Spitfire Audio

There is one DAW our community has shown a lot of love for, and that's Cubase. 🎶 From its intuitive interface to being entirely accessible for beginners with a user-friendly design, Cubase is an excellent DAW to get started with. Swipe below to see why.

There is an incredible amount our team does for the community. We're thrilled to share some fantastic news about our ongoing partnership with Blueprint for All, a charity that is changing the lives of young people across the UK. We support the charity by donating 100% of the proceeds from sales of our Originals Media Toolkit to them. The partnership has reached an incredible milestone of £250,000! This has enabled them to launch a ground-breaking, award-winning digital careers platform for young people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Below is a collection of some of our Founder Paul Thomson's favourite sounds. Congratulations, team!

Did you know that Hans Zimmer nearly turned down the chance to work on The Lion King? Disney’s The Lion King became an instant classic when it was released in 1994. The score blended traditional African rhythms with Western orchestration, creating one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time. It turned out to be arguably his most successful project, earning him a multitude of awards, including his first Oscar! Here’s the real reason why he nearly turned it down. Credit:@Hans Zimmer TikTok

Have you heard of AIR Studios Reverb? We launched our first-ever FX plugin, this year, making users feel like they’re conducting their own sonic symphony. AIR Studios Reverb provides eight different mic signals for users to blend between, ranging from the classic Decca Tree setup to overheads in the Canopy, ambient mics, and even mics in the Galleries. This is the result of two years of development, during which we captured AIR’s Lyndhurst Hall in immaculate detail, preserving the studio’s sonic heritage. Swipe below to hear from some of the team who made it.

Isobel Waller-Bridge has made an incredible mark on the contemporary composing landscape. While her music for the iconic Fleabag kickstarted her composing career, Isobel's creative reach is wide-ranging—spanning from West End theatre to Netflix and Film4 movies. If you need some creative inspiration from a top composer, look no further. Swipe below to explore Isobel's composer journey.

“There’s nothing more humbling than picking up an instrument.” Rosie Lowe is this month’s Composer cover feature. Lowe has amassed an impressive catalogue of solo work and collaborations that fuse sophisticated, soulful electronic-pop and alternative R&B, all neatly brought together by her soft, rasp-inflected vocals. For some composer inspiration, Rosie is always sampling her surroundings. “I took a Zoom recorder everywhere whenever I went out for a walk, for dinner, or to the beach.” There's no freedom in perfectionism. Freedom is what music is all about. Read the full article in the comments below.

We've been asking our community what their favourite DAW software is and why 🎛️ For those who aren't aware, a DAW is a "Digital Audio Workstation."  DAWs cover every part of the music-making process, from recording digital audio to creating beats and melodies with virtual instruments. WIRED’s resident musicians have selected their top picks, and our community has shared their favourites. This time, it’s Ableton! Swipe below to see why it’s a crowd favourite…

Albion One is about to reach new heights. With exciting new features, Albion ONE is your ultimate toolkit. 🎻 Albion ONE is a renowned, industry-standard orchestral sample library that provides all you need to make film music. Whether you’re crafting epic scores or intimate melodies it comprises a 109-piece orchestra, accompanied by a thunderous cinematic percussion section, recorded at the world-famous Lyndhurst Hall at AIR Studios in London. See more details in the comments below.

Hildur Guðnadóttir, an award-winning Icelandic musician and composer, is one of the most talented there is Known for her work on film and TV scores, she has a very distinct style, using a combination of cello, halldorophone, keyboards, and percussion She began playing the cello at the age of five, and this has been her go-to creative outlet Swipe to find out more and see some of her examples below

On the newest episode of the Composer Magazine Podcast, we caught up with Volker Bertelmann. Volker is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer, and experimental musician 🎹 With two huge projects due to release this year, such as "Conclave" the film and "The Crow" coming later in August, the Academy Award winner sits down to delve deep into his creative journey. From the Oscar and BAFTA-winning "All Quiet" movie score for Netflix to his wider filmography and solo projects, he shares his unique way of harnessing one of the most potent tools in a composer’s toolkit: reverb. Episode 08 is available NOW on all major platforms 🎧