# ProjectSAM S4:Pandora



## Hanu_H (Jul 11, 2019)

New Symphobia is on it's way! Sounds pretty good to my ears.


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## reutunes (Jul 11, 2019)

Lovely stuff. To me it sounds like recorded tempo-synced phrases, looking at how the MIDI is written - but happy to be proved wrong.


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## Zee (Jul 11, 2019)

reutunes said:


> recorded tempo-synced phrases


To me it's more of a recorded repetitions with lots of RRs


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## constaneum (Jul 11, 2019)

Expansion....I was hoping a new product line.


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## reutunes (Jul 11, 2019)

Zee said:


> To me it's more of a recorded repetitions with lots of RRs



That's what I meant really


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## VinRice (Jul 11, 2019)

Seems to be on more of a 20th Century Modern tip rather than the Hollywood Romantic of previous Symphobias


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## GingerMaestro (Jul 11, 2019)

Or perhaps a Metropolis Ark Type of thing ? Sounds Fun !


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## Mike Fox (Jul 11, 2019)

Sounds REALLY good!


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## stonzthro (Jul 11, 2019)

ProjectSAM - instabuy!


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## MrCambiata (Jul 11, 2019)

Sounds great. Must be patient until October...


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## jamwerks (Jul 11, 2019)

Cool !


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## GtrString (Jul 11, 2019)

Sounds also a bit jazzy..


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## Hanu_H (Jul 11, 2019)

Yeah, it sounds like Project Sams take on Action Strings type library, but with full orchestra. There also seems to be some recorded glissandos for harp, effects for strings and tutti, timpani hits, cymbals, etc. Maybe there is no melodic instruments and it's all about the rhythm?


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## zimm83 (Sep 14, 2019)

Any news?. Planned for October....three week?....


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## laurikoivisto (Oct 5, 2019)

Developers should do more marketing before release. Spitfire is awesome with that and getting the hype so they're the only ones who get threads with hundreds of pages in VI before the release.


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## Olfirf (Oct 6, 2019)

laurikoivisto said:


> Developers should do more marketing before release. Spitfire is awesome with that and getting the hype so they're the only ones who get threads with hundreds of pages in VI before the release.



You really whish that?  Not for me please!


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## laurikoivisto (Oct 6, 2019)

haha, i'm not wishing that or saying the hype is always worth it but instead saying that developers should publish videos/walkthroughs before the release. Audiobro released their brass library last spring and published appr. 1 instrument video per week after the release. Consumers would've wanted to hear all the instruments and all that before buying the library.

ps. I don't own any spitfire libraries.


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## Mike Fox (Oct 6, 2019)

Having difficulty resisting some of the pre BF sales. 

Must stay focused on P4!!!


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## Drago (Oct 7, 2019)

Monday 11 novembre 2019


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## laurikoivisto (Oct 8, 2019)

Drago said:


> Monday 11 novembre 2019



where did you get that?


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## Drago (Oct 8, 2019)

In the commercial email from project Sam announcing the price reduction of symphobia series.


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## Drago (Oct 8, 2019)

Here the news part on pandora:



> *S4Pandora to be released November 11th*
> S4Pandora, our most ambitious and elaborate orchestral project yet, has an official release date: Monday November 11th. We’re still working very hard on refinements and tweaks, but we're ready to make some noise very soon!


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## ScoreFace (Oct 8, 2019)

I can't wait for this one - the demo in the teaser sounds fantastic and promising!


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## zimm83 (Oct 8, 2019)

ScoreFace said:


> I can't wait for this one - the demo in the teaser sounds fantastic and promising!


Yes but nothing new....We all have those sounds....S1-2-3 have the same sounds i hear....
Maybe something new and unique....Hoping...
They should give us more infos. The release is in one month....come on ProjectSam.... What is so elaborated on this one ???


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## Drago (Oct 8, 2019)

I hope they will upgrade S1-S3 with new content too. 1.7 perhaps.


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## laurikoivisto (Oct 8, 2019)

Drago said:


> I hope they will upgrade S1-S3 with new content too. 1.7 perhaps.



what changes would you like to see?


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## jneebz (Oct 8, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Yes but nothing new....We all have those sounds....S1-2-3 have the same sounds i hear....


This. Exactly what I thought when I heard the S4 demo.


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## Mike Fox (Oct 8, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Yes but nothing new....We all have those sounds....S1-2-3 have the same sounds i hear....
> Maybe something new and unique....Hoping...
> They should give us more infos. The release is in one month....come on ProjectSam.... What is so elaborated on this one ???


The samples in the demo video sound much more realistic to me than previous offerings, and based on SAM's track record, each Symphobia has been dramatically different from eachother and has offered something entirely new, so here's to hoping!

I would definitely like to see/hear more though!


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## Rob Elliott (Oct 8, 2019)

Not a lot of melodic multisample stuff in the teaser but of course we have plenty of tools to cover those bases. While I never reach for Project Sam on smaller or legato based needs - they are one of the best for capturing that big pristine sound - full of life. Looking forward to the walk-thru. (there 'swing' and 'animator' libraries have saved my butt so many times. Using the latter today - bringing a smile to my face of how WELL it does.)


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## AndyP (Oct 8, 2019)

Drago said:


> Here the news part on pandora:


4 days after the pre sale price of BBCSO expires.


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## brenneisen (Oct 8, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> The samples in the demo video sound much more realistic to me than previous offerings



obviously, since those are recorded phrases


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## Mike Fox (Oct 8, 2019)

brenneisen said:


> obviously, since those are recorded phrases


It does sound like playable phrases going on, similar to Ark 3. I would actually love something like that from SAM.


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## robgb (Oct 8, 2019)

laurikoivisto said:


> Developers should do more marketing before release. Spitfire is awesome with that and getting the hype so they're the only ones who get threads with hundreds of pages in VI before the release.


Personally, I think Spitfire carries it too far. That whole "game-changing" tease leading up to the BBC Orchestra only to find out it was yet another full symphonic library was, to my mind at least, more of a masturbatory exercise than anything else. Just present demos, get people pumped up by the SOUND, not the "mystery." Yes, it worked. But eventually it'll backfire.


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## laurikoivisto (Oct 8, 2019)

yeah maybe "awesome" was a wrong word. What I meant was that they're ahead of every other developer when you think of marketing.


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## Hanu_H (Oct 8, 2019)

Drago said:


> In the commercial email from project Sam announcing the price reduction of symphobia series.


Those new prices are really good. 199€ for Orchestral Essentials and 299€ for S1 and S2.


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## zimm83 (Oct 9, 2019)

brenneisen said:


> obviously, since those are recorded phrases


Are you sure it's a phrase based lib ? Where did you read that? Thanks.


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## laurikoivisto (Oct 9, 2019)

all the symphobias have phrases


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## Drago (Oct 9, 2019)

laurikoivisto said:


> all the symphobias have phrases


There are some phrases on symphobia libraries like 1 percent of the content.


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## Ruffian Price (Oct 9, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Are you sure it's a phrase based lib ? Where did you read that? Thanks.


Look closer at the MIDI blocks in the video. It's all prerecorded ostinatos played with long single notes.


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## AndyP (Oct 9, 2019)

If there are only phrases, then it depends very much on the variability and the selection. Sometimes I find the use of phrases or loops ok, but in the long run I find it a limitation.
A reason that kept me from buying a Sonokinetic stuff.


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## Drago (Oct 9, 2019)

Ruffian Price said:


> Look closer at the MIDI blocks in the video. It's all prerecorded ostinatos played with long single notes.



How can you tell, it's so zoomed out in the daw it could be a lot of different notes but the track preview will put them together.

You can't affirm anything yet, we can only speculate, we'll have to wait for more info but you could be right


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## sostenuto (Oct 9, 2019)

AndyP said:


> If there are only phrases, then it depends very much on the variability and the selection. Sometimes I find the use of phrases or loops ok, but in the long run I find it a limitation.
> A reason that kept me from buying a Sonokinetic stuff.



 ...... Sonokinetic ------ Have almost all !!


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## zimm83 (Oct 9, 2019)

I think you are right. It could be a phrase based library. They said it is their most elaborated project. So it could be a new way of using phrases.....
Or not.....
Hoping for something new and surprising.....
But PROJECTSAM give us some infos please.... Only one moth to go.......


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## AndyP (Oct 9, 2019)

sostenuto said:


> ...... Sonokinetic ------ Have almost all !!


Don't you use it, or do you use this library a lot?

Every now and then I find phrases quite practical, but I find it easiest to use percussion phrases.
Ostinatos ... you can build it yourself relatively quickly.

What I find decisive is how variable you can use these phrases. How many variations of these phrases are there when phrases repeat too often ... then you quickly notice that they are phrases.

Midiexport is a must if they are phrases!

Edith says:
What I have noticed so far with the Symphobias is that I use the phrases there very rarely or not at all. Most of the time I have a basic framework and then they don't necessarily fit in, especially as they haven't been timesynced.


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## Drago (Oct 9, 2019)

Ok, I just asked them directly on facebook if it was a phrase library , here their answer:


> Elements of it, yes, but S4Pandora can do much more!


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## brenneisen (Oct 9, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Are you sure it's a phrase based lib ? Where did you read that? Thanks.



I didn't say it's a phrase-based lib, I'm talking about what is seen on the video only.

It could have phrases AND multi-samples, we shall see


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## sostenuto (Oct 9, 2019)

AndyP said:


> Don't you use it, or do you use this library a lot?
> 
> Every now and then I find phrases quite practical, but I find it easiest to use percussion phrases.
> Ostinatos ... you can build it yourself relatively quickly.
> ...




THX! No worries at this point, and so much content that I can have much variation to access /use. 
Just noted your post and reacted. Usage is modest .....


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## zimm83 (Oct 22, 2019)

S4 : Adaptative Orchestral transitions and effects.......

What the hell is this ????????


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## AndyP (Oct 22, 2019)

sostenuto said:


> THX! No worries at this point, and so much content that I can have much variation to access /use.
> Just noted your post and reacted. Usage is modest .....


I'm interested in Vivace, but I don't think that has any midi export function. Otherwise I find Minimal still quite interesting.
I don't remember which Sonokinetic version had such a run builder, I'd be interested in that too.

If Pandora has useful phrases as well as the individual instruments, it is interesting.


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## Mike Fox (Oct 22, 2019)

Can never have too many orchestral fx from my favorite developer!!!


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## Jeremy Spencer (Oct 22, 2019)

AndyP said:


> I'm interested in Vivace, but I don't think that has any midi export function.



Correct, it's just tempo-sync'd phrases.

Minimal and Capriccio have saved my ass countless times.


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## Blackster (Oct 22, 2019)

The sound is absolutely great, like in all of the Project SAM products IMO. 

And phrases can really be inspiring and save some time, however, very often I see myself being limited by phrases and therefore, I tend to avoid them. But to hell, if it sounds good, use them! :D ...


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## zolhof (Oct 23, 2019)

I was just now watching the Lakers vs Clippers game and during the commercial break there was a Progressive Insurance ad that was heavily based on Lumina. Check it out:



The main motif is from a patch called Witch's Cottage. It's no coincidence that ProjectSAM is everywhere even after all those years, their stuff sounds great out of the box, zero effort, easy money.

Pandora will be no different and whoever gets it will be in inspiration heaven.


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## Phil Harmony (Oct 23, 2019)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Correct, it's just tempo-sync'd phrases.
> 
> Minimal and Capriccio have saved my ass countless times.



I have Minimal and I think it is brilliant - you can just enhance the live feeling of any chord-progression based music track. The only downside is that they offer only pure minor and major chords...but the sound, simply wonderful!


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## Mike Fox (Oct 24, 2019)

"Adaptive Sync"

Would love to see a video demonstration.


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## Mike Fox (Oct 28, 2019)

SAM dropped another clue on their website. While i appreciate them not hyping up S4, i would certainly love to hear some more of the library!


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## prodigalson (Oct 28, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> SAM dropped another clue on their website. While i appreciate them not hyping up S4, i would certainly love to hear some more of the library!



whats the clue?


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## Mike Fox (Oct 28, 2019)

prodigalson said:


> whats the clue?


I guess it's not really a "clue", but rather a tidbit of info regarding the nature of the library. "Cluster Pulses".


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## ScoreFace (Oct 29, 2019)

Well, Cluster pulses sounds great to me, yet I'm still waiting for more info...


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## zimm83 (Oct 30, 2019)

Man.....12 days countdown......And no infos .........cluster pulses.....Time synched transitions........
That's all ?......
No buzz? No trailer ?....
No gui picture???
Make use dream. Please...


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## Mike Fox (Oct 30, 2019)

Risers that are 15 seconds long?! AWESOME!


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## Mike Fox (Oct 30, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Man.....12 days countdown......And no infos .........cluster pulses.....Time synched transitions........
> That's all ?......
> No buzz? No trailer ?....
> No gui picture???
> Make use dream. Please...


It's the anti Spitfire way of marketing.


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## laurikoivisto (Oct 30, 2019)

in case someone has missed this https://projectsam.com/s4pandora-news/


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## zimm83 (Oct 30, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> It's the anti Spitfire way of marketing.


Yes....... really....


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## Mike Fox (Oct 31, 2019)

What do you guys predict Pandora will cost? More or less than Lumina?


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## AndyP (Oct 31, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> What do you guys predict Pandora will cost? More or less than Lumina?


Real or intro? I think it's gonna go somewhere with Lumina. However, I hope for the reduced price of the current Symphobias as intro. In this case I would probably be on the trigger without further walkthroughs.


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## Mike Fox (Oct 31, 2019)

AndyP said:


> Real or intro? I think it's gonna go somewhere with Lumina. However, I hope for the reduced price of the current Symphobias as intro. In this case I would probably be on the trigger without further walkthroughs.


Both!


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## Wally Garten (Oct 31, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Man.....12 days countdown......And no infos .........cluster pulses.....Time synched transitions........
> That's all ?......
> No buzz? No trailer ?....
> No gui picture???
> Make use dream. Please...



There should at least be a close-up picture of a microphone.


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## zimm83 (Nov 3, 2019)

8 days ..............???


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## brenneisen (Nov 3, 2019)




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## zimm83 (Nov 4, 2019)

Next ???


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## davidson (Nov 5, 2019)




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## GingerMaestro (Nov 5, 2019)

I love Project Sam stuff. It's so useful and easy to use, sounding great out of the box. They are really good at what they do, which is exactly this ! I just wish we had more demos already as I'm so excited to hear more. Kind of opposite of Spitfire's marketing, but torture waiting for this to launch !


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## ScoreFace (Nov 5, 2019)

Yeah, get us some Sacre grooves! I love it!


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## AndyP (Nov 6, 2019)

More, I need more input ... MORE ... much M O R E ...
MORE
NOW


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## Drago (Nov 6, 2019)

AndyP said:


> More, I need more input ... MORE ... much M O R E ...


Yes, what are the new instruments ?


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## zimm83 (Nov 6, 2019)

New instruments ? Transitions and effects......don't think there will be new instruments.....


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## Drago (Nov 6, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> New instruments ? Transitions and effects......don't think there will be new instruments.....


but I want some ... maybe you're right


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## Mike Fox (Nov 6, 2019)

Drago said:


> but I want some ... maybe you're right


I agree. I was hoping for some new instruments, especially since every Symphobia has had them.


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## laurikoivisto (Nov 6, 2019)

It would be really weird if it didn't have any instruments.


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## Ashermusic (Nov 6, 2019)

I will say this: although the only Project Sam library I still own is True Strike, I don't ever remember hearing one of their libraries that I didn't think sounded really good.


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## Mike Fox (Nov 6, 2019)

laurikoivisto said:


> It would be really weird if it didn't have any instruments.


True, but I haven't seen any mention of it yet.


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## Mike Fox (Nov 6, 2019)

Ashermusic said:


> I will say this: although the only Project Sam library I still own is True Strike, I don't ever remember hearing one of their libraries that I didn't think sounded really good.


Easily one of their best!


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## laurikoivisto (Nov 6, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> True, but I haven't seen any mention of it yet.



yeah but we only know the few things they put on their website.


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## Mike Fox (Nov 6, 2019)

laurikoivisto said:


> yeah but we only know the few things they put on their website.


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## laurikoivisto (Nov 7, 2019)

this was just published. 

btw, I noticed in the first videos description it said the trailer contained "30 tracks of exclusively S4andora sounds".

So it seems it's more modern Symphobia with those tempo-synced builders.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Nov 7, 2019)

Reminds me of Rise & Hit.


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## Mike Fox (Nov 7, 2019)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Reminds me of Rise & Hit.


My thoughts exactly.


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## Sopranos (Nov 7, 2019)

Not sure if I'm hearing anything new here. Is it an FX library only?


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## jcrosby (Nov 7, 2019)

Sopranos said:


> Not sure if I'm hearing anything new here. Is it an FX library only?


Obviously no way to know, but would be very surprised for SAM to limit themselves a to just an FX library... we’ll know soon enough!


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 8, 2019)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Reminds me of Rise & Hit.



That was my first thought too, but actually its considerably more advanced, isn't it? Aside from R&H being mostly hybrid, this advances the idea to calculate to a downbeat on the fly, not in fixed lengths. Must be some incredibly complicated stuff going on under the hood.

I may have more to say about all of this in a few days...


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## jamwerks (Nov 8, 2019)

Pretty sure Cinesamples String runs did the same "calculate to next downbeat" thing, but don't own it.


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## Henu (Nov 8, 2019)

Does.


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## ScoreFace (Nov 8, 2019)

This video was not as convincing as the previous ones. Nice addition to get time-synced rises, but not reason enough to buy. Waiting for further reveal videos


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## davidson (Nov 8, 2019)

I don't know, it doesn't feel like a symphobia library to me. By the look of the early graphics, I was expecting (hoping for) a sci-fi focused ensemble library, like they did with the fantasy styled S3.

Still, it looks like a useful tool for what it is.


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## AndyP (Nov 8, 2019)

So far I find only the Cluster Builder really interesting. Not that the other features are unnecessary, but that's not a real incentive to buy Pandora. I hope there will be something else and that the price will be reasonable.


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## Michael Antrum (Nov 8, 2019)

Guy Rowland said:


> That was my first thought too, but actually its considerably more advanced, isn't it? Aside from R&H being mostly hybrid, this advances the idea to calculate to a downbeat on the fly, not in fixed lengths. Must be some incredibly complicated stuff going on under the hood.
> 
> I may have more to say about all of this in a few days...



I shall await your future comments with baited breath.....


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## jamwerks (Nov 8, 2019)

Guy Rowland said:


> I may have more to say about all of this in a few days...


Don't be shy!


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## reimerpdx (Nov 8, 2019)

So far, I really like what I'm hearing. The quality of the samples, and the timing wizardry is super handy. Price is what you pay, and value is what you get. This could make a few things easier for me on gigs, so it could be worth it, as I'm assuming there will be more once S4 is released.
Looking forward to the reveal!


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## Mike Fox (Nov 8, 2019)

davidson said:


> I don't know, it doesn't feel like a symphobia library to me.



I was gonna say the same, but I'll hold off until the final release. If it's just an fx library, it will stand out from the rest of the Symphobia series, as they all have high quality playable instruments.

Time will tell.


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## zimm83 (Nov 8, 2019)

Nothing new.....


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## jamwerks (Nov 8, 2019)

On the first trailer from a few months back, they constructed a whole short cue with Pandora. IIRC there were lots of ostinati also, so don't think it's just FX/Risers


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## laurikoivisto (Nov 8, 2019)

PRESET LIST



https://projectsam-public.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Files/S4Pandora+Preset+List+1.0.5.pdf


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## Mike Fox (Nov 8, 2019)

laurikoivisto said:


> PRESET LIST
> 
> 
> 
> https://projectsam-public.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Files/S4Pandora+Preset+List+1.0.5.pdf


Can't wait to hear the timpani. The one in TS is amongst my favorites.


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## bryla (Nov 8, 2019)

Can't wait for Guy walking through the presets


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## Zee (Nov 8, 2019)

Judging by the patch list alone i think this is supposed to be the equivalent of OT Time Macro And M Ark3 which seems great and playable, might not be what everyone wanted it to to be but personally i'm all up for ProjectSam's take on that type of "FX". it'll be a lot more playable than other similar releases


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## Mike Fox (Nov 8, 2019)

bryla said:


> Can't wait for Guy walking through the presets


I agree! Guy Rowland kills it every time! Easily my favorite reviewer.


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## Mike Fox (Nov 8, 2019)

Guy Rowland said:


> I may have more to say about all of this in a few days...


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## brenneisen (Nov 9, 2019)




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## Mike Fox (Nov 9, 2019)

brenneisen said:


>



That brass...damn!


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## zimm83 (Nov 9, 2019)

Will pass....too bad...already having all this stuff covered by the Ark series...
But anyway Great sounding.


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## Virtuoso (Nov 11, 2019)

It's out! $559 introductory price...









Symphobia 4: Pandora - ProjectSAM


Give your action, sci-fi, and horror scores a blockbuster boost with the fourth volume in ProjectSAM's acclaimed Symphobia Series. Symphobia 4: Pandora lets you summon rousing cinematic risers, foreboding falls, and earth-shattering crescendos with unmatched ease and flexibility. Download-only




projectsam.com


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 11, 2019)

And here's a playlist of 4 videos which go through everything. Part 1 is a short 12 minute intro that goes through a single patch of each section.


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## Eric G (Nov 11, 2019)

Bought waiting for download


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## Drago (Nov 11, 2019)

Thank god my november salary is coming before the end of the intro price.


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## Eric G (Nov 11, 2019)

Downloading now via Native Access. 70 GB.


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## Waywyn (Nov 11, 2019)

Hey everyone,

you can check out a full 1:30 hours exploring video. I will go through most of the patches and Pandora's functions!


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## Mike Fox (Nov 11, 2019)

This library sounds fantastic! Clearly MUCH more than just another fx lib.


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## Virtuoso (Nov 11, 2019)

The timing of this release is very fortunate. I have a video airing tomorrow that this is PERFECT for. I will be spending the day rescoring it!

Downloaded in 20 minutes - kudos for having fast servers!


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## Craig Sharmat (Nov 11, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Will pass....too bad...already having all this stuff covered by the Ark series...
> But anyway Great sounding.



While I believe you can write similar cues with the Ark series, this implementation is nothing like the Ark series, and while there is some overlap there is a lot that each of them do that the other does not.


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## VinRice (Nov 11, 2019)

This looks really rather excellent. Like Albion IV in a useable interface.


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## Drumdude2112 (Nov 11, 2019)

Oh MAN that sounds good....do I blow a chunk of my BF Budget on this ?
(Then again I really had no ‘pre-set spending Limit lol ) , this library seems to do a helluva lot and have tons of content .


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## Mike Fox (Nov 11, 2019)

Craig Sharmat said:


> While I believe you can write similar cues with the Ark series, this implementation is nothing like the Ark series, and while there is some overlap there is a lot that each of them do that the other does not.


While both Pandora and Ark 3 contain playable phrases (if you will), i actually like SAM's approach a lot more.

Having those accents in the same patch really gives it an edge.

Pandora seems to offer more useable options than Ark 3, which is pretty straight forward, if i remember correctly.

Pandora's interface seems really useable and practical as well. 

Regardless, I'm not seeing too much overlap between the two libraries.


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## reutunes (Nov 11, 2019)

I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out the similarities to Red Room Audio's Orchestral FX - especially the FX Builder patch. Granted, they don't have the timing functionality of Pandora or some of the more melodic stuff, but they do feature effects that are matched across multiple orchestral sections so you can build up layers.


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## AndyP (Nov 11, 2019)

Sounds very good, great features, great interface. But I have many similar sounds, even if not in one tool. The Arks, the previous Symphobias, Cage and Case, partly TOC and many others offer similar sounds. I wait until Pandora goes on sale, at the moment I don't have the need. 

But if you don't have anything in this area yet, you'll get a top tool! The Sync features are already a big plus.


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## Craig Sharmat (Nov 11, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> While both Pandora and Ark 3 contain playable phrases (if you will), i actually like SAM's approach a lot more.
> 
> Having those accents in the same patch really gives it an edge.
> 
> ...



I agree, not seeing much overlap, also the sound design area looks killer.


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## davidson (Nov 11, 2019)

Rather niche, but looks well executed. Personally I'm a little disappointed as I was _hoping_ we'd also get refreshed symphobia 1, 2, and 3 updates to keep inline with S4.


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## Quasar (Nov 11, 2019)

VinRice said:


> This looks really rather excellent. Like Albion IV in a useable interface.


Interesting, as I have Uist and adore everything about it except that it defies any attempt to organize, sort or categorize content for easy access (for me at least). 

I've essentially lost all interest in seeking out and acquiring VIs/libraries, as I have so much more than enough, but your comment inspires me to at least take a look-see, or "look-hear" or whatever.


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## Raphioli (Nov 11, 2019)

The Adaptive Sync feature looks really nice.
Looks more intuitive than a simple tempo sync patch.
Wish Ark3 had that feature.


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## Eptesicus (Nov 11, 2019)

Great concept and would be really useful. 

Bit steep price wise though for me.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Nov 11, 2019)

Eptesicus said:


> Great concept and would be really useful.
> 
> Bit steep price wise though for me.



Yeah, seems a bit steep for what it is.


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## BezO (Nov 11, 2019)

I like the sound of this, though some overlap with my current libs may keep me away. And yeah, a bit expensive, though it seems to combine a few concepts from other individual libs.

I checked the manual and don't see anything regarding output routing. Can anyone tell me if it's possible to route each "multi" to individual outputs?


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## Craig Sharmat (Nov 11, 2019)

Raphioli said:


> The Adaptive Sync feature looks really nice.
> Looks more intuitive than a simple tempo sync patch.
> Wish Ark3 had that feature.



Of course Ark 3 can sync and has an intelligent sync feature. Also vast amounts of playable articulations in Ark 3 are great. Both these libraries are excellent tools. I think Pandora sounds great but there is something sooo organic about Ark 3 (not to derail the conversation). As mentioned earlier I love the SDesign stuff and that may put me over the top getting Pandora.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 11, 2019)

BezO said:


> I checked the manual and don't see anything regarding output routing. Can anyone tell me if it's possible to route each "multi" to individual outputs?



At the moment there's no way to do that that I can see. But PS did say to me that a more fully featured mixer is definitely on their to-do list, if we're lucky it might come as soon as 1.1, which they're hopeful will be out relatively quickly. If each mic position has access to Kontakt's outs, then routing a whole Combo will be possible. As it is, the mixer is currently a weak link.


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## charlieclouser (Nov 11, 2019)

Did anyone who already owns every other ProjectSAM product get any "loyalty code" or anything that reduces the price even further? I didn't, but I'm just checking before I click the button....


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## bvaughn0402 (Nov 11, 2019)

charlieclouser said:


> Did anyone who already owns every other ProjectSAM product get any "loyalty code" or anything that reduces the price even further? I didn't, but I'm just checking before I click the button....



I got a discount from Native today (I think). (By the way, thanks for your message, I'm still processing it all ...)


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## chocobitz825 (Nov 11, 2019)

Hmmm the native instruments site lists the pandora price in Japanese yen for me at 95,900 yen or about €796 with a sales price of €663

something seems a bit off there


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## charlieclouser (Nov 11, 2019)

Yeah, the price on the NI site is $593 but the price on the ProjectSAM site is $559 (until the end of November) but I didn't want to accidentally buy at that price if Symphobia 1+2 owners get another $100 off or whatever.

I'm currently waiting for the ProjectSAM guys to get my ancient, boxed Symphobia 1+2 products showing up in my account on their site, so if there's a loyalty discount I won't see it until that support ticket is resolved - and my "buy it now" finger is getting itchy!


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## Raphioli (Nov 11, 2019)

Craig Sharmat said:


> Of course Ark 3 can sync and has an intelligent sync feature.



Yes, but I felt the Adaptive Sync feature was more advanced.
I think it was Alex Pfeffer's video review which explained this function well.

Maybe OT could add a similar feature like that to their new sampler and port their Ark series.

(edit: btw, I'm not downplaying the library. I own Ark3 and love it as well)


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## Virtuoso (Nov 11, 2019)

charlieclouser said:


> I didn't want to accidentally buy at that price if Symphobia 1+2 owners get another $100 off or whatever.


Other than a couple of old legacy products I have pretty much everything from Project SAM - there's no additional loyalty discount.

I don't get the NI pricing. $593.81? (plus sales tax, since they now charge that too in the US). I got mine from Time+Space - same $559 price as everywhere else, but you get about $30 in loyalty points which you can redeem against something else later.


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## Celestial Aeon (Nov 11, 2019)

I bit the bullet and am downloading. For me it seems like the most important aspects are there - ease of use, excellent sound quality and no setup needed just start playing out of the box. 

For some reason I'm having trouble with the NI download though, it runs into failure every 5% or so which require manual clicking. Hopefully the final outcome is ok. Thank god for Tinytask, just created an automation loop that clicks the right button all the time  I'll put up a test video when I get it running


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## Christopher Rocky (Nov 12, 2019)

am i the only one that is a little underwhelmed with s4? I mean i dont own it so i cant really talk, but an fx library/gravity-esk style player? for that price? I was hoping for more sweet playable instruments.


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## Celestial Aeon (Nov 12, 2019)

ChristopherRock said:


> am i the only one that is a little underwhelmed with s4? I mean i dont own it so i cant really talk, but an fx library/gravity-esk style player? for that price? I was hoping for more sweet playable instruments.



I'll get back to this after testing but for me a library that does the thing it does efficiently, intuitively and out of the box is often worth whatever the price is in comparison to libraries that are only a bit more clunky and not that good. But that is mainly because my own production process is almost all about efficiency and speed and hence I value such elements way more than some others perhaps.


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## JeffvR (Nov 12, 2019)

ChristopherRock said:


> am i the only one that is a little underwhelmed with s4? I mean i dont own it so i cant really talk, but an fx library/gravity-esk style player? for that price? I was hoping for more sweet playable instruments.


S1 - S3 had playable instruments right? So why do it all over again? This seems like a great product to me, but a bit overpriced for what it is.


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## ScoreFace (Nov 12, 2019)

Okay, watched the latest videos now and I have to say, it all sounds really fantastic. I love the synced functions, especially the downbeat function is amazing. 

However, it is not an instant buy for me, as I feel a certain limitation concerning tonality, the patches which are most interesting for me don't seem to have much tonal variety. I have the feeling, using this lib for action sues will lead to many similar results. Can anyone expand on this?


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## Christopher Rocky (Nov 12, 2019)

JeffvR said:


> S1 - S3 had playable instruments right? So why do it all over again? This seems like a great product to me, but a bit overpriced for what it is.


Yeah but they are old libs now, and there is no dynamic layers (or very little), Which is why those libs are so amazing still today because they are recorded so fantastic and sound amazing with not much control.

I would love to see what project sam could come up with in the new landscape of sampling an orchestra. saying all that s4 sounds awesome dont get me wrong! i would love to have it! but i think i'll have to wait a few more BF and christmass sales until i could justify it.


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## FinGael (Nov 12, 2019)

ChristopherRock said:


> am i the only one that is a little underwhelmed with s4? I mean i dont own it so i cant really talk, but an fx library/gravity-esk style player? for that price? I was hoping for more sweet playable instruments.



I feel disappointed. Usually when I find a library that is not my cup of tea, I keep my mouth shut and continue searching, but this time felt that there exists some reason to share my feelings - after rambling through the two videos (Guy and Alex - thank you!).

To me it doesn't feel like it belongs to the Symphobia -series.

I was really excited to hear that a new Symphobia is coming, but don't find this appealing to me. I am really getting tired of this trailer/dark and nasty superhero -kind of sound. I'm not ready to pay that much for an fx and transition oriented library (too expensive for that).

It seems technically advanced and It sounds very good in what it does, but not for me. Still, have much love for Project Sam and wish the best of success for the library. Wishing for more traditional Symphobia -stuff with fantastic sounding and playable instruments in the future.


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## Giscard Rasquin (Nov 12, 2019)

Thought that was a really good deal, until I hit the BUY NOW button and price went back to normal intro-pricing. So close 😎🤓


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## iMovieShout (Nov 12, 2019)

I was really hoping for something good from ProjectSAM and have to say that having listened to all of their audio tracks and checked their YouTube videos that there really isn't anything new for me here. 
Maybe I've been spoiled by their other Symphobia libraries, or, maybe spoiled by Heavyocity and 8DIO. 
But I won't be getting this one.


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## reutunes (Nov 12, 2019)

For those grumbling about ProjectSAM pricing on this library I had another thought of an alternative product that is similar but much more affordable, Sonokinetic Espressivo - tempo synced string, brass, woodwind and percussion with 4 mic options and flexible editing. The only thing it doesn't have are the phrase-end bar syncing functions.


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## Shredoverdrive (Nov 12, 2019)

I


GuitarG said:


> Thought that was a really good deal, until I hit the BUY NOW button and price went back to normal intro-pricing. So close 😎🤓


I had the very same experience. What a disappointment!


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## Celestial Aeon (Nov 12, 2019)

here is first impression test run with confusion in the beginning. Here is the short end outcome with way too much reverb :D









symphobia4_grim_future.wav


Shared with Dropbox




www.dropbox.com





My first impression is like I hoped for:

for any composer who wants to have a tool which allows one to create this kind of dynamic epic layers fast and easy with not much hassle and tweaking it can really become your main workhorse. Sure it doesn't exactly do anything that other libraries might not be able, but for me at least Sonokinetic doesn't come close to the easy useability and out of the box just play kind of speed. Symphobia 4 is hard to challenge when it comes how fast you get good material out of it. This example took only 30 minutes and I was completely clueless. Good job Project SAM!


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## Waywyn (Nov 12, 2019)

Hey guys, for those who know me, probably also know that I am just interested in doing walkthroughs or demos if something is really promising! So I don't have any reason to "smear honey around ProjectSAM's mouth." So here are my two cents:

Yep, the price tag of Symphobia is maybe a bit more than other libraries, but from the point of having had the pleasure to fully test and play around with Pandora, I can already see that I will save countless of hours throughout the year which I usually spend for:

- loading patch, checking how long it is
- getting an idea of length in relation to the current project's tempo
- recording the event, solo the track, turning on click, trying to find the climax or hit point
- checking again if it sits right

I would be happy to pay the price of Pandora just for the swells, crescendi, and risers alone because this money should be easily back in no time! To me, it was never easier to dial-up a cymbal crescendo, set it to e.g. two bars and record it, by perfectly knowing that everything is in sync.


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## Raphioli (Nov 12, 2019)

GuitarG said:


> Thought that was a really good deal, until I hit the BUY NOW button and price went back to normal intro-pricing. So close 😎🤓



Now thats definitely a "no brainer" lol


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## MartinH. (Nov 12, 2019)

chocobitz825 said:


> Hmmm the native instruments site lists the pandora price in Japanese yen for me at 95,900 yen or about €796 with a sales price of €663
> 
> something seems a bit off there



In Germany it's 593,81 € sale price including 19% VAT. Maybe your VAT tax rate is higher? Or they do different regional pricing like many companies do?


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## Craig Sharmat (Nov 12, 2019)

reutunes said:


> For those grumbling about ProjectSAM pricing on this library I had another thought of an alternative product that is similar but much more affordable, Sonokinetic Espressivo - tempo synced string, brass, woodwind and percussion with 4 mic options and flexible editing. The only thing it doesn't have are the phrase-end bar syncing functions.



Expressivo is a very nice lib and a reason for me not to buy Pandora but the sound design in Pandora looks to be a real plus, for at least me.


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## zimm83 (Nov 12, 2019)

Waywyn said:


> Hey guys, for those who know me, probably also know that I am just interested in doing walkthroughs or demos if something is really promising! So I don't have any reason to "smear honey around ProjectSAM's mouth." So here are my two cents:
> 
> 
> 
> I would be happy to pay the price of Pandora just for the swells, crescendi, and risers alone because this money should be easily back in no time! To me, it was never easier to dial-up a cymbal crescendo, set it to e.g. two bars and record it, by perfectly knowing that everything is in sync.


Hy Thanks for your very good walkthrough.
One question please : does the bar and beat functions work in kontakt standalone mode ????
Because i saw in your video many times " daw not running...previewing..."...
Does this mean that the kontakt clock doesn't work in standalone mode for this library ??? I don't think so. Thanks again !


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## Waywyn (Nov 12, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Hy Thanks for your very good walkthrough.
> One question please : does the bar and beat functions work in kontakt standalone mode ????
> Because i saw in your video many times " daw not running...previewing..."...
> Does this mean that the kontakt clock doesn't work in standalone mode for this library ??? I don't think so. Thanks again !



Hey and thank you for your kind words! Just seen you asked this question over at my YT channel, so I am copying it over the answer, in case you see it earlier here 

This is just a guess, but technically Kontakt is just pulling the tempo from a host, so it should all work because in standalone mode the tempo would be the one given by Kontakt itself. What you were referring to with "daw not running, previewing" was just because the track wasn't playing back. Specific features (such as finding e.g. the next full bar and then activate riser) can only work during playback


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## zimm83 (Nov 12, 2019)

Waywyn said:


> Hey and thank you for your kind words! Just seen you asked this question over at my YT channel, so I am copying it over the answer, in case you see it earlier here
> 
> This is just a guess, but technically Kontakt is just pulling the tempo from a host, so it should all work because in standalone mode the tempo would be the one given by Kontakt itself. What you were referring to with "daw not running, previewing" was just because the track wasn't playing back. Specific features (such as finding e.g. the next full bar and then activate riser) can only work during playback


Thank you very much. So it works in standalone mode.
Last question : Can the play icon in Kontakt replace the play button in a daw to make the "specific features" work in standalone mode ?

Thanks very much for your time and help.

Starting being interested in this library, wasn't in the beginning, but now that you made the walkthroughs...very interested by all these sync modes......(if they all work also in standalone mode ...).


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## charlieclouser (Nov 12, 2019)

Got it. Played through it a bit. It's a MONSTER for the kind of scores I do. When I first got the original Symphobia I drove the wheels off it, and then a couple of years later started to hear the one-shot effects on South Park - now it's all over Teen Titans Go! 

But I think that Pandora will prove to be a bit more flexible than the Symphobia 1 and 2, mainly because it's less "one-shot-y". The tempo match stuff is very handy but it's also got some very cool things like the pulse phrases that have corresponding single-hits in the same patch, so you can re-arrange the pulses with the tempo keyswitches while playing single hits on top, letting you get a much wider variety of results from a single patch.

Price is big but not unreasonable - it's 70+ gigs on disc - and the sound is top shelf all the way.

Kontakt 6 only.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 12, 2019)

charlieclouser said:


> Got it. Played through it a bit. It's a MONSTER for the kind of scores I do. When I first got the original Symphobia I drove the wheels off it, and then a couple of years later started to hear the one-shot effects on South Park - now it's all over Teen Titans Go!
> 
> But I think that Pandora will prove to be a bit more flexible than the Symphobia 1 and 2, mainly because it's less "one-shot-y". The tempo match stuff is very handy but it's also got some very cool things like the pulse phrases that have corresponding single-hits in the same patch, so you can re-arrange the pulses with the tempo keyswitches while playing single hits on top, letting you get a much wider variety of results from a single patch.
> 
> ...



I figured you'd find it handy, Charlie 

You're of course absolutely right about the way the pulse phrases are laid out. It's really easy to get a base pulse and then add your own rhythmic and tonal variations, you could custom score to picture on the fly with it pretty much and have tons of variation within it. I've always loved the Symphobia series for this sort of thing, originally seen in the multis and now more elegantly done in Stories in 3 and now better than even with the Combos in 4.


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## chocobitz825 (Nov 12, 2019)

MartinH. said:


> In Germany it's 593,81 € sale price including 19% VAT. Maybe your VAT tax rate is higher? Or they do different regional pricing like many companies do?



that’s a pretty large hike for japan. 90,000 yen is kind of equivalent to $900. No way i’d buy at that price, especially since project Sam has it at €499


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## BezO (Nov 12, 2019)

Guy Rowland said:


> At the moment there's no way to do that that I can see. But PS did say to me that a more fully featured mixer is definitely on their to-do list, if we're lucky it might come as soon as 1.1, which they're hopeful will be out relatively quickly. If each mic position has access to Kontakt's outs, then routing a whole Combo will be possible. As it is, the mixer is currently a weak link.


Thanks for the heads up! A great reason for me to hold of, though I'm sure I'll miss the discount this time around.


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## brett (Nov 12, 2019)

Can anyone answer the following for me? :

Are the adaptive sync bar sliders able to be automated?

Are the adaptive sync buttons for Downbeat, Bars, Seconds etc able to be automated?

Thanks


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## Virtuoso (Nov 12, 2019)

brett said:


> Can anyone answer the following for me? :
> 
> Are the adaptive sync bar sliders able to be automated?
> 
> ...


Yes - it looks like it. These are the automatable parameters. The Sync options are towards the bottom of the list.


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## ScoreFace (Nov 13, 2019)

Waywyn said:


> Hey guys, for those who know me, probably also know that I am just interested in doing walkthroughs or demos if something is really promising! So I don't have any reason to "smear honey around ProjectSAM's mouth." So here are my two cents:
> 
> Yep, the price tag of Symphobia is maybe a bit more than other libraries, but from the point of having had the pleasure to fully test and play around with Pandora, I can already see that I will save countless of hours throughout the year which I usually spend for:
> 
> ...



I have to admit that you've made a really strong point there, Alex. With Symphobia 1, I remember that I recorded all rises and atmo fx sounds by just opening the patch and press keys. Then I edited the WAV fil and put the fx stuff in a personal audio folder. A lot of initial work, only to be able to get better control over the fx clusters. I'm still using them, but only as audio files, because then I can get them to the best position in order to match the next downbeat. 

With Pandora, it really seems totally easy and I can place risers or clusters at the correct position in no time. 

Still I have the feeling that the fx stuff is not flexible enough to use them in different tonal context.


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## MartinH. (Nov 13, 2019)

chocobitz825 said:


> that’s a pretty large hike for japan. 90,000 yen is kind of equivalent to $900. No way i’d buy at that price, especially since project Sam has it at €499



What's the Japanese VAT rate? The Projectsam site lists it as 499€, but when I proceed to checkout they add the same 19% VAT that NI adds, resulting in the total of 593,81€. In Germany it's actually illegal to display prices excluding VAT to regular consumers I think, and it must always be declared that VAT is included in the price. If you had a much higher VAT rate in Japan, that might explain the end-price difference? Though I'm not sure what the Japanese VAT rate for such goods is. Some other developers charge wildly different prices even on the same storefront, depending on the country you visit the store from, so it may just be more expensive in Japan :(.


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## Patrick.K (Nov 13, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> Rather niche, but looks well executed. Personally I'm a little disappointed as I was _hoping_ we'd also get refreshed symphobia 1, 2, and 3 updates to keep inline with S4.


Me too, i waited impatiently for the release of Pandora, especially by watching enigmatic videos! with the countdown.
But listening to the demos, I'm a little disappointed.
I think its use is very marginal, it may be good to have, but I doubt that it is really essential in a composition, but I can be wrong, it all depends on the writing style, and the project?
Project Sam should have developed a new library, in the continuity of Symphobia series, finally that's what I personally think.


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## GingerMaestro (Nov 13, 2019)

A big update to Symphobia 1 & 2 would be amazing, I wonder if they could use the original recordings for string legatos and other new programming techniques that are now out there since these libraries were originally created...


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## Mike Fox (Nov 13, 2019)

Patrick9152 said:


> Me too, i waited impatiently for the release of Pandora, especially by watching enigmatic videos! with the countdown.
> But listening to the demos, I'm a little disappointed.
> I think its use is very marginal, it may be good to have, but I doubt that it is really essential in a composition, but I can be wrong, it all depends on the writing style, and the project?
> Project Sam should have developed a new library, in the continuity of Symphobia series, finally that's what I personally think.


You misquoted me. It was Davidson who said that. I'm not disappointed at all with Pandora. I would love to buy it, actually.


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## chocobitz825 (Nov 13, 2019)

MartinH. said:


> What's the Japanese VAT rate? The Projectsam site lists it as 499€, but when I proceed to checkout they add the same 19% VAT that NI adds, resulting in the total of 593,81€. In Germany it's actually illegal to display prices excluding VAT to regular consumers I think, and it must always be declared that VAT is included in the price. If you had a much higher VAT rate in Japan, that might explain the end-price difference? Though I'm not sure what the Japanese VAT rate for such goods is. Some other developers charge wildly different prices even on the same storefront, depending on the country you visit the store from, so it may just be more expensive in Japan :(.



Kontakt lists a 10% tax 

Subtotal 
¥79,900
Order Total Excl. Tax 
¥72,636
plus 10% Tax
¥7,264
Order Total
¥79,900

Whereas Project same lists only the 499€ price. If i recall correctly Japan VAT is 5% thought. Lol nothing makes sense.


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## Patrick.K (Nov 13, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> You misquoted me. It was Davidson who said that. I'm not disappointed at all with Pandora. I would love to buy it, actually.


Oups ! Sorry Mike


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## Patrick.K (Nov 13, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> I'm not disappointed at all with Pandora. I would love to buy it, actually.


The ideal would be to test before buying, but it is unfortunately impossible!


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## Jeremy Spencer (Nov 13, 2019)

Patrick9152 said:


> But listening to the demos, I'm a little disappointed.



Me too, especially at that price. If I had a specific project that would utilize it, great, but otherwise it would collect dust in my studio. Was hoping it would be something like Lumina...which I use often.


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## Mike Fox (Nov 13, 2019)

Patrick9152 said:


> Oups ! Sorry Mike


No worries!


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## Celestial Aeon (Nov 13, 2019)

Here is another short live stream in which I ramble a bit and start with finished example tune using only Symphobia 4 and then make a second one.

I have used it now enough to have reasonable basis for review and my pointers would be:

Pros
- the sync works like a charm and makes creating raises, pulses and aleatoric effects smooth, efficient and fun
- the presets and GUI is really easy to work with and offer inspiration
- the general sound quality is excellent

Cons
- it's a tight concept library and focuses on dark hybrid modern sound. If you are not going to create such, you might not find much of use from the sound offered
- the price tag is a bit steep for such a narrow focus, but on the other hand if it's your bread and butter it will become one of your most efficient go to tools, so everything is relative

In general I would love to see this kind of adaptive sync become the new norm, so fun to use and so efficient to create with.


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## Raphioli (Nov 14, 2019)

chocobitz825 said:


> Whereas Project same lists only the 499€ price. If i recall correctly Japan VAT is 5% thought. Lol nothing makes sense.



I guess some sellers/devs think they can get more out of consumers in certain countries.
I mean, other industries also do this like for example, games. Nothing new, unfortunately.


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## John Zuker (Nov 14, 2019)

Based on what I've seen and heard so far, this library would pay for itself pretty quickly in the programming time it would save.


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## Raphioli (Nov 14, 2019)

Celestial Aeon said:


> In general I would love to see this kind of adaptive sync become the new norm, so fun to use and so efficient to create with.



This is how I really felt.

For libraries which have phrases, crescendos/decrescendos etc, I really wish this Adaptive Sync feature would be come a standard.


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## jcrosby (Nov 14, 2019)

SAM, you guys knocked this out of the park! S4 really is frickin awesome!

Please follow through on “expanding on” the sound design aspect!!! This is what every Kontakt library needs, and this library was born for sound design/resampling/etc...


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## Mike Fox (Nov 14, 2019)

ProjectSAM is one of the few developers that doesn't have a single dud in their catalog, and it looks like Pandora is no exception. Looking forward to using it one day!


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## jcrosby (Nov 14, 2019)

Mike Fox said:


> ProjectSAM is one of the few developers that doesn't have a single dud in their catalog, and it looks like Pandora is no exception. Looking forward to using it one day!



Totally agree. I imagine they see the benefits of the longer term approach in opting for quality over quantity... 

Either way as you said, this is one developer I'd be hard-pressed to find a dud in their lineup, no matter how hard I tried... Hell all symphobias still stay relevant; some almost a decade old...


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## ScoreFace (Nov 15, 2019)

*+1 - still using Symphobia and True Strike, even a few sounds of Sam Brass (rips, intervals, fx...). Great company, those guys!*


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## rheudabaga (Nov 28, 2019)

Pandora vs Albion IV for thriller content? Dark hits, risers, drones... Not as interested in phrases.


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## Eptesicus (Dec 31, 2021)

Just picked this up and whilst it seems like it is brilliant, I am getting horrible pops and clicks, especially on the pulses.

Doesnt matter what I do in terms of latency setting, cpu settings or anything. It does it when the pules voice setting is set to "light" as well.

Its only using a few percent of my CPU and does it in standalone and in Cubase and never had issues like this with anything else, so im certain it isnt an issue my end.


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## Mike Fox (Dec 31, 2021)

Eptesicus said:


> Just picked this up and whilst it seems like it is brilliant, I am getting horrible pops and clicks, especially on the pulses.
> 
> Doesnt matter what I do in terms of latency setting, cpu settings or anything.
> 
> Its only using a few percent of my CPU and does it in standalone and in Cubase and never had issues like this with anything else, so im certain it isnt an issue my end.


Weird! I also am on Cubase, but have zero issues with it. I’ll take a look and see if i can figure anything out.


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## Eptesicus (Dec 31, 2021)

Mike Fox said:


> Weird! I also am on Cubase, but have zero issues with it. I’ll take a look and see if i can figure anything out.


Thanks

Here is a demo of what it does (low string tonal pulses). Does the same on basically all the pulse patches, whatever the setting (ie whatever mics, full or light voices etc).

Does it in standalone and as a plugin so cant be anything to do with Cubase. Using Kontakt 6.6.1.

Weirdly it does seem to be regular, like it is a looping issue and not an audio engine one.


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## Mike Fox (Dec 31, 2021)

Eptesicus said:


> Thanks
> 
> Here is a demo of what it does (low string tonal pulses). Does the same on basically all the pulse patches, whatever the setting (ie whatever mics, full or light voices etc).
> 
> ...


So i just loaded up the same patch, and am not experiencing any clicks or pops. My system isn't anything special either, and I even tested it with a really low buffer size.

I hate to ask the obvious questions, but did you try doing a hard reset, or a clean re-install of the library?

Also, what are your specs?

View attachment Pandora.mp3


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## Eptesicus (Dec 31, 2021)

Mike Fox said:


> So i just loaded up the same patch, and am not experiencing any clicks or pops. My system isn't anything special either, and I even tested it with a really low buffer size.
> 
> I hate to ask the obvious questions, but did you try doing a hard reset, or a clean re-install of the library?
> 
> ...



I only just downloaded and installed it this evening so not sure reinstalling would help.

Are you using Kontakt 6.6.1 as well?

I'm on Windows 10,
I7 8700 with 64gb ram, and the library is installed on an nvme ssd.

As the pop/click is rhythmical it sounds like an issue with the looping/cuts. However that doesn't make sense if yours plays fine.

As no setting (buffering/voice count/cpu power modes) etc make any difference to the behaviour, and the pops/clicks happen in a rhythimical fashion, it must be something to do with the sample loops (and not a performance/audio engine issue)


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## Eptesicus (Dec 31, 2021)

Eptesicus said:


> I only just downloaded and installed it this evening so not sure reinstalling would help.
> 
> Are you using Kontakt 6.6.1 as well?
> 
> ...


Just to add to the above. I put the library on a fast external usb NVME drive to see if that made any difference and it still does exactly the same thing.


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## jamayo514 (Dec 31, 2021)

Mike Fox said:


> So i just loaded up the same patch, and am not experiencing any clicks or pops. My system isn't anything special either, and I even tested it with a really low buffer size.
> 
> I hate to ask the obvious questions, but did you try doing a hard reset, or a clean re-install of the library?
> 
> ...


I just tested it as well with no issues.


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## Eptesicus (Dec 31, 2021)

jamayo514 said:


> I just tested it as well with no issues.



Have you both got the latest version of pandora and Kontakt?


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## jamayo514 (Dec 31, 2021)

Eptesicus said:


> Have you both got the latest version of pandora and Kontakt?


Yes to both


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## Eptesicus (Dec 31, 2021)

jamayo514 said:


> Yes to both



Hm. This is so weird. It must be a looping issue as the pops and clicks are cyclical/rhythmical and no audio engine settings change it whatsoever.. I've tried rolling back to 6.4.2 in kontakt (as thats the version mentioned on pandoras product page), bit it made no difference.

I'm downloading the zip from the project sam website and will try that instead of the download from Native Access.


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## Mike Fox (Dec 31, 2021)

Eptesicus said:


> Have you both got the latest version of pandora and Kontakt?


6.6.1

Btw, I'm even running this off a standard 7200hd, so I'm kinda stumped as to why Pandora isn't working properly on your machine.

Definitely reach out to ProjectSAM though, they have awesome customer service!


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## Eptesicus (Jan 1, 2022)

Mike Fox said:


> 6.6.1
> 
> Btw, I'm even running this off a standard 7200hd, so I'm kinda stumped as to why Pandora isn't working properly on your machine.
> 
> Definitely reach out to ProjectSAM though, they have awesome customer service!


Thanks for looking into it for me.

I have fixed it this evening. I had Kontakt/my audio interface set to 44.1khz sample rate, and noticed that on the Pandora site they are sampled at 48khz. As soon as i set it to 48khz, the rhythmic clicks and pops stopped.

Do you know what the reason for this would be (excuse my ignorance)?


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## Mike Fox (Jan 1, 2022)

Eptesicus said:


> Thanks for looking into it for me.
> 
> I have fixed it this evening. I had Kontakt/my audio interface set to 44.1khz sample rate, and noticed that on the Pandora site they are sampled at 48khz. As soon as i set it to 48khz, the rhythmic clicks and pops stopped.
> 
> Do you know what the reason for this would be (excuse my ignorance)?


Oh, awesome! Glad you figured it out!

ProjectSAM probably sampled those timed repetitions at 48khz, so if that sample rate doesn’t match your daw or interface’s sample rate, then anomalies will occur.

For example, whenever i use Screenflow I have to make sure it’s the same sample rate as Cubase, otherwise the timing and pitch of my vst’s will be altered.

Not the best explanation, but just another example of how conflicting sample rates can effect things.

I hope you enjoy Pandora, it’s a beast!


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## Eptesicus (Jan 2, 2022)

Mike Fox said:


> Oh, awesome! Glad you figured it out!
> 
> ProjectSAM probably sampled those timed repetitions at 48khz, so if that sample rate doesn’t match your daw or interface’s sample rate, then anomalies will occur.
> 
> ...



Thanks. Seems to make sense. Certainly something to try in case of any similar future issues!

I love the philosophy behind Pandora. I picked it up with adaptive runs too.

I have so many effects libraries/Arcs/Cres patches etc that i dont like using due to the set tempo etc. It makes using them very limited and a faff to use.

Adaptive sync is brilliant (and i was thrilled they added it to True Strike too). I hope more developers do more properly tempo synced stuff like this. Its just such a more musical and useful way to use cres/dims/risers/runs etc.


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