BBC Symphony Orchestra Core
A downloadable Sibelius Sound Set for Windows and macOS
Please note: due to the the flaky, hardware-abusive and unstable nature of BBC Symphony Orchestra Core, you may not be able to get good results with this sound set despite all my hard work integrating it with Sibelius to a high standard. Even very powerful hardware, all the tips I give in my documentation and patience may not work. Or maybe it will. I have reduced the price from $35 to $10 to reflect this. No refunds will be issued because all the faults you might experience are either in Avid Sibelius or in Spitfire BBC Symphony Core (and extended, too).
Now the blurb, written in a time when I actually believed that this might actually work. Take it with a pinch of salt!
Fully integrated Sibelius sound set for realistic, expressive playback of the complete BBC Symphony Orchestra Core library
Experience the exceptional realism of Spitfire's prestigious BBC Symphony Orchestra Core in your Sibelius compositions. Our complete sound set integrates the full orchestra library right into Sibelius: just articulate as normal!
All instruments appear, plus extra ones we added to cover a typical orchestral setup. All articulations and features are covered - no shortcuts.
"Thanks to this sound set, I can finally use my BBC Symphony sample library to its full potential right in Sibelius. It's transformed my composition workflow, now I don't need a DAW! Now, let's get it working in VEP..." - Paul Del-nevo, "Score Like a DAW"
Total coverage of this top-tier library
- Every instrument, section, and articulation included
- Control techniques such as legato and flutter tongue purely from notation
- Dial in the right sound and expression fast, without learning new software
- Check the downloadable "Articulations and Features" PDF for full details
Seamless creative control
- Tight integration with Sibelius playback features
- Tweak articulations, dynamics, EQ just like the pros.
- Mix and match with NotePerformer, Sibelius 7 Sounds or other libraries
- Compatible with Graphical MIDI Tools 2 for extra dynamic control.
Hassle-free setup
- Zero configuration required
- Intelligent resource handling and sample streaming
- Supports even huge orchestral pieces with optimized RAM usage
Here's a more realistic demo of what you can accomplish with it: it's the sound set playing "Zoids", by Rob Hubbard and Larry Fast - a big sci-fi epic. This demo comes with the sound set, and contains handy notes and tips.
Prerequisites: a valid license and installation for Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra Core (see mouthwatering product details at https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-core), a Mac/Windows machine of sufficient power (16Gb is sufficient, 32Gb is much more comfortable), and a 7.5+ version of Sibelius. Mac installer requires Catalina or greater.
Purchase
In order to download this Sibelius Sound Set you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Core updateMay 13, 2023
- Core launchedApr 23, 2023
- Started...Mar 27, 2023
Comments
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I purchased the BBCSO Core Sound Set and installed it on my PC Music Workstation. When I opened the sample Sibelius file and attempted to hit play, after the library had loaded, Sibelius crashed. Repeating this produced the same results. Reducing the orchestra by almost half, I was able to push play, but all I heard was distorted clicks, pops, and wobbly sounds. Reducing the ensemble size further, I finally achieved something like intelligible playback, although marred by crackles and distortion. I have an Intel Core i7-3930K hexacore processor, operating at 3.2 GHz, 64GB of RAM, and five internal SSDs--one for my OS (Microsoft Windows 10 Pro) and the others for my sample libraries. I have successfully loaded entire VSL Special Edition orchestras into MIR Pro 2D on my computer and had them playback without artifacts. Am I missing something? How can I achieve undistorted playback on my workstation?
Was this the template? That's very much a worst-case scenario, which is why the file says at the top you shouldn't try to play it all at once. Basically, Sibelius is not very efficient when it's sending data to the VST. The template is sending a lot of data to the VST (keyswitches, etc), but doing it for every instrument at the same time. No real score would ever do this, of course.
This Sibelius issue isn't something I can do anything about, but it's definitely true that with real music, even the whole orchestra can be in use with not that much crackling (though you would be advised on a 64Gb machine to up the prefetch to 32768, which results in a 21Gb memory footprint). Zoids for instance should be a lot smoother.
There's another couple of gotchas to watch for: first of all, when the file opens, the Spitfire plugin will still be loading the samples - Spitfire's manual advises you to wait until they're loaded, which can be seen from a flashing light in the corner if you've got an instance open.
Second, I've found that if you have the library loaded and you leave it for any length of time, Windows starts "tidying up" the memory: you can see if it's doing this because task manager will show the Sibelius process using a lot less memory than it should. Sometimes this results in disastrous, horrible consequences.
In summary I would: (1) reboot Sibelius, (2) load Zoids, (3) change the prefetch in Audio/Settings in Spitfire itself to avoid note steal, and (4) wait until the samples are loaded before pressing play.
I really need people not to play the template all at once though. Maybe I should make the warning a bit larger...
As an aside, this is kind of what I've been worried about because this is very definitely a problem with Sibelius, Spitfire and Microsoft: all I did was do XML and patches, which work as described... which reminds me, Spitfire have a lot of documents about optimising their libraries - crackling isn't necessarily just a Sibelius thing, the Spitfire player has its own issues which people spend much time complaining about on the Spitfire forums.
As an aside-aside, Avid are well aware their playback engine needs a thorough overhaul.
As an aside, aside, aside, I can play Zoids on a 64Gb Pc from 2016 with a 32768 prefetch/preload in the Spitfire settings without it crackling, and there are other people using the sound set happily on more limited equipment for their own scores.
Thanks for your reply. I will experiment with it further, attempting the workarounds you recommend. Excuse my ignorance, but can I ask what Zoids are?
BTW, what version of Sibelius are you running? Some of them are very unstable.
this looks amazing
I'm on it :)
when will it be available though
I'm starting work on it today after releasing a lot of stuff on this site yesterday, so maybe a couple of weeks? Do you own BBC Core already? Are you a Windows or Mac guy?
Mac and yes
can you put instructions on how to install it to
Yes, there will be a video. It's very easy though: you just click on the "install" button in the installer and then open one of the templates.