Kirk Hunter Studios has announced Virtuoso Ensembles, an orchestral instrument collection for Native Instruments Kontakt and Kontakt Player.

Kirk Hunter Virtuoso Ensembles

VIRTUOSO ENSEMBLES is an epic virtual orchestral collection that’s ideal for music composition and live music performance. Designed with unprecedented flexibility, you now have the ability to orchestrate your own custom ensembles putting the orchestra at your command.
Developed in the Native Instruments Kontakt Player engine, VIRTUOSO ENSEMBLES delivers the finest quality sampled sound of an orchestra with extremely detailed user control; perfect for your final productions.

VIRTUOSO ENSEMBLES goes above and beyond in delivering all strings, brass and woodwind solo sections of a full orchestra while also including auxiliary percussion, epic hits, pristine piano, and an elegant choir. Of course, the strings, brass and woodwind sections are the collective core of this library. With truly great sounds spanning all sections of the orchestra into one instrument, you will find yourself using this library as your go-to tool for composing, performing, and professional music productions. Additionally, these instruments are optimized to have a very low memory footprint, while still being “chromatically” multi-sampled.

Virtuoso Ensembles

  • Control four instrument sections, (strings, brass, woodwind solos) mapped across the keyboard for a realistic feeling of an entire orchestral compliment.
  • Multiple articulations, dynamics, and round robins.
  • Provides efficient and intuitive control to modify the split or crossfade between each of the 4 sections giving you amazing flexibility to get the ideal mix.
  • Intuitive visual dynamic LED indication for active section and active keys played.
  • Effortlessly switch between “Legato” and “Poly” modes.
  • Uses IntervaLive® to add realistic transitional intervals in both “Legato” and “Poly” mode.
  • Stack up any combination of the 4 sections together, or use them independently.
  • Control the mix of each section’s volume and pan.
  • Includes many popular “sustained” articulations – Arco, Marcato, Tremolo, Soft and Medium Tongue, Sforzando, and more.
  • Includes many popular “short” articulations – Staccato, Staccatissimo, Spiccato, and Pizzicato.
  • Uses “slur” and “sustain” articulations. Even aggressive ones such as “Marcato” will always have smooth slurs.
  • Provides accent strength control for the Marcato, Sforzando, Staccato, Staccatissimo, and Spiccato articulations via velocity and MIDI CC.
  • Crossfade any “sustain” articulation with the “tremolo” articulation via MIDI CC (Strings only).
  • User-selectable keyswitching.
  • Choose volume control via velocity, or MIDI CC, or both.
  • Velocity sensitivity (strings, brass, woodwinds) and MIDI CC sensitivity (Strings) control for volume.
  • Fine-tune envelope attack and release control.
  • 3 band semi-parametric equalization.
  • Reverb on/off and amount.
  • Room size (for reverb).
  • Microphone distance (with or without reverb).

Virtuoso Ensembles is available for the introductory price of $199 USD (regular $299 USD). Requires Kontakt or Kontakt Player 5.5 or higher.

More information: Kirk Hunter Studios / Virtuoso Ensembles