USER MANUAL

APPASSIONATA
STRINGS
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
WELCOME 4
DOWNLOADING & INSTALLING 5
THE SPITFIRE APP PREFERENCES 6
THE DEDICATED PLUGIN 7
HAVE A LOOK AROUND 8
MAIN CONTROLS 12
SIGNAL MIXER 13
TECHNIQUE SELECTOR 15
EFFECTS 17
TECHNIQUE EDITOR 20
TOP MENU 21
MICROPHONE SIGNALS 25
TECHNIQUES 26
APPENDIX A — FAQS AND TROUBLESHOOTING 28
APPENDIX B — TECHNIQUES/MICS/MIXES 32
APPENDIX C — DEFAULT CC MAPPINGS 33

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 2 USER MANUAL

INTRODUCTION
Spitfire Appassionata Strings represents a massively exciting new development with regard
to string legatos. Highly detailed, Appassionata has been made possible thanks to an
incredible amount of work and research behind the scenes at Spitfire Audio HQ. Recorded
at Lyndhurst Hall, AIR Studios, in a brand new innovative way and employing some of the
best players London has to offer, passion through performance is at the very core of this
meticulous library. The legatos are the main event here with vibratos baked in and perfectly
balanced, enabling composers to write in a beautiful, soaring melodic style in stunning
detail.

Referencing the aesthetic of classic melodies from the scores of composers like John
Williams and Thomas Newman, this medium-sized string band (8,6,6,6,4) delivers a highly
desirable and much sought after style of performance — we believe this is simply the best
sounding and most alive, passionate string legato sound captured thus far. Appassionata will
allow you to compose with intention, emotion, inspiration and of course passion.

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Mac OS X 10.13 to OS X 11
Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 minimum (quad-core),
8GB RAM.
Recommended: 2.8GHz i7 (six-core), 16GB
RAM.
M1 Apple computers are supported and 64 bit
DAW required. (32 bit DAWs not supported).

PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest

Service Pack, 64-bit)
Minimum: Intel Core 2.8GHz i5 (quad-core) or
AMD Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM
Recommended: Intel 2.8GHz i7 (six-core) or
AMD R7 2700, 16GB RAM

• Download Size: 82.34GBs

• Dedicated plugin (AU, VST2, VST3, AAX)

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 3 USER MANUAL

DOWNLOADING & INSTALLING

Thank you for buying Appassionata Strings. If you are new to Spitfire Audio you can get up to
speed here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/about/

First though, grab the ‘Spitfire Audio App’ from this link, this app will enable you to download the
library: http://www.spitfireaudio.com/info/library-manager/

THE SPITFIRE AUDIO APP 1. TABS the default tab is My Products, which
shows all of the libraries on your Spitfire
When you launch the app you will be Account. Downloads will show currently
prompted to login using the same details downloading products.
you use at our site. Then you’ll see the page
pictured below: 2. FILTERS Clicking these filters will quickly
display products you’ve yet to install, those
already installed, and any available updates.
Clicking again will remove the filter.

3. LIBRARY All libraries and plugins in your

collection will appear with their artwork on
the My Products tab. Clicking this artwork
will open the product page. This is a great
place to find information such as system
requirements and instructions as well as
Reset and Repair options.

4. INSTALL/UPDATE buttons allow you to

quickly start a download directly from the My
Products tab, instead of clicking through to
the Library. Next to the button the size of the
download is shown.

1 2

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 4 USER MANUAL

THE SPITFIRE APP PREFERENCES

If this is your first time using the Spitfire

Audio App for a download you may wish to
first navigate to the Settings tab. Here you
can set the Default Content location for
where you wish to download your libraries.
You can also you can set the default VST2
install location to the folder where your DAW
expects to find VST files.

Here you can also enable Auto Login to save

time in future.

Once you are happy with your preferences,

click the Install button for the library. This is
either directly on My Products tab under the
library artwork, or it can be found by clicking
on the library image and clicking the install
button on the page that appears.

Clicking either of these will prompt you for a

location, the default content location in your
preferences will be suggested but you can
select any suitable location. If installing from
a hard drive, ensure that you choose the
drive as the location.

Once you are happy with the location click

Download.

After clicking install you will be directed to

the Downloads tab where you can watch the
progress if you like. You can of course leave
the Downloads tab and start other downloads
but at this point you should leave the Spitfire
App open until the download completes.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 5 USER MANUAL

THE DEDICATED PLUGIN

Appassionata Strings is its own, self

contained plugin built for VST, AU and AAX,
so once you’ve downloaded and installed
you’re ready to go.

LOGIC PRO X

• On a fresh project, a track dialogue box will

automatically pop up

• Choose ‘Software Instrument’, and then

look beneath the ‘Instrument’ dropdown

• Select AU Instruments > Spitfire Audio >

Appassionata Strings.

CUBASE

• Right-click the track window and choose

‘Add Instrument Track’

• Underneath the ‘Instrument’ dropdown,

choose Appassionata Strings

• Select ‘Add Track’

PRO TOOLS

• Go to the ‘Track’ menu at the top of the

screen, and select ‘New’

• In the pop-up, select Stereo and Instrument

Track, and press ‘Create’

• In the first Insert slot, select multichannel

plug-in and ‘Instrument’

• You should see the Appassionata Strings

available as an option

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 6 USER MANUAL

HAVE A LOOK AROUND

THE APPASSIONATA STRINGS INTERFACE

1

OPENING YOUR FIRST PRESETS 1. TOP MENU

When you first open Appassionata Strings, 2. PRESET SELECTOR

this is what you will see.
3. MAIN CONTROLS

4. TECHNIQUE SELECTOR

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 7 USER MANUAL

 SIGNAL MIXER

CONTROLLERS

KEYBOARD & INFO

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 8 USER MANUAL

 PRESET SELECTOR

1 8

4 5 6 7 9

10

1. PRESET NAME 4. INSTRUMENT GROUP

Here you can see the currently selected As you scroll through the available presets,
preset. the instrument group is displayed here.

2. CLEAR FILTERS 5. STAR

Click here to show all instruments at once. Favourite to add to the “starred” filter.

3. FILTERS 6. PREVIEW
Click on a filter to only show those preset Play back a short example of the preset
grouped by the filter. without having to load it. Enormously helpful
when choosing a sound.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 9 USER MANUAL

7. PRESET LIST

Scroll through the list of presets here.

Double-click to load a preset or click the
‘Load’ button.

8. NEXT, PREVIOUS AND SAVE

With the presets view collapsed, you will

be able to see the Next, Previous and Save
icons.

Next and Previous will send you to the next

available preset - if you have a filter enabled,
you will scroll through the filtered set of
presets.

Save allows you to save your own preset,

click save, name the preset and it will appear
under the “user” filter.

9. INFORMATION

Hover over on the “i” icon to see some

information about the preset.

10. LOAD

Select a preset and then press “load” (or

double-click the preset).

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 10 USER MANUAL

MAIN CONTROLS

1 2 3 4.

1. VOLUME Tightness: Increase to eat into the sample

start point. Useful for tighter passages for a
Often referred to as “Expression” in our more snappy response.
Kontakt Libraries, this is a simple level
control for you to adjust along with... Release: Extend the ends of long
articulations to help blur between notes.
2. DYNAMICS
Reverb: Increase to add reverberation to the
Adjust the dynamic layer that you are playing sound.
here, use in conjunction with the volume to
make your performances sound so much Legato Offset: Adjusts the overall offset of
more musical. the legato interval, from 150ms to 100ms.

3. KNOB Noise Floor: Adjusts the noise floor from the

recording signal path. In small amounts this
The configurable knob allows you to control can help blend notes together and make the
any of the other available parameters for the instruments sound more realistic.
particular technique.

Hover over the knob and it will turn red.

4. CLICK

Click and you will be able to assign any of

the remaining available controls to the knob.

Right click on any of these controls to assign

them to a MIDI controller. Remember that if
you assign a MIDI controller to a parameter
via the knob, the MIDI controller will follow
the parameter rather than being permanently
assigned to the knob.
APPASSIONATA STRINGS 11 USER MANUAL
SIGNAL MIXER

1
12
7
6
2

9
10
13
11
5
4
8

1. MIXER PRESETS
5. SIGNAL ON/OFF
Load and save your own mixer presets
here, this is a good way for you to share Here you can turn signals on or off (you can
your mixes across different instruments and also turn them on by fading them up). If you
presets. Click on the down arrows to save turn a signal on, pay attention to the LED in
and the up arrows to load. the top left of Appassionata Strings, if it is
flashing red, it means that the samples are
To rename a preset after saving or delete still loading into RAM and you should wait
a preset, browse to Appassionata Strings before playing again to avoid glitches.
> Presets > Mix in the finder and edit the
.mpreset files. 6. SIGNAL FADER

2. ADVANCED Adjust the level of each signal here, right-

click to learn MIDI cc# automation.
By default, the mixer will load up in the
advanced view, toggle off for the simple 7. VIEW SELECT
view.
Choose between the Technique Switcher,
NOTE: The simple view will not exist in Iconic Mixer, and Effects. The Technique Switcher,
Strings Core, after the initial release. Mixer and Effects are covered in the
following chapters of this manual.
3. GLOBAL
8. SIGNAL NAVIGATION
This is on by default meaning that any
changes you make to the mixer will affect Click the right arrow to access additional
all techniques in the preset. When switched signals. Unused signals are greyed out.
off any changes to mixer will only affect the
technique you have selected.

4. TECHNIQUE NAME

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 12 USER MANUAL

9. STEREO WIDTH

Adjust the stereo width the mono signals

here.

10. PAN

Adjust the position of the mono signals

within the stereo field.

11. INVERT

Click to swap the left and right channels.

12. LOCK

Click to lock the Mixer. This will prevent

further changes to the mixer, useful if you’re
happy with what you’ve done and don’t want
to accidentally change it. This will even
prevent changes made by MIDI controllers,
but beware, as soon as you unlock the mixer,
the control will be active.

13. MULTIPLE OUTPUTS

This option becomes visible if a multi output

version of the plugin is enabled in your DAW.

This is where you can assign each signal to a

different stereo output.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 13 USER MANUAL

TECHNIQUE SELECTOR

2
3 4
12 5
1

7
8
9
10
11

1. TECHNIQUE SWITCHER
With the technique trigger section you can
Click to select a technique. Shift-Click to choose to trigger techniques using various
select multiple techniques. The red dot in the parameters:
top left shows which technique(s) will play,
the black outline shows which technique will KEYSWITCH: Pick a key on the keyboard
be affected by any changes you make to the that will select this technique. The selected
other options in this page. keys will show up in green for unselected
techniques and in orange for selected
2. VIEW SELECT techniques.

Choose between the Technique Switcher, CC RANGE: Choose a CC# and a range of
Mixer, and Effects. The Technique Switcher, values (or a single value) for the control that
Mixer, and Effects are covered in the you want to trigger this technique.
following chapters of this manual.
VEL. RANGE: Switch technique based on
how hard you are playing. You might want
3. KEYSWITCH ADJUST
to trigger longs when playing softly and
pizzicato when playing hard.
Click and drag to move the keyswitches to
the left or right on your keyboard.
MIDI CHANNEL: Switch techniques based on
the incoming MIDI channel.
4. LOCK
SPEED: Switch technique based on the
Click here to lock off the technique section speed of playing. Specify the time interval
and prevent any unwanted changes. between notes to switch to a particular
technique.

5. TECHNIQUE TRIGGER 6. ACTIVATE

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 14 USER MANUAL

Choose between “NORMAL” and “LATCH” for LAYER +2: This option will play the round
your technique switching. robins from the tone above the key played
but transposed down so that it plays at the
A “normal” keyswitch will change articulation right pitch.
and remain on the changed articulation until
the next keyswitch is pressed. LAYER -2: This option will play the round
robins from the tone BELOW the key played
Latch will switch articulation until the but transposed UP so that it plays at the right
keyswitch note is released. On release, the pitch.
keyswitch returns the original articulation.
11. TRANSPOSE
7. ROUND ROBINS
Transpose the instrument up or down in 1
Round robins are a way to ensure that semitone increments. This control does not
repeated notes don’t sound robotic and stretch the samples, but instead transposes
unnatural. We record the same note multiple the incoming MIDI notes. To adjust samples,
times and then cycle through them. Here you use the tune knob explained on page 21.
can choose to reduce the number of round
robins that are being used.
12. TECHNIQUE EDITOR
8. RESET ON TRANSPORT
Opens the Techniques Editor, allowing you to
customise and edit your preset (see pg. 20).
If you’re worried about the effect of the
round robins making each run through of
your session sound different, you can choose
to reset the round robins using the DAW
transport.

9. RESET FROM KEY

You can also reset the round robins using a

keyswitch. Choose that keyswitch here.

10. OPTIONS

NEIGHBOUR ZONE RR: Double the number

of round robins by “stealing” notes from
neighbouring notes and transposing them to
match the pitch.

LAYER X2: Thicken the sound by layering

round robins on top of one another. This
option will play round robins 1/2 followed by
3/4, effectively halving the number of round
robins.

LAYER X2 (NO SKIP): Same as above but this

time you will be playing 1/2 followed by 2/3
and so on, meaning that you will not halve
the number of round robins available.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 15 USER MANUAL

EFFECTS

3 4 5 6 7

1. VIEW SELECT
Adjusts the overall offset of the legato
Choose between the Technique Switcher, interval, from 150ms to 100ms.
Mixer, and Effects. The Technique Switcher,
and Effects are covered in the following 7. NOISE FLOOR
chapter of this manual.
Adjusts the noise floor from the recording
2. TECHNIQUE NAME signal path. In small amounts this can
help blend notes together and make the
3. TIGHTNESS instruments sound more realistic.

The start of a short note is often not the start

of the ‘sound’ of the instrument.

This control cuts further into the note to

make it tighter but can detract from realism

Many users turn up the tightness when

recording in MIDI notes, turning it back down
and using a negative delay on the track in
the DAW for tighter timing.

4. RELEASE

Allows you to change the amount of release

trigger you hear. This only applies to Long
techniques.

5. REVERB

You can add additional reverb to the sound

here
6. LEG. OFFSET

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 16 USER MANUAL

TECHNIQUE EDITOR

In the Technique Editor you can remove and reorder techniques from the current preset.

1 2 3

1. CATEGORIES 3. TECHNIQUES ARRANGER

The Categories panel allows you to filter The panel on the right is where your current
between all available techniques for this articulations are displayed. Click and drag
specific preset. these to re-arrange the order. Clicking the ‘x’
in the top right corner deletes the technique.
2. TECHNIQUES Click the ‘trash-can’ in the upper corner to
remove all techniques completely in a single
click.
The central ‘Techniques’ panel shows all
available techniques for each preset. Click
the ‘+’ to add techniques back into your 2. CANCEL / SAVE
current preset.
Once you’re done, click ‘Save’. If you have
made a mistake and don’t want to save,
choose ‘Cancel’ instead to go back to your
previous settings.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 17 USER MANUAL

TOP MENU

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1. LED 8. MIDI CH

Shows when an instrument is loaded by Set the MIDI channel that will control the
lighting solid green. If this flashes, your instrument here. If in doubt select “any” so
instrument is not fully loaded. that the instrument will react to any incoming
MIDI messages.
2. CPU METER
9. TUNE
An indication of how much your CPU is being
taxed, the green flash next to the CPU meter Move this knob to tune in increments of 0.01
will turn red when you are overloading it. of a semitone. CMD/CTRL-click to reset to
default.
3. DISK METER
10. PAN
How hard your hard drive is working. If this
is close to, or going over 100% it’s time to Pan the signal left / right. CMD/CTRL-click to
consider a faster drive. reset.

4. MEMORY 11. VOLUME

This shows how much RAM you are currently Control the overall volume of the instrument.
using in this instance of Appassionata
Strings. While the preset is loading, this will 12. LEVEL
show the instrument loading into memory.
A visual indication of the level of the
5. VOICES instrument.

Shows how many voices are being used at 13. PRESET SETTINGS
any one time.
A. VELOCITY MAPPED TO DYNAMICS
6. REFRESH
Different behaviours for the Dynamics fader.
Refresh the instrument, alt-click to refresh
the whole plug-in. This can be useful if you 1) Full Velocity Range.
have hanging MIDI notes or have moved 2) Velocity Mapped to Dynamics.
samples in your file system. 3) Compressed Velocity High.
4) Compressed Velocity Low.
7. REVERB
These settings will change how hard you
Choose from 3 different reverbs. St. Lukes - need to hit the keyboard to trigger different
A large hall reverb. Lush and characteristic. layers. Velocity mapped to dynamics will
Gilded Hall - A large and ambient hall. allow you to control short note velocity with
Stage - A stage based digital reverb. the mod wheel.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 18 USER MANUAL

 A

14. PLUGIN SETTINGS

B. DYNAMIC SMOOTHING
COPY SETTINGS
This setting controls the overall reactivity
of the dynamics slider, smoothing out the Common controller values will copy to other
crossfade between the various dynamics. Spitfire plugins.

Agile (Default) - Allows for fine and precise

control of the Dynamics.
Moderate - Gently smooths out the
crossfades to allow for a more tactile and
expressive performance.
Relaxed - A further increased smoothing
perfect for enhanced control over dramatic
swells & crescendos. HELP TEXT

Turn this on to display parameter information

C. VELOCITY in the bottom left corner of the plug in.

Pick from 4 different velocity curves to suit DEFAULT SIZE

your controllers touch.
Set whether the instrument opens up
D. RESET AND CLEAR CC MAPPINGS collapsed or expanded by default.

Clicking reset will set all of the CC mappings DEFAULT SCALE

for this instrument to the defaults - useful if
you’ve got yourself in a mess! How big the plugin UI is when opened. Press
“get” to set the current scale or type a value
Clear will remove all CC mappings on the before pressing “Set” and “Save”
plugin.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 19 USER MANUAL

 CHANGE KNOB DRAG TYPE

Change the mouse behaviour when dragging

the Knob control.

DISABLE WARNINGS FROM MISSING

SAMPLES

Hide an error in the plugin top left corner

which is visible when the library is missing its
content.

SHOW KEYSWITCHES DISABLE AUTO HIDE KNOB PARAMETER

POPUP
When this option is on, presets that have
multiple techniques will show available When enabled, clicking the knob will always
keyswitches in red and the currently selected shows the fx controls menu.
technique(s) in yellow.
ENABLE AUTOMATIC EXCLUSIVE MIC
UNLOAD WITH MIXER FADER GROUP BEHAVIOUR

Toggle this to unload data from RAM when Disable if you want mics to be un grouped
fader is pulled down to the bottom. together.

GAIN UNITS For example, when enabled, enabling

the ambient mic, will disable the Pop mic
Toggle this if you want your gain to be grouping.
displayed in dB instead of as a percentage.

MAKE CONTROLS GLOBAL

Common Controller values will remain when

switching techniques.

MAXIMUM VOICES

Enter the maximum number of voices that

can play at once. More voices = More CPU
and memory used.

PRELOAD SIZE

The minimum number of sample values

preloaded into memory for each audio
DISABLE HOST AUTOMATION recording. Increase for slower hard drives.
Default is 12288
Turn this on to enable the Host Automation
from the DAW.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 20 USER MANUAL

 PLUGIN

Under this heading you can choose a default

preset to load, click on the preset name and
choose your preferred preset from the list.

STREAM BUFFER SIZE

The number of sample values kept in memory

for each audio recording stream. Increase for
slower hard drives.

MASTER TUNING

Change the default tuning of the plugin. For

example A = 440hz or A = 432 HZ.

ENABLE MEMORY MAPPING

Turn off for windows machines for better

performance

DEFAULT STEREO OUTPUTS

The default number of outputs for the

Microphone routings.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 21 USER MANUAL

MICROPHONE SIGNALS
MIX 1 AMBIENT

A balanced mix that perfectly blends the Placed at the back of the room, these
cinematic sound of the hall together with microphones will give a great amount of the
closer details on the instruments. hall, perfect for adding ambience and depth
to your mix in combination with other signals.
MIX 2
OUTRIGGER
A large cinematic mix that allows the hall to
really speak out. A set of omnidirectional microphones placed
wide apart to the left and right of the tree.
MIX 3 These give a similar balance of room and
band but with a broader stereo spread. The
A tighter mix that showcases more of the effect of this signal is somewhere between
instruments. the tree and ambient signals.

MIX 4

An even more intimate but still very classic

mix.

STEREO ROOM

These microphones are in a different

position to the tree (closer to ground level)
and have a more direct and immediate sound
than the tree.

MIDS

A great mid-distance pickup that adds focus

without being too close.

CLOSE

A selection of valve microphones placed for

optimum focus close to the instruments.

CLOSE RIBBON

Placed next to the standard close

microphones and using a selection of ribbon
microphones to add a warm and rounded
tone.

TREE

This refers to the decca tree of three

microphones placed above the conductor’s
podium.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 22 USER MANUAL

 TECHNIQUES
LEGATO SUSTAIN

The core legato technique - a combination A sustained note, recorded at 5 discrete

of slurred & détaché intervals, in up to 3 dynamics (pp, mp, mf, f, ff) with Vibrato, and
dynamics (pp, mf, ff ), with repetition based 4 round robbins.
alt-attacks, vibrato and velocity controlled
switching between legato types. HAIRPIN SHORT

Violins 1, Violins 2 and Cellos also include a A short hairpin, utilising the alt-attacks.
particularly unique and intense Portamento,
on the top string (from high E on Violins, HAIRPIN MEDIUM
from high A on Cellos) for intervals over a
5th. A medium hairpin, utilising the body of the
alt-attacks.
LEGATO INFORMATION
HAIRPIN BOW CHANGE
CC1 Dynamic peak points:
A long hairpin, featuring the bow-change
ff - 127 (100%) used in capturing the sustain.
f - 95 (75%)
mf - 64 (50%) GLANCING ATTACK
mp - 31 (25%)
pp - 9 (7.5%) A short brushed bow, ideal for accenting
notes.
Slurred transitions for all instruments
sections occur between Velocities 1-99 and
overlapping the MIDI notes.

Détaché transitions for all instruments occur

between Velocities 100-127 and overlapping
the MIDI notes.Portamento transitions are
available for Violins 1, Violins 2 and Cellos
between Velocities 120-127 and overlapping
the MIDI notes, but only from E4 on Violins
for intervals over a 5th, and from A2 on
Cellos for intervals over a 5th.

The Legato Offset control changes all

interval types so you can go from 100ms
(responsive) to 150ms (more latency but
sounds more natural).

LEGATO SLURRED

A slurred legato, with 3 dynamics of slurred

intervals and repetition based alt-attacks.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 23 USER MANUAL

APPENDIX A —
FAQS AND TROUBLESHOOTING
Q: WHAT ARE THE SYSTEM IN THE TOP LEFT OF APPASSIONATA
REQUIREMENTS? STRINGS, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS This means that there is an error, you can
click the exclamation mark to open a log
Mac OS X 10.13 to OS X 11 with further details. It is likely that using the
Minimum: 2.8GHz i5 minimum (quad-core), “Repair” and “Locate Library” features in the
8GB RAM. Spitfire Audio App will solve the problem
Recommended: 2.8GHz i7 (six-core), 16GB but if not, contact our support team at
RAM. spitfireaudio.com/support and attach the log.
M1 Apple computers are supported and
64 bit DAW required. (32 bit DAWs not Q: CAN I INSTALL ON MORE THAN
supported). ONE COMPUTER?
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS With our products you have two licenses.
This means that you are allowed to download
Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest and install on two computers you own, say
Service Pack, 64-bit) your main rig and your mobile rig. If you have
Minimum: Intel Core 2.8GHz i5 (quad-core) or purchased the library on a hard drive, you
AMD Ryzen 5, 8GB RAM should copy the contents of the drive on to
Recommended: Intel 2.8GHz i7 (six-core) or the destination machine before completing
AMD R7 2700, 16GB RAM the download with the Spitfire App. If you
downloaded Appassionata Strings, you can
Q: I WANT TO RESET THE PLUGIN copy the library folder over to the second
SETTINGS TO THE DEFAULT machine and then use the “Repair” and
“Locate Library” features in the Spitfire Audio
You can delete the .settings file to reset the App.
settings to default. This is located at:
Q: I CAN’T SEE THIS IN THE
Users/username/Music/Spitfire Audio - on a KONTAKT LIBRARIES PANE AND
Mac
WHEN I TRY AND LOAD IT INTO
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ KONTAKT IT SAYS NO LIBRARY
Spitfire Audio - on a PC. FOUND

Q: MY LIST OF PRESETS IS EMPTY, This library does not run in Kontakt, it is a

standalone plug-in that you can run in your
HOW DO I SOLVE THIS?
chosen DAW.
If you have moved your Appassionata Strings
Library folder, you can solve this problem Q: HOW DO I AUTHORIZE
by using the “Locate Library” feature in the APPASSIONATA STRINGS ON A
Spitfire Audio App. MACHINE NOT CONNECTED TO THE
INTERNET?
If this does not solve the problem, the library
likely needs reauthorising, to do this, use the It not possible to authorise Appassionata
“repair” feature in the Spitfire Audio App. Strings on a machine not connected to
the internet. Authorisation is done with
Q: I SEE A RED EXCLAMATION MARK the Spitfire Audio App and an internet
connection is required.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 24 USER MANUAL

 it has crashed or is extracting files, visit
Q: HOW CAN I REDOWNLOAD A the installation folder you chose when you
PRODUCT? started the install. If everything is working
normally you’ll see various files appearing in
This can easily be done via your Spitfire the folder (or one of its sub-folders).
Audio App. To reset both your entire library
download or the latest update; • If your download gets stuck and is
continually cycling and not resuming, please
• Open up the Spitfire Audio App and log in get in touch with us, giving us as much detail
with your account email and password. as possible about your set up. It would be
helpful if you can tell us your operating
• Select the product artwork you wish to re- system, where you are downloading from
download (your country, and also whether you’re at
home or work), your ISP, and whether there
• On this page is a “cog wheel”. Select this, are any proxy servers or firewalls between
choose “reset” from the menu. Then “Reset your computer and the internet.
Entire Download” (for a full download) or
(Latest Update) for the latest update. Q: I HAVE FAST INTERNET, WHY IS
MY DOWNLOAD SLOW?
This will reset your latest update ready for
install again. You can repeat this process for We have no direct influence on your actual
any of the libraries you own. download speeds, our libraries are hosted
on Amazon S3 servers which are normally
Note that there is a limit to how many times very quick but it may well be that at certain
you can reset your downloads in a certain times of the day when traffic is particularly
time frame. If you do exceed your reset limit busy, your ISP may throttle your connection
please get in touch. speeds.

Q: DIFFICULTIES IN DOWNLOADING / We would advise you to leave your download

INSTALLING running overnight as speeds should ramp
up at less busy times. Our Spitfire App
Customers may find that they have some downloader aims to use as much of the
difficulties in the downloading process. If you available bandwidth as possible to give you
find that you are having some trouble, please the quickest possible speeds, and may take
check the list below for possible causes: several minutes to reach its peak.

• The formatting of your drive, if it is FAT32 Q: CAN I TRY BEFORE I BUY?

this will cause errors, because there is a
maximum file size with this format of 4GB No - it is not currently possible to demo our
and our download files will exceed this limit. products.
To solve this problem, reformat your drive or
use a different drive. We recommend NTFS If you go to our Youtube channel you’ll see
on PC and Mac OS Extended on Mac. many walkthroughs containing detailed info
Other possible issues: about all our products -- you can hear them
being played in real time with no smoke and
• Spitfire App freezes in the “Extracting” mirrors!
stage for hours. This may be because our
libraries are often very large files, and this
is the stage where the compressed files are
extracted and placed in their final locations
on the hard drive. There could be hundreds
of GB of content to unpack, so it really
can take hours. If you’re unsure whether

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 25 USER MANUAL

Q: MY LIBRARIES ARE NOT SHOWING This can easily be done via your Spitfire
UP IN MY SPITFIRE APP Audio App.
Open up the Spitfire Audio App and log in
A handful of customers may find that when with your account email and password.
they log into their Spitfire App, some of
their previously purchased products do not • Select the product artwork you wish to re-
show up in the ‘Installed’ section or in the download
‘Download Ready’ section either. It may
be that you have purchased these under • On this page is a “cog wheel”. Select this,
another email address. Checking other choose “reset” from the menu. Then “Reset
possible email addresses for your previous Entire Download” (for a full download) or
purchases may help to find these missing (Latest Update) for the latest update.
products. If this is not the case, and these
missing products were purchased a few • This will reset your latest update ready for
years ago, please create a support ticket install again.
telling us your account email address, and
any serial numbers you may have to go You can repeat this process for any other
with these missing products. Our support updates you wish.
team can also merge one or more accounts
together if you’d like to consolidate all your If you do not see the option to reset your
purchases in one place. download in your Spitfire Audio App, we
would advise to download the latest version
The more information we have, the quicker of the Spitfire App from spitfireaudio.com/
we can get you back up and running!  info/library-manager/.

Q: HOW DO I UPDATE MY Q: I’VE BEEN WAITING AGES FOR MY

PRODUCTS? DOWNLOAD LINKS?

The main premise of downloading our We run all our orders through a fraud
products is that our Spitfire App downloads checking process. The automatic fraud check
into the folder you choose, so it is important takes 20 minutes (but can take up to an hour
to choose the folder above where you want during a very busy period, eg. Black Friday) If
the download to go. The best file path for your order gets caught at this stage, we run
our products is something very simple, a a manual order check, and this can delay the
long file path will cause errors as there is a processing of your order for up to 24 hours.
character limit on how far the Spitfire App
can read. We advise a file path of something You should however receive an order
along the lines of: Samples Drive > Spitfire confirmation email IMMEDIATELY upon
Audio placing your order. This confirms that
your order has successfully been logged
When it comes to downloading / updating in our system and that your payment was
- if you have a folder called ‘Spitfire Audio’ successfully taken. Please check your junk
always point the Spitfire App to the folder folders before contacting our support.
Spitfire Audio - never go into this folder and
choose the actual library in question.

Q: HOW DO I REDOWNLOAD THE

LATEST UPDATE?

With the continuous improvements to our

Spitfire Audio App, we have incorporated the
ability to reset your own downloads.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 26 USER MANUAL

Q: CAN I DOWNLOAD ON A PC, Q: WHAT IS YOUR REFUNDS /
THEN TRANSFER TO A MAC OR VICE RETURNS POLICY?
VERSA?
If you have NOT completed the download
Yes, you can copy the library folder and / installation process, and bought within
plugin files over to the second machine 14 days then we CAN refund / return your
and then use the “Repair” and “Locate product, please contact support with your
Library” features in the Spitfire Audio App. account email address and order number
Please note that although the majority of so we can handle this quickly. If you HAVE
the download can be done on a separate completed the installation process (even
machine, you will always need an internet if you’ve not yet registered your serial
connection to finish the authorisation number), please see our EULA in regards to
process. why we do not accept refunds and returns.
We can refund hard drive orders up until
Q: HOW DO I DOWNLOAD the point when the drive is dispatched from
our office. This is usually 1-2 days after you
PRODUCTS ON MAC OSX 10.9?
order.
The version of the Spitfire App needed to
install Appassionata Strings only supports Q: I’VE FORGOTTEN MY PASSWORD?
Mac OSX 10.10 and upwards.
If you have forgotten your password, please
see this link spitfireaudio.com/my-account/
Q: I HAVE FOUND A BUG
login/, and click ‘Forgotten Password’. If
at some point in the past you asked us to
In some cases we can’t squash them all and
merge two or more accounts but have since
bugs shamefully make their way through.
forgotten, you MAY find that the forgotten
If you think you have found a bug, please
password isn’t working for the email address
contact us with all the relevant information;
you asked us to merge FROM. In this case,
please contact support with your name, and
• A description of the bug you have found
any email addresses you think we might
know about, and we’ll work out what has
• A screencast (video) of the bug happening,
happened.
or an audio example

• The exact preset name (or presets) in

question and also the library giving us as
much detail as possible will help us get to
the bottom of the issue.

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 27 USER MANUAL

APPENDIX B — TECHNIQUES/MICS/MIXES

TECHNIQUES

LEGATO
LEGATO SLURRED
SUSTAIN
HAIRPIN SHORT
HAIRPIN MEDIUM
HAIRPIN BOW CHANGE
GLANCING ATTACK

MICROPHONES

MIX 1
MIX 2
MIX 3
MIX 4
STEREO ROOM
MIDS
CLOSE
CLOSE RIBBON
TREE
AMBIENT
OUTRIGGERS

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 28 USER MANUAL

APPENDIX C —
DEFAULT CC MAPPINGS

Dynamics 1
Global Gain 7
Global Pan 10
Expression 11
Noise Floor 15
Legato Offset 16
Release 17
Tightness 18
Reverb 19

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 29 USER MANUAL

 © S P I T F I R E A U D I O H O L D I N G S LT D
MMXXI

APPASSIONATA STRINGS 30 USER MANUAL