The return of LABS

Everyone remotely familiar with contemporary music production should know about Spitfire LABS. This series of free virtual instruments was developed by the renowned British studio Spitfire Audio. In almost twenty years on the scene, they’ve become one of the field's leading forces, especially when it comes to virtual orchestration. In the beginning, only a selected few could buy their products, due to high prices as well as exclusivity. Another reason why LABS initially came as quite a surprise and was dubbed by some as “one of the greatest gifts to the music community”.

So, what makes this project so special? After all, free virtual instruments and sound libraries are nothing new. I’ve already written about their sometimes “dubious” usefulness and quality. For many commercial developers, free products are mostly an incentive to buy something from their catalog. At least, it was so more than ten years ago when the LABS program was originally introduced. It started a revolution of quality freeware that is worth having in your collection, even if you own professional tools. Also, this was one of the first series of free virtual instruments on the market.

The program has gone through many changes over the years. It started with small gems from the personal collections of Christian Henson and Paul Thomson, the founders of Spitfire Audio, and also composers and music producers. Some of these works have started it all. One of the most obvious examples is a library called “Soft Piano”. This is the sound of an upright piano recorded with the pressed-down middle pedal that introduces a felt strip between the hammers and the strings. This produces a characteristic sound that has been used quite a lot in cinematic and instrumental music since. Even today, this remains one of the most downloaded and widely used free sound libraries.

Although LABS is known as a series of free virtual instruments, the program wasn’t completely free in the beginning. To get each instrument from the series, you had to donate a symbolic amount to charity. Furthermore, the libraries required a full version of Kontakt. This industrial standard, although a mandatory item in a collection of every serious enthusiast, was always quite an investment - both on its own or as a part of the Komplete package. For this reason, Spitfire has later developed a platform called “Spitfire Player” that is completely free to use. This made LABS free and open to anyone interested.

The content of the program was also changing over time. After small jewels and various prototypes, born during the development phase for one of Spitfire’s commercial titles, more and more attractive titles started to row. For example, replicas of various antique and sought-after acoustic and electric instruments. Spitfire has then announced starting a dedicated studio that would develop future LABS instruments.

The fresh LABS instrument used to be released at the end of each month. It was so since the migration to Spitfire Player until the middle of 2023. when the 60th LABS instrument was released. After this, there wasn’t any news about the program for many months. Finally, about two months ago, news about the continuation of the program started to emerge. The new program is called LABS+ and it won’t be free anymore. Some more acquainted sources say that it will function as a subscription, though with an option of buying a perpetual license.

Time will show is this a good move or not. There is certainly no shortage of quality freeware virtual instruments these days. More and more, the new series of those are introduced, both by big outfits as well as the smaller ones. With the arrival of Kontakt 7, another interesting turn happened - a big increase of free libraries that run in its free edition, Kontakt Players. One more reason why Spitfire would have to make some serious effort to keep many faithful users of the LABS program.

Anyhow, LABS remains a fantastic free source of tools for music production. Its basic version will remain free to download and use. Will it be ever surpassed in popularity by LABS+, remains to be seen.