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Library Spotlight - Studio Brass

I've been seriously contemplating doing a pro version video for all three libraries... But I must be patient because my wallet isn't at a very high level.
I think Spitfire should send you review copies. I am sure your reviews (not to mention your patches) of the strings and woodwinds have stimulated sales!
 
I think Spitfire should send you review copies. I am sure your reviews (not to mention your patches) of the strings and woodwinds have stimulated sales!
Hmm... I will try once more to contact Spitfire about this, but the last few times I tried to get in touch they outright ignored me. Some things just never change... -sigh-
 
i cant even recall how many libraries ive bought after confirmation from your videos...im thousands in the hole lol but then again im making that back in work so...honestly I think they should be sending you copies to review. Honest, fair reviews are not always easy to come by.
 
I think you're the best reviewer out there. They would profit from you.
Thank you. Bigger developers like Spitfire and Orchestral Tools often don't think of it that way when I send requests for an NFR. They tend to see me as below them or that their products don't need videos or reviews. It does annoy me a bit, because to be perfectly honest, I have to spend my money to make these videos. I don't make money from them, apart from one independent developer I have an affiliate link with that has made me about $50 over the last year.

When I come up with a video idea, I have to gauge what money I won't be spending on take-out food or things I've been wanting for my flat, like a bed instead of a mattress. It sounds depressing but I make the choice to spend money on my videos because that way I'm helping others and not just myself - that makes me sleep better at night and I have a better sense of purpose.

Of course, when I do get the occasional free library it makes things a lot easier.
 
Great review, subbed. Only wish I had seen it before buying during the sale. The issues you point out are ones I might not notice at first but after hearing them there's no disputing they exist.
 
You want to know what inspired me to start making custom patches? Afflatus. It's weird, but after I played the patches in that library with the different instrument combinations, it just clicked in my brain and I started thinking of what I could do in certain libraries to mimic ensemble performances like in Symphobia. I'm really happy that people have liked them so far and I want to really extend the value for money people get with libraries and hopefully inspire some cool playing using the multis. But gosh darn, you've made me blush now.
Your custom patches are really great and often revelatory! If you could do a video on how you create some of them, that would be awesome. Some of them are obvious enough (octaves or fifths using transpose function), but others much less so (the pitchwheel to brighten and darken, which I gather you are linking to EQ in Kontakt modulation). So showing folks how to go under the hood of Kontakt and make some of these changes would be great (and encourage us all to explore some of the potential of Kontakt).
 
Thank you. Bigger developers like Spitfire and Orchestral Tools often don't think of it that way when I send requests for an NFR. They tend to see me as below them or that their products don't need videos or reviews. It does annoy me a bit, because to be perfectly honest, I have to spend my money to make these videos. I don't make money from them, apart from one independent developer I have an affiliate link with that has made me about $50 over the last year.

When I come up with a video idea, I have to gauge what money I won't be spending on take-out food or things I've been wanting for my flat, like a bed instead of a mattress. It sounds depressing but I make the choice to spend money on my videos because that way I'm helping others and not just myself - that makes me sleep better at night and I have a better sense of purpose.

Of course, when I do get the occasional free library it makes things a lot easier.

That's commendable. The plebs welcome you with open arms. :roflmao:

More information is good in my book. I'm sure most people here can make up their mind about whether it's good/bad or useful to them by just looking at the examples, no matter what the commentator is saying (which I generally agreed on), so it's still a win for me. I got very close to purchasing but I resisted, partly because I don't quite need it and partly because of these quirks (which I'll admit in the right piece/context can sound lovely).

I'll let this wave of purchases pass and see if they iron it out more by winter (hopefully they'll siphon some of the sale money into some extra sessions or refinement). There's still a high chance I'll eventually get it. I like the tone in general, it has some nice variety, but maybe they should have cut out the extra instruments in the brass and instead put the resources in tightening up the core and maybe have the extras as an add-on, along with the mics (but what do I know? :D); I'm sure even the sole tree is workable if you really want to do it. It seems they sacrifice some tightness for style (then you get into if built-in style equals human performance and the consideration of how to glue it together to also make it musically coherent instead of just stylised - you need both interpretation and technical ability, but I digress), but I'm not sure you can't decently do both. Quirkiness is good, but not to the point where it handicaps the library (well, unless it has a very specific use case). Still the vfm is pretty crazy (I'm sure it's great for most people) and I still respect that it's available and what it offers. It's important to adjust expectations and this certainly helps in that. You need a healthy back and forth.

I don't consistently watch these but wasn't you that made that Hollywood Harp video? It was informative and again I recall mostly agreeing with it. So, yeah, these are definitely useful in broadening one's perspective or re-enforcing what they already feel or have doubts about.

Just the custom patches add value from what's already there. On an ending note, that Kontakt customisation course would be cool. :whistling:
 
Your custom patches are really great and often revelatory! If you could do a video on how you create some of them, that would be awesome. Some of them are obvious enough (octaves or fifths using transpose function), but others much less so (the pitchwheel to brighten and darken, which I gather you are linking to EQ in Kontakt modulation). So showing folks how to go under the hood of Kontakt and make some of these changes would be great (and encourage us all to explore some of the potential of Kontakt).
A "Handy Tips" video for stuff like that is something I've been planning for a while. Just general tips for Kontakt, instrument combinations and composing tips.
 
That's commendable. The plebs welcome you with open arms. :roflmao:

More information is good in my book. I'm sure most people here can make up their mind about whether it's good/bad or useful to them by just looking at the examples, no matter what the commentator is saying (which I generally agreed on), so it's still a win for me. I got very close to purchasing but I resisted, partly because I don't quite need it and partly because of these quirks (which I'll admit in the right piece/context can sound lovely).

I'll let this wave of purchases pass and see if they iron it out more by winter (hopefully they'll siphon some of the sale money into some extra sessions or refinement). There's still a high chance I'll eventually get it. I like the tone in general, it has some nice variety, but maybe they should have cut out the extra instruments in the brass and instead put the resources in tightening up the core and maybe have the extras as an add-on, along with the mics (but what do I know? :D); I'm sure even the sole tree is workable if you really want to do it. It seems they sacrifice some tightness for style (then you get into if built-in style equals human performance and the consideration of how to glue it together to also make it musically coherent instead of just stylised - you need both interpretation and technical ability, but I digress), but I'm not sure you can't decently do both. Quirkiness is good, but not to the point where it handicaps the library (well, unless it has a very specific use case). Still the vfm is pretty crazy (I'm sure it's great for most people) and I still respect that it's available and what it offers. It's important to adjust expectations and this certainly helps in that. You need a healthy back and forth.

I don't consistently watch these but wasn't you that made that Hollywood Harp video? It was informative and again I recall mostly agreeing with it. So, yeah, these are definitely useful in broadening one's perspective or re-enforcing what they already feel or have doubts about.

Just the custom patches add value from what's already there. On an ending note, that Kontakt customisation course would be cool. :whistling:
I didn't do the harp, just the choirs.
 
Can someone advise if Cory's patches work in the free version of Kontakt and are there any instructions as to how I install them?

After getting over the disappointment of the (very informative) review, I still find I like Studio Brass. Most likely I'm not skilled enough to find the issues too much of a stumbling block and I'm so far mostly using the library for slow simple passages, but I'm still happy with it bearing in mind the low HD space needed and affordable cost.
 
Can someone advise if Cory's patches work in the free version of Kontakt and are there any instructions as to how I install them?

After getting over the disappointment of the (very informative) review, I still find I like Studio Brass. Most likely I'm not skilled enough to find the issues too much of a stumbling block and I'm so far mostly using the library for slow simple passages, but I'm still happy with it bearing in mind the low HD space needed and affordable cost.

Don't let the review influence you so much. If you liked it before, a review shouldn't change your mind, otherwise you're letting other people control what you like and don't. Reviews are simply one person's opinion, no matter how skilled and knowledgeable that person (like Cory) is.

I'm using SStB every day and loving it! It's slowly taking over my Hein and EWH brass for solo instruments, and that's saying one yee-haw of a lot, as the Hein was my default for months and months (it's a terrific library imo).

Keep in mind, Cory has only ever worked with the Core version, and I would NOT recommend that library. The Pro in comparison is practically night and day.

You need those close mics (and the outrigger and Tree 2 aren't shabby at all, either).
 
Don't let the review influence you so much. If you liked it before, a review shouldn't change your mind, otherwise you're letting other people control what you like and don't. Reviews are simply one person's opinion, no matter how skilled and knowledgeable that person (like Cory) is.

I'm using SStB every day and loving it! It's slowly taking over my Hein and EWH brass for solo instruments, and that's saying one yee-haw of a lot, as the Hein was my default for months and months (it's a terrific library imo).

Keep in mind, Cory has only ever worked with the Core version, and I would NOT recommend that library. The Pro in comparison is practically night and day.

You need those close mics (and the outrigger and Tree 2 aren't shabby at all, either).

That’s great advice that I usually live by. In this case however, being a total beginner with orchestral composition, I was hoping to get a good basic overall library that had good reviews. Being new I do not have the skills to judge some of the finer points, so seeing a poor review from an advanced user like Cory is a disappointment. That being said I realise libraries that are generally considered ‘better’ such as CSB cost a lot more and use more HD space.

I have the core version of the 3 studio libraries at the moment, as I don’t have HD space for pro and, to be honest, I don’t have a problem with the tree mic sound. At this stage of my learning, I don’t really want 100’s of gb used on lots of mix positions to further confuse me.

So after weighing up all the opinions and having just begun my first composition and using some simple brass instrumentation in it, I do happily like the sound I am getting and feel it will be fine for me at this point. :)
 
That’s great advice that I usually live by. In this case however, being a total beginner with orchestral composition, I was hoping to get a good basic overall library that had good reviews. Being new I do not have the skills to judge some of the finer points, so seeing a poor review from an advanced user like Cory is a disappointment. That being said I realise libraries that are generally considered ‘better’ such as CSB cost a lot more and use more HD space.

I have the core version of the 3 studio libraries at the moment, as I don’t have HD space for pro and, to be honest, I don’t have a problem with the tree mic sound. At this stage of my learning, I don’t really want 100’s of gb used on lots of mix positions to further confuse me.

So after weighing up all the opinions and having just begun my first composition and using some simple brass instrumentation in it, I do happily like the sound I am getting and feel it will be fine for me at this point. :)

Listen inside and make your own decisions.

This is not directed specifically at you; however I do notice that some members here spend a cuckoo amount of time asking others about libraries again and again when sometimes all they really need to do is concentrate on already existent walkthroughs. I also have to mention that plenty of libs have "patches only" video reviews that take you directly into the library to judge for yourself. I daresay the latter, when done conscientiously by the video creator, can be even more important toward making up one's mind than the walkthroughs.

I listened to audios, watched walkthroughs and sounds only videos left and right before I bought Studio Brass and Woodwinds. I also read page after page of denunciations. In the end what I was hearing was all that mattered, and what I heard really inspired me. I bought them both and now I'm pleased as punch.

I feel that I would be amiss without mentioning that reviews can be helpful in plenty of other ways besides verifying a purchase already made; they can help you hear and see things you wouldn't have otherwise in order to get as much as you can out of the library.
 
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