Spitfire's Eric Whitacre Eternity pairs synths, piano and choir
A Grammy-winning composer's studio is now a plugin. Spitfire Audio has released Eric Whitacre Eternity, a virtual instrument library with more than 200 presets, and it is priced at $231 until December 8, 2026.
Price and what you get
The introductory price is down from the regular $289. The library is available now, with presets that mix synthesizers, piano, processed choir and electronic textures.
A library tied to an album
Eternity in an Hour is the album Whitacre made, and the library was developed next to it. Spitfire says it holds the electronic and acoustic sources from those sessions, aimed at ambient composition, sound design and experimental electronic music.
Three sound sources
The choir material is the least literal of the three. It comes from Lyndhurst Hall at AIR Studios, partly from the earlier Eric Whitacre Choir and Contrast libraries and partly from new aleatoric recordings, meaning parts not sung to a fixed score. Granular processing breaks a sound into tiny grains that can be stretched, so sung syllables end up as atmospheric textures.
On the synth side, the SOMA Lyra-8 leads, with a Ciat-Lonbarde Sidrax Organ, Minimoog Model D, Oberheim OB-X8, ASM Hydrasynth, Eurorack modular gear and Norns, Grid and Just Friends beside it. They were recorded at Studio Helsinki as source material for pads, drones and evolving textures.
The piano is a Ludwig & Co upright that has been in Whitacre's family since 1903. Samples come in four dynamic layers with three round robins, which rotate repeated notes so they do not sound identical. Close and mid microphone mixes are offered, and five more chains run through Whitacre's studio equipment.
Playing and shaping it
Presets can stack two sounds in one patch, and an assignable XY pad blends between the layers or controls parameters. Global effects and sound-shaping controls sit inside the INSTRUMENT plugin. Five effects signals came from Whitacre's own gear: Adorn, Weave, Dwell, Dance and Ruin.
Six collaborating artists made extra presets: BlankFor.ms, Lesjamusic, IDRA, Luca Longobardi, Matt Lowery and Elin Piel.
Source: Synthtopia