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Impressionism by Spitfire Audio
By Lars Deutsch
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| Spitfire's Dreamy Impressionism GUI |
Spitfire Audio's Impressionism comes with its own custom Spitfire Audio player with 4Gb of samples. It contains 13 individual patches that feature four to eight "brushes" or pre-orchestrated ensemble performances.
Spitfire Audio uses impressionist painting references to name patches in their custom player for this collection. Spitfire says: "our latest creation offers a brightly-hued palette of instrument sounds--pastel washes of strings and woodwinds, shimmering touches of harps and vibraphones; and fine-tipped trills, clouds, and atonal clusters--all layered in with the turn of a Mod wheel."
Spitfire Audio's Impressionism comes with its own custom Spitfire Audio player with 4Gb of samples. It contains 13 individual patches that feature four to eight "brushes" or pre-orchestrated ensemble performances.
Spitfire Audio uses impressionist painting references to name patches in their custom player for this collection. Spitfire says: "our latest creation offers a brightly-hued palette of instrument sounds--pastel washes of strings and woodwinds, shimmering touches of harps and vibraphones; and fine-tipped trills, clouds, and atonal clusters--all layered in with the turn of a Mod wheel."
You'll hear all this and more when scrolling through and listening to these patches. The variety, detail and usefulness of this collection comes from either dialing in the perfect blend or in creating transitions using the Mod wheel. The Mod wheel is the key to using and getting the most out of this collection.
In my first test I liked the initial sounds but the higher the mod wheel setting, the more one element popped out. Luckily all the patches are broken down into three sections the user can mix or mute. I was able to balance the elements to my liking. Then the resulting textures supported the flute melody without overpowering it.
Control is very important for me as a composer and I want to be able to carefully write and carve out special moments that go with story on screen. Between access to three layers using the mod wheel, I can make precise decisions. A lot of thought went into making this a tool for composers that will allow completely different and unique sounds.
I started this review during the wildfires in LA. I had taken a couple of darker and dramatic pictures on a walk and I thought, let's see if I can capture the mood, just using Impressionism. I used three different instances, and between mod wheel automation and adjusting the three layers to each of the patches I was able to dial in an appropriately windy and dark sound that was very expressive.
While I like the Impressionism branding and the "the brightly hued" palette, this is just a starting point. It is easy to dial in noise / dissonance / wilder textures that add a lot of life to a composition / soundscape. I really appreciate that dissonance and noise are featured here. The combination of "pastel washes" and "atonal clusters" really sets this collection apart.
Impressionism is a very well thought-out tool for for music composers. It is standalone and works by itself, but it's also useful for creating "fuzzy edges" around lead instruments, or as a "spice" for sprinkling textures to liven up any instrument. It is great for transitions and I enjoyed using the mod wheel to make scores a little more specific to what is going on on screen.
Spitfire Audio's Impressionism sells for $249 MSRP.
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