The latest instalment in Spitfire Audio’s Hearth and Hollow range has arrived, and promises to transport users sessions into “wild, folk landscapes while unearthing the soulful, fragile side of folk songwriting”. It’s the third instalment in the series crafted by Hunter Rogerson, a Los Angeles-based composer, audio engineer and cinematic songwriter known for his work on film and video game scores.
As its name suggests, Hearth and Hollow - Folk Accordion captures the sound of an accordion, with the instrument in question played in a “creaky old living room deep in the countryside”, with the aim of capturing the sense of intimacy, charm and roomy sound that’s associated with classic folk, Americana and indie music. Recorded by Rogerson and programmed by Owen Bolig, the library is said to deliver a “breathy, wavering and fragile” sound, offering new and interesting tones that aren’t typically associated with an accordion.
It comes equipped with the Room Control feature that has been present in previous volumes of Hearth & Hollow instruments, which allows users to position their accordion within the recorded living room space and control its natural ambience. For the first time, it’s now possible to seamlessly ‘transport’ Folk Accordion into the rooms featured in the original Plucked Folk Ensemble or Folk Voices libraries, offering a more cohesive sound when using the Hearth and Hollow libraries together.
Key Features
- Intimate & Roomy Sound: Recorded in a specific countryside living room to capture a unique, authentic acoustic space.
- Innovative Sound Design: Treats the accordion as a reed instrument to achieve a "breathy, wavering, fragile" quality, moving away from stereotypical accordion sounds.
- Extensive Control: Offers a remarkable level of control and depth, including specific noise controls for buttons, keys and air.
- Accordion Ecosystem NKI: a companion instrument featuring large textural pads created exclusively from accordion samples, designed to describe the emotional setting of the library.
- Kinetic Energy Articulations: a key group of rhythmic, tempo-sync’ed articulations that take advantage of the pushing and pulling of the bellows.
- Connected Room Control: a new feature allows users to access the room sound of the first or second Hearth and Hollow instruments, spatially connecting all three libraries.
- Unique Sustain & Expression: Features Rebellow control — a sustain pedal option that emulates the physical act of pushing and pulling the bellows, and a Soft Start parameter for triggering a more delicate attack.
- Mirrored Button Side: The low bass register is mirrored and available on the button side, providingfull creative control over the instrument
Compatibility
Hearth and Hollow - Folk Accordion runs in Native Instruments’ Kontakt and requires version 8.6.0 or higher, which is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or above, and Macs running macOS 13 and higher. VST3, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available, along with a standalone application.
Pricing & Availability
Hearth and Hollow - Folk Accordion is available now, priced at $99£99 including VAT / €99.
