Sospiro Strings is a Kontakt library for creating unhurried emotional string performances. It consists of 4 swells of varying lengths and 3 sustain articulations recorded on bass, cello, viola and violin.
There are individual nki for each individual tool, and there is nki with all the tools mixed together to have an easier sketching tool as well as save memory.
2 Swells – Samples with vibrato create a warm, characteristic sound. Vibrato samples sound more or less depending on how stretched they are in time, so it’s especially nice to have no vibrato as an option. Initially, all swell bursts are programmed at 110 beats per minute.
Swells without vibrato have a clear tone that especially draws attention to the change in tone as each instrument becomes heavier or softer.
Each version, vibrato and non-vibrato, has one layer of velocity.
Using the Length in Beats slider, you can select the appropriate length and, if necessary, the appropriate swell will be selected and stretched over time.
Length Multiplier is useful if you have a high BPM project and want it to sound slow, or vice versa.
The Smart Release function makes it so that no matter how long you hold a note in the crescendo-ascending portion of the sample, it will sound just as long after the swell ends. This means that the longer you hold a note, the longer it will release.
The sync function is one of the most important functions: when sync is on, any notes you add or change in a chord will sync with the first note played.
There are 3 types of sustains – Cold cold sustains played slowly with the bow and without vibrato – fragile sound on the verge of breaking.
warm sustains play on the fretboard with fast, freely changing bows and powerful vibrato.
Full sustains are played closer to the bridge with a slow, heavy bow. Vibrato is used with caution.
There is a possibility to double the sound, in which two instances are superimposed on each other and slightly shifted. It sounds best if you only use one instrument and only play a few notes at a time. If you play big chords and lay down all 4 instruments together, the doubling function tends to sound more general 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.
