Kirk Hunter Studios Spotlight Strings KONTAKT

Actually, Spotlight Strings started out as "Solo Strings 3" back in 2008. I was experimenting with Kontakt's LFO abilities to simulate string vibrato. This was due to the fact that I wanted to be able to have the user manipulate vibrato in any way so as to suit his or her needs. At that time, it seemed there was really no way to realistically alter vibrato speed, intensity or fade-in time in real time by merely using samples and crossfading. So LFO manipulation seemed to be the solution. And also at that time, it seemed to me that there was just no convincing way to simulate a good string player's vibrato using Kontatk's LFO's back then. It was ok, but not good enough.

This was until I started really digging into Kontakt's LFO structue and some other related features. So it seemed, at least in theory, that there could be some possibilities. Sure enough, after a lot of sampling, and re-sampling and playing around with a bunch of Kontakt's modules, I found what I thought was a very convincing vibrato emulation. And after getting really good results from a single solo, I thought to myself, "Why stop there?" Since I have an arsenal of great string instruments, I decided that I would record at least 4 of them and then try to combine them so as to create not only a bank of 4 soloists, but up to 4 in any combination. It proved harder than I thought. All kinds of clever randomization and tone colorings were needed in order for the 4 soloists to blend together without weird-sounding phasing and chorusing. Once that task was complete, I thought it would be really neat to see how all of this would sound combined with a big string section. So I took some of the samples from Concert Strings 2, and put them behind the new soloists. The result, in my opinion, was very promising. However, to make this all work really well, I needed to completely re-script the Concert Strings 2 samples to fit this new sound.

Spotlight Strings is a SOLO STRING library comprised of 4 soloists per section and an optional "Ripieno"* backup section.
So it's 4 solo string libraries in 1, and THEN some!
-4 solo violins
-4 solo violas
-4 solo cellos
-2 solo basses
-Ripieno (Italian for stuffing or padding - refers to the bulk of instrumental parts of a musical ensemble who do not play as soloists, especially in Baroque music. These are the players who would play in sections marked tutti, as opposed to soloist sections. It is most commonly used in reference to instrumental music)

Updated Spotlight Strings Violin Instrument

Updates include:

- More realistic vibrato
- Better vibrato integration when using more than 1 player
- Better start-note randomization when using more than 1 player
- Richer, less "boxy" sound
- Added "Dolce Largo" articulation for very slow, emotional phrases


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