Often described as the instrument with the closest sound to the human voice, VIOLA UNTAMED is the here to do the talking in your music. This is the 4th installment of our Untamed series, we’ve recorded 3 octaves and 333 unique, individual improvised performances. From soulful and fragile murmurs to impassioned and feverish cries.

Not for the traditionalist, and not for the faint of heart. This is for fans of alternative scores and inspired by composers like Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Jed Kurzel, and Jonny Greenwood.

With the same unique feature-set as the rest of the Untamed series, including Storms; a powerful articulation that can create crescendos, from a solo performance to a frenetic ensemble. As well as all of this, there are 9 other classic long and short note articulations that complement the other instruments in the series. It’s here to inspire your writing and is really at home with minimalist compositions where tone and sound do more talking than melody.

Longs Articulations:

• Improvisations A1
• Improvisations A2 (Alternative start)
• Improvisations B1
• Improvisations B2 (Alternative start)
• Improvisations C1
• Improvisations C2 (Alternative start)
• Storms
• Glue
• Glue 8vb
• Normale
• Flautando
• Sul Pont
• Tremolo
• Circular Bowing

Short Articulations:

• Spiccato (6 round robins, 3 velocity layers)
• Pizzicato inc. Bartok (6 round robins, 4 velocity layers)

You can use the interface to easily combine any number of articulations to create interesting textures and some unusual combinations. We love the sound of the Improvisations together, which feels like a small ensemble of violas all doing their own thing whilst flowing in and out of unison.

Performance Controls:
Dynamics – Expression – Vibrato

Microphones:
Spot – Close – Room – Gallery

Effects:
Saturation – Stereo Width – Reverb (with 7 included presets) – 3 Band EQ

This is how they recorded it:

Recorded at The Nave, one of the North of England’s finest recording studios; a converted church with the most beautiful sounding live room. Engineer Tom Orrell used an impeccable set of classic microphones and vintage outboard to tailor the perfect sound for the viola.

A single Brauner VMA valve mic is at the heart of the mix, providing a really rich, full, and very detailed sound. A stereo pair of Neumann KM184s captured a close stereo overhead perspective. A pair of Oktava MK-012s mics adds more depth to the room, whilst a second pair of the same mics placed high up in the gallery do a perfect job of capturing the natural reverb tail of the studio. We collected this really wide range of perspectives for you to mix exactly the sound you need.

Everything was recorded through Neve and API preamps, an AMEK Rembrandt desk, and captured at 96kHz using world-class Apogee AD16X analog to digital convertors.

Viola Untamed is available now for the special introductory launch price Price of $39 / €39 / £35 (Runs until Midnight February 25th 2021)
For more info and to purchase visit here: https://www.westwoodinstruments.com/instruments/violauntamed

About Westwood Instruments (https://westwoodinstruments.com)

Virtual instruments for alternative composers
Westwood was born from the idea that composing on a computer would be much better if it felt like you’re writing with a musician and an instrument in front of you. We understand that not everyone has the means, time, or access to live musicians but we know that writing music can often be inspired by experimenting with a real instrument in the room.

Often to us, virtual instruments sound too clean, polished, and have had any natural character stripped from them, which in our minds is the very thing that makes music sound most interesting.

We like to find musicians that follow this mindset and will choose instruments that don’t sound too perfect. We then capture real performances with all their individual nuances and playing styles. Sometimes with traditional performance techniques and sometimes with unique and unconventional ideas. These aren’t phrased libraries; more like a real musician putting a feeling in your music.

We sample instruments using the world’s best microphones through an impeccable signal chain. Each individual sample is then crafted to shape its character whilst keeping some of their natural flaws. These samples are then wrapped up in a custom virtual instrument made for use in Native Instrument’s Kontakt.