E S 9. UACC/KS M ANAGE M E NT
7. OPT I ON S Click on this to reveal the menu to change the

keyswitching/articulation management mode for
PURGE UNUSED - This control keeps unload- the various playing styles available in each patch.
memory usage as low as possible. 10. KONTAKT KE YBOARD
TRANSPOSE - Toggle this on and adjust the num-

ber to the right to transpose your instrument. Note
see a red range of keys and a blue range. The red
this is not the same as tuning, the instrument will
range will be your Keyswitch range for selecting
actually offset the samples to the selected pitch.
KEYSWITCHES - Change, if needed, where the playable range of the selected articulation.
keyswitches begin on your keyboard.
CC MAPPED VEL(OCITY) - Click this to control

note velocity with the Dynamics slider. If you have
re-assigned the dynamics slider, that same CC
will control velocity now.

gle whether room ambience is added when fad-
ing out dynamics quickly.

O ST IN ATU M OVE RVI E W
1.
4.
a.
b. c.
3. d.
e. 2.
f.
g.
5.
6.
7.
10.
11.
8. 9.
12.
13.
1. KO N TA K T H EA DER - Wrap around/don’t wrap around if less notes held:

if the notes in the current pattern are using key val-
This area at the top of each instrument is where ues of 1-10 but there are less than 10 notes held,
to set your audio and MIDI routing as well as see the values will wrap around to 1 again. If the pattern
whether the patch is loaded, loading or purged. On contains key values 1-6 and only 4 notes are held,
the right you can solo, mute, pan, tune and adjust the key values 5 and 6 will trigger 1 and 2 respec-
volume. tively. With this disabled, the notes will be skipped
instead of played.
2. PAT TER N - Mute/don’t mute this pattern: This pattern will not
play when muted, but can be overridden with key-
a. Note Input: Clicking on the different note values switches set up in point 3.
will add a note to the end of the pattern that is this - Ignore/don’t ignore chord settings: With chord
long - for instance, clicking a crotchet/quarter-note mode enabled, this pattern will behave as though
will add a note of this length to the pattern. it is disabled.
b. Clicking the bin/trashcan will remove the most
recently added note.
c. Pattern settings: The ‘cog’ icon reveals a drop-
down menu with the following options:

3. OSTINATUM SETTINGS 3 . ART ICULAT ION SWITCHE R
This section has controls for selecting how the These musical note icons are the available artic-
Ostinatum handles incoming notes and for ena- ulations in your patch. These icons also corre-
bling and disabling keyswitches. The mode op- spond to the red keys in the Kontakt keyboard.
tions are as follows:
OFF - in this default position the Ostinatum re- button for an articulation will SOLO LOAD that ar-
mains dormant. ticulation.
ORDER PRESSED: This will number the notes in - Holding SHIFT and clicking an articulation icon
the order you pressed them. will allow multiple articulations to be activated si-
ASCENDING: This will number the notes from the multaneously. Mileage may vary depending on
lowest to the highest. articulations picked.
DESCENDING: This will number the notes from - Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the articula-
the highest to the lowest. tion icon will pop up the ARTICULATION MAPPER
(page 63) and allow you to customise how the ar-
The other options are: ticulation is activated.
- Holding ALT and clicking on the articulation icon
CONTROL KEYSWITCHES: Allows you to set up a will toggle an existing ARTICULATION MAPPER
section of the keyboard that controls the state of setting on and off.
the Ostinatum.
SOLO KEYSWITCHES: Allows you to dedicate a 8. SID E BAR
section of the keyboard to keyswitches that solo
each ostinatum pattern. The side bar is where you select and change mic
CHORD MODE: This ignores any note order and mix/signals views(as described in previous sec-
simply plays everything polyphonically, great for tions).
measured trem style effects.
9. M IC M IXE S
At the bottom of this section, is the KEY DISPLAY.
10. OPT IONS
This displays the currently held notes number
1-10 arranged from left to right, this will display PURGE UNUSED - This control keeps unload-
changes based on the Mode setting. ing any samples you are not using to keep your
memory usage as low as possible.
4. PAG E BU TTO N
This allows you to toggle the page view between ber to the right to transpose your instrument. Note
the Controllers and the Ostinatum. This Page but- this is not the same as tuning, the instrument will
ton will only appear on articulations that support actually offset the samples to the selected pitch.
keyswitches begin on your keyboard.

note velocity with the Dynamics slider. If you have
will control velocity now.
5. PATC H / ART I CULATION LA BEL
SYNC TO TEMPO - Toggle whether the loaded
patch uses TM to sync to tempo (where available)

1 1. R O U N D R O B IN S A N D LEGATO you to toggle whether staccato/tenuto/marcato
notes have a release trigger that plays on release.
NO EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY- This is the menu This lets you tighten up staccatos or end marca-
for RR behaviour. Next to this lies a drop-down tos/tenutos earlier than they were recorded.
menu with some useful functions:
• “No extra Functionality” - Is the standard de- 12. UACC/KS M ANAGE M E NT
intended. Click on this to reveal the menu to change the
keyswitching/articulation management mode for
• “Neighbouring Zones” - pulls from neighbouring the various playing styles available in each patch.
cycle through up to 24 different sounding notes 13 . KONTAKT KE YBOARD
when pressing a key. It’s still just playing the one
RR at a time, though giving you more of them. In With the Kontakt keyboard displayed you should
legato mode this also alternates between 3 lega- see a red range of keys and a blue range. The red
to intervals to give a fake round robin. range will be your Keyswitch/Control Keyswitch/
Solo Keyswitch range for selecting articulations
• “2x Round Robin With Skip” - plays two RR si- etc, holding more than one red key will select
multaneously, so you get a thicker sound, it’s the multiple articulations. The blue range is the play-
equivalent of plopping two notes on top of each able range of the selected articulation.
other in your DAW (and it drops the overall vol-
ume ~6db so that the levels remain the same but
it just sounds thicker). NB THIS IS NOT AVAILA-
pairs and moves ahead by 2 RR. In this mode RR
is effectively halved. E.g., if you press a note it
• “Layer 2x Round Robins With No Skip” - As

above but this plays a pair but doesn’t move
a note it would play RR1/RR2, then RR2/RR3, then
RR3/RR4.

round robins (multiple recordings of the same
notes that cycle around as you repeatedly play
a note) your instrument uses, the number can be
RESET FROM G-1 - This enables you to control

time you play) toggle on & play the key selected
(default G-1) to reset.
RESET ON TRANSPORT - As above but resets

every time you press play in the DAW.
TIMED SHORT ARTIC RTS - This option allows

SPITFIRE SY M P HONY OR C HE ST R A: SYM PHO N I C PE R C US S I O N :
K I C K START VI E W
1.
2.
3.
4.
7.
5. 6.
8.
9.
All of the libraries that we track at AIR Studios are ASSIGNING CONTROLS IN KONTAKT.
Neve Montserrat pre-amps, the largest 88R Neve All GUI controls can be assigned a unique control-
console in the world and onto pristine 2” tape be- ler number so you can automate or adjust via an
fore being converted with the top-of-their-class external controller (vital when playing in virtual Or-
Prism AD converters at 96k. The orchestra is pre- chestral parts). To un-assign, assign or just to see
sented in carefully orchestrated sections, some- what CC number is assigned to any control RIGHT
times in unison across the entire orchestral range or CTRL CLICK.
sometimes in high low and middle sections. Along-
side many ‘work horse’ long and short articulations You can then alter the controller parameters in the
are expertly prepared legato patches; a menu of “Automation pane” want your mod wheel to go all
effects and a huge selection of string runs. There the way from top to bottom but the control to have
are three mic positions (Close, Tree and Ambient), restricted bandwidth change default of 0-127 to
to load and mix to suit the type of music you’re 20-100 say. Or if you want the controller to make
writing and the scale you want to achieve. the GUI control in the reverse direction change
from default 0-127 to 127-0.
When you first load up a Symphonic Percussion
Kickstart preset you’ll be greeted with this GUI.

1 . KO N TA K T H EA DER this area to select and configure each one, or
hold CMD/CTRL and click to select multiple. Se-
This area at the top of each instrument is where lected instruments are usually shown in a shaded
to set your audio and MIDI routing as well as see colour, or with a visible outline.
whether the patch is loaded, loading or purged.
On the right you can solo, mute, pan, tune and When each instrument is selected, all available
adjust volume. hits and techniques will be displayed on the right
in the hits & techniques area.
2. C ON T R O LLE R S
5. SID E BAR
The following controls are included in this library
to allow you to control and automate various pa- The side bar is where you select and change mic
rameters: mix/signals views (as described on page 43).
Dynamics - probably the most important control- 6. M IC M IX

ent dynamic layers recorded. This is a more advanced mixer than the Easy Mix
(page.... ), with individual faders for each mic. Like
Releases - Dialled in all the way, this helps blur the Articulation Switcher the toggles beneath the
the transitions when using long articulations such faders load and unload different microphones
as rolls and swells in slow passages in a natural and the faders above to tweak the balance of
and musical way. Dial back to shorten the release them. Turning a fader all the way down will also
tails of these techniques. unload the mics and turning the fader back up
will reload.
Variation - allows you to switch between hit var-
iations. Right clicking the faders allows you to assign CC
controllers so you can mix these live for shifts in
Expression - ostensibly instrument trim (CC11), so the spacial nature of the samples. Click on the
this adjusts the volume within the instrument vol- mic letters to assign a different output for each
ume (CC7). mic.
3 . H I TS & TEC H NIQUES - Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the purge

This right panel lists all available techniques for - Holding ALT/MENU and dragging the sliders
the instrument currently selected. In Kickstart, a will move them WITHOUT toggling the mic purge
technique is a way the instrument can be played. buttons.
Available techniques differ between instruments - Holding SHIFT + ALT/MENU and dragging the
and Kickstart patches. sliders will drag all mic sliders up and down to
match that setting.
This panel also allows you to switch between var-
iations. A variation is an alternative way of playing 7. INST RU M E NT ACT IVE
the instrument.
This section shows the currently selected instru-
4 . I N STR U M EN T A R EA ment(s), and allows you to toggle these on and
off.
This middle area gives a visual overview of all of
the instruments included within each Kickstart
patch.
You need to click the instrument silhouettes in

8 . OPT I O N S
PURGE UNUSED - This control keeps unload-

memory usage as low as possible.
CC BASED VELOCITY - Click this to control note

velocity with the Dynamics slider/mod wheel. If
you have re-assigned the dynamics slider, that
same CC will control velocity now.
RESET RR on C0 (+/-1) - This enables you to con-

trol the round robin cycle (so it sounds identical
every time you play) toggle on & play the key se-
lected (C0) to reset.
RESET ON TRANSPORT - As above but resets

ROLL ON HIGH VEL. - Toggle whether a high ve-

locity hit triggers a roll (where available).
SELECT WHEN PLAYED - Switch to the instru-

ment that is played.
9. KO N TA K T K E YBOA RD

select multiple articulations.
The blue range is the playable range of the se-

lected articulation.

SI D E BAR C. CLOSE MIC STEREO FIELD CONFIG

options:
A.
B.
C.
D.
The mics are a stereo mix and this collapser allows
A - MIXER PRESETS giving you a fantastic spectral spread when putting
all the elements together. This panning tool helps
needs.

both pots centre,
This menu is a way to transfer mixer settings be- STEREO PAN - Then allows you to control where
tween patches, or save and load presets to or from in the pan field the centre of this image is placed.
disk.
D. PER-INSTRUMENT MIXER BUTTON
The Per-Instrument mixer button allows you to
toggle between global mixing ( )and per-instru-
ment mixing ( ).
When set to global, changes to the mixer (purge

and levels) affect all instruments identically. When
set to per-instrument, any changes will only be ap-
plied to the instruments that are currently selected.
Pick from 4 different velocity curves to suit your

controller.

MA PP IN G H ITS & T E C H NI Q U E S TO A MI DI CO N T R O LLE R
Whilst libraries utilising Kickstart come with pre- 3. SELECT THE DESIRED NOTE
mapped Kontakt patches, one of the big advan-
tages that the system brings to Spitfire Audio’s With the technique selected, using the up and
percussive instruments is that everything can be down arrows next to the note number, choose
completely remapped and customised to your your desired note you wish to map this to on the
preference. It’s extremely easy to pull together all keyboard.
the playing styles you need for each instrument
onto a single MIDI channel. This allows you to
quickly map each and every instrument’s hit to
any imaginable MIDI controller:
1. SELECT THE INSTRUMENT

You’ll notice that the on-screen Kontakt keyboard
First, select the instrument you want to map to
moves the coloured note along the keyboard to
the keyboard. Simply move the mouse over the
the new key selected.
silhouette and give it a click.
4. CONFIGURE THE TECHNIQUE
If you look to the right of each technique’s name

in the list you’ll notice two buttons: an edit button
(pencil icon) and a purge toggle.
With the instrument selected, you’ll see its name

to the top right, just above a list of its available You can click the purge toggle load or unload
techniques on the panel to the right. technique from memory and deactivate/activate
its mapping.
2. SELECT THE TECHNIQUE
If you want to configure a technique further you
From the list of techniques, find the one that you can expand the configuration area by pressing
want to map and give it a click. If done correctly the edit button (pencil icon).
you’ll notice the technique name should highlight:
If you clicked the wrong technique, don’t wor-

ry. Simply click on ‘CLEAR EXISTING MAPPING’,
twice, to deselect it and cancel mapping.

TWO FINGER MAPPING
Techniques with this option can be toggled be-

tween single and two fingered mapping mode. The
former will provide you with a single key to play the
technique. The latter expands this to two key al-
lowing you to play rolls, flams and trill much easier.
ROUND ROBINS x ...
The round robins option allows you to con-

figure how many round-robins should play
for the technique (or completely turn them
off ).
To change the number of active round-robin,

click and drag the number up and down. You
can completely disable round-robins by un-
ticking the box to deselect.
Please note that this option may read ‘No

Round robins’ if there are none available for
the selected technique.

I NSTR UM EN T ‘ VA R I AT I ON S ’ Above the variations available for the instrument,
there is an option called Set Variation KS (Key-
In Kickstart, a variation is an alternative way of switch, defaulting to C-2 ). When activated, you
striking or playing the instrument. A common ap- can switch variations of this instrument using the
plication of this is the type of stick or mallet used newly-provided keyswitches that start on the
to hit the instrument. For example, the Gong Drum specified key. You can change the starting key by
in Spitfire Percussion was recorded being struck clicking and dragging the displayed key up and
with both a stick and a wooden mallet. When an down. It’s worth keeping in mind that this option
instrument features varying recordings, Kickstart works on a per-instrument basis and you must ac-
provides the variation menu and variation key- tivate it for each instrument you wish to variate
switches which can be assigned to custom keys via keyswitches. Also note, however, that you can
on your keyboard. configure multiple instruments’ Set Variation KS
option to the same, shared keys.
Variations aren’t just limited to stick-types. They

can also cover things such as Snares on/off for
snare drums, or change the material an instru-
ment is made out of such as glass, plastic, metal,
etc. and much more. It really depends on each
library and its instruments, so feel free to explore
and see what’s available.
To change variation with the UI simply click the

current stick in the variation menu. You can lo-
cate this just below the instrument’s active toggle
in the middle of the bottom panel of the inter-
face. If you don’t see the menu, don’t worry - not
every instrument has variations, and this menu
only shows when it does. Once clicked, a list of
all available variations appears. Simply click the
desired variation to select it.
Note that variations are instrument-wide and ap-

ply to all mapped techniques. Also note that any
mapped techniques on the visual keyboard may
temporarily disappear if they are not applicable to
the current variation. They’ll reappear when you
activate a stick or variation that applies to them.

Percussion - Drums - High - Bongos
Percussion - Drums - High - Conga 1
Percussion - Drums - High - Conga 2
Percussion - Drums - High - Rototoms
Percussion - Drums - High - Snare 1
Percussion - Drums - High - Timbales
Percussion - Drums - Low - Bass Drum
Percussion - Drums - Low - Field Drum
Percussion - Drums - Low - Gong Drum
Percussion - Drums - Low - Tom Ensemble
Percussion - Drums - Low - Toms
Percussion - Toys - Agogo
Percussion - Toys - Cabasa
Percussion - Toys - Castanets
Percussion - Toys - Cowbells
Percussion - Toys - Gankogui
Percussion - Toys - Guiro
Percussion - Toys - Jawbone
Percussion - Toys - Ratchet
Percussion - Toys - Shakers
Percussion - Toys - Ships Bell
Percussion - Toys - Sleigh Bells
Percussion - Toys - Tambourines
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Anvil
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Cymbal Hi
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Cymbal Lo
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Cymbal Med
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Mark Tree
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Mini Anvil
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Piatti
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Rain Sheet
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Rivet Cymbal
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Tam Tam
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Trash Metals
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Triangle 1
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Triangle 2
Percussion - Unpitched - Metal - Wind Gong
Percussion - Unpitched - Wood - Claves
Percussion - Unpitched - Wood - Temple Blocks
Percussion - Unpitched - Wood - Woodblocks

SPITFIR E SY M P HONY OR C HE ST R A: SYM PHO N I C PE R C US S I O N :
HAR P V I E W
1.
10.
2.
3.
11. 4.
7.
8.
5. 6.
12.
9.
When you first load up a Symphonic Percussion -
Harp preset you’ll be greeted with this GUI.

1 . KO N TA K T H EA DER 4 . ART ICULAT ION SWITCHE R
This area at the top of each instrument is where These musical note icons are the available artic-
to set your audio and MIDI routing as well as see ulations in your patch. These icons also corre-
whether the patch is loaded, loading or purged. spond to the red keys in the Kontakt keyboard
On the right you can solo, mute, pan, tune and (see point 5.)
adjust volume.
2. C ON T R O LLE R S button for an articulation will SOLO LOAD that ar-
ticulation.
The following controls are included in this library - Holding SHIFT and clicking an articulation icon
to allow you to control and automate various pa- will allow multiple articulations to be activated si-
rameters: multaneously. Mileage may vary depending on
Dynamics - probably the most important control- - Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the articula-
ler you have. This crossfades between the differ- tion icon will pop up the ARTICULATION MAPPER
ent dynamic layers recorded. (page 63) and allow you to customise how the ar-
ticulation is activated.
Releases - allows you to change the amount of - Holding ALT and clicking on the articulation icon
release trigger you and your listener hears. will toggle an existing ARTICULATION MAPPER
setting on and off.
Expression - ostensibly instrument trim (CC11), so
this adjusts the volume within the instrument vol- 5. SID E BAR
ume (CC7).
The side bar is where you select and change mic
3. H A R P P EDALI NG mix/signals views (as described on page 53).
Pedals in the harp are used to change the pitch 6. M IC M IX

of the strings by one semi-tone up or down. By
sliding the individual vertical lines up or down in This is a more advanced mixer than the Easy Mix
this diagram, you will be able to achieve all kinds (page.... ), with individual faders for each mic. Like
of scale and modes. the Articulation Switcher the toggles beneath the
faders load and unload different microphones
The order of the pedals is D, C, B and E, F, G, and the faders above to tweak the balance of
A. Each note will have 3 positions: up for Flats, them. Turning a fader all the way down will also
middle for Naturals and down for Sharps. When unload the mics and turning the fader back up
all pedals are in the middle, the instrument is will reload.
scripted so you can play chromatically; as soon
as one of the pedals is set to Sharp or Flat, the Right clicking the faders allows you to assign CC
black keys of your keyboard will not be functional controllers so you can mix these live for shifts in
and the Scale you spell out with the pedals will the spacial nature of the samples. Click on the
always correlate with the white keys (making cus- mic letters to assign a different output for each
tom glisses very easy to sequence). mic.
Right-click on each pedal to MIDI CC Learn. The - Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the purge
pedals are also mapped to CC40-46 (and can be button for a mic will SOLO LOAD that Mic.
controlled through DAW/NKS automation). - Holding ALT/MENU and dragging the sliders
buttons.
match that setting.

7. OPT I ON S
PURGE UNUSED - This control keeps unload- round robins (multiple recordings of the same
ing any samples you are not using to keep your notes that cycle around as you repeatedly play
memory usage as low as possible. a note) your instrument uses, the number can be
ber to the right to transpose your instrument. Note RESET FROM C-1 - This enables you to control
this is not the same as tuning, the instrument will the round robin cycle (so it sounds identical every
actually offset the samples to the selected pitch. time you play) toggle on & play the key selected
(default C-1) to reset.
keyswitches begin on your keyboard. RESET ON TRANSPORT - As above but resets
note velocity with the Dynamics slider. If you have TIMED SHORT ARTIC RTS - This option allows
re-assigned the dynamics slider, that same CC you to toggle whether staccato/tenuto/marcato
will control velocity now. notes have a release trigger that plays on release.
This lets you tighten up staccatos or end marca-
8 . R OU N D R O BI NS tos/tenutos earlier than they were recorded.
NO EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY - This is the menu 9. KONTAKT KE YBOARD

menu with some useful functions: With the Kontakt keyboard displayed you should
• “No extra Functionality” - Is the standard de- see a red range of keys and a blue range. The
fault where round robins are used as they were red range is your Keyswitch range for selecting
intended. articulations, holding more than one red key will
• “Neighbouring Zones” - pulls from neighbouring playable range of the selected articulation.
cycle through up to 24 different sounding notes 10. PAGE BUT TON
RR at a time, though giving you more of them. In This allows you to toggle the page view between
legato mode this also alternates between 3 lega- the Controllers and the Ostinatum. This Page but-
to intervals to give a fake round robin. ton will only appear on articulations that support
• “2x Round Robin With Skip” - plays two RR si-
equivalent of plopping two notes on top of each
• “Layer 2x Round Robins With No Skip” - As 11. PATCH/ART ICULAT ION LABE L
ahead by 2 so that RR isn’t halved. So if you press Displays the name of the loaded patch and the
a note it would play RR1/RR2, then RR2/RR3, then currently selected articulation.
RR3/RR4.



switches.
front panel.

S I D E BAR
options:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E. our musicians are recorded in situ, i.e. where they
needs.

both pots centre,

disk.
globally.
E. MIC MIX VIEW
controller.

HARP ARTICULATIONS
There are many ways to get a sound out of the harp and we have sampled a very comprehensive list
in this library. Let us look at the Main Techniques first, and then at the Glissandi patch.
MAIN TECHNIQUES peatedly as quickly as possible to achieve a blur

of sound without a particular rhythm. Since the
NORMALE - This is the standard way of playing idea of this articulation is to create a continuous
the harp. The strings are plucked roughly mid mass of sound, the dynamics are controlled by
way from each end, which results in a full bod- the modwheel (CC1), as opposed to velocity.
ied sound. This articulation is velocity sensitive,
so the harder you hit the keys, the louder the FX - This is a small collection of some of the most
harp will sound. With the sustain pedal down, the characteristic effects the harp can create by doing
notes will ring until the sound dies down (typically things like scratching the strings upwards or hit-
called Laissez vibrer). With the sustain pedal ting the lower strings with the palm of your hand.
up, the moment you release the keyboard keys, Perfect for horror film scores or tension scenes.
the notes will be damped in the same way that
a harpist would dampen the strings with his/her GLISSANDI
hands (typically called Sons étouffés).
HARP GLISSANDI Patch - This is a keyswitch
PDLT - PDLT, short for Près de la Table is a tech- patch with 6 different scales: Whole tone,
nique achieved by playing close to the sound- Minor harmonic, Minor melodic, Major, Pentaton-
board. This produces a drier, more nasal sound. ic and Diminished. The key switches assigned
This articulation is also velocity sensitive. at the bottom of the keyboard will allow you to
change from one scale to the other. Here is
FLAGEOLET - This is the name used for the harp what is programmed across the range of the key-
harmonics. The player slightly dampens the string board:
half way with the side of the hand (or knuckle)
and lets go straight after the string is plucked. Keyboard range Sounding range
This produces a very colourful effect that can add F1 - E2 Straight full sweeps
real subtlety to your music. Since the harmonic F2 - E3 Swirly full sweeps
produced on a string is exactly an octave above, F3 - E4 Lowest 8ve
you will see that the range is smaller than other F4 - E5 8ve below middle C
articulations (from G2 to C6). This articulation is F5 - E6 8ve above middle C
velocity sensitive, but because of the nature of F6 - E7 Highest 8ve
this technique, you will realise it is generally qui-
et.
SLID - With this articulation we have tried to rec-

reate the sound of each individual note as part
of a glissando. This is therefore thought for fast-
er passages where not a lot of attention is given
to each individual note, but rather the effect they
all produce in rapid succession. It is perfect for
custom glisses and faster arpeggio figures. This
articulation is velocity sensitive.
BISBIGLIANDO - That is the term used for the

harp tremolo effect, where a note is played re-

SPITFIR E SY MP HONY OR C HE ST R A: SYM PHO N I C PE R C US S I O N :
P I ANO VI E W
1.
3.
2.
10.
4.
7.
8.
5. 6.
9.
When you load up the Symphonic Percussion - Pi-
ano preset you’ll be greeted with this GUI.

1 . KO N TA K T H EA DER 4 . ART ICULAT ION SWITCHE R
This area at the top of each instrument is where These sound source icons are the available ar-
to set your audio and MIDI routing as well as see ticulations in your patch. These icons also corre-
whether the patch is loaded, loading or purged. spond to the red keys in the Kontakt keyboard
On the right you can solo, mute, pan, tune and (see point 5.)
adjust volume.
2. C ON T R O LLE R S button for an articulation will SOLO LOAD that ar-
ticulation.
The following controls are included in this library - Holding SHIFT and clicking an articulation icon
to allow you to control and automate various pa- will allow multiple articulations to be activated si-
rameters: multaneously. Mileage may vary depending on
Dynamics - probably the most important control- - Holding CTRL/CMD and clicking on the articula-
ler you have. This crossfades between the differ- tion icon will pop up the ARTICULATION MAPPER
ent dynamic layers recorded. (page 63) and allow you to customise how the ar-
ticulation is activated.
Pedal Volume - adjusts pedal volume within the - Holding ALT and clicking on the articulation icon
instrument volume will toggle an existing ARTICULATION MAPPER
setting on and off.
Pedal Dyn - allows you to change the pedal dy-
namics, from soft, medium and hard. 5. SID E BAR
Expression - ostensibly instrument trim (CC11), so The side bar is where you select and change mic
this adjusts the volume within the instrument vol- mix/signals views (as described on page 59).
ume (CC7).
6. M IC M IX
3 . PAGE BU TTO N
This allows you to toggle the page view between (page.... ), with individual faders for each mic. Like
the Controllers and the Ostinatum. This Page but- the Articulation Switcher the toggles beneath the
ton will only appear on articulations that support faders load and unload different microphones
the Ostinatum (shorts). and the faders above to tweak the balance of
them. Turning a fader all the way down will also
will reload.
Right clicking the faders allows you to assign CC

controllers so you can mix these live for shifts in
mic letters to assign a different output for each
mic.

buttons.
match that setting.

7. OPT I ON S • “Layer 2x Round Robins With No Skip” - As
PURGE UNUSED - This control keeps unload- ahead by 2 so that RR isn’t halved. So if you press
ing any samples you are not using to keep your a note it would play RR1/RR2, then RR2/RR3, then
memory usage as low as possible. RR3/RR4.
TRANSPOSE - Toggle this on and adjust the num- ROUND ROBINS - This refers to the number of
ber to the right to transpose your instrument. Note round robins (multiple recordings of the same
this is not the same as tuning, the instrument will notes that cycle around as you repeatedly play
actually offset the samples to the selected pitch. a note) your instrument uses, the number can be
keyswitches begin on your keyboard. RESET FROM C-1 - This enables you to control
CC MAPPED VEL(OCITY) - Click this to control time you play) toggle on & play the key selected
note velocity with the Dynamics slider. If you have (default C-1) to reset.
will control velocity now. RESET ON TRANSPORT - As above but resets
AUTO PEDAL VOL - Will automatically set the
pedal volume (linked to CC17) based on how TIMED SHORT ARTIC RTS - This option allows
hard the last key was played. This can be tog- you to toggle whether staccato/tenuto/marcato
gled on or off here in the Options. notes have a release trigger that plays on release.
This lets you tighten up staccatos or end marca-
8 . R OU N D R O BI NS tos/tenutos earlier than they were recorded.
NO EXTRA FUNCTIONALITY - This is the menu 9. KONTAKT KE YBOARD

menu with some useful functions: With the Kontakt keyboard displayed you should
• “No extra Functionality” - Is the standard de- see a red range of keys and a blue range. The
fault where round robins are used as they were red range is your Keyswitch range for selecting
intended. articulations, holding more than one red key will
• “Neighbouring Zones” - pulls from neighbouring playable range of the selected articulation.
cycle through up to 24 different sounding notes
RR at a time, though giving you more of them. In
legato mode this also alternates between 3 lega-
• “2x Round Robin With Skip” - plays two RR si-

equivalent of plopping two notes on top of each

SI D E BAR
options:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E. our musicians are recorded in situ, i.e. where they
needs.

both pots centre,

disk.
globally.
E. MIC MIX VIEW
controller.

A RT I C U LATI O N MA P P ER Once you choose the trigger, you will be asked to
set how the trigger is set:
Custom triggers for switching articulations - Com-
mand+Clicking on an articulation (Control+Click on
Windows) will pop up a menu with some options
for customising how articulations are triggered or
switched:
Each of the different trigger options has a trigger

panel which allows you to specify if you want this
trigger to apply only to legato intervals, and an op-
tion to specify a group for the triggers, this means
that a trigger will only activate when another artic-
ulation in the same group is already activated. An
By CC Range - This will allow you to use a single example of this might be velocity triggers for shorts
MIDI CC message to switch between articulations. only, or playing speed for legato articulations only:
Set each articulation to a specific range and use a
midi controller fader or indeed button with a single
CC value assigned to select your desired articula-
tion. Our default setting CC used is CC#32 as per
our UACC protocol.
By Keysw. - This allows you to create your own

custom Key Switch for the articulation, please note
that this is not as fully featured as the default KS Once a custom trigger is set you will see a small
range and does not allow for layering. This is only white arrow above the articulation to indicate this,
advisable if you have a specific KS layout you pre- Alt+Clicking on this will toggle the trigger on or off:
fer.
By Vel. Range - This is great for designing intelli-

gent staccato patches that say become staccatissi-
mo when you hit the keyboard hard.
By MIDI Channel - This option turns your single in-

stance into a multi timbral instrument. MIDI chan-
nel lets the instrument change articulation based
on the incoming MIDI channel. To use, place the
instrument MIDI Channel to ‘Omni’ mode in the Whilst there are many ways to switch between ar-
Kontakt Header. The single instance can now be ticulations, many pros still prefer to have a different
configured to play based on the incoming MIDI articulation in a single instance per track on their
channel. DAW. This enables them to assign different reverb
levels and bake helpful stems that can be used in
By Speed Of Playing - This function allows you to conjunction with live instruments (to work like this
switch articulations based on the playing speed it’s best to load up artics from the individual articu-
of your performance. When selected, it provides lations sub folder).
options to specify a triggering time-range in milli-
seconds. For example, you could specify that ‘fast
legato’ should be activated if the time between
playing each interval is between 0 and 250ms.

M I C A N D MI X DETA ILS
CLOSE - Close mics, a selection of valve mics

placed for optimum focus close to the instru-
ments. This mic control is great for added defi-
nition and at times a bit of “rounding of sound”,
in isolation it can be a way of achieving a more
intimate or pop-music style sound.
TREE - Tree. This refers to the “Decca” tree of

three mics placed above the conductors podium.
In this case; 3 priceless vintage Neumann M50s.
These are placed to give the ultimate sound of
the band, the hall and are the default mic position
that loads in with each patch.
AMB. - Ambient. A set of condenser mics placed

high up in the gallery away from the band. This
mic position gives a massive amount of stereo
spread and room sound over the band. Great
mixed in with the other mics but also ideal for us-
ing in the surround channels when mixing in sur-
round sound.
OUT. - Outriggers, a set of vintage mics placed

wide apart to the left and right of the tree. These
give a similar balance of room and band but with
a broader stereo spread. The effect of this mic is
somewhere between the tree and ambient mics.
LEAD. - Leader, a separate close signal highlight-

ing the leader of a section. Only available for
non-solo sections.

APPENDIX A —
KONTAKT VS KONTAKT PLAYER
Kontakt Player is a free version of the Kontakt sample playback engine available to download:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/
It works with libraries that the developer has paid a license fee for. Essentially, you’ve bought this play-
back engine along with your library.
The Kontakt player gives you full access to all the sounds and all the editable parameters on the front
panel. Also, unlike non-Player libraries, these libraries will also have a banner that appears on the Kon-
takt Libraries pane.
If you want to go deeper into editing you’ll need a full version. As you will already own the free Kontakt
player and have bought one of our ‘player’ libraries you will be eligible for a discount upgrade to Kontakt
via the NI website. See here for more details:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-6/pricing-kontakt-5/cross-
grade-offer/
If the library you want to use is NOT a ‘Player’ library then you need to buy the full retail version of Kon-
takt.
Then you can also load ‘non-Player’ libraries like some of our other ranges, Harp, Piano, Harpsichord,
etc.
Please note that non-Player library instruments will not appear on the Kontakt libraries pane and so can’t
be added as a library as Player libraries need to be. Instead, these libraries will simply need to be loaded
via the Kontakt files browser or you can add the library as a favourite to the Kontakt Quick Load window.

APPENDIX B —
FAQS AND TROUBLESHOOTING
Q: WHAT ARE THE SYSTEM Q: HOW DO I AUTHORIZE SPITFIRE
REQUIREMENTS? SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ON A
MACHINE NOT CONNECTED TO THE
MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS INTERNET?
Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 11, 12 or 13
(latest update). It not possible to authorise Spitfire
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively Symphony Orchestra on a machine not
on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that connected to the internet. Authorisation is
support it): macOS 11, 12 or 13 (latest update). done through the Spitfire Audio App and
4 GB RAM (6 GB recommended for large Native Access, and an internet connection is
KONTAKT Instruments). required.
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Q: HOW CAN I REDOWNLOAD A
Windows 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack), Intel
Core i5 or equivalent CPU. PRODUCT?
KONTAKT Instruments). This can easily be done via your Spitfire
Audio App. To reset both your entire library
64 bit DAW required (32 bit DAWs not download or the latest update;
supported)
• Open up the Spitfire Audio App and log in
Min Kontakt version 7.5.2 with your account email and password.
• Select the product artwork you wish to re-

Q: CAN I INSTALL ON MORE THAN
download
ONE COMPUTER?
• On this page is a “cog wheel”. Select this,
With our products you have two licenses. choose “reset” from the menu. Then “Reset
This means that you are allowed to download Entire Download” (for a full download) or
and install on two computers you own, say (Latest Update) for the latest update.
your main rig and your mobile rig. If you have
purchased the library on a hard drive, you This will reset your latest update ready for
should copy the contents of the drive on to install again. You can repeat this process for
the destination machine before completing any of the libraries you own.
the download with the Spitfire App. If you
downloaded Spitfire Symphony Orchestra, Note that there is a limit to how many times
you can copy the library folder over to the you can reset your downloads in a certain
second machine and then use the “Repair” time frame. If you do exceed your reset limit
feature in Native Access. please get in touch.
Q: I CAN’T SEE THIS IN THE PLUGINS Q: HOW DO I DOWNLOAD

SECTION OF MY DAW? PRODUCTS ON MAC OSX 10.9?
This library is a Kontakt Player library so it The version of Kontakt player needed to
does not have its own standalone plugin. install Spitfire Symphony Orchestra only
Instead you will find the library in the Kontakt supports Mac OS11 and upwards.
or Kontakt Player plugin.

Q: DIFFICULTIES IN DOWNLOADING / We would advise you to leave your download
INSTALLING running overnight as speeds should ramp
up at less busy times. Our Spitfire App
Customers may find that they have some downloader aims to use as much of the
difficulties in the downloading process. If you available bandwidth as possible to give you
find that you are having some trouble, please the quickest possible speeds, and may take
check the list below for possible causes: several minutes to reach its peak.
• The formatting of your drive, if it is FAT32

this will cause errors, because there is a Q: CAN I TRY BEFORE I BUY?
maximum file size with this format of 4GB
and our download files will exceed this limit. No - it is not currently possible to demo our
To solve this problem, reformat your drive or products.
use a different drive. We recommend NTFS
on PC and Mac OS Extended on Mac. If you go to our Youtube channel you’ll see
Other possible issues: many walkthroughs containing detailed info
about all our products -- you can hear them
• Spitfire App freezes in the “Extracting” being played in real time with no smoke and
stage for hours. This may be because our mirrors!
libraries are often very large files, and this
is the stage where the compressed files are Q: MY LIBRARIES ARE NOT SHOWING
extracted and placed in their final locations
UP IN MY SPITFIRE APP
on the hard drive. There could be hundreds
of GB of content to unpack, so it really
A handful of customers may find that when
can take hours. If you’re unsure whether
they log into their Spitfire App, some of
it has crashed or is extracting files, visit
their previously purchased products do not
the installation folder you chose when you
show up in the ‘Installed’ section or in the
started the install. If everything is working
‘Download Ready’ section either. It may
normally you’ll see various files appearing in
be that you have purchased these under
the folder (or one of its sub-folders).
another email address. Checking other
possible email addresses for your previous
• If your download gets stuck and is
purchases may help to find these missing
continually cycling and not resuming, please
products. If this is not the case, and these
get in touch with us, giving us as much detail
missing products were purchased a few
as possible about your set up. It would be
years ago, please create a support ticket
helpful if you can tell us your operating
telling us your account email address, and
system, where you are downloading from
any serial numbers you may have to go
(your country, and also whether you’re at
with these missing products. Our support
home or work), your ISP, and whether there
team can also merge one or more accounts
are any proxy servers or firewalls between
together if you’d like to consolidate all your
your computer and the internet.
purchases in one place.
Q: I HAVE FAST INTERNET, WHY IS The more information we have, the quicker
MY DOWNLOAD SLOW? we can get you back up and running!
We have no direct influence on your actual Q: HOW DO I UPDATE MY

download speeds, our libraries are hosted
PRODUCTS?
on Amazon S3 servers which are normally
very quick but it may well be that at certain
The main premise of downloading our
times of the day when traffic is particularly
products is that our Spitfire App downloads
busy, your ISP may throttle your connection
into the folder you choose, so it is important
speeds.

to choose the folder above where you want your order gets caught at this stage, we run
the download to go. The best file path for a manual order check, and this can delay the
our products is something very simple, a processing of your order for up to 24 hours.
long file path will cause errors as there is a
character limit on how far the Spitfire App You should however receive an order
can read. We advise a file path of something confirmation email IMMEDIATELY upon
along the lines of: Samples Drive > Spitfire placing your order. This confirms that
Audio your order has successfully been logged
in our system and that your payment was
When it comes to downloading / updating successfully taken. Please check your junk
- if you have a folder called ‘Spitfire Audio’ folders before contacting our support.
always point the Spitfire App to the folder
Spitfire Audio - never go into this folder and Q: CAN I DOWNLOAD ON A PC,
choose the actual library in question.
THEN TRANSFER TO A MAC OR VICE
VERSA?
Q: HOW DO I REDOWNLOAD THE
LATEST UPDATE? Yes, you can copy the library folder and
plugin files over to the second machine and
With the continuous improvements to our then use the “Repair” and “Locate Library”
Spitfire Audio App, we have incorporated the features in Native Access. Please note that
ability to reset your own downloads. although the majority of the download can
This can easily be done via your Spitfire be done on a separate machine, you will
Audio App. always need an internet connection to finish
Open up the Spitfire Audio App and log in the authorisation process.
with your account email and password.
• Select the product artwork you wish to re-

download Q: I HAVE FOUND A BUG
• On this page is a “cog wheel”. Select this, In some cases we can’t squash them all and
choose “reset” from the menu. Then “Reset bugs shamefully make their way through.
Entire Download” (for a full download) or If you think you have found a bug, please
(Latest Update) for the latest update. contact us with all the relevant information;
• This will reset your latest update ready for • A description of the bug you have found
install again.
• A screencast (video) of the bug happening,
You can repeat this process for any other or an audio example
updates you wish.
• The exact preset name (or presets) in
If you do not see the option to reset your question and also the library giving us as
download in your Spitfire Audio App, we much detail as possible will help us get to
would advise to download the latest version the bottom of the issue.
of the Spitfire App from spitfireaudio.com/
info/library-manager/.
Q: I’VE BEEN WAITING AGES FOR MY

DOWNLOAD LINKS?
We run all our orders through a fraud

checking process. The automatic fraud check
takes 20 minutes (but can take up to an hour
during a very busy period, eg. Black Friday) If

Q: WHAT IS YOUR REFUNDS /
RETURNS POLICY?
If you have NOT completed the download

/ installation process, and bought within
14 days then we CAN refund / return your
product, please contact support with your
account email address and order number
so we can handle this quickly. If you HAVE
completed the installation process (even
if you’ve not yet registered your serial
number), please see our EULA in regards to
why we do not accept refunds and returns.
We can refund hard drive orders up until
the point when the drive is dispatched from
our office. This is usually 1-2 days after you
order.
Q: I’VE FORGOTTEN MY PASSWORD?
If you have forgotten your password, please

see this link spitfireaudio.com/my-account/
login/, and click ‘Forgotten Password’. If
at some point in the past you asked us to
merge two or more accounts but have since
forgotten, you MAY find that the forgotten
password isn’t working for the email address
you asked us to merge FROM. In this case,
please contact support with your name, and
any email addresses you think we might
know about, and we’ll work out what has
happened.

APPENDIX C — UACC
With the development of Spitfire’s Kontakt libraries, it was proving quite difficult to standardise how to access the ever-grow-
ing number of articulations contained within instruments and libraries. While they worked adequately, Keyswitches and CC32
were inconsistent between sections and instruments and it could prove a pain to do something as simple as substituting a
Viola for a Violin section.
To address the problem, Spitfire developed UACC, a specification that hopes to standardise articulation control between
instruments and libraries. UACC is turned on via the Keyswitch locking option ( ) and utilises the same CC as above (and
can be customised identically). When UACC is activated you can change articulation by setting CC32 to specific values that
correlative with different articulations. Here’s the latest (v2) spec:
Long (sustain) 34 Detache 80 Synced - 120bpm (trem/trill)
1 Generic 35 Higher 81 Synced - 150bpm (trem/trill)
2 Alternative 36 Lower 82 Synced - 180bpm (trem/trill)
3 Octave
4 Octave muted Short Phrases & Dynamics
5 Small (1/2) 40 Generic 90 FX 1
6 Small muted 41 Alternative 91 FX 2
7 Muted 42 Very short (spicc) 92 FX 3
8 Soft (flaut/hollow) 43 Very short (soft) 93 FX 4
9 Hard (cuivre/overb) 44 Leisurely (stacc) 94 FX 5
10 Harmonic 45 Octave 95 FX 6
11 Tremolo/flutter 46 Octave muted 96 FX 7
12 Tremolo muted 47 Muted 97 FX 8
13 Tremolo soft/low 48 Soft (brush/feather) 98 FX 9
14 Tremolo hard/high 49 Hard (dig) 99 FX 10
15 Tremolo muted low 50 Tenuto 100 Up (rips/runs)
16 Vibrato (molto vib) 51 Tenuto Soft 101 Downs (falls/runs)
17 Higher (sultasto/bells up) 52 Marcato 102 Crescendo
18 Lower (sul pont) 53 Marcato Soft 103 Decrescendo
19 Lower muted 54 Marcato Hard 104 Arc
55 Marcato Long 105 Slides
Legato 56 Plucked (pizz)
20 Generic 57 Plucked hard (bartok) Various
21 Alternative 58 Struck (col leg) 110 Disco up (rips)
22 Octave 59 Higher 111 Disco down (falls)
23 Octave muted 60 Lower 112 Single string (Sul C/G/etc.)
24 Small 61 Harmonic
25 Small muted
26 Muted Decorative
27 Soft 70 Trill (minor2nd)
28 Hard 71 Trill (major 2nd)
29 Harmonic 72 Trill (minor 3rd)
30 Tremolo 73 Trill (major 3rd)
31 Slow (port/gliss) 74 Trill (perfect 4th)
32 Fast 75 Multitongue
33 Run 76 Multitongue muted
For example, turning on UACC and changing CC32 to 26 will change the current articulation to Legato - Muted. Setting it to
52 would change to Short - Marcato. You can set these manually in your DAW but it’s much easier to utilise DAW functionality
such as VST Note Expression, or a dedicate tablet app such as Lemur, TouchOSC, LiveControl, etc.
The advantages of UACC are that it’s consistent between all supported libraries (i.e.. setting CC32 to 52 will change to Marca-
to regardless of the library or patch) and easily configurable on tablet apps such as Lemur. It remains consistent between up-
dates (any product using v2 will have the articulations mapped to the above spec). It also takes up no space on the keyboard.
The disadvantages are that it’s difficult to control for live playing (unless using a tablet) and it does not support articulation
layering.
UAC C KEYS W ITCH
UACC keyswitching is a new feature in Spitfire products and updates. It is a mixture of keyswitching and UACC to provide the
advantages of both methods. When UACC Keyswitch is activated via the lock panel menu ( ) a single keyswitch is available.
Using the UACC spec outlined above, this keyswitches velocity is used to switch articulation.
For example pressing the keyswitch at velocity 70 would switch to the Trill (minor 2nd) articulation while pressing at velocity
56 would switch to Short Pizzicato. As with UACC, you can manually input these velocity values but it’s easier to use your
DAW or tablet app’s functionality.
The main advantage of UACC KS over UACC is that you can layer articulations by overlaying the keyswitch notes on the
piano roll.

APPENDIX D —
LEGACY CONTENT
Alongside the new patches with updated UI and new legatos, we have provided instrument patches for the legacy versions.
These will be located in your Spitfire Symphony Orchestra installed folder:
Double click the zip file to install these legacy nkis to your Instruments folder, these will then appear in
the list of Instruments when open in Kontakt:
Loading these up will have the original UI.

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Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Manualv2

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USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 1 USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 2 USER MANUAL

Behind award-wining composers…

Recorded in Lyndhurst Hall, at AIR Studios, London, performed by a gold generation

QUICK SPECS MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

64 bit DAW required (32 bit DAWs not

• Download Size: ~345GB

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 3 USER MANUAL

Percussion, Piano and Harp

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 4 USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 5 USER MANUAL

4. INSTALL/UPDATE buttons allow you to

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 6 USER MANUAL

If this is your first time using the Spitfire

Here you can also enable Auto Login to save

Once you are happy with your preferences,

Clicking either of these will prompt you for a

Once you are happy with the location click

After clicking install you will be directed to

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 7 USER MANUAL

6. Your library is authorised.

If you are an established Kontakt user please make

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 8 USER MANUAL

If you click the Instruments bar to expand, you will

Click on the instrument of your choice (in this

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 9 USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 10 USER MANUAL

3. A RT I C U LAT I O N SWITC H ER Release - allows you to change the amount of re-

With the Kontakt keyboard displayed you should

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 11 USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 12 USER MANUAL

Click on this to reveal the menu to change the

- Normal Keyswitching - Is the standard setting,

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 13 USER MANUAL

STEREO WIDTH - Allows you to control how far

STEREO PAN - Then allows you to control where

E. MIC MIX VIEW

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 14 USER MANUAL

Basses (or Contrabass or CB) C1 F#3 8 players

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 15 USER MANUAL

L E GATO bow continues without change.

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 16 USER MANUAL

SUL PONT - Short for ‘sul ponticello’ - meaning

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 17 USER MANUAL

The short version of the artificial harmonic de- FX:

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 18 USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 19 USER MANUAL

Violins 1 - Sul G - Performance

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 20 USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 21 USER MANUAL

With the Kontakt keyboard displayed you should

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 22 USER MANUAL

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 23 USER MANUAL

Click on this to reveal the menu to change the

- Normal Keyswitching - Is the standard setting,

SPITFIRE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 24 USER MANUAL

STEREO WIDTH - Allows you to control how far

STEREO PAN - Then allows you to control where