Spitfire retire BML Brass, introduce Symphonic Brass

[Guy Rowland]

All details here - http://www.spitfireaudio.com/press-rele ... brass-rip/

Looks conceptually similar to how they went with Sable mutating into Chamber Strings. £399 +VAT for the new bundle, which contains all the BML brass main mics.

Til 14th September there are some pretty good discounts to the existing BML series before they are retired. Curious to hear reports on what people's favourites or otherwise are from the BML brass range.

[Aoiichi]

I guess this is also why those glitch fixes never happened. Very curious that legato was omitted from the new solo instruments, too.

[Lawrence]

I saw the price, thought "wow", saw the lack of legato, thought "wow."

[J Rod]

Sincerely, don't know what to think about this new "Spitfire way".

[tack]

I'm ok with it personally, so long as they get on with the improvements and new content.

[Lawrence]

I bought Sable for a quarter of its original (extremely high, IMO) price, so I highly approve of the policy. SF has now sold me two products I would never have bought and OT sold me Metropolis Ark, both due to reasonable pricing.

I imagine OT sold a TON of Arks. It's a great entry product and introduces a lot of new buyers to OT. Smart marketing.

[X-bassist]

Spitfire mentioned they would be adding legatos to the trombones (already recorded) and other arts in an update on the vi thread. Looks like a good deal for those that want to upgrade or jump in.
http://vi-control.net/community/threads ... ced.55700/

[Guy Rowland]

On legato - just checking all the existing BML range that have legato have it ported across to this, correct? It's just some of the new instruments don't have it ready yet? (And yes, this has all the hallmarks of rushing a release out to steal a march on the competition, doesn't it?)

Still keen to hear any and all first hand reports on the existing BML brass. I'm aware that there has been much to praise and much to criticise, but I've lost all sense of what applied to what. I have the 2 horns, and will confess I wasn't over-enamoured with it, preferring the CineBrass 2 horn patch in general, which is a high spot of Cinebrass core - lovely tone and smooth legatos, I remember.

It is curious that they're now abandoning the BML range, with all the bluster of how great it is (was) to have a modular library. This came up recently on another thread, how many people prefer to pick and choose instruments rather than a big sweeping library that contains much they don't want / need. Personally I tend to go for the bigger range, but it's nice to have the option from time to time for sure.

[mickeyl]

BML was a great idea in the beginning, but I think SpitfireAudio underestimated what an unmaintainable behemot it could (and did) turn into. This, and the tendency to much lower prices (thanks to the competition these days), while not annoying their veteran customers too much, seems to drive them now. Good for new customers like me, but I think there's also some goodness in it for the existing base.

[Lawrence]

Hmmm...everything but trombone, which is promised? So saith a commercial thread. Never any guarantees, but still.

[Aoiichi]

SF have since updated the store page to say that legato for the solo bass and tenor trombones will come out in a free update.

I agree with you guy, it does smell like Spitfire are trying to push this out as soon as possible to get ahead of the curve. It's indeed ironic they made a grand fanfare of their modular system, but updates for them haven't been forthcoming as it seems they're more interested out new products all the time, instead of spending manpower on supporting existing ones (their release schedule is insane and it's starting to hit me as desperate and greedy instead of workaholic and productive given their support for already released products). I don't believe there's been any or many fixes or updates for the BML brass, as a whole. Latest was the release of the trumpet corps mics and mixes and the move to the new BML codebase, but nothing since at least August 2015 otherwise.

Some of the bigger problems I had with BML, such as extremely jarring and sudden dynamic tonal leaps- especially present in some of the sustains and staccatos from what I remember- I don't think will be fixed (what I mean by this is if you take a sustain/legato, and steadily and slowly increase the CC1 there comes a single, or very narrow set of values where the timbre and tone go from a nice smooth mf to full on buzz and razziness, with nothing inbetween). They have said new material was recorded, but I suspect that this is only to record the new instruments, not add things like the extra dynamic layers and smoothing that would be required to fix such problems.

[Killiard]

I almost bought the horns last year but was put off by some bad reviews. I was under the impression that the SF brass wasn't really that good?

I remember earlier in the year seeing that picture of John Powell's template, which seemed full of Spitfire except for the brass section. He still seemed to favour Cinebrass.

[Guy Rowland]

Thanks chaps - I didn't need much convincing to keep the GAS in check.

[Piet De Ridder]

It is increasingly difficult to remain a sidiously devoted Spitfire fan if they keep abandoning older products and bundlng them in new "all in" formulas, leaving the originals unattended.
For example, a while ago I bought the BML Reeds vol. 1 (clarinets and oboes). A clearly unfinished and undersampled affair for which I always expected some update or other. (Considering the price, not a wholly unreasonable expectation, I would think.) But if Spitfire intends to do the same with their woodwinds as they're now doing with the brass (and previously with Sable) — and they probably will, by the looks of things —, there's every chance that there will never come an update for those Reeds, and even if there is, it'll be part of Spitfire's grand Symphonic Woodwinds bundle, a product I don't really want or need.
So here I am, once again stuck with yet another Spitfire library that's incomplete but … left behind.

Other problem: even if I wanted to upgrade, I can't. That's partly my own fault because I restrict my online payment methods to PayPal — some sort of self-imposed limit is needed when you're as compulsive a spender as I am — but since Spitfire no longer accepts PayPal and since BestService only sells full (Spitfire) products, and no upgrades, there's no way for me to upgrade. (I did contact Spitfire about this, but after a first, promising reply from Paul, the communication went completely dead again for reasons unknown.)

I have spent a LOT of money on Spitfire products — the bespoke strings, several BML’s volumes, the first three Albion volumes, the full Sable, Mural 1, the Percussion, the Harp and a large handful of smaller libraries — and I derived (and still derive) a LOT of pleasure from working with these libraries ... and yet, if one were to ask: "All things considered, are you a satisfied Spitfire customer?", I would find it somewhat difficult to answer without hesitation with an unequivocal “Yes”.

Having said that, I really like the Spitfire brass. The quality in demos like these for example ...
.


.
... are, for the time being, still very much the exclusive territory of Spitfire.


_

[Kuusniemi]

Having said that, I really like the Spitfire brass. The quality in demos like these for example ...
.


.
... are, for the time being, still very much the exclusive territory of Spitfire.

_

Spitfire should be banned from using Andy Blaney demos since they're so bloody good...

[Lawrence]

I never, ever listen to Andy Blaney demos.

I've recently gotten my mind wrapped around Sable (SCS) and I'm liking it very much. It feels mostly finished with few gotchas. For the work I do I'm happy with HB Brass, but with the prices coming way down SF becomes a contender. The price is about on par with Cinebrass, which hangs around in my head as a nagging possibility to allow me to move away from Play.

[Scoredog]

It is increasingly difficult to remain a sidiously devoted Spitfire fan if they keep abandoning older products and bundlng them in new "all in" formulas, leaving the originals unattended.
For example, a while ago I bought the BML Reeds vol. 1 (clarinets and oboes). A clearly unfinished and undersampled affair for which I always expected some update or other. (Considering the price, not a wholly unreasonable expectation, I would think.) But if Spitfire intends to do the same with their woodwinds as they're now doing with the brass (and previously with Sable) — and they probably will, by the looks of things —, there's every chance that there will never come an update for those Reeds, and even if there is, it'll be part of Spitfire's grand Symphonic Woodwinds bundle, a product I don't really want or need.
So here I am, once again stuck with yet another Spitfire library that's incomplete but … left behind.

Other problem: even if I wanted to upgrade, I can't. That's partly my own fault because I restrict my online payment methods to PayPal — some sort of self-imposed limit is needed when you're as compulsive a spender as I am — but since Spitfire no longer accepts PayPal and since BestService only sells full (Spitfire) products, and no upgrades, there's no way for me to upgrade. (I did contact Spitfire about this, but after a first, promising reply from Paul, the communication went completely dead again for reasons unknown.)

I have spent a LOT of money on Spitfire products — the bespoke strings, several BML’s volumes, the first three Albion volumes, the full Sable, Mural 1, the Percussion, the Harp and a large handful of smaller libraries — and I derived (and still derive) a LOT of pleasure from working with these libraries ... and yet, if one were to ask: "All things considered, are you a satisfied Spitfire customer?", I would find it somewhat difficult to answer without hesitation with an unequivocal “Yes”.

Having said that, I really like the Spitfire brass. The quality in demos like these for example ...
.


.
... are, for the time being, still very much the exclusive territory of Spitfire.


_

Piet, I share your sentiments pretty much across the board. I do not know if it is offered where you are but in the U.S. we can get a paypal master card that allows one to pull from one's surplus if a vendor does not allow paypal.

[riffwraith]

.... in the U.S. we can get a paypal master card that allows one to pull from one's surplus if a vendor does not allow paypal.

Ooh - that sounds like it might be a good idea, as I always have problems using a CC with my SFA purchases. Which, I am almost ashamed to say, are plentiful.

Never heard of this before - how do you do this? Can't find anything on their site. Thanks for the HU!

[Scoredog]

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/credit-card

[Ashermusic]

possibility to allow me to move away from Play.

While I will understand if you will be skeptical, Play 5, which WILL be released next week barring a few beta testers finding more problems that I cannot reproduce, is the fastest and most trouble free version of Play yet, ESPECIALLY better on the Mac.

[riffwraith]

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/credit-card

Thanks!

[Lawrence]

What does better mean. Jay? No more memory leak, efficient use of resources, true purging?

[Ashermusic]

What does better mean. Jay? No more memory leak, efficient use of resources, true purging?

Way faster; no more gradual slowing down loading with large templates from SSDs; no longer a huge discrepancy in the amount of RAM it requires for the same patches on Mac vs PC;.

Purging is unchanged but I don't purge Kontakt either. Purging is for sissies.

[Lawrence]

Well, I guess we'll see, thanks. Is there a minimum OS X version in the technical requirements for Play 5?

[Ashermusic]

I think Yosemite or El Capitan