Oh I just noticed Valhalla Massive, wow the ‘free’ offers every developer have now is becoming a trend, haha.
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I downloaded last night. Going to try it out in a day or so. Have a few projects to finish and then I’ll post a track that I’ll write entirely with BBCSO discover, plus the notes on what I think.
What I’m expecting with it being a spitfire product.
- High quality samples (which is a given)
- too much high end in samples (this hasn’t changed in ten+ years of SF libraries.
- hopefully no 170hz build up because it’s not in air studios. It’s the only thing I really dislike about spitfire products.
- simple interface which will probably lack a few obvious features such as Key switch notes missing.
So there’s a few great things I’m expecting, and a few things I’m less optimistic about. I’m an avid spitfire user. I love the sound but they aren’t a perfect library, probably the best right now but they aren’t unbeatable. Just like every company I guess. There’s just so much hype because they’ve created a culture around their products, which is awesome but it just means we need to make sure we aren’t sucked in.
I will say this though. Initially I was quite dissapointed last year that they decided to ditch kontakt and go for their own platform. This year however, I was pleasantly surprised when they released the discover and core, making it accessible for all. No doubt this will help them with sales, but that’s the Cynic in me talking. I’m just very happy that it’s now even easier than ever to get into writing and collaborating over different platforms:)
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Hey,
i just played around with Discover.
the missing key changes could be compensated with program changes, at least in Reaper.
Im a bit confused about short notes. i tried to implement an arpegio with 8th notes, and if the follow directly to each other, only the first is played. so its not possible to play 4 4th in a bar 
Anybody has the same problem? If I use my epic strings, it works.
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This used to be a problem back in the day with the older version of albion 1. I found I had to make the notes much longer than they needed to be to get them to play that type of phrase. They eventually did an update and it was fine. Someone else I know had to delete it off their hard drive and re download it and that fixed the issue. Perhaps one of those solutions might work… though both aren’t ideal.
For free i won’t bother it at all 
Another issue i found are low or high notes. The missing 9.8GB (or more) of sound remindes me of my beginnings in LMMS and Soundfonts with 26KB 
The first 2 octaves of the violins sound very synthetic and are not usable imho.
Interesting view. Seeing as they are the same samples as the other two libraries I’d be more inclined to think the opposite? Especially after seeing Guy michelmores video where they sounded quite good… the only thing I herd was the lack of dynamic layers.
I saw guy’s video too, yes there they sounded amazing.
im still playing with it, but i need other libraries too…
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I am still waiting on my link, should take another week or so. Will see how it turns out.
Definitely just a taster library. What I’d suggest is this is great for the softer dynamics because of the MF dynamic layers they chose to use. But you’d still need to ther libraries for more variety.
I think something I’ve learnt from making my own libraries is often less can be more. So I’m excited to see exactly how far I can push this limitation. Often a limitation pushes you do so even more than you normally would.
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push the button twice and you get a surprise
if you switch the octaves in the keyboard by two, the key changes appear…
seems to work…
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oh yes, on every Spitfire product the keyswitches are at -2… though you can change where they appear in the settings if you want to move them.
my epic products don’t seem to have that… but anyway, discover is great, except the violins 1 and 2, are not really usable for me… the epic strings are way better.
i still need a good solo violin to set some accents
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SOlo instruments are always a neccesity right now im really enjoying performance samples stuff. they have a free solo violin which is awesome. if your wanting to try and keep things free then maybe check that out.
PS are so good because they keep a lot of the nuances of the performer inside the sample, where products from others try to disect those and add them in later for control. so you’ll find there are set bow times in the sample which may force you to replay a note before some bows change, its a limitation but the realism that you get is amazing because its an actual performance sample. see how you get on with it and if you enjoy it think about purchasing their paid solo violin solos of the sea highly recommend any of their products for this very reason
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Ok I’m half way through playing with BBSO discover. I have to say. I’m well impressed. Currently only used the strings, which to my ears sound ace, even if you’d paid for it.
I have to say that I was sceptic after first, as you could probably tell at the start but I’d say if your just starting out or even if you are collaborating, then this is definitely something to get your hands on. It’s really making me think twice about getting core!
In regards to the violin 1 I can’t hear that it sounds unusable, perhaps it’s the way it’s being used in the piece?
I’ll say a few things that I think we need to be aware of too.
So the dynamic layers definitely give if a softer feel, so it’s great for propper emosh stuff I’d say.
Another thing I’ve found so far is it doesn’t work well with notes overlapping and there’s a little bug that occasionally plays the samples of the strings all together when press stop, a bit like sitting on the keys of a piano, but it’s not an issue.
There’s one thing I’m seeing that it’s missing which I’m very sad about being a John williams fan… there’s no French horn 
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I’m so close to getting the Core version, as it seems to be the best compromise for me personally. From the walkthroughs, and discussions I’ve had with fellow composers, I have to say that to me the strings are the best part of the BBCSO line up, followed by the woodwinds, then percussion, and brass is a bit underwhelming to my ears at least. Would you agree?
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From what I understand Spitfires ethos to be, they are all about the iconic symphonic sound. So they don’t really hype brass samples as much as other libraries. They seem to design them so that they sit in the mix as support, rather than what others do, which is to accentuate the upper mids and 200hz range to make the fizz and sound more epic. So I don’t think they’re underwhelming. To me they perform similarly to an actual symphonic ensemble which is great for realism. Slowly as this loudness and epic was battle goes on we are losing that. So I appreciate spitfires attention to realism. At least right now i do 
I agree, the strings in most of their libraries are amazing. I’m really enjoying the sound of this hall. I’m open about disliking the sound of air studios. I’m forever EQing mud out of spitfire libraries because their libraries sound amazing with single lines but as soon as you get a few instances of a symphonic library from air, there’s a few places that mud builds up quickly. An yet I keep going back to libraries like albion 1 which I do even More EQing on (though I made presets so I don’t have to do the same thing over and over again haha). The thing is, they have their quirks but there’s something about them that if used in the right way just makes your pieces pop.
So with this discover I’ve not done any EQibg for mud as of yet. How cool is that! 
excited to do a big more with it later on. The next post I’ll just make a thread with all my thoughts compiled as I’ll include a short piece ive write with it.
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The danger with Albion, Metropolis Ark 1 and similar libs is that you can easily become “lazy” as a composer, and go for the Low + High ensembles of everything. It works for epic/hybrid cinematic music, but as you say, natural and detailed orchestral music needs that realism. I might have to take a second listen to the brass and don’t compare it to Forzo!
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Hahaha yeah totally agree it’s all about making sure we give what the piece needs though. Which often these days is an epic feel. But if we listen to starwars for instance… it was recorded in a tiny room and still sounds mega. So I lean towards the philosophy that if you can muster the skill to create a piece with natural sounding samples then great. But you’ll probably end up mixing samples at some point to get the sound you want haha!
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Yes, and the original Star Wars soundtrack (from the older films) the brass is really really “bright” and with hardly any low end to what we are used to these days. In fact, we have become so used to hearing “over processed and close mic’ed sounds” that we seem to forget what natural orchestral sound is about!
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Exactly. These days we are used to hearing really weighty brass but generally brass don’t live I. Those sub areas. We add that in with synths and processing.
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