Created in close collaboration with (Dame) Evelyn Glennie, the world’s premier solo percussionist, Spitfire Audio has released RESONATE as a cinematic percussion library that "unlocks the other-worldly mystery, magic, and tension of orchestral percussion’s power of resonance," realised from tuned and untuned instruments colliding across 14 signals, then spinning out towards new frontiers of texture, tone, and dimension as hits, strikes, and spine-tingling scrapes giving way to essential cinematic reverberations, carefully captured in the hallowed (Lyndhurst) Hall at London’s legendary AIR Studios favoured by Hollywood, helpfully housed in the British sound-specialising music technology company’s award-winning plug-in (AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible, NKS-ready) that loads into all major DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) without the need for any additional software to feature for the first time the likes of a water tank, thunder sheet, timpani (played like never before), and barrel drum acting as resonators so every impact has a memory.
As a really resonating introduction to the sound adventure that is RESONATE, Spitfire Audio in-house composer Lucie Treacher’s insight is obviously on the mark, musically speaking: “A traditional sample library is often about sampling things in isolation, but what if we were to let our instruments interact, resonate, and collide together? What if, for instance, we were to put a thunder sheet over a barrel and bow it? Evelyn Glennie is a virtuoso percussionist and educator, and she’s always been a huge influence to me, coming from a similar neck of the woods in the north of Scotland. She’s on a mission to teach the world to listen, and she herself experiences sound through vibrations in different parts of her body. RESONATE really is alive with resonances as a percussion library that’s beyond rhythm. It’s about colour and performance, and Evelyn Glennie’s conjured these incredible landscapes of sound. We’ve used technology and warps to elongate these sounds and bring out the quirks and magic in these performances. This library’s great for refreshing your existing orchestral palette, but it also adds individuality to epic scores and blends brilliantly with cutting-edge sound design — think Hildur Guðnadóttir and Johan Johansson.”
Such superlative Scandinavian sound design deserves mentioning, as does the fact that half the magic of sound itself has been disregarded for years. After all, films and trailers have delivered gigantic hits in epic technicolour, but neglected the essence of percussion’s power: resonance. Reality dictates that a real orchestral strike lives on long after the initial impact dies away — in reverberations that rumble, pierce, rattle, and sing. Such aftershocks have the power to thrill and terrify, lure and intrigue in equal measure, and now — thanks to RESONATE — they are readily available, at anyone’s fingertips.
Fortunately, by working with Dame Evelyn Glennie as the world’s premier solo percussionist with over 100 international awards to her notable name so far (including the Polar Music Prize and the Companion of Honour), Spitfire Audio has been able to release RESONATE as a cinematic percussion library that really resonates like no other — on account of unlocking the other-worldly mystery, magic, and tension of orchestral percussion’s power of resonance, realised from tuning and untuned instruments colliding across 14 signals, then spinning out towards new frontiers of texture, tone, and dimension as hits, strikes, and spine-tingling scrapes giving way to essential cinematic reverberations, carefully captured in the hallowed (Lyndhurst) Hall at London’s legendary AIR Studios so favoured by Hollywood. However, rather than replicate common concert sounds or repeat trailer hits Hollywood has so overused, RESONATE explores and unlocks the boundless potential of orchestral percussion — from first strike to final reverberation, resulting in a treasury of sounds that beautifully bridge the gap between traditional and experimental scores.
The BARREL resonator’s Ensemble patch condenses its Drum, Metal, Bowed, and Wooden samples into three handy kits — BARREL KIT, METAL KIT, and SUPERBOWL KIT. Something that’s really nice about these kits is that the cymbal-like sounds are mapped to the black notes, so it feels like you’re playing a drum kit — sort of reaching upwards and outwards, which is quite ergonomically pleasing. The SUPERBOWL... is, of course, a mallet which you can drag across a surface of an instrument, and it creates an incredible wail — you can really hear that sweet stillness around the sound.”
RESONATE is available as an AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible, NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®)-ready plug-in that loads directly into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for a time-limited promo price of £149.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$179.00 USD/€179.00 EUR (inc. VAT) until June 30, 2022 — returning thereafter to its RRP (Recommended Retail Price) of £199.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$249.00 USD/€249.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — from here:spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/resonate/
Owners of SPITFIRE PERCUSSION (spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/spitfire-percussion/) and SCRAPED PERCUSSION (spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/scraped-percussion/) can purchase RESONATE for a special time-limited promo price of £129.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$159.00 USD/€159.00 EUR (inc. VAT) until June 30, 2022 only.
Spitfire Audio’s namesake Spitfire Audio application allows anyone to buy now and download anytime, and is available for free from here: spitfireaudio.com/info/library-manager/
For more in-depth information, including some superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated RESONATE webpage here: spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/resonate/
Watch Spitfire Audio’s premiere of RESONATE — including in-house composer Lucie Treacher’s telling walkthrough video — here: youtu.be/5PP8Q-_VTus
