Spitfire build on the Albion legacy with a brand new orchestral library.
As August cooled into rainy September at the conclusion of summer 2015, Spitfire Audio led to a relax of their personal with the aid of announcing that the common Albion quantity 1 changed into to be discontinued. for the reason that this orchestral library was the cornerstone of a popular sequence that extended to 4 titles, this gave the impression strange. What, if the rest, would change it? internet boards seethed with frenzied conjecture, however by way of October, all was revealed: a new Albion library was set for unencumber, greater (and naturally, in accordance with the revenue blurb, improved) than the fashioned.
bigger it actually is, being greater than twice the dimension of its predecessor. more advantageous? neatly, let's see. Boasting a "significant epic orchestra" of 109 players and a title which feels like an overpriced London riverside construction, the new Albion One aims to retain the basic method and popular features of the original whereas including new points developed for Spitfire libraries over the ultimate 4 years. As a nod to the faithful who bought Albion extent 1 (all of whom had been offered a substantial bargain on the new library), some legacy patches had been included. besides the fact that children, the majority of the fabric has been freshly recorded, making this a in truth new library.
Like the entire company's significant-scale orchestral titles, Albion One became recorded at London's AIR Studios, formerly the property of the late Sir George Martin. you'll be able to most effective think about the quizzical smile on the wonderful man's face if, on the day he purchased the constructing again in 1991, a bearded traveller from the longer term had materialised and advised him that in 25 years' time people could be taking part in large orchestras recorded at this location on their desktop computers. The famed AIR corridor sound is captured across 4 mic positions starting from close to far away, while 96kHz recording by means of a two-inch tape direction unites the maximum audio standards of the digital and analogue eras — a fact, I'm sure, Sir George would have favored.
available by download or on a tough pressure, this 89.8GB assortment of well-nigh 50,000 samples compresses losslessly to round 50GB once put in (the makers warn that 106.6GB of disk space is required right through the installation). a copy of the free Kontakt participant is protected with the library. The contents are divided into four main sections: Albion Orchestra, Darwin Percussion Ensemble, Brunel Loops and Stephenson's Steam Band, names guaranteed to make the hearts of patriotic British Sound On Sound readers (neatly, there have to be one or two) burst with delight. We'll take a detailed examine each part.
The main selling aspect of Albion is that its orchestral sections are pre-orchestrated, so in place of (say) separate first violins, second violins, violas, cellos and basses, you get a blended ensemble of all 5, mapped based on range, with the lower strings giving way to violins within the high register. this may be a disadvantage for old-college orchestral composers who want to assemble arrangements in traditional score structure one instrument or part at a time, but for less experienced clients looking for extra immediate consequences, it's a Godsend. quite simply put, it means which you could immediately hear the sound of full orchestral ensembles doing their aspect, enabling you to pay attention to musical introduction without having to constantly suppose about what patch you're going to want next.
notwithstanding the honeymoon phase of my relationship with orchestral samples is now just a cheerful memory, the library's leading 'Strings.NKI' patch managed to rekindle my ardour. It contains a spiccato articulation of the maximum order, a commanding, briskly brushed stroke performed by means of a six-octave, full strings section. Sounding amazingly lush and sheer in AIR's spacious corridor, this spectacular beginning works notably well on loud, vigorous rhythm passages, however it's additionally in a position to easy, refined interjections. overall, it's a great string texture that very nearly compels you to put in writing track, and a sound with which i will be able to fortunately improvise for extreme durations of time.
Accompanying this stellar articulation is a useful set of fundamental enjoying patterns. The 'Spic/Stac' patch uses a a little bit longer bowing than the stressful, extremely-quick spiccatos, while looped lengthy notes are on hand for string pads. These ultra-dynamic sustains can sound each romantic and forceful, and besides the fact that children Spitfire haven't published their part sizes, they obtain lots of the plush, expansive first-rate of the enormous string ensembles featured within the business's Mural Ensembles, and are warmer and slightly greater full-bodied than Albion Vol 1's normal strings. A simulated con sordino style models the tone of muted strings; even though some may additionally bemoan the shortcoming of real mutes, here is a pretty timbre which with the aid of its nature perfectly fits the unmuted samples, enabling you to switch between the two without a nasty surprises. spectacular tremolos, exquisitely plump pizzicatos and col legno bow hits are additionally blanketed.
Mapped over six octaves in unison from C to C, these simple articulations improvement from a magnificently assertive low-end component to cellos and basses. When the low strings play in octaves, it creates a thunderous, grandiose bass noise of which Thor himself would be proud. even though it could be foolhardy to use such a mammoth racket in (say) a tv advert for further-soft toilet paper, the effect is stupendous and may satisfaction any media composer trying to inject some musical drama and muscle.
As with its predecessor, Albion One's string legatos are especially voiced in octaves, providing 'excessive' and 'Low' patches with contiguous tiers which may theoretically work together as a whole, notwithstanding should you circulate from low to high the difference in quantity is relatively alarming! Designed for John Williams-esque hovering, heroic issues and working in the exact two octaves of the strings' range, 'Full' legatos take the octave conception further by way of doubling notes in two octaves, developing a majestic aggregate of octave violins underpinned by way of reduce cellos. A 'Mid' legato alternative that includes unison violins sounds very nice indeed, although it's frustrating that it spans best the backside two octaves of the instrument.
a brand new feature during this library, string runs are performed in ascending and descending chromatic, important and minor scales over one, two or three octaves with the aid of violins and cellos respectively. in addition to commonplace straight-line runs, there are 'flurries' which meander up and down unpredictably en path to their target notice. initially performed at 150bpm, the runs can also be sync'ed to your host's tempo, though there some timing diversifications inside the samples which require positional manipulation to obtain first rate musical sync. lively and entertaining performed movements of this class at all times assist to vitalise an arrangement, and these specimens have been well obtained. within the phrases of one discussion board put up, "relatively certain i'm going to overuse the crap out of those string runs." Eloquently put, sir!
In my overview of Albion Vol 1, which that you may study in the October 2011 concern of SOS, I criticised the shortcoming of high brass unison samples. a person at Spitfire appears to have taken heed, as a result of Albion One's excessive brass section offers a choice of octave and unison voicings, giving us the better of both worlds.
if you need a huge, dramatic brass sound, no matter if or not it's to sign the effective arrival of a display superhero or to deliver your newest laptop symphony to a suitably cataclysmic conclusion, you could dial up the library's 'Brass high' patch and belt out stirring melodies on unison trumpets, with or with out horns doubling in the reduce octave à la Vol 1. The blasting loud dynamic of the bass trombone and tuba in 'Brass Low' will provide you with an equally huge-sounding low-conclusion accompaniment, which intensifies further should you opt for its raspy, menacing 'Nasty' articulation. For greater subdued brass passages, are attempting the unison horns and trombones in 'Brass Mid': the horns' mellow, heat, rounded tone dominates, with the trombones adding somewhat of edge and aggression at louder dynamics.
The brass articulation menu is limited to lengthy, brief and legato patterns. in the latter category, stately excessive brass legatos are supported via an enormous low brass patch, both played in octaves handiest. There's also a unison 'Mid' legato patch with a different timbre and a bit smaller latitude than its straight-observe equal. this is first rate as far as it goes, nonetheless it would be exceptional if the makers could deliver unison legatos spanning the complete brass latitude.
as far as i can tell, Albion One's woodwind instrumentation is a similar as within the customary library (lamentably, there's no manual to confirm that). despite the fact, their standard tone is frequently reedier, although the choice high woodwind long-be aware takes supplied within the 'individual sections' folder do sound softer and flutier. As with the brass, articulations are restrained to long and brief notes with unison and octave alternate options, and a beautiful, liquid, swirling unison legato mode. These are bright, rich-sounding, thoroughly playable woodwinds — I'm pretty sure I'm going to overuse the crap out of them.
If reminiscence serves, Charles Darwin become the bloke who irritated the spiritual institution in 1859 by claiming that diverse species advanced from simple existence forms. searching on the behaviour of some participants of the Homo Sapiens species (from which I have officially resigned), I consider Darwin's idea is insulting to the fundamental existence varieties, however we'll let that go... Anyway, reasonably what this 209-yr-ancient man became doing within the AIR Studios hall with a bunch of percussionists is yet another of existence's mysteries, but most scientists and religious leaders agree that it has yielded an fully stonking set of massive, Hans Zimmer-esque drum hits.
performed on orchestral bass drums, toms, low taikos and the like, Albion One's newly recorded Darwin Percussion Ensemble includes a suit collection of considerable, booming detuned sub hits, massive bangs, slams, flams and deafening anvil clanks. in addition, there are better-pitched octabans and stick hits, plus a group of souped-up percussive noises which encompass steel packing containers and bamboo hits. Spitfire's ingenious Kickstart Kontakt percussion engine permits users to effortlessly construct their personal percussive patches and create customized keyboard mappings. also provided are legacy patches of cymbals, gongs and subterranean rumbling swells from the v3 update of the customary Albion, enabling us to hear how this particular percussion species has developed. Rock on, Mr D!
round about the same time as Darwin's boys had been playing merry hell with their big drums at AIR Studios, one other eminent Victorian, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, changed into in town overseeing the production of a brand new set of rhythm loops for Albion One. carried out by percussionist Paul Clarvis on a various set of hand percussion (together with tuned devices) and utensils, the loops had been drily and carefully recorded at AIR Edel Studios.
The Brunel Loops are powered with the aid of Spitfire's eDNA engine (see the 'inventive equipment' field), a very potent and versatile mixing and sound-shaping device. Designed to add drama to action cues but with artistic applications for pop production, the loops comprise peculiar sound sources corresponding to berimbau, Appalachian dulcimer and er, a milk urn, in addition to more recognisable shakers and hello-hats. The so-called organic folder contains the raw loops, whereas Spitfire's Christian Henson's sonic treatments are introduced in Warped and excessive Warped folders, the latter adding an extra, mod wheel-driven manic side to the processed versions.
many of these tempo-sync'ed loops are performed in eighth, 16th and 12th notes (triplets) at quiet and loud dynamics which can also be crossfaded. all the sixteenth-word variants have a a bit of swung suppose reminiscent of the drum intro to Iggy Pop's 'Lust for all times': they consider notable, however the subtly swung time may in conception trigger rhythmic conflicts in case you layer them with straight 16th-notice-primarily based fabric. i love the undefinable, leftfield, managed glitchy nice of those loops. Some encompass shuddering rhythmic waves of biological noise, whereas others (such as the Tibetan singing bowl played with fingers) are simply appealing. I additionally significantly enjoyed the mad Badass Marauderz groove, a truly berserk rhythmic name to arms which lives as much as his identify.
The 'Stephenson's Steam Band' section of the library contains a huge collection of pads, synths, drones, atmospheres and results made from the Albion One orchestra and other sources by using Christian Henson. The variety is significant, starting from ominous, conclusion-of-the-world blasts to dreamy, disembodied ethereal pads, the latter nicely exemplified by way of 'staring at Aliens' and the gorgeous 'Crotalium', which exhibits a delicious prosperous chorus effect if you push up the all-vital mod wheel.
Owing more to electrical energy than steam, these patches make wide use of the eDNA engine's modulation facilities to create shimmers, stammers, pitch wobbles, tremolo and pulsating gate results. Highlights consist of spooky, choir-like patches, lush synth string pads and some nice church organ-like sounds. One such patch which caught my ear is 'Intimate space Harmonium', which emits earwax-shifting filter-oscillation overtones for those who wiggle the wheel. I enjoyed the wide-ranging tonal spectrum of 'Morph Pad', and obtained a nostalgic kick from the wheel-triggered, swirling backwards racket featured in 'Up shut and loopy', which remembers the crazy orchestral noises on the Beatles' 'the next day by no means is aware of'. whereas diatonic pitched pads predominate, there's additionally a good selection of darkish, frightening atonal material accessible in the moody Steam Drones area.
The Hybrid Orchestra folder homes some amazing, forceful, processed brass, woodwind and string stabs, a few of which contain huge-sounding col legno or pizzicato strings within the bass — all good tv ad fodder. These patches straddle the border between straight orchestral and synth sounds, a superb area to be in case you're concerned in modern media song, which at the present time leans heavily toward non-natural, processed sound-design timbres.
The king is dead, lengthy live the king. even though Albion Vol 1 is no more, some of its popular points are living on within the new library. The Albion Legacy folder incorporates all of the wild orchestral performed consequences (together with woodwind runs) which came with the normal, together with a range of lengthy and short notes from the strings, and brass and woodwind brief notes. also covered is the staccato piano, whose battering bass staccatos evoke the golden era of '70s Hollywood motion thriller soundtracks. Go ahead, make my day!
as soon as once more Spitfire Audio reveal that British superiority can occasionally exist within the actual world as well as within the fevered imaginations of these clinging to the concept of Empire. Their new library is really a contender for international supremacy, surroundings a standard for different builders to fit. during this business a challenge is always across the nook, but in the interim at the least, it's a case of Albion One, leisure of World nil.
even though it may well element the manner forward, the Albion 'orchestrated ensembles' strategy is removed from typical. challenge SAM's Symphobia and Symphobia 2 (12GB and 42GB put in respectively) are in the identical stylistic ballpark, combining reside orchestral ensembles with played instrumental outcomes and atmospheric sound design patches derived from the ensemble recordings. although, neither carries rhythm loops.
Albion One includes some potent artistic alternatives. First added in the long-established library, the Ostinatum step sequencer immediately creates person-programmable repeated notice patterns: this works brilliantly with the string spiccatos, remodeling sustained notes and chords into pulsating, driving rhythmic ostinatos. An inspirational compositional tool.
Created along side Scriptmaster-well-known Blake Robinson, Spitfire's eDNA Engine incorporates two sound banks which the makers liken to a pair of checklist decks. by using the eDNA Oscillate Mixer, that you can merge, layer, crossfade and oscillate between the two banks. also on board is an automatable Gate Sequencer which, unlike a conventional sequencer, operates on timbre in preference to pitch. each sound financial institution includes settings for transpose, tuning, filter, panning, ADSR envelopes and quantity, in addition to a superb analogue synth-vogue go with the flow control. eDNA additionally homes a magnificent effects area with wide routing capabilities, which includes EQ, tape saturation, lo-fi, distortion, flanger, phaser, chorus, convolution reverb, limiter, stereo width and formant consequences.
The shut, (Decca) Tree, Ambient and Outriggers miking configuration of the common library is preserved in Albion One, giving you the ability to create your personal encompass mixes. To conserve materials, patches load with simplest the Tree miking activated, after which that you can introduce the other three positions on the touch of a button. The most effective caveat is that the use of numerous mic positions will area appreciable pressure for your device, so until you have got a fast SSD power-primarily based set-up, it's a good suggestion to be frugal during this regard.
a new characteristic in Albion you possibly can support those with modest techniques to steer clear of computer meltdowns: the brand new 'Lush Verb' function permits you so as to add a long, Lexicon-like corridor effect by the use of a slider on the entrance panel. This sounds very agreeable when introduced to the close mics, and uses no extra RAM when activated.
prosDesigned for those who need an speedy orchestral sound with no need to painstakingly program the individual points, Albion One takes plenty of the pressure out of creating orchestral preparations. Combining a large, extraordinary-sounding orchestra recorded at AIR Studios with large-reveal percussion, rhythm loops, synth pads and consequences, the library gives all of the essential parts for contemporary media scoring. the shortcoming of solo devices and individual sections, coupled with the small brass and woodwind articulation menu, make it unsuitable for recreating the detail of a traditional ranking, however it achieves its mission of giving users "all of the basic equipment used to make up to date epic cinematic tune" very neatly.
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