Spitfire Audio have announced the release of Mercury, a sample library and virtual instrument made in collaboration with Chas Smith, an instrument maker who specialises in transforming disused metal into acoustic instruments. Originally a welder and fabricator working in the film industry, Chas began using his metalworking skills to design and build unique instruments that have found their way into scores of films such as ‘Dune’, ‘Interstellar’, ‘Man of Steel’, ‘The Hunger Games’ and the ‘Saw’ franchise.
The library consists of two components: Mercury, and Solar. The former is a collection of unprocessed samples taken from 14 of Chas’ handmade instruments, whilst the latter is a new synthesizer powered by the latest version of the Spitfire’s eDNA engine. A total of 672 unique sounds are included, some of which remain “organic”, whilst others have been processed with outboard and Eurorack effects units, and within Solar. 300 presets are included, and users are of course able to create and save their own processed variations of the included sounds.
Unique Instruments
Each of the included instruments have been designed and built by Chas.
The Pez Eater, one of the unique instruments sampled for Mercury, is built from steel rods and fitted with pickups.Bertoia – Inconel rods with aluminium resonators on a turbine blade. Inspired by Harry Bertoia, both the rods and plates are tuned to 14 tone scales- Dado – Machined steel plates that can spin over pickups
- Towers – 9 titanium rods, tuned to be “friendly" with each other, with titanium plates welded on each end
- Lockhead – Titanium parts welded into a structure and a titanium sheet for the resonator
- Mantis – Titanium parts welded into a structure that can rotate
- Copper Box – Rods, plates and a folded horn resonator. Each rod is 36” long and the helix of rods continues under the resonator plates
- Paraboloid – A titanium sheet with added rods
- The Pez Eater – Tuned steel rods and pickups
- Sceptre - Saw blades, plates and things that can rotate
- AD – Springs welded to saw blades over pickups
- Bass Steel Guitar – Machined from aluminium
- Que Lastas – Stainless steel sheet with rods and bass piano strings
Check out the walkthrough video below to see and hear Mercury in action.
Mercury is contained within Spitfire Audio’s own plug-in, which is available in the AU, VST2, VST3 and AAX formats. The library occupies 8.2GB of disk space.
Availablity
Mercury is available now from the Spitfire Audio website, and is currently available for a promotional price $99£99 including VAT. The full retail price will be $149£149 including VAT.
