Spitfire / Appassionata ("Impulse Legato" Strings)

[Piet De Ridder]

Spitfire have released another strings library, Appassionata, which features 30 players recorded at Air, and has as its biggest selling point the brand new "Impulse Legato" technique that Spitfire debuts in this product.

"Referencing the aesthetic of classic melodies from the scores of composers like John Williams and Thomas Newman, this medium-sized string band (8,6,6,6,4) delivers a highly sought-after style of performance, with stunningly-realistic rebowing. Crafted from years of sampling experience, Spitfire Appassionata Strings is your ultimate companion for writing with intention, emotion and – most of all – passion."

There's a lovely demo by Dan Keen on the product page. Showing a strings sound — a surprisingly 'classical' timbre, I thought — that is beyond the abilities of anything else in the virtual world that I'm familiar with.

Intro price 179€ (until Feb. 10th, from which date onwards it will cost 249€).



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[Lawrence]

The price is even lower if you own SCS or SSS. I believe it’s $161 or $163. The collection is limited to legato and sustain, but is still offered at a surprisingly low price considering it’s from Spitfire.

I would be surprised if the legato offers any agility for faster passages.

[Guy Rowland]

Will be interested to get folks’ experiences. Specifically how it blends with either SSS (hopefully well) or SCS / Sable (probably less well). Without any shorts at all, that feels quite important.

[FriFlo]

I'd say it sounds lovely, but when I directly compare to Berlin Strings and some other weapons in my arsenal, I fail to hear any revolution going on here. Plus, Paul does play very slow lines and also are his dynamic variations very slow and careful. If it is really cheap for owners of Air Chamber Strings and and Orchestral Strings, I might get it, though, as it looks like something that produces good results easily (without having to combine lots of layers like a puzzle).

I doubt it will be suitable for much more than slow lines. And the announcement resonates much more like: "Hey guys! We got something as playable as sample modeling that sounds as good as conventional samples recorded really well!" And that is a little far-fetched IMO.

[tack]

Nothing revolutionary here, nope.

But you know what, this sounds good, at least to me. And the price is respectable. I bought it, and my cursory impressions are favorable. Unlike most Spitfire libraries I buy where I hear something janky (or worse) within 60 seconds that should never have gotten through QA, I've not had that experience here, I'm happy to say. It feels pretty good and I do like the tone.

But it's not versatile. To Larry's point I don't see it winning any awards on faster passages, and anything fast and repetitive seems sure to machine gun. (At least I've not seen any obvious way to avoid.)

[Tanuj Tiku]

Sounds nice and I think that finally Spitfire has caught up with modern sampling - similar to CSS and Performance samples.

The legatos sound comparable and anyone who wants this sound should be happy with it.

This is incredibly useful for jobbing composers who need to impress directors and producers with top lines that don't break down or take ages to program. I think that it is a step in the right direction and a major improvement over their old legato approach.

I think it will be very useful.

[Muziksculp]

Spitfire Audio's Appassionata Strings have very beautiful Lyrical, and emotive String Legatos. They finally did it after 15 years :-)

Very reasonable price as well. I wish VSL, and OT would do something similar.

Very Well done, and Congratulations to Spitfire Audio

[Lawrence]

To be clear, I may very well buy this if I decide it competes favorably with, say, Soaring Strings. I’ll shoehorn it into my template and try to blend it with the outstanding SCS ensemble shorts.

Once again though, I find the marketing REALLY annoying. Clearly this ensemble should be marketed as excellent SLOW legato, not the be all and end all they claim it to be.

[Guy Rowland]

To be clear, I may very well buy this if I decide it competes favorably with, say, Soaring Strings. I’ll shoehorn it into my template and try to blend it with the outstanding SCS ensemble shorts.

Once again though, I find the marketing REALLY annoying. Clearly this ensemble should be marketed as excellent SLOW legato, not the be all and end all they claim it to be.

Yes, they’ve not exactly rowed back on the hyperbole, have they?

I’m finding that video to be mildly infuriating, terribly effusive without explaining much or anything. First - what exactly is Impulse Legato? Is it in fact what they used to call Adaptive Legato? What is actually going on with the smoothing that you can add? What is that second legato articulation that - unless I missed it - never even gets a mention?

And funny you should mention Soaring Strings, Larry. Although tonally it wouldn’t be quite as useful a match with SSS / SCS, it is essentially doing the same job. But Soaring has that really rich Molte layer too which seems absent here, to really get into that 30s-50s vibe.

Also minor grumble - we are locked into just one version, one big 80gb download without being able to select, say, the mixes or the individual mics as they offered in Sable. Spitfire’s player and packaging seem a very distant second to OT’s Sine to me.

Essentially it seems to me that if this were an Honest Walkthrough (a la Honest Trailers) it would say “hey everyone, we got the legato right this time, as long as you don’t play fast”.

[Muziksculp]

[Guy Rowland]

Thanks Muzikscukp, however that didn't really answer any of my questions.

[The Saxer]

I really like this library. I don't say this often about Spitfire libraries because of the "pumping" sustains and legatos they mostly have... but SAS has the right amount of sampled expression and playability. It simply does the right thing, even on faster tempos. No blurred runs but everything melodic works. It is deep and elegant and transparent. Instant John Barry feel. Yes, it's a kind of one trick pony but it's the right pony in the right place. The hairpins are very useful as well... less as arks but as different length one shots.

[Lawrence]

Saxer, I’d love to hear a quick example of faster legato from you. I might buy this even if it couldn’t achieve it, but as you say it can, it would become an instabuy for me.

[The Saxer]

Saxer, I’d love to hear a quick example of faster legato from you. I might buy this even if it couldn’t achieve it, but as you say it can, it would become an instabuy for me.

Im not in the studio today... maybe later.

[Lawrence]

Great, thanks.

[Piet De Ridder]

Nothing revolutionary here, nope.(...)

Perhaps not, but what, for me anyway, sets this library apart from everything else, is the recorded timbre. The oak-y, amber-y, beewax-y sound of these strings. I've never heard it quite like this in any other strings library, including Spitfire's earlier releases. (Some of the smaller Ark string sections from Orchestral Tools are suggestive of it, but never as pronounced as I hear it here, and the Berlin set, great library though it unquestionably is, doesn’t have it either. And it’s completely absent from the VSL Synchron’s or Elite’s, Tokyo (although its shorts have a small percentage of it too), CSS or any Performance Samples library. Light & Sound has a hint of a similar flavour in some of its articulations, but never more than a hint.

That the SF Appassionata’s impulse legato seems to work well is nice of course, but something like that would never ever induce me to buy yet another strings library. What makes me instantly reach for the wallet however, is that new and, to my ears, quite unique quality of timbre and sound.

I’ve meanwhile also fallen in love with Dan Keen’s piece. In my view, this is the successor to “She Was A Fair Lass”. At least as good.

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[FriFlo]

Saxer, I’d love to hear a quick example of faster legato from you. I might buy this even if it couldn’t achieve it, but as you say it can, it would become an instabuy for me.

In the meantime: in the demo just mentioned by Piet "Reunited at Last" you can hear a little violins run at 1:24. It doesn't sound very convincing, so, I am pretty convinced this is not another library that is better suited to do runs mixed in. The whole piece sounds very good, of course! I particularly like the movement in the strings. But the little runs somehow sticks out MIDI-ish to me.

As a side-note: How the second demo made the second place (if the order of demos is done regarding how convincing they are) is beyond me. You can really hear how it is slavishly following a metronomic click and doesn't have any sort of natural flow - I see a conductor waving a sledge hammer listening to that piece. A pretty drastic decline from number one to two. Reunited at last should have gone there or maybe even first. I could disregard it as unimportant (to me), but it is totally NOT unimportant to a company that wants the demos to sell their product ... which again makes me wonder why SF again and again makes these kinds of poor judgements. The same person who decides these couldn't possibly design such a product. And it probably is not the same person. Marketing people ...

[FriFlo]

LOL! They should create these videos with Alexa's or Siri's voice and it would sound little more engaging ...

[ComposerGuy]

Tough crowd. I think it’s one of SFA’s best. Chamber Strings being second best. I’m in.

[Lawrence]

I’m such a tough crowd that I didn’t buy CSS even after all the lovely demos made with it. Why, you ask? Well, two reasons.

First, I bought CSSS and wrestled and wrangled it into a few quartets. There’s some nice tone in it, but once I had nudged and nudged each friggin note, I realized I simply didn’t have the patience to write with it. As a result I figured I would find the CSS delay annoying, playing way ahead of the beat on input and all the post-nudging to get a performance.

Second, I really enjoy the idea of writing a string line with one responsive legato patch that can adjust to a faster tempo if you want filigrees. The only one I’ve used that comes close is LASS.

Now, is this a different beast? Absolutely. Do I agree with Piet about Dan Keen’s demo and the tone quality? Absolutely. Am I likely to buy this? Yes…but I know in advance that the minute I want to write something a bit faster or with more of a flourish I’m going to be exasperated. I don’t think that’s an unfair assessment of the product, just a reasonable adjustment of expectations before spending my money.

I think Tanuj’s point is a good one-this product is likely to be a good sales tool for any piece with emotional, slowish and stirring lines. It would sell “Theme from a Summer Place” for sure.

[Guy Rowland]

Well... I don't want to be too difficult, but I don't hear this tone as revelatory. It's nice for sure, lovely even. But I just did a very rough A/B with the oft-forgotten CineStrings, and they really don't seem a million miles apart to me... it's just the first few notes from the walkthrough, followed by me playing rough out of the box CS (vibrato on full):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v6j7gf0qw2dh ... s.wav?dl=0

For me the big attraction would be the smoothness of the legatos. One thing CS can't do is the portamento / glisses, mind.

But the intro/crossgrade price is good, so still just about on the fence.

[FriFlo]

Well... I don't want to be too difficult, but I don't hear this tone as revelatory. It's nice for sure, lovely even. But I just did a very rough A/B with the oft-forgotten CineStrings, and they really don't seem a million miles apart to me... it's just the first few notes from the walkthrough, followed by me playing rough out of the box CS (vibrato on full):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v6j7gf0qw2dh ... s.wav?dl=0

For me the big attraction would be the smoothness of the legatos. One thing CS can't do is the portamento / glisses, mind.

But the intro/crossgrade price is good, so still just about on the fence.

That nicely backs up what I often think with these kinds of releases: the hyperbole of the presentation makes you hear things for a moment that are just lightyears ahead of what anyone could do before. But then you compare to a few of your favorite libraries (not enough people do that even, I believe) and realise, there hardly is any difference at all. I had a very similar experience yesterday when comparing Berlin legatos with this.

Of course, one little snippet that sounds pretty similar doesn't say that the library couldn't still be useful to get! There might be some other lines that you might find hard to closely reproduce with what you already got. And I think (judging from the demos) in this case this might be true for some things. But it is much more subtle than any of the videos try to suggest. I recently posted something about competition not really being about making the best product, but more about presenting it in the best possible way (marketing), today. In this case, it is somewhere in between: The product is decent at least, maybe even good (I just cannot say without having it). But it still isn't what it is sold as.

[Guy Rowland]

That nicely backs up what I often think with these kinds of releases: the hyperbole of the presentation makes you hear things for a moment that are just lightyears ahead of what anyone could do before. But then you compare to a few of your favorite libraries (not enough people do that even, I believe) and realise, there hardly is any difference at all. I had a very similar experience yesterday when comparing Berlin legatos with this.

Of course, one little snippet that sounds pretty similar doesn't say that the library couldn't still be useful to get! There might be some other lines that you might find hard to closely reproduce with what you already got. And I think (judging from the demos) in this case this might be true for some things. But it is much more subtle than any of the videos try to suggest. I recently posted something about competition not really being about making the best product, but more about presenting it in the best possible way (marketing), today. In this case, it is somewhere in between: The product is decent at least, maybe even good (I just cannot say without having it). But it still isn't what it is sold as.

Agree 100% on every point.

[tack]

Yes, Spitfire's marketing is hyperbolic and cringeworthy. I imagine we've all by now learned how to tune it out.

And their walkthroughs will overstate the utility of the product. But this is not an indictment specific to Spitfire either -- it's fairly common for developers to consider their products to be likely to bring about the Second Coming.

What I got from Paul's walkthrough was:

1. The tone is nice. Maybe Berlin or CineStrings are close -- I have neither of those, so I'm not familiar.
2. The "innovations" are not. Technically speaking I don't see or hear anything fundamentally new. The legato feel is significantly better than other Spitfire products without a doubt, but not better than the top tier libraries out there today. Built-in noise floor is just room noise we've all learned is a quasi-psychoacoustic hack to improve perception of mockup realism, and certainly not a novel idea.
3. The library is very limited. It's clearly targeting a specific use case, even while Paul et al may imply a wider versatility, I didn't leave the walkthrough or demos with that impression. It seemed very much to me, as Saxer put it earlier, that it's a one trick pony type of library.
4. It's sensibly priced, especially with the intro pricing combined with the modest loyalty discount. (I'm not sure which of my previous Spitfire products entitled me to the extra discount.)

So while on the one hand Spitfire Appassionata Strings is just Yet Another Limited Purpose String Library, the nice tone plus the reasonable price is why I bought it (and not without some trepidation about quality either, as my past experiences have almost always been sour with Spitfire's QA).

It's hard to compare SAS with Berlin or CineStrings, the latter ones being more candidates for workhorses, but seeing as I bought it mainly on tone, I admit I may well have passed if I had either of those other libraries.

[Tanuj Tiku]

I don't think this library is comparable to Berlin or Cinestrings etc.

This is in direct competition with Con Moto series from Jasper Blunk. In fact, I would argue that he has caused quite a serious dent in the strings marketplace along with CSS which is a wonderful library but sometimes lacks the sound.

The only thing unique about Spitfire is the sound. If you already have Performance Samples or CSS, the case to buy this one is weak.

However, if you are a programming academic, then it can also be very useful because the tone can add freshness or a specific sound to a mock-up. Sometimes, for certain passages a specific patch will sound better than others.

It sounds like a nice library and I understood all of the features in the video - except the second legato patch was never demonstrated - with Guy on that one - what is that?

The dynamic smoothing is probably just dynamic range adjustment - which was implement by VSL more than a decade ago.