Spitfire Audio Albion V Tundra KONTAKT

Creating something extraordinary often involves taking a leap into the unknown. We knew we wanted the strings to have a 'frozen' sheen to them, and to achieve this we needed to scoop some of the lower mids out of the frequency map. To do this we made the bold decision to exclude violas from the orchestra, replacing them with rich celli and basses — 12 Celli and & 6 Basses sat in the middle of the room, with two massively enhanced violin sections of 20 and 18 players sat in antiphon (opposite sides of the room). We give you a huge selection of articulations ranging from classics such as our ever popular flautando, but with mutes added, and sections playing poly-divisi, so that even with a band of this size, every player can be heard. We also explored unorthodox approaches — from requesting that players attend the session with practise bows with no rosin on the hair for minimum traction, to bowing the strings with the back of the bow. Resident AIR Studios engineer Jake Jackson's real challenge, with the roof fully elevated so that the signal contains as much early reflection as possible, was trying to get the musicians louder than the ambient room tone. We recorded the strings in two sections, high and low, with matching articulations where possible. Highlights alongside these cascading longs articulations are flautando legatos, brushed shorts, and some extraordinary loose pizzicatos.