# Spitfire BT Phobos anyone using it?



## rvb (May 2, 2017)

I am considering buying the new spitfire synthesizer. But I am kind of confused, is it not on the Kontakt player? And is it meant more for 'drones' type sound design or more 'drums' sound design, or both? I am actually looking for something that will work for both composing scores but also for my upcoming dark electronic music project. 

Thank you in advance!


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## Thorsten Meyer (May 2, 2017)

rvb said:


> I am considering buying the new spitfire synthesizer. But I am kind of confused, is it not on the Kontakt player? And is it meant more for 'drones' type sound design or more 'drums' sound design, or both? I am actually looking for something that will work for both composing scores but also for my upcoming dark electronic music project.
> 
> Thank you in advance!



It is a standalone VST plugin, no need for Kontakt. There are quiet some videos on youtube showing off BT Phobos. I have it and it offers great value.


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## prodigalson (May 2, 2017)

http://vi-control.net/community/thr...y-christian-henson.60895/page-21#post-4082789


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## mouse (May 2, 2017)

rvb said:


> I am considering buying the new spitfire synthesizer. But I am kind of confused, is it not on the Kontakt player? And is it meant more for 'drones' type sound design or more 'drums' sound design, or both? I am actually looking for something that will work for both composing scores but also for my upcoming dark electronic music project.
> 
> Thank you in advance!



Its perfect for dark electronic stuff yes. Its nothing to do with Kontakt but a standalone VST. It does drones and percussive sound design, but moreso on the darker side than the lighter. Honestly though, I think Omnisphere would be a better investment if you don't have it already. If you do have Omnisphere, then Phobos is worthwhile getting too.


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## Lee Blaske (May 2, 2017)

I agree with mouse. It has drones and it has processed drums, but it aims for the darker side of things. Definitely would be a tool to add texture to scores, but I wouldn't think of it as much as a tool to "compose scores," as mentioned in the OP. It's more of a specialty tool. Omnisphere would definitely be a much more complete tool set (screw drivers, sockets, wrenches in all sizes). Phobos is very interesting, though, and I'm using it. I'm glad I acquired it. Still need to learn a lot more about it, but used it to do all the textures and backgrounds on this piece (everything except the piano sounds)...


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## The Darris (May 2, 2017)

I'm reviewing it currently. They finally got Win 7 support on their downloader to be able to install Phobos which is great. It uses a command prompt which felt like a throw back for me so be sure to read their online support for it on how to install because it may be a little daunting for some at first. Honestly, I wish they had held off release until that occurred because I feel like a few people probably bought it not realizing that. Nevertheless, they have come through on getting around the .net issue in Win 7. With that said, I've been using it in frustration because on my 2K monitors, it's very small and hard to see the words, settings, etc on the GUI. I haven't been following the commercial thread as closely for a while now so I don't know if that is something others have complained about but I will be sending Spitfire a support ticket with some of my aesthetic concerns as I have corrected vision up to 20/20 and I'm still having trouble seeing wtf their GUI says on it. 

In terms of sounds and content that I've previewed and messed around with, it's a pretty awesome sounding plugin. Great content in there and the poly-convolution concept may sound rather...errr...convoluted...but it's pretty cool how it all works and sounds. This is definitely geared more towards that EDM/Hybrid scoring world but the future of this synth for other applications is pretty endless. It's definitely inspiring in a way because after about 20 minutes it made me come up with new ideas on how to approach more modern orchestral writing. So, I look forward to expansions on this in the future with loops and samples derived from the orchestra (similar to NOVO strings' approach with string loops). That will be pretty gnarly. 

It's still a version 1 plugin so give it some time to mature. Spitfire Audio has been very open about taking user feedback and trying to build this into a plugin that will be around for a long time. It's pretty solid for me and doesn't use a lot of CPU resources on my i7-2600K which is great. 20 gb of content may not sound like a lot compared to current sample libraries but you have to keep in mind that this is 20 gb of different types of samples and loops. No round robins or dynamic layers. So, that is a pretty vast sample pool that covers a lot of genres in the synth world. I will have a lot more to say and share in my review but hope to get some feedback from the Spitfire Team on some of my concerns prior to all of that. Stay tuned.

Best,

Chris


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## thousandfold (May 2, 2017)

mouse said:


> Its perfect for dark electronic stuff yes. Its nothing to do with Kontakt but a standalone VST. It does drones and percussive sound design, but moreso on the darker side than the lighter. Honestly though, I think Omnisphere would be a better investment if you don't have it already. If you do have Omnisphere, then Phobos is worthwhile getting too.



What from Omnisphere would rival Phobos? Omni has so much that it's quite somes tuff to sift through.


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## sostenuto (May 2, 2017)

Hmmmm. Agree ... at this early stage with Omni/2 comment. Omni2 is wide-ranging and incredible versatility when getting deep inside. Really very different tools ..... why compare?


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## thousandfold (May 2, 2017)

While Omni is great and can do ''about everything'' that can be it's weak point aswell. What I see in Phobos is something inspiring and something that doens't take a whole lot to wrap your head around to use it for something.

I've never stumbled upon something that didn't work out with the limitations I have. I guess that's just workflow taste. 

+ you tend to get unique things if you don't have all the choices at your disposal and have to figure it out with what you have.


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## sostenuto (May 2, 2017)

thousandfold said:


> While Omni is great and can do ''about everything'' that can be it's weak point aswell. What I see in Phobos is something inspiring and something that doens't take a whole lot to wrap your head around to use it for something.
> 
> I've never stumbled upon something that didn't work out with the limitations I have. I guess that's just workflow taste.
> 
> + you tend to get unique things if you don't have all the choices at your disposal and have to figure it out with what you have.



Oh !! ... totally agree. That's why I do not seek to compare, just use for when/where they shine. Little doubt BT Phobos will be added sometime soon.


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## thousandfold (May 2, 2017)

I am just curious most of the time. If I agree or not I always like to quelch that curiousity why someone would see it as a whole new thing or just another addon for something they already got. That's how I learn new things!


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## rvb (May 2, 2017)

Thanks everyone for the help! I decided to get omnisphere 2 instead for now, so yeah, awesome! Thanks again!


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## sostenuto (May 2, 2017)

rvb said:


> Thanks everyone for the help! I decided to get omnisphere 2 instead for now, so yeah, awesome! Thanks again!



Posted this elsewhere too, but consider reviewing some/many of PlugInGuru's YouTube videos. Most are specific Omni2 Libraries he created, but they usually include some useful, in-depth Omni tips ... that go fairly deep. Most helpful, recently are his 'hang' Livestreams done mostly on Saturday afternoons. He records these and they remain on his site under Video tab. Don't expect well-rehearsed tutorials, and they wander around a bit, but there are many 'deep' segments which really probe Omni2's amazing power ..... FWIW ....


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## thousandfold (May 3, 2017)

sostenuto said:


> Posted this elsewhere too, but consider reviewing some/many of PlugInGuru's YouTube videos. Most are specific Omni2 Libraries he created, but they usually include some useful, in-depth Omni tips ... that go fairly deep. Most helpful, recently are his 'hang' Livestreams done mostly on Saturday afternoons. He records these and they remain on his site under Video tab. Don't expect well-rehearsed tutorials, and they wander around a bit, but there are many 'deep' segments which really probe Omni2's amazing power ..... FWIW ....



Surely Phobos can hold it's own ground and not be something in the shadows of Omnisphere?


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## Lee Blaske (May 3, 2017)

thousandfold said:


> Surely Phobos can hold it's own ground and not be something in the shadows of Omnisphere?



Apples and oranges. Omnisphere is vast and useful for pretty much anything you'd want to do from children's tunes to the darkest horror film. Phobos is a lot more specialized.


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## Rohann (May 5, 2017)

The Darris said:


> I'm reviewing it currently. They finally got Win 7 support on their downloader to be able to install Phobos which is great. It uses a command prompt which felt like a throw back for me so be sure to read their online support for it on how to install because it may be a little daunting for some at first. Honestly, I wish they had held off release until that occurred because I feel like a few people probably bought it not realizing that. Nevertheless, they have come through on getting around the .net issue in Win 7. With that said, I've been using it in frustration because on my 2K monitors, it's very small and hard to see the words, settings, etc on the GUI. I haven't been following the commercial thread as closely for a while now so I don't know if that is something others have complained about but I will be sending Spitfire a support ticket with some of my aesthetic concerns as I have corrected vision up to 20/20 and I'm still having trouble seeing wtf their GUI says on it.
> 
> In terms of sounds and content that I've previewed and messed around with, it's a pretty awesome sounding plugin. Great content in there and the poly-convolution concept may sound rather...errr...convoluted...but it's pretty cool how it all works and sounds. This is definitely geared more towards that EDM/Hybrid scoring world but the future of this synth for other applications is pretty endless. It's definitely inspiring in a way because after about 20 minutes it made me come up with new ideas on how to approach more modern orchestral writing. So, I look forward to expansions on this in the future with loops and samples derived from the orchestra (similar to NOVO strings' approach with string loops). That will be pretty gnarly.
> 
> ...


CH posted a video in the commercial thread showing how to resize the GUI if you haven't seen that yet.


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## sostenuto (May 5, 2017)

Please try to respond/ help with a very '_clumsily_' worded question. Admittedly weak with tweaking top synths (Omni2, Absynth5, Iris2, Massive, Loom, ....) but know what has been tweaked and saved when needed. 

In the case of BT Phobos, when creations flow out, which are truly exceptional, it seems there cannot be much understanding/awareness of what happened to produce the special sound(s). Are the Settings used saved (even though it's not clear what happened in the Convolvers ? IOW ... can one get back to what was created, easily and repeatedly ?


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## sostenuto (May 17, 2017)

BT Phobos has gotten very quiet ...... No help with last Post and nothing since .. unless I missed it?

Was truly interested, but now a bit hesitant. Any new experiences, impressions?


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## TheKRock (May 17, 2017)

Sostenuto, I have had Phobos for a couple weeks now and decided to spend a day going through the presets looking for sounds for a movie score I am just beginning to score. After looking through just a small portion of the BT presets (there are 5 banks with 4 or 5 sub libraries in each bank) I found a dozen sounds that would easily lend themselves to the style of score I was looking to write, and have already begun to use it in cues. The sounds have a lot of depth and the convolvers add endless possibilities to the presets. Very modern sounding cinematic pads, drum tracks, and rhythm/percussive beds in my opinion. I have a lot of Spitfire sound libraries as well as other synths and this has a sound all its own - IMHO. Very 3 dimensional. i hope this helps, I really love it so far and as was posted earlier its a little easier to just dive in and start creating.


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## sostenuto (May 17, 2017)

TheKRock said:


> Sostenuto, I have had Phobos for a couple weeks now and decided to spend a day going through the presets looking for sounds for a movie score I am just beginning to score. After looking through just a small portion of the BT presets (there are 5 banks with 4 or 5 sub libraries in each bank) I found a dozen sounds that would easily lend themselves to the style of score I was looking to write, and have already begun to use it in cues. The sounds have a lot of depth and the convolvers add endless possibilities to the presets. Very modern sounding cinematic pads, drum tracks, and rhythm/percussive beds in my opinion. I have a lot of Spitfire sound libraries as well as other synths and this has a sound all its own - IMHO. Very 3 dimensional. i hope this helps, I really love it so far and as was posted earlier its a little easier to just dive in and start creating.



Appreciate your in-depth comments! So much quality cinematic content being released yet BT Phobos offers virtually endless possibilities, while most 'are what they are' .... with some tweakability. 

___ from my Post #17 ...are you able to _'save/ get back to'_ sounds you create using convolvers and your specific 'Settings' ??


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## mouse (May 17, 2017)

Has anyone found a way to scroll through the presets without having to constantly open the preset menu?


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## TheKRock (May 17, 2017)

Yup just hit "save as" in the top menu by the on/off switch and you can name and save any preset as your own


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## TheKRock (May 17, 2017)

Mouse, the only ways to go thru the presets are the preset menu at the top or the preset menus on the left side under the W convolver - in my opinion an easier way to do it


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## synthpunk (May 17, 2017)

Phobos is great at making a scary clown vibe if anyone can relate to that.


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## castcircle (May 17, 2017)

Difficulty saving settings in Ableton is my only significant issue with this extraordinary and ground-breaking synth. I have a ten step ritual that works 25% of the time, though nothing is truly lost once saved, just hard to bring back. If that's fixed, this will be one of my favorite synths ever, hard or soft.

Dark, complex, evolving textures are a sweet spot I keep finding. Ethereal atmospheres that are refined in a way that's intense. While film or game scores seem like an easily-accessed sweet spot, learning specific sounds (from the epic stockpile) can start to open up anything because the complexity offers meaningful and distinct sounds.

[I'm noticing that more and more pop tries to have a distinctive sound near the track's beginning, and that there's often a quiet voice-driven section. Phobos seems perfect, to me, for that, along with how the samples are so good dry.]


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## mouse (May 17, 2017)

TheKRock said:


> Mouse, the only ways to go thru the presets are the preset menu at the top or the preset menus on the left side under the W convolver - in my opinion an easier way to do it


But there's no quick "next" or "previous" preset button right? You have to open that menu every time open the sub menu, then the sub menu and click a preset?


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## TheKRock (May 17, 2017)

Mouse, ya unfortunately none that I have found...i took to writing a list of sounds and which bank they were in for ez retrieval


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## Dr.Quest (May 17, 2017)

castcircle said:


> Difficulty saving settings in Ableton is my only significant issue with this extraordinary and ground-breaking synth. I have a ten step ritual that works 25% of the time, though nothing is truly lost once saved, just hard to bring back. If that's fixed, this will be one of my favorite synths ever, hard or soft.


I use it in Ableton as well and I only have 2 steps and it always works. How do you save the patches? I just click on the SAVE button on the Ableton Instrument and it saves it to User Presets in the Browser. I then drag it to a folder of just Phobos presets I've done. My big complaint is that I can't use these in other DAW setups unless I write down the settings and recreate them again in, say, Studio One 3.


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## castcircle (May 24, 2017)

Finally got a chance to try what you've described and that didn't do the trick (I'm guessing you're on a Mac, and I should've mentioned I'm using Windows 10), so I'm going to enjoy playing Phobos tonight and then probably reinstall tomorrow.

If that doesn't work, I'll just hope the update it sounds like they're already working on (I love Spitfire so much and Phobos is so mindblowing) can save presets.



Dr.Quest said:


> I use it in Ableton as well and I only have 2 steps and it always works. How do you save the patches? I just click on the SAVE button on the Ableton Instrument and it saves it to User Presets in the Browser. I then drag it to a folder of just Phobos presets I've done. My big complaint is that I can't use these in other DAW setups unless I write down the settings and recreate them again in, say, Studio One 3.


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## rlw (May 31, 2017)

Here are my assessments since I am using BT P on some tracks and love the sounds. 1) Having memory issues in VEP (windows slave pc i6700k with 64gb memory ssd drives). One instance if un attached to daw track will eat up all memory until attached and played. Spitfire is waiting for response from Vienna. 2) One issue I have is the absence of any compound meter loops or rhythms. Strictly just 4/4. No way to effect rhythms so I have had to marry it with Output signal or Movement to have any 3/4 , 6/8 etc. I like having some control over rhythms and the best I have done is record and chop / resample. Convolution synthesis is great but I am really hoping for improvements as mentioned in prior post as well as some rhythm control more than an Edna gate to control rhythm in a newer versions since all my work arounds are very time consuming on my workflow. I am able to save my presets in VEP as an alternative which helps the limitations of not being able to save your presets.


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## Pedro Camacho (May 31, 2017)

Promising plugin that needs a lot of extra love. I bought it and feel it is not user friendly yet (so I rarely use it).
The raw talent is there, patches are nice, just needs to work much better with simpler authorization.
If it gets to be as efficient as fabfilter stuff then there could be magic there.


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## sostenuto (May 31, 2017)

Hat's off to you all the early adopters !! No question about longer term potential, but need to watch a bit as many of these issues get sorted. VEP is being considered strongly with (2) Win10 Pro Desktop(s) already Ethernet-connected. 

THX!


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## MaxOctane (May 31, 2017)

Anyone wanna post tracks?


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## rlw (May 31, 2017)

MaxOctane said:


> Anyone wanna post tracks?


I will try to post a section of a track this week end with BT P.


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## rlw (Jun 1, 2017)

One suggestion I would love for Spitfire to consider is opening BT Probus up to allow me to add my own loops / samples to use their Convolution Engine. I know this would be a philosophical change, but Omnisphere's 2 courage to allow me to add my own samples makes it an essential tool in my sound design and BT Probus could have much more significance in sound design if Spitfire would consider this feature.


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## Greg (Jun 1, 2017)

I absolutely hate it. First instrument from SF I can say that about. Might find something useful if the sampled .wavs were available. Otherwise, $300 in the bin.


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## Greg (Jun 1, 2017)

Found one strings patch that was cool but it has this nasty feedback embedded in it... Lots of sounds but at the massive expense of quality control and making your users dredge through shit.

https://secession.box.com/s/80mbueiv94k0r1h8vt2rjc4ghb2uajm8


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## sostenuto (Jun 1, 2017)

Just started with SA __ eDNA 01 Earth, Kinematik, Glass and Steel. 
Will stay cool and learn __ BT Phobos just seems to have had lotsa hype and maybe released prior to needed tweaking ? Hope not as there is notable innovation and potential.


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## windyweekend (Jun 2, 2017)

Just uninstalled Phobos after using it for a month. It sounded amazing on the occasions when it worked, but I've found it just too unstable and a nightmare to use with VEP, especially with the memory leak. I've just had to recompose a TV score with a different synth and strip it out because I was rebooting 4 VEP machines eight times a day (that's 32 reboots!). Take out Phobos and all works fine again. Way too many problems. 

(be cautious)


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## sostenuto (Jun 2, 2017)

windyweekend said:


> Just uninstalled Phobos after using it for a month. It sounded amazing on the occasions when it worked, but I've found it just too unstable and a nightmare to use with VEP, especially with the memory leak. I've just had to recompose a TV score with a different synth and strip it out because I was rebooting 4 VEP machines eight times a day (that's 32 reboots!). Take out Phobos and all works fine again. Way too many problems. Total bear. Wished I'd kept my cash, but you live and learn.
> 
> (be wary)


Truly sad to hear what you (others) are going through. Clearly you had a serious need, which has not been met at this stage of Phobos ....... 

Learner question .... what will you fall back to now ? Surely Phobos will be fixed, yet YOU, and others (me) prefer to move forward as required. What tools will you use in the interim ??


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## windyweekend (Jun 2, 2017)

sostenuto said:


> Truly sad to hear what you (others) are going through. Clearly you had a serious need, which has not been met at this stage of Phobos .......
> 
> Learner question .... what will you fall back to now ? Surely Phobos will be fixed, yet YOU, and others (me) prefer to move forward as required. What tools will you use in the interim ??


Absynth and Zebra. The atmos/pads are as good in Red Cola as well but don't have that 'cop thinking about his next steps' vibe that Phobos nailed.


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## sostenuto (Jun 2, 2017)

windyweekend said:


> Absynth and Zebra. The atmos/pads are as good in Red Cola as well but don't have that 'cop thinking about his next steps' vibe that Phobos nailed.



Very cool, as Absynth5 remains a much respected tool !! Too bad NI has not revisited given its potential.

Zebra2 was very much on my mind and your Reply is quite timely. 

Also close to adding VEP6 and your Phobos experiences are noted.

Many THX !


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