That's a nice idea. Let's not forget that the devs are people too and like reading positive feedback from time to time.
It's not even about affirming devs, though that's a nice thing to do also. It's that some threads are, quite legitimately, devoted to exposing and focusing on the issue and limitations within libraries, and on pressuring for devs to fix issues, give us better libraries. And there's a point at which some thread seem to loose the possibility of any from genuinely constructive engagement, and become rallying cries marshalling consumer protest in the crusade for a world in which Better Sample Libraries are Possible. And I can appreciate even some of the most scathing critiques through this lens as legitimate, and frequently useful.
But sometime it feels like what gets lots in a crusade for better libraries is the appreciating of just how great the actually existing libraries that we have actually are, when taken at their best, and for what they are.
And stepping back and appreciating what we do have doesn't have to mean abandoning our critical selves and our most demanding consumer hats.
I guess I feel that the demand that we wear these most demanding consumer hats relentlessly to press developers to up their game (and the toxic death spirals this risks), risks crushing everything into the lens of purchasing decisions. And that this can come at a cost suppressing a of less critical, but more constructive (and more fun) kind of discourse.
There are been lots of great threads in which both consumer criticism and really fun musical engagement have happily coexisted (LCO, Time Macro, many etc). But certain recent threads have set a tone where I no longer feel it's possible to do both.
So I don't think it's necessary to go as far as an explicit "Spitfire Appreciation Thread". But I think that a thread that creates space for positive engagement with a library as it is, not suppressing negative critique, but bracketing it (in the Husserelian sense) in favour of engaging with the libraries as their best selves is a pretty good idea.
It's not that I don't support the cause of relentlessly pressing devs for more better sample libraries. Its just that there's a point at which I hit the 'I don't want to be a part of your revolution if I can't dance' barrier.
There's precedent, now that I think of it (and I'm guilty of some of what I describe here myself). Case in point - there was a recent thread on the 8dio violas that led me to revisit the library, and engage with it through a more constructive lens, aided some really excellent community contributions. This is a library that had driven me crazy, partly because I had incorrect expectations, and well there's marketing issues that are legitimately critiqued elsewhere ... but the point is that letting go of that and reengaging with the library as it actually is, without all the noice of complaint (including my own) was helpful, fun, and I will write better music as a result of the space created by that thread. (Which now that I think of it was created by
@Parsifal666 - so again, thanks!).
And silliness aside, I'm completely sincere in that last comment on the G . It really was one of those moment that justifies all the energy I put into sample library as a musician. While simultaneously inspiring me to abandon sample libraries altogether and learn to just play the cello instead. And I would trade all my sample libraries for the ability to ability play the cello like that in AIR in a heartbeat.
(I want a performance patch to this cello to match the violin in the library, incidentally. So there's a certain "squeaky wheel" logic by which the crusade for more better sample libraries would be better served by instead bitching and moaning about its inadequacies - and I'm perfectly capably of critiquing what this cello can't do. But this is so far beyond my "I don't want to be a part of you revolutions if I can't dance " line that it its just silly.)
And I have a similar story involving, emblematically, I think it's a A, in an Embertone library. Sublime is not too strong a term.