Appassionata Strings Demo Breakdown! 

Your skills in talking through your composition are admirable. Your own unique personality saturates the presentation with uncommon depth. More videos like this, please!

Which piano is that? Sounds fantastic

Wow. I had to come here and say this is by far the most beautiful thing I heard in a while. Amazing job. Thank you.

Super great! Beautiful composition

This is a wonderful video demonstrating the Appasionata Strings library, Dan! Loved this composition! It's always great hearing the composers' creative process.

Appassionata is such a big step forward for Spitfire legatos. I'm a huge fan of Spitfire, with SSO + SCS being my main orchestra. But even I can admit, although Spitfire's legatos are perfectly serviceable and can sound great, they do fall behind some of the competition. No longer. Appassionata sounds absolutely incredible, with tons of emotion, but without having the crazy intense vibrato that other libraries known for "passionate" / "Romantic" legato. I really don't care for that. Appassionata has the perfect amount of vibrato for me. There's still plenty of it at the higher dynamic layers, but it is not overwhelmingly intense. And Spitfire's loyalty discount for already owning one of their AIR string libraries bringing the price down to a very reasonable $162 makes this an absolute no-brainer for those who already use SSS and/or SCS.

Really looking forward to that MBP review. This piece has a lovely Charlie Brown vibe to me. Great harmony!

Dan... A few comments. First excellent video. Yes it's a plug for Spitfire (I am also a fan of their products) but what's more interesting about this video is the incites into your creative process starting from the piano and then extrapolating it using the string library. The initial musical piece comes from the gut as a culmination of your training and experience but as you go through it, the theory of the musical structure also comes across as second nature to you. Your ability to clearly articulate your creative process is clear and concise from the start to the end of the video. Once again, excellent work.

I love the piece, the commentary, and that chord progression at 22:40 as you describe it, is just brilliant. Amazing.

The title is misleading. This is more like an advanced composition class. - luv it!

Gorgeous Dan my man! @5:43 a simple Piece? a masterpiece :)

What a beautiful piece you wrote Dan! Absolutely loved those chords!! Really looking forward to the Dorico video.

Amazing composition!!!! It's an absolute delight watching you in action, very inspiring.

I am assuming since you have 5 tracks of violin 1 (and same with other instruments), they were adjusted to sound different? If so, what did you do to make them different in the context of just 5 violin 1s?

Wonderful piece of music. It kind of reminds me of John Barry’s romantic scores especially the moving cello line.

Dan, you are a brilliant salesman even if you don’t know it! As soon as I heard this, I realised I had to have this library. My journey to Spitfire libraries has begun! For years I have struggled to create this sound with strings, despite using an array of synths and keyboards from Yamaha, Korg and Roland. Thank you for this video, and thank you for making me realise there’s currently a great introductory offer on this library! Loving your work, your style and approach to videos. Keep up the amazing journey!

Just stumbled on this video now Appasionata is 50% off. What a lovely composition! Am i far out when saying it has a very classic "Brittish" feel about it?

this is so beautifully done! I see your Keyscape piano sounds like a felt piano. How'd you get that setting? Just cutting off high end? Very nice.

An epic, beautiful piece, right on par for me with the big names that you mentioned in the intro. Tugs at the heartstrings big time! Wow! ( now, where is that darn box of Kleenex when you need it...😇❤️) (P.S. The book everybody tells me to read is titled "100 Good Reasons for Not Selling Yourself Short", and my 2 cents say you got 99 of those working in your favor. Really love those chords and turnarounds here. I really love your compositions and I could totally see an album coming from these "outtakes". But who was I speaking up like that, after all....?😇🎹)

Beautiful. I assume you’re using Seventh Heaven for reverb as opposed to the ones built into Appassionatta? Along with the J37 tape for “glue”?

Hi Dan Keen, Thanks for the helpful video. One thing I'm still not clear about, and that is, what exactly is this new 'Impulse Legato' system all about, that was used for the legatos of this library ? I don't know if you know more about it, and have an accurate understanding of what it actually does, and how it differs from the Legato system Spitfire Audio implemented in their previous Strings Legatos in various libraries. It would be very interesting if you can comment on this important detail, since Spitfire Audio has not disclosed what impulse legato is all about. Thanks, Muziksculp

Great work! What's in your effects strips? This isn't an out-of-a-box sound of Apassionata Strings.

A beautiful piece that really shows off the Appassionata Strings to perfection...nice one!

Lovely! I immediately thought of Dvorak's String Serenades (which I LOVE) and which I think would be great material for learning this library - in combination with other Spitfire string libraries. Thanks for the great demo!

Do you still work with/for Spitfire? This is a great video man

After listening a few more times (can't get enough of it and wish it was MUCH longer), and speaking with my sister, we think it's reminiscent of Brook Green Suites by Holst.

Why do you have several tracks with (as far as I can tell) the same instrument patch? Like several Violin 1s and several Celli, etc. Is this just for moments where you're thinking in terms of divisi or is it for some other reason?

Great piece, very English, Elgar, Walton :-)

What a blast it would be to have this piece conducted by Herbie Van K.

Beautiful piece that showcases this new library well. Love the jazz inflected chord voicings sprinkled in here and there. Great job. It's nice that you walked through what you were actually doing in various places with chord details and also outlined your basic composing process in approaching this piece. That's very helpful. You have a new subscriber. 😀

What Keyscape patch is that?? Can you share it? It's beautiful

Great fun following you along. Thanks.

This piece need a doublle bass en jazz drums underneath. (brushes) Wel done !

This is a lovely piece. I like the messy things you're being self-conscious about. As a former orchestral violinist, I love the sound of this string section. There are a couple of places I'd like to hear more of the violas, like that f-natural you were stressing about near the end.

I am sure all who watch this really respect your views and advise Dan, especially when you can write a piece like that!!! Stunning work and sound as always mate. I have been sitting on the fence a bit on this library, having bought a couple of Albion's, BBCSO Core, AR1, Hammers and some Originals over the last 18 months, but it feels like you have basically just picked my pockets you git.🤣

Dan, I think this is one of your best works so far, plus you had me burst into laughter when you broke down that chord progression at around 23:20 and, for a minute, felt quite pleased about yourself for coming up with that nugget of musical gold, you smug, cheeky bastard. 🤣 This also came to mind m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8063h3KT6bY.html

I luv your Spitfire demos. - some of the best

"It's a fairly simple piece ...". Love it!

Once in a while you stumble across a beautiful gem like this amongst an ocean of demos. Do a composition like this have a life after being a demo? Would love to hear it in the context of cinema

Amazing breakdown and beautiful composition Dan. This library brings such a realistic feel to your music, and I can see that that fills you with so much joy and satisfaction. Great video as always.

14:23 I was about to to say the same thing. 🤣

sounds really nice, im surprised there hasn't been more apassionata content on the spitfire channel itself.

Your grasp on harmony and melody and their relationship is outstanding. Really inspiring!

Really cool stuff 🙂

This was pretty fun to watch

Bought it straight away and even though I have most other spitfire string libraries I'm excited to try this one out. definitely sounds beautiful

beautiful composition... 🙏🏻

Interested in your M1 review. I have an M1, but need to upgrade this year. Already spec'd out a $6,000 MacBook Pro as the goal for this year. 🙏🏾

Lovely composition 👏👏👏 Beautiful Arrangement

The jazzy bit at about 14:15 is reminiscent of Big Beiderbecke's harmony from 'In a Mist.' You can get the sheet music for free at MuseScore and there are a number of recordings on RU-vid - including one of Bix. I like Marion McPartland's improv on it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1NJkR_cyOFA.html

Great! Curious your Dorico video. Do you think this library could benefit from a nice expression map? I confess I am a little bit disappointed by the strings in bbcso or Spitfire solo strings, used as playback instruments in Dorico...

Lovely! I'm really enjoying your library and template videos. Personally, I've decided to abandon the piano score (unless I'm writing a part for piano). Don't get me wrong, I love the sound of a piano, having been playing it for years-but it just doesn't work in composing for other instruments for me. I find piano music gravitates towards percussive dense chords, as well as misses some of the natural beauty of the timbre of the strings, winds and horns. In the age of soft synths like Appassionata, I find it more inspiring to sketch melodies and multi-octave spread out chords with the actual samples. Likewise, I find ensemble patches that adapt to played velocities ideal. Instead of having to key switch between long and short notes while improvising, I just play sustained and quick notes together, and then "edit" special articulations like pizz later.

aaaahh... your composition skills and music/harmony theory knowledge is superb. I hear influences of classical, but also a jazz genre. I would like to have you as my mentor one day. :) But I'm not quite sure does this composition presents Appassionata in it's own unique character.. I mean I don't have it, so I can't judge for sure. I just feel that if there is more space.. more room and rests than it should sound more intimate, more subtle... which in my opinion would highlight Appassionata... Please don't be mad for sharing my thoughts :)

Great composition! transported me. Waiting for the Dorico video and MacBook review, is it the best app for orchestration and score prep etc?

just discovered this video. Masterpiece! I love it. Thank you for the in dept explanation.

Hello Dan, Congratulations again for your songs and videos for Spitfire. Can I ask what are your harmonic influences please? Thank you

Thank you!

Beautiful demo and I love your harmony. Thanks for sharing! :)

Thank you for the excellent insights Dan. I'm working on a short video too using Appassionata in context with other libraries which I'm hoping to share tomorrow so your video really inspired me and I'll surely reference it so others can get more out of the library thanks to your walkthrough. Thank you for these videos. :)

Lovely composition Dan! This'll be an earworm for the next few days (not so helpful when I'm trying to write for another brief! haha). such a talent mate, well done! I wanted to ask your thoughts on the same note rebows? To me they just don't feel/sound realistic so I've ended up writing differently when using it and going out of my way to avoid same note phrase (ie, around 4:32 where there are repeated notes in the violin line). I've fired a feature request already to have realistic rebows added, ideally in the same way CSS do this using the sustain peddle.. fingers crossed! Have a great week, and thanks again for the bolt of inspiration :)

Dan! Really enjoying your videos. I would LOVE to see your workflow from Logic into Dorico. That would be very helpful, since I'm usually working from Dorico into Logic, but sometimes I do have to go to other way and it's less intuitive for me. Thanks!

amazing!!

i really with we could have gotten portamento slides on all notes and all dynamic layers, not just at the "screaming" top of the range. It would make this library perfect. One of my favorite things to do is subtly and quietly slide up or down into notes, sometimes more towards the mid and low range. Im really mystified as to why this was left out, i assume it was a conscious choice. I find myself going back to BBC so strings to be able to do this and i feel like i shouldn't have to since apassionata is spitfires flagship legato library. I really hope this could be added, it goes so inline with the detail and passion that apassionata stands for, espicially since its also so detailed at lower dynamic layers

Thanks！Really hope you do a video for Abbey roud two solo strings. Like you did for Abbey roud one a year ago. That would be great!

Incredible. Very Disney magical vibes. Great chords. Thanks, Dan!

This is amazing, I need to know what piano that is for sure! *EDIT* After listening and going back I am pretty sure it's your Gentle Grand you put up on Piano Book, which is amazing.

My mouth is burning after all those spicy chords. Nice work!

Your piece at 14:48 sounds a bit like Bix Beiderbecke's "Flashes" - same feel?

Fantastic video, can't wait for the Dorico 4 one, pretty curious about what you mentioned! Can I ask what piano you were using to sketch out? It's really expressive

Spectacularly beautiful composition, Dan 👍👍

Thank you very much Dan I always listen to your videos but it is the first time I have to write to you because I really really enjoyed it it is really my cup of tea I love those melodies so tender I am may be wrong but it made me think of Dvorak you really look that you enjoyed it I never saw you so emotional you well explained the feeling of your composition longing to reunite and So on thank you again. And I forgot, this library sounds amazing...

I really enjoyed this - can I ask did you pay for the library. I only ask as I am starting out on this new road and the cost of good libraries is proving an issue. For example I have the Spitfire BBC SO Core and the Kepler (because I like system compositions) but to go out and buy yet another one is a bit much, but the quality of what you showed seems like it might be worth it?

I enjoy your videos - the piece is inventive - although the Violins seem somewhat synthetic - VSL (by the same name) is good !

Very nice work and beautiful composition!

And took us through a journey you did Dan !! Beautiful composition man !!! Kudos !!

Well done! A great piece. I'm curious. Will it be available on, say, iTunes? I'd love to add it to my listening library!

What a romantic, poetic and entrancing piece, I feel enamoured by all the melodies 😊 Thank you Dan Keen (and Spitfire Audio too) for releasing these sorts of videos, that are comprehensive and educational for aspiring composers, they're perfect! I would have never gotten into this new hobby (that is becoming dangerously into a new passion-ata?) without these.

I love this piece Dan and especially how you weave jazz chords into it. Makes it so much warmer even warmer than it already was! This is appassionata 'à la livre':):)

Absolutely gorgeous. Real Gershwin vibes for sure

I wonder how these will tie with Spitfire Solo Strings? Do you get the discount too with owning Spitfire Solo Strings seeing as they too were recorded at Air Studios?

Beautiful writing Dan, reminding me a lot of the Phantom Thread score.

Great video! I was on the fence with this library but watching this has made my mind up to go ahead and buy it! This is going to sound mad but what was the piano you were using to sketch out the piece? Thanks in advance.

this makes me to want to go back to my keyboard and play for the joy of it. thanks man. much appreciated.

Wonderfully beautiful piece. I love that it was made with stitched together piano ideas. I would love to gain a deeper understanding of jazz theory but am not sure where to start. The impact it has on writing more interesting pieces is so very clear.

Hola! Junto con saludarte y desearte un excelente año 2022, quisiera saber cómo lo haces para que el computador soporte todas las pistas. ¿cargas todos los instrumentos por separado o existe alguna de asignar un instrumento a varios canales midi? Quedo atento, saludos!

thanks for taking time to teach the process. i look forward to seeing more videos as this.

Would like to see you working with Iconic Strings ;)

Such a wonderful piece and great use of Appassionata's legato. Much respect, Dan!

this may very well be my favourite mock-up of yours so far, truly stunning!! also loving your passion for cool chords 😂

Beautiful, I wish I understood orchestration like you do.

Beautiful piece with lush harmonies - thank you!

it almost makes me feel like im walking around disneyworld again...love it

Congratulations on another beautiful piece!

Bravo Dean, great melodic and harmonic taste. I really enjoyed

I admire this. I'd love to see a score to understand the chordal progressions.

This is really nicely done thx for sharing

Magnifique ! Je découvre votre talent et je suis très impressionné.

Wonderful piece of music and video! Loved it

this is a very beautiful piece, deserves a suite for strings

I Like this library i will get it now that its on sale 😉