Spitfire Audio announces availability of AMBIENT GUITARS — creatively combining 2013’s LEO
ABRAHAMS - ENIGMA collection of dark, cinematic soundscapes exclusively created and performed by its innovative
virtuosic guitarist namesake, and expertly sampled by Spitfire Audio, and its equally popular, previously-released ENIGMA 2 -
THE RAPTURE followup forming a more extensive tribute to distortion, now presented in the sound-specialising British music
technology company’s exceptional eDNA engine-powered UI (user interface) as an intuitive, instantly-playable collection of
inspiring and modern cinematic sounds, textures, and loops ranging from ambient to apocalyptic, including 10GB of brand-
new recordings and 160 additional artist presets.
Available for Native Instruments’ free KONTAKT PLAYER platform with full NKS (Native Kontrol Standard) support, Spitfire Audio’s aptly-named AMBIENT GUITARS sample
library is an instantly-playable, intuitive toolkit designed for any
discerning media composer or producer looking for fresh sounds and
atmospheric textures with an
experimental edge. The road to arriving at AMBIENT GUITARS was a long and winding one, spanning several years. Yet it is one that was well worth waiting for,
definitely destined to join its popular predecessors as a firm favourite amongst discerning directors and composers alike.
Time to step back, briefly, in time to 2013. This was the year that saw Spitfire Audio decamping
to The Pool, a cool and vibe-ridden recording studio launched as a
joint venture between songwriting producer Ben Hillier and the Miloco
Studios group in the South London district of Bermondsey. Having hosted
luminaries like Arctic
Monkeys, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Noel Gallagher, and many more, there
the British music technology company's sampling specialists set about
capturing world-
renowned producer and virtuosic guitar innovator Leo Abrahams’ cutting-edge techniques. “There’s such a wide variety of emotions and textures available from
different pedals and guitars,” he notes. “I find I hear far too many guitar tones in soundtracks that sound generic and cheesy. I wanted to put the result of my
compulsive years of eBay scouring at people’s fingertips.”
Fortunately for all, that wish was realised with the resulting release of LEO ABRAHAMS - ENIGMA, a sample library like no other. Created largely from a Trussart guitar —
alongside a 1960s-vintage Gibson 335 and a Danelectro Hornet — plugged into Leo Abrahams’
rare and unparalleled collection of pedals and amps, discerning
directors and composers collectively delighted in the discovery of over
400 presets comprising weird- and wonderful-sounding guitars;
reverberant pads; dark,
distorted plucks; warped pedal effects; and synths. Thereafter, the ENIGMA 2 - THE RAPTURE collaborative followup formed a more extensive tribute to distortion.
Today, though, the Distorted collection of sounds formerly known as ENIGMA 2 - THE RAPTURE join those original 400-plus presets in AMBIENT GUITARS as
18 tight and
punchy distorted electric guitar instruments with a wide range of sounds
and characters, recorded through three amps and a variety of pedals.
Perfect for adding
layers of distortion and feedback, or creating walls of sound or
devastatingly-haunting, dark, distorted beauty, it sounds clean, but
with a vibe-ridden room sound.
Such was the success of LEO ABRAHAMS - ENIGMA and ENIGMA 2 - THE RAPTURE — rapidly becoming go-to collections for creating cinematic soundscapes, inspiring
music-makers the world over — that Spitfire Audio allowed itself to record a new collection of sounds with Leo Abrahams. Inspired by its immediately-playable LABS
Peel Guitar — gloriously distorted, yet chime-like and full of character (originally sampled by Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson back before the company
existed in 2006) — recently released for free, this time the trailblazing guitarist was welcomed into Spitfire Audio’s own London-based studios in 2019 to create a whole
new textures collection called Amped Guitar Pads. Professionally crafted by Spitfire Audio founders and award-winning composers Christian Henson and Paul
Thomson, this resulted in an additional 160 artist presets being included in AMBIENT GUITARS. “If I’m ever asked to make something sound cool, the samples we’ve
created with Leo Abrahams are the ‘get out of jail’ card I can always turn to.” So says Christian Henson himself. He should surely know!
Watch Spitfire Audio’s dark indie movie-inspired trailer video — a cinematic style to which AMBIENT GUITARS is seriously suited — here:
Needless
to say, these versatile, contemporary-sounding soundscapes are
sometimes unrecognisable as guitars — glistening passages to guitars
warped beyond
recognition, plus ultra-realistic, fast-action picking to add movement
and percussive elements are all there for the taking.
Taking AMBIENT GUITARS to a whole new level of inspirational guitar-generated sounds, the Evolutions collection is presented in Spitfire Audio’s advanced 16 x 16 Evo
Grid —
inspired in no small part by the British-built EMS VCS3, which made
musical history upon its introduction in 1969 by being the first
commercially portable
synthesiser available anywhere in the world, thanks to its innovative
modular matrix-based patchboard dispensing with the telephone
exchange-like cabling of other
(much larger) modular systems in favour of making space-saving
connections with (removable) coloured pegs — putting four different amps
and patchable signal
paths into its user’s hands to add an element of the unexpected to
compositions.
Clearly, the organic origins of AMBIENT GUITARS bring
honest emotion to any composition that uses it, while the analogue
distortion involved imbues an authentic layer of
grit and depth that is not achievable with digital distortion. Each and
every sound therein will layer into the mix perfectly, adding a timeless
experimental edge to a wide
range of settings — from inner city scenes to desolate, sweeping vistas —
for film and game composers or enlightened electronic and pop producers
alike.
As a trailblazing composer, musician, and producer par excellence, Leo Abrahams has
recorded and toured with the like of Imogen Heap, Grace Jones, Pulp,
and
Roxy Music, written for and produced Editors and Florence & The
Machine amongst other artists, as well as making his own records,
including The Unrest Cure
(featuring Brian Eno, Ed Harcourt, and KT Tunstall). He has also composed scores for movies such as The Lovely Bones (with Brian Eno) and Hunger (with David Holmes).
It is little wonder, therefore, that he worked so well with Spitfire Audio and that the resulting AMBIENT GUITARS works so well!
“When I’m writing, I often build a sound first and let the composition evolve,” explains the innovative virtuosic guitarist who has happily lent his name and talent to Spitfire
Audio’s latest library release. Who better, then, to bring the heavily processed proceedings to an appropriate close than Leo Abrahams? “I
hope that some of the guitar
sounds on offer here will inspire other people to do the same, and that
some of the ambient sounds are helpful when what’s needed is neither a
synth pad nor an actual
‘part’, but just a bit of atmosphere. I hoped we could capture a sense
of danger and abandon.” AMBIENT GUITARS does that admirably... and a whole lot more!
AMBIENT GUITARS can be purchased and digitally downloaded for an RRP of £249.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$299.00 USD/€299.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — from here: https://www.
For more in-depth information, including superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated AMBIENT GUITARS webpage here: https://www.
Spitfire Audio is
a British music technology company that specialises in sounds — sample
libraries, virtual instruments, and other useful software devices. It collaborates
with the best composers, artists, and engineers in the world to build
musical tools that sound great and are exciting to use. © 2019 Spitfire Audio Holdings Limited
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