Spitfire Audio has released Charango, a freely downloadable ethnic string instrument sound library for the freeware LABS virtual instrument.
The charango is a small guitar-like instrument from the Andes. It is widely used in Latin America for playing traditional music. Chances are you’ve heard the charango in numerous TV show themes and movie soundtracks already and you’ll instantly recognize its sound when you play the demo track.
Spitfire Audio recorded these samples twelve years ago using a KM184 mic in an apartment in London. It is this very sample library that inspired Christian Henson and Paul Thomson to launch a sound design label that is now Spitfire Audio. The library is now available as a free download for everyone interested, as long as they install the (also freeware) LABS plugin on their machine. You can check out our in-depth review of LABS in the article linked above.
LABS Charango comes with three different presets. There are two solo charango instruments to choose from and a charango ensemble which sounds fatter and slightly chorused. The modulation wheel controls the dynamics while playing the instrument and the large knob in the center of the user interface controls the amount of reverb applied to the signal. The instrument is surprisingly versatile. It can sound almost like a traditional Japanese instrument when single notes are played, but you can also make it sound like a South American instrument if you play proper Spanish guitar chords.
To grab your free copy of Charango, simply hit the download button on the product page linked below. It will download the Spitfire Audio app which will handle the rest of the download and installation process for you. Keep in mind that you’ll also need to install the Spitfire Audio LABS platform.
LABS Charango is available for free download via Spitfire Audio (32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU plugin format for Windows & macOS).
4 Comments
Mr.UNQ
onMe liking this plug/player with its unique & frequently updated instruments.
josh
onLove all the labs packs and eager to have more, use them all the time in my tracks and especially appreciate that I don’t need kontakt for these instruments. The audio world really needs a widespread free sampler on par with kontakt.
Tomislav Zlatic
onYes, an interesting freeware alternative to Kontakt, but they don’t allow third-party sound libraries as far as I know.
disappear
onspitfire Lab’s bug doesn’t disappear. Still error on window… since v.1.