Need a sampled cello without buying a full library? Looking for realistic pizzicato and spiccato articulations? This Cello Freebie from Virharmonic gives you exactly that as a no-cost download. It’s a taster of their larger Bohemian Cello library, offering chromatically sampled articulations with multiple round robins to keep your parts from sounding repetitive.

What You Get in the Freebie

You get two main articulations to work with. The Pizzicato articulation has four dynamic layers, ranging from a soft pp to a harsh ff, and uses four round robins. The Spiccato Rhythm articulation is a tempo-synced 16th note repetition, recorded at a natural 120BPM, and also uses four round robins. All articulations are chromatically sampled across the keyboard.

Technical Setup

The library contains over 1,372 unique samples, packaged in 800 MB of lossless compression. The samples are stereo, recorded at 96kHz and 24-bit resolution. It runs in the free UVI Workstation or in Kontakt (full version required), and is available as VST, VST3, Audio Units, and AAX plugins. It works on both macOS and Windows.

Who Should Grab This

This Cello Freebie free download is useful for a few specific scenarios. If you’re sketching string arrangements and need a convincing, non-repetitive pizzicato line with dynamic expression, this covers that. It also fits if you’re composing and want to quickly lay down a synced spiccato rhythm pattern at 120BPM without manually programming each note. It’s a practical tool for producers who need a quality cello sound for a track but aren’t ready to invest in a comprehensive library.

Final Verdict

If you need a straightforward, playable cello for pizzicato parts or rhythmic spiccato figures, this freebie delivers solid quality with useful round robins. The main limitation is that the Spiccato Rhythm has only one dynamic layer, so you can’t modulate its intensity. You’ll also need the full version of Kontakt or the free UVI Workstation to run it. For a free download that solves the basic need for a sampled cello, it’s worth getting. You can find it on sites like audiotorrent or mactorrent.