Spitfire Audio, the makers of such compositional tools as Albion and Hans Zimmer Percussion Volume 1, have announced the immediate availability of Kitchenware Glass a new tuned percussion instrument. The new Kontakt instrument is the ninth installment of the company’s reasonably-priced Producer Portfolio series, launched in 2013 to satisfy the need for drier-sounding, more manipulatable samples for non-orchestral music material.
According to Spitfire, Kitchenware Glass was born out of a private sample library that the company’s co-founder, Christian Henson, had made in his noisy Soho flat some years ago. Drawing inspiration from artists like Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and from Cliff Martinez’s soundtrack to Solaris, Henson’s original library subsequently became the envy of his colleagues at Spitfire. So much so, in fact, that they decided to record a commercial version in the company’s new studios in King’s Cross, London.
Kitchenware Glass brings together a collection of tuned wine glasses, domestic glass and ceramic kitchenware, each played with a variety of techniques including finger nail flicks, beater hits, bowing and rubbing. It also comes with Ostinatum, a rhythmic pattern builder taken from the premium Albion range of cinematic ensembles.
Spitfire’s latest instrument comprises 4.1GB of compressed data from over 10.7GB in WAV format and over 12,000 samples with up to three dynamic layers and five round-robins per instrument. You will need a full version of Kontakt 4 or 5 (Mac OS X 10.7 or higher and Windows 7 or later) to use it. If you buy it today, though, you can get it for the discounted price of £49. From April 24th, it will cost £66.
