# Released: ProjectSAM Symphobia Colours ANIMATOR



## ProjectSAM (Dec 11, 2013)

ProjectSAM is excited to announce SYMPHOBIA COLOURS: a brand-new library series that expands the world of SYMPHOBIA. Building on the SYMPHOBIA concept, SYMPHOBIA COLOURS brings you fresh sounds in smaller packages.

Two exciting new volumes mark the launch of this series.
This week: ANIMATOR. Next week: ORCHESTRATOR.

Laughing clarinets, jazzy staccatos, xylophone winks and trombone slides – SYMPHOBIA COLOURS: ANIMATOR is a library dedicated to all things funny. Instantly playable, ANIMATOR will become your go-to source when scoring cartoons, animated features, light games or sitcoms.

*Now available as a direct download for €175 / $235*

[Watch the trailer here]

[Listen to the first demos here]

[Visit product page here]







*LIBRARY SPECIFICATIONS*
- Aimed at cartoon, feature animation, light games and sitcoms
- Recorded arrangement: clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin, contrabass, piano, harp & percussion
- Instantly playable, pre-arranged articulations and effects
- Select solo articulations and effects
- 3 concert hall mic positions with real-time mixing
- Tempo-synced runs & phrases
- Free time-stretch control for majority of instruments
- Tempo sync for runs and phrases
- On-the-fly octave shifting (nudge instrument mapping left or right)
- Contains select material from Symphobia 3: Lumina
- 4 GB library pool (2 GB in compressed NCW format)
- 44.1 kHz 24 bit
- Kontakt 5.3 format
- License for Kontakt Player included
- Fast and easy download experience with ProjectSAM Downloader


----------



## dedersen (Dec 11, 2013)

Oh, this might fill a gab in the market quite nicely. I seem to remember numerous people craving the lighter side of orchestral effects. Interesting to see SAM going the route of smaller, cheaper libraries. I am anxious to see what else is coming...


----------



## korgscrew (Dec 11, 2013)

Im interested to see what the Orchestrator volume is!


----------



## stonzthro (Dec 11, 2013)

On my list for sure!


----------



## Giant_Shadow (Dec 11, 2013)

Carl Stalling, Raymond Scott, Spike Jones, Sir George Martin, etc. would all be proud.


----------



## dinerdog (Dec 11, 2013)

I'm thinking "instant fave". Watching (and enjoying Guys walkthrough now). Ha, he's funny. : >


----------



## germancomponist (Dec 11, 2013)

What a great idea doing this library! 

I hope it will invite composers to write more stuff in this style!

Congrats, PS!


----------



## Drakken (Dec 11, 2013)

Nice. Very eager to see exactly what Orchestrator is.


----------



## dedersen (Dec 11, 2013)

I think I caught Guy dropping a hint in his Animator walkthrough, mentioning it was dealing with "legato chords".


----------



## RiffWraith (Dec 11, 2013)

Cool idea! I watched the trailer, and within the first few sec., I thought this would be great for T&J type music.


----------



## handz (Dec 11, 2013)

Unexpected surprise, a lib that for sure has been missing!


----------



## Rob Elliott (Dec 11, 2013)

NEXT comedy/cartoon gig - I'll pick this up. Way to fill a niche (tough to do nowadays).


----------



## playz123 (Dec 11, 2013)

Congratulations to PS for releasing something interesting and unique. It's a library that would be fun to own, but I also know I don't really need it. For some folks though this may be exactly what they are looking for. Guy's walk-through is very informative, so that should help someone make a purchasing decision.


----------



## madbulk (Dec 11, 2013)

Is it all phrases and layers or can you get at the component instruments?


----------



## dcoscina (Dec 11, 2013)

I think there are some patches one can play. I love the concept of this library and the price is very attractive. However am I the only one who feels as though we are moving away from actually composing music and turning into a bunch of button pressers? I'm more interested in theOrchestrator in the hopes it's more open to paying rather than preset phrases. 

I love PS (own almost everything they've put out) and I hope this isn't raining on their parade. Admin, please feel free to delete this if I've crossed the line. I still have the highest respect for Maarten and his crew. Perhaps Guy could chime in here since he's played with it.


----------



## dinerdog (Dec 11, 2013)

Please give us a taste of ORCHESTRATOR and take my money. Can I make a suggestion too? Perhaps a Christmas sale of some kind if we buy both of them this month? :D


----------



## Guy Rowland (Dec 11, 2013)

There is quite a bit of playable stuff - my walkthrough pretty much covers what is and isn't. IMO they got the balance pretty much right here - the gaping void in the market were all those glisses, runs and wild artics that regular libs just can't pull off. It's pretty close to what I envisaged an old school toon library as being.


----------



## madbulk (Dec 11, 2013)

What's playable? And is that instrument folder the whole thing, Guy?


----------



## germancomponist (Dec 11, 2013)

dcoscina @ Wed Dec 11 said:


> I think there are some patches one can play. I love the concept of this library and the price is very attractive. However am I the only one who feels as though we are moving away from actually composing music and turning into a bunch of button pressers? I'm more interested in theOrchestrator in the hopes it's more open to paying rather than preset phrases.
> 
> I love PS (own almost everything they've put out) and I hope this isn't raining on their parade. Admin, please feel free to delete this if I've crossed the line. I still have the highest respect for Maarten and his crew. Perhaps Guy could chime in here since he's played with it.



You are not the only one but I will not repeat my thoughts on this theme again and again... . 
But this library has something very good, namely this cartoon music style. I love it and as I said, I hope it will invite composers to write in this style.


----------



## handz (Dec 11, 2013)

I dont care if there is more phrases - honestly these cartoonish stuff would be very hard to do as playable in all cases. Surprisingly there still was not any kind of this lib on market (was a good chance was some new small dev, now missed).


----------



## procreative (Dec 11, 2013)

Guy,

Much enjoy your video review style, just like I am trying it out myself. No fluff just auditioning everything!

Quick question, as you got a "review" copy of Lumina, can you confirm how much of this is new and how much is from Lumina. What does PS mean by "select"?

Just wondering as I actually have Lumina (yet to roadtest fully as had to get a new SSD and reorganise all my libraries to fit everything in!).


----------



## germancomponist (Dec 11, 2013)

handz @ Thu Dec 12 said:


> I dont care if there is more phrases - honestly these cartoonish stuff would be very hard to do as playable in all cases. Surprisingly there still was not any kind of this lib on market (was a good chance was some new small dev, now missed).



It's not about the loops per se, when I write about this topic. I fear that with such libraries, composing "in the head" could suffer and the young composers could think first:: "Let's see what I have on my hard drive." Composing should start in the head and not by experimenting with loops... . We will see how composers work in 20 years, if we do live as long. 

But again, I like this lib, too.


----------



## madbulk (Dec 11, 2013)

I don't care what young composers do or think, and I don't care if there are more phrase libraries. Not everything needs to be philosophical around here.

How many playable instruments are there in this.
Do I have to go back and watch Guy's video more carefully to figure this out?


----------



## Guy Rowland (Dec 11, 2013)

Brian - conventional playable stuff - off the top of my head there's the cartoon ensemble (stacs and marcato), double bass and wah trumpet. The PS website has a detailed breakdown of what's in what patch - http://www.projectsam.com/Products/Symp ... uctmenubar
.
Procreative - thanks. The patches that spring to mind already in Lumina are the two phrase patches, cartoon percussion, double bass glisses and (I think?) flea circus. That's not a definitive list, I'm away from base this week and head is a little fuzzy from over-work...


----------



## autopilot (Dec 11, 2013)

Cha-ching


----------



## reddognoyz (Dec 11, 2013)

Where can I find Guys walkthrough?


----------



## Guy Rowland (Dec 11, 2013)

reddognoyz @ Wed Dec 11 said:


> Where can I find Guys walkthrough?



Here you go, Stuart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOsPibfVyfg


----------



## madbulk (Dec 11, 2013)

Thanks Guy. And your walkthrough was terrific and fun and appreciated. I just didn't have eyes and ears on it this morning. Was happy just to have it playing in the background.


----------



## dpasdernick (Dec 11, 2013)

germancomponist @ Wed Dec 11 said:


> handz @ Thu Dec 12 said:
> 
> 
> > I dont care if there is more phrases - honestly these cartoonish stuff would be very hard to do as playable in all cases. Surprisingly there still was not any kind of this lib on market (was a good chance was some new small dev, now missed).
> ...



I agree with Gunther. It is a really cool library. It's amazing the sounds you can coax out of a real clarinet or a real trumpet. Samples just don't cut it for this type of music.

What is more concerning to me is the potential loss of the craft of writing music like this. Since our conventional virtual instruments can't produce these sounds we have to sample loops and phrases to capture this magic. While this product fills a void the only way to get this type of sound (which I think a lot of us treasure) is to have the chops to write like this and afford a real orchestra who can bend their clarinets etc on an epic scale or...use this library. So most of us have to do the latter based on budgets and we'll all have the same articulations. Yes this is niche, yes you can get close to some of the bits with VSL or what have you. I just hope the Tom And Jerry/Mickey Mousing craft doesn't get reduced to a single finger on an IPAD because when I really listen to that "cartoon" music I am dumbfounded on how those dudes kept all of that in their heads. Sheer brilliance.

With all this said, Kudos to the Project Sam geniuses for filling a void that no one has done. Top shelf as always and a great price to boot.


----------



## voxhumana (Dec 12, 2013)

I didn't ponder the philosophical implications - I just bought it within 30 seconds of hearing the demo.

I've already used it on a job today - it was perfect. 

You can argue about the "loss of craft", but I'm not getting paid enough to be able to take the time to write beautiful orchestral cues for a kid's TV show. Today I've produced great cues in a fraction of the time, and have come out ahead on the time vs income scale.

Meanwhile the kids will hear orchestral cues on a show - something they probably haven't heard much since the 1960s.


----------



## germancomponist (Dec 12, 2013)

voxhumana @ Thu Dec 12 said:


> Meanwhile the kids will hear orchestral cues on a show - something they probably haven't heard much since the 1960s.



Exactly what I think. The reason why I give PS a big *+* for doing this library.


----------



## musicformedia (Dec 12, 2013)

Awesome price I have to say. Just picked it up based on the price and a quick listen to the demos. Writing some quirky music today and can't wait to give it a go


----------



## MichaelL (Dec 12, 2013)

dpasdernick @ Wed Dec 11 said:


> I just hope the Tom And Jerry/Mickey Mousing craft doesn't get reduced to a single finger on an IPAD because when I really listen to that "cartoon" music I am dumbfounded on how those dudes kept all of that in their heads. Sheer brilliance.



I used to worry about this kind of thing. But the fact is that the master painter and the person who paints by numbers use the same tubes of paint.

Merely having good sounds will neither impart "sheer brilliance," nor turn an amateur into a pro.


----------



## dcoscina (Dec 12, 2013)

MichaelL @ Thu Dec 12 said:


> dpasdernick @ Wed Dec 11 said:
> 
> 
> > I just hope the Tom And Jerry/Mickey Mousing craft doesn't get reduced to a single finger on an IPAD because when I really listen to that "cartoon" music I am dumbfounded on how those dudes kept all of that in their heads. Sheer brilliance.
> ...



Very true

=o


----------



## voxhumana (Dec 14, 2013)

I've had this for four days and am still loving it. 

One of the best features is the educational aspect - I'm pretty sure we never covered "cartoon orchestration" at the conservatorium. There are so many amazing ideas in this package.


----------



## Treppenwitz (Dec 14, 2013)

voxhumana @ Thu Dec 12 said:


> Meanwhile the kids will hear orchestral cues on a show - something they probably haven't heard much since the 1960s.



There are still a few guys writing orchestral music for cartoons: Alf Clausen, Bruce Broughton, Walter Murphy, Ron Jones (who regularly uses a 70 pc orchestra) come to mind. And lots more using live players such as the SpongeBob guys. Thank god there are still guys like Ron around to promote the art of orchestration for film & TV. If you are in LA, come check out his Academy of Scoring Arts sometime.


----------



## MacQ (Dec 14, 2013)

I work on an animated show and we do a lot of orchestral stuff. Mickey-mousing is back -- a show I just filled out cue-sheets for had 60 cue starts in 11 minutes. Average cue length: 4 seconds.

Xylophone scales FTW!

~Stu


----------



## Stephen Rees (Dec 15, 2013)

Treppenwitz @ Sun Dec 15 said:


> voxhumana @ Thu Dec 12 said:
> 
> 
> > Meanwhile the kids will hear orchestral cues on a show - something they probably haven't heard much since the 1960s.
> ...



Talking of Bruce Broughton, I wonder why he hasn't been asked to score more big feature films? His early scores for Silverado, Tombstone and Young Sherlock Holmes are brilliant.


----------



## voxhumana (Dec 16, 2013)

Ah well, I envy the budgets those guys have access to. In my sad little world a four-digit music budget is a luxury


----------



## organix (Dec 17, 2013)

Isn't that the same to the Cartoon stories in Lumina? Sounds very similar.

-Markus


----------



## The Darris (Dec 17, 2013)

organix @ Tue Dec 17 said:


> Isn't that the same to the Cartoon stories in Lumina? Sounds very similar.
> 
> -Markus



It is and it isn't. Users of Lumina get a special loyalty discount as some of Animator's content is from Lumina. However, they have expanded on this content from Lumina into a whole new library.


----------



## voxhumana (Dec 18, 2013)

I'm sure they will post it here at some point, but Orchestrator is out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMTZncyfr4c


----------

