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

@redlester This is the part that I should have mentioned but didn't. The implication is that you can use the library in a skeletal form with 8GB and the full library with 16GB. I don't know how you could interpret this in any other way. I am running 64GB, so it doesn't really affect me personally, but it seems to me that there is a bit of hoodwinking going on here. The fact that they don't even mention the RAM requirements for PC tells you that they absolutely knew there were problems when they went to market. It is the old Microsoft approach: Sell it now, fix it later (or not). It has shaken my faith in Spitfire. Is that cynical? Or is it just the yoke of experience?

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Not sure what you mean by “use the full library” with 16GB? Do you mean have all instruments turned on at once?
It would never occur to me for a moment that anyone would even begin to think that possible with 16GB. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t feel hoodwinked.
 
I like the sound and results of using BBCSO. I'm on a Win 10 system and don't have any regrets in purchasing. I doubled my ram to 64gb for this library. I'm sure upcoming fixes will make me feel even better. An interesting side effect for me...I revisted my other libraries looking for ff contrast. I don't do trailer music. Ha! I did kind of a throwback Star Trek TV cue just for fun. I don't usually write in this style, so BBCSO indirectly helped me appreciate my other tools and think in a new way. "A starting point" :) Sorry, no BBCSO in this one minute cue at all.
 
I'll be getting a 128gb RAM Mac Pro 5,1 setup shortly. That way I won't have to be angry at the Windows VST3 and VST2 anymore.

Can't wait to hear what this will sound like (current has some pretty half-assed modulations going on but still sounds fantastic to my ears) with choirs added and proper percussion.




This one for contrast:



And original:
 
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Not sure what you mean by “use the full library” with 16GB? Do you mean have all instruments turned on at once?
It would never occur to me for a moment that anyone would even begin to think that possible with 16GB. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t feel hoodwinked.
I don't personally feel hoodwinked either because I never believed the numbers from the onset, but I saw a lot of googly-eyed comments from people who thought they were going to run this library on their gerbil-powered laptop.
 
I'll be getting a 128gb RAM Mac Pro 5,1 setup shortly. That way I won't have to be angry at the Windows VST3 and VST2 anymore.

Can't wait to hear what this will sound like (current has some pretty half-assed modulations going on but still sounds fantastic to my ears) with choirs added and proper percussion.

And original:


A lot of great sounds there! I am running a 5,1 12 core 64GB. There are some upgrade options still available to me, but I probably won't add them until it is necessary. You are probably aware of this, but if not, Apple has abandoned the 5,1s. Catalina won't run on it without some serious hacking. (Actually, rumor has it that Catalina doesn't run well on much of anything. Don't know, haven't tried.) In fact, the 5,1 won't even run Mohave unless you upgrade the GPU. So be aware that there are some upgrade costs that will be necessary in the not so distant future. In its original state, the 5,1 probably has 2 years of life left in it before upgrades are necessary. You'll then get another year by upgrading the GPU. Thereafter is anyone's guess. I will keep mine going as long as possible because I just can't get excited about $6k for an entry-level pro model.
 
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Hi Cormast..I asked a bit earlier, and it doesn't seem anyone has it running well on Windows,..
If you have a vepro, or bluecat patchwork, to wrap it, it might run better..Maschine might nearly work too I reckon..
I would recommend against Maschine for this purpose. It is heavier weight than Komplete Kontrol, and loading a version of the hybrid template with every instance in Komplete Kontrol adds about 30% to the total system CPU usage on an i9 9700K. (not Spitfire's fault, I don't think Komplete Kontrol had 100+ instances in mind)
 
A lot of great sounds there! I am running a 5,1 12 core 64GB. There are some upgrade options still available to me, but I probably won't add them until it is necessary. You are probably aware of this, but if not, Apple has abandoned the 5,1s. Catalina won't run on it without some serious hacking. (Actually, rumor has it that Catalina doesn't run well on much of anything. Don't know, haven't tried.) In fact, the 5,1 won't even run Mohave unless you upgrade the GPU. So be aware that there are some upgrade costs that will be necessary in the not so distant future. In its original state, the 5,1 probably has 2 years of life left in it before upgrades are necessary. You'll then get another year by upgrading the GPU. Thereafter is anyone's guess. I will keep mine going as long as possible because I just can't get excited about $6k for an entry-level pro model.

Cheers for the heads up! :)
Fortunately, the Mac will have Mojave pre-installed since it's a GeForce GTX 680 which supports it.
I've heard that the 2010-2012 models have the best longevity. Is this not the case at all? :o
 
Cheers for the heads up! :)
Fortunately, the Mac will have Mojave pre-installed since it's a GeForce GTX 680 which supports it.
I've heard that the 2010-2012 models have the best longevity. Is this not the case at all? :o
Oh, I think that it is very much the case. In fact, I think that Apple is annoyed at the longevity of this machine, and that's why they are dropping support. The trash can that followed this machine was a heat generating disaster and wasn't really upgradeable. (Mind you, I know a number of people who are using it very successfully.) It's great that you found one with a metal card already installed. I think you'll be very happy with it as long as you're comfortable with the Mac OS. The trick down the road to keep it going will probably be to rely on someone like dosdude, who makes patches for older Macs to run the latest stuff. Everything is working for me under High Sierra, so I haven't even upgraded my GPU. I am sure there is an RX580 in my future, though. The big problem comes when Logic will no longer run on an unsupported machine.
 
FWIW, here's a screenshot of my current project with most of the instruments loaded (the piano is The Grandeur). Using Mix1 and Fl. Spill mics on all channels, removed a few articulations I seldom use. 24GB total memory used at task manager. Playback is fine, so it's definitely a great improvement from 1.0.0, at least on my system.

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I like the sound and results of using BBCSO. I'm on a Win 10 system and don't have any regrets in purchasing. I doubled my ram to 64gb for this library. I'm sure upcoming fixes will make me feel even better. An interesting side effect for me...I revisted my other libraries looking for ff contrast. I don't do trailer music. Ha! I did kind of a throwback Star Trek TV cue just for fun. I don't usually write in this style, so BBCSO indirectly helped me appreciate my other tools and think in a new way. "A starting point" :) Sorry, no BBCSO in this one minute cue at all.


Your piece sounds very good, got a great sound. What libaries did you use in this 1 minute cue? How you finding BBCSO overall in comparison to your other libaries?
 
As a follow up to the Legatos and the spiccato overlays.

It's clearly a programming issue with the velocity triggers. You get the overlay with all velocities above 10. Should be more like above 60 to be useable.
 
Your piece sounds very good, got a great sound. What libaries did you use in this 1 minute cue? How you finding BBCSO overall in comparison to your other libaries?
Thanks. Mostly Cinematic libraries. CSB, CSS, Samplemodeling brass, BFD orch percussion, Cinewinds. I consider BBCSO to be a more gentle sounding orchestra that sounds very cohesive. Individual instruments are not outstanding but the results of the whole are uniquely good.
 
I'm sure it's been mentioned elsewhere. A large template sometimes hangs Studio One 4.5.4 (Win 10 64gb) upon closing a session. it's odd to me that when S1 is ended in task manager, there still appears to be remnants of BBCSO in memory. If I open a fresh session of S1, an instance of BBCSO will open almost instantly. (?) I reported this to SA support. I hope 1.0.5 offers a fix. Being patient, like everyone else.
 
I'm following your postings especially because, when I'm eventually up and running, I will have a similar system spec to you. Mine will be AMD Ryzen 7, 32GB RAM, Win 10, BBCSO running on a dedicated external 1T Sabrent Rocket Nano connected via USB C. I've removed all unecessary Win 10 bloatware, stopped unwanted startup and background apps and installed XMeters to monitor system perormance. As you can tell I'm a newbie with much to learn from others in this forum. I know I'm taking a big gamble on the BBCSO but I love the sound and will make the most of my limited system spec.
 
The last section of the download completed last night, and everything is running well from a 2TB Samsung T5 SSD on my MacBook Pro. It will be a while before I can put in some serious time with it (I had been angling to work on a review, but I'll be tackling another project in the short term and taking my time getting deep into BBCSO in spare moments.) So far, so good. I look forward to seeing what changes and additions are planned.

One open question for me was how best to handle articulation switches and how easy it would be to set up continuous controls to ride expression and dynamics. In practice? It's almost like the Kurzweil Forte was made for it. One custom multi, a little tweaking in BBCSO with some quick MIDI learn configuration, and now the Forte's sliders control every continuously adjustable parameter, and the switches above them send the necessary key switch triggers. Nice. I'm very happy with how that's all shaping up.
 
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