A violin, but not as you know the violin
Snakewood Baroque Violin
Dark, dry, close, and uneven in all the right ways
“Cannot recommend Auddict’s libraries highly enough.” — Stephen Barton, composer of Call of Duty 4, Titanfall & Titanfall 2
A solo baroque violin for composers scoring now
A violin, but not as you know it.
A solo baroque violin for composers scoring now — film, TV and games. A violin, but not as you know it: darker, drier, closer to the ear, and unpredictable as it climbs. Easier to hear in our demos, than to describe.
- 18 ARTICULATIONS
- 3 MIC POSITIONS
- 3 LEGATO TYPES (PROGRESSIVE VIBRATO LEGATO, BOWED LEGATO, NO VIB LEGATO)
- 7 ROUND ROBINS ON SHORTS
- UP TO 4 DYNAMIC LAYERS
- PERFORMED MORDENTS AND TRILLS
- AI-P PROCESSED THROUGHOUT
- LEGATO AID IN REAL TIME
Listen / Watch
0:00
—:——
Feature Deep Dive
Why this violin sounds darker
Gut strings speak late. They bloom rather than snap, and they change colour every time you cross a string — woodier and closer down low, thinner and slightly glassy up top. A baroque bow is lighter, shorter and differently balanced, so the swell and the taper happen inside the note instead of in your automation lane.
None of that is a filter setting. It’s why a held note here sits differently in a cue than a modern solo violin does, and why doubling it against your existing strings darkens the whole line rather than thickening it. Reading the spec sheet tells you the least about this instrument. The demos tell you the most.
Feature Deep Dive
Three legatos, and Legato Aid
Slurred with vibrato, slurred without, and bowed martelé — three separate legato types, so a line can be sung, spoken or attacked without swapping instruments. Legato Aid handles the live half: as you perform a phrase in, or replay MIDI you wrote weeks ago, it catches the small gaps and near-misses as they land and closes them in real time. Sketches arrive sounding like takes. Takes need less cleaning before the cue goes out.
Feature Deep Dive
Ornaments you don’t have to build
Most solo violin libraries leave you assembling a mordent by hand from a staccato and a grace note, hoping nobody listens closely. Snakewood was sampled with staccato mordents, upper and lower, plus semitone and whole-tone trills and messa di voce — performed, not programmed. A fast decorative figure lands as one gesture instead of three MIDI events, which is the difference between a line that sounds played and a line that sounds edited.
Performer
Laura Jeannin
Performed by Laura Jeannin, a baroque specialist. Playing gut strings under a period bow is its own technique — the instrument rewards a player who treats it as an idiom rather than as a modern violin with different equipment. That distinction is audible on every sustain and every short in this library. What’s in the box isn’t a modern violinist approximating an older sound; it’s a specialist playing an instrument she already speaks. Jeannin plays a 1690 Caspar Borbon violin, made in Brussels.
What's Inside
Core
- Baroque Violin, Kontakt instrument (Works in Kontakt 5 and all versions above)
- 3 mic positions
- 18 articulations
- AI-P processing applied to every sample, articulation, round robin, dynamic layer and mic position
- Legato Aid, real-time legato smoothing
- Built-in FX
Legato
- Slurred Vibrato — 2 dynamic layers
- Slurred Non-Vibrato — 2 dynamic layers
- Bowed / Martelé legato — 2 dynamic layers
Longs & Sustains
- Vibrato — 3 dynamic layers
- Non-Vibrato — 3 dynamic layers
- Progressive Vibrato — 3 dynamic layers
- Messa Di Voce — 1 dynamic layer
- Flautando — 2 dynamic layers
- Trills Semitone — 3 dynamic layers
- Trills Whole Tone — 4 dynamic layers
- Tremolo — 4 dynamic layers
Shorts
- Staccato — 7 round robins
- Spiccato — 7 round robins
- Martelé — 7 round robins
- Martellato — 7 round robins
- Pizzicato — 7 round robins
- Staccato Mordent Upper — 7 round robins
- Staccato Mordent Lower — 7 round robins
Get Snakewood Baroque Violin Now
Technical specifications
Format & Compatibility
Kontakt instrument — requires Kontakt 5 Full Version and above.
Instrument
Baroque Violin.
Legato
Slurred Vibrato (2 dyn), Slurred Non-Vibrato (2 dyn), Bowed/Martelé (2 dyn).
Longs
Vibrato (3 dyn), Non-Vibrato (3 dyn), Progressive Vibrato (3 dyn), Messa Di Voce (1 dyn), Flautando (2 dyn), Trills Semitone (3 dyn), Trills Whole Tone (4 dyn), Tremolo (4 dyn).
Shorts
Staccato (7 RR), Spiccato (7 RR), Martelé (7 RR), Martellato (7 RR), Pizzicato (7 RR), Staccato Mordent Upper (7 RR), Staccato Mordent Lower (7 RR).
Mic Positions
3 mic positions.
Processing
AI-P applied to every articulation, round robin, dynamic layer and mic position; Legato Aid real-time legato smoothing.