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SPITFIRE - Announcing Spitfire Studio Strings! 24 Hours LEFT on Promo Price!

When I purchased this, it was meant to be an extension of my LASS library. But things like no legato portamento in the divisi... killing me. Still I've already used this library on a job with rave reviews from the producer, but I dearly hope we get the portamento slides on the divisi. Often doing string arrangements I need to go smaller sections. With LASS I get slides on all sections. I'm a bit taken aback. Still happy I purchased.
EXACTLY !!!!!! I want all the articulations (not the FX patches) for ALL THE SECTIONS, large med and small. It's a fabulous library missing things that seem "a given".
 
I'm not talking about the new Spitfire library in particular here. But IMO, there are two ways you can look at a new library:
  1. You can view the library through your expectations of what you believe it should be or what you want it to be. With this scenario, you'll always find fault somewhere.
  2. You can view the library as it comes. Accept that it "does what it does" and compose around its best features and avoid its shortcomings.
A lot of complaints I feel come from viewing the library via option one. When someone likes a library, I often find they've taken an "option 2" viewpoint and found a use for it.

Of course, if the library is failing on a technical level, that’s a whole other thing.

My 2C on a philosophical Sunday afternoon.
A

Edited for clarification.
 
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I'm not talking about the new Spitfire library in particular here. But IMO, there are two ways you can look at a new library:
  1. You can view the library through your expectations of what you believe it should be or what you want it to be. With this scenario, you'll always find fault somewhere.
  2. You can view the library as it comes. Accept that it "does what it does" and compose around its best features and avoid its shortcomings.
Most of the moans and complaints around these parts come from viewing the library via option one. When someone likes a library, I always find they've taken an "option 2" viewpoint and found a use for it.

My 2C on a philosophical Sunday afternoon.
A

I'm merely giving customer feedback as a professional media composer with 25 years under my belt who also happens to own damn near every library Spitfire has made. I don't think my criticism is unreasonable. They can do with it what they like .....
 
I think an A/B comparison demo of SCS and SStS would help me figure out if I’m buying now. Even if the demo is meant for a studio sound and not an Air sound, etc.
 
Here's an A/B comparison I made of the sound of Spitfire Studio Strings Core vs Professional edition, using the two available versions of Christian's beautiful track "Java County Revisited".

Personally, this comparison convinced to upgrade to the Pro version. To me it sounds more full, rich and 3D.


agree
 
EXACTLY !!!!!! I want all the articulations (not the FX patches) for ALL THE SECTIONS, large med and small. It's a fabulous library missing things that seem "a given".
Perhaps we'll see an expansion pack. It wouldn't be out of character for Spitfire to do so. At this price point, I won't complain. With all the articulations and playing styles across all divisi and main group I'd have paid up to $1,000. To this day LASS is still up in that area for everything.
 
Here's an A/B comparison I made of the sound of Spitfire Studio Strings Core vs Professional edition, using the two available versions of Christian's beautiful track "Java County Revisited".

Personally, this comparison convinced me to upgrade to the Pro version. To me it sounds more full, rich and 3D.


Hate to be that guy but you didn't level match
 
I'm not talking about the new Spitfire library in particular here. But IMO, there are two ways you can look at a new library:
  1. You can view the library through your expectations of what you believe it should be or what you want it to be. With this scenario, you'll always find fault somewhere.
  2. You can view the library as it comes. Accept that it "does what it does" and compose around its best features and avoid its shortcomings.
A lot of complaints I feel come from viewing the library via option one. When someone likes a library, I often find they've taken an "option 2" viewpoint and found a use for it.

Of course, if the library is failing on a technical level, that’s a whole other thing.

My 2C on a philosophical Sunday afternoon.
A

Edited for clarification.

There are certain things which have to be included taking a common sense approach in any product. Nobody has the bandwidth to read specs in detail. Also, there are so many vendor specific terminologies here and there. E.g. Their solo strings library can't do "fast legato" which was a shocker to me. The thing is, there is an implicit (or common sense) expectation (since we are in 2018) that when Legato is an advertised feature, it should do legato properly at all speeds and if not, I would hope to see a list of clearly documented exclusions in font 18 in order to establish transparency.
 
Typical populist-age reductionism there. Criticism isn't moaning. Often it's made because buyers want the library they've just splashed their cash on to mature and reach it's true potential. Developers who listen and act on concerns earn themselves a lot of respect. Likewise those who, like Audiobro, really wring the most out of their samples.

Unfortunately, given that this is mostly a no-returns market some people are forced to reach conclusions via demos and walkthroughs. Of course criticism is going to be made from non-buyers based on what they're hearing and seeing. Until companies offer a way of trying libraries out before committing (and a few do) then developers have to accept this angle as well.
Although I agree with your observations and the points you make above... isn't labeling someone else's comments and observations as "Typical populist-age reductionism" a form of the same...? :sneaky: ;) :cool:
 
Although I agree with your observations and the points you make above... isn't labeling someone else's comments and observations as "Typical populist-age reductionism" a form of the same...? :sneaky: ;) :cool:

It's not their comments and observations as a whole, just their umbrella term of 'moaner' that I took issue with.

For anyone interested, I've found that using the time machine patches with the shorts really helps add some variety to passages. I set my assigned midi controller to control around 20% - 80% of the stretched range in kontakt so that it doesn't veer into the bit reduction or chipmunk territory either side and it's possible to realtime play in some nice subtle slurred notes etc.
 
Support statement I just got regarding Legato Portamento on the divisi groups and more...

I had a separate issue they are helping me with (my Behringer X-Touch Compact controllers machine code "touch" is getting through to Kontakt with this patch and turning off cc11 when I release my finger from the fader!)

Anyway, I also mentioned to them today how desperate I am to have Portamento on the divis groups, and asked about a possible upcoming expansion pack and I received this in reply:

"In regards to legato, we'll certainly be looking to update the legato soon, and we do have content recorded which we will be updating over time."

All in all, I feel this is positive news for all of us who like this library a lot but are frustrated by some things we feel are necessary make the library more regularly usable.
 
While there's a lot I like about the sound and approach of the library in general I'm disappointed to hear about the disappointing depth of short articulations. It's a strange concept to include so many esoteric articulations without having a wide variety of good sounding shorts and many velocity levels etc. The whole thing about a close mic'd string section is that dynamic range and nuance of attack and dynamic are going to REALLY be on display. For that, I would have gladly sacrificed some of the fancy bowings ....
 
I'm probably grabbing this tomorrow, and straight away, I'm going to input a few bars I've written that will hopefully decently explore some of the elements that people are concerned about: flexibility of shorts and longs, legato agility, etc.

It'll be in the context of some other elements from the BH Toolkit, as a further experiment with how well the two will play together, but I'll upload the strings on their own too.

I'll try to have this done soon, in case it may help anyone with their decisions before the promo price expires.

I haven't been able to do this demo yet, but I did want to give some first impressions after quickly playing through the Core version.

First, the shorts. Full disclosure, I'm not a short note junkie, so you might not be so easily pleased, but I think that the spiccatos paired with Time Machine give me all the flexibility I really need there. The usable range before artifacts are introduced is very wide. I've actually never used Time Machine before. It's kind of fun having that on the modwheel....

If you have the BH Toolkit, they respond just the way that those spiccatos do with TM. BH Toolkit is also a very accurate preview of what this library is like, sonically speaking. It gets along just fine with reverb. I tend to use a lot, and SStS (is this what we're calling it?) doesn't mind, although having the other mic's in the Pro version would definitely be useful for nailing down the right sound for your reverb choices.

The regular longs have 2 round robins, so I've been able to approximate some "long-short" bowings like détaché. It's not perfect, but it works. This is using a breath controller; it may be less easy to execute with a wheel or fader.

The legatos are reasonably agile. 32nd-note runs at a fast tempo will probably not convince you, although they fared better there than I might have expected, and there's a very wide range of speeds where these sound absolutely great. Again, if you have BHT, that is a good example of what you'll get here.

I've only had a few minutes with it so far, but my main takeaway is that this is *fun* to use, and it gets the musical juices flowing. I am always let down when I can't play a VI in a way that feels natural and musical, but I absolutely can here. I think I'm going to be making a lot of music with this.
 
Hi,

i want/need a string library with well done 'Runs' articulations. Maybe some good performing legato's too. I want to choose between SCS, SSS or Studio strings.

For anything 'big' 'long' and 'short' i want to stay with HZS.

So to owners of Spitfire SCS, SSS and Studio Strings i wouldn't mind some input regarding 'Runs' playability and range and how those 3 libraries compare in that particular department.

Feedback regarding this topic would be appreciated.
 
https://youtu.be/cktZxtMqj7Q (<div class="bbImageWrapper js-lbImage" title="60c8079e-526f-430a-b6e8-86445fd7989e.jpg" data-src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/147ea0eb7d5a8ef4e35c359bd/images/60c8079e-526f-430a-b6e8-86445fd7989e.jpg" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-single-image="1"> <img src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/147ea0eb7d5a8ef4e35c359bd/images/60c8079e-526f-430a-b6e8-86445fd7989e.jpg" data-url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/147ea0eb7d5a8ef4e35c359bd/images/60c8079e-526f-430a-b6e8-86445fd7989e.jpg" class="bbImage" data-zoom-target="1" style="" alt="60c8079e-526f-430a-b6e8-86445fd7989e.jpg" title="" width="" height="" /> </div>)






https://youtu.be/cktZxtMqj7Q
 
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The sale price is set to end just eight hours before the earliest point at which BMI will direct deposit my royalties into my account. I'm glad I don't really need another string library!

Of course, other BMI members may have hoped to buy this at the introductory price. It's a shame the sale deadline so narrowly missed the availability of their royalty funds.

Best,

Geoff
 
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I'm in at the 11th hour... I probably could have waited for a possible BF "Wish List" sale but alas - patients is something Doctors have that I don't... :sneaky: ;) :cool:
 
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