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Questions about Orchestral Tools (OT vs Spitfire)

It's based on personal taste between the two and I think that's why 65% of the total libraries I own are Spitfire. They have a modern sound to them, lots of unique ways to score compositions and mainly easy to plug and play without a crap ton of programming to do (thank you, Appassionata!). But I think if SP worked on listening to customers' issues like better patch updates, improve the SP player like the purge feature and others, they would silence a lot of their haters and critics.

However, I do own a few individual instruments from OT that I'm quite happy with. The more that I'm impressed with some of their most recent libraries like Berlin Con Sordino, Salu and even PVS, the more I want to buy their stuff. I've heard that OT and Spitfire blends in pretty well together but only thing that's kept me from going all in with OT is the price. If I was able to trade or sell AROOF and pick up Berlin Con Sordino in its place, I would do it in a heartbeat.
 
Personally I feel that most of the best mock-ups I hear always seem to include Spitfire libraries in some capacity. Best ones often include a mix and match of lots of different libraries! Spitfire, Cinesamples, Cinematic Studio series etc.
 
They are both excellent options for a full orchestra. There are some demos of SSO that sound the most authentic to me, but sometimes that doesn't translate to the use of the library for a specific purpose.

SSB and can be frustrating to use and while it does have a some gem patches, its not as consistent as Berlin across the entire library.
I don't own OT BB or BW (yet) but I have BS, all arks, times and a few individual instruments and they are all very consistent between patches. I had problems with SSB with the volumes which are different between articulations and groupings of instruments, it needs a little programming when needed (I suppose they all do, but you want minimum time)

I'm hoping OT and SF both continue to update their orchestral line, SF recently adding a new performance legato to some instruments is fantastic. Sine player has the edge for sure, being able to merge mics and make your own blends between articulations is magnificent.

I absolutely love this strings comparison video because you can hear each phrase side by side (keep in mind this is pre-sine, pre-cinestrings update) To my ears, SSS sounds the best, the most real and full of life, BUT this is for this theme and purpose (band of brothers theme) and you can also hear how dark CSS is compared to the others.


Here's another older video, but its great because the midi mock up was tailored for each sample libraries, to my ears SSB sounds the most realistic to me but berlin sounds very thick and full. He makes some awesome points at the end about how libraries are going to work for your purpose. I like this video because its an actual mock up (from the GOAT) so its a perfect use example of these libraries.


Both these videos are great because you can go and listen to the original score and compare it to that too.

I think its awesome we get to debate over these two companies, I remember 20+ years ago and Vienna was the only thing out there at 10k-20k+. I'm grateful they both exist and keep at each others necks in producing libraries for us to use
 
Denkii said:
That's basically exactly what Panda said... I am confused.
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It was the way that they said "nah" in reply to someone saying OT had the most detail. It made it sound like they meant that VSL has more detail, which I disagree with
 
Christopher Rocky said:
I absolutely love this strings comparison video because you can hear each phrase side by side (keep in mind this is pre-sine, pre-cinestrings update) To my ears, SSS sounds the best, the most real and full of life, BUT this is for this theme and purpose (band of brothers theme) and you can also hear how dark CSS is compared to the others.
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This is a dreadful comparison with not the slightest bit of focus on using the libraries as intended. The original author needs to learn the products and how they react to note overlaps, dynamics, how to do rebows, when to use which artics, etc. It's a major misrepresentation of every product in the video.
 
Evans said:
This is a dreadful comparison with not the slightest bit of focus on using the libraries as intended. The original author needs to learn the products and how they react to note overlaps, dynamics, how to do rebows, when to use which artics, etc. It's a major misrepresentation of every product in the video.
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I'm assuming your referring to the string video? It's not a tutorial and complete overview of a library but a simple sound comparison

But I do agree with you, full in-depth looks at the libraries would be much better, I find it helpful to hear the tone and sound of legatos side by side with libraries
 
Christopher Rocky said:
I'm assuming your referring to the string video? It's not a tutorial and complete overview of a library but a simple sound comparison
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Yes, the strings video. I'm not actually saying it's a bad tutorial. I agree that it's not meant to be and I did not indicate that in my post.

I'm saying it's a bad sound comparison and that the author of the clips perhaps should have given it more care.
 
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Can someone comment on ensemble vs singles?
I noticed at least I think, OT gives both ensemble and singles in their packa

As opposed to spitfire you buy ensemble like Albion One or buy bbc that has singles

Am I correct on this or misled?
 
Jkdbjj said:
Can someone comment on ensemble vs singles?
I noticed at least I think, OT gives both ensemble and singles in their packa

As opposed to spitfire you buy ensemble like Albion One or buy bbc that has singles

Am I correct on this or misled?
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It's not that clear of a distinction. SSO and SCS have both section patches and ensemble patches, for example. And some OT libraries are only sections OR ensembles.

So it differs more on a per library basis, not each developer always doing it differently overall.
 
Justin L. Franks said:
It's not that clear of a distinction. SSO and SCS have both section patches and ensemble patches, for example. And some OT libraries are only sections OR ensembles.

So it differs more on a per library basis, not each developer always doing it differently overall.
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Dang it!!!
 
Jkdbjj said:
Can someone comment on ensemble vs singles?
I noticed at least I think, OT gives both ensemble and singles in their packa

As opposed to spitfire you buy ensemble like Albion One or buy bbc that has singles

Am I correct on this or misled?
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Spitfire Symphonic has Masse in the package, which is an ensemble lib created to blend with the main libs. Chamber Strings also has an ensemble section. Albion One, even if its an ensemble lib, it's heavily processed. That doesn't mean it won't work with Symphonic, but I would say that the sound will differ a lot. BBCSO doesn't have an ensemble lib and AROOF is the ensemble lib of the future ARO.

OT has a similar approach. Berlin Strings has an ensemble patch, as well as THB. But BB and BW doesn't have one. OT, similarly to Spitfire, has a few ensemble libs. Inspire Orchestra is the more direct ensemble, although it's very basic (it's labeled as a laptop lib). Then there's the Metropolis Ark. Each one is specialized in a particular mood, and the orchestration and articulations reflect that. Ark 1 is for epic music, so you have High and Low Strings, 9/3 horns, 4 trumpets, etc but no flutes, oboes or clarinets. Ark 2 is for more moody and deep soft music. So it has alto and bass flutes, euphoniums etc. Ark 3 is all about shorts. Ark 4 is for rare articulations, small strings ensembles and some combo orchestration. Ark 5 has some speciall articulations and fx like the shepard tones and also some unique combinations. Ark 0 is a basic sketch tool with full orchestra, high and low.
 
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Luka said:
Right, that sucks 😕.
But by consistency I was also talking about the volume and timbre differences between articulations. I hate when you switch between two short articulations, for example, and you don't get the same range of volume, or when it doesn't sound like it's from the same instrument playing a coherent line.
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If you are using Cubase expression maps there is a simple fix for this, that I saw Tom Holkenborg sharing in a video. By adding a CC#7 value to the expression map you can balance different articulations.
 
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