Spitfire is back at it again with another interesting orchestral sample library, they're cranking these excellent instruments out so quickly i'm wondering if this is what the Apollo 13 movie meant when they said the moon missions were starting to feel routine. London Contemporary Orchestra Textures (LCO Textures) is a follow up to their internationally-acclaimed London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO) - a library I also own and LOVE.
Why is this Kontakt library so special you ask? Well, to start it was recorded in a cavernous decommissioned air hanger in Suffolk, England, originally built to test American fighter planes (which has a 10 second reverb tail). The LCO library by Spitfire Audio was already full of innovative modern string techniques that added a character never before seen in a Kontakt library, and this library pushes it even further with even more textures (see what I did there).
First, lets dive into the specs...
London Contemporary Orchestra Textures Specifications
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Full price: $299 (on sale for $199 at launch)
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Size: 28.5 GB
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Samples: 3,468
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GUI: Standard Spitfire and Spitfire EVO
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Features: Runs in Free Kontakt Player, NKS support
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Instruments: Harp, Viola, Cellos, Flute, Voices, Percussion, Felt Piano
For a detailed list of specs and information, as well as Spitfire Audio's own demos, visit their product page.
London Contemporary Orchestra Textures Sounds
LCO Textures is incredibly detailed, and as you can imagine - textured. You can spend a lot of time making the perfect Evo grid for you track, or never touch the thing and get inspired by the presets (of which there are a lot). Someone on my YouTube channel made a comment, 'So this is just a collection of really nice pads?' - and the answer is, 'pretty much, but also no'. While you can totally just think of it as a collection of excellent pad presets, you can go in and really sculpt the sound or take advantage of the raw source material.
I made a video exploring the sounds of LCO textures without talking so you can appreciate the sounds, check it out.
Doesn't that sound incredible? I think so.
A lot of people don't appreciate how orchestral libraries like this can be used for incredibly beautiful pads in electronic music. I put together a chill electronic track to show how LCO Textures can be used in this manner, check it out!
If you like the track, you can also get it as a free download here.
Overall I think most people can benefit from the sounds that LCO Textures has to offer. There aren't really any other libraries on the market that sound like this. Sure you can get plenty of great orchestral libraries, and plenty of great ambient soundscape libraries, but Textures really blends the two worlds together in a unique way.