Spitfire Audio “This is London Calling” - BBC Symphony Orchestra

[danbo]

A "young" (junior?, graduate?) software engineer in London is closer to $30-50k/year depending on various factors - Even a senior software developer is usually on much less than $100k+.

Whoa! OK, well you could do something with that. Here were I live in California (North of Bay Area) starting engineers are $60k-$70k, experienced are up to $150, plus overhead (benefits, desk, management). Surprising since London is a major city with a pretty active tech community AFAIK. Certainly real estate isn't cheap, like here. I guess young people are more OK with life in an apartment. The new engineers we're hiring are upset they have no hope of saving up for a $600k starter house. (Edit: when I said a young engineer costs $150 above I was talking about total cost including overhead, $120k-$150k is what we figure for project planning at any rate around here).

A quick google of Spitfire Audio jobs finds that they recently advertised a PHP senior developer role for $70k and a senior front-end developer for $60k. For the kinds of rates you're talking about, you're looking at very specialized, very experienced engineers with high pressure jobs, who are on daily contracts. Also, not sure I'd call Spitfire a 'small company' nowadays - a 2019 picture on their website shows 60+ staff and I'd imagine that doesn't include everyone.

There's no definition but the way my day job is considered a medium sized company at some ten thousand people. I'd think it would be a few thousand at least before you break out of small - and ideally you'd have multiple global locations.

 

[Michael Antrum]

There's no definition but the way my day job is considered a medium sized company at some ten thousand people. I'd think it would be a few thousand at least before you break out of small - and ideally you'd have multiple global locations.

In the UK a medium size company is typically considered to be 100-999 employees.....

A small company is less than 100 employees....

I suppose everything's bigger in Texas......

 

[erica-grace]

There's no definition but the way my day job is considered a medium sized company at some ten thousand people

There is in fact a definition, and your business is considered large, not medium.

Small businesses are usually defined as organizations with fewer than 100 employees; midsize enterprises are those organizations with 100 to 999 employees.

There are some exceptio0ns for differnet industries and revenue, however.

 

[VinRice]

No way! We move on to the next stage where we argue that Spitfire should have released the thing we thought it was, not the thing it turns out to be.

Yes! That's the best bit. Where we get to project our personal fears, desires and inadequacies on a bunch of strangers who are just trying to make a buck. Good times. Personally I hope that they make that big stupid round knob that nobody uses in the Spitfire player even larger - or an expansion pack for Phobos where BT provides another hundred variations on that one drum loop he invented...

...it's been a long day.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Wow, 34 pages in, and I haven't a clue what this product is, after scanning twelve random pages in the thread! I ignored it until today, thinking it must be a Punk Rock library due to the "London Calling" moniker, and only finally dipped in to the thread to see if it is one of the two that talks about the new organ library, as someone was chastised for starting a new thread about that. When I searched "organ", I certainly did not see two recent threads, just the product announcement in the unpaid section.

Who has the attention span or time, for these long-drawn-out and obtuse product rollouts? It smacks of ego as well. nevertheless, I admire Spitfire as a company and love most of the products of theirs that I bought (and don't dislike the ones I haven't really used much yet). But the hyperbole can be a bit much!

 

[givemenoughrope]

It’s Sable part II with loads of useful long and shorts EVOs/Waves/short articulations.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Cool; thanks for saving people the trouble of reading 34 pages of speculation and complaints!

Yeah, I don't use Sable yet, so I'll pass, as the budget is tight right now. One of these days I may find use for it. It's probably the only Spitfire purchase that I literally have not used for anything at all. I can't remember why; it might have been too wet for me.

 

[givemenoughrope]

It is pretty wet but it sounds great. Are there other SF strings you use instead? Just curious.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Not really. Every time I try other strings, I come back to VSL's Solo Strings and Chamber Strings, but the one exception is the new Spitfire Studio Strings as I find it extremely useful for divisi work in the Violin section and it is now my top choice if I want something other than a chamber-sized ensemble. I find it very flexible too, across many genres.

 

[givemenoughrope]

Interesting. I would have been all over SSS except for the lack of shorts and sound seeming a bit harsh. I'll take another listen.

 

[jaketanner]

Christian just retweeted this:





Containing this link:

Live Gear - Mixonline

Extract:



It gets curiouser and curiouser!

EDIT: Some info was tweeted by SA Recordings 2 days ago (not sure if that was posted here?):

Man this is getting more disappointing...if it is some weird collaboration, I'm gonna be pissed...LOL The last few releases were nothing short of let downs, and if this doesn't turn out to be a killer library, then I think SFA will lose its hold over those of us who enjoy standard orchestral libraries.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

I like harsh, for strings. Cuts through better. I use Spitfire Studio Strings especially when I have an ostinato pattern, arpeggiated phrases, etc. I find it very warm, with just enough touch of brightness, that note attack and detache both sound very dynamic and convincing to me.

 

[givemenoughrope]

^I lean on 8dio for those kind of strings as well as legato. But that is interesting. Listening to some demos now.

 

[scoringdreams]

Is (the new) Albion 2 Loegria coming out anytime soon?...

 

[Zedcars]

Wow, 34 pages in, and I haven't a clue what this product is, after scanning twelve random pages in the thread! I ignored it until today, thinking it must be a Punk Rock album due to the "London Calling" moniker, and only finally dipped in to the thread to see if it is one of the two that talks about the new organ library, as someone was chastised for starting a new thread about that. When I searched "organ", I certainly did not see two recent threads, just the product announcement in the unpaid section.

Who has the attention span or time, for these long-drawn-out and obtuse product rollouts? It smacks of ego as well. nevertheless, I admire Spitfire as a company and love most of the products of theirs that I bought (and don't dislike the ones I haven't really used much yet). But the hyperbole can be a bit much!

Evidence seems to point to a new string library featuring the BBC Symphonic Orchestra recorded at Maida Vale Studios. The library may include other sections, but there’s no evidence for that at the moment. Also, there is probably more to the announcement than that judging by things Christian has said.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Well, they do say it's their "biggest" news yet, so maybe along the lines of those other "super-sized" ensembles (Eric Whitaker Choir, and Hans Zimmer Strings), except maybe phrase-based instead of single-hit.

 

[Lionel Schmitt]

Here is the info we have:
"Biggest Anouncement"
"Sampling Milestone"
"Sul Tasto"
Vi-Control: 34 pages!
How do they do that? Every marketing agency or individual needs to study Spitfire!

 

[LinusW]

Here is the info we have:

You forgot Christian's vlog.

Up until next Thursday (SIC! Later corrected as Wednesday), I think people who make samples have been the kind of pirate radio of sound creation really. And from Thursday (SIC! Again, Wednesday) that changes.

Ok, could it be a sampler that is more open to content creators than Kontakt? Lowering the threshold for small third party content creators where Kontakt and Creator Tools are not needed.

 

[Stevo B]

I think it'll be Albion Two as the ensemble patch versions of the full BBCSO along with Edna/Brunel patches etc based on BBC archive material including the radiophonic workshop. And it'll integrate with the new full BBCSO. That's my Christmas stocking wish (in August) anyway. Plus I've had a few ales

 

[Zedcars]

So in addition to the sample library they are announcing, I’ve been thinking about that statement CH made. The BBC have a lot of radio stations. Is there a possibility that Spitfire have negotiated a partnership with them for a radio station (maybe DAB, or web-based), or at least a segment on an existing radio station, where composers can showcase their work and have it broadcast? The statement about the “pirate radio” could just be a metaphor, and I think that’s how people are taking it. But, what if he’s being literal?