BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro
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 $50 to $20 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 Extended (and Core, 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 Pro library
Experience the exceptional realism of Spitfire's flagship BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro 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 solo 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.
- Switch dynamically between microphones or mixes
- 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
Prerequisites: a valid licence and installation for Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro (see mouthwatering product details at https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-professional), a Mac/Windows machine of sufficient power (32Gb MINIMUM, and that's pushing it), 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 $20 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Beta version releasedMay 29, 2023
- Update to CoreMay 13, 2023
- Spitfiiiirrreee (/me waves fist)May 08, 2023
- BBC Core finished: Pro is next.Apr 23, 2023
Comments
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I reduced the price and added a warning about how rubbish this library is technically (especially with caching, memory use and stability). It seems like it's getting worse, not better. I didn't do anything wrong with this sound set, the crapness is purely down to Spitfire (mostly) and Sibelius (a little).
On the up-side, Sibelius's latest version doesn't corrupt the house styles any more when you use my script to import more than one of them.
Quick note: my developer certificates expired, I don't have a (Virtual) Mac any more, and lack of support from the community (and the industry) means I'm an IT contractor again and thus not supporting any of these things.
Hi, I'm having a couple of hurdles, I hope you can help :)
Firstly, my sounds are loading but playing very clicky and gurgly. They sound ok individually when testing in the Spitfire keyboard but not when playing back the score.
I have set my ASIO buffer to 2048 samples (the max). I am trying to increase the preload size in Spitfire but Sibelius seems to be hanging after I hit Save. Is there a way to set the preload size as a default so all the instruments choose this when loading?
Secondly, I've tried creating a new playback configuration that has just the instruments I'm using in the piece I'm working on. But when it loads the second time, all the instruments are different to how they are listed in the configuration. Trombone is actually loading the Bass Clarinet sample in Spitfire, for example.
Interestingly, when I first Show the Spitfire VST, some of the instruments are appearing in Spitfire as "Sibelius - Bassoon 1 (Pro)" (or other instruments, for example). Have you come across this before?
I'm running BBC SO Pro & Sib 2024, installed just a few days ago, with 64GB ram and an AMD Ryzen 4900H. My BBC SO samples are running from an SSD in a USB C enclosure.
A third interesting thing just now is that when I closed the Playback Devices window in Sibelius, Windows seemed to unload all the RAM and then load the samples back in while Sibelius waited for it with a rotating blue circle... Is this what you meant in the notes about Windows wanting to reclaim the RAM?
It might be, though it didn't used to happen immediately. But did this coincide with your playing with preload sizes? It's bad news when this happens, it really corrupts the sound.
I think I put all my warnings about BBC SO Pro and its resource usage in the instructions. I've stopped actively developing sounds sets due to lack of support (both from Sibelius, sample library companies and the wider community). I will willing to devote my career to it, but people couldn't have been less interested. That and things like 8Dio and Orchestral Tools' engines being monstrously inefficient and Spitfire's being flaky...
As I remember, preload amount is not something specifically associated with a patch, it's something you'd set in the Spitfire UI before you actually loaded anything. BBC SO Pro is monstrous in terms of RAM though: for some reason it uses double the RAM of BBC SO Core.
Given that I last touched this some months ago (and it worked when I shipped it!), it's difficult to know what changes Spitfire or Sibelius made that might have caused issues in the mean-time: though I know Sibelius fixed the bug that meant house styles were corrupted when you loaded more than one of them. God knows what problems Spitfire have introduced though.
My own advice would be to use BBC Core (which is included in Pro, I think) for getting stuff done and for realtime playback (you've got a hope of getting that to perform decently in 64Mb.
> when I first Show the Spitfire VST,
You mean when my playback configuration is loaded? Each playback device is loading a preset, but it's entirely possible for Sibelius to get confused when re-saving as a new playback configuration and re-load in with the wrong instruments.
The whole thing is utterly brittle and maddening, and frankly I'm a little relieved I can now just program Golang for a big company without having to bash my head against it...
Look, if you want a refund I'll give you one. I don't think I've withdrawn the money or anything. None of this is really my fault, but then it's not your fault either...
Thanks for your reply, I fully understand the maddeningness! I can only imagine the hair-pulling trying to get these two completely separate things to talk to each other in a meaningful way.
I don't need a refund - I'm going to use your house style to export midi to then put into reaper, which should still save me a whole bunch of time :)
I've tried this with one movement of the score I'm working on now, and it seems to work excellently, though I haven't used any special articulations (expect pizz) yet. As far as you know, it should still send the right CC messages as per your articulation chart exporting from your house style?
It should do, it's a complete implementation :) Sounds like you're using it the right way (it sends a combination of key switches and controller events, depending on context. It works really well for instruments where you can address all the articulations on one channel.
Please, I just install BBC SO PRO in my computer Mac Pro 2023, os 13.5.2 . And after that Sibelius crash and don't let me open it much anymore. Please help me, I need to keep working
if BBC SO Pro is crashing your Sibelius even when BBC SO Pro is not in use in Sibelius, then you need to talk to support at Spitfire Audio (on their website), or support at Avid (Facebook group is best), sending them screenshots of the crashes you're getting. In the mean-time, have you rebooted your Mac?
When you talk to Avid support, you have to tell them when you installed BBC SO Pro, what you're doing when the crashes happen (are you using specific templates? Does the program start?), what sound set you're using, etc. You also need to tell them version number, maybe grab some screenshots.
It's not clear whether you're talking about my sound set or the BBC SO Pro library itself. It's impossible that anything I did is crashing your machine (unless you're trying to load one of my BBC SO Pro template on a machine with limited memory, which would kill the machine, not just Sibelius).
The sound set installer that I sell delivers an XML file to Sibelius to the user editable directory "Sounds", some playback configuration files to "Playback Configurations", some patches to BBC SO Pro, a house style in "House Styles" and a plug-in: it's not possible for that payload to crash Sibelius.
I've got a bit more time now, so if you want, you can you explain a bit more about how/when Sibelius is crashing. Obviously I can't fix BBCSO or Sibelius, but I might be able to help narrow down the error. Screenshots would be useful. (I'm offering because I'm helpful rather than because I think anything I did is causing the problem).
If you can look at the Documents/Sibelius Services/Logs folder and send the install log to chris@sibelius-services.com I can also check if there's some clues.
Having purchased the Pro version and installed on Windows 64 bit PC, I'm trying to find the BBC SO Pro Microphone plug-in in a search in Sibelius Plug-ins.
Is there a specific path or name to find it?
Should be Sibelius Services/Mix Configuration BBC Symphony Pro
Be careful about activating multiple mics, it's outrageously greedy on RAM.
Hi, will there be a Windows version, and if so, would you like us to use this pre-order for that?
Yes, and yes.