Spitfire Audio announces the availability of Spitfire Studio Woodwinds — which represents the British music technology company’s third and final release in its Spitfire Studio Orchestra range of dry stage samples, recorded in AIR Studios’ Studio 1, as standard and extended editions.
AIR Studios’ Studio 1 is capable of accommodating up to 45 musicians across its 140m2 floating floor (with a specially designed sliding door system that allows it to be divided into acoustically separated areas) with AIR Studios’ Lyndurst Hall accommodating a full symphony orchestra with choir.
Two years in the making, the Spitfire Studio Orchestra series offers A-list London session players performing with the best instruments through a signal path recorded to tape by multiple Grammy Awards-winning engineer Simon Rhodes.
Spitfire Studio Woodwinds contains 143 articulations across 11 instruments, including five solo ones — namely, Piccolo, Flute Solo 1, Flutes a3, Alto Flute Solo, Oboe Solo 1, Oboes a3, Clarinet Solo 1, Clarinets a3, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon Solo 1, and Bassoons a3… and all recorded to a (Decca) Tree rig featuring Schoeps microphones.
Meanwhile, Spitfire Studio Woodwinds Professional contains 185 articulations and 15 instruments, adding Contrabassoon, Contrabass Clarinet, and Bass Flute. Furthermore, extensive control of the sound is also available, thanks to the inclusion of two ready-to-go mixes (M1 and M2), two close-mic arrangements (C1 and C2), two Decca Tree setups (T1 and T2), ambient mics (A), and outriggers (O), so users can access and personalize their own mix of Simon Rhodes’ microphone armory — all the way from pin-sharp to super-wide, picked up by the best from Neumann, Schoeps, and Sennheiser.
Simon Rhodes’ film score recording, including being American composer, conductor, and orchestrator James Horner’s go-to engineer for 18 years, with movies such as Avatar, Spectre, and Skyfall. “For the Spitfire Studio Woodwinds sessions, the approach echoes what we did with the Spitfire Studio Strings and Spitfire Studio Brass, so there is complete consistency between the libraries. The main Schoeps room mics were the same, and I captured two flavors of spots.”
Company co-founder Paul Thomson — an accomplished music-to-picture composer in his own right — takes Spitfire Audio’s ambitious studio journey to a heartfelt musical finale. “When you put your arrangements together, you’ll find that these all lock together really beautifully,” he affirms, adding: “With the mic options in there, you can get a really tailored sound — either from a very close, full intimate sound, or a really staged, film studio scoring stage sound.”
