Spitfire Audio Aluphone v1.1b5 [KONTAKT]

An exciting addition to the mallet family, this extraordinary array of aluminium bells has been performed by world-renowned percussionist Paul Clarvis, a master of his craft. Expertly recorded in the Hall at AIR Studios by resident engineer Jake Jackson, this is unique metallic sound will enhance your percussion collection.

Innovative metallic percussion

Spitfire Audio aims to introduce composers and producers to innovative, rare sounds. When reaching for tuned metallic percussion, the first thing that springs to mind is the Tchaikovsky celeste, or the glockenspiel. The aluphone conjures similar sonic magic, without being instantly recognisable. This awesome set of recordings gives you acoustic magic through the finest signal path, as used by the world’s best composers.

We collaborated with world-renowned percussionist Paul Clarvis to capture this extraordinary addition to the mallet family – an otherworldly array of aluminium bells, played in the glorious surrounds of the Hall at AIR Studios. One of the finest scoring stages in the world, this is where we record the majority of our symphony and percussion sample libraries, all of which are designed to lock together sonically. Recorded by AIR Studios’ expert resident engineer Jake Jackson through an array of priceless vintage microphones via Neve “Montserrat” pre-amps, to a beautifully serviced Studer 2” tape machine, and then into digital at 96k via the best Prism AD converters.

The Aluphone

The aluphone is a two and a half octave chromatic array of aluminium bells, played mainly with marimba mallets plus a selection of beaters, both damped and sustained, with a broad selection of dynamic layers and round robins. We’ve coupled this with our easy to use GUI, which gives you instant access to many different microphone selections (Close, Tree, Ambients, Outrigger, Gallery, Mid) so you can instantly customise the recordings to suit your score. We also give you two mixes, curated by engineer Jake Jackson.

Paul Clarvis has performed on countless blockbuster movies, having worked as part of Hans Zimmer’s team of percussionists for decades. Clarvis was also charged with leading the seminal drum corps for the London Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2012. He brings his technical prowess and zealous spirit of collaboration to every session.

The 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.

Aluphone

Individual patches

Long – bowed
Long – fingers
Long – hard beater
Long – soft beater
Short – bowed
Short – hard beater
Short – soft beaterOther patchesAluphone – COG patches
Aluphone – longs
Aluphone – shorts
Aluphone – time Machine patchesMics & mixes
MicsC – Close
T – Tree
A – Ambients
O – Outrigger
G – Gallery
M – MidMixesM – Medium Mix
B – Broad Mixhome page