Spitfire Audio 'Symphonic Motions' Library Released

[playz123]

OT, like Christian I use an EV RE-20 a lot and that pop filter fits it perfectly. Anyone know what that is?

Not 100% sure, but it could be this one (see photo below)::
https://reverb.com/item/5354625-bsw-re2 ... icrophones


This one is similar:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... or_ev.html

[Ashermusic]

Thanks Frank!

[Ashermusic]

BTW, I just received this to review, and immediately some impressions, after 1/2 hour:

1. This is incredibly useful to add to other strings libraries, like Hollywood Strings, CSS or Afflatus, perhaps.

2. It gives you a tremendous number of ways to vary it to what you want it to do, so if the result is cliche', it's on you.

3. Surprisingly, the Spitfire demo guys use it in a totally different way then I will. Christian says something like , "one track for the whole thing." I am never probably going to do that. I will probably use 4 tracks for each kind of preset so that I have control over each range.

4. Even with no reverb , no ambient mic, it's still pretty wet, so I am going to have to figure out which EW Spaces preset can come closest to that Air Lyndhurst sound.

More and more, in this era where there really are a lot of good "does everything pretty well" libraries, I am thinking that the best thing developers can do for us is give us tools that only do a limited amount of things but do them extremely well.Maybe the immediate glow will wear off, but so far I am impressed.

And of course, I love that they are all Logic Pro guys

[Lawrence]

Post a little demo, Jay!

[Markus K]

One unexpected thing that It could be used for are measured tremolo melodies and arpeggios. I used it in a completely out of orchestral context synth-rock track layered with a synth melody. Wouldn't have had the idea probably if I wouldn't have bought it just in the moment when I had to to rework and finish the track.
I'm looking forward to your review and your ideas Jay.

[Muziksculp]

Hi,

I'm running Symphonic Motions with these settings : CPU Friendly Granular mode, Max Voices (512), Preload Size (12288), Max Pitch Voices (32), Memory Mapping (Enabled). I'm using Studio One Pro 5 (Windows 10 Pro). RAM Buffer set to 256.

Using any of the other Audio Setting options produces clicks in the audio.

Issue #1 : When I have the Close Mic, and any other Mic enabled I get clicks when I play some notes. I do not get the clicks if I only use one of the 3 preset Mixes selected, (Mix 1, Mix 2 , Mix 3). I'm not sure why this is happening ? I have quite a powerful PC.

Issue #2 : When I move the Overlay Tightness knob, it also moves the Close Mic Level fader. Is that what it's supposed to do ? I find this quite odd.

According to the user Sym-Motions manual, The Overlay Tightness/ Attack knobs, Quote: "Alter these controls to vary the sound of the overlay technique".

Here is a video clip showing Issue #2 :



Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Muziksculp

[Ashermusic]

Not seeing that so far in Logic. Studio One has the reputation of being less efficient but I can not confirm or refute that as I have never used it.

[Muziksculp]

Not seeing that so far in Logic. Studio One has the reputation of being less efficient but I can not confirm or refute that as I have never used it.

Are you referring to the clicks, or the fader issue shown in the video ?

Thanks

[Ashermusic]

Not seeing that so far in Logic. Studio One has the reputation of being less efficient but I can not confirm or refute that as I have never used it.

Are you referring to the clicks, or the fader issue shown in the video ?

Thanks

Both.

[Muziksculp]

Thanks.

I wonder if any Cubase users can check this.

[Muziksculp]

OK, someone confirmed the fader issue is happening in Cubase 10.5 as well.

So, this is surely a bug with their current player version of Symph. Motions. Hopefully they can fix this bug, and improve its performance.

I will be reporting it to their support as a bug.

[Ashermusic]

Am I doing something different?

How do you attach a movie?

[Muziksculp]

OK.. I found a temporary fix for the fader issue.

I midi learned the Tightness Knob to a physical controller knob, now when I move the physical controller knob, the close mic fader does not move with it. They are independent as they should be.

Give it a try if you have a physical controller you can assign to the tightness knob.

If I move the tightness knob using the mouse on the GUI, the Close Mic still follows it, so my temporary solution is to use a HW-Controller for now to fix this issue.

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers,

Muziksculp

Video showing the Tightness Controller operated via a Physical Controller linked to it, instead of the mouse.

[playz123]

#1: No clicks or pops in latest versions of Cubase 10.5 or Logic Pro X
#2: Happens as you describe in Cubase 10.5x, but assigning a controller to Tightness does eliminate the 'problem'. The problem does not occur in Logic Pro X here.

[Muziksculp]

Thanks for the feedback.

Which audio setting do you have selected for Symph. Motions Player ? (CPU friendly Granular, Low elastique, Mid elastique, Hi elastique ) ?

What about your RAM buffer ?

[Ashermusic]

Interesting that apparently it happens in both Studio One and Cubase but not Logic Pro. I wonder that those two have architecturally in common that Logic does not . Does Studio One use AU or VST?

[Muziksculp]

Interesting that apparently it happens in both Studio One and Cubase but not Logic Pro. I wonder that those two have architecturally in common that Logic does not . Does Studio One use AU or VST?

It supports both AU, VST (VST2 and VST3). AU only works for Mac, not Windows.

From the Presonus Website :

Studio One® supports 64-bit AU, VST2, and VST3 plug-ins and virtual instruments, well as ReWire, so your favorite plug-ins, VIs, and ReWire applications will load into and perform in Studio One as expected. Users can create custom plug-in thumbnails for easy visual browsing.

[Ashermusic]

So VST. for you. I will only say that if it’s the case, it would not be the first plugins that have had issues with one format but not another.

[Muziksculp]

So VST. for you. I will only say that if it’s the case, it would not be the first plugins in app hat had issues with one format but not another.

Yes, VST for me, I'm on Windows 10.

I already submitted a bug report to Spitfire Audio regarding the fader issue, and mentioned the performance/clicks issue . Hopefully they will be able to improve the performance, and fix the fader bug via an update.

[Muziksculp]

Hi,

Here is an update on the clicks issue I mentioned in my earlier post.

One important detail about this issue is I'm playing along some rhythmic accenting pattern along with the pattern being triggered by the Player, at high tempo i.e. at 140, 150, 160 bpm. so it's kind of a stress test, I'm not just playing a chord and letting the Player do it's thing, then playing another chord, I'm adding a lot of rhythmic motion on the existing motion the player is creating. The Player's Audio is set to Granular CPU Friendly.

I decided to try bumping my RAM buffer from 256 to 512, and test if I still hear the clicks, and Yes, I still do. So.. I decided to go to the next level, and bump the RAM buffer to 1024 Samples. Tested again, and no more clicks are audible, I then changed the audio setting to Low-Elastique, and same thing, no clicks are audible. So, I feel it is the Symph. Motion's Player that needs to perform quite a bit of realtime math here to deal with the time-stretching of the samples in realtime. Which is choking the CPU when I add more load on it by playing along the player's rhythmic pattern at lower RAM buffer setting.

As a test, can some user of Symph. Motions try to play along with one of the patterns, at higher bpm, and kind of jam along with the rhythm being produced by playing chords, and single note patterns, accents, ..etc. to see if that stresses you system, and produced clicks in the audio. at the normal buffer you usually have your audio interface set.

Also to note that if I have the Close Mic level active, I still get the clicks, so I use one of the Mix1,2,3 options instead.

It would be great if Spitfire Audio can improve the efficiency/performance of their Audio Player for this library via a future Update.

I hope this is helpful.

Thanks,
Muziksculp

[Guy Rowland]

Muziksculp - I'm not getting clicks here on my 7820X @4.3ghz with your settings in the first paragraph, AG2 on low, 160bpm, 256. I'm holding a triad on my left then trying to confuse it as much as possible with my right. CPU use is fairly hefty though, real time peak is nearly 100% eventually and average load climbs to around 80-90%. If I really go insane with the player setting on Default, I can just about make it start clicking.

It seems a pretty thirsty plugin for sure, but that's not entirely unexpected perhaps with a) anything using quality timestretching and b) many voices. I guess specifics will vary dependent on DAW, OS, soundcard, processor, clock speed, buffer - everything basically.

[Ashermusic]

Christian says that it is right in his walkthrough. He recommends using the lowest quality time/pitch stretch while you are working with it, then switching to the highest quality for bouncing.

[Muziksculp]

Muziksculp - I'm not getting clicks here on my 7820X @4.3ghz with your settings in the first paragraph, AG2 on low, 160bpm, 256. I'm holding a triad on my left then trying to confuse it as much as possible with my right. CPU use is fairly hefty though, real time peak is nearly 100% eventually and average load climbs to around 80-90%. If I really go insane with the player setting on Default, I can just about make it start clicking.

It seems a pretty thirsty plugin for sure, but that's not entirely unexpected perhaps with a) anything using quality timestretching and b) many voices. I guess specifics will vary dependent on DAW, OS, soundcard, processor, clock speed, buffer - everything basically.

Hi Guy,

Thanks for the helpful feedback.

Are you running at 44.1 or 48 Khz. Clock speed ?

I have my system set at 48 Khz. Clock speed. I will try switching it to 44.1 and see if that improves things a bit.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

[Muziksculp]

Christian says that it is right in his walkthrough. He recommends using the lowest quality time/pitch stretch while you are working with it, then switching to the highest quality for bouncing.

Yes, for a good reason

[Guy Rowland]

I’m 48k.