# Orchestral Tools METROPOLIS ARK I Released + New Intro Special!



## OrchestralTools

Hey Guys,

we are proud to open a whole new chapter with:
*METROPOLIS ARK I - The Monumental Orchestra*

*METROPOLIS ARK I* is inspired by a cinematic monument from 1927 - The first ever epic science fiction motion picture of our time.
*A Berlin original* which inspired us to preserve all its *strength*, *greatness* and *bold exceptionalism* in a *monumentally powerful collection* to bring it back into the latest cinematic soundtrack productions.



On more than 160GB of Samples (75 GB compressed) *METROPOLIS ARK I* contains a huge *Orchestra, Choir, Electric Guitars, Percussion, a Grand Piano and a magnificent Drumset.*
All recorded with first call musicians at the *Teldex Scoring Stage*.
*METROPOLIS ARK I* features the *loudest imaginable dynamics* starting from mf upwards to fff. Everything is designed to be *loud*, to be *bold* and
*boundary-shatteringly epic*.

*Into the Nebula by Ben Botkin*
Metropolis Ark 1 only demo. No additional libraries were used!


*Born to Protect by Benny Oschmann*
Metropolis Ark 1 only demo. No additional libraries were used!


*A UNIQUE SOUND*
There is one vision and everything is built around it:
*Special sections* like 4 Contra Bassoons playing in unison, a Bass Trombone Ensemble, a Cimbasso Ensemble or 12 Basses + 6 Celli playing together in octaves.
*METROPOLIS ARK I* includes different French Horn ensembles: A big 9 piece Horn Section for soaring, thick Horn melodies and a smaller 3 piece Horn Ensembles, specifically designed to play chords.
Together with *uncomparable Powerchords* recorded wet at the scoring stage with two different Guitars and a *sinister massive Choir* singing at the highest dynamics, this Collection will rise your compositions to a whole new level.

*Trailer Score by Sascha Knorr*
Metropolis Ark 1 only demo. No additional libraries were used!


*A FLEXIBLE WORKING TOOL*
Instead of pre-mixed sections, *METROPOLIS ARK I* offers pure and unprocessed instrument groups to give you all the *flexibility to arrange* your own orchestrations. *Extensive Articulation Sets *additionally offer Swells, Crescendos, Glissandos, 2 different lengths of Marcato, Shorts, etc. on more than 80GB of compressed sample material.

*Screencast
*

*Full Articulation list*:
http://www.orchestraltools.com/downloads/Metropolis_Ark_1.pdf
*
METROPOLIS ARK I* marks the *next generation of Fortissimo* and re-defines Epicness in one single box.


*PRE-ORDER NOW*
€349.- + VAT
_Instead of €549.- + VAT_

_http://orchestraltools.com/libraries/metropolis_ark_1.php_

RELEASE DATE
December, 17
​More demos, screencasts and info soon!


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## feck

It's awesome!


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## Guffy

Wow, didn't expect this.
Sounds good! Maybe i'll have to get myself an early xmas present


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## zolhof

Loved it! The choir on the "trailer score" is absolutely \m/

Congratulations, will you do a walkthrough video before release?


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## Zhao Shen

I. Hate. You. Guys. So. Much. The pre-order offer is so incredibly generous! Orchestral Tools, my wallet begs you to make products of lesser quality in the future, thanks.


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## benmrx

Holy moly. This is the exact reason I didn't spend all my funds on Black Friday. This looks and sounds amazing! Well done!!!


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## ysnyvz

I'm broke but 160 gb of epicness for 349 is irresistible. Is there a rehabilitation center for sample library addicts?


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## Letis

Holy....


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## EwigWanderer

Goddamn!!


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## Jimmy Hellfire

What I like about it is that they separated the sections. It just makes way more sense, especially for brass, but also for the strings - as opposed to Albion ONE where they were all lumped into a single ensemble patch, which was a big mistake sonically IMO.

But am I reading it right that the lowest dynamic layer is mf across the board?


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## playz123

When exactly does preorder pricing end? Above it suggest Dec. 17, but the email shows 12-15. Which ever one is correct, it seems to be a short time that price will remain in effect.


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## Saxer

Haha, that names sound like the real bad German guys in Hollywood 

Sound is FAT! Acoustic loudness war... don't know if it's a step upwards in epic world or already a persiflage of it. Anyway, must be real fun to work with!


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## JW

Congrats to Hendrik and his team on delivering what sounds like another fantastic OT library!! Definitely will be picking this up!


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## kavinsky

haha another reaction video. no swearing this time

quite impressed with the sound.


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## mickeyl

Oh my!


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## Brendon Williams

Wow, very competitive intro price too.


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## Walid F.

Dat trailer cue though. Dear lord. But +1 on the question how long this pre-order deal lasts?

W.


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## pmountford

OT website says: "Pre-Order Special ends on release (Dec., 17)."


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## ChazC

Sounds great & nice to see a very generous pre-order incentive. I think I'll be grabbing this as I didn't go OTT on BF (for once!)


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## Simon Ravn

Very nice. I would have added more verb to the demo track though, sounds almost completely dry.


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## EwigWanderer

Simon Ravn said:


> Very nice. I would have added more verb to the demo track though, sounds almost completely dry.


I think that was one of the best things...I mean that it is "dry" and you can add your own reverb


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## jacobthestupendous

The choir on the first Soundcloud demo sounds pretty choppy at 0:17-0:18. It only gives me pause because Benny Oschmann's demos usually blow my mind, leading me to question the choir scripting.


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## stonzthro

Sounds good - more demos of sections please!


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## Simon Ravn

EwigWanderer said:


> I think that was one of the best things...I mean that it is "dry" and you can add your own reverb



Yeah you could argue that I guess  Just saying that I think it could sound even better/sell better with reverb added to that official demo track - then you could provide a dry one for comparison


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## EwigWanderer

Simon Ravn said:


> Yeah you could argue that I guess  Just saying that I think it could sound even better/sell better with reverb added to that official demo track - then you could provide a dry one for comparison



Yes Simon..I see your point


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## GORILLA

wowzers... makes ya wonder what will be Metropolis Ark II?


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## jacobthestupendous

GORILLA said:


> wowzers... makes ya wonder what will be Metropolis Ark II?


Mostly flutes, I bet.


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## EwigWanderer

jacobthestupendous said:


> Mostly flutes, I bet.


I think this is great. It's mf-fff and that's it. Just think about how delicate Exp A and B with string were... I'm sure that some day Orchestral Tools will release a library with that kind of sensitivity with in the sound. I hope this is volume 1 in a series that will help us composers with temp tracks from Oscar winning soundtracks


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## ryst

HOLY POOP!!!!


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## ModalRealist

Holy moly. Stunning sound. I was a bit worried when seeing the promo posts on Facebook: I feared that this was going to be "boringly" epic and OT were abandoning their - or at least, what I always have felt is - commitment to a certain sort of sampling. But goodness me, that is some sound isn't it?!

This one is going to be mighty hard to resist. Those horns in Benny's demo! The thought of plugging these sounds into my copies of Berlin Strings and Berlin Woodwinds is... Damn you OT!


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## arielblacksmith

oh god i still need to pay blackfriday purchases and I kind of have everything covered (except big epic brasses, which was waiting for 8dios one) but im reaaaaaally tempted now . Can see myself deciding on the 16th or 17th hahaha


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## eqcollector

hey guys!
could you please tell me, for us who are buying it for the first time, do we have to have capsule or just full kontakt?
sorry for the newbie question.


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## Hendrik-Schwarzer

thanks for all the feedback.

*Pre-order special will end with release on December, 17.*
The announced date in the newsletter is wrong.
After the pre-order we´ll start another attractive intro special. But everyone who wants to make the big savings should grab Metropolis Ark I before release.

*Metropolis Ark 1 runs with the free Kontakt Player* and is encoded by Native Instruments.
CAPSULE is designed as the most powerfull articulation system for orchestral instruments.
It enables you to put true legato intervalls to any long notes of your choice. You can blend
articulations over each other by using keyswitches in a polyphonic way. Or simply switch
between articulations within one patch.
So Metropolis Ark 1 uses the same slick interface like the more expansive Berlin Series Collections.

More info, videos and demos will follow over the next few days.

Best,
Hendrik


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## eqcollector

Thank you so much for fast response!
Got it and cant wait to pre-order it!


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## Karl Feuerstake

Wow, totally was not expecting this! Loving the sound of the Low Brass ensembles! And the names too; haha.. the 'Wolfenstein' Strings! I freakin' loved the Wolf soundtracks by Bill Brown.

Looks like my wallet will take a serious beating from this.. but I'm excited regardless!



ysnyvz said:


> I'm broke but 160 gb of epicness for 349 is irresistible. Is there a rehabilitation center for sample library addicts?



I'm starting to hope so.


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## Anthony N.Putson

Sounds magnificent!


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## Alatar

I like the choir, but [EDIT by moderator: According to the rules of Commercial Announcements please don't mention competing products or companies in the announcement thread of a developer. If you want to compare the advantages or disadvantages with competing products then please find a thread in Samples Talk or open a new one, thank you. We equally apply this for every developer, thanks again for your understanding./EDIT]


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## doctornine

Ddid I miss it somewhere - what version of Kontakt does this need ?


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## Saxer

doctornine said:


> Ddid I miss it somewhere - what version of Kontakt does this need ?


Kontakt Player.


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## fiestared

Sounds very good. 
If I understand well the price is :
European 418.8€ 
"rest of the world" 349€.


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## Simon Ravn

That is probably the EU price with VAT - if you have a VAT number you can pay the 349 without VAT.


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## OT_Tobias

The price indeed is 349€ plus VAT if applicable. If you are in the EU and have a VAT ID you do not need to pay VAT.

Metropolis Ark I uses Kontakt Player, so the full version of Kontakt is not required.


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## Hendrik-Schwarzer

*VAT will be added for customers from the European Union only.* The VAT also depends on the country you're ordering from. So there is no fixed overall price that works for everyone.
If you are from the EU and have a legit VAT Nr you don't have to pay VAT.

*Most of our customers don't have to pay VAT* anyway as they are from the US or Asia and don't live in the EU.


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## kfirpr

Do you still keep the pre order price after release date?


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## Ryan99

kfirpr said:


> Do you still keep the pre order price after release date?



It's written on their website that there will be a discount after release, but the best price is during pre-order.


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## AlexanderSchiborr

fiestared said:


> Sounds very good.
> If I understand well the price is :
> European 418.8€
> "rest of the world" 349€.


Nope, depends on country. There are different tax (vat) available ranging from 8 to 25 %, so the price is the same also in Europe but you have to apply your tax dependant in what country you live!


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## eqcollector

Its not because of them, its because of European Union, have to love it. lol


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## zolhof

http://europa.eu/youreurope/business/vat-customs/buy-sell/index_en.htm


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## Simon Ravn

If you are not a hobbyist but have a registered company you will not pay VAT - which I would assume goes for most users buying this stuff....?


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## Lassi Tani

Wow! Sometimes I can't get a big sound of my libraries, and this would be the solution. I thought it would be something like 1000e, but it isn't! And I still have money, because I didn't spend much on Black Friday sales.  I think I'll buy it. Great stuff as always, Orchestral Tools!


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## holywilly

Quick question, does string section divided individually as V1, V2, viola, cello and bass?


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## Polarity

Wow, didn't expect this one! 
It sounds very very good from the demos and I'm really impressed by the Capsule engine!
Very interested in watching some in deep video walkthroughs now.


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## Walid F.

The added money that the companies put on is called "VAT" - Value added tax. It's a European thing that all companies _have _to put on their services and products (meaning if you're a working musician or whatever in EU, you have to add VAT on your services and products too).

BUT! As a company in EU you can avoid paying VAT by giving a valid VAT nr for your company. So if you are a freelancing composer: get a company registered, and exclude VAT on everything you buy (oh and it's also tax deductable, like you only pay tax on any total winnings you have). There's a bigger story to this, but I hope this gives some insight!

W.


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## fiestared

Simon Ravn said:


> If you are not a hobbyist but have a registered company you will not pay VAT - which I would assume goes for most users buying this stuff....?


Simon, I'm not sure you're right, for myself, I am far from being a "hobbyist" and I don't have a VAT number, so don't assume for others. In the rest of the world, they don't need that "VAT number" and still don't pay this "taxe". IT IS NOT the fault of the devs at all, and I can imagine it's a real problem for them, but the reality is that the price with the VAT goes up and begins to be a bit hard to swallow. I am on the fence to buy it, 418€ are not 349€... I am certain I am not the only one. Anyway, bravo to OT they have done a fantastic job.


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## tabulius

Instant buy. Sounds great and I'm sure that this is very usable product. Very good value for price!


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## Hannes_F

fiestared said:


> Simon, I'm not sure you're right, for myself, I am far from being a "hobbyist" and I don't have a VAT number



Easy: There is one threshold (T1) of income from music above which you are no amateur in the eyes of the tax authorities and need to pay _tax _for it. There is a second threshold (T2) of income or turnaround from music above which you _need _to have a VAT number in the EU and need to pay _VAT _for it. T1 and T2 are often not the same and vary from country to country.

This has nothing to do with quality of work.


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## fiestared

Hannes_F said:


> Easy: There is one threshold (T1) of income from music above which you are no amateur in the eyes of the tax authorities and need to pay _tax _for it. There is a second threshold (T2) of income or turnaround from music above which you _need _to have a VAT number in the EU and need to pay _VAT _for it. T1 and T2 are often not the same and vary from country to country.
> 
> This has nothing to do with quality of work.


Thanks Hannes, but You're in Germany, I'm in France, the laws about taxes are not the same. Do you pay CSG (Contribution sociale generalisée) ? No, we do, one day, you'll probably do too, because as you know TVA or VAT is a french taxe, and it seems the world follows our (bad) exemple for taxes. 
Anyway, the thing is I have to pay VAT on libraries and for me these 20% represents an effort that sometimes I can't afford. Again, this library seems to sound very well, and I really would have it.
Best regards
F.red


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## Simon Ravn

Hannes_F said:


> This has nothing to do with quality of work.



Niether does "hobbyist" vs. "pro" - it only has to do with if you make an income from it - which is what distinguishes the ability to have a VAT number or not 

I don't know the laws in France, but in a lot of countries it works the same as here in Denmark: You charge VAT on your invoices (25% in my case), and that you therefore can also write off the VAT your pay on your purchases. Which is also why you can use a VAT # to avoid paying VAT in another country, because you could end up paying VAT twice which of course is not fair or right.


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## fiestared

Simon Ravn said:


> Niether does "hobbyist" vs. "pro" - it only has to do with if you make an income from it - which is what distinguishes the ability to have a VAT number or not


Did I say I'm upset by "hobbyist" ? On the contrary, but I am not a "hobbyist", I have not a TVA number, and I have the feeling I'm not alone.


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## Simon Ravn

fiestared said:


> Did I say I'm upset by "hobbyist" ? On the contrary, but I am not a "hobbyist", I have not a TVA number, and I have the feeling I'm not alone.



I answered Hannes, who seemed to believe I said that "hobbyist" was the same as a lower quality work. Just wanted to make clear that I didn't mean that at all. But I am curious - why don't you have a TVA/VAT number?


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## procreative

Just to clarify VAT, I run a business and am VAT registered. However there is a threshold based on a business turnover which is their total sales, below which it is optional to be registered. I think in the UK its about £70,000 per year.

While its true you can save VAT by reclaiming it on purchases, you also then have to charge with VAT. If all your customers are also businesses it has no real impact, however if they are "Joe Public" then this is where it becomes difficult as it means adding up to 25% depending on the country to the price.

You also have a huge extra accounting headache as you become an unpaid tax collector, filling in e-forms and sending payment every quarter.


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## fiestared

Simon, I've got the feeling this tread is becoming a VAT prob and is no more about this new "fantastic library" that is very unfair to OT. So, if you want to talk about that, let's create a new tread. I'm very impatient to listen to a new demo, because I think this "Metropolis" is taking us into new territories.


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## playz123

holywilly said:


> Quick question, does string section divided individually as V1, V2, viola, cello and bass?


No divisi...looks as if the strings are just divided into high and low strings. Not sure how useful divisi would be in a library of this type either, but hard to say at this point.


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## Hannes_F

No no, I did not believe that, Simon. I wondered why fiestared used quotation marks on hobbyist, so I thought he perhaps seemed to be offended. But all the better if not, so all is good.

fiestared, if you can be a professional without charging VAT then consider yourself happy  and all the power to you.


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## Cat

How many microphone positions? Sorry, I could not find this info yet.


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## Cat

So in line with their other libraries - is this for confirmed by OT?

thanks



TR-TX said:


> As far as I remember:
> 
> Sur/AB/Tree/Close kind of AB/Spot mics
> 
> T.


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## AlexanderSchiborr

playz123 said:


> No divisi...looks as if the strings are just divided into high and low strings. Not sure how useful divisi would be in a library of this type either, but hard to say at this point.


Splitting Strings in Vlns 1 / 2 & Vloas etc has nothing to do with divisi, but yes it is high / low Strings, and for that targeted producted a good choice to record that ensemble patches imo.


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## playz123

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Splitting Strings in Vlns 1 / 2 & Vloas etc has nothing to do with divisi, but yes it is high / low Strings, and for that targeted producted a good choice to record that ensemble patches imo.


Not sure what _your_ point is there....or why you felt the need to suggest a 'correction'. I think most people here know what divisi is. Without the string section being split into Violins, violas etc., and then the violins split into V1 and V2, one can't have/define divisi. This library has only high and low strings, so strings can't be split and therefore divisi isn't possible. That was _my_ point.
And IF anyone isn't clear what "divisi" means, it's basically an 'instruction' to divide a single section of instruments into multiple subsections of instruments. This usually applies to the violins of the string section in an orchestra.


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## DDK

playz123 said:


> Not sure what _your_ point is there....or why you felt the need to suggest a 'correction'. I think most people here know what divisi is. Without the string section being split into Violins, violas etc., and then the violins split into V1 and V2, one can't have/define divisi. This library has only high and low strings, so strings can't be split and therefore divisi isn't possible. That was _my_ point.
> And IF anyone isn't clear what "divisi" means, it's basically an 'instruction' to divide a single section of instruments into multiple subsections of instruments. This usually applies to the violins of the string section in an orchestra.


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## DDK

Will there be a walk through before the price goes up??


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## paulmatthew

I hope so !


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## playz123

eclipse said:


> Will there be a walk through before the price goes up??


As Hendrik said on page 2 of the thread "More info, videos and demos will follow over the next few days." Not sure if that means a walk through, but hopefully it does.


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## dpasdernick

I'd like to know the size of the patches. If there's massive horsepower needed to run this I may think twice about getting it. For now I'm hoping it's not too demanding or that there are some lighter patches or ways to purge uneeded mic positions etc.


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## OT_Tobias

Most patches are pretty light; even the legato patches do not use a lot of horsepower.
You can of course activate and deactivate mic positions as you please.


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## davidgary73

Just wondering, will there be full ensemble patches for strings, woods, brass and choir?


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## kfirpr

OT_Tobias said:


> Most patches are pretty light; even the legato patches do use a lot of horsepower.
> You can of course activate and deactivate mic positions as you please.


What is the kontakt version patches?


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## AlexanderSchiborr

davidgary73 said:


> Just wondering, will there be full ensemble patches for strings, woods, brass and choir?


According the users manual: NO.


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## Vision

OT_Tobias said:


> Most patches are pretty light; even the legato patches do use a lot of horsepower.
> You can of course activate and deactivate mic positions as you please.



To be clear.. Assume you mean the legato patches do _not_ use a lot of horsepower.


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## sdrff

Just wondering, as a newbie... how can the patches be pretty light if the library comes with 160GB of uncompressed samples? I assume they are divided in a lot of patches?


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## dpasdernick

Vision said:


> To be clear.. Assume you mean the legato patches do _not_ use a lot of horsepower.



+1... OT_Tobias' response seemed contradictory. Clarification OT_Tobias?


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## davidgary73

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> According the users manual: NO.



Yup..that i know 

Was asking *will* there be full ensemble patch added on probably in future updates. That would be nice to have.

Cheers


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## feck

dpasdernick said:


> +1... OT_Tobias' response seemed contradictory. Clarification OT_Tobias?


They do not use a lot of horsepower.


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## OT_Tobias

Yes, the do NOT use a lot of horsepower - sorry for the typo!


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## samy

I would also be interested in a walkthrough before the release - do you have this planed Tobias?


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## OT_Tobias

Yes, there will definitely be a walkthrough before release!


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## MA-Simon

Well... my pre-order is in!
The recording sounds just too good. 

I already have lots of quiet libraries so this should round up everything quite nicely.
Here goes the first Cristmas present to myself.


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## mickeyl

Same here


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## ryanstrong

OT_Tobias said:


> Yes, there will definitely be a walkthrough before release!


Looking forward to this... it would determine my purchase!


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## sdrff

I am waiting for the walkthrough like a kid before Christmas... wait, I am more or less still a kid and will gift myself this for Christmas


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## sdrff

Well this sounds pretty good


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## kfirpr

I'm excited about this library and probably will get it, my only concern is how well this library will blend with other libraries because it has a very unique sound, it has a close mic right?


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## Vovique

Re-considering Christmas shopping arrangements right now...


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## germancomponist

I like the sound of this lib very much!


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## Furio

I'm buying it right now...


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## mickeyl

Pulled the trigger as well!


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## Karl Feuerstake

I'm gonna wait to hear the Cimbassi


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## Vision

David Newman says it sounds great = 5 automatic preorders without even a full walkthrough.. Impressive.  The Choirs do sound really good.. there does seem to be a lot of value for the money here. But for me to buy this is still contingent on how the other patches sound/perform in the walkthrough. Looking forward to it.


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## Baron Greuner

The blow back from the choir has blown Dave's hair out.

Larry!?!?!?


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## DocMidi657

Everybody Chant together: "We Want a Walk Thru" "We Want a Walk Thru"


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## mickeyl

We Want a Walk Thru


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## samy




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## sdrff

DocMidi657 said:


> Everybody Chant together: "We Want a Walk Thru" "We Want a Walk Thru"


But are those words included in the choir patches? ... we really need a walkthru!


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## PeterKorcek

it sounds amazing - I just can't buy another library now as I bought several during sales, so need to familiarize with them first - although this thing is beast!

But I'd still like to see walkthrough anyway...just to watch and enjoy!


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## tokatila




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## james7275

Between Metropolis and Majestica, I'm definitely leaning towards Metropolis.
The only downside is Orchestral Tools seems to never do sales, so if I don't buy during the preorder, then I can't see myself reconsidering it, as it will be another couple hundred dollars more expensive.
I wish I could take back a couple purchases I made in recent weeks to free up some money for this.
Well, guess I've got another nine days to decide.


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## NYC Composer

Baron Greuner said:


> The blow back from the choir has blown Dave's hair out.
> 
> Larry!?!?!?


 ummm...Baron? What is "hair"?


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## fiestared

Hi,
A simple question to OT, what the ARK II will be ? Because if I buy ARK I, of course I will need ARK II, and maybe ARK III etc... So, please could you tell us what is the plan and futur for this library.
Thanks and, as everybody here, Im very impatient to see the "walk through" of the ARK I.
F.red


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## ysnyvz

fiestared said:


> Hi,
> A simple question to OT, what the ARK II will be ? Because if I buy ARK I, of course I will need ARK II, and maybe ARK III etc... So, please could you tell us what is the plan and futur for this library.
> Thanks and, as everybody here, Im very impatient to see the "walk through" of the ARK I.
> F.red


That's a good question actually. I'm interested to know if they plan to make it Metropolis series. If they take user requests for Ark 2, I vote for individual sections of violins, cellos, flutes and maybe some ethnic instruments. I know they have Berlin series, but they are expensive.


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## Guy Rowland

ysnyvz said:


> flutes



Epic flutes


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## Baron Greuner

NYC Composer said:


> ummm...Baron? What is "hair"?



Not to worry Larry old boy! Matter of fact I had my hair cut yesterday. Next time I will save you some. 

(Think of the money you're saving btw)


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## Jan16

I have to join the choir of praise here, this really is an excellent achievement.
And like others I am hoping for a walkthrough.


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## OrchestralTools

Hey Guys,

here is our third demo for METROPOLIS ARK I.
Enjoy "Into the Nebula" by Ben Botkin.
Everything you hear is from METROPOLIS ARK I.


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## Ryan99

Wow, very impressive demo! Just waiting for the walkthrough to finally convince me to buy this.


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## erica-grace

Ryan99 said:


> Just waiting for the walkthrough to finally convince me to buy this.



Me too! 

I vote that OT give a NFR copy to Daniel James, and let him do a walkthrough.

1. It will save OT some time
2. It will be more in depth than the one OT does!


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## Vision

Some observations..

Gauging by all of the demos so far, the unison brass and the choir would be the biggest selling point, for me. The fff brass articulations really stand out. Hats off to Ben btw.. Really powerful track. The library seems to have "weight". The only question I have in general are about the strings.. particularly the violins and violas are the weak point for me. Just can't get a clear idea about them as opposed to the brass.

Also, I personally wouldn't call this a trailer music library. Seems like more of a movie blockbuster sort of deal.. Which is not a bad thing by any means. Most of the demos seem to lean towards that ideal. Maybe the focus for this library was to have an over-the-top brass and choir sound... which ironically can be attributed to trailers. I still see this library as more of a classical/bombastic orchestral lib, which is fine, as it shouldn't be difficult to supplement it with modern synths, and hybrid rhythms etc.


----------



## BenBotkin

Vision said:


> Some observations..
> 
> Gauging by all of the demos so far, the unison brass and the choir would be the biggest selling point, for me. The fff brass articulations really stand out. Hats off to Ben btw.. Really powerful track. The library seems to have "weight". The only question I have in general are about the strings.. particularly the violins and violas are the weak point for me. Just can't get a clear idea about them as opposed to the brass.
> 
> Also, I personally wouldn't call this a trailer music library. Seems like more of a movie blockbuster sort of deal.. Which is not a bad thing by any means. Most of the demos seem to lean towards that ideal. Maybe the focus for this library was to have an over-the-top brass and choir sound... which ironically can be attributed to trailers. I still see this library as more of a classical/bombastic orchestral lib, which is fine, as it shouldn't be difficult to supplement it with modern synths, and hybrid rhythms etc.



Thanks for your kind words, Peter!

I think the choir (my favorite!) and brass elements are probably the strongest, and it is true that there isn't as much sectional string control (High strings and Low strings) as I like as I really prefer writing sectionally, so I will probably use Berlin Strings or another dedicated Strings library for the majority of my string writing and use Metropolis for epic enhancements. A dedicated viola section and High Strings Legato unison patch would have really made my day and made this library stand on its own better for dedicated string writing (which... this library is not really for in the first place). THAT SAID... there are some elements/patches in the strings that I really like:

- Low Strings 8va: super rich, smooth, and ultra-useful. I may end up using this patch more than any other in the library. For my string low ends I will often double basses and celli an octave apart like this patch does anyway, so a lot of time can be saved using this patch which is also particularly FULL sounding--which is really good for me because I tend to under-emphasize my bass register in general.

- Low Strings Spicc 8va: instant riff-building... double these with the piano and E bass shorts with Bones and Cimbassi staccs or marcs on emphasized beats and... magic)

- High Strings Spicc unison: very full and piratical sounding--also surprisingly convincing at higher speeds, which I did not expect.

- Both unison and 8va High Strings Sus patches: Very rich and dramatic... the 8vas provide instant bleeding-heart Williams richness, a la Angela's Ashes.

- Swell and Crescendo patches: These were really nice and inspirational to play-- they just didn't end up on my in my demo. 

The strings also don't stick out as much in the demos purely for volume reasons--this is a pretty full string ensemble, but it's quickly drowned out by the brass and Choir FFFs (I mean, 9 horns?). By contrast to the rest of the lib, it doesn't seem particularly BIG, but I'm gonna bet (Haven't tried yet), that blending these strings with the sectional control and legatos from Berlin Strings is going to create some pretty gorgeous results. I looking forward to writing a mp-mf passage with BST and then bring in the Metropolis High sus patches and Low Legato 8va's to really take it to the next level in fullness and intensity.


----------



## mc_deli

Hendrik-Schwarzer said:


> thanks for all the feedback.
> 
> *Pre-order special will end with release on December, 17.*


Is your edu discount valid for the pre-order price?


----------



## fiestared

fiestared said:


> Hi,
> A simple question to OT, what the ARK II will be ? Because if I buy ARK I, of course I will need ARK II, and maybe ARK III etc... So, please could you tell us what is the plan and futur for this library.
> Thanks and, as everybody here, Im very impatient to see the "walk through" of the ARK I.
> F.red


Hi all,
No answer ? Please, look at what Mike Green does when we ask him something... very simple : he simply and kindly answers.
Thanks in advance
F.red


----------



## Jimmy Hellfire

I think that's what people refer to when they toss the term "entitlement" around.


----------



## tokatila

Jimmy Hellfire said:


> I think that's what people refer to when they toss the term "entitlement" around.



"Let me show this future roadmap of our company, so our competitors also know what to expect 2 years beforehand. We know that they hate surprises, and we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings."


----------



## jononotbono

I am so tempted to buy this. FFS. Isn't life difficult haha! There are so many great sounding Libraries "out there". Although I am tempted to get Berlin Strings before I buy this. Oh the choices...


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr

fiestared said:


> Hi all,
> No answer ? Please, look at what Mike Green does when we ask him something... very simple : he simply and kindly answers.
> Thanks in advance
> F.red


Of course they answer all questions, but maybe they are not "all the time present here in the thread" and maybe they have missed one of these question because there were already some of them. How about then sending a question to their support as I am definitely sure they would have given an answer also with that question...


----------



## fiestared

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Of course they answer all questions, but maybe they are not "all the time present here in the thread" and maybe they have missed one of these question because there were already some of them. How about then sending a question to their support as I am definitely sure they would have given an answer also with that question...


Thanks Alexander, I'll try the support... to me this question seems "important" and the answer will be the "trigger" or not "trigger" !


----------



## Rasmus Hartvig

fiestared said:


> Thanks Alexander, I'll try the support... to me this question seems "important" and the answer will be the "trigger" or not "trigger" !


For the most liberal interpretation of the word "important", ever.


----------



## Simon Ravn

I ordered it. The choir alone seems to be worth it. Very different sound from the countless "epic" choirs already out there. And the brass, and... I am sure I'll find a use for lots of this stuff.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr

fiestared said:


> Thanks Alexander, I'll try the support... to me this question seems "important" and the answer will be the "trigger" or not "trigger" !


Well then..I am definitely sure they will help you.  May I ask one question: Why is that a trigger to buy a vi or not? To be honest: I would have never ever considered buying a library by thinking if there might be sequel or not. For me are more points important for instance like:

Do I have a use for that library regarding my own work?
How is the library sonically?
How is the playability and coding?
Am I able to combine this library with my own libraries?

And so on.


----------



## Lex

Holly matzo-balls! This sounds so good. Roomy and large without sounding like super saw oscillator!


----------



## fiestared

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Well then..I am definitely sure they will help you.  May I ask one question: Why is that a trigger to buy a vi or not? To be honest: I would have never ever considered buying a library by thinking if there might be sequel or not. For me are more points important for instance like:
> 
> Do I have a use for that library regarding my own work?
> How is the library sonically?
> How is the playability and coding?
> Am I able to combine this library with my own libraries?
> 
> And so on.


I would'n ask that, if they've given us a real deep walk through, but for the moment, nothing ! so I try to have more details and understand this library. Again, look at the way Mike Greene reacts to questions, this is clear and direct.


----------



## jononotbono

Sadly the VAT has just killed the magic for me. I live in the UK and the tax added to the preorder deal makes the price jump up significantly. Oh well.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr

fiestared said:


> I would'n ask that, if they've given us a real deep walk through, but for the moment, nothing ! so I try to have more details and understand this library. Again, look at the way Mike Greene reacts to questions, this is clear and direct.


I don´t get the point here, sorry.  Plus I don´t feel that you have answered my question: Why is it for you important that there is coming a sequel and why you take that as a reason to buy the vi or not? I refer to my inital post. Besides that: No clear answers? Almost every question was answered. If you have more please go and send ot a mail. A walkthrough is coming also - they already stated that. So where is it not clear? Just wondering here.
Besides that: How can a company know if they do a sequel of a library, ecspecially with that one like here, when it is not even released. It depends on so many things, but one major thing: If the library makes a break even just financially for OT.


----------



## Hendrik-Schwarzer

@fiestared: I just saw your question. It's definitely not my intention to ignore it. BTW, support is always faster if you need a quick reply.

Metropolis Ark 1 is a full and complete Collection. So you don't need Metropolis Ark 2 to make it complete, if that is your question. 
Sofar we have concepts, options and ideas for Metropolis Ark 2 but there is nothing I can assure you how Ark 2 will sound like.

Best,
Hendrik


----------



## MA-Simon

jononotbono said:


> Sadly the VAT has just killed the magic for me. I live in the UK and the tax added to the preorder deal makes the price jump up significantly. Oh well.


I close my eyes on that every time and just pres the big button.


----------



## jononotbono

MA-Simon said:


> I close my eyes on that every time and just pres the big button.


Haha well there are a few days left before the deadline and the usual way for me is to get blind drunk and wake up with an inbox full of "you are the current highest bidder" and PayPal notifications followed by me wincing and smiling at my digital Toy box that's begging for me to have a play with my new stash. Also today I got confirmation that I am now a student with Thinkspace so I can get discounts on some software apparently. God...


----------



## fiestared

Hendrik-Schwarzer said:


> @fiestared: I just saw your question. It's definitely not my intention to ignore it. BTW, support is always faster if you need a quick reply.
> 
> Metropolis Ark 1 is a full and complete Collection. So you don't need Metropolis Ark 2 to make it complete, if that is your question.
> Sofar we have concepts, options and ideas for Metropolis Ark 2 but there is nothing I can assure you how Ark 2 will sound like.
> 
> Best,
> Hendrik


Thanks Hendrik, your answer tells me what I wanted to hear and will push the trigger...


----------



## RiffWraith

Sounding good - best of luck with this, guys!


----------



## MarcelM

sadly no video in detail yet... sometimes i wonder why companys dont hurry up on those, and it doesnt take weeks to produce one heh? 

cant wait...


----------



## Vovique

Right, I'd like to hear a few isolated patches before pre-ordering. Anyway they sure will come with some details this coming week


----------



## X-Bassist

jononotbono said:


> Haha well there are a few days left before the deadline and the usual way for me is to get blind drunk and wake up with an inbox full of "you are the current highest bidder" and PayPal notifications followed by me wincing and smiling at my digital Toy box that's begging for me to have a play with my new stash. Also today I got confirmation that I am now a student with Thinkspace so I can get discounts on some software apparently. God...



The Educational discount might offset a high VAT, you lucky dog! For once this looks like a good deal for Americans (unlike those amazing British products ) Keep in mind, OT rarely discounts. I'm sure they are working on the video walkthrough as we speak, trying to cover a large library like this and get to all the instruments and settings can be tough. Be patient. Since the Pre-order cutoff is Thursday, I would look for the video Monday or Tuesday, then make the call. If they do an Ark 2 (which, since they haven't recorded, is a ways off) It will most likely be a different dynamic (soft like Albion 2) or a different grouping of instruments all together (or both) so either this will work with what your writing (Epic or soundtrack with epic moments) or it will sit on your SSD unused in your work. If you think about it, you know the answer.


----------



## Zhao Shen

X-Bassist said:


> The Educational discount might offset a high VAT, you lucky dog! For once this looks like a good deal for Americans (unlike those amazing British products ) Keep in mind, OT rarely discounts. I'm sure they are working on the video walkthrough as we speak, trying to cover a large library like this and get to all the instruments and settings can be tough. Be patient. Since the Pre-order cutoff is Thursday, I would look for the video Monday or Tuesday, then make the call. If they do an Ark 2 (which, since they haven't recorded, is a ways off) It will most likely be a different dynamic (soft like Albion 2) or a different grouping of instruments all together (or both) so either this will work with what your writing (Epic or soundtrack with epic moments) or it will sit on your SSD unused in your work. If you think about it, you know the answer.


Is it confirmed that educational discount can be used simultaneously with the pre-order offer?


----------



## MrCambiata

Zhao Shen said:


> Is it confirmed that educational discount can be used simultaneously with the pre-order offer?


Unfortunately, it can't.


----------



## X-Bassist

Zhao Shen said:


> Is it confirmed that educational discount can be used simultaneously with the pre-order offer?



Page 7 of the manual! ....

25%
DISCOUNT
If you are student, teacher or if you would like
to integrate Orchestral Tools products into your
eductional programe you ́ll get a 25% discount
on our whole product palette. We also provide 
attractive rates on multi-user licenses. Please
send your request and a copy of your student ID
or an adequate proof that you qualify for EDU
rates to [email protected]


----------



## MrCambiata

From their Email: "The code is valid for 48 hours for security reasons and works for all products not already discounted".


----------



## Zhao Shen

X-Bassist said:


> Page 7 of the manual! ....
> 
> 25%
> DISCOUNT
> If you are student, teacher or if you would like
> to integrate Orchestral Tools products into your
> eductional programe you ́ll get a 25% discount
> on our whole product palette. We also provide
> attractive rates on multi-user licenses. Please
> send your request and a copy of your student ID
> or an adequate proof that you qualify for EDU
> rates to [email protected]


I'm fairly sure that that only applies to the base price. Their pre-order pricing is already insanely generous for a company that is philosophically opposed to sales.


----------



## X-Bassist

Thanks for the clarification Mr. C!  ... (sorry, old Happy days reference)


----------



## X-Bassist

Zhao Shen said:


> I'm fairly sure that that only applies to the base price. Their pre-order pricing is already insanely generous for a company that is philosophically opposed to sales.



So true, Zhao, very generous.


----------



## jononotbono

Great. I'm certainly not the self entitled type and would pay full price. I am now a student though so I shall definitely buy some OT products in the foreseeable and the Edu discount is gratefully received. This could get dangerously exciting and equally financially crippling haha. Do I need another "Epic" library? This is the question...


----------



## Saxer

I don't need it at all... but I want it and I preordered it. This probably should tell me something about my self discipline... but I don't know what.


----------



## Vision

Can I get a Dec 17th birthday discount?  

This.. and if I had midnight tickets for The Force Awakens would make my thursday complete.


----------



## X-Bassist

Saxer said:


> I don't need it at all... but I want it and I preordered it. This probably should tell me something about my self discipline... but I don't know what.


That you follow your gut instead of your head. The challenge then becomes fitting it into your work, but often these libraries have unexpected treasures that add something special (I'm still making my way through Albion!), but I don't think you can go wrong at that price. Combined with capsule it should be killer.


----------



## NYC Composer

Vision said:


> Can I get a Dec 17th birthday discount?
> 
> This.. and if I had midnight tickets for The Force Awakens would make my thursday complete.


Happy almost-birthday, Peter!


----------



## OT_Tobias

Hey folks,

I just wanted to confirm that the EDU Discount always applies to the regular pricing.
I'm afraid there is no way we can have 25% off the intro price.
We are not big fans of sales because we feel they first and foremost hurt our loyal users who give us their hard earned € and trust us. That's why we decided to do this rather insane and one of a kind intro pricing for Metropolis Ark I. This price will not come again any time in the foreseeable future 

My apologies for missing the earlier question about additiional Metropolis Series volumes, which Hendrik kindly answered. He is right - I always try to read everything here, but the quickest way to get a reply is always by writing to support AT orchestestraltools DOT com.

I sent our release candidate to our beta team yesterday and we are on track for release Thursday.
Walkthrough is indeed being worked on and I think you will be in for a few pleasant surprises 

best

Tobias
OT Support


----------



## mickeyl

OT, it's wonderful to have someone here giving honest answers. Communication with vendors has so much turned into a one-way-street, you're giving a refreshening exception from (what turned into a sad) the rule. Thanks!


----------



## Vovique

I'm afraid I won't be able to make it before December 17, but high hopes for the "Another Introspecial Deal starts after release until January, 1" mentioned on the Metropolis Ark page, guessing it would in the middle of the pre-order and the regular price.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr

Vovique said:


> I'm afraid I won't be able to make it before December 17, but high hopes for the "Another Introspecial Deal starts after release until January, 1" mentioned on the Metropolis Ark page, guessing it would in the middle of the pre-order and the regular price.


Are you doing the walkthrough?


----------



## JE Martinsen

I'll admit I'm probably not that interested in the content of DISTRICT IV, but one never knows - it could be gold to me later on! Upon hearing the choir however.. holy smokes! And of course the strings, woodwinds and brass of DISTRICT I. Much gloriously trouser flapping bass to be had from those lovely Barnack Contra Bassoons!  

Btw, no legato on those and some other instrument sections.. Perhaps there's an obvious reason for that?

Also that intro price is extremely tempting... Can't wait to see a thorough walkthrough!


----------



## Vision

NYC Composer said:


> Happy almost-birthday, Peter!



Almost-thanks man!


----------



## dcoscina

Simon Ravn said:


> I ordered it. The choir alone seems to be worth it. Very different sound from the countless "epic" choirs already out there. And the brass, and... I am sure I'll find a use for lots of this stuff.


Agreed. I'm pretty jaded when it comes to sample libraries not because they are bad but because they have reached a certain plateau of realism and expression. I was genuinely surprised and impressed with the demos of this library especially the brass. I had to buy this.


----------



## BNRSound

> I sent our release candidate to our beta team yesterday and we are on track for release Thursday.
> Walkthrough is indeed being worked on and I think you will be in for a few pleasant surprises
> 
> best
> 
> Tobias
> OT Support



Will that walkthrough be available before the end of the pre-order?


----------



## MarcelM

i hope it will be. i wont order without a walkthrough.

i mean no offense, but demos almost always sound good 

i also wish there would be some kind of addon with lower dynamics atleast for strings. okey, maybe for everything.


----------



## zolhof

OT_Tobias said:


> Yes, there will definitely be a walkthrough before release!



Walkthrough confirmed.


----------



## Lassi Tani

Heroix said:


> i hope it will be. i wont order without a walkthrough.
> 
> i mean no offense, but demos almost always sound good
> 
> i also wish there would be some kind of addon with lower dynamics atleast for strings. okey, maybe for everything.



I doubt Ark I will ever have lower dynamics. Ark II might . Interesting to see, from where Ark II or even Ark III get their inspiration from. If Ark I is about a science fiction film from 1927. Interesting to see, when the collection is ready!


----------



## Dan J. B.

OT, Is there a precise time on Thursday 17th when the pre sale will end? Will the pre sale price still be available throughout Thursday worldwide or does it effectively end at midnight on Wednesday? Need to sort things out with my bank. Damn I'm a sucker for deals and awesome libraries!


----------



## dpasdernick

Where's the walkthrough? They're cutting it close and the money is burning a hole in my pocket... Come on Orchestral Tools... There's a Yamaha TG77 on Ebay that is the same price as Metropolis Ark and it's winking at me...


----------



## midiman

Where is the Walkthrough? Is it still coming before the release date?


----------



## Dan J. B.

Surely there must be someone nice here who's bought it already who'd be awesome and do a simple screen recording of the UI and patches for us all? No?


----------



## BNRSound

Dan J. B. said:


> Surely there must be someone nice here who's bought it already who'd be awesome and do a simple screen recording of the UI and patches for us all? No?


Not unless they're from 4 days in the future.


----------



## Dan J. B.

Ah yeah ha, makes sense! Damn.. Forgot it's pre sale and not just an intro deal


----------



## Dan J. B.

Ugh, itching to buy it tho!


----------



## OT_Tobias

Dan J. B.: We will release some time during the 17th, probably afternoon German time. At that time the pre-order pricing will end.


----------



## ChazC

OT_Tobias said:


> Dan J. B.: We will release some time during the 17th, probably afternoon German time. At that time the pre-order pricing will end.


So, as soon as the walk through is released the pre-order price is no longer valid?

That's very disappointing if correct.


----------



## sdrff

I understood that as "the LIBRARY will be released during the 17th and at that time the pre-order pricing will end", considering the misunderstanding in the preceding posts.


----------



## OT_Tobias

I have stated several times that the walkthrough will be made available BEFORE the collection release.
Metropolis Ark I will be released on December 17, probably late afternoon German time.


----------



## ChazC

OT_Tobias said:


> I have stated several times that the walkthrough will be made available BEFORE the collection release.
> Metropolis Ark I will be released on December 17, probably late afternoon German time.


Ah right sorry! I thought you meant the walkthrough was to be released on the afternoon of the 17th! All good - looking forward to it!


----------



## Revenant

Looks awesome! Any Chance you might give us a hint on what we can expect in the Metropolis volumes to come, Tobias? I mean Ark I really does seem like the complete package with its tremendous amount of content.


----------



## DocMidi657

Revenant said:


> Looks awesome! Any Chance you might give us a hint on what we can expect in the Metropolis volumes to come, Tobias? I mean Ark I really does seem like the complete package with its tremendous amount of content.


Hendrick answered that a little earlier. her you go: Metropolis Ark 1 is a full and complete Collection. So you don't need Metropolis Ark 2 to make it complete, if that is your question.
Sofar we have concepts, options and ideas for Metropolis Ark 2 but there is nothing I can assure you how Ark 2 will sound like.

Best,
Hendrik


----------



## X-Bassist

Sorry everyone is so crazy Tobias, but you do have an amazing product. All the best on your sales and video, it's a great time to buy OT. 
Merry Christmas.


----------



## dpasdernick

_Ark 1 has the meat and potatoes animals on board... big fat juicy red meat kind of animals that need to be preserved in order to feed the masses and give something for your kids to ride on at the zoo...

Ark 2 will have more delicacies. Smaller animals that couldn't survive with the big-nasties on Ark 1... more petting zoo variety, cuddly, herbivores, garden-variety (pardon the pun)

Ark 3 will have the dregs... things like snakes and wiggly worms.

Wait? what? this is a sample forum? Dang it... Sorry Noah, I must have hit the wrong link...

All the best to the wife and the kids,

God_


----------



## Karl Feuerstake

dpasdernick said:


> _Ark 1 has the meat and potatoes animals on board... big fat juicy red meat kind of animals that need to be preserved in order to feed the masses and give something for your kids to ride on at the zoo...
> 
> Ark 2 will have more delicacies. Smaller animals that couldn't survive with the big-nasties on Ark 1... more petting zoo variety, cuddly, herbivores, garden-variety (pardon the pun)
> 
> Ark 3 will have the dregs... things like snakes and wiggly worms.
> 
> Wait? what? this is a sample forum? Dang it... Sorry Noah, I must have hit the wrong link...
> 
> All the best to the wife and the kids,
> 
> God_



Now I feel flooded with useless information.


Looking forward to the walkthroughs, despite that I already placed my order! Can't wait for release


----------



## BlueLight675

I'm tempted to get this. It's between Albion One and Ark. I love that Ark has a choir but I feel One will be more flexible. 

I need a walkthrough to make the final decision! :D


----------



## dcoscina

If you have other Albion I would say try Ark out instead. And that's coming from a huge Spitfire fan


----------



## dpasdernick

robhoward83 said:


> I'm tempted to get this. It's between Albion One and Ark. I love that Ark has a choir but I feel One will be more flexible.
> 
> I need a walkthrough to make the final decision! :D



Metropolis seems to only have bassoons for woodwinds. No clarinets, oboes, etc. That might sway you if you're looking to do more traditional orchestrations?


----------



## BlueLight675

Well I'm a Composer Cloud member so I have the entire Hollywood Orchestra thing - all my bases are covered. My reason for wanting either Albion or Ark has to do with speed writing (I like the broad strokes philosophy) and the sound. I've heard a lot of people say that Albion blends really well with Hollywood strings. 

I'm interested in Ark for similar reasons - I like the philosophy and the always loud dynamics is sorta interesting. It comes with an epic choir which I really like, but lacks upper winds. I do have Symphonic Choirs but...idk, it sounds pretty dated and while Word Builder is cool, the amount of time needed to get that to work is just too much. Even as a hobby, I didn't feel like d*cking with it. So that leaves me with just the basic choir "ahs and ohs" patches, and frankly, they sorta suck.

I also own all 3 symphobia's, which are great but they are almost too broad strokes and I'm not a fan of some of the sounds. They are great for layering, though.

One final consideration is resource management. Good god does HO eat up the system resources. Especially the strings. I would like to build a template where maybe Albion becomes my workhorse library and then HO is used for solo instruments or if I'm really needing the best sound I can get. 

I'm leaning towards Albion, but a walkthrough might change my mind. Or I might say fck it and get both but my budget really wouldn't like that at all...


----------



## Revenant

DocMidi657 said:


> Hendrick answered that a little earlier. her you go: Metropolis Ark 1 is a full and complete Collection. So you don't need Metropolis Ark 2 to make it complete, if that is your question.
> Sofar we have concepts, options and ideas for Metropolis Ark 2 but there is nothing I can assure you how Ark 2 will sound like.
> 
> Best,
> Hendrik



Thanks, must've overlooked it. I didn't think that Ark 2 would be a necessary addition for owners of one anyway, I was just trying to spy out a little bit of info about Ark 2. But all in due time, I suppose.

Anyhow, eagerly expecting a waltkhrough, too.


----------



## samy

robhoward83 said:


> Well I'm a Composer Cloud member so I have the entire Hollywood Orchestra thing - all my bases are covered. My reason for wanting either Albion or Ark has to do with speed writing (I like the broad strokes philosophy) and the sound. I've heard a lot of people say that Albion blends really well with Hollywood strings.
> 
> I'm interested in Ark for similar reasons - I like the philosophy and the always loud dynamics is sorta interesting. It comes with an epic choir which I really like, but lacks upper winds. I do have Symphonic Choirs but...idk, it sounds pretty dated and while Word Builder is cool, the amount of time needed to get that to work is just too much. Even as a hobby, I didn't feel like d*cking with it. So that leaves me with just the basic choir "ahs and ohs" patches, and frankly, they sorta suck.
> 
> I also own all 3 symphobia's, which are great but they are almost too broad strokes and I'm not a fan of some of the sounds. They are great for layering, though.
> 
> One final consideration is resource management. Good god does HO eat up the system resources. Especially the strings. I would like to build a template where maybe Albion becomes my workhorse library and then HO is used for solo instruments or if I'm really needing the best sound I can get.
> 
> I'm leaning towards Albion, but a walkthrough might change my mind. Or I might say fck it and get both but my budget really wouldn't like that at all...



I am pretty much in the same position as you  I think Albion One has a lot more variety and is also quite usable for quieter stuff and "sounddesign" work (for example the loops seem like a really quick and fun way for underscore things). On the other hand Ark I sounds really massive and epic. I think it could work really well together with Albion One.


----------



## jacobthestupendous

Noob question: I have around 130GB free on my sample SSD. Will that leave enough space for Metropolis Ark, or do I need to clear off some of the K10U stuff I never use?


----------



## BlueLight675

samy said:


> I am pretty much in the same position as you  I think Albion One has a lot more variety and is also quite usable for quieter stuff and "sounddesign" work (for example the loops seem like a really quick and fun way for underscore things). On the other hand Ark I sounds really massive and epic. I think it could work really well together with Albion One.



Yup.

A walkthrough would help me decide. However, it's already 4 PM on the 15th in Germany and I really feel they are cutting it close. They promised a walkthrough before release. I need time to watch the walkthrough, compare to Albion and weight the options. The demo's sound great, but any sound can be massaged, eq'd, edited, etc for demo's. And demo's don't show the interface or how usable the library is out of the box, nor do they show the raw sound of the library.

If they don't have a walkthrough by the end of the day, I'll be disappointed and thus, going with Albion.


----------



## zolhof




----------



## Craig Sharmat

I believe in the past OT has had late videos and they extended the pre-order a week, not saying that will happen this time but it's possible.


----------



## zolhof

You should also consider that OT rarely (if ever) does sales, so it's very unlikely to see this price again. For €349 and the huge ammount of content, I think this is a no brainer purchase.


----------



## jacobthestupendous

zolhof said:


> it's very unlikely to see this price again. For €349 and the huge ammount of content, I think this is a no brainer purchase.



The question for some of us, no doubt, is not whether or not to get it this week (my budget says the answer to that question is "no"); the question is whether to get it ever. When you have €0 in the budget to spend, then €349 is always a brainer purchase.


----------



## Jimmy Hellfire

zolhof said:


> You should also consider that OT rarely (if ever) does sales, so it's very unlikely to see this price again. For €349 and the huge ammount of content, I think this is a no brainer purchase.



I don't think that's really anything to consider if someone wants to have some basic idea of what they're purchasing for a price that's not peanuts either, discounted or not. At least if you're not a notorious impulse buyer, I guess.


----------



## BlueLight675

Jimmy Hellfire said:


> I don't think that's really anything to consider if someone wants to have some basic idea of what they're purchasing for a price that's not peanuts either, discounted or not. At least if you're not a notorious impulse buyer, I guess.



Yup - 380 bucks is still a decent chunk of change. I don't want to purchase without knowing *exactly *what I'm getting into. There are no refunds and from the sounds of it, reselling. 

Three demos, an articulation sheet and some hype does not a purchase make, at least from me.


----------



## zolhof

I agree that it's not peanuts and my comment was directed to those sitting on the fence , who want to take advantage of the nice discount. I think those 3 demos give you more than a basic idea of what you're purchasing, and if you are in the market for such kind of library, there aren't many other options around.


----------



## midiman

Regardless of this being arguably a good deal ($380 for over 100GB of content is promising), I think that is completely besides the point. A walkthrough has been promised by OT before the release date, so unless you are an impulse buyer, you should wait for the walkthrough, which is something more revealing, which makes it easier to really understand how different patches sound "out-of-the-box", before any mixing and combining with other instruments. I agree that OT is cutting it too close to the release date. But that is their business. I will wait for the walkthrough and then make a decision. It would be nice if they had given us a Walkthrough release date, so we would not have to check this forum everyday and feel disappointed every time. Maybe it is a way of creating hype - and I must say it is working, unfortunately


----------



## mickeyl

Here's an impulse buyer from day 1 that is listening to all the demos once a day because they are touching me... still I'd like to see the walkthrough, if only to justify my impulse


----------



## Saxer

Haha... same here!


----------



## BlueLight675

Part of my problem is the promise - walkthrough before the discount ends. Discount hasn't ended yet so they still have some time, but it's getting close. I doubt we'll see it today, considering it's now after 8 PM in Germany. I hope I'm wrong.

What I don't want to see is a walkthrough posted an hour before the discount ends and them calling it "delivered as promised". 

Again, hopefully I'm wrong.


----------



## Karl Feuerstake

I suspect the walkthrough has taken time because there is a lot of content to cover.


----------



## benmrx

It's unhealthy the amount of times I keep checking this thread hoping for a walk thru.


----------



## BlueLight675

Karl Feuerstake said:


> I suspect the walkthrough has taken time because there is a lot of content to cover.



For sure. But if it were _me_, I would've had this ready at prelaunch, before it was announced. But that's just me.


----------



## kfirpr

benmrx said:


> It's unhealthy the amount of times I keep checking this thread hoping for a walk thru.


Come on, we know that we gona buy this anyway


----------



## benmrx

robhoward83 said:


> For sure. But if it were _me_, I would've had this ready at prelaunch, before it was announced. But that's just me.



I'm sure they have their reasons, but _one_ possible reason is that without the walk thru and only the demos, this thread 'self hypes' the product with pages and pages of speculation. It's definitely not hurting the product thus far, and has only helped to draw more attention to it. Once they release the walk thru, then we can all comment on what we think of it...., again. Or maybe they're just busy getting everything ironed out.


----------



## benmrx

kfirpr said:


> Come on, we know that we gona buy this anyway



99.99% I just need that last .01% to push me over the fence..haha.


----------



## Craig Sharmat

OT has always acted in a responsible way, I presume they will make allowances for a late video.


----------



## Walid F.

benmrx said:


> It's unhealthy the amount of times I keep checking this thread hoping for a walk thru.


Man, I'm lol'ing hard at this.

W.


----------



## OrchestralTools

Hey Guys,
the wait is over!
Here is our METROPOLIS ARK I walkthrough.
We gave our best to give you a deep insight into our upcoming Collection.
Enjoy!


----------



## lucor

40 minutes, holy damn! I'll get some coffee...


----------



## X-Bassist

Wow! The strings alone sold me. I was looking toward the rest of the library but am blown away by the hughness of the lower strings and agility of the upper strings. Amazing. Everything has energy, such nice samples. Love most of this library- including large room guitars and drums. Bought instantly and I still can't wait to see the Daniel James review!


----------



## tomaslobosk

This library is a beast!, the brass section is just amazing!
Berlin Brass will be a BOMB!


----------



## GORILLA

When I first heard about this I didn't even wanna know the price. But WOW... so much for a great price. AND IT'S ORCHESTRAL TOOLS! So you know it'll be badass... glad I haven't bought anything this holiday season because this is MINE!


----------



## sdrff

And I'm just sitting here, smiling like an idiot, thinking that this will be mine in a couple of days... hehehe


----------



## MrCambiata

Well they left me no choice but to order it.


----------



## mc_deli

Is this in my xmas stocking?
Have you felt my presents?


----------



## ag75

I watched like 5 minutes of this before I clicked purchase.


----------



## feck

X-Bassist said:


> Wow! The strings alone sold me. I was looking toward the rest of the library but am blown away by the hughness of the lower strings and agility of the upper strings. Amazing. Everything has energy, such nice samples. Love most of this library- including large room guitars and drums. Bought instantly and I still can't wait to see the Daniel James review!


I can tell you the strings are unbelievable. I own, use and love Berlin Strings but these have their own thing going on for sure. Instant epic lushness. And great playability as one would expect from OT.


----------



## mc_deli

The GAS is strong in this one


----------



## Vovique

I won't tell you which previously planned Christmas purchases I just cancelled, so not to unnecessarily hurt the developers. But I had no more mon to spend, and I had to buy THIS.


----------



## FriFlo

It is even better, than what I was expecting and I love that this is not mixed orchestral ensembles, but clean sections, it's much more an extension of the Berlin series than another symphobia or Albion. Can't resist ...
But now that I have heared even more brass from Teldex, my impatience for Berlin Brass is growing immensely! Please give it to us already!


----------



## MarcelM

absolutely fantastic.

sitting here and cannot believe how good this baby sounds. 

it raises the bar really alot, and iam happy i didnt go with with another developer.

iam sold!


----------



## Zhao Shen

Wow.


----------



## BlueLight675

Well this just made my decision harder...


----------



## jononotbono

Amazing. Do my family and friends really need Christmas presents this year? haha!


----------



## MA-Simon

Loving the Drumkit!


----------



## dpasdernick

Wow. It's very nice. I have so much of this type of stuff with the Symphobias, East West Gold, Albion and some larger VSL libs. Do I really need this too? It's a heck of a price for what it is. 2 days to make my decision. Yikes.


----------



## zolhof

I could picture mr. Kilar headbanging to Wolfenstein strings hahaha 

Now THAT is what I call a walkthrough! Thanks, Hendrik. And what a behemoth of a library, so many unique colors..

I was sold on the choirs alone when Metropolis was announced, there's no other choir with such strong/pronounced vibrato, and this is very useful to me. I can get close using Lacrimosa plus some solo soprano, but it's extra work, specially when you need to sync syllables.

Congratulations and good luck with release!


----------



## ModalRealist

Holy moly! That drum kit at the end! And the choirs! And the brass...! I mean just the whole lot is such a stunning set of sounds.

What I find really impressive is how the focus on _loud _hasn't wrecked the sense of musical dynamics: because although everything starts at *mf*, it's all going up to genuine *ffff*. You can hear it especially in the sustains, how it stays loud but while the musicians "put a lid on it." I kind-of expected this from the demos - which all have impressive senses of dynamics, in my view - but it's wonderful to see that this wasn't something that had to be magicked up purely with CCs, faders and filters, but is in fact written into the recordings themselves.

And thanks Hendrik, et al., for staying up a little late to put out such a comprehensive walkthrough.


----------



## ArtTurnerMusic

jononotbono said:


> Amazing. Do my family and friends really need Christmas presents this year? haha!


Tell everyone you're composing a personalized epic theme to motivate them in 2016.


----------



## davidgary73

Man, Metropolis Ark 1 sounds insanely good. Preordered


----------



## Craig Sharmat

I think it sounds great...not a deal breaker but wondering if the guitar and drums have just tree mics or can you get them a bit drier?


----------



## Walid F.

Ridiculously awesome sound. Wow!

I'm also wondering if the guitars can be mixed in drier?

W.


----------



## Udo

Happy to admit I got sucked in


----------



## Dan J. B.

Craig Sharmat said:


> I think it sounds great...not a deal breaker but wondering if the guitar and drums have just tree mics or can you get them a bit drier?



Agreed whilst this whole library sounds imense i did think the guitars and drums where a bit wet. Drums sound like the other side of the room.

Totally not a deal breaker tho! The brass! Those Strings! Oooooo can't wait! This with Albion one, Symphobia 2 and Cinematic strings, I'm gonna be in heaven. 

Btw for awesome drums Spitfire's The Grange was the final stop for me. Classic sound!

EDIT: Reading about the spot mics the drums should be epic!


----------



## benmrx

I mean....., could it have been any better? For me, this is 'library of the year'. Having all the individual sections in a product like this is huge. Everything in this library has such detail, and there's no 'filler'. I love that every section is consistent. Also, I was glad to not see a thousand synth patches. They know the majority of people buying this already have that stuff covered.

My only question is in regards to the choir. Maybe I missed it, but it didn't seem like you had control over which syllables were sung. If that's the case, and there's an 'internal engine' that determines it, how does it sync up between the men and women? Also, is there a way to keep the playback sequence consistent each time I hit play in the DAW?


----------



## ChazC

So there I was yesterday thinking 'they're taking their time for just a 10-12 minute walkthrough...' 

Awesome job. Another pre-order sold!


----------



## Vision

Listened to the walkthrough on my iphone driving home, then did a second listen in the studio. This is a buy for me.. didn't expect to get another fairly weighty orchestral library this year, but damn there's a lot of value here. On a negative, I was bothered by some of the release samples in the trumpets.. some of the high strings sustained patches didn't sway me. Drums and guitars.. workable, I'll consider them a bonus. That said, overall I think this is a _stellar_ package man. OT is gonna make a killing off of this. Great walkthrough, and congrats on a great product.


----------



## kfirpr

You raised the bar with that brass, and everything sound FAT and dark, pre-ordered.


----------



## brett

Why no pizzicato strings? Or doesn't that fit with the epic brief?

B


----------



## Saxer

Normally I'm more a friend of the quieter side of music... but now I'm really looking forward to play this brute stuff! Bye bye silent night!


----------



## Virgil

Isn't it common knowledge that louder does always sound better? But seriously, I'm in, too. However, what bugs me most is that I neither live outside of Europe nor am I a professional composer. This supposedly super small but unfortunate group of people who buy this or any other library just because they love it pay the most; this doesn't seem to be fair in an abstract way. I know this has been said before and of course it's not the fault of OT. Being a student who now has been plunged into the dilemma of how to pay the next month's rent, posting here is my way of coping with this matter. OT you are the bane of my existence.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr

brett said:


> Why no pizzicato strings? Or doesn't that fit with the epic brief?
> 
> B



Pizzicato articulations would be nice though..this library is meant to be loud and I don´t think that pizzicato are meant and able to be played loud. If you ever noticed that musical pizzicato is very quite as long you don´t one to snap the string that it sounds aweful. Great walkthrough by the way.


----------



## Guy Rowland

It's not really a pizzicato and flutes type of vibe now, is it?

You have Bartok / Col Legno, which I guess is the FFF equivalent.


----------



## Pietro

I have to say, I was totally meh after the announcement, but after hearing the stuff in the walkthrough, I had to instantly buy it. I love the sound. It's not about the mass (although it's nice as well), but about the spacial (the right word) qualities of it.

I mean, it's not super wide like all other libraries. I love how the basses in the strings sound almost mono and centered (probably from the close mics). Thing, that I've been experimenting with (mono-izing close mics).

Good stuff, guys.
- Piotr


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr

Guy Rowland said:


> It's not really a pizzicato and flutes type of vibe now, is it?
> 
> You have Bartok / Col Legno, which I guess is the FFF equivalent.



Yes, Bartok Pizzi / col legno of course. Though that is rather more an effect than a musical driven articulation. Not sure though what the other guy was speaking of but from what my experience is that in mockups often people tend to push their faders to let pizzicato fight against french horns on forte, I was saying that it might be not an option in a design process for such a library to consider a pizzicato.


----------



## ysnyvz

It sounds amazing. I really liked walkthrough. It was informative and Hendrik knows how to improvise and demonstrate.


----------



## tokatila

God damn; love the sound. That's the reason I'm not going to buy it; would be too expensive to then buy also Berlin Strings, Percussion and Woodwinds too.


----------



## lumcas

This must be some kind of strange witchcraft, because I just had to push the buy button while watching and listening to the walkthrough and really couldn't help it. Beware!!!


----------



## Saxer

I also catch myself in thinking what this library doesn't have... oh, there are no hi woodwinds and no separated cellos... why is there no single cimbasso and what if I need a dryer bass drum in the drum set?

I don't know why our brains work that way. We open the orchestra box and look inside if everything is there. But that's so silly.
We all have tons of single cello sections and hi woodwinds on our hard drives, not to mention bass drums and pizzicatos.
But this is a great addition of everything we *don't* have. This is the fat cheese on top of the pasta. Great concept! Nothing is missing at all.


----------



## Kaufmanmoon

Virgil said:


> Isn't it common knowledge that louder does always sound better? But seriously, I'm in, too. However, what bugs me most is that I neither live outside of Europe nor am I a professional composer. This supposedly super small but unfortunate group of people who buy this or any other library just because they love it pay the most; this doesn't seem to be fair in an abstract way. I know this has been said before and of course it's not the fault of OT. Being a student who now has been plunged into the dilemma of how to pay the next month's rent, posting here is my way of coping with this matter. OT you are the bane of my existence.



I was thinking this too and has no doubt been brought up countless times before. There's no doubt some people with an addictive personality and a credit card who have purchased both this, and two of the really big commercial releases over the past month or so without really being able to afford it. Of course there's also plenty of people on the forum who can. That's life.
It's coming to the end of my first year on this forum and the library releases this year have been relentless, in a good way, pushing the boundaries.
Some of us can't have it all (if we're legit)
Can't wait to hear what music people make with this library.


----------



## sdrff

Saxer said:


> We all have tons of single cello sections and hi woodwinds on our hard drives, not to mention bass drums and pizzicatos.
> But this is a great addition of everything we *don't* have. This is the fat cheese on top of the pasta. Great concept! Nothing is missing at all.



Actually, this is the reason I'm not sure if I can buy this... I only have --no names because of commercial announcements--, which doesn't have many articulations (one length of short + sustain) and has no legato. If I buy this, I already know I'll have to buy more on the future.

... on the other hand, this is a really good deal and a really good library. I really want this haha. I'm really undecided now :(


----------



## procreative

I am 50/50 on this. The strings do sound fantastic and the legato transitions available to all articulations is genius especially on shorts. All in all it does sound fantastic, however here is why I am dithering:

1. I have all the sectional libraries already.

2. I have Albions ands Symphobias so unisons are mostly covered.

3. If I did not have Choirs, Percussion, Brass, Woodwinds etc already it would be a no brainer, except:

4. Strange that Woodwinds/Brass only have selected instruments, no legato, and no High or Low groupings like strings which for what this library is setting out to achieve is odd. 

Surely the concept is a sledgehammer approach to create epic soaring lines so would it not make sense to not have to faff around creating sections? For low CPU pre made groups rather than stacking?

It is a very good price and very well scripted and recorded. Just for me not sure €359 euros is low enough just for the strings (which is all that interests me as the other sections other than Tubas duplicate by and large everything I have).


----------



## JE Martinsen

tokatila said:


> God damn; love the sound. That's the reason I'm not going to buy it; would be too expensive to then buy also Berlin Strings, Percussion and Woodwinds too.



Haha! Same here, tokatila! What I hear in the demos and in the walkthrough is pure gold. I have most of the instruments covered in other libraries, but this is something else completely when it comes to sheer power and "oomph". The strings, and especially the brass and choir just sounds so mindblowingly AWEsome it raises the hairs in the back of my neck. Excellent work by Hendrik and the Orchestral Tools team of magicians. 

I just have to be strong now because I can't afford this library at the moment (post Black Friday syndrome). Even at this great intro price. I've also been watching the walkthroughs of Berlin Strings lately, and yeah.. one thing leads to another. Luckily I'll just have to be strong for a few more hours. I'll tell my neighbour to hide my credit card and then keep myself away from the internets (you know, PayPal..). Take a long nap on the couch or even better, go for a long walk. I'll be fine..


----------



## Anthony N.Putson

Bollocks to this, i'm in!


----------



## samy

This sounds really great.
A quick question regarding the choir - there seems to be different syllables but I can`t see a way to change the order of them, so are they pre-programmed? Or can I play each syllable alone or "build" my own syllables order? I can`t see any controls for that in the walkthrough.


----------



## mickeyl

The way I understood it is that they just let the choir sing a bunch of (fixed) syllables as round-robins. So no word builder and only very little control by muting / sorting the appropriate round robins. Which I guess is OK given that this is not a dedicated choir library.


----------



## MisteR

There seems to be a control section called RR LAYERS, with 10 ticks. Maybe these can be turned on and off to pick anywhere from 1 to 10 syllables? Guess that's what you were referring to.


----------



## samy

Mark Rigby said:


> There seems to be a control section called RR LAYERS, with 10 ticks. Maybe these can be turned on and off to pick anywhere from 1 to 10 syllables? Guess that's what you were referring to.



This would make sense. Would be cool if one of the OT guys could confirm that 
Regarding that pre-order price - is this offer just available until today? Or also tomorrow?


----------



## Virgil

samy said:


> Regarding that pre-order price - is this offer just available until today? Or also tomorrow?



OT: Metropolis Ark I will be released on December 17, probably late afternoon German time. At that time the pre-order pricing will end.


----------



## Polarity

Pre-Ordered, just now... without any doubt!

By the walkthrough I was very very impressed especially by the power of the low strings and the brasses...
Love the Portatos and Marcatos with the contemporary split with short and long articulations.
The swells, fluttered and arcs are very useful to finally substitute those old SO Gold plus articulations in my old projects that I have to re-finish. 
Impressive the Cimbassos. I'm seeing Verdi calling! 

Choirs syllabes: I believe it's an automatic random RR recalling.
Not bothering about high woodwinds missing... usually in epic things I don't use them and anyway I have them well covered already.

So I got also the second "all-around" orchestral suite library this december


----------



## Polarity

Mark Rigby said:


> There seems to be a control section called RR LAYERS, with 10 ticks. Maybe these can be turned on and off to pick anywhere from 1 to 10 syllables? Guess that's what you were referring to.


Yes, if you watch the two Capsule dedicated walkthroughs you can see there's the option to deactivate precisely the single RRs of their instruments.


----------



## samy

Polarity said:


> Yes, if you watch the two Capsule dedicated walkthroughs you can see there's the option to deactivate precisely the single RRs of their instruments.



Okay, so if I want to play only one syllabe, I can just activate that RR and deactivate the others?


----------



## OT_Tobias

Hi samy, 
yes, you can enable and disable single round robins (= syllables in this case).
MA1 has a feature for the choirs which let it always use the same syllable until all current keys are released. Only when all keys are released it will jump to the next one.
Alternatively you can also use "normal" per key- round robins.


----------



## zolhof

OT_Tobias said:


> Hi samy,
> yes, you can enable and disable single round robins (= syllables in this case).
> MA1 has a feature for the choirs which let it always use the same syllable until all current keys are released. Only when all keys are released it will jump to the next one.
> Alternatively you can also use "normal" per key- round robins.



Hello. Is it possible to control the order of the RR samples with keyswitching? (think word builder)


----------



## OT_Tobias

zolhof: That is currently not possible, but it is on our list of features for a future update.


----------



## dpasdernick

procreative said:


> I am 50/50 on this. The strings do sound fantastic and the legato transitions available to all articulations is genius especially on shorts. All in all it does sound fantastic, however here is why I am dithering:
> 
> 1. I have all the sectional libraries already.
> 
> 2. I have Albions ands Symphobias so unisons are mostly covered.
> 
> 3. If I did not have Choirs, Percussion, Brass, Woodwinds etc already it would be a no brainer, except:
> 
> 4. Strange that Woodwinds/Brass only have selected instruments, no legato, and no High or Low groupings like strings which for what this library is setting out to achieve is odd.
> 
> Surely the concept is a sledgehammer approach to create epic soaring lines so would it not make sense to not have to faff around creating sections? For low CPU pre made groups rather than stacking?
> 
> It is a very good price and very well scripted and recorded. Just for me not sure €359 euros is low enough just for the strings (which is all that interests me as the other sections other than Tubas duplicate by and large everything I have).



I'm in the exact same boat here. I love what Metropolis is all about and I think the OT guys are brilliant. I just have so much of this already. I really need to buy the OT's Runs Builder but the darn discounted price is so appealing right now.


----------



## zolhof

OT_Tobias said:


> zolhof: That is currently not possible, but it is on our list of features for a future update.



Cool! Glad to know it's planned, as this is a very important feature to any choir. In the walkthrough examples, Viktoria clearly sang a bad word in portuguese.. I laughed really hard, but can't take any risks around clients haha


----------



## pdub

Ordered!


----------



## mark.warman

Does anyone know if the strings are able to play senza vib in this library?


----------



## Anthony N.Putson

Hi Tobias, 
What time GMT does the intro offer expire?

Cheers
Anth


----------



## Daniel James

Hey guys I will be doing a Live stream with Metropolis for the next few hours. Come join the chat room!

www.twitch.tv/hybridtwo


----------



## Guffy

Wow.
Thank you Daniel for this walkthrough.

Everything sounds really really good IMO.
The percussion and choir is fantastic!


----------



## antoniopandrade

Guys! Tobias said we can make TM patches happen in an update if we e-mail OT support and tell them how much we all love and use them on a daily basis! :D

Join the effort! I've already sent mine in!


----------



## benmrx

Daniel James said:


> Hey guys I will be doing a Live stream with Metropolis for the next few hours. Come join the chat room!
> 
> www.twitch.tv/hybridtwo



Thanks DJ. Hope this makes it onto YouTube as I don't have time to watch the live stream.


----------



## jason.d

benmrx said:


> Thanks DJ. Hope this makes it onto YouTube as I don't have time to watch the live stream.



I would like to see this as well. Thanks Daniel.


----------



## ysnyvz

Pre-ordered. I couldn't resist anymore.


----------



## Luke W

Pre-ordered.


----------



## MA-Simon

benmrx said:


> Thanks DJ. Hope this makes it onto YouTube as I don't have time to watch the live stream.


You can actually watch it already, thank you Daniel!:


----------



## mickeyl

For some reasons I don't see a link there


----------



## ChazC

mickeyl said:


> For some reasons I don't see a link there



Twitch(dot)tv/hybridtwo/v/30260330


----------



## mickeyl

Thanks!


----------



## Karl Feuerstake

TOMORROW


----------



## ag75

I pre-ordered but didn't get a confirmation email from Orchestral Tools only a receipt from Pay-pal. I have never bought anything from them so I'm not sure what is protocol. Can't wait to download this library!


----------



## Guffy

I would not be mad if the introductory price was extended for a week.


----------



## mark.warman

I've now watched the walkthrough twice and still can't tell if it's possible to alter the vibrato strength of these strings. I'm seeking the power of fff played without any vib. Does anyone know if this library can do this?


----------



## Guy Rowland

Walkthroughs were scarce two days ago, but are now becoming rather passe, aren't they? Nevertheless it's release day so safe to add these to the mix.

First is a 10 minute smash-through, for those who need a quick fix for an overall feel of what the library does



Then there's two more in depth videos, the first looking at the strings, winds and brass:



...and the second looking at the non-orchestral stuff, plus the percussion:



I think a few questions are answered there, I go through the different mic options for guitars, bass and drums for example. Mark Warman, vibrato isn't separately controllable on the strings.

Happy Star Wars / Metropolis Day, everyone.


----------



## sdrff

"an ENORMOUS amount of double basses, I forgot how many, I think 112?"

Well, I think that's a bit too many double basses.


----------



## procreative

What is the cutoff time today for the presale price?


----------



## davidgary73

sdrff said:


> "an ENORMOUS amount of double basses, I forgot how many, I think 112?"
> 
> Well, I think that's a bit too many double basses.



It's 12 basses and 8 celli only 

Btw, when will we be getting the download link for those that have preordered?


----------



## sdrff

davidgary73 said:


> It's 12 basses and 8 celli only



I was referring to the Guy walkthrough  I think they also mentioned the size in the OT one!


----------



## ScoringFilm

On the screen-cast video there seems to be an artefact on the high strings patch every time the middle 'g' is sounded.


----------



## FriFlo

ScoringFilm said:


> On the screen-cast video there seems to be an artefact on the high strings patch every time the middle 'g' is sounded.


Yes, I noticed that, too! But I am sure OT are gonna fix that at some time. They have proven many times, they are willing to add additional free recordings. So, I bought it.


----------



## mark.warman

Guy Rowland, thanks for confirming that these strings have baked-in vib. Now I know what to hope for in the second Ark! Your manic but always enjoyable videocasts are also a huge help to those of us still deciding...


----------



## eric aron

many thanks Guy for the extended walkthrough!! purchased this morning..


----------



## mark.warman

...and I've decided YES. That Choir, those Bass Trombones and the 9-strong Legato Horns swayed me!


----------



## PeterBaumann

Does anyone know when those who preordered get the download and where from? There doesn't seem to be any timings/download info on the website.


----------



## mickeyl

Noone knows, but I'm sure we will get an email once the distribution is ready.


----------



## stonzthro

Great walkthrough Guy - many thanks!


----------



## Anthony N.Putson

Bought (alongside a new HD) and raring to get going with it!!! My Christmas will be spent blasting the sh!te out of this!


----------



## Hendrik-Schwarzer

Hey Guys,

we´re proud to announce that our new Collection "METROPOLIS ARK 1" is officially released!

All customers who pre-ordered will get their download links via e-mail within the next 60 minutes (depending on the mail services).

*What is METROPOLIS ARK 1?*
This Collections for the free Kontakt Player marks a revolution of Epic in one single box.
It contains a huge Orchestra, a Choir, Epic Percussion, Electric Guitars, Electric Bass, a Grand Piano and an amazing Drumset. Recorded with the best musicians you can get at the Teldex Scoring Stage. A room that is best known for its balanced acoustics for the finest orchestral recordings. Not too dry and not too wet to get all the important ambiences without losing flexibility for your own productions.
Seperate Brass and Wind sections let you buildt your own instrument combinations and the depth of articulations is really extensive. Beside the basic articulations you´ll also find True Legato, Swells, Marcatos in two different lengths, Cluster, Crescendos, Stabs, Rips, Glissandos, Tremolo Decrescendo, Col Legno + Pizz on certain instruments.
Beside all the facts it is the unique sound that makes this Collection outstanding.

*If you need Support*
If you need any help or if you have questions during exploring Metropolis Ark 1, you´ll get the fastest and best help via "support at orchestraltools . com"
Please write us! We´re not always online here. Tobias is our Nr. 1 when it comes to customer relation. I don´t know anyone who answers that fast and he is simply a nice guy.

*Introduction Special*
There will be an introduction special soon, which will be available until January, 1.
More about that tomorrow!

*More demos, walkthroughs will follow over the next few days!*

Best,
Hendrik and the whole OT-Team


----------



## benmrx

Hendrik-Schwarzer said:


> *Introduction Special*
> There will be an introduction special soon, which will be available until January, 1.
> More about that tomorrow!



Does this mean that the 'pre-order' price will remain until the end of the day today? If so, do you know what time the price will change?


----------



## Saxer

Aaaaaand downloading!


----------



## zolhof

Saxer said:


> Aaaaaand downloading!



I'm in!


----------



## Anthony N.Putson

Annnddd can't download until my new HD arrives on Sunday !!! 8(


----------



## OrchestralTools

... and while you are waiting until your METROPOLIS ARK I download is finished,
enjoy the demo composition by our friend George Strezov from Strezov Sampling! (Exclusively made with METROPOLIS ARK I !)


----------



## Hendrik-Schwarzer

benmrx said:


> Does this mean that the 'pre-order' price will remain until the end of the day today? If so, do you know what time the price will change?



The Pre-Order Special will remain for the next hours because of the time zones...
Around 9am German time tomorrow we´ll switch over to Intro-Special.


----------



## mickeyl

Excellent. This is my first OT product... Downloading as we speak... Can't play until tomorrow though. :/


----------



## Luke W

Rec'd code, put into installer app, hit download and picked install directory...and nothing's happening. Server issue or user error? Anyone else having trouble?

EDIT: I have the latest version of the Connecta app.

EDIT: Working now! I think the brass was just so massive, the internet tube was choking!


----------



## pdub

Downloading now!


----------



## Polarity

FYI: about 71 gb to download...


----------



## PeterBaumann

Download speeds have plummeted for me, and it keeps pausing so I'm having to keep an eye on mine. 20% done though!


----------



## pdub

I got it all downloaded and authorized. Just batch re-saving now.


----------



## PeterBaumann

That was quick!


----------



## zolhof

PeterBaumann said:


> Download speeds have plummeted for me, and it keeps pausing so I'm having to keep an eye on mine. 20% done though!



Hi Peter, you can get manual links here: http://continuata.net/manual_links.php?id=orchtools and use a download accelerator like Flashget to boost things up. I'm almost done now. Connect would take almost 2 days to complete..


----------



## sdrff

If only the software was the limiting factor on my network... 

But yes, even though the thing said "downloading", it was actually paused.


----------



## joepaz

You can usually speed things up considerably in the Continuata Connect app by going into settings and changing the Download Connection Mechanism to Multi.


----------



## PeterBaumann

Flashget doesn't work with macs, and I've just downloaded progressive downloader but that requires actual web links rather than hyperlinks for the downloads


----------



## pdub

PeterBaumann said:


> That was quick!


I've got a pretty decent connection here. Trying to wrap up this delivery so I can play with it!


----------



## PeterBaumann

I've managed to find a way to do it with progressive downloader, still sitting at about 3mb/s though ha


----------



## Karl Feuerstake

4 hours in and less than 40% done.. yeesh


----------



## alanb

zolhof said:


> Hi Peter, you can get manual links here: http://continuata.net/manual_links.php?id=orchtools . . .



Thank you for the heads-up re manual links.

Every few minutes, that %$#@!^ Continuata Installer throws a spate of runtime errors and then crashes.

Just d/l-ing the files manually in FireFox, five at a time, is a wonderful alternative...!!!


----------



## Patrick

Just finished downloading with connect, had two crashes early on but then it worked like a charm. From times I almost capped out my internet connection with above 90mb/s (100 is max), never had a download speed go that fast. So far the the brass impresses me the most, it sounds fabulous.
I am still trying to wrap my head around the legato setup though. It is a bit weird that, for example with the strings, you can activate the legato-transitions with many of the articulations, but the transitions are octaves as they are ment primarily for the octave sustains.
Anyway, great job OT, thanks for the inspiring instruments!


----------



## Virgil

Guys, I'm downloading with < 700kb/s. So please stop complaining


----------



## ag75

I purchased on the 16th and got the PayPal receipt but no confirmation email from OT. Perhaps it takes longer when paying with PayPal. Did anyone else pay though PayPal? I emailed them already but I think they were closed for the day.


----------



## jacobthestupendous

I'll download it tonight while streaming an episode of something 4K on Netflix. Hooray Google Fiber gigabit internet!


----------



## sdrff

Still 5%.

... I'll grab a (very) big cup of coffee


----------



## Saxer

Took 5 hours for 28%... I'll better have sleeping pills instead of coffee... (it's 10pm here). Have to wait 'till tomorrow anyway.


----------



## Patrick

ag75 said:


> I purchased on the 16th and got the PayPal receipt but no confirmation email from OT. Perhaps it takes longer when paying with PayPal. Did anyone else pay though PayPal? I emailed them already but I think they were closed for the day.


I payed through paypal this morning and got my pre-order reply from OT almost immediately. Later today the download instructions arrived. Guess you should contact their support. I had a question regarding VAT yesterday evening and had an answer in my inbox this morning, so they are pretty quick!


----------



## ag75

Patrick said:


> I payed through paypal this morning and got my pre-order reply from OT almost immediately. Later today the download instructions arrived. Guess you should contact their support. I had a question regarding VAT yesterday evening and had an answer in my inbox this morning, so they are pretty quick!


 Thanks Patrick for the info. I will contact them again.


----------



## wbacer

Just finished downloading and installing. Only took a couple of hours with Verizon 50 up / 50 down.
I really like the playability and the sound is typical OT...amazing. You are going to love these.


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

wbacer said:


> Just finished downloading and installing. Only took a couple of hours with Verizon 50 up / 50 down.
> I really like the playability and the sound is typical OT...amazing. You are going to love these.



That is way cool @wbacer. I came home after a long day at work and wrote a script file that searched the hard drives of everyone else who had already downloaded it for fragments of the deleted RAR files. I downloaded connected to everyone still online in 17 minutes. When I opened my DAW, Metropolis had already written 3 songs for me.

Way cool library OT. I love you guys. I am legally changing my middle name to Berlin.


----------



## willbedford

I'm liking this library a lot. It will definitely fill a lot of holes in my template. I wish more of the instruments had legato articulations though!


----------



## Brendon Williams

willbedford said:


> I'm liking this library a lot. It will definitely fill a lot of holes in my template. I wish more of the instruments had legato articulations though!



Just out of curiosity, what are some of the holes it's filling for you, Will?


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

willbedford said:


> I'm liking this library a lot. It will definitely fill a lot of holes in my template. I wish more of the instruments had legato articulations though!



Maybe they will hire you to write those scripts for a future upgrade Will. You are a talented script writer. I would if this were my library.


----------



## PeterBaumann

pdub said:


> I got it all downloaded and authorized. Just batch re-saving now.


How long did yours take to batch resave? Mine is taking ages to save and is stuck on this screen :( I also get a spinny beach ball when trying to load some of the patches, which may resolve itself after the batch resave, but is rather odd :(


----------



## pdub

I don't recall exactly but not long. Probably less than 20 min. The patches load very quickly after that. Did you authorize first? Also check your force quit window to see if Kontakt is still responding.


----------



## PeterBaumann

I think it's working, just extremely slowly. Don't know why it's this bad though. Kontakt says it's still responding in the finder force quit window


----------



## pdub

Sounds like it could just be the throughput to your drive. My tower with the internal SATA is much faster at doing this sort of thing than my laptop to an external USB. I noticed that when I did it to the HZP on both systems.


----------



## Vastman

I said I was done for the year... I spent every ducket... overloaded with riches that will empower every moment thru the next year...NONE of the tools i've acquired even glimmered in the eye of humanity a few years ago...

I said I was done...I am a mere songwriter... but cannot resist... this takes everything to a whole new level...

Thank you, oh wondrous ones creating this evolutionary leap in emotional nirvana...

downloading...

WoW!
oh, unless you missed it... the Daniel James livestream... 2.5 hours, although a bunch time earlier (strings) seems missing. Daniel enters new heights of exquisite explictives... and rightly so.


----------



## paulmatthew

downloading at about 53/57 Mbps !! That's crazy


----------



## ModalRealist

Holy cr*p that guitar ensemble patch is fun.


----------



## alanb

PeterBaumann said:


> How long did yours take to batch resave? Mine is taking ages to save and is stuck on this screen :( I also get a spinny beach ball when trying to load some of the patches, which may resolve itself after the batch resave, but is rather odd :(



It might depend on which folder you selected. The library's prompt said to point it to the 'root' folder of the library. When I did that, it took forever and and I got the same run-batch-resave prompt each time I loaded any multi.

When I pointed it to the "Samples" subfolder, however, it took about a second, and I never saw the prompt again, no matter which multi I loaded. I think that's the way to go.....


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

paulmatthew said:


> downloading at about 53/57 Mbps !! That's crazy



So it is you stealing all of my bandwidth Paul, you lucky SOB. ☺ Mine gives me 57 mbps for 70 seconds and drops to zero and I have to be here to push a button to get another 70 seconds. I hate Amazon servers and I especially hate Continuata software. If OT keeps using them, I won't buy another thing from them. I don't care if they make a library where you have all of the sounds of your favorite composer under key switches. Vangelis, C0, John Williams C#0, James Newton Howard D0. This library may make them enough money to take them into the real IT world, to hire a real server company for content delivery. OT seems to be naive enough to think that they have paid enough money for download bandwidth to not frustrate half of their customers if they release popular software to everyone, all at once. Spectrasonics made that mistake with the Omnisphere 2 release. Even Spitfire, with their new cool library manager software, is smart enough to know that you send out emails apportioned by purchase date to spread the downloads over time. No software is worth me wanting to sit by my computer, pushing a restart button every 70 seconds, for 24 hours, meanwhile contemplating suicide. That is what I am doing now.


----------



## DocMidi657

All the RAR files 100% downloaded but then they did not decompress automatically?.... anybody know what to do?


----------



## jacobthestupendous

Anyone else have PayPal refuse to accept their credit card? I called my credit card company and everything's cool on their end. Not my first time buying through PayPal or from Europe. Waiting on hold now while my credit card company's help lady waits on hold to talk to someone at PayPal, who is apparently experiencing a "high call volume". I _really _want this library at preorder price, but PayPal apparently has other ideas. Frustrating to be trying to pay and not be able to.


----------



## davidgary73

paulmatthew said:


> downloading at about 53/57 Mbps !! That's crazy



Wow..nice..am getting 27Mbps  



SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> So it is you stealing all of my bandwidth Paul, you lucky SOB. ☺ Mine gives me 57 mbps for 70 seconds and drops to zero and I have to be here to push a button to get another 70 seconds. I hate Amazon servers and I especially hate Continuata software. If OT keeps using them, I won't buy another thing from them. I don't care if they make a library where you have all of the sounds of your favorite composer under key switches. Vangelis, C0, John Williams C#0, James Newton Howard D0. This library may make them enough money to take them into the real IT world, to hire a real server company for content delivery. OT seems to be naive enough to think that they have paid enough money for download bandwidth to not frustrate half of their customers if they release popular software to everyone, all at once. Spectrasonics made that mistake with the Omnisphere 2 release. Even Spitfire, with their new cool library manager software, is smart enough to know that you send out emails apportioned by purchase date to spread the downloads over time. No software is worth me wanting to sit by my computer, pushing a restart button every 70 seconds, for 24 hours, meanwhile contemplating suicide. That is what I am doing now.



I'm having some issues here too. I had to pause and resume so many times (over ten times or more) because it keeps going into a halt and stop downloading. Really dislike Continuata. Spitfire download manager is soooo much better. 

OT, kindly make your own download app for future products.


----------



## wbacer

Ark includes some instruments that need to be placed on the stage with the more traditional orchestral instruments.
Using your orchestral placement tool of choice, MIR, VSS, SPAT, Altiverb etc, , where on the orchestral stage would you place the:
High Choir
Low Choir
Guitar Ensemble
Guitar Right
Guitar Left
Bass
Drums
Feedback from the vi-community would be appreciated, thanks.


----------



## pdub

Yes really sounds great! I'm very happy with my purchase. Thanks!


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

DocMidi657 said:


> All the RAR files 100% downloaded but then they did not decompress automatically?.... anybody know what to do?



Yes. You are lucky. Use a RAR extract software like Winrar for Windows (forgot the name for Apple). Tell it to "Extract here"), (right click in Windows) and it will extract all 35 iknto the same folder. Then move the files into your Kontakt folder and then delete the 35 RAR files.


davidgary73 said:


> Wow..nice..am getting 27Mbps
> 
> 
> 
> I'm having some issues here too. I had to pause and resume so many times (over ten times or more) because it keeps going into a halt and stop downloading. Really dislike Continuata. Spitfire download manager is soooo much better.
> 
> OT, kindly make your own download app for future products.



Just for fun, I re-downloaded Omnisphere 2 with Spectrasonics' new downloadsystem 17 times (20 GB) while waiting to download RAR 17 from OT (2GB). Now I don't expect OT to be on the same level as Spectrasonics, but dammm! At least only be 10 times worse, not 150 times worse. I hate Amazon cloud service. They can suck wind. No company that I work for will ever use their service. OT is full of nice people. Amazon lied to them. I hate Amazon, not OT. I have bad feelings towards Connect as well. Continuata 3 is worse than version 2 was. My goodness. Lions and tigers and Continuata, oh my!

Sorry folks. I can't find my cheese so all I have is my whine. I was bored whilst I was resetting my download every 70 seconds for 70GB. ☺


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

DocMidi657 said:


> All the RAR files 100% downloaded but then they did not decompress automatically?.... anybody know what to do?



Hey Doc. Do you live in North America? If you are within 30 hours of Alert, Nunavut, I can drive their and grab your files that you have on my thumb drive, show you how to extract them, and be back home faster than I can download them from Amazon. Haha!


----------



## paulmatthew

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> So it is you stealing all of my bandwidth Paul, you lucky SOB. ☺ Mine gives me 57 mbps for 70 seconds and drops to zero and I have to be here to push a button to get another 70 seconds. I hate Amazon servers and I especially hate Continuata software. If OT keeps using them, I won't buy another thing from them. I don't care if they make a library where you have all of the sounds of your favorite composer under key switches. Vangelis, C0, John Williams C#0, James Newton Howard D0. This library may make them enough money to take them into the real IT world, to hire a real server company for content delivery. OT seems to be naive enough to think that they have paid enough money for download bandwidth to not frustrate half of their customers if they release popular software to everyone, all at once. Spectrasonics made that mistake with the Omnisphere 2 release. Even Spitfire, with their new cool library manager software, is smart enough to know that you send out emails apportioned by purchase date to spread the downloads over time. No software is worth me wanting to sit by my computer, pushing a restart button every 70 seconds, for 24 hours, meanwhile contemplating suicide. That is what I am doing now.


Started downloading at about 8:30 tonight. Just got home from the club at 11:50 and it's already installing . Sorry for hogging your bandwith  Can't wait to hear this library up close, but copying the backup to my two backup drives will take even longer I'm sure


----------



## Saxer

9,6mbps... yawn... fastest I can get here. 14 hours and 60% loaded...


----------



## davidgary73

Yikes, just completed download and while extracting, there are errors on certain files.
Continuata is the worst download app and now i need to re download some files again with directlink. What a waste of time


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

paulmatthew said:


> Started downloading at about 8:30 tonight. Just got home from the club at 11:50 and it's already installing . Sorry for hogging your bandwith  Can't wait to hear this library up close, but copying the backup to my two backup drives will take even longer I'm sure



Cool, Paul and sorry. I just picked you to vent on because you are one of my faves in the forums. I knew you would take my whining well. Glad you have it. I am still struggling. I even had time to make a video to demonstrate. I kind of wish OT had offered a two week USB delivery on this one. Two years from now, it won't matter. I'll be deciding whether or not to delete this or an old Project Sam libray from my hard disk space then. I, like everyone, got into the hype on this one because the demos sound so good.

So I am finally on file 15 of 35 after hour 8 of downloading myself.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a video of my download situation. I had plenty of time to make this video because this is taking so long. If it continues, I'll make a whole dinosaur 3-D movie while I wait, using Spitfire sounds as the soundtrack! ☺


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

davidgary73 said:


> Yikes, just completed download and while extracting, there are errors on certain files.
> Continuata is the worst download app and now i need to re download some files again with directlink. What a waste of time



I hate Continuata, but that happens all the time with all companies and all download formats David. Downloading 71 GB is a huge thing to expect that no ones and zeroes won't get misplaced from time to time. Just download the one or two files that got corrupted and you will be fine. You are close my friend. I am so far away, I gave up hope. I will never get this library because it is too much fun and Murphy does not want me to have fun. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for me. I don't wish I were dead. I wish that I was musically challenged right now.


----------



## davidgary73

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> I hate Continuata, but that happens all the time with all companies and all download formats David. Downloading 71 GB is a huge thing to expect that no ones and zeroes won't get misplaced from time to time. Just download the one or two files that got corrupted and you will be fine. You are close my friend. I am so far away, I gave up hope. I will never get this library because it is too much fun and Murphy does not want me to have fun. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for me. I don't wish I were dead. I wish that I was musically challenged right now.



The thing is i don't know which file has errors..hahaha.

Only when i start extracting, it will show which file has errors. It's gonna be a long day for me too. 

Just hang in there my friend. I used to have 5Mbps and i can tell you, it takes ages to download for such size. You will get there and don't give up


----------



## Vastman

Download and extraction went peachy keen here... Continuata has never caused a problem here... (knock on wood!) Took a couple hours for the library... finished a couple hours ago...maybe I'm just lucky or hit a great server... extraction and installation took awhile but finally completed...


----------



## Vastman

jacobthestupendous said:


> Anyone else have PayPal refuse to accept their credit card? I called my credit card company and everything's cool on their end. Not my first time buying through PayPal or from Europe. Waiting on hold now while my credit card company's help lady waits on hold to talk to someone at PayPal, who is apparently experiencing a "high call volume". I _really _want this library at preorder price, but PayPal apparently has other ideas. Frustrating to be trying to pay and not be able to.


Paypal worked fine here in California. I had them verify my accounts long ago...seems to smooth the process. Biggest problem I have is using credit/debit cards for Europe... always rejected when trying a spitfire purchase until I approve via txt or the bank call that follows. Hope u beat the deadline...


----------



## Chris Hurst

jacobthestupendous said:


> Anyone else have PayPal refuse to accept their credit card? I called my credit card company and everything's cool on their end. Not my first time buying through PayPal or from Europe. Waiting on hold now while my credit card company's help lady waits on hold to talk to someone at PayPal, who is apparently experiencing a "high call volume". I _really _want this library at preorder price, but PayPal apparently has other ideas. Frustrating to be trying to pay and not be able to.



Yes, me too. Tried several times and cannot get the payment through. Is there anyway to pay directly by card to Orchestral Tools? Looking like I may miss the pre-order price, even though I really want to give them my money!


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

Vastman said:


> Download and extraction went peachy keen here... Continuata has never caused a problem here... (knock on wood!) Took a couple hours for the library... finished a couple hours ago...maybe I'm just lucky or hit a great server... extraction and installation took awhile but finally completed...



You are blessed my friend, just as Mary was over 2000 years ago. You must write a special Christmas song for me and the others who are still downloading and post it @Vastman. We will have time to listen because we will all still be downloading weeks from now. I still hope to download all of the files by 2017. I just hope that I don't have to keep pushing the pause and resume buttons every 70 seconds for over a year.


----------



## paulmatthew

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> Cool, Paul and sorry. I just picked you to vent on because you are one of my faves in the forums. I knew you would take my whining well. Glad you have it. I am still struggling. I even had time to make a video to demonstrate. I kind of wish OT had offered a two week USB delivery on this one. Two years from now, it won't matter. I'll be deciding whether or not to delete this or an old Project Sam libray from my hard disk space then. I, like everyone, got into the hype on this one because the demos sound so good.
> 
> So I am finally on file 15 of 35 after hour 8 of downloading myself.
> 
> They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a video of my download situation. I had plenty of time to make this video because this is taking so long. If it continues, I'll make a whole dinosaur 3-D movie while I wait, using Spitfire sounds as the soundtrack! ☺



Ouch , and you're doing the downloads manually too. Luckily , my download went fine and the extraction process took a while but it appears okay. I will have to go through all of the patches tomorrow because it's been a long day and I have no focus right now. I agree with others , these libraries are getting pretty large and taking up a lot of room on the hard drives and that the download process can be extremely cumbersome and time consuming. Then again , some of these are worth it and I think Metropolis Ark 1 will be worth the wait. Hang in there, you'll get to use it eventually .


----------



## Lassi Tani

exitsounds said:


> Yes, me too. Tried several times and cannot get the payment through. Is there anyway to pay directly by card to Orchestral Tools? Looking like I may miss the pre-order price, even though I really want to give them my money!



I had PayPal difficulties too, but as soon as I noticed it, I sent a support ticket to OT. Tobias answered right away, and told no worries, they'll figure it out, if the preorder will be off, and I still have difficulties with paying. Thus, my advice: Send a support ticket to OT.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, that I ordered it today morning, and all is fine now. Downloading.


----------



## Chris Hurst

sekkosiki said:


> I had PayPal difficulties too, but as soon as I noticed it, I sent a support ticket to OT. Tobias answered right away, and told no worries, they'll figure it out, if the preorder will be off, and I still have difficulties with paying. Thus, my advice: Send a support ticket to OT.
> 
> EDIT: I forgot to mention, that I ordered it today morning, and all is fine now. Downloading.



Thanks. Sent a support ticket a bit earlier.


----------



## Vastman

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> You are blessed my friend, just as Mary was over 2000 years ago. You must write a special Christmas song for me and the others who are still downloading and post it @Vastman. We will have time to listen because we will all still be downloading weeks from now. I still hope to download all of the files by 2017. I just hope that I don't have to keep pushing the pause and resume buttons every 70 seconds for over a year.



This is the one type of time I am happy to have Comcast ultra... otherwise, I cringe at paying monthly to such a craven corporate entity... feel bad, seeing all ur troubles while I sit here dreaming of Google fibre. 

I'm sending speedy thoughts ur way!


----------



## davidgary73

@SpeakPianissimoAndCarry
Never have i encounter some many errors files. Downloading Spitfire HZ01 only had 1 error. Ark 1 has 11 errors files man..

7 hrs of download, 5 hrs or troubleshooting and i'm still downloading files to replace the errors files. OT should compensate us with some discount voucher or something for all these unnecessary stress we have to endure 

To be on the safe side, go with direct link download. At least have a better chances of getting them without errors.


----------



## Karl Feuerstake

andy.k said:


> I don't know why but the download is really slow for me. I only have a 10mbit dl but never had problems with downloading samples via Connect until now. My downloads are usualy completed after 1 day of downloading but this time it's only 23% after 10h of downloading, it's really slow and it's even stopping all the time so I have to pause and resume the thing all the time.



Could be the harddrive; are you using the drive to do other things while downloading, thus slowing the process?


----------



## OT_Tobias

Hey folks,

sorry to hear about your download issues.
The files are on Amazon S3 servers and most users see extremely fast download speeds.
Over 90% of downloads went through fine so far.
If you see lots of corrupted files maybe try a different hard drive. Sometimes Connect does not "like" certain systems. In this case the Manual Links work fine. You can request these yourself at the bottom of the download email.
The Connect guys are looking into the issues and I am sure they will find a solution!
Rest assured that the links will NOT expire and if you have any issues with broken downloads or if Connect complains abaout download limits just send me an email to support and I'll reset the counter!

best

Tobias
OT Support


----------



## Hendrik-Schwarzer

Hey Guys,
just wanted to announce that we have *a very attractive Intro-Special* for Metropolis Ark 1.
It´s already released so everyone who orders at the Intro-Special will get their downloadlinks immediately!

*Intro Special
€399.-* (instead of €549.-) + VAT

Special ends on January, 1

Metropolis Ark 1 Productsite

Best,
Hendrik


----------



## mc_deli

...i changed the Continuata setting from single to multi and my DL speed jumped from 20 to 33mb/s. 

Seems a bit odd to knock AWS. I am not an Amazon fan but there are the market leader in cloud server infra. Any speed issues are more likely to be with your ISP, local bandwidth sharing, OS, HD etc.


----------



## willbedford

Brendon Williams said:


> Just out of curiosity, what are some of the holes it's filling for you, Will?


Some of them are holes I didn't know I had, like the swell articulations. Those are going to really come in handy.
It's also going to replace quite a lot of my Albion patches for the louder stuff (it fills in Albion's triple-forte gap perfectly)

Other than that, a lot of the instruments sound 'different' enough to complement what I've already got. I love Cinebrass, but using the same trumpet staccatos in every cue can get a bit stale, if you know what I mean. It's nice to have an alternative at hand. I was thinking of buying Hollywood Brass to layer with it, but it looks like I'm covered now 

I really like the choir approach too, with different syllables per round-robin instead of a phrase builder. For those random Latin-esque chants, this is perfect. The choir legatos sound wonderful too.


----------



## willbedford

I had no problems downloading. It took longer than most libraries due to the file size, but it was finished in a few hours.


----------



## jacobthestupendous

I finally got PayPal ironed out by having them delete my account and then paying as a guest. Weird experience with PayPal, but surprisingly good experience with Capital One's customer service. For buying European sample libs from the US, they've been great.

Download took an hour because I got absorbed in Fallout 4 and didn't notice that it had paused the download at about 80%. Google Fiber is nice; averaged about 200mbps. Still wrestling with installing (took a short break to sleep). I always have trouble getting the sample directory in just the right shape whenever I have to manually extract compressed files.


----------



## PeterBaumann

Can anyone tell me what load times are like for them? I've done the batch resave which has vastly improved the initial loading time for actually dropping an instrument into the kontakt window (this takes less than a second now), but I've just timed it for actually loading the samples one they're in the window, and the memory bar at the top increases slowly, taking 3 mins 4 seconds to load the Finckenstein Strings (High) Multi. Is that normal...?

Edit: I'm doing this on my mac host in standalone


----------



## sdrff

How much space do I need to actually do the installation? Do I need the size of the library, or the size of the library times 2 (for the archives and the uncompressed files) for the intermediate decompression stage?


----------



## PeterBaumann

sdrff said:


> How much space do I need to actually do the installation? Do I need the size of the library, or the size of the library times 2 (for the archives and the uncompressed files) for the intermediate decompression stage?


I don't know if it was double, but I needed to clear some space before doing the install as I only had 105GB available, so it is probably close to double that you need.


----------



## lumcas

PeterBaumann said:


> I don't know if it was double, but I needed to clear some space before doing the install as I only had 105GB available, so it is probably close to double that you need.


I can confirm it's double the size of the actual library - close to 150 gigs - before I deleted downloaded rar files.


----------



## sdrff

This feels like an excuse to buy an ssd!


----------



## Karl Feuerstake

The library is a pleasure to work with! I whipped this up while getting to know some of the controls. (This is only Metropolis Ark 1)

One thing I'm looking forward to in the future is the ability to keyswitch the RRs on the choral patches (they are all different syllables)


----------



## pdub

PeterBaumann said:


> Can anyone tell me what load times are like for them? I've done the batch resave which has vastly improved the initial loading time for actually dropping an instrument into the kontakt window (this takes less than a second now), but I've just timed it for actually loading the samples one they're in the window, and the memory bar at the top increases slowly, taking 3 mins 4 seconds to load the Finckenstein Strings (High) Multi. Is that normal...?
> 
> Edit: I'm doing this on my mac host in standalone



Two examples Kontakt Standalone on a Mac Pro with a SATA II internal sample drive

Single Articulation 01 Strings High Legato 8va.nki (297.62 MB) Load time 3 seconds

Multi Articulation 01 Finckenstein Strings (High) Multi.nki (0.85 GB) Load time 38 seconds

Let me know if this is helpful and if you need anything else.


----------



## CorgiKing

Karl Feuerstake said:


> The library is a pleasure to work with! I whipped this up while getting to know some of the controls. (This is only Metropolis Ark 1)


Nice work, Karl! The sound was so big and heavy that it made Friday morning feel a bit less Friday-y.


----------



## Letis

"Da ist das Ding!" After downloading over night i now really enjoy working with this library. Thanks OT for this great one.


----------



## soundmasterlee

OT_Tobias said:


> Hey folks,
> 
> sorry to hear about your download issues.
> The files are on Amazon S3 servers and most users see extremely fast download speeds.
> Over 90% of downloads went through fine so far.
> If you see lots of corrupted files maybe try a different hard drive. Sometimes Connect does not "like" certain systems. In this case the Manual Links work fine. You can request these yourself at the bottom of the download email.
> The Connect guys are looking into the issues and I am sure they will find a solution!
> Rest assured that the links will NOT expire and if you have any issues with broken downloads or if Connect complains abaout download limits just send me an email to support and I'll reset the counter!
> 
> best
> 
> Tobias
> OT Support


----------



## soundmasterlee

Did not download issues as much as playing issues all of the swell and crescendos have some sort of release bug play the note through the swell and when you release the note it plays a ghost note? it's like it plays a second note after the swells or crescendos and that's all of the patches including horns,strings etc.. and lastly the multi bass has no audio the guitars have a velocity issue anything played over 10 velocity makes a strange muted sound and under 10 plays the sample I'm nor sure if this is a bad download but this is really frustrating... Love the sounds just very unplayable at the moment not sure what to do any Ideas??


----------



## Guy Rowland

soundmasterlee said:


> Did not download issues as much as playing issues all of the swell and crescendos have some sort of release bug play the note through the swell and when you release the note it plays a ghost note? it's like it plays a second note after the swells or crescendos and that's all of the patches including horns,strings etc.. and lastly the multi bass has no audio the guitars have a velocity issue anything played over 10 velocity makes a strange muted sound and under 10 plays the sample I'm nor sure if this is a bad download but this is really frustrating... Love the sounds just very unplayable at the moment not sure what to do any Ideas??



That ain't right for sure - OT support I guess.


----------



## Hanu_H

Edit...sorry posted on the wrong thread.

-Hannes


----------



## 1982m

It would depend on what project I was working on at the time.
They're both excellent.


----------



## DocMidi657

This library is a hoot!!


----------



## RiffWraith

soundmasterlee said:


> all of the swell and crescendos have some sort of release bug play the note through the swell and when you release the note it plays a ghost note?



I do not have Met., and I do not speak for OT, but I am pretty sure I know what you are talking about. It's the release sample you are hearing - it's there so that if you release the note before the end, the sound doesn't just cut off. Thing is, the release note plays regardless of when you release the note. So if you play the note, and release the note right after you hear the note end, you are hearing the end of the note, plus the natural ambience of the hall, PLUS the release sample kick in. The way to program this is as follows: the MIDI note data should extend far past the point that the natural ambience of the hall completely decays, then mute the MIDI channel routed to that Kontakt instrument. Before you perform the mute, figure out where the release sample's decay ends, and that's your unmute point. If you need to play other notes from that same instrument, you will have to load the instrument again, and route another MIDI track with a diff. MIDI ch to it.

Kinda a PITA, I know.... it's what I have to do if I use some of the old PSam Brass stuff.

Cheers.


----------



## OT_Tobias

soundmasterlee and RiffWraith:
Good thinking, but wrong  Capsule intelligently adapts the releases so that this exact issue does not happen.
We have had no other reports of this issue, so I am sure it is just a damaged resource container.

soundmasterlee: I replied to your first support ticket already, but you misspelled your email address so it bounced back. Please let me know if you got my second try.


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

To me, this library does even exist. I am so happy that all of you composers have downloaded it and are making incredible tracks with the library. I must be some kind of idiot because I cannot even get Connect to even download one of the 35 files and not stop after 70 seconds. 
[Edited by moderator]


----------



## ChazC

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> To me, this library does even exist. I am so happy that all of you composers have downloaded it and are making incredible tracks with the library. I must be some kind of idiot because I cannot even get Connect to even download one of the 35 files and not stop after 70 seconds. [Edited by moderator]


Why don't you just use the direct download links rather than Connect? You have both options, you don't HAVE to use Connect.

Personally until this release I've never had any real trouble with Connect. I started downloading at 7am yesterday & we're now at 9:20pm the day after & it's currently downloading a couple of parts that were corrupted. It's 75Gb, that's huge for a download only library but I went in with eyes wide open & on an ADSL2 connection I'd already prepared for 25-30hr download so although it did require a pause/reconnect a couple of times that's all par for the course on such a huge download. I also found with my ISP, Connect worked a lot better on just a single connection rather than multi in any case.

Anyway, really looking forward to getting stuck in to the library tomorrow & I applaud OT for actually making it a download as opposed to a USB/HDD purchase only. With the weak state of the AUD and the extortionate international postage rates these days I'd rather put up with a few inconveniences to get the library rather than paying through the nose for it.


----------



## OT_Tobias

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..
I spoke to the Connect guys and they asked me to make sure that you are using the newest version of Connect.
Feel free to ping them at support at continuata dot com if the issues persist.
Quite often, as mentioned by ChazC, the manual links work wonders. You can request these via the link at the bottom of your purchase email. Unfortunately I was unable to find your order (I searched for location), so I can't send you the links myself. If you send me an email to support at orchestraltools dot com I can at least track your order and maybe find out what might be happening.


----------



## Hannes_F

Ladies and Gentlemen,
we have got multiple alerts about some post in this thread. Please regard the forum rules. Thank you.


----------



## RiffWraith

OT_Tobias said:


> soundmasterlee and RiffWraith:
> Good thinking, but wrong  Capsule intelligently adapts the releases so that this exact issue does not happen.



Ah, ok. Thought I'd give it a try


----------



## ModalRealist

Most fun fifteen minutes I've had in Cubase?


----------



## paulmatthew

ChazC said:


> Why don't you just use the direct download links rather than Connect? You have both options, you don't HAVE to use Connect.
> 
> Personally until this release I've never had any real trouble with Connect. I started downloading at 7am yesterday & we're now at 9:20pm the day after & it's currently downloading a couple of parts that were corrupted. It's 75Gb, that's huge for a download only library but I went in with eyes wide open & on an ADSL2 connection I'd already prepared for 25-30hr download so although it did require a pause/reconnect a couple of times that's all par for the course on such a huge download. I also found with my ISP, Connect worked a lot better on just a single connection rather than multi in any case.
> 
> Anyway, really looking forward to getting stuck in to the library tomorrow & I applaud OT for actually making it a download as opposed to a USB/HDD purchase only. With the weak state of the AUD and the extortionate international postage rates these days I'd rather put up with a few inconveniences to get the library rather than paying through the nose for it.


 Speakpianissimoandcarry has tried the manual download links too. There was a video posted a few pages back . The downloads all appear to bottleneck . Is it possible that the ISP is doing this due to the download size? Anyway , I hope Speak gets their Ark to download as its a great instrument . On a side note **the only issue I had was activating it in Kontakt . I did a batch resave first and then it kept asking me to activate it . I closed a Kontakt , reopened it then activated it again and all is well .


----------



## soundmasterlee

OT_Tobias said:


> soundmasterlee and RiffWraith:
> Good thinking, but wrong  Capsule intelligently adapts the releases so that this exact issue does not happen.
> We have had no other reports of this issue, so I am sure it is just a damaged resource container.
> 
> soundmasterlee: I replied to your first support ticket already, but you misspelled your email address so it bounced back. Please let me know if you got my second try.


re extracted the file and Batch re saved again and have the exactly same problem do I need to remove the library from Kontakt and start over?


----------



## playz123

paulmatthew said:


> Speakpianissimoandcarry has tried the manual download links too. There was a video posted a few pages back . The downloads all appear to bottleneck . Is it possible that the ISP is doing this due to the download size? Anyway , I hope Speak gets their Ark to download as its a great instrument . On a side note **the only issue I had was activating it in Kontakt . I did a batch resave first and then it kept asking me to activate it . I closed a Kontakt , reopened it then activated it again and all is well .


Paul, you probably did this, but activating and batch resaving in the standalone version of Kontakt sometimes works better than doing it in Kontakt inside a DAW, especially when one experiences niggly little things like that.


----------



## ysnyvz

Unfortunately this one was my worst experience with continuata. Random crashes, broken rar parts, re-downloading etc. Now it's downloading last part. I hope I can install it because it took 2 days. Manual links were much slower.


----------



## germancomponist

Where can I watch a walk through video of this library?


----------



## playz123

germancomponist said:


> Where can I watch a walk through video of this library?


Pages 11 (OT's), 14 (DJ's) and 15 (Guy Rowland) of this thread, Gunther, plus the OT walkthrough is on their web site, plus other walkthroughs on 'other' forums.


----------



## germancomponist

Thks Sir!


----------



## germancomponist

The room/studio sounds amazing!


----------



## paulmatthew

playz123 said:


> Paul, you probably did this, but activating and batch resaving in the standalone version of Kontakt sometimes works better than doing it in Kontakt inside a DAW, especially when one experiences niggly little things like that.


 Yes I did it in stand alone mode. I activated first then batch resaved. Should probably have closed it after batch resave , then activated . It's all working great though. I'm sorry to hear about all the download issues as I had no problem with that. I've only had that happen on rare occassion with a a few libraries and it was very frustrating so I feel their pain. I hope they are using the newest version of Connect though because an older version can cause this issue , it happened to me a while back.


----------



## Vastman

germancomponist said: ↑
*Where can I watch a walk through video of this library*?


playz123 said:


> Pages 11 (OT's), 14 (DJ's) and 15 (Guy Rowland) of this thread, Gunther, plus the OT walkthrough is on their web site, plus other walkthroughs on 'other' forums.



OT walkthru now on page 1 of this thread, the "screencast" *or direct link to youtube is here.*
Daniel James 2.5 hour live stream on twich, which is a hoot.... *direct link is here*


----------



## dcoscina

Totally worth the long download wait. Amazing sounds


----------



## StatKsn

Is it possible to add KS for choir (marc/stac) patches? I can remove RRs to trigger specific syllable (though a bit of pain) but it seems it is strange not to have KS. Other than that the brass is BLISS!


----------



## OT_Tobias

Hey folks,

there seems to be a small percentage of users (10 cases so far) for whom S3 is serving lots of corrupted links.
We are very sorry for this. Either S3 has an issue in the Data Centre we use, or the pre-Christmas stress is overloading their systems.
We are in contact with both Connect and Amazon to try resolve this. What makes it hard to reproduce is that only very few users seem to have these issues. I was completely unable to reproduce so far with my own systems. Also none of our beta testers had any such issues during beta.
Rest assured we will do all we can to bring light into this matter!
Of course your download codes will not expire and there is no maximum amount of tries to download!

best

Tobias
OT Support


----------



## davidgary73

Here's a simple track with only MA1.


----------



## AlexanderSchiborr

Hi guys, 

I did also a track which is the terminator theme. All done with MA 1 besides the guitars in the end which I recorded by myself. The approach was here not to make a close cover just to play around with the sounds of the library and to hail good old terminator times because I am a fan of the first and second movie and the iconic title theme. The track is still a bit a work in progress, so nothing perfect at all but that is so far what I have. Hope you enjoy.


----------



## Polarity

My Continuata program re-downloaded just one rar file only, so no big deal on my side.
Played a bit yesterday afternoon before going out and I have to say that MA1 has a very powerful and good tone...
try to play the bass part of Darth Vader Theme or Terminator Theme kind of repetitive brass and you know what I mean. 
Very happy with it!

EDIT: already reworking my Universal MIDI Controller overlay relabeling all keyswithches buttons to make place for Metropolis Ark1 articulations  

Just one thing I find not understandable: in the Multi patches, Capsule is limited to 12 slots (fine), in the Strings High there are more than 12 articulations.... but just Tremolo Decrescendo can substitute the default articulations.
So I'm not able to do a multi patch with the two Glissando articulations in it if I want to use just one track to include them in my template.
Is it right?


----------



## ysnyvz

I installed and batch resaved it. I've been playing with it last few hours. It sounds even better than I expected. It makes you feel the orchestra and room. Legatos are smooth and agile. Spiccatos are tight. Great job Orchestral Tools! Fix your app Continuata!


----------



## Anthony N.Putson

This library is simply ....sensational! Sensational.


----------



## 1982m

Continuata worked great here.
I even closed it, re-booted to a different os then continued to download them from there.
I did this several times all w/o issue.


----------



## Daniel James

I just wrote a track using the library in preparation for when I do an actual overview video. You can hear it below. Loving this lib!



-DJ


----------



## mc_deli

Cheers DJ. Nice one as usual.


----------



## ysnyvz

I made a little experiment with it:


----------



## Waywyn

such an awesome library! It was a "nobraining Instabuy" for sure! 
Regarding the issues, just wanted to point out that I had those too, but I noticed that my online backup service was just running. Turning this off, solved my problems!


----------



## germancomponist

This library seems to be a killer! Congrats, OT!


----------



## Per K

Made my first "real" track with MA1
Added solo piano, woodwinds and percussion from other libraries.


----------



## mverta

Digging this library. Putting it in a score right now.


----------



## soundmasterlee

soundmasterlee said:


> Did not download issues as much as playing issues all of the swell and crescendos have some sort of release bug play the note through the swell and when you release the note it plays a ghost note? it's like it plays a second note after the swells or crescendos and that's all of the patches including horns,strings etc.. and lastly the multi bass has no audio the guitars have a velocity issue anything played over 10 velocity makes a strange muted sound and under 10 plays the sample I'm nor sure if this is a bad download but this is really frustrating... Love the sounds just very unplayable at the moment not sure what to do any Ideas??


So all is well now, Tobias was a great help OT really has helped with the fixing of this library I guess the Batch re save read the wrong Capsule version and was reading 2.0 instead of 2.2 what a relief and what a fun Library to play Thanks OT your the Best. K


----------



## Craig Sharmat

The library sounds large yet is very detailed...really have enjoyed working with it.


----------



## stonzthro

Agreed - the legato horn patch is stunning, and I have several legato horn patches already in my template!


----------



## bricop

Here's a piece using just the choirs and the articulation Marcato Long in all voices



I may try mixing up the articulations when I get more time.

Enjoy!

Brian


----------



## Hanu_H

I just purchased this beast and downloading now! Few questions about the download though... I only got 7Mbps speed at the moment, even when a speedtest gives me 30Mbps. Are the manual links faster for you guys? Or maybe there is just so much traffic at the moment? What is the difference between single and multi in the installer options? Can I manually download some of the parts and keep the installer running behind or will that mess the installing of the library?

Thanks all,

-Hannes


----------



## sdrff

I downloaded all but two links (because I forgot them) manually. Then I opened the installer and it just downloaded the two missing pieces and installed fine.

Not sure exactly what the multi option does, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to try it and uncheck it if it doesn't help. My guesses would be that it either uses multiple connections per piece or downloads multiple pieces at the same time, either way to increase download speed.


----------



## playz123

Hanu_H said:


> I just purchased this beast and downloading now! Few questions about the download though... I only got 7Mbps speed at the moment, even when a speedtest gives me 30Mbps. Are the manual links faster for you guys? Or maybe there is just so much traffic at the moment? What is the difference between single and multi in the installer options? Can I manually download some of the parts and keep the installer running behind or will that mess the installing of the library?
> 
> Thanks all,
> 
> -Hannes


My own download started out much higher, by about the third file, I too was averaging 7 Mbps for the remaining files. So perhaps some sort of throttling is going on with the servers. Manual links are often slower. If Connect is running smoothly, I'd just let it do it's thing. It was still running when I went to bed, so I just left it alone, and by morning everything was downloaded and installed, and all I had to do was run the little installer to place the data file. Long download (estimated 16 hours?), but all went well with no hitches. If it were me, I would not try to combine a manual DL with the Continuata one at the same time.


----------



## jacobthestupendous

Last week, my average speed was around 200Mbps but my connection is potentially about 5 times that fast. Maybe Amazon's servers are burdened by all the people who started their Christmas breaks early streaming 4K shows on their new TVs via Prime. Since I got the gigabit connection, I've noticed wild disparities in how fast different things upload and download, and sometimes the bottlenecks are tough to explain. MA1 was definitely the biggest download I've done, and gratefully it was one of the fastest.


----------



## benatural

Just wanted to say that I LOVE this library. Haven't dug too deeply yet but just playing around with it for a little while and I can tell this fills that fff gap in my collection perfectly. 

It compliments everything else I'm using so nicely, and it gives you fantastic results right out of the box. Very inspiring tool to work with. Thanks Orchestral Tools for thinking of making a library like this.


----------



## Revenant

Let me contribute with my Ark test-drive result:


----------



## Anthony N.Putson

Gents, i LOVE this OT release! I've got a track going using 99% this, but i've a few other sounds that i'd like to bed in. I have B2 and QL Spaces for audio. I've not hooked up yet but does anyone have said combo themselves that they've tinkered with?

Cheers
Anth


----------



## Gunvor

Revenant said:


> Let me contribute with my Ark test-drive result:



That was diverse and brilliant!


----------



## Rectobiasi

Hi all, here is a cover or midi mock up of E.M.A off of the great Attack On Titan anime soundtrack ! It has : 
- Strings 100% Metropolis Ark 1
- Brass 100% Metropolis Ark 1
- Percussions 60% Metrpolis Ark 1 and the rest is layering.


----------



## lucor

How well does ARK blend with the Berlin Series? Was the mic setup the same?
Also did you pay the same attention to preserving the natural balance like in the Berlin series?
Thanks!


----------



## zakufan

now the page says "Extended Intro Special ends on January, 31"
so it stays 399 for another month? Now I may really have to buy it


----------



## Wes Antczak

Just got the email from OT. It's a sign I'm tellin' ya. You're right... now you really have to buy it.


----------



## Lawson.

If any of you haven't bought this yet, go out and do it! I tell you, it's totally worth it!

To help convince you, I present a brand new off-the-press review from my colleague, Dale Crowley.


----------



## Andrajas

The extended intro price is about to end, and I'm thinking about getting this library. Is this the best price I will get on this product for a long time you think? thinking about my budget you know.. but the product seems to be amazing


----------



## prodigalson

Andrajas said:


> The extended intro price is about to end, and I'm thinking about getting this library. Is this the best price I will get on this product for a long time you think? thinking about my budget you know.. but the product seems to be amazing



To date, Orchestral Tools have never had a sale other than the intro prices so it's a safe bet.


----------



## Andrajas

prodigalson said:


> To date, Orchestral Tools have never had a sale other than the intro prices so it's a safe bet.


Great, thanks!


----------



## FriFlo

prodigalson said:


> To date, Orchestral Tools have never had a sale other than the intro prices so it's a safe bet.


Not quite right, but recently they didn't do any except the intro deals. There were a few dicounts, one at NAMM, if I remeber correctly. I would love some promo on the percussion, because I couldn't afford it when it was released.


----------



## prodigalson

FriFlo said:


> Not quite right, but recently they didn't do any except the intro deals.



really?? when was this? I've been following them since BWW and I don't recall any sales. I also just visited them at NAMM and didn't see any discounts..


----------



## FriFlo

prodigalson said:


> really?? when was this? I've been following them since BWW and I don't recall any sales. I also just visited them at NAMM and didn't see any discounts..


Not this Namm, but I recall there was a sale of BWW at some Namm or Messe. And there were some sales of OSR and Sphere. But basically you are right: in the last two years they did not do any discount except for the release specials. A smart move IMO, as people realize that these days the next better discount is maybe just a year away ... I support that and would not generally change that strategy, but maybe one sale per year would help a little to give people a second chance, who missed an intro deal. That being said, I totally prefer their way of doing it over e.g. East West, where you will be very disappointed buying their products early on.


----------



## Andrajas

Didn't realize the VAT on the product, which is 99 €. The product gets kinda expensive now. Which people here bought it with VAT and still think it was worth it?


----------



## PeterBaumann

I bought it with VAT, always an annoying thing about sample libraries, the price is so enticing then you forget there's another 20% or so on top of that. Definitely worth it, it's the most all round of all my libraries, although the legato transitions aren't great on the brass, don't think there's any portamento, but when combined with other libs (eg. Hollywood Strings) they sound fab. Vastly improved my more dramatic pieces where you want a soaring strings and powerful vibrato kinda style. Cimbassi are awesome too


----------



## Chris Hurst

without a shadow of a doubt, it is still worth it...if you are after that loud sound.


----------



## Andrajas

PeterBaumann said:


> I bought it with VAT, always an annoying thing about sample libraries, the price is so enticing then you forget there's another 20% or so on top of that. Definitely worth it, it's the most all round of all my libraries, although the legato transitions aren't great on the brass, don't think there's any portamento, but when combined with other libs (eg. Hollywood Strings) they sound fab. Vastly improved my more dramatic pieces where you want a soaring strings and powerful vibrato kinda style. Cimbassi are awesome too


Thanks for the reply! Yeah It sure is annoying hehe. 


exitsounds said:


> without a shadow of a doubt, it is still worth it...if you are after that loud sound.


Thanks, well yeah would love to have something for that louder sound. The VAT things still bothers me a little tho , damn VAT hehe. Don't have much time to decide, but it seems that I won't get a better price than this in near future.


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## Ryan99

It could be worse. I have no VAT to pay, but I pay in Canadian dollars...


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## Udo

Ryan99 said:


> It could be worse. I have no VAT to pay, but I pay in Canadian dollars...


Australian dollars are about as bad, if not worse at present .


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## Inceptic

Any word on whether there will be an Ark II (and its contents)?


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## AlexanderSchiborr

Inceptic said:


> Any word on whether there will be an Ark II (and its contents)?


No


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## Lawson.

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> No



There have been some words, actually, and it's "we're not sure yet."


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## playz123

Lawson. said:


> There have been some words, actually, and it's "we're not sure yet."


Yup....when Ark 1 was released, that question was asked a few times, and that was the answer. Some have speculated that logically it might be something softer and more 'intimate'. 
And re. the association of Ark and "loud", I've discovered one can also use some of the articulations in quieter sections of a composition as well. This library is actually more versatile than first thought.


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## jononotbono

It's the last day of the intro sale and I'm stoked my partner has just bought me the Ark 1 for a birthday gift! Can't bloody wait to try this beast out!


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## Phantasmal

I bought this 3 days ago and my download is still not finished. Continuata keeps crashing every now and then and it drives me mad! GAAH!


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## Gunvor

Phantasmal said:


> I bought this 3 days ago and my download is still not finished. Continuata keeps crashing every now and then and it drives me mad! GAAH!



Sorry to hear that, hope your continuata problems will be resolved shortly.
The product itself is just amazing. Very happy with my purchase sofar. =)


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## Phantasmal

Gunvor said:


> Sorry to hear that, hope your continuata problems will be resolved shortly.
> The product itself is just amazing. Very happy with my purchase sofar. =)



Yeah i cant wait to use it, It's like the most perfect product for my needs. Everything i want in one single package.

I have a question though. When the product is fully installed, how much space does it take? is it 160G or 75G?


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## lucor

Phantasmal said:


> I have a question though. When the product is fully installed, how much space does it take? is it 160G or 75G?



69.6G on my SSD.


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## ScoringFilm

I bought this 3 days ago and have still not received any communication/links!


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## jacobthestupendous

Phantasmal said:


> Yeah i cant wait to use it, It's like the most perfect product for my needs. Everything i want in one single package.
> 
> I have a question though. When the product is fully installed, how much space does it take? is it 160G or 75G?


Only a bit south of 75 once it's installed, but you'll need the full 160 available to install it. I only had 100 available on my sample SSD, so I had to install it on an external 1TB HDD, and copy the resulting files onto my sample drive.


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## Phantasmal

jacobthestupendous said:


> Only a bit south of 75 once it's installed, but you'll need the full 160 available to install it. I only had 100 available on my sample SSD, so I had to install it on an external 1TB HDD, and copy the resulting files onto my sample drive.



Yeah i had to delete tons of stuff from my SSD aswell. But i got it running now and i love it! Gorgeus sounds.

I threw together this short little demo just now.


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## Lawson.

Phantasmal said:


> I bought this 3 days ago and my download is still not finished. Continuata keeps crashing every now and then and it drives me mad! GAAH!



Try using an older version of Continuata. The newer versions have been super buggy for me. v3.17 is the most stable (on Windows 7 at least). Mac side is working fine, though.


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## playz123

ScoringFilm said:


> I bought this 3 days ago and have still not received any communication/links!


Definitely something wrong there, so perhaps send Tobias/Support a message? I know some of the team were at NAMM, but I doubt they are making customers wait 3 days for a reply to an order.


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## ScoringFilm

playz123 said:


> Definitely something wrong there, so perhaps send Tobias/Support a message? I know some of the team were at NAMM, but I doubt they are making customers wait 3 days for a reply to an order.


I have sent three emails, contacted the customer support and obviously this thread. I have not even had a confirmatory email (or reply) never mind links to Continuata!


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## lucor

ScoringFilm said:


> I have sent three emails, contacted the customer support and obviously this thread. I have not even had a confirmatory email (or reply) never mind links to Continuata!


Obvious question, but did you check your Spam folder? I usually get a reply by Tobias/their support within hours, many times even minutes, so this seems very odd.


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## playz123

ScoringFilm said:


> I have sent three emails, contacted the customer support and obviously this thread. I have not even had a confirmatory email (or reply) never mind links to Continuata!


Yup, as suggested something is definitely wrong there, and as lucor suggests, sounds as if replies aren't reaching you. I too have corresponded with Tobias frequently over the last few years, and replies are usually prompt. In addition, some of the ordering process appears to be automated, so if you aren't receiving messages, which I suspect were sent, further checking of things on your end may be required. Maybe your ISP is labelling the messages as spam and deleting them before they reach you??


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## ScoringFilm

playz123 said:


> Yup, as suggested something is definitely wrong there, and as lucor suggests, sounds as if replies aren't reaching you. I too have corresponded with Tobias frequently over the last few years, and replies are usually prompt. In addition, some of the ordering process appears to be automated, so if you aren't receiving messages, which I suspect were sent, further checking of things on your end may be required. Maybe your ISP is labelling the messages as spam and deleting them before they reach you??


I have checked, no spam, no blocking and still nothing from OT.


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## jacobthestupendous

ScoringFilm said:


> I have checked, no spam, no blocking and still nothing from OT.


Are you sure you were charged for it? Maybe the transaction didn't go through.


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## OT_Tobias

Hi!

Please send me a PM here with your full name and order number and I will chase this up for you.
I replied to a "link not received" email several times now but I do not know if this was you.

best

Tobias
OT Support

EDIT:
Just for full disclosure because there were a bunch of more or less angry emails.
I was out of office for two days because of surgery. During that time an autoresponder was in place saying that all emails would be answered ASAP. With the exception of three emails requiring extensive testing (which I hope you can understand I will do on Monday after recovering for a bit) I answered each and every email yesterday.

Our order process is indeed fully automated, so if an email does not arrive it is most likely blocked by the ISP or is in the spam folder.


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