Mercury

When blockbuster film composers need to score the awe-inspiring, the mystical, the mechanical, and the alien, they turn to Chas Smith. For forty years, he's transformed disused metal into Hollywood's most menacing, most mysterious instruments. His creations painted the unearthly soundscapes of Dune and Interstellar, sang heroic anthems for Man of Steel and The Hunger Games, and textured torturous terrors throughout the Saw film franchise.

With Mercury, Spitfire Audio is bringing his incomparable, one-of-a-kind sound to your studio. Spitfire Audio has sampled 14 of Chas's most celebrated acoustic instruments, then fused, warped, and reinvented them in Solar, the new eDNA-powered synthesiser. All told, this collection delivers 600+ textures, tones, and pads—organic and synthesised. Tweak, twist, and recombine them to unleash the sinister, unshackle the industrial, and unveil the impossible worlds orbiting just beyond our reach.

COSMIC TEXTURES, TONES AND SOUNDSCAPES

In order to build your own sonic world, and to score the awe-inspiring, you need to discover sounds and instruments that aren't easily replicated. Mercury takes the exceptional acoustic sculptures hand-crafted by Hollywood's premier instrument designer Chas Smith, and allows you to experiment and go beyond the usual and familiar.

Mercury was built with the idea that truly unique instruments should sound organic, not artificial. A bespoke collection of the most amazing, transcendent, and haunting musical textures and tones that you will ever find. Chas Smith has managed to create artistic evocative metallic sculptures that also happen to be the secret ingredient in the iconic scores of Hans Zimmer's Interstellar, Dune and Dunkirk, and in Charlie Clouser's Saw.

No single human being would be crazy enough to design an instrument as illogical as this.

Hans Zimmer

MERCURY'S SOLAR ORBIT

This library combines two dynamic forces: Mercury and Solar. One, a collection of pure, organic sounds; the other, a tool for reinventing them. The most up-to-date iteration of our eDNA technology, Solar is the host to Mercury's organic ethereal samples and the eDNAs extensive warp and preset library.

Within Solar, you will find the expansive soundscape Mercury, a world built around 14 unique handmade instruments like no other. The Bertoia, Sceptre, Pez Eater, and Que Lastas (just to name a few) have had lasting impressions on some of Hollywood's leading luminaries. The Que Lastas in particular has an entertaining story. First commissioned for John Williams for his composition for the inaugural season of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (but later deemed too dark and too menacing), it became the quintessential sound of the Saw film franchise. Charlie Clouser upon hearing it for the first time was moved to tears.

Therein lies the magic behind these instruments — their roars and whispers evoke the strongest emotions amongst the greatest modern composers. The hand-crafted souls of these structures are irreplaceable, only Chas Smith holds the key to the cosmic sounds of cinematic metal. Accompanying this is our eDNA, with a library of 300 presets, and the ability to create and save your own warped and wonderful sounds, the only limitation is your imagination.

Chas' instruments have been a crucial part of the sonic landscape of all of my film scores, and although I'm a little sad that I will no longer have him all to myself, I am thrilled that he has finally succumbed to years of urging on my part and has at long last collaborated with Spitfire Audio.

Charlie Clouser

FROM THE KING OF EXPERIMENTAL Instruments

Chas Smith is the KING of real-world acoustic sonic experimentation. He does things the hard way, and the results speak for themselves. His experience is unmatched, his imagination is boundless, and the combination of his diverse talents is superhuman. Due to his position in the timeline of history, it would simply not be possible for any living human to duplicate his journey or his results.

Chas wasn't always a hotshot Hollywood musician. He started out as a union welder and fabricator, metalworking for the film industry, and received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for the structural engineering of the Bulldog Motion Control Camera Crane. From Cal Arts to Image G, from Subotnick to Budd, from pedal steel to welding steel, his talents, influences, and abilities are truly one-of-a-kind.

Key Features:

• 300 Organic Presets.
• EDNA interface.
• 672 Unique Sounds – both organic and synthesised.
• 14 Unique Handmade Instruments:Bertoia, Dado, Towers, Lockhead, Mantis, Copper Box, Paraboloid, The Pez Eater, Sceptre, AD, Bass Steel Guitar and Que Lastas.
• Sonic Experiments Using various types of metals, such as Aluminium, Titanium and Stainless Steel.
• Six Warps.
• Dedicated Plugin.
• 8.2GB download size.

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