What's new

Spitfire Studio Brass

I have Cinebrass, and despite being a big fan of both CSB and SSB, I don't feel overly tempted to buy either of them at the moment.
Just yesterday I loaded up Cinebrass, played some lines and honestly, I think I won't buy anything new (more so when I know they keep updating all their flagship libraries, so it's not some abandonware).

To me ears, there's something so lively about Cinebrass, the samples are imperfect in the best way possible, those patches sound like real people are performing. With SStB, while I like the sound a lot, it all sounds so robotic. It's like the samples are recorded and edited too perfectly and strictly. When I load up Tuba legato from CB Pro, it's totally like there's a guy with that instrument playing my midi part for me, I love that patch. I just hope they'll make some playable fast legato repetitions/runs patches, or maybe 90s brass could handle that, dunno, don't have the trumpets. Hope they will update the auto borrowing feature to CineBrass series.

I'm still considering CSB, but like, some really great demos would have to show up to convince me. After yesterday's noodling with Cinebrass I don't feel I need anything else for now.
 
I'm still considering CSB, but like, some really great demos would have to show up to convince me. After yesterday's noodling with Cinebrass I don't feel I need anything else for now.

This is a perfectly reasonable approach and a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to, even if you like the sound of a library you don't have somewhat better. Is there enough difference there to add something you don't have for the cost. I'm evaluating similarly, though I'm looking at Spitfire Studio Brass Pro as a supplement to their Symphonic Brass, not CSB, which doesn't have the instrument coverage I want.
 
This is a perfectly reasonable approach and a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to, even if you like the sound of a library you don't have somewhat better. Is there enough difference there to add something you don't have for the cost. I'm evaluating similarly, though I'm looking at Spitfire Studio Brass Pro as a supplement to their Symphonic Brass, not CSB, which doesn't have the instrument coverage I want.
I don't like SStB sound better than CineBrass. I just like SStB sound a lot. :) You know what I mean?..

I think SStB can be perfectly justifiable purchase for some people. The price of the normal version is very good and with some trick it could sound more lively, what do I know... Maybe some (black fri) day I'll buy it if some great demos come up, for now, I feel I have everything I need just with CB Core+Pro (expect those damn fast legato repetitions).
 
I don't like SStB sound better than CineBrass. I just like SStB sound a lot. :) You know what I mean?..
I passed on the Berlin Woodwinds at the BF sale, even though I like the sound of that library a lot and I still have tinges of regret. But I objectively did not need it at this point. For what I do, my current libraries are serviceable, even if I don't love all of my woodwinds.
 
They just uploaded a "Contextual" demo on Youtube:


Wow. What a video. How does CH do this, and where does he find the time to do it? All the things that need to come together to make a video like this (aside from building the product, in the first place) add up to a superhuman effort. Really nice composition, beautifully rendered, wonderfully mixed, and constructed in a very logical way to demonstrate and instruct. And then, he puts together an extremely tightly organized presentation that's interesting to watch, exciting, entertaining (and also very effective from a sales standpoint). Just being able to do a presentation like that is a full-time career for lots of folks. The set is well lit, and there are now a lot of fancy zoom-in shots on various windows.

If time machines existed, and someone could have shown me this video back in the early eighties when I first started buying samplers and sample libraries, I would NEVER have believed that the competitive market for sample library content would have evolved to where it is today. I think we just kind of accept it, because we're just incrementally watching it build from month to month, and year to year.
 
Can anyone comment on the sound or ease of use of SStB vs the brass that comes with my VSL SE 1 Plus?

It feels like the same level of quality, just a different flavor.

I'm tempted by all the lower cost new tools this season but maybe I should get to writing more with what I already own!
 
Wow. What a video. How does CH do this, and where does he find the time to do it? All the things that need to come together to make a video like this (aside from building the product, in the first place) add up to a superhuman effort. Really nice composition, beautifully rendered, wonderfully mixed, and constructed in a very logical way to demonstrate and instruct. And then, he puts together an extremely tightly organized presentation that's interesting to watch, exciting, entertaining (and also very effective from a sales standpoint). Just being able to do a presentation like that is a full-time career for lots of folks. The set is well lit, and there are now a lot of fancy zoom-in shots on various windows.

If time machines existed, and someone could have shown me this video back in the early eighties when I first started buying samplers and sample libraries, I would NEVER have believed that the competitive market for sample library content would have evolved to where it is today. I think we just kind of accept it, because we're just incrementally watching it build from month to month, and year to year.

CH's vlogs are really well produced too and FULL of wisdom and advice.

EDIT: anyone who has doubts about this library's legatos just check out the euphoniums, horns and trumpets in this video. They sound fine! What the library lacks is re-tongue samples, which makes it somewhat difficult to play melodies (like the last phrase of the Gondor theme for example) where you've got repeated notes inside a legato phrase.

EDIT2: wow the sound of both libraries together is really something! Those contrabass tubas!!!
 
Last edited:
Quick question for you Studio Brass owners.
What is the top concert pitch note for the solo trumpet and trumpets @2 without "hacking" anything.
Are the other artics, muted and shorts the same ranges?

thanks, Steve
 
Can anyone comment on the sound or ease of use of SStB vs the brass that comes with my VSL SE 1 Plus?

It feels like the same level of quality, just a different flavor.

I'm tempted by all the lower cost new tools this season but maybe I should get to writing more with what I already own!

As much as I love VSL, their brass is for orchestral and orchestral only. It's not as strong as many other offerings. My honest opinion is that even though it's great, these Spitfire demos really do sound much better
 
CH's contextual video along with the demos has pretty much convinced me on this. It's just a question of when to get it. Hopefully somebody not affiliated with SF will do a walk through and give us a bit better sense of the library as a whole (Paul's walk through was even sketchier than usual).
 
So this is recorded in the same studio as Bernard Hermann....so basically BHCT could work as an kind of "Studio Albion" for eventually released Studio Orchestra...hmmm....
 
Wow. What a video. How does CH do this, and where does he find the time to do it? All the things that need to come together to make a video like this (aside from building the product, in the first place) add up to a superhuman effort. Really nice composition, beautifully rendered, wonderfully mixed, and constructed in a very logical way to demonstrate and instruct. And then, he puts together an extremely tightly organized presentation that's interesting to watch, exciting, entertaining (and also very effective from a sales standpoint). Just being able to do a presentation like that is a full-time career for lots of folks. The set is well lit, and there are now a lot of fancy zoom-in shots on various windows.

If time machines existed, and someone could have shown me this video back in the early eighties when I first started buying samplers and sample libraries, I would NEVER have believed that the competitive market for sample library content would have evolved to where it is today. I think we just kind of accept it, because we're just incrementally watching it build from month to month, and year to year.

What is more, if you saw this video back in the 80s, and someone told you that people were fretting and worrying about whether it was even the best option (because the market now has so many good options) ... yeah, you'd definitely not believe that.
 
Top Bottom