# Purchased Berlin Strings + Brass - Less Sure about the WW (lack of Sections)



## Paul Jelfs (Jul 13, 2021)

Hey,

So I have so far been able to purchase both the Berlin Strings and Brass.

I am budgeting for WW as well, but here I am less sure - While from my listening I think the Berlin WW again has the edge in realism, especially for faster , flowing , passages - It is a shame it does not have A2 flutes etc - No ensembles at all.

With this in mind , I am looking at Cinewinds on Staffpad as an alternative - I lose some of the beautiful legato of the Berlin, but they have sections which I would use more. I realise you can obviously write for 2 or 3 flutes, but both the work flow and end result are not quite the same.

I have also listened to the Spitfire WW- And while it has beautiful moments, it seems the least consistent of the 3. Is that a fare assessment.

So please convince me one way or another, if it is worth losing the beautiful legato of Berlin WW, for the benefit of having ensembles - Especially as I am studying Orchestration in light of Media, Video games etc . 

EDIT - Sorry I am confusing the Spitfire and Cinewinds on further listening - It is SPITFIRE WITH the Sections. 

So I guess it comes down to are the ensembles of Spitfire worth losing some of the beautiful legato of Berlin for or not ? 

Thanks for your help


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## Jett Hitt (Jul 13, 2021)

I use both, but if I could choose only one, it would be Berlin. I only substitute something from SWW about 5% of the time.


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## Loerpert (Jul 13, 2021)

I have both SWW and BWW and I like BWW a bit more for its versatility. If larger sections are a must then SWW it is. Also have you considered BBCSO if you don't have it already?


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## MadLad (Jul 13, 2021)

You don't really need à2 with WW or any of the brass and wind sections in the Berlin series because you can double them without problem. When I write a strong horn passage à4 I just have all the 4 horns in Berlin Brass play the same melody. It's also no problem to just copy the bars of one horn and copy them in all the other horns. It really doesn't hinder workflow imo.

Spitfire didn't convince me, btw. It just doesn't sound good. If it's just about sound, CineWinds and Berlin Winds win by far. In an orchestral section CineWinds and Berlin Winds work equally well imo but CineWinds has a much stronger flute. The flutes in Berlin Winds, while they sound beautiful, sometimes tend to be drowned out by even mp strings or just a piano. Especially in the lower registers.


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## Paul Jelfs (Jul 13, 2021)

Cheers for the heads up - Sorry just to be clear to everyone I am talking about the libraries in Staffpad. 

Its a real shame they do not sell Instruments individually - A la carte - Like OT do for their Sine player. 
Obviously you would expect to pay more, but it would give the freedom to mix and match.

Yes, I was worried about the "softness" of the Berlin WW - They seem very quiet and subdued compared to Cine winds. I know you can increase the volume on the stave, but is Cine WW a better option for solo WW cutting through ? 

Or is it just the Flute of Berlin that has the trouble of cutting through ? 

On a side note, I really like the sound of the Cine piano, I think that and Cine Perc would be my next purchases after the WW when I can afford.


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## Jett Hitt (Jul 13, 2021)

CinePiano is the best of the options. CinePerc is pretty good, but I use Berlin more I think. The Berlin timpani are the best. I’ve found CineWinds to be mostly useless. It’s never as good as BWW or SWW. If I were just buying one of each section, I’d go straight Berlin. (Not the piano.)


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## doctoremmet (Jul 13, 2021)

Paul Jelfs said:


> I am talking about the libraries in Staffpad.


Maybe change the thread title  - sometimes when people (like myself) are browsing the Latests Posts on a mobile device, the actual forum the post is in isn’t very readable


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## cygnusdei (Jul 13, 2021)

If I get this right, you want ensembles for passages that play in unison. But unless your music has them play unison throughout, wouldn't it actually create a problem? What would you do with the part that has counterpoint?


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