Fractured Strings

Name: Fractured Strings
Price: 299 USD
Author: Spitfire Audio

by Spitfire Audio · Instrument · Experimental strings library

Not rated yet

Fractured Strings is a string library made with Hans Zimmer's Bleeding Fingers Music and recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Hall, used on the BBC's Frozen Planet II.

It has violin and cello ensembles plus solo players, more than 100 intervallic performances and Scale Mode, for $299.

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

Keywords: strings, film & game audio, ensemble, experimental, arpeggiator, solo strings, tempo-synced, textures, chord generator, cinematic, modern, randomize, sample-based, sound design, warm.

What it does

Fractured Strings was created by Spitfire Audio with Bleeding Fingers Music, Hans Zimmer's scoring collective, and recorded with London string players at AIR Lyndhurst Hall; its sounds were used in the BBC's Frozen Planet II. It is built around short, broken-up phrases and intervals rather than standard articulations, aimed at "cellular, ambient, and neoclassical" writing.

Players: an eight-piece ensemble of four violins and four cellos, plus a solo violin and a solo cello.
Content: 42 violin fractures (10 chord types with a Speed control), 54 violin techniques, 51 cello techniques, and 9 arpeggios each for solo violin and solo cello.
Phrase types: 15 Statements, 10 harmonic Splinters, 14 Rotations (slow trills), 7 aleatoric Dispersals, 7th Reaches, Declamatory Shorts and Pizzicato Strums.
Tempo sync: Rotations, 7th Reaches and the arpeggios sync to tempo; the rest play freely.
Scale Mode: locks phrases to seven diatonic modes or a custom scale, with velocity choosing the interval.
Evo Grid: maps several articulations across the keyboard, with a randomise function.
Signals: 12 signal paths, including Tree, Outriggers, Ambient, Ribbon, Gallery and Close, plus Big, Medium and Small mixes.

An education discount is available; no trial is listed.

Source: Spitfire Audio product page

When to use it

Fractured Strings is the pick for restless, ready-made string figures with a real acoustic sound. Compared with Berlin Strings or BBC Symphony Orchestra Core, it has no conventional legato or standard shorts for writing lines, but its trills, splinters and interval phrases give movement that would take hours to program from a normal section. Unlike Augmented STRINGS, it does not turn strings into synth-like sounds; it keeps the players audible and natural. Scale Mode makes it quick to keep the phrases in key, though its size is large for a specialist library.

Best for: nervous string textures, motifs and interval figures under nature documentaries and modern film and TV cues.
Genres: cinematic, ambient, minimalist and neoclassical.
Look elsewhere if: you need a conventional string section with legato and standard shorts; Berlin Strings or BBC Symphony Orchestra Core cover that.
Tip: Sound On Sound suggests using velocity to vary the intervals, and exploring Rotations and Dispersals for evolving textures.

What producers say

Sound On Sound recommended it for film composers and experimental musicians.

Sound On Sound rated it 4 out of 5, praising Scale Mode, the range of techniques and dynamics from warm pianissimos to icy fortissimos.
Verdict: "with a bit of patience the results can be breathtaking", according to the review.
Criticisms: it takes patience to get the best from it.

Sound On Sound review

Where to buy

Spitfire Audio: $299
PluginFox: $299

Tutorials and reviews

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