Overpriced Spitfire products

[Harry_HH]

I have heard a lot of praising words about the quality of the Spitfire audio products.

Unfortunately my exprerience does not support this image.

I purchased their Kepler-library.

Firstly, most of the samples are set very, very low volume, some of them are almost inaudible. The user is supposed manually change the volume settings of each of the library instruments, to get them playable.

Spitfire explanation, bad one, is that the samples are ”not normalized”, and set to
-6 dB. And the user should tweak the volume, if needed.

This kind of tweaking of every sample should not belong to the customer. It was the same, if I had to change the carburettor of the brand new purchased Mercedes, before I could drive it.

The Kepler UI "grid" as the UI is most unfortunate.
Firstly, its hard to control, especially in the smaller screens, clicking by mouse the correct point is pure pain.
Secondly, its most unintuitive, and all the "info texts" give information, which you don't need, but not the information, what you need, e. g. what are differencies in the grids 3 categories.
Thirdly, its most confusing, that some of the Kepler instruments include all the different grid note values, but most of the instruments only half and quarter note values. Of course ALL the instruments should include ALL the values.

I have about 100 sample libraries from diffrent developers, i.e. I have material where to compare the Spitfire.

The lesson of of this case is, that the price or reputation of the product/developer, is no guarantee of good experience. Spitfire audio may suit for some people, obviously not for me.

[layzer]

quit buying their products and use freeware that doesnt come with a billion GBs of redundant samples
just an idea,

[ckam03]

quit buying their products and use freeware that doesnt come with a billion GBs of redundant samples
just an idea,

So we can use crappy Cello samples that you seem to think actually sound good and as good as real sample libraries? Yeah, not a chance.

[m-ac]

I don't think spitfire products are overpriced, they just have pretty bad quality control. I wouldn't buy anything from them until you see some real world reviews, then only buy if you're willing to put up with any issues the library as, because it may well never be fixed.

[zvenx]

I do not have the Kepler's library so can't comment directly.
And I do agree in general that I too find SF libraries a little too low in volume but nothing that bumping the master output in Kontakt doesnt' solve, however indeed I don't imagine you would want every sample to be normalized (at least in orchestral music with each instrument maintaining its dynamic range.

Orchestral libraries tend to be far more expensive that sample libraries and software synths from other genres, but prices have come down.
That said, personally for what they offer I do not at all find SF Orchestral libraries overpriced at all and they are definitely my favourite orchestral library developers.

However a common complaint mentioned elsewhere that I do agree with is they tend to lead the bugs/warts in much much too long if they are even ever addressed.
rsp

[layzer]

quit buying their products and use freeware that doesnt come with a billion GBs of redundant samples
just an idea,

So we can use crappy Cello samples that you seem to think actually sound good and as good as real sample libraries? Yeah, not a chance.

if you have any MUSIC SKILL at all you can make even a crappy cello sample sound good. STFU

yeah, go ahead and make yourself more stupid saying this doesnt sound good.
https://soundcloud.com/layzerkvr/ramirez-precious-time

[Gregorius]

quit buying their products and use freeware that doesnt come with a billion GBs of redundant samples
just an idea,

So we can use crappy Cello samples that you seem to think actually sound good and as good as real sample libraries? Yeah, not a chance.

if you have any MUSIC SKILL at all you can make even a crappy cello sample sound good. STFU

Crappy samples and music skill have no correlation. I'm happy to buy more expensive stuff to get multiple articulations, to have loop points set on long samples such that they aren't audible, to have sampled each note multiple times and not just some crap interpolation between a sampled C & G... And I'd actually do not like to spend hours polishing a crappy sample such that it sounds at least usable. I'd like to spend that time in making music.

edit: this was not a spitfire related response, just some general thing

[Harry_HH]

quit buying their products and use freeware that doesnt come with a billion GBs of redundant samples
just an idea,

So we can use crappy Cello samples that you seem to think actually sound good and as good as real sample libraries? Yeah, not a chance.

if you have any MUSIC SKILL at all you can make even a crappy cello sample sound good. STFU

yeah, go ahead and make yourself more stupid saying this doesnt sound good.
https://soundcloud.com/layzerkvr/ramirez-precious-time

Hi, I think this is not the point. We all know that the skills are essential, in ALL cases.
But the fact is, there are so called high-end products (in every category) available. I.e., there are markets for that stuff anyway.
My thread gives just one case, one story, one experience of these products, which is not the ”final thruth”, but maybe serves as a base of discourse.

Plus, I think that a wise developer listens the voice of customers, and improves his products.

[ckam03]

quit buying their products and use freeware that doesnt come with a billion GBs of redundant samples
just an idea,

So we can use crappy Cello samples that you seem to think actually sound good and as good as real sample libraries? Yeah, not a chance.

if you have any MUSIC SKILL at all you can make even a crappy cello sample sound good. STFU

yeah, go ahead and make yourself more stupid saying this doesnt sound good.
https://soundcloud.com/layzerkvr/ramirez-precious-time

Lmao, this is the same song you tried to use last time to prove your point and my answer still hasn't changed. That Cello sounds awful.

[Kongru]

quit buying their products and use freeware that doesnt come with a billion GBs of redundant samples
just an idea,

So we can use crappy Cello samples that you seem to think actually sound good and as good as real sample libraries? Yeah, not a chance.

if you have any MUSIC SKILL at all you can make even a crappy cello sample sound good. STFU

yeah, go ahead and make yourself more stupid saying this doesnt sound good.
https://soundcloud.com/layzerkvr/ramirez-precious-time

I really like the song but that doesn't sound like a Cello, it sounds more like a vuvuzela.

[AnX]

sounds like a kazoo

[EvilDragon]

Yeah that doesn't sound like a cello at all

[tehlord]

yeah, go ahead and make yourself more stupid saying this doesnt sound good.
https://soundcloud.com/layzerkvr/ramirez-precious-time

Without a hint of trolling, it does not sound good

It's a completely static sample buried in effects to sound 'effective'. Doesn't make it a good cello sample.

[FarleyCZ]

I like their products, but I'm not that rich to buy them often.

[Smapti]

The yearly wish list sale has reasonable prices. You can always wait until then.