Lea Bertucci — Acoustic Shadows

Name: Lea Bertucci — Acoustic Shadows
Price: 29 USD
Author: Spitfire Audio

by Spitfire Audio · Instrument · Brass and percussion textures

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Lea Bertucci — Acoustic Shadows by Spitfire Audio

Acoustic Shadows is a sound design library from Spitfire Audio of brass and percussion recorded with Lea Bertucci in a large industrial fridge.

Its 44 presets cover hits, pads, drones and rhythmic textures with a long natural reverb. It costs $29.

Best for: Sound Design, Acoustic Instruments. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic.

Keywords: brass, textures, drones, pads, cinematic, sound design, film & game audio, dark, eerie, evolving, risers & hits, creative, epic, granular.

What it does

Acoustic Shadows is a small Spitfire Audio library made with composer Lea Bertucci. She played trumpet, tenor trombone and percussion with extended techniques inside an industrial refrigerator with a 10-second reverb tail, and the results are brooding phrases that can evolve for up to a minute.

Trumpet: Harmon mute variations, pitch bends, decay swells, bursts on minor seconds and perfect fifths, glissandi and stabs.
Tenor trombone: Harmon mute variations, pitch bends, decay swells, bursts, smacks, stabs, a Shepard tone and a whistle-tone glissando.
Percussion: a flock of bells, cymbal rolls and swells, snare rolls and strikes, timpani swells, crescendos and strikes, toms, triangle, woodblock accelerations and eccentric metals.
Granular pads: seven pads built from the recordings (Northern Sky, Go Easy, Dark Dream, Archangel, Trigger, Virile and Jasmine), with detuned and rhythmic textures.
Presets: 44 presets in all, covering epic hits, evolving pads, intense drones and rhythmic textures.
Controls: a short set of Dynamics, Expression, Delay and Release.
The space: the fridge's long tail and natural delays are part of every sound, so it arrives already wet.

It runs in Spitfire's own dedicated plugin (no Kontakt needed). It has an education discount; there is no trial, only audio demos on the product page.

Source: Spitfire Audio product page

When to use it

Acoustic Shadows is the better pick when you need finished brass and percussion effects for tension, not parts you write note by note. Compared with BBC Symphony Orchestra Core or Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition, it has no playable brass section or orchestral percussion kit; what it adds is extended-technique swells, Shepard tones and long, dark tails in one strange room. It is also far cheaper and smaller. Unlike Resonate, which builds sustained drones from percussion resonance across many mic signals, it keeps things simple with four controls and 44 presets. It works best as a quick layer under trailer, horror and sci-fi cues.

Best for: trailer hits, suspense drones, horror and thriller stingers, and dark beds under underscore.
Genres: cinematic, trailer, ambient and experimental.
Look elsewhere if: you need playable orchestral brass; BBC Symphony Orchestra Core or Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition cover that.

What producers say

Forum users find it good value and inspiring for atmospheres, but stress that it is an effects library rather than a playable instrument.

VI-Control users called it "pretty great" and "a lot of stuff for the price", likening its space to LCO textures but with individual brass and percussion.
Use: one VI-Control user noted it is "mostly effects though, not hugely playable" like other Spitfire libraries.
Criticisms: at launch several users reported the Optimise button reappearing after use, though the library still worked.

Where to buy

Spitfire Audio: $29
PluginFox: $29

Tutorials and reviews

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