Stradivari Violin

Master luthier Antonio Stradivari created many stringed instruments. But it is for violins he is best known. These instruments represent the apogee for violinists, and command astonishing prices when changing hands. One example, created in 1721, was sold in 2011 for more than $15m – and you thought the TR-808 was pricey for an old bit of kit. Of the estimated 960 violins Stradivari produced, it’s believed that up to 512 are still in existence, most of which are known by individual names. One example, the Vesuvius, which Stradivari created in his later years, has now become the subject of a new sample library for use in NI’s Kontakt and Kontakt Player.

The drive to produce the Stradivari Violin library began with the Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy, which sits