Spitfire Audio has announced the release of Frank two Ricotti series virtual instrument libraries for Native Instruments Kontakt, engineered by Toby Warren at Air-Edel Studios, a classic and infamous studio in central London used by an extraordinary mix of people from Nick Cave (Proposition) to Beyonce, to Tinie Tempah.

Spitfire has recorded a pristinely maintained Glockenspiel deeply with a number of beaters, techniques and from a number of perspectives. With the recent folk renaissance, the glock has become one of the most popular tuned percussion instruments of recent times. These little beauties are not easy to record well, nor make truly convincing. Spitfire has a decade of experience making the best, most realistic virtual instruments on the market today. By engineering chaos into the selection of sounds and by using the finest ribbon and valve mics with incredible signal paths Spitfire has created the definitive article, so if your favored Glock is sounding a little worn Spitfire is always a good bet!

Crotales are small bronze disks, almost thick cymbals arranged in a piano keyboard style layout to produce chromatic pitches. They are one of the brightest tuned percussion instruments and similar to a piccolo, will cut through even the biggest orchestral dirges. With the producer range however we like to introduce music makers of all persuasions to try instruments they may never have heard of. So alongside the bright and brash elements of this library you can also find moments of magical beauty. A great instrument that can create the feeling of a bright celeste coupled with a triangle but with none of the pre-conceived ideas of either of those instruments, ie Celeste = Harry Potter. Spitfire has recorded a pristinely maintained set of world-class Crotales sampled deeply with a number of beaters, techniques (including a bowed patch which is going to get tongues wagging!) and from a number of perspectives.

For the first two weeks, the Ricotti Glockenspiel and Crotales libraries are available to purchase for the introductory prices of £39 GBP and £31 GBP, repectively (regular £52 GBP and £42 GBP). Both libraries require a full version of Kontakt 4.2.4 or higher.

More information: Spitfire Audio