Tundra certainly does sound gorgeous but as you mention it naturally leans more towards ambient pady type textures, hence why I never ended up feeling like I really needed it that much but this seems to have those kind of textural experimental articulations you don't get in SCS pro. I don't have tundra and I don't have any of those articulations like the Long No Rosin, Harmonic Tremolo, or sul tasto to sul pont articulation, which could really add some really nice background textures and movement to a piece when layered in, I just never wanted to pay the full price of Tundra for that, but this seems perfect at that price.Yes - and these "Tundra First chairs" then need their own first chairs too
And separately, OACE needs a solo edition.
I don't have Neo, but I've been working a lot with Tundra recently. And it has the eloquent expressiveness in the timbres and textures of all of it's articulations, in which you can find a real lyricism ....
... but it also needs a find brush layer. SCS might do this (though I don't have it), or Neo. And OACE is helpful. But this is absolutely perfect to add a particular, and much needed, type of fine brush texture.
The hardest thing about writing for Tundra is to escape it's ambient pady quality - it's just too easy to compose utterly beautiful ambient mush. Gorgeous, but nothing an only slightly above averagely talented cat couldn't write while having a nap on your keyboard.
Hence my long standing "fine brush" angst. Legatos in this - or in ISS - would be immensely welcome also. But you otherwise couldn't ask for a better tool to complement Tundra.
January 6: new Spitfire Originals release Cinematic Frozen Strings - “Tundra First Chairs” (thanks @ism)
- Thread starter doctoremmet
- Start date
Mornats
Hobbyist
Now that I'm not juggling a baby (almost not literally) and have had a listen and watched Dan Keen's excellent walkthrough I really like this. It's like an expansion to Tundra, adding in that delicate, smaller, closer layer to counter the 60 violins. In my head I can hear how I'd combine them both, or just use the Originals library in the same way I'd use Tundra but on a smaller more intimate scale.
Out of the other Originals I only own Intimate Strings (I have Albion One and Tundra) and can't believe the quality you get for the price. I'm a hobbyist so libraries like the Albions are a massive splash out for me with no tangible return on that investment. I wish the Originals we're around when I started as I could have saved hundreds of pounds without being held back creatively.
Out of the other Originals I only own Intimate Strings (I have Albion One and Tundra) and can't believe the quality you get for the price. I'm a hobbyist so libraries like the Albions are a massive splash out for me with no tangible return on that investment. I wish the Originals we're around when I started as I could have saved hundreds of pounds without being held back creatively.
Thinking of all the ways this will be useful. And here's another ...
In this WIP, in the first part the idea is to draw a particular form of (non-ambient) lyricism out of Tundra. The fine brush here is the choir, which is trying to just add a bit of detail, but really let Tundra be the main musical voice (don't listen past ~1:40, incidentally ... it's very much in progress and kind of broken past that point):
View attachment q1 iii tundra - choir - 2022-01-03, 12.34 AM.mp3
And this Tundra-defined lyricism, which I think is starting to discernibly emerge here, has a number of challenges to sustain over an entire piece.
One is that the sheer size of the sections - which is of course central to the sonority, but which also threatens to overwhelm anything else. Another is just the depths of Tundra sonority - Spitfire Studio Strings, for instance, though it has its own gorgeous flautando just isn't going to blend here, it just doesn't match, which is to say that I think it just doesn't go to the depths of Tundra sonority on a number of levels.
And more generally, when you use Tundra alongside anything else, and as anything other than a pad, then you have to figure out how to maintain coherence between the sheer brilliance and singularity of the uniqueness of the articulations .. and anything else. (Of course you can also reduce Tundra to a pad underneath just about anything, but this isn't the case I'm talking about here). In any event, as compositional challenges, these are all productive, generative tensions that flow from the unique brilliance of the articulations.
As an example, if the choir in the able piece were, say, to take over in full SATB texture in another section of this piece, then theses challenges might manifest in things like the tension of reigning in Tundra enough so that it doesn't dominant the choir, but to to do this while somehow not loosing the singular sonority and lyricism of the world that Tundra creates.
So can't wait to get stuck into working with this new library, as it offers a world of fine brushes, many of which match the shape of Tundra's broad brush strokes exactly, and a few with extend the palette as fine brushwork that remains faithful to Tundra in a way that even Neo or OACE don't.
It really does. Though I'd maybe texture this to argue that what appears as a "naturally leaning" towards the ambient, is really more of a "gravitation pull", arising, at least arguably, from just use how effortlessly gorgeous it is as ambient pads. I'm always finding myself just kind of pulled into a gravity well of endlessly noodling the same kind of ambient mush over and over, instead of trying to craft more lyrical lines.
In this WIP, in the first part the idea is to draw a particular form of (non-ambient) lyricism out of Tundra. The fine brush here is the choir, which is trying to just add a bit of detail, but really let Tundra be the main musical voice (don't listen past ~1:40, incidentally ... it's very much in progress and kind of broken past that point):
View attachment q1 iii tundra - choir - 2022-01-03, 12.34 AM.mp3
And this Tundra-defined lyricism, which I think is starting to discernibly emerge here, has a number of challenges to sustain over an entire piece.
One is that the sheer size of the sections - which is of course central to the sonority, but which also threatens to overwhelm anything else. Another is just the depths of Tundra sonority - Spitfire Studio Strings, for instance, though it has its own gorgeous flautando just isn't going to blend here, it just doesn't match, which is to say that I think it just doesn't go to the depths of Tundra sonority on a number of levels.
And more generally, when you use Tundra alongside anything else, and as anything other than a pad, then you have to figure out how to maintain coherence between the sheer brilliance and singularity of the uniqueness of the articulations .. and anything else. (Of course you can also reduce Tundra to a pad underneath just about anything, but this isn't the case I'm talking about here). In any event, as compositional challenges, these are all productive, generative tensions that flow from the unique brilliance of the articulations.
As an example, if the choir in the able piece were, say, to take over in full SATB texture in another section of this piece, then theses challenges might manifest in things like the tension of reigning in Tundra enough so that it doesn't dominant the choir, but to to do this while somehow not loosing the singular sonority and lyricism of the world that Tundra creates.
So can't wait to get stuck into working with this new library, as it offers a world of fine brushes, many of which match the shape of Tundra's broad brush strokes exactly, and a few with extend the palette as fine brushwork that remains faithful to Tundra in a way that even Neo or OACE don't.
It really does. Though I'd maybe texture this to argue that what appears as a "naturally leaning" towards the ambient, is really more of a "gravitation pull", arising, at least arguably, from just use how effortlessly gorgeous it is as ambient pads. I'm always finding myself just kind of pulled into a gravity well of endlessly noodling the same kind of ambient mush over and over, instead of trying to craft more lyrical lines.
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That's a great idea!
wilifordmusic
Active Member
troubleclef
New Member
Ditto!I use Spitfire Originals and LABS more than my “big” spitfire purchases.
Kevperry777
Kevin Perry
$30 wouldn’t even buy lunch for the players….what a bargain to have unique sounds like this. Lot cleaner than Tundra too. (Which I also love….the steam band in Tundra is a hidden gem.)
ALittleNightMusic
Professional Amateur
I gotta believe they didn't book an entire session at AIR just to record this Original. I imagine they tack it onto a larger project or record a few different smaller projects in the session too. Will be interesting to see what they have in store for us this year.
Daniel James
o_0
That's because their main libraries are stuck in 2010 while all the little ones usually have some actual innovations or at least creative ideas behind them.I use Spitfire Originals and LABS more than my “big” spitfire purchases.
I already have this type of sound a thousand times over though, particularly when you throw black hole in the mix. Not great, not terrible. Not worth using SF Player for. (for me of course
)-DJ
2-0-2-2 ppp strings antiphonally recorded at Air Lyndhurst with close, tree, and *contact* mics gives a pretty unique sound. I mean contact mics are basically the driest, closest sound you can get, yeah? What settings do you use in Blackhole, with a conventional strings library, to simulate this extreme sound quality (ten thousand times over)?
Daniel James
o_0
You seem defensive
-DJ
EDIT: Just threw together a few of the first few 'cold strings' patches I could think of. Its close enough of a sound for me (to the extent I would use cold string sounds), to not need this one. As I mentioned.
View attachment Cold Textures.mp3
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Alex Fraser
Requires ☕️
Yep, I’m well stocked with this sort of sound too.That's because their main libraries are stuck in 2010 while all the little ones usually have some actual innovations or at least creative ideas behind them.
I already have this type of sound a thousand times over though, particularly when you throw black hole in the mix. Not great, not terrible. Not worth using SF Player for. (for me of course
It’s the price. I brought the Mrs Mills specifically for one project. At the wrong side of 100 I would have scratched around with my existing libraries for the sound instead, but at 30 squid, basically a why not impulse.
Like others said, I do wonder if these libraries are tagged onto other recording sessions, or perhaps originally designed as more expensive wares that weren’t quite doing it for some reason. Either way, everyone wins at £30.
OP
OP
doctoremmet
Senior Member
Alex Fraser
Requires ☕️
Haha! Props to Chris on the cover image.
idematoa
Senior Member
01 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Frozen Strings - Long Super Sul Tasto
02 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Frozen Strings - Long Flautando CS
03 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Frozen Strings - Short Col Legno
04 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Frozen Strings - Harmonic Tremolo
05 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Felt Piano - Ribbon Reverb
06 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Pads - Glacial Marimbium
07 - Spitfire Audio - Angular String Evolutions - A good Start
08 - Spitfire Audio - Albion V - Vral Grid
09 - Spitfire Audio - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Violins 1 Leader Legato
10 - Arturia - Solina - Blue Strings
11 - UVI - Falcon - Factory Sounds - Expression
02 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Frozen Strings - Long Flautando CS
03 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Frozen Strings - Short Col Legno
04 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Frozen Strings - Harmonic Tremolo
05 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Felt Piano - Ribbon Reverb
06 - Spitfire Audio - Originals Cinematic Pads - Glacial Marimbium
07 - Spitfire Audio - Angular String Evolutions - A good Start
08 - Spitfire Audio - Albion V - Vral Grid
09 - Spitfire Audio - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Violins 1 Leader Legato
10 - Arturia - Solina - Blue Strings
11 - UVI - Falcon - Factory Sounds - Expression
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