Thirteen articulations. Three legato modes — vibrato, non-vibrato, bowed — each with three dynamic layers that let a melody swell from a ghost-breath to full baroque fury. Seven round robins on every short note kill repetition dead. And Auddict's AI-P processing operates at the waveform level, producing transitions so organic the technology vanishes entirely. Performed by Sarah Small of Fretwork, captured across 3 mic positions, Royal Viol is the definitive solo gamba for film, TV, games, and anyone chasing that dark, ancient resonance.
13 ARTICULATIONS. 3 TRUE LEGATO MODES. 3 DYNAMIC LAYERS. 7 ROUND ROBINS. 3 MIC POSITIONS. AI-P WAVEFORM PROCESSING. PERFORMED BY FRETWORK'S SARAH SMALL. DARK ACADEMIA TONE. PERIOD-AUTHENTIC RESONANCE. KONTAKT 5+. BUILT-IN REVERB & STEREO WIDTH.
Sarah Small is a member of Fretwork — the legendary viol consort whose discography spans decades of acclaimed recordings for labels like Harmonia Mundi. Her playing carries the weight of deep historical understanding and a tone that's unmistakably her own: warm, dark, and alive with nuance. Every note in Royal Viol comes from her hands, her bow, her instrument. This isn't a session musician reading charts — it's one of the UK's most celebrated young gamba soloists performing with the same intention she brings to the concert stage. You hear the difference immediately.
Every sample in Royal Viol has passed through Auddict's proprietary AI-P processing — waveform-level editing that operates with a precision no human engineer can match. The result isn't more technology. It's less. Legato transitions dissolve into each other so naturally you stop thinking about samples entirely. Dynamic gradation moves from a spectral whisper to full resonant intensity without a single audible seam. AI-P doesn't add anything to the sound — it removes everything that reminds you it's software. You just hear a gamba, breathing and singing under your fingers.
Legato Aid is your invisible safety net. It smooths discontinuities in your playing in real time — so what you hear back already sounds better than what you played. Mistakes get corrected as you go. Lines that felt clumsy on the keyboard come out polished through your monitors. The practical payoff is enormous: less time buried in MIDI editing, fewer takes, faster results. Trust it during live performance. Trust it during composition. Hit record, play your line, and let Legato Aid handle the rest. The gamba sounds gorgeous for you, not despite you.
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Every note in Royal Viol was performed by Sarah Small — a current member of Fretwork. Small is among the UK's foremost young gamba soloists, and her playing defines this library: historically informed, tonally rich, and deeply expressive. This is not generic session work. It is a virtuoso performance captured with the sole purpose of creating the most authentic solo gamba instrument ever sampled.
Royal Viol delivers 13 distinct articulations organized into three families. Legatos: Vibrato, Non Vibrato, and Bowed. Longs: Sustains Vibrato, Sustains No Vibrato, Marcato, Tremolo, and Harmonics. Shorts: Pizzicato, Staccato, Spiccato, Flautando Staccato, and Col Legno. Each articulation is individually selectable via dedicated buttons in the UI, giving you immediate access to the full expressive vocabulary of the viola da gamba without menu diving.
Three separate legato engines — Vibrato, Non Vibrato, and Bowed — each with 3 dynamic layers. Vibrato legato delivers singing, expressive melodic lines. Non Vibrato legato produces a cooler, purer tonal character. Bowed legato captures the tactile, physical detail of bow-on-string transitions. Switch between them to shape the emotional character of a phrase in real time. Each mode behaves differently under your fingers, responding to velocity and playing style with distinct musical personality.
Up to 3 dynamic layers on legatos and sustains allow natural crescendo from a spectral whisper to full resonant intensity. Every short articulation across the entire library features 7 round robins — eliminating the machine-gun repetition that plagues lesser sampled instruments, especially on repeated short notes like pizzicato and staccato passages.
Auddict's proprietary AI-P pipeline processes every sample at the waveform level with a precision that surpasses what human engineers can achieve manually. Legato transitions are sculpted to dissolve seamlessly into one another. Artifacts are eliminated at their source. Dynamic gradation becomes fine-grained enough to feel continuous rather than stepped. The technology's entire purpose is to disappear — leaving only the organic, breathing sound of a real gamba performance.
Royal Viol was captured from 3 independent microphone positions, each with its own volume fader, power toggle, solo button, and mute button in the UI. Blend positions to sculpt your ideal tone — from an intimate close perspective to a wider room ambience. Solo a single mic for a focused, dry signal. Purge positions you don't need to save CPU. Full per-mic control means the spatial character of the instrument is entirely in your hands.
The UI provides three dedicated FX controls designed for real-time performance shaping. Legato Aid smooths discontinuities in your playing on the fly — correcting transitions as you perform so the output sounds polished without post-production MIDI editing. Reverb lets you dial in spatial depth from dry studio to resonant hall. Stereo Width adjusts the stereo image from narrow and intimate to wide and immersive. All three operate in real time during playback and recording.
Requires Kontakt 5 or above (full version). 13 articulations total: 3 legato modes (3 dynamic layers each), 5 long articulations (up to 3 dynamic layers), 5 short articulations (multi dynamic, 7 RR each). 3 mic positions with independent volume, solo, purge and mute. Built-in Legato Aid, Reverb, and Stereo Width FX.
