Spitfire Audio Harp Swarm [KONTAKT]

Nine harps playing simultaneously spread out around the Hall at Air Studios. From hauntingly slow and fast tremolandi, to long and short plucks, harmonics, and what has to be the most extraordinary selection of cascading glissandi we’ve ever heard. The second instalment in the Swarm story offers instant inspiration and a broad variety of uses.

Overview

The obvious use of nine beautifully maintained harps, playing both on the scoring stage and in the galleries at Air studios, would be to engulf your listener in a cascade of sweeping glissandi. If you’re a blockbuster composer working on fantasy and magical material, once you’ve had nine, you’re unlikely to go back! Swarm 2 delivers some staggering epic glissandi resonating around this world renowned hall. But this is only the beginning! The plucks and plucked harmonics offer a hauntingly epic melodic universe that will happily straddle larger strident orchestral arrangements at all dynamics. However, the Spitfire team feel the real magic of this library lies in the slow, fast and granular tremolandi, ranging from a soft choral sea of calm to a ferocious rain storm. Great for anything other-worldly, science fiction, mystery and horror. The long strings, with full speed and dynamic control, have an inherent kinetic movement and energy, even when playing simple and slow chords. This is a magical tool, providing you with new pastures of inspiration.

Features

• 6 Harps on the main scoring stage, 3 in the galleries recorded in unison
• Long, Short & Harmonic plucks with Numerous Round Robins
• Haunting slow and fast trems with speed control and dynamic crossfading via mod wheel
• Exhaustive epic glissandi selection including release trigger and different speed options
• Recorded to tape via the finest microphones and pre-amps
• Selection of mic perspectives and Jake Jackson mixed from up front and personal to epic widescreen
• Easy to use, this one springs out of the box.

GUIThe Overview panel

This is the main interface for melodic instruments. Its default view displays all available playing techniques, has a simple microphone mixer and includes the main feature controllers.

General Controls panel

This view allows further in-depth control of the instrument, showing all available signals and feature controllers, as well as the ability to purge techniques from memory to reduce system usage.

The Ostinatum

In this view you can add notes to a pattern sequencer, select which key it triggers on and then play for instant ostinato creation. It’s like an arpeggiator on a synthesiser.

What’s includedArticulationsTrems – slow and fast
Harmonics – pluck
Longs – pluck
Short – pluck
Glisses – blues
Glisses – chromatic clusters
Glisses – dom 7th – Hollywood
Glisses – dom 7th – long
Glisses – dom 7th – medium down
Glisses – dom 7th – medium up
Glisses – dom 7th – short down
Glisses – dom 7th – short up
Glisses – dom 7th – shorter down
Glisses – dom 7th – shorter up
Glisses – maj 69 – Hollywood
Glisses – maj 69 – long
Glisses – maj 69 – medium down
Glisses – maj 69 – medium up
Glisses – maj 69 – short down
Glisses – maj 69 – short up
Glisses – maj 69 – shorter down
Glisses – maj 69 – shorter up
Glisses – major – Hollywood
Glisses – major – long
Glisses – major – medium down
Glisses – major – medium up
Glisses – major – short down
Glisses – major – short up
Glisses – major – shorter down
Glisses – major – shorter up
Glisses – melodic minor – Hollywood
Glisses – melodic minor – long
Glisses – melodic minor – medium down
Glisses – melodic minor – medium up
Glisses – melodic minor – short down
Glisses – melodic minor – short up
Glisses – melodic minor – shorter down
Glisses – melodic minor – Shorter up
Glisses – whole tone – Hollywood
Glisses – whole tone – long
Glisses – whole tone – medium down
Glisses – whole tone – medium up
Glisses – whole tone – short down
Glisses – whole tone – short up
Glisses – whole tone – shorter down
Glisses – whole tone – shorter upMicsC – Close
T – Tree
A – Ambient
O – Outriggers
T2 – Surround Tree
G – GalleryMixesF – Fine
M – Medium
B – BroadTech specsMac system requirements

Mac OS 11, 12 or 13

Both Intel and Apple Silicon/ARM are supported

Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 minimum (quad-core), 8GB RAM

Recommended: 2.8GHz I7 (six-core), 16GB RAM

32-bit systems are not supported.

PC system requirements

Windows 10 or Windows 11 – (Latest Service Pack, 64-bit)

Minimum: Intel 2.8 GHz i5 (quad-core) or AMD Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM

Recommended: Intel Core i7 6th gen and later or AMD Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM

32-bit systems are not supported.

File size

21.00 GB disk space required during install

10.50 GB download size

Kontakt player

Kontakt Full 5.6.8 or higher required