# Spitfire Polaris



## SupremeFist (Mar 24, 2022)

Interesting ad in the new Sound on Sound, but nothing online yet. Follow-up to Phobos?


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## Cdnalsi (Mar 24, 2022)

Interesting. Is it just the one photo with no other info?


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## davidson (Mar 24, 2022)

Mehh, phobos schmobos. Give us colossus please.


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## SupremeFist (Mar 24, 2022)

Cdnalsi said:


> Interesting. Is it just the one photo with no other info?


Yep that's the full page ad!


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## Mornats (Mar 24, 2022)

That looks like the eDNA logo on the flag.


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## sostenuto (Mar 24, 2022)

Would luv to see impressive Update for Phobos ! 📌


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## Justin L. Franks (Mar 25, 2022)

Mornats said:


> That looks like the eDNA logo on the flag.


The eDNA logo is a pentagon, the flag has the triangle like Phobos.


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## Mornats (Mar 25, 2022)

Justin L. Franks said:


> The eDNA logo is a pentagon, the flag has the triangle like Phobos.


Oh yes I see that now. I'd have liked more eDNA content but a follow up from Phobos should be very interesting too.


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## branshen (Mar 25, 2022)

sostenuto said:


> Would luv to see impressive Update for Phobos ! 📌


more likely a completely separate product.


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## RogiervG (Mar 25, 2022)

we'll see what it is.. when it's available...


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## Bee_Abney (Mar 25, 2022)

I greatly look forward to painfully wanting whatever this is.


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## pranic (Mar 25, 2022)

Caught my attention. Please hide my wallet. Also anyone want to take bets on whether Paul is excited?


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## holywilly (Mar 25, 2022)

I’m very excited today to see BT Polaris is coming.


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## Spitfire Team (Mar 25, 2022)

pranic said:


> Caught my attention. Please hide my wallet. Also anyone want to take bets on whether Paul is excited?


Oh, he is excited alright


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## macavalon (Mar 25, 2022)

my cpu is not excited, will need a computer upgrade if its convolution based again


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## RogiervG (Mar 25, 2022)

Spitfire Team said:


> Oh, he is excited alright


....now i have images in my head... of paul being excited and smiling at the camera... 
not sure if that's a good or bad thing.. haha


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## Zedcars (Mar 25, 2022)

RogiervG said:


> ....now i have images in my head... of paul being excited and smiling at the camera...
> not sure if that's a good or bad thing.. haha


I apologise in advance for sharing this again.

(I am actually quite excited too!)


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## Zedcars (Mar 25, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> Interesting ad in the new Sound on Sound, but nothing online yet. Follow-up to Phobos?


Very strange that the embargo date doesn’t seem to coincide with launch date…unless…

Still, it gets people talking which is a good thing.


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## Spitfire Team (Apr 3, 2022)

​


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 3, 2022)

I painfully want this.


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 3, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> I painfully want this.


Let's just hope it's gonna be reasonably priced!

Ah who am I kidding, it's going to be 500 € isn't it?


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## Zedcars (Apr 3, 2022)

Cdnalsi said:


> Let's just hope it's gonna be reasonably priced!
> 
> Ah who am I kidding, it's going to be 500 € isn't it?


Nah, cheaper than that. I’m thinking €499.


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## Michel Simons (Apr 3, 2022)

I painfully want to know what it is.


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## branshen (Apr 3, 2022)

$299 sequel to bt Phobos


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## Casiquire (Apr 3, 2022)

This has become the most pain filled thread in all the land


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 3, 2022)

Casiquire said:


> This has become the most pain filled thread in all the land


Ouch!! You’ve wounded me with your cutting comment!


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## GMT (Apr 3, 2022)

No criticism of Paul , but he never actually looks excited when he says he is. If he said, "I'm comfortably, almost smugly, content at this very moment" and lit a pipe, the words would fit the image better.

He's never struck me as the kind of guy who yells "fuck yeah" and punches a wall.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 3, 2022)

GMT said:


> No criticism of Paul , but he never actually looks excited when he says he is. If he said, "I'm comfortably, almost smugly, content at this very moment" and lit a pipe, the words would fit the image better.
> 
> He's never struck me as the kind of guy who yells "fuck yeah" and punches a wall.


I like to think that it's all part of the joke. But, in any case, still waters run deep. That man is an artist and has currents of emotion of such dangerous power roiling beneath his contented surface that they could tear asunder the sanity of a lesser person.


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## GMT (Apr 3, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> I like to think that it's all part of the joke. But, in any case, still waters run deep. That man is an artist and has currents of emotion of such dangerous power roiling beneath his contented surface that they could tear asunder the sanity of a lesser person.


Now you are scaring me. Especially the tearing asunder bit.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 3, 2022)

Hopefully it's something like $299 with a $249 intro price and a $199 crossgrade for Phobos owners.


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## Spitfire Team (Apr 5, 2022)

​


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## Paul Owen (Apr 5, 2022)




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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

I definitely have lots of other instruments already that can make these kinds of sounds. Yet, somehow, I know that I need this.


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## RSK (Apr 5, 2022)

I didn't realize BT was still making music. Is this a new instrument to fund his retirement?


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## doctoremmet (Apr 5, 2022)

“The orchestral synthesizer”


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 5, 2022)

I wonder if it's going to be something á la Audio Ollie's Scoring Synths which features synths actually recorded in a room with lots of mic positions.

Though the actual sounds and samples from Scoring Synths seem to be quite underwhelming, the idea and execution is great.


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## Mrmonkey (Apr 5, 2022)

One of the issues I have with these synth plugins is there often seem to be an endless list of strangely named entities you have to scroll through and can never remember. It’s also difficult to know how they all fit together sonically. Maybe this is some sort of arrangement for composers who are used to a more understandable layout of complimentary orchestral instruments but mapped to corresponding synths. Maybe even with some cool visual aid where you can set up your synth orchestra in 3D space and fit it all together. Or maybe it will be another endless abyss of patches.


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## shadowsoflight (Apr 5, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> “The orchestral synthesizer”



Note: the tagline for eDNA Earth is "A SYNTHESISER MADE OF ORCHESTRAS". The tagline for Phobos is "THE POLYCONVOLUTION SYNTHESISER".

So I guess this will likely be more along the lines of eDNA?



Mrmonkey said:


> One of the issues I have with these synth plugins is there often seem to be an endless list of strangely named entities you have to scroll through and can never remember. It’s also difficult to know how they all fit together sonically.



Agreed. That's why I love synths like u-he's - lots of helpful tagging and custom categorization options.


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## jazzman7 (Apr 5, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> I like to think that it's all part of the joke. But, in any case, still waters run deep. That man is an artist and has currents of emotion of such dangerous power roiling beneath his contented surface that they could tear asunder the sanity of a lesser person.


If you've ever been torn asunder, you know how painful that can be


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

jazzman7 said:


> If you've ever been torn asunder, you know how painful that can be



It doesn't sound like it would be nice, certainly. But not as bad as wanting a plugin you can't afford, surely?


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## titokane (Apr 5, 2022)

Just started seeing ads for BT's Tails plugin (with Unfiltered Audio) as well. It's impressive that he still has time to release new music with all the tech he helps introduce into the scene. I haven't even had a chance to get into Breaktweaker or Stutter Edit yet.


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## jazzman7 (Apr 5, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> It doesn't sound like it would be nice, certainly. But not as bad as wanting a plugin you can't afford, surely?


I must admit that can't afford is a relative term. For example, I just grabbed at least 5 synths as you well know. Most of them either free or pretty inexpensive (polite term). Now I see there's another Arturia sale at NI and this thing coming up at Spitfire. Considering I've been auditioning 1000+ presets over several hours, the sound of a few mallets over a pad does not do much for me. Don't get me wrong... I Love pads! haha

I'd have the money to buy all this stuff, but given how sated I am right now for VI's, "can't afford" here means more that money doesn't grow on trees for stuff I have a ton of already. (This excludes Pacific!)


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## doctoremmet (Apr 5, 2022)

jazzman7 said:


> This excludes Pacific!


You’re on VI-C. This goes beyond saying.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

jazzman7 said:


> I must admit that can't afford is a relative term. For example, I just grabbed at least 5 synths as you well know. Most of them either free or pretty inexpensive (polite term). Now I see there's another Arturia sale at NI and this thing coming up at Spitfire. Considering I've been auditioning 1000+ presets over several hours, the sound of a few mallets over a pad does not do much for me. Don't get me wrong... I Love pads! haha
> 
> I'd have the money to buy all this stuff, but given how sated I am right now for VI's, "can't afford" here means more that money doesn't grow on trees for stuff I have a ton of already. (This excludes Pacific!)


You'll probably get by without another synth. But no-one would ask you to forgo Pacific. That would be monstrous.


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## jazzman7 (Apr 5, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> You’re on VI-C. This goes beyond saying.


I just wanted to avoid even a hint of Blasphemy. "Culp" might be watching!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 5, 2022)

I do hope @Spitfire Team will provide an NFR license of both Polaris (for the orchestral bits) AND Phobos (for the convoluted-to-bits breakbeats) to our man, OP and brilliant musician Steven Poole, aka @SupremeFist here.

I need his talents on more electronically oriented hybrid albums. Thanks Spitfire!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 5, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> You'll probably get by without another synth. But no-one would ask you to forgo Pacific. That would be monstrous.


The thought alone makes one nauseous.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 5, 2022)

Cdnalsi said:


> I wonder if it's going to be something á la Audio Ollie's Scoring Synths which features synths actually recorded in a room with lots of mic positions.
> 
> Though the actual sounds and samples from Scoring Synths seem to be quite underwhelming, the idea and execution is great.


They already did Aperture: The Stack which is an interesting twist on this idea. A bit light on presets/samples for the price IMO, but I got it for free for buying enough during the last Black Friday sale.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 5, 2022)

Mrmonkey said:


> Maybe this is some sort of arrangement for composers who are used to a more understandable layout of complimentary orchestral instruments but mapped to corresponding synths. Maybe even with some cool visual aid where you can set up your synth orchestra in 3D space and fit it all together. Or maybe it will be another endless abyss of patches.


Check out Indiginus Solid State Symphony.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

Justin L. Franks said:


> Check out Indiginus Solid State Symphony.


It sounds very good on the demos.

There also an orchestral soundest for Zebra 2 which looks promising.






Corin Neff - The Zebra Orchestra


Buy The Zebra Orchestra here




esgalachoir.wixsite.com


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## KEM (Apr 5, 2022)

titokane said:


> Just started seeing ads for BT's Tails plugin (with Unfiltered Audio) as well. It's impressive that he still has time to release new music with all the tech he helps introduce into the scene. I haven't even had a chance to get into Breaktweaker or Stutter Edit yet.



Stutter Edit 2 is one of the greatest plugins ever made, probably top 5 for me


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## titokane (Apr 5, 2022)

KEM said:


> Stutter Edit 2 is one of the greatest plugins ever made, probably top 5 for me


I picked it up two months ago when it was on a crazy discount (along with Breaktweaker) and I haven't touched them since. This is a great reminder of all the powerful tools sitting unused on my computer 😅


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## KEM (Apr 5, 2022)

titokane said:


> I picked it up two months ago when it was on a crazy discount (along with Breaktweaker) and I haven't touched them since. This is a great reminder of all the powerful tools sitting unused on my computer 😅



Use it!! You’ll be ashamed of yourself for not having tried it sooner I can promise you that


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## Alchemedia (Apr 5, 2022)

jazzman7 said:


> If you've ever been torn asunder, you know how painful that can be


I don't think that I could take it. Oh no!


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## Ricgus3 (Apr 6, 2022)

Synthezied Orthestra sounds it says about the new library. Isn’t that Edna earth?


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 6, 2022)

Ricgus3 said:


> Synthezied Orthestra sounds it says about the new library. Isn’t that Edna earth?


I wonder what they'll offer as far as new stuff compared to all the Stephenson's Steam Band synths, eDNA stuff, Albions, Composer Toolkits, etc...


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## kgdrum (Apr 6, 2022)

KEM said:


> Use it!! You’ll be ashamed of yourself for not having tried it sooner I can promise you that


@KEM
i am another lost soul who bought breaktweaker when it was on sale recently and haven’t used it yet.
Your enthusiasm is borderline astonishing but honestly for me to be ashamed about something it’s certainly not going to be about an unused effect,library or plugin. I save my shameful moments for more substantially sordid transgressions. 👍


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## NekujaK (Apr 6, 2022)

Maybe this is Spitfire's answer to Symphonic Dstruction - Heavyocity's hybridized orchestra 🤷‍♂️


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 6, 2022)

NekujaK said:


> Maybe this is Spitfire's answer to Symphonic Dstruction - Heavyocity's hybridized orchestra 🤷‍♂️


That was my thought as well.


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## idematoa (Apr 6, 2022)




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## Spitfire Team (Apr 6, 2022)

Prepare for landing ​


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## SomeGuy (Apr 6, 2022)

Right up my alley! Love the blur between organic and synthetic sounds


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## clintowenellis (Apr 7, 2022)

NekujaK said:


> Maybe this is Spitfire's answer to Symphonic Dstruction - Heavyocity's hybridized orchestra 🤷‍♂️


I reckon it's their answer to Slate and Ash Landforms. Exact same concept. Orchestral samples but processed like a synth. I just hope they nail the UI.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 7, 2022)

6 hours!


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## Spitfire Team (Apr 7, 2022)

Requesting your presence

5pm GMT/ 9am PT ​


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## R10k (Apr 7, 2022)

Zedcars said:


> I apologise in advance for sharing this again.
> 
> (I am actually quite excited too!)



I just wanted to say, the top comment on Youtube cracked me up...

"Incredible how many round robins this man has"


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## davidson (Apr 7, 2022)

Was the original phobos bad on cpu use?


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## easyrider (Apr 7, 2022)

Same engine as Orbis….


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## el-bo (Apr 7, 2022)

jazzman7 said:


> If you've ever been torn asunder, you know how painful that can be


Torn asunder? is that in any way similar to being the unfortunate recipient of the 'proverbial' newly-ripped arsehole?


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## easyrider (Apr 7, 2022)

Wish they would update Earth aswell.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 7, 2022)

davidson said:


> Was the original phobos bad on cpu use?


It isn't lightweight by any means, but it is less of a CPU hog than something like Kepler or Symphonic Motions. I never had any issues on my 2019 iMac (slightly downrated i9-9900K).


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## jcrosby (Apr 7, 2022)

Spitfire Team said:


> Requesting your presence
> 
> 5pm GMT/ 9am PT​



I really hope SF offer a Phobos crossgrade, a potentially great instrument that SF's essentially left on the shelf to collect dust for several years now.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

jcrosby said:


> I really hope SF offer a Phobos crossgrade, a potentially great instrument that SF's essentially left on the shelf to collect dust for several years now.



Yes. With the exception of one expansion for Earth, they have treated their 'synths' as unloved sample libraries, rather than as synth engines that could receive new samples and updated versions. Was it Albion Neo that got an updated eDNA engine, whilst Earth owners didn't get an update (not even a paid one)?


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## pranic (Apr 7, 2022)

I would be super excited to see EDNA Earth get updated with an arpeggiator. Same story with all the older EDNA libraries that don't have that feature.


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## easyrider (Apr 7, 2022)

Earth would be phenomenal with a new resizable gui and search function.


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## gnapier (Apr 7, 2022)

I think Phobos is a gem. It‘s a really brilliant piece of kit and unlike many, many plugins in my overly indulgent plugin library…

I‘m always hoping that a new SF release is another follow on to it.


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## clintowenellis (Apr 7, 2022)

pranic said:


> I would be super excited to see EDNA Earth get updated with an arpeggiator. Same story with all the older EDNA libraries that don't have that feature.


Yeah I bought Solstice when they had their last big sale. I absolutely love the library, especially the Visitor synth sounds, but the EDNA engine is just stopping me from making the most out of it. I would be over the moon if they could update the synth engine and categorise the presets. I'd probably even pay for it I'm that desperate. That goes for all the Albions but Solstice in particular as it has some unique synth sound sources.


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## JBW (Apr 7, 2022)

R10k said:


> I just wanted to say, the top comment on Youtube cracked me up...
> 
> "Incredible how many round robins this man has"



P.R.R. Thomson,

Thank you for your enthusiasm!


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## Macrawn (Apr 7, 2022)

easyrider said:


> Same engine as Orbis….


Which makes me a lot less interested. Why would they need BT if they are just recycling an old engine and throwing in a different set of samples? What does he bring to this? I don't think he'd put his name on something that didn't push the envelope. 

I think Phobos is great and innovative despite a some annoying gripes and lack of Spitfire long term dedication to the development of it. 

Looking at other engines out there even the slate and ash engine has randomize for effects. I think randomization is a nice function for these types of things. Geosonics has it and I've created a lot of interesting patches that way. I don't think this engine has any of that unless they actually updated it. With the third core in Geosonics, it also allows some interesting cross fading and movement. Even something like Bioscape has some interesting engine functionality where it divides the 4 cores into two banks and treats the banks separately in terms of effects. 

I was getting kinda pumped about this actually until I saw the engine. 

I hope I'm completely wrong and it does have some nice innovations.


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## kgdrum (Apr 7, 2022)

el-bo said:


> Torn asunder? is that in any way similar to being the unfortunate recipient of the 'proverbial' newly-ripped arsehole?




@Bee_Abney 

I guess this explains the 🚿 obsession! 😘


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> @Bee_Abney
> 
> I guess this explains the 🚿 obsession! 😘


So, you're onto me, huh?!


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## kgdrum (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> So, you're onto me, huh?!




and I thought I was being gentle…………













figuratively speaking.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> and I thought I was being gentle…………
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You set a bad example for anyone who doesn't know your sense of humour, you know!!


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## kgdrum (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> You set a bad example for anyone who doesn't know your sense of humour, you know!!




Sense of humor? Who’s joking? Now I’m truly puzzled 🤔


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## Mornats (Apr 7, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> I reckon it's their answer to Slate and Ash Landforms. Exact same concept. Orchestral samples but processed like a synth. I just hope they nail the UI.


Spitfire did orchestral processed like a synth way back in Albion One. Nailing the UI would be great, it can be make or break in my opinion.


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## Pier (Apr 7, 2022)

Starting in less than 2 minutes:


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## boinzy (Apr 7, 2022)

Shhhh. Quiet. My program is on.


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## Evans (Apr 7, 2022)

"How does this compare to ____ by ____?"


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

We're going to keep the industry moving forwards...by vintage resampling.


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## Evans (Apr 7, 2022)

_"This isn't hybrid, it's xenomorphic."_

Oof, I'm out. I was looking for hybrid.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> We're going to keep the industry moving forwards...by vintage resampling.


Not just vintage. But also lo-fi!! And............. granular!!!!!

I think it sounds lovely, though. Maybe too lovely for my tastes; but yeah, I like it. Nothing groundbreaking, just nice and useful.


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## Ruffian Price (Apr 7, 2022)

€269 logged out, €229.30 on an account with Phobos.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

Evans said:


> "How does this compare to ____ by ____?"


It's totally - totally! - a ripoff of _____ and ______ should sue!!

Or offer us a free update that makes _____ even better than _____.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 7, 2022)

Spitfire Audio — Polaris






www.spitfireaudio.com





$349 / $269 intro / $229.10 for owning Phobos


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## Ricgus3 (Apr 7, 2022)

Sounds nice but owning Edna earth makes this hard to sell. Earth has what I need for this, same
Engine also but on kontakt


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

Justin L. Franks said:


> Spitfire Audio — Polaris
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not dissimilar pricing to Landforms by Slate and Ash.

No other similarities, of course. Landforms was hybrid; this is xenomorphic.


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Not just vintage. But also lo-fi!! And............. granular!!!!!
> 
> I think it sounds lovely, though. Maybe too lovely for my tastes; but yeah, I like it. Nothing groundbreaking, just nice and useful.


I think the granular aspect to it will be genuinely useful, particularly for doing pitched clouds that are evocative of the Swarms/Evo libraries. However, there's nothing fundamental to this that can't be done with a little of one's own resampling and a decent Kontakt, Falcon or Halion-level sampler. The advantage is getting the multisamples in one box. However, the advantage of the custom approach is you can probably exercise a lot more control over the playing. Spitfire doesn't cater that well for things that aren't basically modwheel and CC11 controlled pads in products like this and you can probably go a little crazier with a custom job - it just takes times to set up.

That said, I was expecting to disregard it and am now thinking "230 quid, that's not bad for this" as it is in one box - though it's pretty much just strings. Also, Output were hitting this idea a while and I was watching Christian mess around with it thinking "this is what Hexeract should have been and wasn't".


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Ruffian Price said:


> €269 logged out, €229.30 on an account with Phobos.


That’s half of Pacific Strings. I bet if I’d resample that in my Arturia Emulator II engine and put a bit of BABY Audio Super VHS on, it’ll sound half as good.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

I’ve not been able to watch. Are the string samples usable on their own, without sounding too synthy? Or are they “mere” sample grain fodder?


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## easyrider (Apr 7, 2022)

Not happy….I wanted it resampled through a vintage signal chain not a rarefied sonic pathway…😢


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> I’ve not been able to watch. Are the string samples usable on their own, without sounding too synthy? Or are they “mere” sample grain fodder?



My first impression was just sample fodder. Not much in the way of articulations. But I'd have to watch again.


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## sostenuto (Apr 7, 2022)

easyrider said:


> Not happy….I wanted it resampled through a vintage signal chain not a rarefied sonic pathway…😢


.......... _actually depends on latest recreational ingestion quality /typical reaction. _

Vintage signal chain remains in realm of possibilities. 😱


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 7, 2022)

We really need a 1h30m walkthrough of all the patches and articulations on this one...


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

The articulations looks to be almost all Longs of various kinds. Given Christian tends to play these things as long beds, usage could be quite limited. They don't sound synthy unprocessed but I get the impression it will go pretty Uncanny Valley if you try to play strongly melodic lines, a bit like a JV rompler with a truckload more sample memory.


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## davidson (Apr 7, 2022)

Doesnt sound like it offers anything new that isn't already present in every albion, stack, or 'enter name here'. I'm ready to be shown otherwise though, I do like me some synth. Definitely need a more in-depth walkthrough than the one thats up at that price.


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## easyrider (Apr 7, 2022)

I’ll pick it up


davidson said:


> Doesnt sound like it offers anything new that isn't already present in every albion, stack, or 'enter name here'. I'm ready to be shown otherwise though, I do like me some synth. Definitely need a more in-depth walkthrough than the one thats up at that price.


I got that feeling tbh….


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## Mithnaur (Apr 7, 2022)

It's amazing how certain sounds can catch you immediately (or not at all for that matter ^^).
I just started watching the intro to Polaris and I'm seduced by this magnitude and power, a bit like I was with Aperture - The Stack!
It must be my Vangelis side, immediately in love with everything that is close or far from the sound and musical atmosphere of Blade Runner ^^.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm dealing with something revolutionary, or even so incredibly different from everything I already own, but ... um I have to say, they know how to seduce me!
Well, that said, this is an extremely sketchy and hot opinion. To be continued when I've heard and seen more.

But sometimes I also like to give an impression without having thought about it for 5 minutes


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## Jeremy Spencer (Apr 7, 2022)

davidson said:


> Doesnt sound like it offers anything new that isn't already present in every albion, stack, or 'enter name here'. I'm ready to be shown otherwise though, I do like me some synth. Definitely need a more in-depth walkthrough than the one thats up at that price.


Yes, sounds like eDNA Earth, at twice the price.


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

davidson said:


> Doesnt sound like it offers anything new that isn't already present in every albion, stack, or 'enter name here'. I'm ready to be shown otherwise though, I do like me some synth. Definitely need a more in-depth walkthrough than the one thats up at that price.


There is the granular engine. Though scanning through the articulations list I'm not sure they've put enough content in there to make it worthwhile. I don't think there's going to be enough variation in the orchestral sources to make the granular engine as interesting as it could be.


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## Wally Garten (Apr 7, 2022)

Mithnaur said:


> It's amazing how certain sounds can catch you immediately (or not at all for that matter ^^).
> I just started watching the intro to Polaris and I'm seduced by this magnitude and power, a bit like I was with Aperture - The Stack!
> It must be my Vangelis side, immediately in love with everything that is close or far from the sound and musical atmosphere of Blade Runner ^^.


Me too! But I don't have any of SA's other "organic synthesizer" type libraries. I would believe that if you have those already, maybe it's not that much marginal gain. But it does sound quite lovely to my ears -- as you say, very Vangelis-y


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

I have strings, I have synth sounds made from strings, and I have several excellent granular plugins. Forget all that, and silly claims and words, what matters is the quality and usability of the sound design, preset management and tweakability.

I think it looks good. Maybe very good. But I have more than enough in this vein for my purposes. Which doesn't stop me wanting it; but it isn't at the top of my list of desirables. That's probably Pangea by Infinite Samples.


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

It will come down to a time vs money issue. I can see it paying for itself quickly if you need underscore in a hurry and clients willing to pay. It's easy to see how a few sustained two-handed chords will fill out a cue in those situations. For the hobbyist situation or where you've got more time to work on sounds, I think DIYing it will be more rewarding and yield more varied results.

I think they have been a bit stingy with content (though I can't be sure as I'm just looking at a list of stuff) when you consider that on paper S+A Landforms seems to have more varied stuff in it. OK, it doesn't as I'm aware have a granular engine in there but it is only slightly more than Polaris' non-sale price. Limiting Polaris to strings and synths for a <cough>hybrid</cough> product I don't think was the greatest idea when a solid chunk of the customer base may well have a bunch of Ednas already.


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## Wally Garten (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> I have strings, I have synth sounds made from strings, and I have several excellent granular plugins. Forget all that, and silly claims and words, what matters is the quality and usability of the sound design, preset management and tweakability.
> 
> I think it looks good. Maybe very good. But I have more than enough in this vein for my purposes. Which doesn't stop me wanting it; but it isn't at the top of my list of desirables. That's probably Pangea by Infinite Samples.


Top of my list are several hardware synths -- so I keep trying to wean myself from the library temptations... trying.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 7, 2022)

I think I'm going to wait a bit for some reviews and hopefully a more in-depth walkthrough by Spitfire. The sounds are amazing, but I'm not sure it is different enough from the several libraries I already own with an eDNA section (Albion One / Neo / Tundra, and Symphonic Organ).


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## SupremeFist (Apr 7, 2022)

Astonishingly, the word "curated" does not appear a single time in the website description.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

Wally Garten said:


> Top of my list are several hardware synths -- so I keep trying to wean myself from the library temptations... trying.



Skipping four libraries of about this price should buy a pretty decent hardware synth. Skip another six or so and you could get something pretty special.


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## Jeremy Morgan (Apr 7, 2022)

Evans said:


> _"This isn't hybrid, it's xenomorphic."_
> 
> Oof, I'm out. I was looking for hybrid.


ET gets representation this round


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> Astonishingly, the word "curated" does not appear a single time in the website description.


However there’s this odd bit of trivial data:






If they’re deciding to go this route why didn’t they say “the Emulator II (known for the cameo in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)”?

Harkening BACK to the GOLDEN AGE of granular??? We had one? I figure we’re maybe in it, but apparently there was an earlier one???

So…

This is RETROGRANULAR????

OMG


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## Braveheart (Apr 7, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> We're going to keep the industry moving forwards...by vintage resampling.


Their usual humility...


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

Jeremy Morgan said:


> ET gets representation this round


Not that kind of xenomorph. "Ouch" has an entirely different meaning if you invite one round for tea.


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## easyrider (Apr 7, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> Astonishingly, the word "curated" does not appear a single time in the website description.


Henson said it in the promo vid….😂


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Harkening BACK to the GOLDEN AGE of granular??? We had one? I figure we’re maybe in it, but apparently there was an earlier one???


I suspect "granular" crept in where it shouldn't. I think what they meant to imply was that using granular it harks back to the "golden age of synthesis". The bygone age of granular synthesis was all about tapes and stuff: http://www.granularsynthesis.com/hthesis/xenakis.html


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## davidson (Apr 7, 2022)

easyrider said:


> Henson said it in the promo vid….😂


A couple of times I think. And zeitgeist, he loves that one too.


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## Daren Audio (Apr 7, 2022)

*Spitfire Polaris Vs. Output Analog Strings.* Both very capable and cover orchestral + synths.

— 421 presets




Output Analog Strings + plus optional (2) expansion packs
— 496 presets (not including the two expansion packs).


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## jazzman7 (Apr 7, 2022)

Usually the big expense of recording an orchestra in a premium space is to try and get as much realism as possible. Commissioning a fresh set or orchestral recordings to be a sound source for what is more or less a synth library? Plenty of ways to get a big beautiful Pad without going thru all that. That kind of pricing without the intro discount, is getting up there into premium synth category (With literally thousands of Presets). I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like an expensive gimmick. 

Maybe buying new Lamborghini's for a demolition derby would be a good idea as well.


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## gamma-ut (Apr 7, 2022)

Are they fresh recordings? It would make sense to use existing material in a product like this unless there's some specific effect they were after. Though it's possible they've recorded new stuff in order to change the mic configuration - I'm guessing you might want it as dry as possible if there's going to be a ton of processing on it.

Edit: should have read the product description first. They are apparently new, but with a different seating arrangement that seems to be more bass in middle, highs to the sides.


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## sostenuto (Apr 7, 2022)

🤷🏻‍♂️ ....... Output - Analog Strings @ $129 right now 
Modern String Beds or Neon Strings expansions _ @ $22. ea.


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## Wunderhorn (Apr 7, 2022)

Another one based on the problematic Spitfire Player without offering fixes (confirmed issues) for existing libraries. Got burnt one too many times by the Spitfire Player. I'd stay away!
Release something again on Kontakt and you'll get my attention.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Okay, I watched the walkthrough. It does sound brilliant. But I fail to hear much that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with an actual premium flagship synth, or with an eDNA library of one of the Albions and Arturia’s Fragments for instance. Anyway… in terms of delivering a great contemporary xenomorphic sound, this thing does seem to offer a lot.


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## Sirocco (Apr 7, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> For the hobbyist situation or where you've got more time to work on sounds, I think DIYing it will be more rewarding and yield more varied results.


So hobbysts are doing the pro job or are the pros job in some cases so poor that are a random/randoms amount of presets for one or two soft syhtns and go ahead?? this is what i see since many years ago, in commercials, trailers, o, even "oversocore" xd.

If a hobbyst is people like Lufrum, The Unfinished or The very Loud Indeed then this is it, their great work making for "no-time" rush pro´s urgently needing sounds....sounds...meeh.

Anyway, this polaris for me is totally forgattable, since the purpose, then a couple of sound and engine/s that takes everything but doesn´t clearly in nothing, like other syhts btw. 

A graet company with a meeeh product waaay overpriced; from other companies maybe, not the price, the innovation ro fresh something, fron SF.... expensive smoke.

Salute!


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## pinki (Apr 7, 2022)

That's just a ridiculous price for something you could pick up elsewhere for a lot lot less money. Bonkers.
The whole marketing machine is really offensive and I think they should stop it.


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## Evans (Apr 7, 2022)

Between all the Albions, Habitat by OT, the complete S+A bundle, Bloom by Naroth Audio, a bunch of Dark Zebra presets by The Unfinished, Heavyocity's Symphonic Destruction, and Analog Strings by Output I'm pretty set for all necessary sounds. 

I mean, I would be set if I had all these.

What I'm saying is, hey, maybe this product isn't sooo silly if you don't have a bunch of other great products. The marketing is awful, sure. Choose the right start for you.

.... which is probably just Omnisphere.


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## Pier (Apr 7, 2022)

As much as I applaud the _Xenomorphic_ sound... is it just me or this seems pretty niche?

I mean, I can totally see Polaris on some cyberpunk, dark sci fi, space horror, etc, but there aren't that many productions in those genres.

For example, I'm not sure this type of stuff would work on more regular sci fi material like The Expanse or Foundation.


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## blaggins (Apr 7, 2022)

Good discussion in here I think. What would be the recommended software/VST for creating these kinds of orchestral sample-based synth sounds? They seem to have resampled through some terribly expensive hardware, but I am guessing there are other ways to do it much cheaper in the box that would yield results that were pretty close? Is that the kind of thing people buy Omnisphere for? Or would a simple granular synth do it?


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

tpoots said:


> Good discussion in here I think. What would be the recommended software/VST for creating these kinds of orchestral sample-based synth sounds? They seem to have resampled through some terribly expensive hardware, but I am guessing there are other ways to do it much cheaper in the box that would yield results that were pretty close? Is that the kind of thing people buy Omnisphere for? Or would a simple granular synth do it?


You could literally use Arturia’s Emulator II plugin, to resample some of your strings and then export those. Use them in any decent synth that handles multisamples, such as Falcon, Halion or Kontakt for that matter and add some modulation, grains etc. Or import 8 samples that you’ve rendered in Emu II back into Pigments. Use Arturia’s MELLO-FI, or any other granulator. Cubase has a good stock one. In terms of sound, given decent enough rough material, I bet you’d be able to come pretty close. Sources like Bunker Strings seem excellent starting material for an exercise like this.


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## Pier (Apr 7, 2022)

tpoots said:


> Good discussion in here I think. What would be the recommended software/VST for creating these kinds of orchestral sample-based synth sounds? They seem to have resampled through some terribly expensive hardware, but I am guessing there are other ways to do it much cheaper in the box that would yield results that were pretty close? Is that the kind of thing people buy Omnisphere for? Or would a simple granular synth do it?


TAL DAC emulates old samplers' digital conversion. TAL Sampler has that built in.

For granular you have tons of options. Portal, MGranularMB, Efx Fragments, etc.

Super VHS

Etc.


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## method1 (Apr 7, 2022)

Getting Doug Rocket vibes from this one.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Pier said:


> TAL DAC emulates old samplers' digital conversion. TAL Sampler has that built in.
> 
> For granular you have tons of options. Portal, MGranularMB, etc.
> 
> ...


Yes, excellent suggestion. TAL DAC / TAL sampler.

Also, shoutout to @emptyvessel -my favourite Scot in Kiwiland- who basically is a one-man-Polaris avant-la-lettre. He has been doing this resampling thing for ages and his soundsets are way cheaper - yet amazing. Admittedly, the source material are not strings recorded in AIR. But if xenomorphism is a thing now, Greg aka emptyvessel is Ridley Scott.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 7, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> Astonishingly, the word "curated" does not appear a single time in the website description.


Have no fear, he said it in the walkthrough vid @ 9:38


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## Jeremy Morgan (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Okay, I watched the walkthrough. It does sound brilliant. But I fail to hear much that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with an actual premium flagship synth, or with an eDNA library of one of the Albions and Arturia’s Fragments for instance. Anyway… in terms of delivering a great contemporary xenomorphic sound, this thing does seem to offer a lot.


Soundpaint hybrid stuff too


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## SupremeFist (Apr 7, 2022)

Beautiful Void Audio's Elixer libraries seem to be in this wheelhouse too (and are rather wonderful, and much cheaper).


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## gives19 (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Okay, I watched the walkthrough. It does sound brilliant. But I fail to hear much that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with an actual premium flagship synth, or with an eDNA library of one of the Albions and Arturia’s Fragments for instance. Anyway… in terms of delivering a great contemporary xenomorphic sound, this thing does seem to offer a lot.


I agree. Even with my upgrade pricing, it's not something I need right now. I'll wait a bit, plus I am on a much needed month off enjoying the sunshine.


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## Pier (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Also, shoutout to @emptyvessel -my favourite Scot in Kiwiland- who basically is a one-man-Polaris avant-la-lettre. He has been doing this resampling thing for ages and his soundsets are way cheaper - yet amazing. Admittedly, the source material are not strings recorded in AIR. But if xenomorphism is a thing now, Greg aka emptyvessel is Ridley Scott.


Exactly.

And to be honest, once you feed your xenomorphic stuff into a huge reverb, it really doesn't matter where the source material was recorded.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Jeremy Morgan said:


> Soundpaint hybrid stuff too


Fair point. In terms of a modern engine that handles great if mangling samples quickly is your goal, SP is an excellent tool. As soon as they drop their sample import and legato engine, they’ll likely port over Century source material to mangle it into oblivion. I sort of did not bring it up because I am on the beta test team and have received free SP libraries in the past. So my opinion on it is very subjective, academically speaking at least.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> Beautiful Void Audio's Elixer libraries seem to be in this wheelhouse too (and are rather wonderful, and much cheaper).



Deep Conjuring II - Specters is pretty much Polaris without the sampling budget. And in Kontakt. Though Specters is less synthwave, perhaps.

Anyway, no, there is nothing new here; merely a good version of things that have been around for awhile.


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## Trash Panda (Apr 7, 2022)

Heavyocity did it better.


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## SupremeFist (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Deep Conjuring II - Specters is pretty much Polaris without the sampling budget. And in Kontakt. Though Specters is less synthwave, perhaps.


Oh, I didn't have that one... but I do now! 👍🏻


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## Leslie Fuller (Apr 7, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> @KEM
> i am another lost soul who bought breaktweaker when it was on sale recently and haven’t used it yet.
> Your enthusiasm is borderline astonishing but honestly for me to be ashamed about something it’s certainly not going to be about an unused effect,library or plugin. I save my shameful moments for more substantially sordid transgressions. 👍


Guilty as charged! I bought both Breaktweaker and Stutteredit in sales, and have probably used them once!


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## Living Fossil (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Harkening BACK to the GOLDEN AGE of granular??? We had one? I figure we’re maybe in it, but apparently there was an earlier one???


I remember at the time i studied (90ies) it was one of the big things at the institute for electronic music.
Other big things at that time were the IRCAM workstation, phasevocoding as well as working with impulse responses (which had to be done offline). And spectrograms were completely en vogue (they also had to be calculated). But there was a software which pretty much allowed the same manipulations as izotope's IRIS (like: cutting specific spectral parts of the spectrum), and even much more (like sound morphing). (also offline)

TL; DR. : the GOLDEN AGE of granular lasted from august 1995 until may 1999. In may an unexperienced violinist with a very poor technique played two baroque sonatas completely _flautando_, which is now seen as the beginning of the GOLDEN AGE of music _at the edge of silence_.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Deep Conjuring II - Specters is pretty much Polaris without the sampling budget. And in Kontakt. Though Specters is less synthwave, perhaps.
> 
> Anyway, no, there is nothing new here; merely a good version of things that have been around for awhile.


Nice!









Deep Conjuring II - Demos


Credits: My Avatar was done by Brandon Miltgen. You can see his work at brandonmiltgen.blogspot.com




soundcloud.app.goo.gl


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## Denkii (Apr 7, 2022)

meh 💁‍♂️


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Living Fossil said:


> I remember at the time i studied (90ies) it was one of the big things at the institute for electronic music.
> Other big things at that time were the IRCAM workstation, phasevocoding as well as working with impulse responses (which had to be done offline). And spectrograms were completely en vogue (they also had to be calculated). But there was a software which pretty much allowed the same manipulations as izotope's IRIS (like: cutting specific spectral parts of the spectrum), and even much more (like sound morphing). (also offline)
> 
> TL; DR. : the GOLDEN AGE of granular lasted from august 1995 until may 1999. In may an unexperienced violinist with a very poor technique played two baroque sonatas completely _flautando_, which is now seen as the beginning of the GOLDEN AGE of music _at the edge of silence_.


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## WindcryMusic (Apr 7, 2022)

I might be interested in this if I didn’t already have eDNA Earth, NOVO and Straylight. But since I do … well, maybe I’ll still consider it on sale a couple of years down the road, ’cause I’m weak and all that. Or maybe not.


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## Wally Garten (Apr 7, 2022)

Leslie Fuller said:


> Guilty as charged! I bought both Breaktweaker and Stutteredit in sales, and have probably used them once!


Same. I'm sure they can be used to cool effect, but the learning curve seemd high and the price I paid was very low, and well... I just didn't do it.


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## Mithnaur (Apr 7, 2022)

Although the sound seduced me quite a bit, I agree with some of the comments about the price and usefulness compared to what can be done with other, perhaps less expensive instruments.

Where I would perhaps have a reservation is on the turnkey aspect of this type of product which can be quite attractive, especially for those who do not have a ton of virtual synths or hardware at hand and especially not knowing how to handle them. That being said, I have to admit that Analog Strings is something to watch closely at the moment!

For my part, I'm taking a little break from orchestral music these days, precisely to get back into synths. I've barely studied a quarter of what I have so I'm prioritizing that over buying new instruments.
In particular the modular that I did not practice much. I am still speechless of all that can be done with VCV Rack totally free!
The VST option is a bit expensive, but on the other hand you can go very far with the HOST option, allowing you to integrate other VST in the modular rack (like the Arturia for example). You can even interface VCV with hardware synths. It's very inspiring and powerful! And of course the freedom is much greater than with instruments like Polaris. Just look at the tons of tutorials on Youtube.
I dream to be able to afford some hardware modular soon 

But all this is very time consuming and requires a lot of learning. So I can understand that a product like Polaris can have its share of time-pressed customers who don't look at the expense.

About this kind of instruments, especially at Spitfire, since some of them seem to master the synthesizing of acoustic instruments. Would there be something that would allow you to get close to the Aperture Stack rendering with any instrument in source ?


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Mithnaur said:


> About this kind of instruments, especially at Spitfire, since some of them seem to master the synthesizing of acoustic instruments. Would there be something that would allow you to get close to the Aperture Stack rendering with any instrument in source ?


Good analysis there. But I am not sure if I’m following you in this final paragraph?


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 7, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> I suspect "granular" crept in where it shouldn't. I think what they meant to imply was that using granular it harks back to the "golden age of synthesis". The bygone age of granular synthesis was all about tapes and stuff: http://www.granularsynthesis.com/hthesis/xenakis.html


* I just realized that Siegfried beat me to this point, but I'll keep mine up nonetheless *

Granular synthesis, as we know it, really started with digital recording/sampling. Any bygone age of g.s. would be the 90s to the 10s. But it's still being treated as the new kid on the block. I first heard it in electroacoustic concerts by Barry Truax (Canada) in the late 80s.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 7, 2022)

Mithnaur said:


> About this kind of instruments, especially at Spitfire, since some of them seem to master the synthesizing of acoustic instruments. Would there be something that would allow you to get close to the Aperture Stack rendering with any instrument in source ?


Maybe you could try running a source through multiple guitar amp sims and cab IR's (in parallel of course). Nothing crazy, just find a few with very different tones and slap each one on a send. Three to five might be enough, or it might not. Haven't tried it.


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 7, 2022)

Trash Panda said:


> Heavyocity did it better.


I really wish Heavyocity would make a plugin with their effects engine that we can use on any source.


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## Mithnaur (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Good analysis there. But I am not sure if I’m following you in this final paragraph?


Well, that's a little bit off topic and at the same time not so much. You talked earlier about alternative methods to get this kind of rendering with for example Arturia's Emulator II (among others). It's a pity I don't have it because I have the V Collection 6. But I find it interesting and useful to indicate other ways of doing it, for those who would like to do it themselves.
And my question was, is it possible to get close (by taking any source instrument or synth) to the (great) sound of the Aperture Stack amp wall. Of course you can do a lot of things with good reverb, but in this case there is a lot more.
I really love this instrument, and I'm a bit frustrated that I only have this sound with the presets included in ATS.
I don't know if it's clearer


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)

Mithnaur said:


> Well, that's a little bit off topic and at the same time not so much. You talked earlier about alternative methods to get this kind of rendering with for example Arturia's Emulator II (among others). It's a pity I don't have it because I have the V Collection 6. But I find it interesting and useful to indicate other ways of doing it, for those who would like to do it themselves.
> And my question was, is it possible to get close (by taking any source instrument or synth) to the (great) sound of the Aperture Stack amp wall. Of course you can do a lot of things with good reverb, but in this case there is a lot more.
> I really love this instrument, and I'm a bit frustrated that I only have this sound with the presets included in ATS.
> I don't know if it's clearer


Ah yes. Totally clear. So the challenge is: take guitar samples / or record them / as well as modular synths, run them through a bunch of various (virtual) amps and cabinets, and process that in a way as if they’re all recorded on a gorgeous sounding soundstage. In the box. 

Interesting to theorize about, but difficult to achieve similar results in practice I suppose.


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## Mithnaur (Apr 7, 2022)

Justin L. Franks said:


> Maybe you could try running a source through multiple guitar amp sims and cab IR's (in parallel of course). Nothing crazy, just find a few with very different tones and slap each one on a send. Three to five might be enough, or it might not. Haven't tried it.


ah thank you for the first part of the answer, sorry I saw it a little late ^^.
I take note of it. Unfortunately I don't have much in cab IRs. But I had actually thought about trying something with GuitarRig5 and Amplitube SE. With a bit of digging there might be a way. Thanks for your help!



doctoremmet said:


> Ah yes. Totally clear. So the challenge is: take guitar samples / or record them / as well as modular synths, run them through a bunch of various (virtual) amps and cabinets, and process that in a way as if they’re all recorded on a gorgeous sounding soundstage. In the box.
> 
> Interesting to theorize about, but difficult to achieve similar results in practice I suppose.


Indeed ^^ yes I realized with the few tests I did some time ago, that all the effects plugins I have (which I probably don't use the best) don't reach the level of power and size of this crazy wall.
Hence my question, if by any chance some people knew some tricks with honorable results. But I don't have too many illusions


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

Mithnaur said:


> Well, that's a little bit off topic and at the same time not so much. You talked earlier about alternative methods to get this kind of rendering with for example Arturia's Emulator II (among others). It's a pity I don't have it because I have the V Collection 6. But I find it interesting and useful to indicate other ways of doing it, for those who would like to do it themselves.
> And my question was, is it possible to get close (by taking any source instrument or synth) to the (great) sound of the Aperture Stack amp wall. Of course you can do a lot of things with good reverb, but in this case there is a lot more.
> I really love this instrument, and I'm a bit frustrated that I only have this sound with the presets included in ATS.
> I don't know if it's clearer


The target is a large group of instruments going through separate amps in the same room. And being able to increase or decrease the quantity of instruments playing.

The basic starting point is multiple different synth samples/vst synths/guitars/whatever. Each has an amp sim on the channel, and they all have a send to a very good concert hall reverb. I'd recommend a convolution reverb for that, though there are some algorithmic reverbs that can match actual spaces pretty well (such as Stratus or Stratus 3D).

But you won't necessarily want seventy-odd tracks of this. So, cheat. Use a good doubler or chorus on some, but not all the channels.

Then you have the problem that the sound waves aren't interacting naturally. You can't exactly fake this but, if you add compression on the same fx/bus before the reverb, you can get them to blend a little more. This will help you get the decrease in detail that Aperture has - the same as a large string section instead of a small one.

Now, you can sample all of this together and make a single sample instrument out of it. But I don't know how you would then increase or decrease the number of instruments playing. Or, you can keep them separate and find a way (e.g. automation, or just editing the notes on different channels) to vary the number playing.

All of this may be fairly obvious. And it is very time consuming. And it won't sound as convincing. Which is why Aperture is almost a very useful product.

Almost, because I simply don't think it sounds that great. Again, like a really large string section. I like the detail.


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## Mithnaur (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> The target is a large group of instruments going through separate amps in the same room. And being able to increase or decrease the quantity of instruments playing.
> 
> The basic starting point is multiple different synth samples/vst synths/guitars/whatever. Each has an amp sim on the channel, and they all have a send to a very good concert hall reverb. I'd recommend a convolution reverb for that, though there are some algorithmic reverbs that can match actual spaces pretty well (such as Stratus or Stratus 3D).
> 
> ...


Awesome thanks so much for these tips I will work on it! If one day I end up getting something interesting I'll do a feedback on it


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

Mithnaur said:


> Awesome thanks so much for these tips I will work on it! If one day I end up getting something interesting I'll do a feedback on it


That would be great!


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## Geoff Grace (Apr 7, 2022)

First, it's TAILS with Unfiltered Audio; and now, it's Polaris with Spitfire. BT has been busy partnering lately!

Best,

Geoff


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## Technostica (Apr 7, 2022)

A missed opportunity as I was hoping for a Dame eDNA Everage Composers toolkit:


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

Geoff Grace said:


> First, it's TAILS with Unfiltered Audio; and now, it's Polaris with Spitfire. BT has been busy partnering lately!
> 
> Best,
> 
> Geoff


And, is it me, or is he much more present in the publicising of one product rather than the other?


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## D Halgren (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> And, is it me, or is he much more present in the publicising of one product rather than the other?


Agree, I was expecting him to at least show up for this one.


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## d4vec4rter (Apr 7, 2022)

If I didn't have all the Heavyocity stuff, the Spitfire stuff and the Synth stuff I've already got... if my wallet wasn't empty (after buying BHCT in the Apex sale) and my SSD wasn't full... I might be interested in this.


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## clintowenellis (Apr 7, 2022)

Mornats said:


> Spitfire did orchestral processed like a synth way back in Albion One. Nailing the UI would be great, it can be make or break in my opinion.


Yeah it's more the way that Landforms allows you to process the sounds with arpeggiators, harmonisers, all with random options to give it a modern minimalist feel. And then they have a huge section on LFO like options that just allow you to make insanely modern creative sounds. (attached a link, hope it works)

I'm pretty disappointed in Polaris. I really don't know why Spitfire refuse to step into the future. They say all the right words but they just stick to their old tech (always mentioning it's award winning) and refuse to update. 
I might be wrong but I don't think the future is these huge icy string/synth pads on other planets with a MASSIVE sound. That was the last 15 years with Interstellar, Oblivion, Gravity and all of those great movies. But the future I think is smaller (as in stories) with more personal sound design and smaller ensembles. I'm thinking black mirrorish vibes. Movies like Ex-Machina and Her. 

I'm ranting but it's only because I love Spitfire and more specifically Christian Henson. His YouTube channel helped me so much when I was starting out (and still does) and I really thought we were on the same page. But releases like this make me feel as though maybe we aren't, or Spitfire is such a big company now it's too hard to take a risk and completely reinvent themselves.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> Yeah it's more the way that Landforms allows you to process the sounds with arpeggiators, harmonisers, all with random options to give it a modern minimalist feel. And then they have a huge section on LFO like options that just allow you to make insanely modern creative sounds. (attached a link, hope it works)
> 
> I'm pretty disappointed in Polaris. I really don't know why Spitfire refuse to step into the future. They say all the right words but they just stick to their old tech (always mentioning it's award winning) and refuse to update.
> I might be wrong but I don't think the future is these huge icy string/synth pads on other planets with a MASSIVE sound. That was the last 15 years with Interstellar, Oblivion, Gravity and all of those great movies. But the future I think is smaller (as in stories) with more personal sound design and smaller ensembles. I'm thinking black mirrorish vibes. Movies like Ex-Machina and Her.
> ...



The link worked for me, and the demo sounded great. And certainly different to Polaris.

I think that Spitfire are aware of the move toward intimate ensembles. And some of their products do cater for this. But the idea that they are pushing film composing forwards with this product is either as absurd as it appears to me, or else there is more to Polaris than this tiny introduction has yet revealed to us. (It's the former, isn't it?)

What award was it that their plugin won? It was some kind of design award, wasn't it? It reminds me of a talk I hear from a low budget film producer who said how valuable it can be to send your film off to lots of tiny festivals. If it wins anything, it is now 'The award winning...' He also said how important it was to get pictures of the director pointing at things, and standing on a certain side of anyone else in the picture.

It was a depressing talk.

I still think that Polaris sounds good, though. And, on the 'not hybrid' thing, I think that Christian was saying that this library is not made for big booming sounds and heavy and compressed music. So, it may not be original; but I don't think it is aiming for the same territory as Heavyocity's Symphonic Destruction.


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## jcrosby (Apr 7, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> We're going to keep the industry moving forwards...by vintage resampling.


40 year samplers are the sound of 2022 !!


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## clintowenellis (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> The link worked for me, and the demo sounded great. And certainly different to Polaris.
> 
> I think that Spitfire are aware of the move toward intimate ensembles. And some of their products do cater for this. But the idea that they are pushing film composing forwards with this product is either as absurd as it appears to me, or else there is more to Polaris than this tiny introduction has yet revealed to us. (It's the former, isn't it?)
> 
> ...


Oh man that talk would have been depressing!

Another thing while I'm in rant mode. I don't think we need "cue starters" anymore. I can open any Spitfire library and hold down a Harmonic Splat (thanks Orch Recipes) and I'll have a cue starter. We need cue progressors and cue finishers! We don't need new samples and hundreds of presets, we need a great UI/Engine to create our own presets.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 7, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> Oh man that talk would have been depressing!
> 
> Another thing while I'm in rant mode. I don't think we need "cue starters" anymore. I can open any Spitfire library and hold down a Harmonic Splat (thanks Orch Recipes) and I'll have a cue starter. We need cue progressors and cue finishers! We don't need new samples and hundreds of presets, we need a great UI/Engine to create our own presets.



They seem to prefer to be in the sample library business for the most part, but they do have some great engines.

But for that, you could go a long way with MPowerSynth by Melda. I get the impression that, of the few best vst multis ample players, that it is the easiest with which to make new instruments.


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## Mornats (Apr 7, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> we need a great UI/Engine to create our own presets


An effects engine that is geared towards working well with orchestral samples would be amazing. Chuck it on a channel, route your orchestra to it and instant Polaris/Phobos etc!


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 7, 2022)

Mornats said:


> An effects engine that is geared towards working well with orchestral samples would be amazing. Chuck it on a channel, route your orchestra to it and instant Polaris/Phobos etc!


Isn't that what Landforms is essentially?


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## turnerofwheels (Apr 7, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> I might be wrong but I don't think the future is these huge icy string/synth pads on other planets with a MASSIVE sound. That was the last 15 years with Interstellar, Oblivion, Gravity and all of those great movies. But the future I think is smaller (as in stories) with more personal sound design and smaller ensembles. I'm thinking black mirrorish vibes. Movies like Ex-Machina and Her.



The 80s revival lasted from the 00's into the 10s, the 90's revival lasted 2 years and the 00's revival is almost over. At this rate we're going through trends so fast if you just hang onto your epic sample libraries they'll be back in vogue by September


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## Alchemedia (Apr 7, 2022)

Geoff Grace said:


> First, it's TAILS with Unfiltered Audio; and now, it's Polaris with Spitfire. BT has been busy partnering lately!
> 
> Best,
> 
> Geoff


Parallels was a bust.


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## rhizomusicosmos (Apr 7, 2022)

Living Fossil said:


> I remember at the time i studied (90ies) it was one of the big things at the institute for electronic music.
> Other big things at that time were the IRCAM workstation, phasevocoding as well as working with impulse responses (which had to be done offline). And spectrograms were completely en vogue (they also had to be calculated). But there was a software which pretty much allowed the same manipulations as izotope's IRIS (like: cutting specific spectral parts of the spectrum), and even much more (like sound morphing). (also offline)
> 
> TL; DR. : the GOLDEN AGE of granular lasted from august 1995 until may 1999. In may an unexperienced violinist with a very poor technique played two baroque sonatas completely _flautando_, which is now seen as the beginning of the GOLDEN AGE of music _at the edge of silence_.


Yes, I remember reading articles on granular synthesis by Barry Truax in CMJ in the early 90s. By the end of the decade it had started moving out of academia and into commercial products or open-source such as Csound. I think the interest and the grant money then moved to physical modelling.


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## rhizomusicosmos (Apr 7, 2022)

Technostica said:


> A missed opportunity as I was hoping for a Dame eDNA Everage Composers toolkit:


This is what Big Kev would say to that:


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## Kevperry777 (Apr 7, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Okay, I watched the walkthrough. It does sound brilliant. But I fail to hear much that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with an actual premium flagship synth, or with an eDNA library of one of the Albions and Arturia’s Fragments for instance. Anyway… in terms of delivering a great contemporary xenomorphic sound, this thing does seem to offer a lot.


I felt the same. I have ton of presets that get close to this kind of thing from Neo, Tundra and Solstice eDNA (Neo has some NICE synth sounds to blend in). Not to mention the vast presets for Zero-G Elements...so I have to pass.


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## turnerofwheels (Apr 7, 2022)

rhizomusicosmos said:


> Yes, I remember reading articles on granular synthesis by Barry Truax in CMJ in the early 90s. By the end of the decade it had started moving out of academia and into commercial products or open-source such as Csound. I think the interest and the grant money then moved to physical modelling.


It was all the rage in underground electronica by the mid 90s too, heard plenty of it going on in Autechre not to mention The Orb using early versions of GRM tools around then


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## dunamisstudio (Apr 7, 2022)

I like BT and Spitfire, but I already have a ton of stuff that can do these sounds. Course I never picked up Phobos either. Maybe they'll do a cheap bundle for both one day.


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## sostenuto (Apr 7, 2022)

Enjoy eDNA Earth. 
Will be attentive when Polaris gets into capable hands _ users comment _ can get better idea of pros / cons.


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## turnerofwheels (Apr 7, 2022)

dunamisstudio said:


> I like BT and Spitfire, but I already have a ton of stuff that can do these sounds. Course I never picked up Phobos either. Maybe they'll do a cheap bundle for both one day.


I have phobos, it's nice when it works, and there are some good sounds in there. Though when they marketed combining tonal impulses with effects as new I chucked. Pretty sure a few of us have been doing that with max msp and free vsts for nearly 20 years now


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## colony nofi (Apr 7, 2022)

turnerofwheels said:


> I have phobos, it's nice when it works, and there are some good sounds in there. Though when they marketed combining tonal impulses with effects as new I chucked. Pretty sure a few of us have been doing that with max msp and free vsts for nearly 20 years now


Yeah!
Its not so long ago (5 or 6 years) I wrote a 70minute suite for contemporary dance for string quartet, live manipulation of the string sound and synth. The live manipulation was done using 1000's of automation points in a Nuendo session that also ran the click track / virtual conductor video. And MAXMSP running in parallel. The challenge was always getting some of the more out-there sounds (massive pitch shifting etc) with almost no added latency. Its interesting to go thru figuring out how to do a lot of these kinds of sounds but without plugins that introduce tonnes of latency. Took me months to re-build all the original ideas done with a mockup to work live - since I was stupid enough not to think about live latency when I did the original writing.

Off topic rant over.

I'm lukewarm on this. It might be useful in some circumstances.


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## Michel Simons (Apr 7, 2022)

After reading all your comments I am wondering whether I should bother with watching the walkthrough.


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## cedricm (Apr 8, 2022)

Seriously.

I stopped at "Housed in our award-winning plugin".

April Fools' Day was a week ago.


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## R10k (Apr 8, 2022)

Michel Simons said:


> After reading all your comments I am wondering whether I should bother with watching the walkthrough.


I had a quick listen to the preview, thought it sounded pretty average, and went to bed.



rhizomusicosmos said:


> This is what Big Kev would say to that:



Haha been a while since I saw Big Kev!


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## jcrosby (Apr 8, 2022)

Also on the fence, and leaning toward underwhelmed... If someone does an in depth playthrough I'm curious enough, but ultimately it does seem like something that can be accomplished with eDNA, or each of Albion's Steam Band sections with a plugin or two...


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## easyrider (Apr 8, 2022)

I think you’d get more mileage out of Omnisphere tbh…


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## Henning (Apr 8, 2022)

I personally think it would have been cool to have the original unprocessed recordings of the string section in a kind of evo-like engine. I mean, live strings simulating synth stuff is a great idea. I wonder how it sounded originally.


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 8, 2022)

Any early adopters here? There's nothing on youtube...


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## Old Timer (Apr 8, 2022)

What award did the Spitfire plug-in win?


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## easyrider (Apr 8, 2022)

Spitfire are masters at churning out new VI’s but there does become a point where maybe the newest stuff isn’t that different from stuff from year ago like Earth….

Solstice however is a unique brilliant library so they do innovate and can still innovate….

They should really update Earth and charge and upgrade fee…they would probably generate more income from this than a brand new library costing £300


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## redlester (Apr 8, 2022)

Seems an odd one this. A full page ad in Sound on Sound mag before even being hinted at on social media, followed by a very short demo from Christian where he's doing his best on the surface, but seems like his heart isn't really in it. Like a Spitfire walkthrough version of a recent Manchester United performance. It's stated that they nearly released this two years ago but held off in order to improve it. Judging by the amount of new releases they've bombarded us with this year, I suspect they may be clearing the backlog of things which were delayed by Covid?

Saying all that, I like the sound of it and I've found in the past that for me personally with the eDNA instruments the most fun (though very time consuming) is to be had by starting from a blank patch and creating sounds from scratch rather than just clicking through the pre-sets. I've never personally had any problems with the Spitfire player (award-winning or otherwise) so that's not an issue for me.


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## Henrik B. Jensen (Apr 8, 2022)

redlester said:


> Like a Spitfire walkthrough version of a recent Manchester United performance.


Oh man, that’s a brutal comparison!


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## redlester (Apr 8, 2022)

easyrider said:


> They should really update Earth and charge and upgrade fee…they would probably generate more income from this than a brand new library costing £300


In terms of new presets they had an update to Earth in October 2020.


https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013891357-What-are-the-new-patches-in-eDNA-Earth-October-2020-


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## Alex Niedt (Apr 8, 2022)

Sounds good, and I'd definitely use it once in a while, BUT...Phobos was one of my biggest regret purchases from Spitfire (and I own most of their stuff), and their player irks me, so I reeeeeally hesitate to purchase this even at a discount.


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## easyrider (Apr 8, 2022)

redlester said:


> In terms of new presets they had an update to Earth in October 2020.
> 
> 
> https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013891357-What-are-the-new-patches-in-eDNA-Earth-October-2020-


I meant use the spitfire player engine…That was an sticky plaster fix for the insane time wasted searching for patches.


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## Aitcpiano (Apr 8, 2022)

Probably see this one in the black friday Ton deal in several years time.


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## redlester (Apr 8, 2022)

Henrik B. Jensen said:


> Oh man, that’s a brutal comparison!


As a long-suffering season ticket holder I know what I'm talking about.


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## easyrider (Apr 8, 2022)

Considering what you get in an Albion….I think the price is too high imo.


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## easyrider (Apr 8, 2022)

Cost of living is rising…..new libraries really have to punch through….I’m not sure Polaris does….


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## TomislavEP (Apr 8, 2022)

Even though there are very slim chances for me to purchase this library in the future, out of curiosity I've just watched the presentation by CH. I don't want to sound blasphemous, but to me, the overall sounds found in Polaris are highly reminiscent of those in eDNA Earth and Stephenson Steam Band, even those in the older versions of Albion libraries that I have. Some small details and improvements regarding the eDNA Engine itself are interesting, but IMO not so much in comparison to what is already there in older iterations. For my purposes, eDNA Earth will probably be quite enough when looking for synth sounds with a similar aesthetic.


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## clintowenellis (Apr 8, 2022)

redlester said:


> followed by a very short demo from Christian where he's doing his best on the surface, but seems like his heart isn't really in it


I know right! It really seemed like he was trying to imitate himself from the Albion Neo overview video. I loved watching him talk about Neo. He really sold it to me and came across so sincere and I absolutely love the library and use it on every project.

I'm attaching it in case some of you haven't watched it. It's interesting to compare his body language and delivery compared to the Polaris vid.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

Not to pile on, but check this video as well. In terms of sonic character wouldn’t you agree this comes awefully close to Polaris?


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## holywilly (Apr 8, 2022)

Cdnalsi said:


> Any early adopters here? There's nothing on youtube...


Early adopters here, need more time to explore this library, so far my mood is complicated.


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 8, 2022)

holywilly said:


> Early adopters here, need more time to explore this library, so far my mood is complicated.


Cool, looking forward to your thoughts and audio!


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 8, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> I know right! It really seemed like he was trying to imitate himself from the Albion Neo overview video. I loved watching him talk about Neo. He really sold it to me and came across so sincere and I absolutely love the library and use it on every project.
> 
> I'm attaching it in case some of you haven't watched it. It's interesting to compare his body language and delivery compared to the Polaris vid.



How long before we start inspecting the background of the Polaris video for clues? A gun leaning against a wall? Let's zoom in and, if you draw in an outline on photoshop, and recolour everything inside it, and don't know what guns look like... yes, yes it is! And counting Christian's blinks (that was three short blinks - now watch for three long!).

I have Hammers. It's nice. I still remember Christian waxing lyrical about how it was pushing forward the whole wotzit, modernity, sampling, something. Hmm. It's nice though. Sort of like... Yes, sort of like all those percussion libraries aimed at hybrid scoring that already existed.

Spitfire make nice libraries and horrifically hyperbolic claims about them. Not to worry. Another one will be along in a minute. And for the sake of many here, I rather hope that it is a modular orchestra!


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## davidson (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Not to pile on, but check this video as well. In terms of sonic character wouldn’t you agree this comes awefully close to Polaris?



Absolutely, and the same with Solstice. These comparisons always worry me in that spitfire will see that their (fantastic value) albions eat into would-be profits for other products


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 8, 2022)

easyrider said:


> Considering what you get in an Albion….I think the price is too high imo.


Yeah, especially compared to eDNA Earth, which is $149. I understand it needs to be higher than that, since they recorded a new string section (fairly small at 24 players, 6/6/5/4/3, but still new recordings). Plus the new synth samples. I may be wrong, but I think eDNA Earth used pre-existing samples from across their libraries, so it was able to have been done cheaper than something like Polaris.

But based on the amount of content in Polaris, I feel $249 / $199 intro / $179 Phobos crossgrade is where it should be.


----------



## Michel Simons (Apr 8, 2022)

R10k said:


> I had a quick listen to the preview, thought it sounded pretty average, and went to bed.


I just watched the walkthrough, but as expected, not for me.

Even though I haven't used Phobos that much, I still like it. But I am wondering about BT's involvement in this instrument. What was his part in the development of Polaris?


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## holywilly (Apr 8, 2022)

My first impression is, the sources are great, very inspiring, but the player and the eDNA engine is so limited that I wish it is a Soundpaint release.


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## jbuhler (Apr 8, 2022)

Leslie Fuller said:


> Guilty as charged! I bought both Breaktweaker and Stutteredit in sales, and have probably used them once!


I find Breaktweaker so sad: Such a great idea, such poor implementation, so little love to improve it so the implementation is adequate to the idea.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 8, 2022)

holywilly said:


> My first impression is, the sources are great, very inspiring, but the player and the eDNA engine is so limited that I wish it is a Soundpaint release.


On the bright side, eDNA can do some thinks Soundpaint can't currently (independent filters for the two sources, of instance). So it is nice to have another engine in the mix.


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## clintowenellis (Apr 8, 2022)

holywilly said:


> My first impression is, the sources are great, very inspiring, but the player and the eDNA engine is so limited that I wish it is a Soundpaint release.


Yeah that granular demonstration was so dull I'm surprised they left it in


----------



## Braveheart (Apr 8, 2022)

holywilly said:


> My first impression is, the sources are great, very inspiring, but the player and the eDNA engine is so limited that I wish it is a Soundpaint release.


A Soundpaint release would be around 40$


----------



## iMovieShout (Apr 8, 2022)

What can I say? The pictures look nice!!!! 
I'm definitely not a fan of this nor BT's Phobos, so another one to miss.

Still loving SA's Pro Symphonic and Studio Strings, Brass and Woods, and BBCSO, and still loving all of the ALBION libraries, but lately it feels as if SA have lost the plot a bit. I guess that's always going to be the issue with a finite instrument set. Sooner or later the product development pipeline will run out of steam, so to keep growing the business they will need to keep refining their best products (ie. sweating their assets) and start buying up other companies.


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## SupremeFist (Apr 8, 2022)

I keep having to remind myself to use Straylight more, that is really terrific too.


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## easyrider (Apr 8, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> I keep having to remind myself to use Straylight more, that is really terrific too.


Yeah….I forget I have that too….


----------



## clintowenellis (Apr 8, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> I keep having to remind myself to use Straylight more, that is really terrific too.


Yeah Ashlight is my favourite of that series. Awesome use of a granular engine there


----------



## Ricgus3 (Apr 8, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> Yeah Ashlight is my favourite of that series. Awesome use of a granular engine there


What is the diffrence between ashlight and straylight?


----------



## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

Ricgus3 said:


> What is the diffrence between ashlight and straylight?







Source: Synthopia.com


----------



## cedricm (Apr 8, 2022)

Old Timer said:


> What award did the Spitfire plug-in win?


The Delusion Award of the Century.


----------



## clintowenellis (Apr 8, 2022)

Ricgus3 said:


> What is the diffrence between ashlight and straylight?


I had Straylight and Pharlight and honestly didn't use them much. I reluctantly picked up Ashlight and really liked what I've heard so far. If I had to get only one I'd choose Ashlight, but as far as granular stuff goes it's worth having all three. I still haven't messed with my own samples in the engine but that's up next for me and can't wait! I'd also been looking at Falcon 2 because of it's Granular engine but don't think I'll go there just yet. 

Granular stuff is awesome and there's so many great plugins taking it to the next level. When I saw Spitfire had a granular section in Polaris I was so excited but after watching the walkthrough I have no idea what that section is meant to achieve. It seems instantly antiquated compared to what other companies are offering


----------



## Old Timer (Apr 8, 2022)

cedricm said:


> The Delusion Award of the Century.


Ha ha . No, but seriously. It must have won an award for SA to say it is award-winning but I’ve searched the net and can’t find anything. I’m curious because I struggle with the plug-in, especially the LABS where I have to click on four buttons (8 actually) to adjust ADSR. I gave up in the end and went back to the Kontakt versions I bought which are simpler for me to use. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth but still…


----------



## Sirocco (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Source: Synthopia.com


And i think that Ashlight has an arpeggiator for the sample part wich haven´t the other two, Pharlight ans Straylight.

I love the trilogy and started with it at the final, with Ashlight, maybe my favourite but the 3 complements each others; the downside is that are high cpu use, Pharlight has some presets that requires a powerfull i7 (or i5 but alone or with a fewer more light plugins or instruments)....but the last one, Ashlight is the less demanding....and the reason, imo, is the same as a lot of times happens, they are very well programed, scripting or whatever could be than its predecesors.

Anyway, sounds great and are a little but easy way to enter granular in its most easy part, scratch the surface, and are very musical.

End of offtopic...sorry.

Salute!


----------



## easyrider (Apr 8, 2022)

Polaris- When a new Spitfire Plugin makes you release what you already have….


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 8, 2022)

Old Timer said:


> Ha ha . No, but seriously. It must have won an award for SA to say it is award-winning but I’ve searched the net and can’t find anything. I’m curious because I struggle with the plug-in, especially the LABS where I have to click on four buttons (8 actually) to adjust ADSR. I gave up in the end and went back to the Kontakt versions I bought which are simpler for me to use. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth but still…


Apparently it's a design award since it was made in collaboration with the guys who did Monument Valley? Or something like that. Now I can't find anything about it online either.


----------



## Greeno (Apr 8, 2022)

clintowenellis said:


> Yeah it's more the way that Landforms allows you to process the sounds with arpeggiators, harmonisers, all with random options to give it a modern minimalist feel. And then they have a huge section on LFO like options that just allow you to make insanely modern creative sounds. (attached a link, hope it works)
> 
> I'm pretty disappointed in Polaris. I really don't know why Spitfire refuse to step into the future. They say all the right words but they just stick to their old tech (always mentioning it's award winning) and refuse to update.
> I might be wrong but I don't think the future is these huge icy string/synth pads on other planets with a MASSIVE sound. That was the last 15 years with Interstellar, Oblivion, Gravity and all of those great movies. But the future I think is smaller (as in stories) with more personal sound design and smaller ensembles. I'm thinking black mirrorish vibes. Movies like Ex-Machina and Her.
> ...



I see what you're saying, I think this is a pet project for Christian, he loves synths and its obvious that he always wanted to make a massive bladerunner-esque soft synth, hence the Stack and Polaris


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## Mornats (Apr 8, 2022)

Cdnalsi said:


> Isn't that what Landforms is essentially?


Kinda. It's a sample library that lets you import your own samples whereas I'd like to see the engine used as an effect that you just place after your chosen instrument. So I could just play a strings library with the effect engine sitting after it doing it's thing. For me this feels much easier than digging out the correct sample from a library and importing it. Would be cool if you could route multiple sound sources to it too. Anyway, I digress, this thread is about Polaris


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## redlester (Apr 8, 2022)

Cdnalsi said:


> Apparently it's a design award since it was made in collaboration with the guys who did Monument Valley? Or something like that. Now I can't find anything about it online either.


You'd think they'd have it plastered all over their web site if it were award winning? I can't see it.








Work | Digital products, immersive experiences and services


Make Things to Change Things. We build digital products, immersive experiences and services.




www.ustwo.com


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## Greeno (Apr 8, 2022)

love Spitfire but ...seriously this is waaay overpriced ( as with a lot of the rest of their stuff) c'mon Spitfire I thought you were trying to be all accessible to the yoot or did that all end with the BBC (Discovery/Core) partnership and Labs?


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## davidson (Apr 8, 2022)

Didn't it win the biggest knob award?


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

davidson said:


> Didn't it win the biggest knob award?


No way. There Can Only Be ONE!

All Hail Symphony Series! They were the originators of Big Knobs. So that design award was basically stolen too.

BEHOLD....


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## daviddisher (Apr 8, 2022)

Polaris sounds incredible in Christian's video, but it doesn't sound like it offers anything radically different from, for instance, the Albion eDNA patches. Like many of those patches, it seems to lean far too heavily on pad sounds. I'd be much more interested in hearing short articulations, arps, pulses, and percussive sounds, but it doesn't sound like there's much there. The product page also mentions that the string ensemble performed articulations that were influenced by synth sounds, which sounds VERY interesting to me, but Christian pretty much glossed over that part of the library in the video.


----------



## jbuhler (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> No way. There Can Only Be ONE!
> 
> All Hail Symphony Series! They were the originators of Big Knobs. So that design award was basically stolen too.
> 
> BEHOLD....


I always associate the big knob with Heavyocity, like the punish knob in Damage, Gravity, etc..


----------



## Cdnalsi (Apr 8, 2022)

redlester said:


> You'd think they'd have it plastered all over their web site if it were award winning? I can't see it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You'd think. I remember now where I saw it, on the BBCSO Core page:


----------



## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

jbuhler said:


> I always associate the big knob with Heavyocity, like the punish knob in Damage, Gravity, etc..


Wait, they were earlier? I feel like I've been lied to... Oh no....


----------



## Greeno (Apr 8, 2022)

daviddisher said:


> Polaris sounds incredible in Christian's video, but it doesn't sound like it offers anything radically different from, for instance, the Albion eDNA patches. Like many of those patches, it seems to lean far too heavily on pad sounds. I'd be much more interested in hearing short articulations, arps, pulses, and percussive sounds, but it doesn't sound like there's much there. The product page also mentions that the string ensemble performed articulations that were influenced by synth sounds, which sounds VERY interesting to me, but Christian pretty much glossed over that part of the library in the video.


he mentioned in the video about a more in depth video linked below but I couldn't/can't see it, I guess they are still finalising it, I think it is very much needed as they need to show more of the library like you said about the orchestra and also the synths listed...are they the whole synth of each e.g a CS80 with all the original presets or are they Polarisified versions ...and also how many presets in each old synth? much of the comments in the judiciary here are not impressed ..(yet?)


----------



## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

Greeno said:


> are they the whole synth of each e.g a CS80 with all the original presets


I really have a hard time believing they were able to do that. Btw, the CS80 was literally one of the very first synths to actually come with the concept of presets, albeit not digitally stored ones. But there was a little panel with little miniature knobs that allowed the user to dial in a "stored" version of a sound, and one would be able to switch from the main panel to that one.


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 8, 2022)

Greeno said:


> he mentioned in the video about a more in depth video linked below but I couldn't/can't see it, I guess they are still finalising it, I think it is very much needed as they need to show more of the library like you said about the orchestra and also the synths listed...are they the whole synth of each e.g a CS80 with all the original presets or are they Polarisified versions ...and also how many presets in each old synth? much of the comments in the judiciary here are not impressed ..(yet?)


He mentions a more in depth video about the eDNA engine, which is linked below indeed. I don't think there's going to be any more Polaris videos other than this launch one, at least not from Spitfire anyway.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

Well, usually over the course of a release period they do tend to release some more contextual videos, for instance one where Homay or Oliver use a newly released library as the basis for a composition. I have never seen a walkthrough where they literally announce or mention all videos that will follow. I also noticed @Simeon announced a presentation where he'll have a closer look.


----------



## davidson (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Wait, they were earlier? I feel like I've been lied to... Oh no....


Y'know, Orchestral Tools may well have been the originators. Weren't they showing off their big knobs as far back as the original berlin series?


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## jbuhler (Apr 8, 2022)

davidson said:


> Y'know, Orchestral Tools may well have been the originators. Weren't they showing off their big knobs as far back as the original berlin series?


The original Damage is 2012, isn't it? I don't think OT had the big dial until a few years later.

I mean, I'm sure there is a predecessor to the Damage punish dial too. It's just the VI that I think of when I think of the big dial.


----------



## SupremeFist (Apr 8, 2022)

Also Labs Tape Orchestra!


----------



## synthesizerwriter (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> I really have a hard time believing they were able to do that. Btw, the CS80 was literally one of the very first synths to actually come with the concept of presets, albeit not digitally stored ones. But there was a little panel with little miniature knobs that allowed the user to dial in a "stored" version of a sound, and one would be able to switch from the main panel to that one.


I'd say that the CS-80 (1977) was one of many synths in the late 70s that used presets, and had two editable 'memories'. Some examples of earlier synths that used presets were: the Polymoog (1975), Polymoog Keyboard (1975), ARP Pro-Soloist (1972), Korg 700S (1973), Yamaha SY-1 (1973), Yamaha SY-2, GX-1 (1974), Roland SH-1000 (1973), Roland SH-2000 (1974), and even the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (1977). What made the CS-80 interesting was that two of the 'presets' were little panels that the user could edit - the rest of the 'presets' were not user editable (except by changing resistor values in banks of resistors!). (The smaller, cheaper Yamaha CS-60 only has one 'memory' panel, and doesn't have the poly after-touch...) One of the first digitally stored preset/memory systems was used in the Oberheim OB-1 in 1978. When I saw one of the first OB-1s back in 1978 we saw it as the start of a change from the 'top-of-organ/piano' preset synths (like the ARP Pro-Soloist or Korg 700S) to Minimoog-style panel-focussed synthesizers with memories.


----------



## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> What made the CS-80 interesting was that two of the 'presets' were little panels that the user could edit - the rest of the 'presets' were not user editable (except by changing resistor values in banks for resistors!)


Which is what I said. I know by the late seventies there were synths with presets. But I think many people may wrongly assume that has always been the case, because ‘memory’ is now just so normal.

Anyway. Great history lesson, worthy of your nickname


----------



## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> I'd say that the CS-80 (1977) was one of many synths in the late 70s that used presets, and had two editable 'memories'. Some examples of earlier synths that used presets were: the Polymoog (1975), Polymoog Keyboard (1975), ARP Pro-Soloist (1972), Korg 700S (1973), Yamaha SY-1 (1973), Yamaha SY-2, GX-1 (1974), Roland SH-1000 (1973), Roland SH-2000 (1974), and even the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (1977). What made the CS-80 interesting was that two of the 'presets' were little panels that the user could edit - the rest of the 'presets' were not user editable (except by changing resistor values in banks of resistors!). (The smaller, cheaper Yamaha CS-60 only has one 'memory' panel, and doesn't have the poly after-touch...) One of the first digitally stored preset/memory systems was used in the Oberheim OB-1 in 1978. When I saw one of the first OB-1s back in 1978 we saw it as the start of a change from the 'top-of-organ/piano' preset synths (like the ARP Pro-Soloist or Korg 700S) to Minimoog-style panel-focussed synthesizers with memories.


You were there almost a decade before I started to become active as a synth lover. Got my first one in ‘86. Many more since. Including Oberheims, and I’ve seen many makes and models, but I’ve never had the pleasure to actually encounter the synth that named Obi Wan Kenobi! Jealous!


----------



## TomislavEP (Apr 8, 2022)

daviddisher said:


> Polaris sounds incredible in Christian's video, but it doesn't sound like it offers anything radically different from, for instance, the Albion eDNA patches. Like many of those patches, it seems to lean far too heavily on pad sounds. I'd be much more interested in hearing short articulations, arps, pulses, and percussive sounds, but it doesn't sound like there's much there. The product page also mentions that the string ensemble performed articulations that were influenced by synth sounds, which sounds VERY interesting to me, but Christian pretty much glossed over that part of the library in the video.


One should definitely try not to judge a VI synth or a synth-based library primarily by the included presets and keep the programming aspect in mind first, however, Henson himself implies in the video that this is meant to be used as a collection of inspiring presets and "cue starters". But from what I've heard, it doesn't sound radically different (to me, at least) from what I have in the eDNA Earth and Stephenson Steam Band sections of the Albion series, although this includes newly recorded content and several additions to eDNA Engine itself.


----------



## synthesizerwriter (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Which is what I said. I know by the late seventies there were synths with presets. But I think many people may wrongly assume that has always been the case, because ‘memory’ is now just so normal.
> 
> Anyway. Great history lesson, worthy of your nickname


Thank you! Having lived through those years, it is interesting to see how later generations re-interpret those days when the only synths were what are now called 'vintage' (Me as well, probably!) When modulars were 'real synthesisers', and 'preset-synths' were kind of 'amusements for organ players', the idea of putting user-editable memories in a 'performance' synthesizer (like the OB-1) was seen as a radical departure... Synth demonstrators (like me) used to practice to see how quickly they could change a patch on a Mini or an Odyssey (etc.)... The sales reps for Roland, Moog et all (thanks Alan Townsend, Roy Goudie...) used to concentrate on training us to do rapid changes of timbre... Very different times...


----------



## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> Thank you! Having lived through those years, it is interesting to see how later generations re-interpret those days when the only synths were what are now called 'vintage' (Me as well, probably!) When modulars were 'real synthesisers', and 'preset-synths' were kind of 'amusements for organ players', the idea of putting user-editable memories in a 'performance' synthesizer (like the OB-1) was seen as a radical departure... Synth demonstrators (like me) used to practice to see how quickly they could change a patch on a Mini or an Odyssey (etc.)... The sales reps for Roland, Moog et all (thanks Alan Townsend, Roy Goudie...) used to concentrate on training us to do rapid changes of timbre... Very different times...


I just LOVE stories like these. Just read the Prophet 5 book, which gave me similar vibes as your story here. Awesome!


----------



## Simeon (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Well, usually over the course of a release period they do tend to release some more contextual videos, for instance one where Homay or Oliver use a newly released library as the basis for a composition. I have never seen a walkthrough where they literally announce or mention all videos that will follow. I also noticed @Simeon announced a presentation where he'll have a closer look.


Yes, this one is very deep.
What is very interesting is how far they have pushed the Spitfire Player, especially having TWO separate modes, it might have the most parameters and options of any Spitfire Player to date when looking to see how to UNIFY it, it was overwhelming all of the parameters that are automatable. I am finding myself pulling up a sound and just staying on it for the longest time. Keep a lookout for a live stream to pop up sometime next week where I will showcase it live.
Stay Tuned!


----------



## synthesizerwriter (Apr 8, 2022)

TomislavEP said:


> One should definitely try not to judge a VI synth or a synth-based library primarily by the included presets and keep the programming aspect in mind first, however, Henson himself implies in the video that this is meant to be used as a collection of inspiring presets and "cue starters". But from what I've heard, it doesn't sound radically different (to me, at least) from what I have in the eDNA Earth and Stephenson Steam Band sections of the Albion series, although this includes newly recorded content and several additions to eDNA Engine itself.


This is an ongoing discussion on Pianobook.co.uk. If you make a Sample Pack that has more than one sound (as I do), then people want demonstrations of 'the sound', which can give a very cloistered idea of the capabilities. If you provide lots of controls so that people can 'craft' a timbre, then people complain about the user interface being too complex. If you provide presets, then those seem to become 'the sounds', even when they are just scratching the surface of what you can create using the available resources. I have considered producing single sound VIs made from the Sample Pack... I'm not sure that there are easy answers to satisfy every user...


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## dcoscina (Apr 8, 2022)

Just downloaded it and going through the sounds. Neato!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

Simeon said:


> Yes, this one is very deep.
> What is very interesting is how far they have pushed the Spitfire Player, especially having TWO separate modes, it might have the most parameters and options of any Spitfire Player to date when looking to see how to UNIFY it, it was overwhelming all of the parameters that are automatable. I am finding myself pulling up a sound and just staying on it for the longest time. Keep a lookout for a live stream to pop up sometime next week where I will showcase it live.
> Stay Tuned!


Can’t wait Simeon. The walkthrough did sound good. Will definitely tune in.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

dcoscina said:


> Just downloaded it and going through the sounds. Neato!


Cool David. Will you do one of your famous playthrough videos?


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## sostenuto (Apr 8, 2022)

TomislavEP said:


> One should definitely try not to judge a VI synth or a synth-based library primarily by the included presets and keep the programming aspect in mind first, however, Henson himself implies in the video that this is meant to be used as a collection of inspiring presets and "cue starters". But from what I've heard, it doesn't sound radically different (to me, at least) from what I have in the eDNA Earth and Stephenson Steam Band sections of the Albion series, although this includes newly recorded content and several additions to eDNA Engine itself.


Unless purchasing _ cannot truly 'deep' compare with Output - Analog Strings + expansions _ currently @ $173. Will benefit from User experiences here.


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> I just LOVE stories like these. Just read the Prophet 5 book, which gave me similar vibes as your story here. Awesome!


In that case, do not visit Darwin Grosse's 'Art + Music + Technology' podcast . I'm number 264:


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 8, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> This is an ongoing discussion on Pianobook.co.uk. If you make a Sample Pack that has more than one sound (as I do), then people want demonstrations of 'the sound', which can give a very cloistered idea of the capabilities. If you provide lots of controls so that people can 'craft' a timbre, then people complain about the user interface being too complex. If you provide presets, then those seem to become 'the sounds', even when they are just scratching the surface of what you can create using the available resources. I have considered producing single sound VIs made from the Sample Pack... I'm not sure that there are easy answers to satisfy every user...


Unfortunately, people are quick to complain and slower to adapt or learn. Or that may just be me...


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> In that case, do not visit Darwin Grosse's 'Art + Music + Technology' podcast . I'm number 264:



Way cool! Huge podcast lover here. Will be listening to you later today Martin. Thanks for pointing me to this! ❤️


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## Old Timer (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> I just LOVE stories like these. Just read the Prophet 5 book, which gave me similar vibes as your story here. Awesome!


Hi. What Prophet 5 book is that? Something I’d enjoy reading. Thanks 🙏


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

Old Timer said:


> Hi. What Prophet 5 book is that? Something I’d enjoy reading. Thanks 🙏


Hold on, I’ll fetch it. It was a great read


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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)

Old Timer said:


> Hi. What Prophet 5 book is that? Something I’d enjoy reading. Thanks 🙏

















With cool anecdotes of famous users:






I also found out Douglas Adams was a huge Prophet 5 fan and synth enthusiast in general.


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## Old Timer (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> With cool anecdotes of famous users:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks. Appreciate that. Cheers.


----------



## TomislavEP (Apr 8, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> This is an ongoing discussion on Pianobook.co.uk. If you make a Sample Pack that has more than one sound (as I do), then people want demonstrations of 'the sound', which can give a very cloistered idea of the capabilities. If you provide lots of controls so that people can 'craft' a timbre, then people complain about the user interface being too complex. If you provide presets, then those seem to become 'the sounds', even when they are just scratching the surface of what you can create using the available resources. I have considered producing single sound VIs made from the Sample Pack... I'm not sure that there are easy answers to satisfy every user...


Some valid points here but I was primarily commenting on the sonic aesthetic of this particular library in comparison to some other products by SA that I know and have. Of course, this is just my impression from the small overview that I've watched.

Speaking of the complexity of VI synths and presets, I'm always looking for that golden middle ground. Programming from scratch is often impractical but I also don't like to dive through a mass of busy-sounding presets with colorful names that are not always descriptive of what to expect. All things said, more and more I prefer working with simpler sound sources from Pianobook, LABS, Originals, etc.


----------



## Macrawn (Apr 8, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> Thank you! Having lived through those years, it is interesting to see how later generations re-interpret those days when the only synths were what are now called 'vintage' (Me as well, probably!) When modulars were 'real synthesisers', and 'preset-synths' were kind of 'amusements for organ players', the idea of putting user-editable memories in a 'performance' synthesizer (like the OB-1) was seen as a radical departure... Synth demonstrators (like me) used to practice to see how quickly they could change a patch on a Mini or an Odyssey (etc.)... The sales reps for Roland, Moog et all (thanks Alan Townsend, Roy Goudie...) used to concentrate on training us to do rapid changes of timbre... Very different times...


Wow, that sorta describes history. Nobody appreciates what they have right in front of them. It's somewhat beneath them. Like using synths with presets built in is not legit, but then suddenly it's like completely legit, and seems like it always was that way.


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## davidson (Apr 8, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> With cool anecdotes of famous users:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You missed out ~250 pages ffs, absolutely useless read


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 8, 2022)

liquidlino said:


> 14 pages, and still not a single user audio demo. Doesn't bode well.


We'll see. I know at least one person who has been really enjoying it. Not me - I'm not buying it any time soon; but I think it sounds good.


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## Double Helix (Apr 8, 2022)

From "So Long and Thanks for all the Synths" (Douglas Adams apparently had a Prophet VS in his collection)














So Long and Thanks For All The Synths (Making Music, May 1987)


So Long and Thanks For All The Synths, Making Music, May 1987




www.muzines.co.uk


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 8, 2022)

liquidlino said:


> 14 pages, and still not a single user audio demo. Doesn't bode well.


A forum of very shy composers


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## Roger Bremen (Apr 8, 2022)

liquidlino said:


> 14 pages, and still not a single user audio demo. Doesn't bode well.


No, but this thread has me really considering Landforms.


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## pranic (Apr 8, 2022)

I'd say that I'm an early adopter too (I was on the fence after the walk-through, but it's a string library at the heart, and I was told that you couldn't have too many string libraries!).

In all seriousness, I've found the library to contain a really inspiring combination of sounds, and particularly like the Prophet 5 patch and the String Ensemble Granular patch (heck, all the string patches are different to any other library I have, so they feel fresh and new) too.. Getting into the EDNA patches has shown some real depth and while it's similar in some ways to the EDNA patches from Tundra, Albion One and Solstice, this one is a bit of its own beast. There's a lot of content and the player has worked well for me. I generally like the Spitfire player plugin, so I won't comment on that (since it seems to be a point of contention amongst many here). You either like it, or don't, I guess 🤷‍♂️

For people who want to build their own EDNA patches, there's plenty of content to mash together, and there are plenty of presets to dig through (I've probably spent about 2 hours with the library and haven't come close to feeling like I have experienced everything it has to offer, yet).

I was trying to piece together a song, and was starting to like the combination of Polaris along with the new Polyscape 2 from Karanyi. They felt very complimentary to each other in my opinion.

Obviously, as more people get an opportunity to see a more in-depth look at this library, more evidence-based opinions can be formed. Looking forward to @Simeon doing his walk-through, too!

Update: It took about 4.5 hours to explore the library in full through all of the presets/patches. Lots of very usable content, and I'm not complaining about the cost (I bought at $229 since I already owned PHOBOS)


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## sostenuto (Apr 8, 2022)

pranic said:


> I'd say that I'm an early adopter too (I was on the fence after the walk-through, but it's a string library at the heart, and I was told that you couldn't have too many string libraries!).
> 
> In all seriousness, I've found the library to contain a really inspiring combination of sounds, and particularly like the Prophet 5 patch and the String Ensemble Granular patch (heck, all the string patches are different to any other library I have, so they feel fresh and new) too.. Getting into the EDNA patches has shown some real depth and while it's similar in some ways to the EDNA patches from Tundra, Albion One and Solstice, this one is a bit of its own beast. There's a lot of content and the player has worked well for me. I generally like the Spitfire player plugin, so I won't comment on that (since it seems to be a point of contention amongst many here). You either like it, or don't, I guess 🤷‍♂️
> 
> ...


Like this cool early commentary ! Also tuned into Polyscape 2. 
Likely Simeon's walkthough will add some needed exposure and enthusiasm.


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## Instrugramm (Apr 8, 2022)

Polaris is probably quite nice but Spitfire were on a roll lately with some top notch releases (Solstice, AR2 and Appassionata.), it's tough to keep the winning streak going, this doesn't seem to be the best value in comparison to their own and external releases with similar concepts in mind.


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## clintowenellis (Apr 9, 2022)

Roger Bremen said:


> No, but this thread has me really considering Landforms.


I actually got onto Landforms from a Reddit thread when Spitfire released Albion Solstice. Someone mentioned "isn't this just a rip off Landforms?" and that was enough to make me curious. I fell down the Slate & Ash rabbit hole and bought their everything bundle.

I do use Landforms a bit since purchasing it, though not as much as I thought I would. I have an older computer (i5 dual core, 16GB Ram) so when it comes to pads I tend to stick with Albion Neo and the Olafur Arnolds stuff. A typical Landforms patch, even if it's just a pad will be over a GB and can wear my sessions down. It's everything else that I love Landforms for, like interesting movements and some arpeggio stuff. It's really fun to play with and once I upgrade my computer I plan on using it a lot more.

I highly recommend it but I still think a library can take it's ideas and make it even better. Which I was kind of hoping Polaris would do or at least fill a gap I didn't know I needed. Hence why I was so disappointed when I watched the walkthrough video for Polaris.


----------



## Cdnalsi (Apr 9, 2022)

(not my video)


----------



## holywilly (Apr 9, 2022)

Cdnalsi said:


> (not my video)



It’s not a bad library at all, it’s the avant-garde in the sampling industry. 

I haven’t completely play through all the patch and sound, I’m sure Polaris is gonna be my secret weapon for my music.


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## Old Timer (Apr 9, 2022)

Polaris sounds really good to me. I won't be able to buy it because (a) I can't afford it and (b) my computer couldn't run it. I might be tempted otherwise. I can create a poor man's version in Albion One and I've actually had quite a lot of fun playing with the Steam Band in the original Albion 2, which has a fun synth engine, which once I figured out how to use it can do quite a lot (although you can't select the source material, which you can with the EDNa engine in Albion One). It's all good fun and I feel spoilt for choice these days in terms of the sounds I have at my disposal.


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## Gabriel S. (Apr 9, 2022)

The question for me would be: why does it look like a Kurosawa film? Like "Ran". The colours, the texture and the ambience...Coincidence or inspired by?





















...and btw, Ran...what a masterpiece...


----------



## D Halgren (Apr 9, 2022)

Gabriel S. said:


> The question for me would be: why does it look like a Kurosawa film? Like "Ran". The colours, the texture and the ambience...Coincidence or inspired by?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Good call! Love that movie!


----------



## redlester (Apr 9, 2022)

Greeno said:


> he mentioned in the video about a more in depth video linked below but I couldn't/can't see it, I guess they are still finalising it, I think it is very much needed as they need to show more of the library like you said about the orchestra and also the synths listed...are they the whole synth of each e.g a CS80 with all the original presets or are they Polarisified versions ...and also how many presets in each old synth? much of the comments in the judiciary here are not impressed ..(yet?)


It's just one patch from each of the sampled synths. If you select the "Hardware" preset these appear as individual articulations within the normal area of the plugin. But the fun part is then using the granular controls on these sounds. I could spend weeks on end with this, it sounds fantastic.

I think the long and short of it is that they are publicising it based on the presets for film composers to get something down very quickly, and am sure that's the case. For hobbyists though, the value is going to be in tweaking and creating one's own sounds with it.

However.... I think I've broken my copy already! I went into the Options and set it to default to "No Preset Selected" as I always like to do with every Spitfire player library, just so I'm not waiting while it loads anything when I first open it. Now I cannot switch over from the Standard interface to the Synth. Even though I've now gone into the options and set it back to default to String Orchestra: All In One, it still opens to No Preset Selected and won't let me switch over to the eDNA synth.

Does anyone have a clue how to completely re-set the Spitfire plugin back to its default settings?


----------



## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

redlester said:


> It's just one patch from each of the sampled synths. If you select the "Hardware" preset these appear as individual articulations within the normal area of the plugin. But the fun part is then using the granular controls on these sounds. I could spend weeks on end with this, it sounds fantastic.
> 
> I think the long and short of it is that they are publicising it based on the presets for film composers to get something down very quickly, and am sure that's the case. For hobbyists though, the value is going to be in tweaking and creating one's own sounds with it.
> 
> ...



Have you gone down the Repair route? Or do you think it is more a case of some setting needs adjusting?


----------



## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

redlester said:


> Does anyone have a clue how to completely re-set the Spitfire plugin back to its default settings?


I have always found Spitfire Support to be helpful, often beyond where you might expect... This sounds like it might be something they will either already know, or, if they don't, that they should know!


----------



## redlester (Apr 9, 2022)

No idea. I was hoping there was a setting somewhere but can't find anything. I will raise a support ticket.

Have already raised one due to something else; I found that in the eDNA Synth if you unload the current sounds from both Bay A and B at the same time, in order to load different samples and start from scratch, the list of samples is blank - you can't load anything. Have checked and this doesn't happen in Orbis or in the Kontakt eDNA libraries, so have asked them if its a bug.

I feel as if they should be paying me for doing their QA!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 9, 2022)

redlester said:


> No idea. I was hoping there was a setting somewhere but can't find anything.


Isn’t there a repair option in the Spitfire library management application? It usually is there for their other proprietary plugins. I think this is what Bee was alluding to. It might get you up & running, while waiting for a formal solution from Support?


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## redlester (Apr 9, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Isn’t there a repair option in the Spitfire library management application? It usually is there for their other proprietary plugins. I think this is what Bee was alluding to. It might get you up & running, while waiting for a formal solution from Support?


There is, but I've edited my support ticket to let them know about this and will wait for them to get back to me. I don't have time to play with it much at the moment anyway so happy to wait till Monday at least.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Isn’t there a repair option in the Spitfire library management application? It usually is there for their other proprietary plugins. I think this is what Bee was alluding to. It might get you up & running, while waiting for a formal solution from Support?


There should be. That's usually my first step once I realise that it probably isn't just me not knowing how to do something.


----------



## Justin L. Franks (Apr 9, 2022)

redlester said:


> No idea. I was hoping there was a setting somewhere but can't find anything. I will raise a support ticket.
> 
> Have already raised one due to something else; I found that in the eDNA Synth if you unload the current sounds from both Bay A and B at the same time, in order to load different samples and start from scratch, the list of samples is blank - you can't load anything. Have checked and this doesn't happen in Orbis or in the Kontakt eDNA libraries, so have asked them if its a bug.
> 
> I feel as if they should be paying me for doing their QA!


Are you on a Mac? If so, the settings should be in ~/Music/Spitfire Audio/Settings. Try renaming the .settings file for Polaris. When you re-open the plugin and open then save the settings, it should create a new .settings file with all the default settings. If it doesn't load, then just rename the .settings file back to its original name.

Not sure where the Spitfire plugin settings files are located on Windows, but if you can find them, you could try the same thing.


----------



## doctoremmet (Apr 9, 2022)

Skippy plays Polaris:



PS: That updated list of Unified synths now includes Newfangled Audio’s Generate

PPS: Skippy also plays three new reverbs, including Kenny’s fave Audiofuse plate, the BABY Audio one and UA TAILS. @kgdrum 

PPPS: Dreamsynth ain’t no slouch either


----------



## sostenuto (Apr 9, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Skippy plays Polaris:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Seldom miss Guru's Livestreams ! Simeon frequently participates _ there today !!


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

Watching John Lemkuhl's stream makes me think that Spitfire did a poor job on the details with this one. Pity, with such great sounds to play with - and with a price that deserves better attention to detail. I can't remember seeing him seem so disappointed before!


----------



## sostenuto (Apr 9, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Watching John Lemkuhl's stream makes me think that Spitfire did a poor job on the details with this one. Pity, with such great sounds to play with - and with a price that deserves better attention to detail. I can't remember seeing him seem so disappointed before!


Not sure Guru has full awareness of eDNA Earth. No excuses for SFA, but trusting they are working on much more eDNA sophistication ??


----------



## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

redlester said:


> I feel as if they should be paying me for doing their QA!


Unfortunately, smart project managers realised a long time ago that getting customers to do beta testing was a good way of saving money on QA, testing, developers... But it has almost no effect on the need for project managers, so it doesn't affect them...


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## jcrosby (Apr 9, 2022)

What jumps out at me in both the walkthroughs posted so far is how homogenous it is. Just about every patch sounds way too similar, almost everything sounding like Eno Apollo-era / Steve Roach / etc _space-ambient_ pads. Some sounding like they might as well be the same patch.

Basically eDNA and Steam Band seem far more well rounded, as they already cover this kind of thing very well, but also have tons of dark, tense, distorted patches as well...


----------



## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

jcrosby said:


> What jumps out at me in both the walkthroughs posted here is that every patch sounds way too similar. Almost everything sounds like Eno Apollo-era / Steve Roach / etc... _space-ambient_ pads. That's great if that's all you do, but there was nothing that stood out to me as tense or edgy.
> 
> Basically eDNA and Steam Band seem far more well rounded, as they already cover this kind of thing, but also have tons of dark, tense, distorted patches as well...



Specialist libraries can be very useful too. But, yes, it does narrow the appeal.


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## jcrosby (Apr 9, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Specialist libraries can be very useful too. But, yes, it does narrow the appeal.


Oh definitely. If this was something someone did a lot of then it would be a no brainer... But it's seems a bit narrow to be a well rounded underscoring tool.


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

jcrosby said:


> ... Just about every patch sounds way too similar, almost everything sounding like Eno Apollo-era / Steve Roach / etc _space-ambient_ pads. Some sounding like they might as well be the same patch...


It may be that we have reached a point where there are a small number of elemental sources. For stories, it is often cited as being something like 12 (there are fundamentally 12 different 'root' or 'core' stories: every other story is derived from one or more of them)...


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

jcrosby said:


> Oh definitely. If this was something someone did a lot of then it would be a no brainer... But it's seems a bit narrow to be a well rounded underscoring tool.


You're completely right. I love this sort of thing and built up quite a few libraries and synth presets that cater to it. But I know find that I have way more than I need! I should have focused on what I have a use for and not what just what I like the sound of.


----------



## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> It may be that we have reached a point where there are a small number of elemental sources. For stories, it is often cited as being something like 12 (there are fundamentally 12 different 'root' or 'core' stories: every other story is derived from one or more of them)...


You can always reduce it to two. I'm temperamentally opposed to reductionism.

There are two kinds of story: those that end well, and... etc.

Neil Gaiman had a funny thing to say about Joseph Campbell's A Hero's Journey. If Campbell is right, there is no need to read it. Writers will do it anyway. If Campbell is wrong, then it might just mess you up.

Edit to add: I may be misremembering the details. Don't blame Gaiman for my errors, please!


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## sostenuto (Apr 9, 2022)

jcrosby said:


> What jumps out at me in both the walkthroughs posted so far is how homogenous it is. Just about every patch sounds way too similar, almost everything sounding like Eno Apollo-era / Steve Roach / etc _space-ambient_ pads. Some sounding like they might as well be the same patch.
> 
> Basically eDNA and Steam Band seem far more well rounded, as they already cover this kind of thing very well, but also have tons of dark, tense, distorted patches as well...


Think I must be misinformed, but was thinking Polaris could utilize 'all' of eDNA Earth patch content _ which I use currently. Is this not the case ?


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> ...not what just what I like the sound of.


I was always told to avoid what I like and what sounds right the first time, because then you are going to sound like everyone else (and you could be sub-consciously homing in on mediocrity and predictability). It's a bit like choosing from a restaurant menu - do you choose what you always have, or do you deliberately go for something you haven't had before?


----------



## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

sostenuto said:


> Think I must be misinformed, but was thinking Polaris could utilize 'all' of eDNA Earth patch content _ which I use currently. Is this not the case ?


I just read this in the chat to John's stream. Was that you? If not, then someone else is under the same impression.


----------



## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> I was always told to avoid what I like and what sounds right the first time, because then you are going to sound like everyone else (and you could be sub-consciously homing in on mediocrity and predictability). It's a bit like choosing from a restaurant menu - do you choose what you always have, or do you deliberately go for something you haven't had before?


You're right. I typically order something I haven't had before. So long as it isn't too spicy. Unless I'm going straight home afterwards.


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> You're right. I typically order something I haven't had before. So long as it isn't too spicy. Unless I'm going straight home afterwards.


The recent Ed Sheeran court case revealed that his song-writing technique at least partially includes avoiding what others have already written... and he now videos the process so that he can show the thought-process...


----------



## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> The recent Ed Sheeran court case revealed that his song-writing technique at least partially includes avoiding what others have already written... and he now videos the process so that he can show the thought-process...


It also reveals that if he does make use of other people's ideas that he pays them.

As the novelist Caitlin R. Kiernan said, modern law on intellectual property is not hospitable to post-modernism.

I'm torn on the whole originality thing. I read Ecclesiastes at a vulnerable, formative age. But I have always looked at art as, in some way that I can't and don't want to pinpoint, being communicative. If who I am and what I've experienced has anything to do with anyone else, then my art (rubbish or not) is not going to be unique, but nor will it be more generic than I am. If I do it well enough.

I'm not there yet.

On the plus side, for example, I can't play as well as Jeff Beck, so my playing will never sound quite like Jeff Beck's. It will be ragged and wild in ways that I can't control, but in ways that I, specifically, can't control. So, I push. Keep pushing, and eventually fail better, if never fail well.

Edit to add: I may misremember Kiernan's comment. Blame me, not her.

Second edit to add: Sorry, I wrote as if the newspaper I read had an accurate account of Sheeran's comments in court, and that his version was accurate. He seems nice though. And it is nice to have someone who is successful because of their song writing first and foremost.


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> ...
> 
> I'm torn on the whole originality thing. I read Ecclesiastes at a vulnerable, formative age. But I have always looked at art as, in some way that I can't and don't want to pinpoint, being communicative. If who I am and what I've experienced has anything to do with anyone else, then my art (rubbish or not) is not going to be unique, but nor will it be more generic than I am. If I do it well enough.
> 
> ...


I also read widely in my formative years, and I've not felt particularly unique ever since...


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 9, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> I also read widely in my formative years, and I've not felt particularly unique ever since...



But at least you're cool!

G'night.!


----------



## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> ... If who I am and what I've experienced has anything to do with anyone else, then my art (rubbish or not) is not going to be unique, but nor will it be more generic than I am. If I do it well enough.
> 
> I'm not there yet.
> 
> ...


Someone once told me that whenever I thought I was the smartest (most creative, etc.) person in the room, I needed to open the door and get out, because I had just put on a red jumper/shirt...


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## sostenuto (Apr 9, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> I just read this in the chat to John's stream. Was that you? If not, then someone else is under the same impression.


Yep. Used different ID for long time. Simeon agrees, but some not so sure. Really like Polaris for many reasons, but pricing makes purchase less certain. Maybe being too picky over ~ $70. or so.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 9, 2022)

sostenuto said:


> Think I must be misinformed, but was thinking Polaris could utilize 'all' of eDNA Earth patch content _ which I use currently. Is this not the case ?


I seriously doubt that. How would that work? I don’t see it mentioned anywhere.


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## redlester (Apr 9, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> It's a bit like choosing from a restaurant menu - do you choose what you always have, or do you deliberately go for something you haven't had before?


I would never, ever, order something I haven't had before. But then, I'm one of those who tends to look at the Kids section of the menu in envy.

As for sounding different, I'm not a professional media composer but am assuming a lot of the time clients will want something which sounds like what everything else sounds like.


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## sostenuto (Apr 9, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> I seriously doubt that. How would that work? I don’t see it mentioned anywhere.


Was 'assuming' (terrible thing) the A//B choice in Polaris opened door to similar choice with eDNA Patches.


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## redlester (Apr 9, 2022)

sostenuto said:


> Think I must be misinformed, but was thinking Polaris could utilize 'all' of eDNA Earth patch content _ which I use currently. Is this not the case ?


No, Polaris is a stand alone product with its own set of samples.


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 9, 2022)

redlester said:


> No, Polaris is a stand alone product with its own set of samples.


This is also the case with Phobos...


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## Dr.Quest (Apr 9, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> Someone once told me that whenever I thought I was the smartest (most creative, etc.) person in the room, I needed to open the door and get out, because I had just put on a red jumper...


What, exactly does the red jumper reference?


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## Simeon (Apr 9, 2022)

sostenuto said:


> Think I must be misinformed, but was thinking Polaris could utilize 'all' of eDNA Earth patch content _ which I use currently. Is this not the case ?


These would be two separate instruments entirely as eDNA Earth (and PHOBOS) was built for KONTAKT, so that content would not be available in POLARIS. If you already have PHOBOS (another BT collab), I think there is a discount to go towards POLARIS.

I am going through the POLARIS user manual currently doing some homework. 👨‍🎓


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## Alchemedia (Apr 9, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> *Skippy* plays Polaris:


"It's a glorified sample player."


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## sostenuto (Apr 9, 2022)

Simeon said:


> These would be two separate instruments entirely as eDNA Earth (and PHOBOS) was built for KONTAKT, so that content would not be available in POLARIS. If you already have PHOBOS (another BT collab), I think there is a discount to go towards POLARIS.
> 
> I am going through the POLARIS user manual currently doing some homework. 👨‍🎓


My Bad ! CH enthusiasm overpowered again !! 😵 
Remain Polaris fan _ looking forward to your walkthrough and comment.


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## Daily Patcher (Apr 9, 2022)

Simeon said:


> These would be two separate instruments entirely as eDNA Earth (and PHOBOS) was built for KONTAKT, so that content would not be available in POLARIS. If you already have PHOBOS (another BT collab), I think there is a discount to go towards POLARIS.
> 
> I am going through the POLARIS user manual currently doing some homework. 👨‍🎓


Not to nitpick, but Phobos is a standalone vst separate from Kontakt


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## Justin L. Franks (Apr 9, 2022)

Daily Patcher said:


> Not to nitpick, but Phobos is a standalone vst separate from Kontakt


Yup, and it has a pretty good interface. All the important stuff is right there on the main page, and you only need to click through to settings that you don't have to touch that often (like mapping CC's). It's a shame that the Spitfire plugin couldn't have been more like that, instead of having to make extra clicks to adjust common settings like mic levels, release, etc.


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## R10k (Apr 9, 2022)

Alchemedia said:


> "It's a glorified sample player."


Isn't pretty much everything that isn't a synth? 😂


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 10, 2022)

R10k said:


> Alchemedia said:
> 
> 
> > "It's a glorified sample player."
> ...


Unfortunately, it could be argued that there are some 'synths' that are just "glorified sample players" as well... :(


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 10, 2022)

Dr.Quest said:


> What, exactly does the red jumper reference?


It was me quoting a malapropism'ed Star Trek metaphor and finding the cultural consequences awkward. I have edited it to say jumper/shirt...


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 10, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> It was me quoting a malapropism'ed Star Trek metaphor and finding the cultural consequences awkward. I have edited it to say jumper/shirt...



This Trekker got the reference, at least!


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 10, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> Unfortunately, it could be argued that there are some 'synths' that are just "glorified sample players" as well... :(


To me, many of the S&S (Samples and Synthesis) instruments of the late 80s skimmed close to that awkwardly fuzzy border between sample players (E-Mu Proteus?) and synthesizer (Roland D-50?). Is a wavetable a sample? So is the PPG a sample player or a synth? How sophisticated does the processing section have to be to qualify as a 'synthesizer'? And when you conflate this with modern sample players that process samples of vintage synthesisers (and orchestras emulating synthesisers) then is it even worth trying to categorise anything that you hear? Pandora's box has been opened... <'Foley'-esque sound of 'squeaky hinges' derived from a 'metallic scrapes' library...>


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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 10, 2022)

The Spitfire Audio web-page description of Polaris has some interesting effects devices listed as 'synthesisers': Lexicon 224, Eventide H3000 and TOA (one of the DP-series perhaps?). I'm not sure that the Kawai SX-210 was ever a 'classic' vintage synth either, but I was playing CS-80s, Polymoogs and Oberheims at the time...


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## gamma-ut (Apr 10, 2022)

synthesizerwriter said:


> Unfortunately, it could be argued that there are some 'synths' that are just "glorified sample players" as well... :(


Why is it unfortunate? It's only unfortunate in the context of pointless forum debates, which is where the old retort "it's only a...." frequently turns up. 

This one last got a solid outing when Omnisphere came out with the weird effect that because it had sampled waveforms in it, according to responses on various forums it apparently morphed into a synth. Whereas if it "only" had a bunch of longer samples it kinda wasn't. If your reaction at that point wasn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you were lost.

It really just comes down to rhetorical framing devices and this odd idea that there is some kind of pecking order in electronic music gizmos. "It's only a..." is calculated to get a response about how it's got feature x or feature y when the most appropriate response is more like "it's OK, not to like things or to feel you don't need it. You can say you don't like it and that will be fine. We don't have to get into some sterile semantic debate about it".

It plays samples. It's got filters and not much of a mod matrix. If that's not enough to be a synth, then I guess it it's a sample player and you can get back to your scheduled programming. I'd be more focused on what it can or can't actually do soundwise and performance-wise but y'know, whatever makes you happy.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 10, 2022)

Fair points. So for those who want to skip semantics, here’s some more sound,


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## doctoremmet (Apr 10, 2022)

Scheduled:


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## Pier (Apr 10, 2022)

holywilly said:


> It’s not a bad library at all, it’s the avant-garde in the sampling industry.


I don't think it's very avant-garde to be honest.

This project by Nathan Moody uses custom instruments and I think is much more interesting:












Production Notes: The Right Side of Mystery


Background Anyone who has followed my work knows that I thrive on constraints and creative rule sets, whether they are conceptual underpinnings or restrictions on instrumentation. This this way, th...



noisejockey.net














Sigil: Dark Electro-Acoustic Textures | Dark texture Sound Effects Library | asoundeffect.com


600+ Dark texture sound effects / recordings: Sigil is a unique library of dark, gritty, raw, and eerie textures and tones made from one-of-a-kind handmade electro-acoustic instruments and found objects created by sound designer and musician Nathan Moody. Sigil provides an edgy set of layers...




www.asoundeffect.com


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## Alchemedia (Apr 10, 2022)

R10k said:


> Isn't pretty much everything that isn't a synth? 😂


I was quoting Skippy from his review.


----------



## R10k (Apr 10, 2022)

Alchemedia said:


> I was quoting Skippy from his review.


Yep, that I realised. I was more asking the question based off what he said.


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## GtrString (Apr 10, 2022)

I’m going to pick this up, but in the walkthrough he says it sounds like 2022 and we are soon half way through, and I still don’t have a project for it!


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## redlester (Apr 11, 2022)

GtrString said:


> I’m going to pick this up, but in the walkthrough he says it sounds like 2022 and we are soon half way through, and I still don’t have a project for it!


He meant it sounds like just gone twenty past eight.


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## redlester (Apr 11, 2022)

For anyone following this, the default preset issue is apparently known about but picked up just too late before release, they are working on a fix. 

The workaround is to delete the Polaris settings file in:
Windows: C:/Users/[username]/AppData/Roaming/Spitfire Audio/Settings/
or
Mac OS: User/Music/Spitfire Audio/Settings/

I can confirm the above worked. I would advise leaving it at default as installed for the time being.


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## Macrawn (Apr 11, 2022)

Simeon said:


> These would be two separate instruments entirely as eDNA Earth (and PHOBOS) was built for KONTAKT, so that content would not be available in POLARIS. If you already have PHOBOS (another BT collab), I think there is a discount to go towards POLARIS.
> 
> I am going through the POLARIS user manual currently doing some homework. 👨‍🎓


But they have all of the source material not just kontakt files. They could for example take content from any library they have made so far and port it into their new system by going back to the original edits before the material is even dropped into kontakt. They have many tb of source material they could use for something like this. You can't tell me they don't have files of their recorded orchestra material (with edits done) that isn't now all in konkakt format.


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## holywilly (Apr 11, 2022)

redlester said:


> For anyone following this, the default preset issue is apparently known about but picked up just too late before release, they are working on a fix.
> 
> The workaround is to delete the Polaris settings file in:
> Windows: C:/Users/[username]/AppData/Roaming/Spitfire Audio/Settings/
> ...


Thanks! It’s so annoying that I can’t switch back to Synth engine, this post saves my life.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 11, 2022)

Pier said:


> I don't think it's very avant-garde to be honest.
> 
> This project by Nathan Moody uses custom instruments and I think is much more interesting:
> 
> ...




I love these samples. They'd sound great loaded into a multisample synth, or even Kontakt with an effects chain. I look forward to using samples like these in Soundpaint when the update for importing your own samples comes out.

Phaseplant can load samples too, can't it? Although the number is limited, it only really needs one to go to work.


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## gamma-ut (Apr 11, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> I love these samples. They'd sound great loaded into a multisample synth, or even Kontakt with an effects chain. I look forward to using samples like these in Soundpaint when the update for importing your own samples comes out.
> 
> Phaseplant can load samples too, can't it? Although the number is limited, it only really needs one to go to work.


That reminds me: the Photosynthesis script that Jeremiah Pena put together for the Audio Imperia instruments is one way to do Polaris on the cheap in Kontakt with these kinds of samples. However, I'm not sure if you can still get the blank engine (though I think it might come with the download for the Audio Imperia instruments).


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 11, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> That reminds me: the Photosynthesis script that Jeremiah Pena put together for the Audio Imperia instruments is one way to do Polaris on the cheap in Kontakt with these kinds of samples. However, I'm not sure if you can still get the blank engine (though I think it might come with the download for the Audio Imperia instruments).



That's a good thought. And they are on sale, now, too.


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## MaxOctane (Apr 12, 2022)

I was totally unconvinced by Spitfire's walkthrough, and by a couple of other walkthroughs and demos that came out. But dangit, @Simeon, you sure found some tasty patches in there!


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 12, 2022)

MaxOctane said:


> I was totally unconvinced by Spitfire's walkthrough, and by a couple of other walkthroughs and demos that came out. But dangit, @Simeon, you sure found some tasty patches in there!



So true. He really found depth and beauty in this instrument.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 12, 2022)

Watching that @Simeon video right now. I was amazed at how good those strings sound “naked”. The walkthrough had not given me that impression. In terms of sheer sound quality Polaris has absolutely convinced me.


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## Bereckis (Apr 12, 2022)

I bought Polaris and it leaves me with mixed feelings.
The default mode is totally fine and has some interesting facets.
The synth mode irritates me. The level in the LOGIC PRO is far too quiet. The sounds sound very good, but they are all similar. At first I had the suspicion that too many effects were switched on. But this is not the case. I know the phenomenon from the Korg Wavestate.
In contrast to the other EDNA products in the respective Albions, the sound here is much more undifferentiated but also much fuller.
I'll have to get used to it.
The sounds are still very different, which I know from Omniphere, Falcon ....


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 12, 2022)

Bereckis said:


> I bought Polaris and it leaves me with mixed feelings.
> The default mode is totally fine and has some interesting facets.
> The synth mode irritates me. The level in the LOGIC PRO is far too quiet. The sounds sound very good, but they are all similar. At first I had the suspicion that too many effects were switched on. But this is not the case. I know the phenomenon from the Korg Wavestate.
> In contrast to the other EDNA products in the respective Albions, the sound here is much more undifferentiated but also much fuller.
> ...



I have to boost the gain with eDNA if I want it to play with other synths too. It's an odd quirk that Spitfire have. Too shy and retiring.


----------



## wahey73 (Apr 12, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Too shy and retiring.


At the edge of silence....


----------



## holywilly (Apr 12, 2022)

It gets loud when granular effect engaged!


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 12, 2022)

holywilly said:


> It gets loud when granular effect engaged!



Oh good! Everyone loves inconsistent volumes for different settings. That's not dangerous at all!


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## jcrosby (Apr 12, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> That reminds me: the Photosynthesis script that Jeremiah Pena put together..... However, I'm not sure if you can still get the blank engine.....


Yes you can! It's a national treasure!!  :









Photosynthesis Engine


The Photosynthesis Engine is a free interface for Kontakt to make creating your own Kontakt instruments easy. Import samples, then manipulate them with sound shaping, filters, 13 effects, and a rhythm section featuring a step sequencer, filter sequencer, 2 filter LFOs, and gain/pan/pitch LFOs...




exoticstates.gumroad.com


----------



## gamma-ut (Apr 12, 2022)

Ah, that's where it is. I couldn't find a working link on a search: the exoticstates website itself is no longer there and for some reason on my search terms Gumroad wasn't turning up.


----------



## R10k (Apr 12, 2022)

Bereckis said:


> The synth mode irritates me. The level in the LOGIC PRO is far too quiet.


So many things are overly quiet in Logic, but I assume it's quieter than the non-synth section to make room for all the crazy harmonics when effects are added...


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## wltchris101 (Apr 12, 2022)

This may be of interest. Arturia have just launched a free intro version of a product that seems like it will be very similar to this. With Arturia's synthesis track record, and usually very tempting intro offers, perhaps people should be holding off on jumping on Polaris so soon?






Arturia - Augmented STRINGS Intro - Augmented STRINGS Intro


Discover Augmented STRINGS Intro. An inspiring software instrument morphing rich sampled strings with state-of-the-art synthesis. FREE download until April 30.




www.arturia.com


----------



## Simeon (Apr 12, 2022)

wltchris101 said:


> This may be of interest. Arturia have just launched a free intro version of a product that seems like it will be very similar to this. With Arturia's synthesis track record, and usually very tempting intro offers, perhaps people should be holding off on jumping on Polaris so soon?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing this, pulling it down now.
Looks very interesting 🤓


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## wltchris101 (Apr 12, 2022)

Personally, my guess is that Arturia's effort will outshine Polaris, and I'm positive that it will be cheaper, especially so for anybody that's already heavily invested in their eco system.


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## Cdnalsi (Apr 12, 2022)

That Arturia promo video didn't sound great at all to me, just a step gate and flanger, really flanger on strings? :(


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## doctoremmet (Apr 12, 2022)

I don’t know… sounds pretty good for a free plugin 🤷🏼


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## wltchris101 (Apr 12, 2022)

This Arturia freebie is an intro to what I imagine will be a larger, more feature packed future full release. To my mind, Arturia are on fire at the moment, and with all their previous synthesis work to draw on, along with their FX and granular engines, I can't see them dropping the ball with this. For me, this concept lives or dies by the synthesis side of things, not the sampling, and here, Arturia have the edge.


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## Pier (Apr 12, 2022)




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## synthesizerwriter (Apr 13, 2022)

The Polaris web-page contains this sentence:

_On top of all this there is a stunning array of *classic synths* at your fingertips - deep samples from classics such as the CS-80, *Lexicon 224*, Prophet T8, Oberheim OB-Xa, Matrix 12, Jupiter 8, and Prophet 5._

The ‘Lexicon 224’ is not a synth, it is an *effects unit*. A 'classic' yes, but definitely an effects unit.


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## gamma-ut (Apr 13, 2022)

OK. I'm not sure why I care. I just read it as "synth run through some big-assed reverb (and other stuff) chain".


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## Simeon (Apr 13, 2022)

I just posted the edited and indexed livestream flashback.
I hope it is helpful.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 27, 2022)

Review (based on NFR license):


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## Evans (Apr 27, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Review (based on NFR license):



Regarding format, functional overview, use of timestamps, overall length (especially, splitting the review based on synth v "standard" side), and NFR license transparency, that's one heck of a solid review.


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## ALittleNightMusic (May 14, 2022)

Wonder how this one compares to EW's new Forbidden Planet. Seems like both are two layer sample-based synths.


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