Spitfire Audio launches APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY one-of-a-kind library.

Sound-specialising British music technology company Spitfire Audio is proud to activate The Black Weekend — with THE TON, BLACK WEEKEND CORE, and BLACK WEEKEND PROFESSIONAL promoting savings of up to 75% as exclusive bundles alongside other discounted deals (including 40% on selected libraries), as well as announcing APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY as a one-of-a-kind library.

Spitfire Audio announcing availability of APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY as a one-of-a-kind library capturing strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion resampled through 200 custom-controlled cassette players, and available for free to anyone spending £249.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$299.00 USD/€299.00 EUR (inc. VAT) or more during The Black Weekend sale itself before being offered for purchase individually thereafter at £199.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$249.00 USD/€249.00 EUR (inc. VAT). It is perfectly positioned for any APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY user to effectively go from intimate solo players to a full symphony orchestra in an instant — and all in the same virtual instrument!

Some might say that is musical madness, but Spitfire Audio in-house composer Oliver Patrice Weder has this to say: “It’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard or played, and, as the name suggests, it’s a full-sized orchestra, but it’s not played by real players, it’s played by cassettes. We’ve done close-up recordings of real players onto cassettes, then we bought 200 [Sony] Walkmans and arranged them in Assumption Studios in Glasgow as you would arrange a real orchestra. We then hooked them up, controlled them via a custom-built controller, and recorded a D.I. signal as well as a signal which was sent back into the room via speakers. So this is where our concept of the ‘Aperture’ comes into play.” Put it this way: with tones that offer modern and beautiful tape warmth through to the charming, warbling, worn-out sound of old cassettes, as well as an ‘Aperture’ fader that spans from section leaders to small orchestral sections, all the way through to becoming full symphonic in size, APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY is a library that not only takes productions on a journey through time, but also space. Since Spitfire Audio has harnessed the power of a symphonic orchestra, going back to the early days of tape sampling by taking inspiration from the distinctive sound world of the Mellotron — an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in England back in 1963, played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan that pulls it across a playback head so that as the key is released the tape is retracted by a spring to its initial position, while different portions of the tape can be played to access different sounds — and then blowing that out of proportion by capturing and resampling strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion through those 200 custom-controlled cassette players with over 800 tapes of organic orchestral material, it is hardly surprising that Oliver Patrice Weder is musically moved to end on a high note, succinctly stating, “Pretty cool and fun to play with.” Well, there is no need to say more when APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY’s seven presets, 50 techniques, two signals, and eight — ‘Aperture’, ‘Expression’, LPF (Low Pass Filter), TIGHTNESS, RELEASE, REVERB, NOISE, and PORTAMENTO — controls clearly speak so well for themselves. 

The 23.28 GB download-sized APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY library is initially available as an AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible, NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®)-ready plug-in that loads directly into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for free to anyone spending £249.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/ $299.00 USD/€299.00 EUR (inc. VAT) or more during Spitfire Audio’s The Black Weekend sale running from November 24-30 before being individually offered for purchase thereafter at a RRP (Recommended Retail Price) of £199.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$249.00 USD/€249.00 EUR (inc. VAT) from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/pages/aperture-cassette-symphony

Spitfire Audio’s namesake Spitfire Audio application allows anyone to buy now and download anytime, and is available for free from here: http://www.spitfireaudio.com/info/library-manager/

For more in-depth information, including some superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated APERTURE CASSETTE SYMPHONY webpage here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/pages/aperture-cassette-symphony