# Does anyone here understand LABS software? Please!?!



## ulrichburke2 (Feb 18, 2021)

Dear Anyone.

When I first downloaded LABS, I thought it was easy. It's got 16 channels. My DAW's got 16 channels. So obviously I line up 16 of my channels with its 16 channels, shove an instrument on each and away I go. 

Er - no. This LABS thing is an absolute frickin' nightmare. For starters, after trying for 6 hours to line up my channels with its channels, I'm pretty sure the thing's monotimbral DESPITE having a list of 16 channels on it. So what the heck are all the other channels in it for if you can't put instruments on them? Which leads me to point 2.

You don't seem able to take instruments OUT of LABS. Which means, if the thing's monotimbral, if you wanted to use - say - 11 LABS instruments you'd have to have 11 instances of LABS going, am I right? But as you can't - or don't seem able to - choose which instruments you want, if you'd got 16 instruments in there that would be 176 instruments loaded just to use 11 of them!! How much memory do these people think you've got!?! Which brings me onto the THIRD point, closely associated with this.

The BBC Orchestra you get for it. As it's an orchestra, there's a bunch of instruments in it all at once. As LABS isn't multitimbral, every time you wanted to use ONE different BBC Orchestral instrument you'd have to load a new instance of LABS am I right? BUT - you've got all the other instruments in there as well because there doesn't seem to be a way to JUST have the BBC library in it, not all the other instruments. 

So how the heck do you make sure you've got enough space in LABS for all the BBC instruments? I mean if you've got - say - 14 other instruments and you can't just select which ones you want to use, that's 14 instruments PLUS the BBC Orchestra in there. Which means you can't really even USE the BBC Orchestra because there's flat no space to unless you delete other instruments to give yourself more channels, am I right? 

SURELY I'm wrong with the above somewhere. SURELY nobody at a big firm like Spitfire could design a player so badly that you can't even choose what instruments you want in it and that you have to have mega-gigs of RAM to use purely to house a ton of instrument samples you're not even USING!?!

I want to use LABS, not just cos it's free but because I love some of the sounds. But all the above business with the player's making it impossible to use - with everything loaded at once, multiple times over (for more than one instance of Labs!) and you not even being able to select which instruments from the BBC Orch. you want to use cos there's not enough channels in LABS to show them all AS WELL AS all the other instruments - how the heck are you supposed to be able to use the thing?

Please don't tell me to read the manual - I can't find one anywhere. And there's no help screens - F1 does nada. And I can't find any 'First Time User' info. on the Spitfire site (though no doubt someone'll tell me!) 

Sheesh - been fighting this player for ELEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT!! Think I'm having a break after finishing typing this! 


Yours puzzledly

Chris.


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## milford59 (Feb 22, 2021)

Does this help ?

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/info/faq/labs/


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## Heizenhaus (Feb 22, 2021)

Eleven Hours? Sheesh. I don't have BBCSO, but the "normal" LABS is monotimbral. One instrument per LABS instance. But if your DAW supports it, you can put multiple instances of LABS on the same track and address the different instruments with the separate MIDI channels. And after that you can just put additional LABS on your next track and so on. You could also put only one instance of LABS on one track and another instance of LABS on the next track, but have your MIDI for up to 16 instruments all on a whole other track and route it accordingly using the MIDI channels.


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## MauroPantin (Feb 22, 2021)

Hi Chris. LABS is monotimbral as far as I know. Same applies for BBC as well, so you're right on that front.

But you should know it only loads to RAM the instrument you have selected, thus, no need to stress over RAM usage. Quite the contrary, I think the full BBC orchestra in it's basic Discovery form takes up like... 300megs of RAM or something equally small. LABS instruments tend to be small in RAM footprint as well. Of course, it always depends on how much RAM you have available and it all adds up.

Also, you don't have to use every single channel in a track. You are free to create a single track for each instrument and just use the first channel, it makes setting things up a lot faster. Is there any particular reason you are trying to use all 16 channels before moving on to a new track? It is always easier to manage a single track per instrument, provided your DAW is not capped on the number of tracks you can add. May I ask what DAW you are using? Can I have a moment of your time to talk about our lord and savior Reaper DAW?


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## BasariStudios (Feb 22, 2021)

Its very Simple. The Spitfire Player and any Library for it is Monotimbral,
1 Sound per Instance, which is what MOST of the Software out there does
except Kontakt, Play and few others. And no, you DON'T load all Instruments
just for 1 Sound, you can have 1 Articulation in 1 Instance if that is needed.


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