Kontakt library for creating slow, emotive strings.

Ben Osterhouse

Slow, Emotive Strings (Bass, Cello, Viola, Violin)

Sospiro Strings is a Kontakt library for creating slow, emotive strings. It features 4 different length swells and 3 sustained articulations, recorded on bass, cello, viola, and violin.

FEATURES

There are separate nki's for each individual instrument, and there is an nki with all instruments mixed together, to work as a simpler sketching tool, and also to save memory.

There are 2 varieties of Swells:

The vibrato swells are provide a warm, individual sound. The vibrato samples sound better or worse depending on how much they are being timed-stretched, which is why it is especially nice to have non-vibrato as an option. All of the swells were originally recorded at 110 BPM

The non-vibrato swells have a clear tone which especially brings attention to the change in tone as each instrument louder and softer.

Each version, Vibrato and non-vibrato has a single velocity layer.

Using the Length in Beats slider, you can choose the appropriate length, and the corresponding swell will be chosen and time-stretched if needed.

The Length Multiplier is useful if you have a project with a fast bpm and you want it to sound slow, or vice versa.

The Smart Release feature makes it so that however far into the crescendo-ing part of the sample you have held the note, it will jump that far from the end of the swell. This means that the longer you hold a note, the longer its release will be.

All of the swells can be either vibrato or non-vibrato. The vibrato adds warmth and individuality to the sound, but may be a bit over dramatic in some cases. The non-vibrato has a lot of clarity, and especially brings attention to change in tone as each instrument gets louder and softer. The vibrato samples sound better or worse depending on how much they are being timed-stretched, which is why it is especially nice to have non-vibrato as an option.

The Sync feature is one of the most essential features: with Sync enabled, any notes you add or change in a chord will sync with the first note that was played.

There are 3 varieties of Sustains:

The cold sustains are played with a slow bow and no vibrato --a fragile sound at the edge of breaking.

The warm sustains are played over the fingerboard with a fast, freely changing bow and generous vibrato.

The full sustains are played closer to the bridge with a slow, heavy bow. Vibrato is used with discretion.

There is an option to double the sound, which layers two instances together and pans them slightly apart. This sounds better if you are only using one instrument by itself and only playing a few notes at a time. If you are playing big chords and layering all 4 instruments together, the doubled feature tends to sound more generic and uninteresting.

Changelog V1.1

fixed the B0 keyswitch playing a note in the Bass and Strings nki's.

fixed swell playing again when you release

added a small amount of velocity → volume control (there actually wasn't any before)

added labels to the Sustain and Swell panels so that it's possible to see right away which articulation is currently selected.

added key names to the keyswitches so that when hovering over them in Kontakt's keyboard, the names of the articulations are shown in the info bar.

added individual keyswitches for the 3 types of Sustains

If it's on the Swell keyswitch, and then you select a different type of sustain, it will automatically switch over to a Sustain keyswitch.

the modwheel was set to control the Length in Beats slider. I removed this to eliminate any issues this might have been causing.

Moved the volume control from the Sustains section to the Options section. It now controls both the Sustains and the Swells. This way you can now use CC 11 to control volume of both the Sustains and the Swells.

changed the IR to something that I think sounds better.

updated the features list on the product page

Changelog V1.2

Shift+Click stacks sustains

Minor gui updates (Sustains and swells light up)

Previously with legato turned on, drawing in midi that was snapped to the grid, if two notes were butted up next to each other, the second note wouldn't sound. Fixed now.

Please note: The FULL version of Kontakt 5.8.1 or above is required. Not for Kontakt Player

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