The Crow Hill Company has released Shimmer Guitar, the fourth instrument in the FREE Vaults series.
The Crow Hill Company is Christian Henson’s brainchild. If you know Christian’s work with Spitfire Audio, the free Vaults series will feel familiar. Now, the company has released Shimmer Guitar, the fourth instrument in the FREE Vaults series.
So far, there are four free instruments in the Vault: Attic Grand, R+D Strings, Celestatone, and Shimmer Guitar.
The thing that all of these instruments have in common, and indeed prior Spitfire Audio releases, is that they all have a distinct personality/character.
The character typically comes from the instrument being a very specific model, aged in a certain way, recorded in a particular place, or any combination of the lot.
Shimmer guitar combines a well-aged instrument, a vintage amp, and one of the world’s most famous orchestral recording studios.
The guitar is a hollow-body Gibson Les Paul, although that wasn’t part of the original plan. The original plan was to purchase a second-hand vintage guitar on the day of the recording, which ended up being a Kay semi-hollow-body electric guitar.
Despite sounding great, some technical issues meant the Kay had to be swapped out for the Les Paul, a more than fair replacement.
The recording took place in Lyndhurst Hall at AIR Studios (London), and to capture the core character of the sound, the Les Paul was partnered with a vintage Supro tube amp.
The Supro amp had no effects, but three Marshall stacks with delays were positioned in the upper level of the hall to provide the required ambiance.
Like other Vaults instruments, Shimmer Guitar comes with six macros; two large central controls, and four smaller ones below.
The two central controls are Filter (low-pass) and Shimmer. Below, you’ll find Drive (British-style dirt), Mod (flange), Echo, and Splosh. You can rever Echo and Splosh to have reverb going into the delay.
Shimmer is the magic that ties everything together, and if you have the right blend of dirt, space, ambiance, and clarity, it sounds pretty amazing.
I like the instruments in the Vault so far, and I expect many more quirky and charming additions, somewhat like Spitfire Audio’s LABS collection.
If you haven’t checked out anything from Vaults yet, start with Attic Piano and work your way to Shimmer Guitar – they are lovely little freebies!
Check out the deal: Shimmer Guitar (FREE part of Vaults plugins for all members of the Crow Hill Company)
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11 Comments
Ryota Lore
ongRainbow got a redesign: https://bboettcher3.github.io/grainbow
Tomislav Zlatic
onArticle coming soon! :)
Henry
onIs LABS dead, then?
Bob
onTo answer the actual question: it looks like it’s dead.
The last LABS release was 7 months ago and they used to be a monthly thing. LABS was Christian’s thing and with him gone I guess it just ran out of steam.
Soroosh
onYeah don’t think any new LABS will come out. Unless Henson somehow decides to return Spitfire Audio. But I’m happy he’s continuing the LABS tradition with Vaults. It looks and plays a lot like LABS and it looks like there’s gonna be loads more patches coming out for it!
Tomislav Zlatic
onMOD UPDATE: Please refrain from political rants and insults towards fellow BPB readers in the comments section. The internet can be a toxic place, but we do not do this kind of thing on BPB. Peace and love to everyone!
MRG
onDarn it! My evil plan of starting a revolution through a website’s comment section are thwarted once more.
Well played, sir.
Well played..
.
*thunderclap in the distance*
Łukasz
onWhy did you delete my comment albout Christian being a transphobe? I didn’t say anything offensive, just wanted to inform people about whi they choose to support.
dgu
onReal musicians don’t care where their plugins and instruments come from. they worry about quality. they have jobs and bills to pay. they don’t have time to worry about other people’s opinions and private lives.
Tomislav Zlatic
onHi Łukasz, the article’s topic is a free virtual instrument. Any comments related to politics (gender politics or otherwise) and other topics not related to music production will be deleted because they inevitably lead to heated discussions, which I will not allow on BPB. There are so many other places where things of this nature can be discussed. I want BPB to be a place where people (myself included) can learn about music, enjoy music-related discussions with fellow music lovers, and find some peace from the toxicity that is abundant on the internet. Thank you.