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Which Spitfire Libraries besides the main orchestra are worth it?

Fitz

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Looking at the WishList... what are some offerings that people like besides the Symphony and Chamber stuff.

Kinda looking at LCO or Albion V / IV. What have people found useful?
 
Depends on your needs. I could not live without Frank Ricotti's Mallets collection, which is leagues beyond any other offerings. I am also heavily dependent upon the Andy Findon Kitbag pair (I'm doing this from memory while eating lunch at the office; apologies if I got those names wrong). But I use a lot of world instruments in my music, as well as chromatic percussion. Your needs may be different.

Hans Zimmer Professional Percussion is extremely well-recorded, but is very specific in how it handles each instrument and doesn't cover much ground. Thus you may have difficulty justifying the cost. It is not always my first choice, but in projects where that specific sound is needed, it's good.

The regular Spitfire Percussion has been overlooked by many of us, even if we own it, but started getting talked about more lately. I am using it quite a bit now, but in many cases do have better sources. Very well recorded, and a pretty good choice overall of articulations and mic placement.
 
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I use a lot of their other libraries too, but not as much as the ones listed above. Mostly that's a matter of not yet having put in the time.
 
Not sure whether you would count Symphonic EVOs or Olafur EVOs as parts of the "main orchestra", but their EVOs are awesome for slow pieces.
Then, I often sprinkle stuff from Albion V, from soft brass to steam pads.
 
I don't have a ton of their offerings to comment on, compared to some here, but I know that Albion V, LCO Strings, and the Eric Whitacre Choir are masterworks.

Alternative Solo Strings is perfect at what it does, and in a way, you can use it as a more playable version of some of their EVO-based strings.

The Studio series must be one of the best starter options out there. It's far from perfect, but what it enables you to do at its price point is pretty much unrivaled. The Bernard Herrmann Toolkit is a bit niche but still versatile, and fills in some gaps (percussion etc.) in the Studio line, locking in perfectly with it (same room, players (I think), microphones, engineer).

Like others have said, the LABS stuff is incredible. I have quite a few of the old Kontakt Labs instruments that have been repackaged in the Spitfire Player, and the new ones they've been releasing are really impressive too.

The only Spitfire library that I own which I think I would resell if I could is Orchestral Swarm, but that's my fault for making a somewhat hasty purchase, and not being able to find much use for it in my music. It's a very cool set of sounds.
 
LCO and Albion V are great, Forget Albion IV unless you have a spare year to document what the hell is actually in there. Some truly great stuff but my God it's a labour to get to what you are looking for. Everybody should have the basic Studio series.
 
I don't have a ton of their offerings to comment on, compared to some here, but I know that Albion V, LCO Strings, and the Eric Whitacre Choir are masterworks.

Alternative Solo Strings is perfect at what it does, and in a way, you can use it as a more playable version of some of their EVO-based strings.

The Studio series must be one of the best starter options out there. It's far from perfect, but what it enables you to do at its price point is pretty much unrivaled. The Bernard Herrmann Toolkit is a bit niche but still versatile, and fills in some gaps (percussion etc.) in the Studio line, locking in perfectly with it (same room, players (I think), microphones, engineer).

Like others have said, the LABS stuff is incredible. I have quite a few of the old Kontakt Labs instruments that have been repackaged in the Spitfire Player, and the new ones they've been releasing are really impressive too.

The only Spitfire library that I own which I think I would resell if I could is Orchestral Swarm, but that's my fault for making a somewhat hasty purchase, and not being able to find much use for it in my music. It's a very cool set of sounds.
I like the LCO strings, and the BHCT and ASS look very tempting too.
glad to hear, currently debating about LCOS and AltSS...May get the Bohemian bundle (already have BHCT) if discount is significant.
 
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Frank Ricotti's Mallets collection

Could you, or possibly someone else who has it, tell me if you consider the Marimba to be better for non-classical stuff than the Soniccouture one? I need a good allaround snappy Marimba (think jazz/ pop/ rock) and really like SC's Grand Marimba for that but I don't have it in my personal arsenal.
So I've been thinking if the Ricottis could be as good or even better than it, and maybe I should buy that collection instead. The Steel Drum included is also tempting.
 
Admittedly, I am sort of a Spitfire-junkie. All high quality stuff. I think they excel in depth and quality of sound, and- as ism has put it - a sonority that is quite unique.
Apart from anything strings or otherwise orchestral, I love the North 7 library (4 electric piano's), the OA toolkit (also lovely piano), Glass & Steel (though I may need to upgrade my pc for it...), Enigma (now: Ambient Guitars), and, above all: the Sounddust collections. I think their interest in Pendle's lovely sounding and highly inspirational libraries are testament to Spitfire's approach to music making.
I do have three libraries of them I do not use as much as the other, two of them rather big: Albion V, BHCT and orchestral swarm, but that has much more to do with me having difficulty using large do it all libs (as opposed to the specialized ones like SCS or SSoS) than them being not of quality.
 
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Far and away; I use it on all my jazz projects. It has more bite and cuts through the mix better. I'm super-tired at this late hour so don't have the energy to look into it after a few years, but my recollection is that Ricotti includes more mallet types. Can't remember whether auto-switching of mallets by velocity and/or note range is part of SC. Ricotti does rolls at certain velocities also. But I use SC's vibraphone, in spite of how much extra work is required due to the complexity of pedaling. Or maybe because of it, as it's why I get the most realistic phrasing with it.
 
LCO and Albion V are great, Forget Albion IV unless you have a spare year to document what the hell is actually in there. Some truly great stuff but my God it's a labour to get to what you are looking for. Everybody should have the basic Studio series.
Is LCO strings different from what they released in January?
 
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