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)
More:
- ParametricOD Is A FREE Distortion Plugin Based On Neural Amp Modeler
- The Crow Hill Company Offers FREE Vaults R+D Strings Instrument
Last Updated on January 26, 2024 by Tomislav Zlatic.
