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Spitfire Audio - Albion Colossus

Interesting stuff. N.I. Is basically responsible for all these players. It became too expensive and also a conflict of interest to work with them. But it’s pretty obvious that it’s no easy feat to replace Kontakt. The only company that had had crack software engineers from day one is Vienna. So it is what it is, but it won’t be long before most of the players will equal or better Kontakt, at least in all the ways that matter.

Normally you see all these misguided comments about company profits here. Everyone thinks software is too expensive. This industry is quite unprofitable for many companies. Spitfires financials are public record. They make almost zero profit. They have massive expenses. So if you want them around, I wouldn’t complain too much. They are not gouging you. This industry is too small and prices are too low. So yeah us composers are all entitled. I am also a Spitfire customer. FYI I develop all the East West titles but I have no involvement in the financials or stake in the company.
 
Everyone thinks software is too expensive. This industry is quite unprofitable for many companies. Spitfires financials are public record. They make almost zero profit. They have massive expenses. So if you want them around, I wouldn’t complain too much. They are not gouging you.
No one is talking about gouging — I have no idea where you're getting that idea from.

People have complained about the libraries not being good, which I think is untrue. They make a lot of beautiful sounding work. People (and I) have complained about bugs going unaddressed for years, which I think is objectively problematic. People have talked about being underwhelmed by the sound of this particular release which I think is subjective. No matter what anyone releases some folks will say the product is "useless" which I always find fascinating and a little narcissistic.

As for complaints about all the different players — it has been pointed out that running multiple different players in your DAW is more likely to cause issues than running multiple instances of the same player. More importantly, this situation is going to lead to some deep pain when some of these players inevitably get abandoned and the DRM shuts paying customers out because they need to transfer to a new machine and the developer is no longer around.
 
Normally you see all these misguided comments about company profits here. Everyone thinks software is too expensive. This industry is quite unprofitable for many companies. Spitfires financials are public record. They make almost zero profit.
What have you been smoking? If anything is misguided here, it is your comment.

I'm a financial analyst by trade and can tell you that Spitfire is a HIGHLY profitable company with a cash flow generation industrial companies can only dream of.
 
What have you been smoking? If anything is misguided here, it is your comment.

I'm a financial analyst by trade and can tell you that Spitfire is a HIGHLY profitable company with a cash flow generation industrial companies can only dream of.
Have you read their financials? Clearly you haven’t. My point is that they should be doing better considering the level of product they put out.
 
Have you read their financials? Clearly you haven’t. My point is that they should be doing better considering the level of product they put out.
Give it a rest. Of course I’ve reviewed their financials, as I do every year. You obviously have no idea of how financial reporting works so please take your mansplaining to a less initiated crowd.
 
Such an angry bear. This is a music forum. I know nothing of finances. I wasnt aware this had turned into the Bloomberg report. Their financial Reports show stuff like 1.5 mil profit in 2022 and huge expenses. This not a criticism of them it’s the opposite.
 
This is a music forum. I know nothing of finances.
No, thank you, that is apparent. So why then make such uninitiated statements as if they were facts? You don’t understand that that comes off as quite provocative (then again, that may very well have been your intention)?
 
Do you mean it only takes 15.68 GB of RAM after some type of purging? The standard editions of SSP + Brass + Woodwinds + Perc 1 would take up 477 GB on disk, and I'm skeptical that you can load all that at once using only 15 GB of memory. That would mean that the libraries only use 3% of the memory compared to their space on disk 🧐
No purging at all, I keep everything enabled.
 
No, thank you, that is apparent. So why then make such uninitiated statements as if they were facts? You don’t understand that that comes off as quite provocative (then again, that may very well have been your intention)?

Given you’ve actually not quoted any numbers or metrics at all, and just insisted you are an expert along with some insults, you’re not exactly coming off well here. Maybe try giving us a ROCE for Spitfire and how that compares with another industry and we can start believing in your expertise.
 
No, thank you, that is apparent. So why then make such uninitiated statements as if they were facts? You don’t understand that that comes off as quite provocative (then again, that may very well have been your intention)?
Listen, their finances are public record. If the information that I saw with my own 2 eyes is wrong, or I’m an idiot and misread it then fine. But what I saw shows a loss all the way till roughly 2017 and then very small profits till present. I think there was one year they made 4 mil.
 
They don’t do bad.

Turn over of £21million, divided by an average library cost of £400 means that sell about 50000 libraries a year.

Working profits of £5million means they have a lot of expenditures.
 

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Given you’ve actually not quoted any numbers or metrics at all, and just insisted you are an expert along with some insults, you’re not exactly coming off well here. Maybe try giving us a ROCE for Spitfire and how that compares with another industry and we can start believing in your expertise.
Sure, I’d be happy to. Am currently in Cape Town but will provide some insights when I’m back at the hotel in the evening.
 
No, thank you, that is apparent. So why then make such uninitiated statements as if they were facts? You don’t understand that that comes off as quite provocative (then again, that may very well have been your intention)?
Wow, never thought I will live to see someone bashing NP this recklessly...
 
After a two minute Google I find exactly the same numbers as Nick is stating. If Paul and Christian would sell the company to a private equity firm, profits would be a multiple of what they are now. Say goodbuy to Composer Magazine and most of the free labs, etc. as Christian has put it himself here on VI-C. They're doing well, but are not getting filthy rich of Spitfire Audio eventhough they could. In my book they are definitely good guys.

To stay on topic: I see Colossus as a tool to speed up the workflow and also as a possible beginners tool. I wouldn't be surprised if this is going to do well in the real world.

Myself, eventhough I'm still a hobbyist beginner, I own way too many sample libraries to be interested in a tool to get you started. I'm also very much into endless tweaking - quite the opposite of a speedy workflow.
 
1,5mil after tax in 2022 and had steady earning last years, so they definetly do better than ”break even” or making peanuts. It looks to be a healthy company, so probably not going away anytime soon :)
 
They make almost zero profit. They have massive expenses.
Almost zero is a misrepresentation considering their most recent accounts.
They clearly aren't running the company purely to maximise profits.
So there is some fat there they could trim in leaner times.
There was a large increase in expenses last year which might be explained in the text of the accounts.
Curious as to what that relates to.
Considering the ethos of the company, they seem to be doing okay.
 
Well, of course it depends on the person, but I would not suggest such a synthy sounding lib as a first choice for a newbie because you can always make a straight up sounding lib sound like ass with any number of synthy plugin effects. This gives you more options right out of the gate than if you only had one orchestra that always sounded fake no matter what you did to it.

Albion ONE, which can be phasey enough lol, (but not on purpose) and it's eDNA synths would be a better choice for a first library if you wanted to stick with SF. Just don't pay full price like I did starting out. Doh! 🤭

But I would hands down recommend ProjectSAM Symphobia 1 as a great choice for a newbie's first orchestra. That's a great apples to apples, head-to-head ensemble style comparison with Albion Colossus or Albion ONE. And in my opinion it's miles better than either one in both sounds and the sheer breadth of articulations and aeletoric FX. It has no perc, though, unlike this Albion or Albion ONE.
I really started my collection with PS Orchestral Essentials 1 and 2 (“well, the first one wasn’t called One, was it”) and I think they already offer a lot. And I have reason to assume they will be updated to 2.0 soon, as well (like S1-3 were).
 
Had to stop the video a few minutes in due to the presenter's attitude. I now remembered watching him before and having the same feeling: a musically illiterate "composer" in a great studio surrounded by all this gear and cameras, struggling to fill the skill gaps with banter and BS. The bar is pretty low... ground level low in my opinion. For shame.
Unkind of you.
 
Come on, Spitfire’s shareholders don’t need to take a huge dividend. Why pay tax on money you’ll end up spending on gear anyway?
 
Spitfire, due to their early reputation for quality, ease of use, and stellar marketing, have created likely the most successful sample library company. Serving and supporting professional composers, producers, and creating an environment where beginners and hobbyists feel welcome to the table is an amazing feat, and I have so much respect for the inclusive culture they’ve helped to create.

I'd say East West is the most successful sample library company. And they create a much more supportive environment by selling their flagship library, which beats all others, for $299.

Aside from iffy upgrade policies (ahem, Spaces), you don't hear much from them. But they do update their stuff regularly, and OPUS is the poster child for an actual, usable, incredible update.

Spitfire should look at them more. They could learn a thing or two. OPUS as a sample player is for me the defacto standard, period.

I love BBCSO so, soooo much, but I also hate their player with a passion. F*ck that POS. That library was ruined with that player. It's incomprehensible.
 
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