# Metropolis Ark 4 | User Demo



## Alex Niedt (Dec 24, 2018)

I'm quite proud of this, as it's really far-removed from anything I would have made if I hadn't restricted myself to this amazing library.


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## Lionel Schmitt (Dec 24, 2018)

Very cool! Super interesting piece! 

MA4 seems to be more of a classical and somewhat experimental library than "epic". Love it! :D


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## MA-Simon (Dec 24, 2018)

Alex Niedt said:


> restricted


you meant to say "treated" 
Sounds really good! Love the short trills.


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## Land of Missing Parts (Dec 24, 2018)

Alex Niedt said:


> I'm quite proud of this, as it's really far-removed from anything I would have made if I hadn't restricted myself to this amazing library.



I like the punchiness and clarity of the sound. Very nice.


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## ProfoundSilence (Dec 24, 2018)

Awesome... I can't wait until January to get to toy with this...

I have a feeling BB muted exp + Ark 4 = neo-noir heaven!


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## Alex Niedt (Dec 26, 2018)

Thanks so much, everyone!



MA-Simon said:


> you meant to say "treated"
> Sounds really good! Love the short trills.


Ha! Very true. It is quite a treat. And yes, the short trills are really one of the standout features of this library, for me. Love them.



ProfoundSilence said:


> I have a feeling BB muted exp + Ark 4 = neo-noir heaven!


I don't have the Berlin stuff, but I'll have to check out a walkthrough of that expansion and take a listen.


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## jbuhler (Dec 26, 2018)

Alex Niedt said:


> Ha! Very true. It is quite a treat. And yes, the short trills are really one of the standout features of this library, for me. Love them.


Yes, these have been a nice revelation in the user demos posted. The strings and the overblown articulations are still the things that I find most attractive about this library.


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## Alex Niedt (Dec 31, 2018)

jbuhler said:


> Yes, these have been a nice revelation in the user demos posted. The strings and the overblown articulations are still the things that I find most attractive about this library.


The strings are definitely great, but it's hard for me to pick them over the other stuff just because I like everything so much. I actually really love the "Marimba Xylophone & Piano Multi", which is funny for me, because I'd never actually used marimba or xylophone in a piece before. I'd assumed that this type of layered instrument would have a small "sweet spot", but every octave just sounds exactly the way it should, in my opinion. Another great patch I haven't seen discussed yet is the "Tuned Toms and Timpani Multi". I particularly like the marcato martele, tremolo, and ricochet articulations. Speaking of which, I love all the ricochets throughout the library, from strings to percussion.


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## jbuhler (Dec 31, 2018)

Alex Niedt said:


> The strings are definitely great, but it's hard for me to pick them over the other stuff just because I like everything so much. I actually really love the "Marimba Xylophone & Piano Multi", which is funny for me, because I'd never actually used marimba or xylophone in a piece before. I'd assumed that this type of layered instrument would have a small "sweet spot", but every octave just sounds exactly the way it should, in my opinion. Another great patch I haven't seen discussed yet is the "Tuned Toms and Timpani Multi". I particularly like the marcato martele, tremolo, and ricochet articulations. Speaking of which, I love all the ricochets throughout the library, from strings to percussion.


Thanks for adding these observations. They are most helpful.


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## ag75 (Dec 31, 2018)

Alex Niedt said:


> I'm quite proud of this, as it's really far-removed from anything I would have made if I hadn't restricted myself to this amazing library.



This sounds fantastic! Love your writing. Such an original sound. Truly doesn't sound like any of the other libraries out there.


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## Zero&One (Jan 1, 2019)

Amazing work, totally captures the title of the song. Love the that ending


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## Akarin (Jan 1, 2019)

I was not really convinced by the official demos but yours definitely got my attention. Love it!


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## Alex Niedt (Jan 5, 2019)

Thank you all for the extremely kind comments! I bought Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit recently, and I'm excited to see how it compares and contrasts with Metropolis Ark 4 (since people seem to compare the two). I'll make a BHCT demo this month and see where that library takes me, musically. All I can say after a cursory glance is that the dryness will be fun, and the articulations definitely seem much more standard, not that that's necessarily bad, but I certainly LOVE the unorthodox articulations in Ark 4. Has anyone else played with both or combined the two?


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## jbuhler (Jan 5, 2019)

Alex Niedt said:


> Thank you all for the extremely kind comments! I bought Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit recently, and I'm excited to see how it compares and contrasts with Metropolis Ark 4 (since people seem to compare the two). I'll make a BHCT demo this month and see where that library takes me, musically. All I can say after a cursory glance is that the dryness will be fun, and the articulations definitely seem much more standard, not that that's necessarily bad, but I certainly LOVE the unorthodox articulations in Ark 4. Has anyone else played with both or combined the two?


I'm most curious to hear what you get out of BHCT as well as how well you can get it to combine with Ark 4.


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## Zero&One (Jan 5, 2019)

Alex Niedt said:


> Thank you all for the extremely kind comments! I bought Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit recently, and I'm excited to see how it compares and contrasts with Metropolis Ark 4 (since people seem to compare the two). I'll make a BHCT demo this month and see where that library takes me, musically. All I can say after a cursory glance is that the dryness will be fun, and the articulations definitely seem much more standard, not that that's necessarily bad, but I certainly LOVE the unorthodox articulations in Ark 4. Has anyone else played with both or combined the two?



Looking forward to that! Be very interesting to hear the crossover between those 2.
I'm going to have a go playing with BHCT and LCO this month, LCO has some crazy articulations.


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## jbuhler (Jan 5, 2019)

James H said:


> LCO has some crazy articulations


Yes, and I'm still getting my head around them, though I've had the library pretty much since it came out. I use the spectral scrubs and granular trem quite a lot as Evo like articulations, but there are so many interesting sounds in the library but I haven't yet figured out how to use them in a musically effective way.


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## Zero&One (Jan 5, 2019)

jbuhler said:


> Yes, and I'm still getting my head around them, though I've had the library pretty much since it came out. I use the spectral scrubs and granular trem quite a lot as Evo like articulations, but there are so many interesting sounds in the library but I haven't yet figured out how to use them in a musically effective way.



Yeah totally agree. I was playing with the Detuned Open - Irregular Trem and Granular to Normal Bass/Celli and I was getting some ideas. How musical they will become is another matter! I'm determined to get them in though.


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