Ok I'll cut to the chase.

OG LABS (Christian Henson) was truly offline and didn't require constant check ins, license management etc.

Christian got the boot, they changed LABS to LABS+ using a different app where Spitfire planned on it being PERMANENT ONLINE CONNECTION REQUIRED, got so much backlash that they made it 30 days you have to log in to verify.

Now it's even worse. Spitfire ended LABS+ and partnered (or sold?) LABS to Splice, who have integrated it into a new app (called Instrument) that requires Splice account and internet license check in every 7 days.

https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2025/10/03/splice-instrument/

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Can we save LABS by pulling the instrument samples from the libraries and converting them to free Kontakt instruments, Decent Sampler, Direct Wave, etc.?

It it worth doing this? I have a computer with the original offline labs that I am willing to try to work with if someone can advise me as to how to rip the audio samples from the packages (or if thats even possible)

Resampling is obviously possible, as the libraries are fairly simple with limited modulation controls. Resampling seems like the least efficient method, but could theoretically work if the samples can be repacked with a competent sample playback engine that has effects built in.

I have about 30+ projects that heavily utilized LABS and this is getting a bit ridiculous trying to maintain them.

Is LABS worth saving?

 

I don't know a better way, but FL Studio have a Plugin called 'DirectWav'. It can sample any VST very easily.

 

Personally I don't think there is much worth saving but SampleRobot will do the biz for the basic samples. It can output in many formats for use in most of the common samplers. The FL Studio one mentioned above will also work.

Spitfire Audio are not the company they once were.

 

Maybe you like the sounds. I think spending all the time to resample, auto-sample with Sample Robot or Logic Autosampler, and any other options you might use; are not going to be worth your time. You are going to end up with what are basically cumbersome to use multi-samples of instruments you have better pre-cooked Kontakt libraries of. It might sound like a good idea at the time, but I know I'd never use them again.

I'd bounce the stems you haven't already rendered. The End.

 

If you go and visit the Russians, there's 18 Labs instruments there from when they were originally released as Kontakt instruments. I'm not sure how many would be missing in comparison to now - Spitfire loves rereleasing old material in new packaging.

Separately, I thought CH had said Spitfire had given him Labs back? I swear he said that in a video.

 

Aren't many of the LABS instruments recycled from their previous Kontakt based LABS series anyway? A couple of those can still be found on trackers.

 

Those are only recent additions as part of the LABS+ subscription. None of the free LABS instruments prior to LABS+ were sourced from previous retail libraries.

 

Seems that the general consensus is that LABS isn't worth saving. I think you guys are right haha. A bit of a shame though as some of the libraries are the highest quality non-kontakt libraries of natural instruments (Piano, Strings, Voices).

I'll take Clone's advice and render all of my LABS midi tracks to audio to save them for the future.

Maybe Fracture Sounds - Blueprint series will take over as the most diverse set of free sample libraries for acoustic/orchestral music

https://fracturesounds.com/blueprint/

 

What?! dont waste your time,
Spitfire's commercial products are not that great, let alone the free ones,
eg: there's a faulty sample in a certain Albion 2 string patch,
the sample numbers in a certain the Grange patch are not identical across mics,
hans piano wasnt chromatically sampled,
most skaila harp samples are fairly short, they were programmed to crossfade with long samples for sustain,
some celeste samples have stereo image issues,
some low velocity samples are noisy...etc

eventually I deleted all Spitfire stuff about 3 years ago and never looked back,
not sure what to tell you if you think LABS sound that good....

 

No,
They were never meant to be used, anyway. Just a "gateway" drug to get you in the spitfire environment.

 

I always saw LABS as a neat little tool for ppl not looking to spend any $ on libraries while at the same time not willing to uihh "unlock" stuff. for us who already use higher-end libraries I don't see the point, and the ppl not willing to unlock software probably won't be bothered by the constant online DRM.

 

It's not that I thought LABS sounded amazing, it was good for other reasons.

Cost - Free
Storage Requirements - Minimal (all libs total ~10GB)
CPU Usage - Minimal

It was more of a musical scratchpad for me. Also the generic instruments can be easily replaced (soft piano, strings, etc.), but it's the odd libraries that are going to be a bit more difficult to replace (Cello Moods, Pedal Pads, etc.).

I honestly don't care about using any of the LABS libs going forward, I just wanted to maintain the 50+ projects I have that already contain their instruments.

 

I froze my labs when it went to labs+, so the fully free version, with lab plugin. It is easy to backup if you find all the folders (3) and plugins, vst2 and 3. But you can not share it, it has your email and key amd token in the configure file and won't work without. Up until know I can copy it to different machines, if I keep the folder structure intact.

 

There are a couple of sounds I liked in Labs Free, mostly in the Experimental category e.g. Siren Song, that I have used. I just checked it out and it still works on my system. The software is crappy - extremely slow and tedious. I have not updated it in a while - my version is 2.2.36.08bb170

Wonder if it will continue working...

 

If we can get the original labs formatted to another sampler, that could work out so long as there’s a way to use the Kontakt lite converter too… I don’t use much but so long as I can still use them all even in the splice version I can grab that piano that’s really the most important of them for the most part… plus as Kontakt libraries they can easily be sorted with my other libraries and put together.