Spitfire Appassionata Strings Reviews

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This came out at the right time -- I was working on a pitch for an "uplifting piano and strings" piece and was getting decent results with other libraries (some Spitfire and some others) but when this was released, I grabbed it right away and replaced and replayed my existing string parts. It was nothing short of a magical transformation. Just a gorgeous string library. I sometimes see commenters on social media saying things like "Oh, look another Spitfire string library..." Foolish sarcasm. If they can't hear the distinct characters of each library, it's on them. I love Studio Strings, and Albion, but Appassionata simply does what they don't -- and the reverse is true. I'd buy every Spitfire string library under the sun if I could afford it, for that very reason.

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Still getting to know it - but so far very powerful and incredibly realistic

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Very realistic and easy to use strings library. I do really like this product

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great musicality! I love it.

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I like very much, of course I miss another articulations for strings, but relation quality-price is astonishing

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Gorgeous and inspiring! The realism of the legatos adds a new dimension to my library. When I doubled it with the BBC SO Pro Leaders, it gave me chills.

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Of course, there is a long way to go to reach a playable pattern for performing romantic and zigane (gipsy) melodic pieces (such as Persian, Hebrew ,Arabic and Bollywood's style). But Spitfire Appassionata Strings is literally a step forward and it is the only string library that can play realistic melodies. In fact, we need more playable techniques (pre-recorded sounds and scripts) in one or more articulations like: + Zigane/Gipsy Legato + Fast Portamento + Glissando. Please find the attached video to get acquainted with an example of it. Although the implementation of these techniques may be transient for single instruments, it seems very unlikely for classical Western orchestration. Hesam Seyed Mousavi

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At this price (especially the introductory offer) this is a class leading legato string library. With the ability to produce incredibly realistic and shimmering string sections, this is a dream come true for those of us wanting to recreate that classic cinematic sound in our digital audio workstations. It’s great there is the option to buy on a physical disk as the 80GB+ download might be challenging for some. However for me on a decent fibre connection I was up and running within less than 30 minutes. Hats off guys, you produce some of the most amazing sound libraries for orchestration on this planet. Works great in Logic Pro X and even on my old 2012 i7 iMac with 24GB RAM.

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Sounds great and beautiful right out of the box. I have missed this kind of legato patch to broaden up my sound palette. Five different dynamic levels changing seamlessly using the mod wheel! I have combined Appassionata succesfully with my Chamber Strings Professional, they blend together really well. The opening price campaign was user-friendly an made Appassionata a must-have to me.

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Wonderful Library, wonderful sound, ideal amount of vibrato that emotes "wise passion" suitable for most case uses rather than being an "overdramatic" one-trick pony. Spitfire really upped their game with this new legato tech (and this comes from a Legato-OCD person) but that makes one even more thirsty to hopefully see a drier version being realized one day (be it in Air S1 or Abbey)....

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These are great for sketching melodies and present a whole new level of legato. Great price!

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Spitfire Audio Libraries are the mainstays of my sample library and this product is beautifully recorded and designed. An all round great company making great products!

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One word: Inspiring. This library, although rather small compared to a lot of Spitfire's other products, is its strength. You can really hear the vibrato with every instrument and the legatos are surprisingly near perfect. Seriously, it's almost tear-jerking how well-programmed they are. That's something hard to capture, and as a string player myself, I can confidently say this library got it right. So satisfying! Spitfire has come a long way since 2007 and this library is a testament to that. I've always had trouble with string libraries and their legatos, but Appassionata Strings rectifies all those problems with ease. It's been a lot of fun to recreate scores like Mahler's Adagietto with this library (works perfectly along with the BBC SO library). I found that combining this product with other string libraries provides a perfect divisi sound. Really helpful. And I must say, the violas are my favorite part of this package—so dynamic and versatile. There are lots of other articulations included as well, like crescendos, diminuendos, and sustains. All are useful and provide that extra bit of realism to your tracks. I think this will be my go-to library for exposed string passages and lyrical lines. Infinitely grateful to Spitfire for putting out Appassionata Strings, especially with the introductory pricing. You can't beat it!

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Excellent - I love all the Spitfire libraries, I now own about a dozen of them and will probably buy more

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Sound quality and functionality are great. I have only lowered my star count because of two issues (which were clear to me before my purchase, so this review should be interpreted as idealism speaking): 1. Lack of inclusion of short note articulations. 2. Limitations of portamento to upper register notes and assignment of portamento trigger to maximum velocity (which I find counter-intuitive to real world application of minimum velocity which is used in many other string libraries). Both of these issues require extra accommodation on my part and I therefore feel that the product is ill-described as an out of the box string library.

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Love it !! KOMPONISTEN.NO AS - Trond Nilsen, Norway

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Gorgeous, lush, elegant legato strings to really add some richness to a string arrangement or orchestral arrangement. These are perfect to bridge the gap between classical and popular music, or for film score strings. The only reason I give it four stars, is that I do wish there were options for non-legato, even if just one type of shorter note, but this is only a minor “inconvenience” (if you can even call it that)

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The most beautiful legato strings you can buy

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Amazing strings while being a great bargain. Easy to install!

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A fantastic library that has given me a new perspective on writing for strings...so excited to have a tool like this at my fingertips!