Spitfire Audio Woodwind Evolutions

Soaring, Evolving Woodwinds

Woodwind Evolutions gives you some of the most instantly gratifying sounds Spitfire has ever had the pleasure of making.

Recorded dry at the amazing Air Edel studios, London, this eclectic collection of woodwind evolutions provides composers with a unique palette of inspirational tools to create ultra-minimal, realistic textures, from dark and arresting, to soaring and beautiful.

Now presented in Spitfire's own sophisticated GUI with an ingenious grid layout, you have an almost infinite number of configurations at your fingertips, to hold your listeners spellbound.

The Spitfire team have also created a range of straight-out-of-the-box presets, offering you instant playability and inspiration.

For Woodwind Evolutions, Spitfire handpicked some of the UK's finest, most progressive woodwind players to perform beautifully orchestrated long notes that evolve with subtle increases in intensity and expression, while employing a diverse set of techniques and articulations, to create sounds from another world.

Recorded to tape by acclaimed engineer Nick Taylor at the amazing Air Edel Studios in London, via the finest vintage mics, Neve preamps and a vintage Cadac desk, we have captured the diverse tonal range of each instrument.

We used two different line ups of players to give you a nuanced selection of sounds - some more 'reedy', some more 'flutey'.

'Woods' is made up of a range of flutes and clarinets, and 'Reeds' is made up of Oboe, Cor Anglais, Bass Clarinet, Baritone Sax and Bassoons (see articulations lists for more information), which can be used separately or together.

The 2019 update transforms these evos by migrating them to Spitfire's free and easy to use dedicated plugin, and Spitfire Audio's Head of Product Stanley Gabriel has created nineteen new presets.

You can choose between a whole range of signals, and in our updated version, these can be used in any combination or all at once on any patch, giving you even more control.

The presets are an example of the range of possibilities that can be achieved through Evo Grid technology - from simple tutti patches containing all 48 evos (evolutions) spread evenly across your keyboard, to specially curated patterns.

With a number of FX accessible from the front panel, this is a tool designed for producers, composers and sound designers looking to create spellbinding, award-winning material from the moment your fingers hit the keyboard.

What is an Evo?

Spitfire's recording expertise and acclaimed Evo Grid technology adds extra dimensions to each sample, offering you an instinctive, ever-changing kaleidoscope of progressive techniques.

For the newly initiated, Evolutions are hyper-long notes that change sometimes subtly and sometimes radically over time before looping, giving you unexpected results.

Evolutions have become widely adopted amongst the composer community as the most effective means of easily writing music that is able to subtly change over time without melodic variation.

These textures can be developed, shaped and processed further, offering you a rich range of possibilities.

The bespoke, sophisticated Evo Grid interface, inspired by the EMS VCS3 synth, positions 'pegs' via an onscreen 12 x 48 grid arrangement, giving you access to recordings across 12 intervals, organised in a grid with an almost infinite number of possible configurations.

Instantly select which evo sits on each of those 12 key ranges, toggle your pegs, or hit 'Feeling Lucky' to generate randomized evolutions, replay the MIDI, and no cue will ever sound the same twice.

Instruments

Band A - Woods

• Flute (3)
• Alto flute (1)
• Bass flute (1)
• Contrabass flute (1)
• Bb clarinet (3)
• Bb bass clarinet (3)

Band B - Reeds

• Oboe (3)
• Cor anglais (2)
• Bb clarinet (2)
• Bb bass clarinet (1)
• Baritone sax (1)
• Bassoon (3)

Light Woods

• Light - full
• Light - shimmer
• Normale - pulse
• Light - tongue shudders (episodic)
• Light - shudders
• Shudders - strong
• Breath - tone
• Light - accelerating siren
• Light - beautiful siren
• Normale - overtone flickers

Pitch Woods

• Normale - semitone cells
• Normale - tone cells
• Normale - dissonant pulse
• Normale - multiphonics
• Normale - episodic overtones
• Gentle shimmer - overtones
• Normale - harmonic wisps
• Normale - building trill
• Normale - multiphonics and pedal
• Light - dissonant tongue shudders
• Normale - dissonant overtone pulse
• Shimmer - multiphonic overtones
• Light - harmonic cell bursts
• Breath - dissonant pulse

Light Reeds

• Light - full
• Light - shimmer
• Normale - pulse
• Light - tongue shudders
• Light - shudders
• Light - shimmer bursts
• Light - accelerating siren
• Light - beautiful siren

Pitch Reeds

• Normale - semitone cells
• Normale - tone cells
• Normale - dissonant pulse
• Normale - down bends
• Normale - multiphonics
• Light - siren shudders
• Normale - episodic overtones
• Normale - singing pitch
• Light - random bursts
• Light - shimmers and sirens
• Chatter - dissonance
• Light - chaos
• Soft - overtone pulse
• Singing - shimmer bursts
• Light - shimmered bends
• Soft - full multiphonics

Curated Presets

Simple

• A simple start - bright
• Episodic bursts - bright
• Harmonic woodwinds - bright
• Movement pad - dark
• Pulsing presence - dark
• Shimmering ensemble - bright
• Steel pans - bright - distorted
• Stretched moments - dark
• Reed swamp - dark
• Woodwind swamp - dark
• Ensemble swamp - dark
• Grit bursts - dark - distorted

Intense

• Always building - bright
• Cracks of beauty - dark
• Intense sirens - dark
• Is it broken - dark - distorted
• Semitone shimmers - bright
• Is it more broken - dark - distorted
• Dirty moments - dark - distorted

Mics & Mixes

• Close - A tight, dry mix
• Tweaked - A compressed version of Close with occasional glitches
• Ambient - Reverberant and atmospheric
• Distorted - A full-on, gritty signal, useful for adding some dirt into the mix
• Stretch X2 - The Close mix stretched to be twice the length, giving the sounds a more ethereal quality
• Stretch X8 - The Close mix stretched to eight times the length, to slow down busy evolutions