Samuel Sim — Chrysalis

Samuel is one of the busiest composers working in London today. The ferocious pace at which he works exposes the quality and drawbacks of the tools he uses. Chrysalis is a collection of tools and sounds based on Samuel pondering "what if..." and by analysing why he returned to some tools and not others. By grappling with the increasing demands of TV and film execs to reinvent the wheel and create something 'totally new' Samuel like many of us struggles with the concept of unfamiliarly familiar. It is the latter point that crystallised the core concept of the project.

To create something that could be used like a piano, but wasn't a piano; that projected like a harp, but didn't have the classical baggage; that played like a guitar, but without the folky, geocentric or ethnic connotation. So at the heart of the library is a beautifully performed and deep sampled harp played by the man himself. Alongside additional techniques are 'impossible' techniques. Bending strings beyond comprehension in order to bow adjacent strings as a mere example. Samuel also played some very interesting and modern styles that experience has led him to believe is the way to make a workhorse set of tools.

Samuel also played through an array of awesome FX pedals and processing, delivering a barely recognisable and very edgy set of sounds. Spitfire and Samuel then took all of this rich and raw material and bent it out of comprehensive shape into some of the freshest sounds both Samuel and the Spitfire team has ever heard. The final piece of the jigsaw was a process of curation to combine sounds into an instantly gratifying set of instruments that only a man of Samuel's experience would know how to put together! In what Samuel described as "2am instruments" his aim was to create some presets that would allow you, when at your whits end in the early hours of the morning, to write, produce and complete a cue in realtime before you fall into an overworked slumber on the floor of your studio.

Samuel Sim is part of the vibrant musical community at Tileyard Studios, North London. Alongside fellow TV & Film composers Dru Masters, Christian Henson & Paul Thomson they often formed a discreet coterie of drinkers for "whine at five" sessions moaning about the state of the industry over a few glasses whilst the pop and dance contingent of Tileyard started their days work. These conversations became especially impassioned when talking about sampling, and it was only a matter of time before Sam and the Spitfire team started dreaming up a library of his very own. Following 4 years of pondering procrastination, experimentation and then weeks of slavish sampling, months of sound design the team and Sam can't quite believe that it's finally happened. But are proud that it surpasses everyone's expectations, born of bucolic and slightly slurred suggestions and protestations.

Samuel is widely considered to be one of the most exceptional musical talents of his generation. His beautifully evocative music and award winning film and television scores are fast making him one of the most sought-after composers working in the industry today. Early in his career, Samuel quickly stood out from the crowd with his award winning score for the BBC’s Dunkirk. A whirlwind success followed which soon saw him composing for the Hollywood feature film Awake. Most recently Samuel has scored ITV’s hugely successful TV drama Home Fires, C4’s drama The Mill (for which Samuel’s score received an Ivor Novello nomination), ITV’s Chasing Shadows, the touching ITV feature Father’s Day, and the Charlie Brooker/Daniel Maier comedy creation Touch Of Cloth. He also composed a wonderfully evocative score for the riveting STOP AT NOTHING: The Lance Armstrong Story.

Initial Pupae

Contains the pure harp sound, deep sampled with 6 different microphone options. It contains the 'typical' plucked harp sound normale, as well as a selection of atypical articulations, including all the strings resonating from a cello bow.

Metamorphosis Warps

23 different sounds, each with a single pluck and tremolo option. These each have two signals, combining the harp with an affected other.

The Cocoonase

100 sounds, again with two signals between the pure and the impure signal. The sounds in here are the softer side to Chrysalis, with luscious pads and ambiences.

Nympha Pedals

A selection of sounds created by amplifying the live harp through an coterie of pedals and into a Marshall JCM800. Each sound has 4 signals, so you can blend between the pure sound of the harp and the mesmerising soundscapes emanating from the amplifier, with different options for each.