So what I am wondering is what is that difference of twenty articulations between core and pro? I have core, and since I have come from working in EW Composer Cloud, there are some key articulations missing. Horn Slides and other extended techniques that are available in play are not available in core. Even though the library sounds very good, without these extended articulations, the realism of mockups suffer.
How are you finding Infinite Brass and Woodwinds? These seem like a game-changer for playability.
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Iâm happy with Core - I donât have the space or possibly the computer power (or the cash) for Pro! In total there are 130 more articulations in Pro. Nothing that Iâve missed.
Really liking them so far! They really are a game-changer in that you can literally just play things as you intend, rather than making do with the best fit out of pre-recorded articulations. As one might expect, they do have a bit of a tendency to sound synthetic if youâre not actually making full use of their expressive capabilities, but theyâre a lot more forgiving than the SWAM instruments in that regard.
From the other perspective: Whereas SWAM are literally modeled instruments primarily focused on playability and expression, with enough flexibility to do almost anything the real instruments could (and some things that are probably not humanly possible to play), Infinite is much closer to sample libraries in terms of tone and âbasicâ sound, while making only minor sacrifices in articulation capabilities. That is, unlike SWAM, the Infinite instruments are not completely dead and synthetic when played with no expression at all, but for all practical matters, youâre still playing instruments, rather than splicing snippets of recordings.
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Gotcha. I guess it just depends on what you are trying to do.
Thatâs interesting, thanks for that feedback. Iâve been hesitant about SWAM, because of the generally unsurpassed problem of playing and writing a more dynamic instrument with only one or two articulations at a time. Are the SWAM instruments still keyswitches, and how fun and time-consuming is it to create lines?
Basically, the one-or-two articulation patch recorded at a time is a creativity-killer for me. Anyhow, thanks for you thoughts.
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Iâm not quite sure how the keyswitches problem applies to SWAM (on Infinite), actually⌠The point is, they basically donât have articulations in the first place, so thatâs not what the keyswitches are for! Theyâre just for settings/fyeatures, like mutes, modes of control (bowing/expression/velocity-to-attack etc, and not normally used when actually playing. (With the exception of the SWAM strings, where you use keyswitching for pizzicato/arco, as thereâs obviously no way of expressing one through the âcontrol systemâ of the other.)
The way it works with these instruments is that you literally play the articulations, in much the same way you do with the real instruments. Itâs a dramatically different playing experience, where you basically get an instant, accurate response to any control input, whereas a sample library basically (at best) tries to make sense of what youâre trying to do, thinks about it for a moment, and then gives you the best approximation out of its pre-recorded snippets. The experience is much closer to playing real instruments than it is to âplayingâ sample libraries.
As for fun, itâs a matter of perspective, Iâd say. If youâre the kind of person who enjoys learning how to play various real instruments, SWAM will come across as pretty easy to pick up, and Infinite even more so, as itâs more forgiving, at the expense of slightly less detail control. If you expect to just play these instruments like traditional samples, thinking about it more from the perspective of a composer with your own personal orchestra in the box, youâll most likely be disappointed and frustrated, because that basically just does not work, especially not with SWAM.
Similarly with time, if you can play fluently with expression and all (breath controllers, pedals, Leap Motion or whatever), itâs possible to âjustâ play and instantly have results you want, but other than that, itâs going to be pretty time consuming to create the amount of continuous control data needed to breathe life into these instruments. Again, SWAM has basically zero tolerance to âstaleâ input, whereas Infinite is a bit more forgiving, but neither has much of the âcanned expressionâ found in most sample libraries.
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Recently took the plunge and bought Core myself, after talking with you all for a while about its features.
My overall thoughts are that itâs wonderful, very expressive and the sounds are nothing short of perfect⌠for the most part.
Now to go into detail. The strings and woodwinds are the best part of the library, lovely legatos and full sounding multis:) My favourite part of the library is the tuned percussion, all of the mallet instruments are awesome and sound very realistic. Some say they donât like them because they donât have a lot of precence but actually they have exactly the right amount without becoming piercing in a mix, so I think theyâre great!
My favourite instrument is the Tambourine⌠yes you heard me 
itâs perfect and sounds amazing. Lots of dynamic layers in the sound and itâs very smooth. Found myself adding it to everything. Thatâs what oth want from any instrument, for it to inspire you! Sadly I canât say this library is inspiring because itâs simply too clinical in places. The woods are quite inspiring but even the strings take a little too long to program which to me stifles my creativity a touch, having said this⌠the end result is worth it.
The worst part of the library is by far the brass. Too raspy, not a lot of control and the dynamic layers are poorly mixed. In particular the trumpets and Horn are particularly bad. Thereâs some odd EQ in the trumpet which doesnât make it sit well and the horn sounds no different to the one in discovery in my opinion. Is it the worst Iâve heard? Not by a long shot, but itâs bad enough for me to not want to use it too often⌠the tuba is gorgeous though, so keep an eye out for that (Iâm a secret tuba fan!!)
Overall I think the library is very well rounded, and with a bit of supliment action from other libraries for the horn, trumpet and low percussion itâs most definitely a winner.
Right now thereâs no choir or piano but I hear the piano at least is on itâs way.
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I took the plunge during Spitfireâs end-of-year sale. I had the Discovery edition so I got the additional discount from the upgrade path. The one feature that I felt that made the upgrade well worth it: the articulations. The jump up from 47 articulations (techniques) to 305 articulations is really nice just to make your orchestral pieces more realistic. I would love to jump up to professional edition for the technique editor, but my hard drive is running low and would need another external drive just to cover the 600GB cost.
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