Review: Symphony Orchestra Library by Spitfire Audio

Spitfire Audio has released “Spitfire Symphony Orchestra”, and as you already guessed, we grab it and review it for ProducerSpot.

This symphonic powerhouse Kontakt library is probably not an entry-level library, or at least the price tag suggests so, even more reason to have a closer look at it. Spitfire themselves call it:

“…a single, pro-level orchestral solution containing all three major families of the orchestra (woodwinds, brass, strings) designed for everyone from discerning composers at the beginning of their careers looking to invest in their futures, to hardened veterans looking to unify their disparate collections of orchestral elements into a single and definitive sonic arsenal.”

Sounds promising, so what can we expect from such enticing words?

Overview

Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Original Cover

“SSO” has one very obvious mission. A composer’s toolkit with a unified sound of the highest technical level possible, while retaining the necessary level of character to make it special.

Recorded at Air Studios in London and with the incredible level of experience and attention to detail Spitfire is known for, they managed to fulfill that mission after 5 years of development, coming out with an extremely well-rounded, complete orchestral collection to die for.

What’s inside?

The Spitfire Symphony Orchestra bundle contains four major products: Spitfire symphonic strings, Spitfire symphonic brass, Spitfire symphonic what’s, and Masse.

The way this bundle is set up is clearly one of Spitfire Audio’s flagship products and represents the highest available level of quality they can offer at this point, in terms of classical orchestral samples, that are not specifically geared towards one specific style.

Spitfire Symphonic Strings

“Spitfire Symphonic Strings” was recorded with a sixty-player string orchestra comprised of 16 1st violins, 14 2nd violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, and 8 basses.

With the extremely deep sampling approach we are used to from Spitfire Audio this contains over a hundred seventy-five articulations, including fifty-nine shorts, ninety-four Longs, and five extremely rare performance legato patches programmed afterward.

It was recorded with several round robins, dynamic layers, and several microphone positions, and that’s just scratching the surface. So delivers an incredible depth and adjustability to achieve whatever character sound you might need, and of course the highest possible quality level of sound.

Spitfire Symphonic Brass

“Spitfire Symphonic Brass” delivers in spades especially considering the current trend of film and game music were in. While this library builds on the former BML Brass, which used to be one of my go-to brass libraries, it upped its game quite a bit since then, with new samples, articulations, deeper sampling, and more instruments.

Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds

“Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds” could be considered a secret weapon. While woodwinds are often neglected these days, this library, in particular, can add some real power to your compositions.

The character of the instruments and players is tangible in the samples and, like with the other libraries, the extreme variety, flexibility in sound, and deep sampling of this library give it an edge over most others.

Spitfire Masse

“Masse” is quite an interesting new creation from Spitfire Audio. I would almost consider it a tool for quick orchestral sketching if it didn’t sound so extremely good.

It basically consists of several different ensemble patches, layering the different instrument groups over each other in different articulations and sound colors, providing instant orchestral satisfaction by just playing a few chords. Definitely on of my new favorite toys to play with and extremely useful for just writing.

Conclusion

So what is the verdict? Like I mentioned earlier, I would not consider this an entry-level library. It has a very big price tag and a LOT of content, and both of those things could be quite intimidating for a complete beginner.

Intermediate or professional composers, on the other hand, will really appreciate this bundle, not necessarily for the big price tag, even if it is actually a very good deal for what you get and not expensive while still being a lot of money, but for the enormous amount of content, this bundle contains.

This really contains so much sound, so many articulations – some hard to find anywhere else, ensemble patches, solo instruments, double instruments, sections, effects, it goes on and on.

Something that might be a downside for some, is that this much sound of this level of quality will also need that much space on your hard drive. So if you work mostly on a portable setup, this might require an extra SSD.

Also, the sound of Air Studio is unmistakably present in all samples, and while you can love or hate it, I can see why for some people this might pose an issue. I personally love their sound and if you use other samples recorded at Air Studios, it blends very very well.

Something else to keep in mind is that different from some other Spitfire Audio libraries “SSO” contains “only” three mic positions in its basic form. Additional positions and mixes can be purchased separately.

There is enormous value in this and I can only recommend it, especially if you are a fan of the other Spitfire Audio products.