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Thinking of buying Spitfire chamber strings/brass/winds collection. Yay or nay?

Michael Stibor

Senior Member
Assuming they have a black friday sale on it of course. I'm currently using VSL SE for the majority of my brass and woodwinds sounds, and strings are being provided by CSS.

There are some standouts in the VSL winds, but things like the oboe are a no go for me. VSL's brass sounds are in my opinion a little more hit or miss. I usually end up using Bernard Herrmann toolkit but it's a little more limited in scope. Love CSS but wanted something more intimate so I thought Spitfire Chamber Strings would be good

I don't have Full Kontakt and can't afford Berlin anything.
Am I missing something or will this fill in a lot of holes?
 
If you enjoy the Herrmann Toolkit, but just want a little more freedom where the strings are concerned, have you looked at their new Studio Strings?
 
Spitfire Chamber Strings is an outstanding library. i've got Spitfire Studio Strings, too, and I like them both and use them both. If I could take only one of these along to a desert island, though, I think it would be Spitfire Chamber Strings. If I could pack only one library of my many string libraries, it would also be Spitfire Chamber Strings. I just find it more immediately useful in more contexts than practically anything else, and it's never a struggle to make it do what I want it to do. Great for live playing, too, if you need that. Chamber Strings has an ensemble preset across the who keyboard which is great for live, and great for sketching (Studio Strings doesn't have an ensemble preset). Studio Strings is a very well crafted dry library, though. I particularly like the consistency of the speeds of the articulations across instrument sections, and between different instruments. Things really line up well. Studio Strings is really a nice starting point if you want dry, or if you want to go really heavy on the efx and not have what you're adding competing against what's already there.
 
If you enjoy the Herrmann Toolkit, but just want a little more freedom where the strings are concerned, have you looked at their new Studio Strings?

I have, and I while I think the strings that are included are decent in the BHCT, I was hoping for something 'smaller' to compliment CSS
 
Spitfire Chamber Strings is an outstanding library. i've got Spitfire Studio Strings, too, and I like them both and use them both. If I could take only one of these along to a desert island, though, I think it would be Spitfire Chamber Strings. If I could pack only one library of my many string libraries, it would also be Spitfire Chamber Strings. I just find it more immediately useful in more contexts than practically anything else, and it's never a struggle to make it do what I want it to do. Great for live playing, too, if you need that. Chamber Strings has an ensemble preset across the who keyboard which is great for live, and great for sketching (Studio Strings doesn't have an ensemble preset). Studio Strings is a very well crafted dry library, though. I particularly like the consistency of the speeds of the articulations across instrument sections, and between different instruments. Things really line up well. Studio Strings is really a nice starting point if you want dry, or if you want to go really heavy on the efx and not have what you're adding competing against what's already there.

Thanks for this! You've really sold me on the Chamber strings part (and I was already pretty sold to start with).
I guess now the bigger question is what about the rest of it? The brass, and woodwinds? My thinking is that from what I've heard, they sound really good, and it would bring a cohesion to my samples that I'm likely missing now.
 
What I've always loved about Spitfire is that their flagship libraries are recorded in the same studio (AIR) as the more successful film composers -- (usually) with the same players, the same recording engineers -- so out of the box you instantly, or you should, get THAT Hollywood sound.

So...

Is SCS worth $699?
No.

But...

Apply for the educational discount if you're a student/teacher to make sure you get that 30% discount!
And yeah, i'd be a good idea to wait for Black Friday :)

Good day!
 
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Really ??? Enjoy sorting and choosing.
Have been doing so for long time …. and SF_SCS is top of bucket list.
Just waiting for BlkFri /Wishlist announcements. I vote: SCS (with my hard-earned $$$); then everything else. :speechless:
 
Last Black Friday Spitfire had some very good deals on their software. At that point I only had Albion I and the upgraded version Albion One from Spitfire.

I had been thinking about trying to save up and buy the Orchestral Tools Berlin series, but the Black Friday sales from Spitfire were just too good. They had a sale on a great collection of string libraries, which I bought, and then I realised that the cost up upgrading to the Orchestra was really attractive.

In the end I ended up with SCS,SSS,SSB,SSW and the Percussion and Masse libraries. It was, to me, a lot of money. However, it has proven to be a good investment, and the net result as we approach Black Friday, is that there's nothing new I really want.

Oh sure, I might drop some mad money on an impulse purchase if something catches my eye, but to be honest I've got all I need.

Which is as good a recommendation as I think its possible to make.
 
Is Spitfire Chamber Strings Pro a worthwhile stretch compared to plain vanilla SCS?

Pro has almost 3X the file size of Vanilla, so there must be a few extra pony tricks there. Will that be enough for me to bag a $2,000,000 feature film gig, versus a $1,473 Netflix hack?
 
It's extra mike positions/mixes, and the only difference it will make to your finances is the cost of the extra SSD you'll need.....
 
In the end I ended up with SCS,SSS,SSB,SSW and the Percussion and Masse libraries. It was, to me, a lot of money. However, it has proven to be a good investment, and the net result as we approach Black Friday, is that there's nothing new I really want.

This is exactly what happened to me last year. In fact, it could had been written by me.

The SSWoodwinds are my favourite- they are very agile and lightweight soundwise, and sound together extremely cohesive. I've recently started to use the SSBrass more also and realized that while it needs quite a lot of EQ to make it sound how I like my brass, the end results are astonishing.
The SSStrings I found a bit "lacking" in a way- they are a bit "jack of all trades, master of none" in my opinion. Not lightweight and small enough for being studio strings, but not aggressive enough to have any sort of character of a larger section without the extra mics. For me, they are best suited for accompanying rather large arrangement while doing their jobs anonymously in the background.

For what it comes to the SCS Pro version, I wasn't that much in love with the original sound but when I upgraded to Pro and started using the driest possible stereo mix as my main sound, I felt the whole library somehow became more alive and I've been loving to use it since very often. Yet I always double them with RR's to make them bit more bigger they would normally be, gotta admit. :P
 
Last Black Friday Spitfire had some very good deals on their software. At that point I only had Albion I and the upgraded version Albion One from Spitfire.

I had been thinking about trying to save up and buy the Orchestral Tools Berlin series, but the Black Friday sales from Spitfire were just too good. They had a sale on a great collection of string libraries, which I bought, and then I realised that the cost up upgrading to the Orchestra was really attractive.

In the end I ended up with SCS,SSS,SSB,SSW and the Percussion and Masse libraries. It was, to me, a lot of money. However, it has proven to be a good investment, and the net result as we approach Black Friday, is that there's nothing new I really want.

Oh sure, I might drop some mad money on an impulse purchase if something catches my eye, but to be honest I've got all I need.

Which is as good a recommendation as I think its possible to make.
It is. You're right
 
Uh oh. What? Is that a necessity?

It was more of a flippant comment. All these libraries work best from an SSD as you know. The Standard Chamber Strings takes up 80GB as opposed to 235GB with the Pro Library, that's all.

If you are running off a spinning disk it will still work just fine, but you'll have to load more into RAM thats all.

Besides, your choice my well depend on what BF offer they have on the Standard and the Pro Library. I was lucky enough to get the pro upgrade when they did a very aggressively priced promotion on the upgrade early this year.
 
I can´t recommend Chamber Strings. I bought it because everyone says its great. But I can´t use it very often because most of the time it sounds too thin and the shorts are rather untight. Also, the legato i.m.h.o. is inferior to Spitfire Symphonic Strings.
Symphonic Brass is at my wish list. Two years ago I decided against it in favour of Berlin Brass but Berlin Brass sucks and I wish I would have taken Spitfire Brass. But I have no experience with it and the lack of loud velocities (ff) is the reason I would not buy it for the regular price (not that Berlin Brass would be any better in this regard).
(Waiting for Hans Zimmer Brass (hopefully))
 
st. Two years ago I decided against it in favour of Berlin Brass but Berlin Brass sucks and I wish I would have taken Spitfire Brass. But I have no experience with it and the lack of loud velocities (ff) is the reason I would not buy it for the regular price (not that Berlin Brass would be any better in this regard).
(Waiting for Hans Zimmer Brass (hopefully))

Why you think it sucks? I use it every day and despite the volume inconsistencies I think it's still the best brass to work.
 
Spitfire Chamber strings, yay.
Spitfire Orchestral Brass, yay.
Spitfire woodwinds, nay. (Except for the solo oboe longs and the solo bass clarinet longs.)
 
Spitfire Chamber strings, yay.
Spitfire Orchestral Brass, yay.
Spitfire woodwinds, nay. (Except for the solo oboe longs and the solo bass clarinet longs.)

I've been considering getting the Spitfire orchestra collection, in part for the woodwinds. Anything in particular that makes them a nay for you?
 
Yea (and yay!) for all three options, but with a few provisos...

With the woods I find the main flute's tone not to my liking, so I often use an alternative. Plus sometimes I find the dynamics are hard to control with the legatos, so I'll use Berlin Woods instead. They have a very pretty tone overall though, and sound great in the hall.
With SCS, while I like this library, I use SSS far more often, and other libs like L&S Chamber, because I find SCS a bit harsh sometimes for what I prefer to write.

Spitfire Brass is fantastic, but I'd love it if they could add legato for the solo trombone.

Sidenote: is it an American thing to spell it as 'yay'? I haven't seen this use of yay before, seems odd.
 
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