Westwood Instruments Solo Strings Untamed v2.1 [KONTAKT]

Improvised, expressive and human solo strings

Human, raw and expressive solo string instruments featuring; Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. We’ve recorded over 1000 unique, improvised performances over the four instruments. Instantly playable by just playing harder or softer on your keyboard. From breathy and fragile murmurs to absolutely wild and manic bursts of chaos.

Not for the traditionalist, and not for the faint of heart. This is for fans of alternative scores and inspired by composers like Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Jed Kurzel and Jonny Greenwood.

There’s also our unique and powerful STORMS articulation, can create crescendos from a solo performance to a frenetic ensemble. As well as all of the this, there are many other classic long and short note articulations which complement the sound and character of all the instruments.

Improvisations A1
Improvisations A2
Improvisations B1
Improvisations B2
Improvisations C1
Improvisations C2
Storms
Glue
Glue 8vb
Normale
Flautando
Sul Pont
Tremolo
Circular Bowing
Spiccato
Pizzicato inc. Bartok

Viola

Improvisations A1
Improvisations A2
Improvisations B1
Improvisations B2
Improvisations C1
Improvisations C2
Storms
Glue
Glue 8vb
Normale
Flautando
Sul Pont
Tremolo
Circular Bowing
Spiccato
Pizzicato inc. Bartok

Cello

Improvisations A1
Improvisations A2
Improvisations B1
Improvisations B2
Storms
Glue
Glue 8vb
Normale
Flautando
Sul Pont Soft
Sul Pont Grit
Tremolo
Circular Bowing
Spiccato
Pizzicato inc. Bartok

Double Bass

Improvisations A1
Improvisations A2
Improvisations B1
Improvisations B2
Storms
Glue
Glue 8vb
Normale
Flautando
Sul Pont
Tremolo
Spiccato
Pizzicato inc. Bartok
Ricochets

Spot

A mono position that’s super dry, super hyped and super detailed.

Close

This stereo pair is intimate but lively, allowing the sound to breathe just enough.

Room

A typical tree-style position, plenty of real room ambience and nicely balanced.

Gallery

A diffuse and airy position recorded in the ceiling of The Nave. Add this to the mix for natural depth and space.

Multis

There are several Multis created from multiple instruments loaded into one Kontakt instance. They’ve been created for immediate gratification and perfect for quickly getting your ideas down. There’ll also show you some combinations and sounds you won’t have thought of and spark off an idea.

All The Improvisations
Circular Textures
Empty Room Pizzicato
Quartet Improvisations
Reverby Flautando
Studio Spiccato
VaVaVaVa
Viene La Tormenta

Recorded at The Nave, one England’s finest recording studios; a converted church with the most beautiful sounding live room. Engineer Tom Orrell used a set of classic microphones and vintage outboard to tailor the perfect sound for the strings.

For the spot position, a single Brauner VMA Valve mic or Neumann FET 47 mic does a great job of providing a very detailed, dry and hyped sound. Neumann KM184s capture a close stereo perspective; lively but still intimate. For the room position, we used a pair of AKG C414s, creating a more typical tree-style position and will give you a well balanced and open sound. Lastly, high up in the gallery were a pair of omnidirectional Oktava MK-12s. The secret weapon among engineers for their excellent detail, these will give you the full natural studio sound and allow you to hear the beautiful decay of The Nave.

We collected this really wide range of perspectives for you to mix exactly the sound you need. Everything was recorded through through Neve and API preamps, an AMEK Rembrandt desk and captured using world-class Apogee AD16X analogue to digital convertors.

Release Notes

Release Notes

v2.1 Functionality Improvements

Changes & Additions >

– Added Keyswitches On/Off switch.

– Added Mono/Poly mode.

– Added 7 Multis

Fixes & Improvements >

– Multiple articulations can now be added turned on and off by holding down the shift key.

– Minor performance improvements.

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v2.0 Complete overhaul :)

Changes & Additions >

– Over 300 brand new improvisations on the violin have been recorded and added in this release.

New UI & Functionality >

– Articulation switches

– A2, B2, C2 Improvisations (alternative start time of A1, B1, C1 samples)

– Improvisations Round Robins (cycles through the Improvisation sets)

– Storms articulation

– Glue articulations with controls

– Long articulation Attack control

– Short articulation Attack, Tightness and Release controls

– Mic channel meters

– 6 new reverb IRs

Fixes & Improvements >

– Improved noise floor for all Flautando samples

– An issue which caused missing round robins with certain mics

– Re-tuned various notes throughout

– Improved release triggers throughout

– Changed bypass switches to power switches

– Dynamics control now available for Improvisations

– Fixed a bug where “Learning MIDI CC Automation” would learn the wrong control

– Minor performance improvements

– Several other minor bug fixes

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v1.0 Initial release :)

Requires the FULL version of NI Kontakt v5.6.8 or above required!