Kickstarted by John Williams’ score to director Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning Raiders of the Lost Ark, Abbey Road Studios has become one of the world’s premier destinations for film scoring, adding the emotion, mood and magic to the greatest cinematic storytelling of the last 40 years. Blockbuster films such as The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, Skyfall, the Harry Potter series and the Oscar-winning Gravity feature scores recorded here, while recent projects include Black Panther, Solo: A Star Wars Story and the multi award winning 1917. Innovation has always been at the heart of Abbey Road Studios, from the birth of stereo to numerous pioneering advances in recording technology, and this spirit continues today with Abbey Road Red, Europe’s first music-focused technology incubator.

Spitfire Audio has also been hard at work writing its own chapter into recording history as a British music technology company that specialises in sounds — sample libraries, virtual instruments, and other useful software devices, duly collaborating with the best composers, artists, and engineers in the world to build musical tools that sound great and are exciting to use. Ultimately, working with Abbey Road Studios was written in the stars, and we begin this partnership with Abbey Road One.

Together, Abbey Road Studios and Spitfire Audio share a vision of creating a beautiful, vast and varied series of sampled instruments. Recorded within the renowned acoustics of this historic building, using the perfect mixture of cutting edge and vintage equipment by our award winning engineering team. We share a goal to inspire music makers all over the world with the unique sound of Abbey Road. From producers making their first beats in a home studio, to composers scoring the latest cut of the next cinematic blockbuster and all the music making communities between.

Spitfire Audio carefully captured a full, symphony-sized (90-plus-piece) orchestra inside Studio One, the world’s largest purpose-built recording studio, to create an easy-to-use expandable sample library like no other. Split into strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion, the library is pre-orchestrated to create a perfect fit for established music-makers (wanting to quickly sketch an idea at high quality) and newcomers (learning how to write for an orchestra) alike. Available to pre-order as of 22 October 2020.

ABBEY ROAD ONE: FILM SCORING SELECTIONS is made up of ABBEY ROAD ONE: ORCHESTRAL FOUNDATIONS at its core, essential sounds from a symphonic ensembles-based library, courtesy of a 90-plus-piece orchestra. The library comprises of strings (16, 14, 12, 10, 8); brass (four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, two bass trombones, one contrabass trombone, one tuba, and one contrabass tuba); and woodwinds (one piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, one cor anglais, two clarinet, one bass clarinet, two bassoons, and one contrabass bassoon); plus percussion (performed by three players on a huge selection of instruments).

This has been recorded inside Studio One with world-class musicians and recorded by four-time Grammy Award winning Senior Engineer Simon Rhodes. Spitfire also made use of Abbey Road Studios’ vast selection of microphones to create the sampled core of an easy-to-use expandable library like no other.

Watch as Paul Thomson guides you through the Abbey Road One.

Abbey Road Studios Head of Audio Products Mirek Stiles, who has lead development of the project for the Studios, outlines his excitement for the release of Abbey Road One:

“While nothing compares to recording a 90-piece orchestra in one of the finest acoustics environments in the world, we wanted to enable aspiring composers and seasoned pros alike to obtain a degree of that magic from the comfort of their own creative spaces. For a lucky few, Abbey Road One will provide a sketch pad for themes to be signed off by directors, knowing full well those same notes will be replayed by musicians within the bricks and mortar of Number 3 Abbey Road; for others, this will be an inspirational first taste for dreams yet to be fulfilled. Then there will be the rule-breakers from unexpected genres using Abbey Road One as a creative tool in its own right, in non-conventional ways. I’m thrilled that Abbey Road Studios has finally partnered with the innovative and creative minds at Spitfire Audio. Composers, artists, producers, and engineers are about to enjoy a new palette of sounds — just imagine the finest musicians, beautiful acoustics, award-winning engineers, and cutting-edge technology mixed with rare vintage treasures.”

Spitfire Audio Co-Founder Christian Henson, added: “The whole idea behind Spitfire Audio was to approach recording samples exactly the same way you would film scores — same place, same microphones, same people, so it’s only natural that we would end up in this iconic location: Abbey Road Studio One. You can get 200 players in here, which gives you a lot of scope for that kind of big Hollywood sound, but also it probably has the best microphone cupboard in the world.”

ABBEY ROAD ONE: ORCHESTRAL FOUNDATIONS is available to preorder as an AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible, NKS-ready plug-in that loads directly into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

Available to Pre Order Now at www.spitfireaudio.com. Download as of November 5, 2020. Introductory promo price — £299 / $349 €349 (ends December 1, 2020)
MSRP — £399 / $449 / €449. Pre-order Abbey Road One: Orchestral Foundations and receive your choice of one Film Scoring Selections library for free, (RRP £49 $49 49€) coming early 2021. This pre-order offer ends November 5, 2020.