KVR Audio

Zknight95 · Post by **Zknight95** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 6:46 pm

Which one would be my best investment? Right now, for orchestral libraries I have EWQL Hollywood series, (Hollywood Strings, Brass, Woodwinds. I also have a their Goliath collection and QL Pianos) I really do love the way these libraries sound, but I've found that while they are incredibly realistic and amazing, they can also be VERY CPU intensive (EastWest's PLAY plugin isn't the greatest) which can be very limiting and sometimes frustrating. I find myself working a lot slower than I could otherwise, due to the fact that I have to render everything down into MP3 to avoid blowing up my RAM (I have 8gb, which I know isn't a whole lot nowadays, but I built my PC back in like 2011-2012.) Like, I said, I really love the sound of them. It's just really time consuming using them, because anytime I want to go back and make little (or big) changes, I have to go back to the original file, change it and render it back down to MP3.

With all that being said, I would love to get my hands on an "out of the box" orchestral library that I can quickly throw together compositions with and then later come back with my EastWest stuff to fine tune and make changes, Which is why I'm wanting to get either, Spitfire Audio's Albion I or ProjectSAM Symphobia. They both seem very intuitive and amazingly easy to grasp. My question is... Which one?!

From what I've gathered, Albion is generally better for quieter, lush sounding stuff with more emphasis for underscoring, whereas Symphobia is more "In your face" and epic, which is why I'm leaning more towards it. Also, it seems like it has more versatility than Albion as far as articulations. I've listened to demo tracks on both sites and Symphobia seems to have more staccatos and shorts, while Albion has very few, and when it does utilize them, they seem soft and more for quiet stuff, which is cool, but I'm looking for versatility.

Does anyone here have both libraries? Which one would you recommend?

Also, on a side note, Albion is on sale for like $229 until October 1st whereas Symphobia is $699. Big price difference, but if Symphobia is going to be better for me in the long run, I'm willing to spend more.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 6:57 pm

Albion, no question about it. Symphobia I doesn't even have true legato.

dusted william · Post by **dusted william** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:13 pm

I have both.

Symphombia has some great multi's so out of the box it can sound very epic.

I can't seem to find any multi's in Albion. Not saying they are not there, but I can't find one yet.

I'd say, go with Albion, since it will be discontinued at the end of this month, and it's on sale... Spitfire never has sales. Get Symphonbia later on.

dw

dsan@mail.com · Post by **dsan@mail.com** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:55 pm

dusted william wrote:I have both.

Symphombia has some great multi's so out of the box it can sound very epic.

I don't own Symphobia so the only comment I can make is that it does sound great in the demos and I have been tempted to buy it more than once. Along with the other Project Sam offerings.

And yes, Op, I think you are correct about the "in your face" of this library vs. subleties of Albion. Still, Albion can get there if needed, with a bit of tweaking and some added FX.*

dusted william wrote:I can't seem to find any multi's in Albion. Not saying they are not there, but I can't find one yet.

There's really not much need for factory multi's in this library but if one wanted one could easily build their own. There is definitely enough in the library to do so.

I own Albion 1 Redux. It has a lot of lush sounds and is great for ostinatos as well.

dusted william wrote:I'd say, go with Albion, since it will be discontinued at the end of this month, and it's on sale... Spitfire never has sales. Get Symphonbia later on.

dw

Ditto. Other than a discount price when a library is introduced, or as in this case, when a library is discontinued, I think I have only ever seen one sale come along. Not something Spitfire Audio tends to do.

Also rarely does Project Sam go on sale; however, they did last year around Christmas I believe. So if you're patient you may want to monitor their site and wait and see.

* About the added FX. I recently picked up an FX plugin, Slam Dawg. I wasn't going to because of the name, but decided to demo. Glad I did. Talk about in your face!

Here's the site in case you get interested:
http://www.beatskillz.com/shop/slam-dawg/

I got it though when it was on sale for $50. So again, you may want to wait. Not sure if they offer sales though.

P.S. I should caution - this thing is LOUD! It's processing power is tremendous. It does not take much at all to raise the roof!

Cheers!
dsan

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 8:44 pm

Albion may 'seem soft' because Spitfire doesn't normalize their samples. In fact I saw their rep here recommend giving their stuff, iirc a 4dB boost in your mixer, next to other libraries.

Zknight95 · Post by **Zknight95** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:30 pm

Wow, you guys are great at quick responses! A lot of helpful replies too. I'm new to this forum, but I think I'll be hanging around here in the future. It looks like I'll be going with Albion. Maybe I'll pick up Symphobia in the future. For now it seems like it'll have everything I need at the moment. I was a little worried about the shorts and staccatos, cause the demo I watched on youtube didn't really do it justice, but after listening to some other sample tracks, it looks like it's fully capable. Also, the price right now seems unbeatable for the value. Thanks, guys!

Shangsean · Post by **Shangsean** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:47 pm

I have Albion 1 & 3 and Orchestral Essentials. For me, I find I generally start my tracks using the Albions as the sound inspires me more, but I often find myself replacing elements with OE as it is more consistant sounding. Things like loop points in sustains, round robins in percussions and some shorts end up frustrating me no end. OE doesn't have true legato, but it's quite easy to get smooth transitions because of the consistancy of the sample editing. To be honest, I don't find it that much, if any easier in A1 with true legato.

As for being able to do epic, I think A1 can do it and OE can do soft too.

quantum7 · Post by **quantum7** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:18 pm

I own Albion 1, 2, & 3 and you absolutely cannot go wrong with any of these. I never understood such love for Symphobia, but that is just me I guess.

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 11:08 pm

Albion I sounds less in your face because the number of players is less than in other libs with similar entire sections sampled I think. It will compliment more Lass than a similar Symphobia lib. The sound is more *intimist*. ( Thats for the picture, it can do much much more than writing chamber music) Or ... The sound is a bit more classy/neutral than Symphobia, but a bit less easily Powerfull/Ample as well. ( Though Symphobia can be used to write very delicate/emotional pieces also ) The ambiance/reverbs are different too. It's difficult to mary both. ( and that's part of the problem with orchestral libs if you're limited to a couple of ones because of money and/or system limits )

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 11:28 pm

Bear in mind that Albion has an option where you can load the same patch 3 times, then offset the timbre of the other two patches by + and - 2 semitones (MIDI note transpose then tuning change back to actual sounding pitch), so it sounds thicker.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 11:29 pm

Spitfire's whole thing with their orch product is their love of their room. This can be somewhat subverted by sticking to the close mic'ing, but it should be a consideration if you're using mixed libraries. It's a very noticeable sound, kind of thick if not muddy, that is not my sound. I have some of their percussion and I have to be real careful with it. But if you love their demos, you must love their big room character.

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 1:30 am

Overall I think Symphobia 1 might have the edge in terms of cinematic scoring. It really has that sound - thick and lush as it gets. And the multis are pretty incredible so you can often use one patch to have a very full sounding arrangement. But of course Albion has lots of advantages like the legatos and some different shorts, sound design, drums, more mics etc..

Something to keep in mind is that Albion 1 has been discontinued and therefore is very cheap right now, and they've just announced the replacement - "Albion One", which basically means they are redoing it. I would guess more round robins, more articulations, probably better sample consistency. And the update I think is 149 pounds for those who have Albion 1, including those who buy it discounted now. So that seems like it'll be the better comparison but we don't know yet exactly what the new Albion will be like.

quantum7 · Post by **quantum7** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 3:56 am

Echoes in the Attic- thanks for the heads-up on Albion One. I didn't know Spitfire was doing that.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:04 am

dusted william wrote:I'd say, go with Albion, since it will be discontinued at the end of this month, and it's on sale... Spitfire never has sales. Get Symphonbia later on.

This is a great point. ProjectSAM does sales every so often and they haven't done one in a while, which leads me to believe they'll be doing one before the end of the year. Their sales are usually quite good, though not blowout priced like Albion 1 currently is.

dsan@mail.com wrote:There's really not much need for factory multi's in this library but if one wanted one could easily build their own.

I think if you work with Symphobia, you'll get an idea of how nice the multis are. You can literally play a soundtrack realtime. It's the only library where I've had that experience.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:43 am

The unique thing about the Symphobia / Orchestral Essentials range is the multis. Don't believe those who say "it's easy to make your own" with other libraries - it really isn't. Where ProjectSAM excel is knowing exactly the right magic combos to get THAT sound instantly. It's pretty much like having half an orchestrator as well as the musicians. I've never really understood why nobody else has even tried.

You might want to increase your dilemma by considering the Orchestral Essential series. They lack some of the depth of the Symphobia series (only 1 mic option, less articulations), but in terms of breadth, bang and buck they're hard to beat. And they have some great multis.

(and full disclaimer - I do YouTube walkthroughs for ProjectSAM, so might be biased. The intention is for them to be very warts and all however, and I always point out any negatives - which are there, as with anything - with the positive. My Symphobia 1 instruments part one is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5LpFOc7-Y - click on my channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtBlIr ... juZs8vHU1g - for other parts, multis, OE etc. My poor keyboard skills also take care of any over-flattering.)

I don't own any of the Albion range, mostly because it's felt like duplication of what I already own. They are very well regarded, though I'm not a fan of the strings in the official Albion demos - they sound pretty synthetic to me, which isn't something I'd say from any of the rest of the Spitfire range. Albion One (what IS with their naming?!) is of course an unknown quantity, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a major step up, given 4 years of R&D with the rest of their range. They're obviously also going for BIG with the size of the orch.

Albion I vs Symphobia I