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Spitfire bringing out libraries fast but ignoring problems in the ones that are already out

Robert_G

The End is Near
I know this place is full of Spitfire fanboys so I'm sure they'll be some disagreements.
Anyways, another big lib is announced today. An Albion library.

My question to Spitfire is why are so many products being released when there are still many things that need to be fixed with other products.

The new Spitfire player has quite a few issues as many here keep posting. Seems they are getting fixed at a snails pace.

My own personal beef is with the Studio Woodwinds. At first...I thought maybe Spitfire would fix the single mic issue, but now I'm thinking its never going to happen...and because of that, I regret the purchase.....and for the record there are very few purchases I regret making in the VI sample world.

I think it is pretty much in universal agreement now that the single tree mic for the Core was a terrible idea. It is near impossible to position the instrument in a mix. The price is good and I have no issues with only 1 mic. But it should be a MIXED mic. Would it really be that much trouble to have an update and change the single mic to a MIXED mic instead of the TREE mic?

I decided to look at as many other 'budget' or 'core' libs as I could find. They all come with mixed mics. Even EW comes with the mixed mic in the Gold edition. What on earth made Spitfire think a single tree mic was a good idea?....and with so many people here complaining about it, why isn't there an update with a mixed mic?

Obviously too busy bringing out new libs with problems that won't be fixed either. It seems from listening to others here that the Studio Woodwinds sound nice in the PRO edition....and that's great. I had the upgrade on my Wishlist this Christmas but decided against it because why pay more money when a proper mixed mic would have been good enough for me? I felt that I was forced to upgrade in order to get a usable library and I don't think that is fair.
 
I don't think it'd be smart to update it to a brand new 'mixed' mic when there could be alot of people out there enjoying the tree only, and already made it fit their template. This is why there's a pro version.
Maybe do some more digging or wait a bit to hear if it's really what you're after before buying a new library next time.
And no, EW gold comes with either mid or main mics, neither of which is a 'mixed' mic.

Spitfire is quite big by now, so i'm sure they're still working on the important issues while also creating new libraries. Different teams, different roles.
And everyone needs to keep the cash flowing.
 
And no, EW gold comes with either mid or main mics, neither of which is a 'mixed' mic.

My mistake, but I haven't had issues positioning instruments with EW, so a main mic seems to work.
 
I don't think it'd be smart to update it to a brand new 'mixed' mic when there could be alot of people out there enjoying the tree only,

I've been pretty up on all the Studio Woodwinds topics here since before it was released. Unless you're talking about a different message board, I don't remember more than a couple people here being happy with the Tree mic.
 
I've been pretty up on all the Studio Woodwinds topics here since before it was released. Unless you're talking about a different message board, I don't remember more than a couple people here being happy with the Tree mic.
It would appear it usually is the dissatisfied customer that tends to complain on the internet yes.
I don't know, but i'm sure there are some people out there using it and happy with it. Could be wrong, i don't know the lib :)
 
I certainly don't think Tree 1 was the best choice for a single-mic library, but it's hardly unusable, and I would not expect them to revise the entire product.

Also, why are you trying to position anything? It's all already positioned!
 
I certainly don't think Tree 1 was the best choice for a single-mic library, but it's hardly unusable, and I would not expect them to revise the entire product.

Also, why are you trying to position anything? It's all already positioned!

Trying to position it with my mix. The tree mic regardless of reverb doesn't sound right.
 
Didn't they just add 60gb of free, new samples to Hans Zimmer Strings?

I'm no spitfire defender but the problem when people talk about fixing libraries is they tend to mean 3 different things...

Fixing actual bugs in programming & glitched samples (which imo is the only legit reason to use the "fix it!" language)

Requesting what is in practice an expansion of the library ("Fixing" HZS to add more string shorts)

Or requesting what is in practice a re-do of the library ("Fixing" the dynamics in BBCSO solo horn).

People should have realistic expectations about what can be fixed. If it requires re booking the hall, re booking the musicians, setting up all the mics and recording & editing gigabytes more of samples, maybe it's not a very realistic fix to expect.

Your issue with SSTW's single mic isn't even any of these, you just want to have all the mics in a mixed format; Spitfire were pretty clear in their product descriptions about the difference between these two products.
 
People should have realistic expectations about what can be fixed. If it requires re booking the hall, re booking the musicians, setting up all the mics and recording & editing gigabytes more of samples, maybe it's not a very realistic fix to expect.

Your issue with SSTW's single mic isn't even any of these, you just want to have all the mics in a mixed format; Spitfire were pretty clear in their product descriptions about the difference between these two products.

It would not take a rebooking of the hall. A big part of the price difference is gigabytes in data. The pro is 10 times the core in data size. Some of that is from having more instruments and articulations...most of it is because of the many mics. Mixing 3 or 4 mics and making a mixed mic would still be the same amount of gigabytes as the tree mic...or at least pretty close.

Yes, I agree Spitfire made it clear the difference in the two products but no one thought the single mic would be that bad, and there were more than enough here who complained about it being the craps. You'd think they would want to fix that....reason being again that few people here have much good to say about their core version.
If Studio Woodwinds Core were my product with the amount of complaints about the mic that have been said here....I would want to make it right. Mixing a few mics and replacing the tree mic would not take that long to do.
 
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Or requesting what is in practice a re-do of the library ("Fixing" the dynamics in BBCSO solo horn).

Which is what we have here. If a VI sucks....your rep suffers....fix it...make it right...you're customers will love you.

Apart from the mic choice, I actually love this libarary. That's what really irks me. Anyone can see that a tonne of thought went into it. The amount of content for price is more than fair.....and what do they do? They ruin all that hard work with a terrible choice of mic for the core version.
 
I get that the OP doesn't like the tree mic, but wouldn't changing the winds mic mix cause issues when combining with Core versions of strings and brass?
 
I think the whole SF studio series is a pretty bad one. Honestly, if you listened to some of the (right) people who bought it upon release, you could have known that. Expecting Spitfire to really work on a whole library that did not turn out so well is not realistic - it would pretty much mean to record it again. They were very committed for their first orchestral library (sable), but after that they probably realized they had to release products much more quickly in order to make the target profit. So, they started releasing one library after the other and this has been very successful for them, hence, why should they change their strategy? It works for them. People keep buying ... :)
If you are looking for very dedicated developers, look to other places. At the moment, I would say Alex Wallbank is the developer showing the most dedication to make each and every product as perfect as possible. The Cinematic Studio Series is a testimony to that, as every Volume is an excellent, almost perfect library. Sadly, there are no Woodwinds out, yet. And he will probably take some time to do that, as this is the price of perfection: It takes time and patience.
 
I get that the OP doesn't like the tree mic, but wouldn't changing the winds mic mix cause issues when combining with Core versions of strings and brass?


Not having the Studio Strings or Brass I can't comment. Maybe the tree mic works for those libs. I can't answer that. One would think they would have the same issues. If that's the case...perhaps I should have looked into the whole tree mic thing in those libs before buying the winds. My bad...my screw up...
 
The idea of the core version is that you can't change a lot with the mics and need to upgrade if that's an issue.
You're telling me you watched the whole walkthrough thinking "oh that sounds unusable" and then bought it?

Also, with all the bugfixes of BBCSO since it got released and the before mentioned MASSIVE HZS extension, and the Solo Strings Performance Cello extension, and all the other updates I didn't even had time to install (SCS and tundra for example) you saying they "IGNORE PROBLEMS" doesn't trigger that much empathy, to be honest.

The reason they make new libraries is because the need to make money and people WANT new stuff.

My bad...my screw up...
Yes.


ps: This whole spitfire-fanboy thing is essentially tribalism and maybe not such a good idea, how about we just get our arguments across instead of being like "oh you're one of those fanboys"
 
The idea of the core version is that you can't change a lot with the mics and need to upgrade if that's an issue.
You're telling me you watched the whole walkthrough thinking "oh that sounds unusable" and then bought it?

You can't know everything by a few walkthroughs. I admit I wasn't 100% convinced by the demos but bought it anyway.
As for your comment about needing to upgrade. Upgrading for extra cool stuff is one thing. Upgrading because its the only way to make the library work is not right.
 
Which is what we have here. If a VI sucks....your rep suffers....fix it...make it right...you're customers will love you.

Apart from the mic choice, I actually love this libarary. That's what really irks me. Anyone can see that a tonne of thought went into it. The amount of content for price is more than fair.....and what do they do? They ruin all that hard work with a terrible choice of mic for the core version.


The problem is with that, and we have seen it literally thousands of times here, is one person's "sucks, needs fixing" is another's "I really like it."

(Robert, what follows is not directed specifically at you.)

What too often occurs on forums is EVERYBODY is an authority and expected to be treated like
one. The reality is every developer who has been in business for a length of time knows what they tried to accomplish and thinks they know how well or poorly they actually did.

Eventually the amount of sales or lack of them tells them if they were correct, not a bunch of "experts" posting on a forum.
 
If you are looking for very dedicated developers, look to other places. At the moment, I would say Alex Wallbank is the developer showing the most dedication to make each and every product as perfect as possible. The Cinematic Studio Series is a testimony to that, as every Volume is an excellent, almost perfect library. Sadly, there are no Woodwinds out, yet. And he will probably take some time to do that, as this is the price of perfection: It takes time and patience.

I own CSS and CSB....love them both. I got impatient for a WW lib and couldn't afford VSL or Berlin, so I bought the Studio WW Core at the Spring Wish list sale. I have big hopes for CSW and the sooner the better.
 
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