Discover your new secret weapon for writing cutting-edge film, TV and game scores. Kepler Orchestra makes it easy to evoke movement, speed and atmosphere by creating interlocking orchestral rhythms – from simple to massively complex. Our new Systems Grid does the hard work for you, with repeated notes, doppler effects, swells and shards. Similarly, our Mercury Synth engine expands your sonic universe with warped and space-inspired sounds. Recorded at AIR Studio One and featuring a chamber-sized orchestra, Kepler Orchestra is inspired by the great American systems composers of the late 20th century: Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams.

AN ORCHESTRAL ODYSSEY

A full orchestra made up of 40 strings, 13 woodwinds and 19 brass, recorded as separate ensembles in the crisp, vibrant acoustic of Studio One at the legendary Air Lyndhurst, where we recorded our popular Bernard Herrmann and Studio Orchestra libraries. All 54 of our unique articulations and playing styles, many never before sampled, have been orchestrated by Ben Foskett, produced by Harry Wilson and expertly recorded by renowned engineer Fiona Cruickshank through the famous custom Neve console via legendary Montserrat preamps. With multiple microphone positions (Close, Ambient, Mid & Wide), a Full Mix option created by Fiona Cruickshank, the library is presented in our sophisticated Systems Grid, giving you ultimate controllability and endless inspiration. We have also created 259 Snapshots — a wide selection of starting points with pre-programmed rhythms and sounds that work instantly, for that extra element of surprise and inspiration. Both detailed and epic, and designed to work perfectly alongside our existing orchestral ranges, Kepler Orchestra is for anyone exploring the cutting edge of modern orchestration, looking to create sophisticated scores for film, TV and games.

THE SYSTEMS GRID

Together with a wide range of innovative and nuanced articulations (from repeated notes, to doppler effects, swells, shards and pulsing movements), our sophisticated Systems Grid, based on our hugely successful Evo Grid technology, has solved a common problem for composers — it allows you to create realistic sounding, complex interlocking polyrhythms — the simultaneous combination of contrasting rhythms — that are impossible to successfully produce using traditional samples. Use the sounds dry for precise detail and to create the impression of vast movement and speed, or add your favourite reverb to create epic and atmospheric soundscapes.

Although similar to our Evo Grid, our highly interactive Systems Grid is much more of an articulation mapping tool. Instead of using the pegs to create different textures, they are split by time divisions (duplet, triplet, quintuplet and septuplet time), tempo locked to your DAW and allowing you to quickly create sophisticated combinations of different rhythms. We have also solved the problem of rebowing, a secondary feature which is almost impossible to recreate with samples when writing complex orchestrations. As with our Evolutions libraries, you can pan and tweak each sound using the FX panel on the right hand side.

This is not a phrase library, or a series of evolutions — it is a set of detailed and sophisticated articulations and raw materials, designed to give you the power to create your own complex, nuanced phrases with ease and control. Kepler Orchestra can however interpret your music and play it in ways you never expected.

A closer look at Kepler Orchestra's most innovative features:

DOPPLERS

The Doppler Effect is the change in frequency of a wave as the source and observer move toward or away from each other, for example, what you hear when an ambulance passes by, or the red shift in light observed by astronomers. We have recreated this by recording notes that grow, bend down by a semitone and die away, so they sound like they are shooting past you.

SHARDS

Our shards grid is inspired by light particles, reminiscent of shards of light, or the light spun out at the creation of an accretion disk. The result is swells of sound that rise dramatically in dynamic until they stop dead.

MOMENTUM

Our momentum grid is inspired by light wave interference theory — notes that increase and decrease in both speed and dynamic, from pulsing to accelerating.

WARPED

The Warped section contains thirty contrasting sounds to add an extra layer of cosmic depth and atmosphere to your polyrhythmic compositions. Each of these sounds was produced using the organic sample content from the library, designed to add unique depth, texture and atmosphere to any composition. Some samples were made using granular synthesis, while others were pumped through outboard gear, distressors, reverbs, saturators, and guitar FX pedals to create something completely new and original. Presented in our Mercury synth, all of the controls are assignable to your control surface, giving you the immediate ability to make our sounds your own.

BEHIND THE SAMPLES

The great systems composers of the 20th century such as Riley, Reich, Glass & Adams have had a huge influence on modern music, inspiring composers and artists the world over, from Kraftwerk, Led Zeppelin and Tangerine Dream to Sufjan Stevens, Nils Frahm and Cliff Martinez. Systems music at its core is based on repeated sounds with contrasting rhythmic subdivisions that move in and out of sync, reminiscent of planetary motion — each planet on its own journey, but working together in perfect harmony.

Inspired by this concept, composer and Spitfire Audio co-founder Paul Thomson had the vision of sampling a set of innovative and versatile orchestral articulations and playing styles, cyclical in nature, with the aim of enabling composers to score ultra-realistic repeated notes and complex polyrhythms using samples.

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician, famous for his three laws of planetary motion. Knowledge of these laws, especially the area law, provided the foundation for Sir Isaac Newton’s famous law of gravitation. Kepler was convinced "that the geometrical things have provided the Creator with the model for decorating the whole world". In Harmony, he attempted to explain the proportions of the natural world — particularly the astronomical and astrological aspects — in terms of music. The central set of "harmonies" was the musica universalis or "music of the spheres", which had been studied by Pythagoras, Ptolemy and many others before him.