NAMM 2020: British sample library outfit Spitfire Audio has unveiled the latest update to its flagship Albion range, NEO. Spitfire has long prided itself on being at the more contemporary end of the orchestral library market and Albion NEO continues that trend, taking inspiration from “the emergence of a new wave of progressive musicians and composers.”
The library itself is described as a “modern cinematic collection”. At its core is a chamber-sized orchestra with what Spitfire describes as “a super intimate string section”. Captured in The Hall at London’s famous AIR Studios, the orchestral element features 41 musicians playing 54 classic and unconventional articulations.
These core orchestral sounds are then complimented by an array of more leftfield sound collections. First up is Stephenson’s Steam Band, a hybrid orchestral synth that blends NEO’s orchestral sounds with vintage synth and modular recordings captured from Spitfire head-honcho Christian Henson’s personal collection. These are joined by Seglar Textures, a collection of evolving loops fashioned from the NEO library and presented in Spitfire’s eDNA engine.
Finally, the package is rounded out with the Brunel Loops – an assortment of loops performed by Spitfire’s roster of musicians and producers, which the brand describes as an array of “get out of jail sounds”.
Compared to other libraries in the Albion range, Spitfire describes NEO as being aimed at “expressive, cutting-edge, original scores suited to more subtle and intimate settings… Where Albion ONE was for blockbusters, Albion NEO is flexible across genres, designed to inspire forward-thinking composers, artists and producers.”
Albion NEO is available to pre-order now, and will be released on Thursday 23 January. It comes as a dedicated plugin instrument, or a library for Kontakt/Kontakt player. It will be available for an initial promo price of £299/$349/€349, rising to £399/$449/€449 from 6 Feb onwards. Check out the Spitfire site for more.
