Spitfire Symphony Orchestra: short articulations - speed consistency test

Spitfire Audio just re-released their Symphony Orchestra as one new comprehensive library. Spitfire's short articulations often suffer from inconsistent timing across round robins, so this video is a technical test of how well they hold up. The aim of this video is not to create a musical, realistic or somewhat pleasing performance but to see how consistent the editing of these short articulations is. Various things can be learned from this video; here are a few things that you may want to pay attention to:
0:18 - 0:58 the strings start to stumble at higher dynamics
2:15 - 2:24 the dynamics of the Trumpets a2 feel quite uneven at high dynamics
2:43 - 3:02 turning up the tightness slider for the Horns a2 notably cuts into the samples...
3:02 - 3:22 ...while it doesn't seem to have any effect on the Trumpets a2, thus working inconsistantly across instruments.
...apart from these things the video as a whole also stands testament to why round robin randomization would be a nice feature to add to this library.
All patches are at their default settings (with the exception of the tightness slider) and no external processing was applied.
As always I'm happy to read your questions, feedback and sugestions in the comments! If you like this kind of content, please consider giving the video a like and subscribing to my channel. Also check out my main channel if you want to hear my original compositions: / @c-m-laurin-lenschow
...and consider following me on Instagram for more music content: / laurinlenschow.music

[@c-c-laurin-lenschow]

Spitfire's short articulations often suffer from inconsistent timing across round robins, so this video is a technical test of how well they hold up. The aim of this video is not to create a musical, realistic or somewhat pleasing performance but to see how consistent the editing of these short articulations is. Various things can be learned from this video; here are a few things that you may want to pay attention to:
0:18 - 0:58 the strings start to stumble at higher dynamics
2:15 - 2:24 the dynamics of the Trumpets a2 feel quite uneven at high dynamics
2:43 - 3:02 turning up the tightness slider for the Horns a2 notably cuts into the samples...
3:02 - 3:22 ...while it doesn't seem to have any effect on the Trumpets a2, thus working inconsistantly across instruments.

[@BluemountScore]

I agree with you, RR randomization as an option would be a welcome and rather easy "workaround" to the issues shown here. Thank you for the video!

[@andrewmusician]

So, after working with SSO for a couple years now I'd have to say what they say in the manual is spot on. I'd only use tightness for playing notes in and turn tightness to 0% for playback/bounce however you also need to know the negative delays which I took a lot of time to find for each short. This is especially important for strings because, yes, they sound quite bad at anything beyond 50% tightness. However, the non random RR is quite noticeable and unfortunately using the "borrow neighbor RR" toggle creates pitch issues while adding more fake random. For long straight 16ths, I highly recommend their timed tremolo patches as they are quite useful for many scenarios.

[@BluemountScore]

Useful tipps for someone like me considering buying SSO!

[@andrewmusician]

​@BluemountScore for sure! It is really no different than any other complex library. But, if you want demos to come out like Andy Blaney, it takes a lot of tweaking and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of every patch. Even then getting demos to come out like Andy Blaney's is far easier said than actually accomplished lol, but for sure takes a careful ear and lots of note adjustment just like any other library. With 800+ articulations though (across all instruments) it is a workhorse library and with time and listening can be shaped to make some good film score sounding compositions. It all just comes down to whether you like the sound or not.

[@bartmuz]

0:18 So....the problem with string's 16s in pulse is never ending story......

[@jhcmusicii6181]

Wow. You just saved me $400. That is horrible sounding.