New Spitfire Symphony Orchestra user demos
- Thread starter Hanu_H
- Start date
I think there are a lot of answers in the other comments on SSO.... on Vi control.
OP
OP
Hanu_H
Senior Member
I have heard some, but it's pretty difficult to find them when there is so many posts. I also haven't heard a lot of complete compositions. It's of course still a fresh update and people might not have done a lot with it yet.
Yes; I think this is the case for the demos, however I understand that the official demos in which there are never any bugs are not the only ones to listen to....
OP
OP
Hanu_H
Senior Member
Yeah. I've listened the official demos. They always sound amazing though...
jbuhler
Senior Member
With SF demos, they generally do a good job of showing what a library is capable of and without much added except maybe a bit of external reverb. They also tend to use only other SF libraries for any supplementation. So what the demos show is fully in the capabilities of regular users without access to additional gear and plugins. There’s no real trickery going on behind the scenes.
I find it odd that folks can find so much to admire (rightly) in Andy Blakey’s demos and then turn around and rag on the very libraries he used (and in the case of many of the legatos he scripted) and call them basically unusable. Of course the libraries may be set up other than the way you might prefer, and you will run into limitations, as with all libraries. You may find other libraries that are better suited to your music. But unusable? Clearly they are very useable: the demos show that.
OP
OP
Hanu_H
Senior Member
I don't think like that at all. I just want to hear more user demos.
jbuhler
Senior Member
More demos, user or otherwise, are always good.
ETA: my point is that the libraries can sound as good as the official demos. There’s no trickery involved other than effective writing and midi programming that suits the samples.
But I would like to hear how the libraries sound with sub-par writing and midi programming, so that I'll have a better idea how they'll sound in my hands... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
jbuhler
Senior Member
I agree with this 100%. It's good to know what you are getting yourself into.
Also I would love it if more companies released the midi of their demos. I'm not entirely sure why they guard the midi so tightly, especially when its work by composers on staff.
newbreednet
Active Member
This! But maybe if it's true that Mr. Blaney et al had special access to scripting that us plebs didn't (until the new SSO release) then maybe they've got good reason to keep a tight lid on them.
babylonwaves
Darth Fader
Here's a snippet, it's just an improv I did a couple of hours ago with nearly zero editing, I just added CC11 and an octave below at the end. It's the ensemble patch and the Sul-G longs. I remember using the Sul-G articulation a lot back when the library was newer, and I wanted to find out what was so special about it to me. So, here's the Jam. One articulation played live with some Cinematic Room on top. Don't slaughter me for it. I know it's a bit rough
View attachment Sul-g.mp3
Edit: I've added a second render without Cinematic Rooms. Now the bumps are more pronounced, but that's my modwheel and not the library's fault.
View attachment Sul-g no added reverb.mp3
Last edited:
jbuhler
Senior Member
Having worked with SF libraries a long time now, I honestly don't think they do. Blaney may well have been using these new performance patches for a long time (indeed he probably has), but as far as I'm aware, he hasn't done a demo for SF in a long time before the new SSO dropped. Indeed, it had been so long since I'd seen him do a demo that I'd started to wonder if he was still associated with the company.
newbreednet
Active Member
Hmm. Somewhere recently I've picked up the idea that he'd had these "secret patches" for a while. I suppose it would be a bad look to issue demos of a library that technically wasn't available to buy.
Sounds wonderful to me, thank you for sharing this! Feel free to post more of these if you end up recording more (preferably without added reverb). This is exactly what I'm interested in - how does the library sound without hours of polishing the midi and keyswitch programming.Here's a snippet, it's just an improv I did a couple of hours ago with nearly zero editing, I just added CC11 and an octave below at the end. It's the ensemble patch and the Sul-G longs. I remember using the Sul-G articulation a lot back when the library was newer, and I wanted to find out what was so special about it to me. So, here's the Jam. One articulation played live with some Cinematic Room on top. Don't slaughter me for it. I know it's a bit rough
babylonwaves
Darth Fader
Thanks, man, I've added a second mp3 without added rev
jbuhler
Senior Member
He made the performance patches (or at least oversaw their development), so he’d obviously have access to them before others. I imagine he has the advantage of knowing them intimately and setting them up according to his needs. The existence of other performance patches had indeed been hinted at, at least from the time the total performance patches for the flute and trumpet were released. But when’s the last time Blaney made a demo? And the performance patches themselves aren’t so different from the old legatos except for the overlays. (The total performance patches of the flute and trumpet seem to have been worked over more at even a basic level back when they were released than what was done here for the other patches of the winds and brass. I haven’t studied the changes in SSS enough to say anything definitive about that performance patch except I agree with others that adding regular vibrato back into the patch is very much an improvement.)
Awesome, thanks a lot! By the way you can turn these files into player embeds with a click on the "insert" button on the file thumbnail.
Henrik B. Jensen
Senior Member
This is not true, for two reasons:
1) Regular users can't make music as well as Andy Blaney can.
Most people in here would probably rate him as being one of the best in the world at making music with sample libraries.
2) The demos on Spitfire's homepage are likely to have been mixed by a professional.
Regular users may have the ability to make a mix sound good, but a professional is just so much better.
jbuhler
Senior Member
Can’t do anything about 1 regardless, but there’s nothing in the library that prevents you from getting there. That’s on you.
The contribution of 2 is less than you might think for music that is well orchestrated and balanced properly. Mixing and mastering certainly help with that added 1 or 2 percent, and maybe that’s what some pieces need to get over the line, but I’m quite certain Blaney’s demos already sound very good right out of the box before any professional mixing or mastering has been applied.
