# 8Dio Majestica 2.0 review



## Cerb-r-us (Jan 14, 2022)

*My perspective going into this*: Skip to the next section for the review proper

Originally, I was going to hold off on buying a professional library until I had mastered what I already have (Kontakt 5 factory, ProjectSAM TFO, Pallete: Primary Colours, Miroslav 2 CE). But then I saw the 60% sale at 8Dio and decided that I could still only use lower level libraries in released songs while still buying and playing with a massively discounted pro library as an investment for later. I knew not to expect any kind of a magic bullet, as the library is section-based and designed for epic orchestral music specifically and is therefore not versatile. Still, I was hoping for something to allow for more professional-sounding compositions when the time is right.

*Sound*

I find it difficult to really get excited about Majestica 2's timbre without the use of at least a little saturation to reinforce the low-mids and bring out the high detail. The sound clarity is good overall, but a lot of texture is lost in the room acoustics and some post-recording EQ would not have gone amiss. Some brass notes have an annoying sound around 350htz which can add unwanted dissonance, and the string Legato Marcato patch C5 has a very strange sound.





I would recommend using the mixed mic, as the decca signals tend to sound much more 'dead' (and I don't just mean acoustically). Additionally, I would recommend turning the 'release tails' knob all the way down, bypassing the inbuilt reverb effect and using a third-party reverb instead.

*Articulations*

Long

Only the string instrument has legatos, and I wish I had known sooner that different legato articulations are designed for different speeds (legato is slowest, legato marcato is fastest). When used accordingly, these can sound very good if you disable 'range kill' in the Kontakt scripts menu and turn 'Legato Vol.' all the way down at all times (its more of a distraction than anything). Below is a comparison of a string phrase with regular legato, followed by the same phrase at double speed with legato marcato.



The standard sustains vary in quality between instruments. The string sustains are hardly the most romantic-sounding out there, but they do the job and can shine in the lower dynamics. The brass sustains again suffer from a kind of muddiness, which is a shame because they are excellently performed. The high woodwinds are brilliant below forte, but above the air noise becomes an ordeal. On the other hand, low woodwinds are too 'static' in the lower dynamics, but shine in higher ones (even if some of the lower notes can sound like ship horns).












Low Winds Sustain


Listen to Low Winds Sustain by Sense of Suspense #np on #SoundCloud




soundcloud.com





The power sustains are my favourite articulation in this entire instrument. They can sound triumphant, lyrical, passionate, and sometimes even more 'flowing' than the legato patches. Rewarding, and very playable. A highlight is the brass Power Mutes.

https://soundcloud.com/user-4038214...d&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

8Dio are well known for their Arcs, and rightfully so. Majestica comes with three: Arc Control, Arc and Arc Cres (usually only 2 for each instrument, though). They sound nearly perfect for modern cinema swells, besides the low woodwinds and their bloated low end. Unfortunately, they are not tempo stretched (though if Silka is anything to go by, that may not be a bad thing after all).

https://soundcloud.com/user-4038214...d&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Marcato ranges from okay (strings) to phenomenal (brass, though mutes are disappointing)

https://soundcloud.com/user-4038214...d&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

For an epic library, there is a disappointing lack of tremolo, leaving dynamics automation to carry tension duties. There are, however, quite nice flutter tongues and trills for the high woodwinds.

Short

Staccato can only be found in brass, whereas strings instead use Spiccato. Again, the brass's excellent performance is let down by subpar mixing which has a somewhat colourless effect. In fact, they sound much better when I turn off my room correction software and listen through my headphones with notoriously inflated low mids. Some brass stacc notes are also slightly delayed, though I get why some would prefer the 'humanization' that brings. The example below was perfectly quantized.






Brass Stacc


Listen to Brass Stacc by Sense of Suspense #np on #SoundCloud




soundcloud.com





Strings Spiccato is surprisingly versatile even beyond epic music. Spiccato fast proves quite capable at those 'epic ostinatos', and can sound good in semiquavers up to 144 BPM.






Strings Spicc Fast


Listen to Strings Spicc Fast by Sense of Suspense #np on #SoundCloud




soundcloud.com





The spiccattos afforded to the brass and woodwinds are similarly nimble, though the woodwinds' lack of longer shorts besides the Double Tongue makes them disappointing in relaxed sections.

Percussive articulations, such as Bartok Pizz, Col Legno and 'Slap Notes' seem to have double the room noise, which makes sense but can be a little overwhelming in an already soaked library.






Strings Bartok


Listen to Strings Bartok by Sense of Suspense #np on #SoundCloud




soundcloud.com





Special

Savage Hits are a little disappointing due to their lack of round robins and their inability to sound good (even dissonant good) played together.

I've never been a fan of Group Bartok, but Majestica's are the ones I dislike the least. The lack of round robins afflicts this too.

The Savage Phrases are creative for essentially being weird triplets. I can definitely see use in these.

Maybe I'm spoiled by Projectsam TFO, but I think the brass Swoops/Rips could stand to be a little more chaotic.

Much like the arcs, the brass bends are pretty much perfect.

I'm not sure who would use the 'Breaths' articulation or why.

Percussion

Too many articulations to describe individually. I'll just say they all sound great and having a dynamics macro for the rolls instrument was a stroke of genius.

*Technical*

Majestica has an impressively low footprint of 25 gigabytes and uses approximately 6% of my CPU when active (for comparison, Kontakt String Ensemble uses 3%). For some reason, 50 MB Majestica libraries can take upward of a minute to load into Kontakt 5, whereas all 1 gigabyte of Shreddage 3 serpent can be ready in under 20 seconds.

*Verdict*

I would say this was a very good investment for $160. But as a first professional library, I would have been much more conflicted if I paid full price.


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## doctoremmet (Jan 14, 2022)

Awesome review, thanks for putting in the effort - much appreciated.


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## Cerb-r-us (Jan 14, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Awesome review, thanks for putting in the effort - much appreciated.


No problem.


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## Trash Panda (Jan 14, 2022)

Awesome review! Try batch re-saving and the library should load nice and fast.


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## Sarah Mancuso (Jan 14, 2022)

Cerb-r-us said:


> For some reason, 50 MB Majestica libraries can take upward of a minute to load into Kontakt 5, whereas all 1 gigabyte of Shreddage 3 serpent can be ready in under 20 seconds.


If you're on Mac, make sure your sample drive is formatted HFS+, not APFS.
If you're on Windows, make sure your sample drive is formatted NTFS, not FAT32, and exclude your Kontakt library folders from Windows Defender's scanning.
This is a common issue with large libraries that aren't encoded for Kontakt Player, because the samples are spread across many small files instead of a few large ones.


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## ozonepaul (Feb 7, 2022)

Cerb-r-us said:


> ...
> *Technical*
> 
> Majestica has an impressively low footprint of 25 gigabytes and uses approximately 6% of my CPU when active (for comparison, Kontakt String Ensemble uses 3%). For some reason, 50 MB Majestica libraries can take upward of a minute to load into Kontakt 5, whereas all 1 gigabyte of Shreddage 3 serpent can be ready in under 20 seconds.
> ...


_"For some reason, 50 MB Majestica libraries can take upward of a minute to load into Kontakt 5, whereas all 1 gigabyte of Shreddage 3 serpent can be ready in under 20 seconds."_

The slow loading time is often linked to this: "Windows Defender (or other Anti Virus Programs) might be deleting the sample directory information from your instrument files once Kontakt is closed. To correct this, you will need to create an exclusion folder for all of your anti-virus programs."

Read and follow the instructions in this article:
https://8dio.com/2020/10/11/slow-load-times-in-kontakt/ 

Prior to setting up exclusion for my 8Dio Century Strings 2 in "Windows Virus & threat protection" my library regularly crashed Kontakt while loading (+ the loading time was ridiculously long). Since I made the changes suggested in the above 8Dio article the library stopped crashing Kontakt and the loading time is 10x faster.


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## jesussaddle (Jul 20, 2022)

ozonepaul said:


> _"For some reason, 50 MB Majestica libraries can take upward of a minute to load into Kontakt 5, whereas all 1 gigabyte of Shreddage 3 serpent can be ready in under 20 seconds."_
> 
> The slow loading time is often linked to this: "Windows Defender (or other Anti Virus Programs) might be deleting the sample directory information from your instrument files once Kontakt is closed. To correct this, you will need to create an exclusion folder for all of your anti-virus programs."
> 
> ...


I've run into that a lot with antivirus programs. I have dozens of exclusions for them that I've needed to make over time.


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## jesussaddle (Jul 20, 2022)

Cerb-r-us said:


> *My perspective going into this*: Skip to the next section for the review proper
> 
> Originally, I was going to hold off on buying a professional library until I had mastered what I already have (Kontakt 5 factory, ProjectSAM TFO, Pallete: Primary Colours, Miroslav 2 CE). But then I saw the 60% sale at 8Dio and decided that I could still only use lower level libraries in released songs while still buying and playing with a massively discounted pro library as an investment for later. I knew not to expect any kind of a magic bullet, as the library is section-based and designed for epic orchestral music specifically and is therefore not versatile. Still, I was hoping for something to allow for more professional-sounding compositions when the time is right.
> 
> ...



Excellent review! I am still looking for something in the epic category. I have Albion One, which is great for "emotional" and sort of middle dynamic territory. And I've considered saving up for Metropolis Ark 1. I don't know what to do... AHHHHH!!! (Thanks again for your review!)


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## EanS (Jul 20, 2022)

jesussaddle said:


> Excellent review! I am still looking for something in the epic category. I have Albion One, which is great for "emotional" and sort of middle dynamic territory. And I've considered saving up for Metropolis Ark 1. I don't know what to do... AHHHHH!!! (Thanks again for your review!)


Majestica is quite limited in Articulations (5 to 7), and there'll always be the huge sound. I read someone not quite happy when they upgraded to 8W which is Majestica + Spot mics (not available now, don't know in the future) where even a spot mic soloed sounded "big", that's because you can't fit 60 Brass musicians in a living room. So beware that "epic" may wear you out pretty quickly and there you are, stuck. Price is great though.

I made a quick "out of the box" mockup from Bettelejuice exaggerating on the spot mics. Meaning turned off Mix and just used spots way up, plus Decca + Wide.

View attachment Beetlejuice2.mp3



Piano is Sampletekk' s Black Grand & Main Percussion is VSL's Kontakt stock library, the Timpani Tutti bridge is Majestica. I didn't use all Majestica percussion because it was too much and mapping was different. Only thing added in the mix is SSL Bus Comp, otherwise I'd be fighting with clipping all the time.


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## Laurin Lenschow (Jul 21, 2022)

jesussaddle said:


> Excellent review! I am still looking for something in the epic category. I have Albion One, which is great for "emotional" and sort of middle dynamic territory. And I've considered saving up for Metropolis Ark 1. I don't know what to do... AHHHHH!!! (Thanks again for your review!)


Well, first of all we need to know what type of "epic" you are going for - modern/processed/clean/hybrid oder raw/natural/gritty?
Out of the three comprehensive orchestral libraries for epic music out there (Jaeger, Metropolis Ark 1, Majestica) Majestica is - in my opinion - the one library you should stay away from. Jaeger and Ark 1 are both excellent but suited for different types of epic music - Jaeger sounds more modern/processed, Ark 1 is more on the raw/natural side and therefore closer to Majestica. Ark 1 doesn't have the oversized ensembles of Majestica, but that's actually a good thing because it results in a more defined and detailed sound.
When it comes to Ark 1 vs Jaeger it's a choice of style rather than a choice of quality, as they are both great but different. I made a short video comparing the two (and at some point I'll probably make one about how they compare to Majestica, but I can't say when):


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## Mike Fox (Jul 21, 2022)

Laurin Lenschow said:


> Majestica is - in my opinion - the one library you should stay away from.


This!


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## jesussaddle (Jul 21, 2022)

Laurin Lenschow said:


> Well, first of all we need to know what type of "epic" you are going for - modern/processed/clean/hybrid oder raw/natural/gritty?
> Out of the three comprehensive orchestral libraries for epic music out there (Jaeger, Metropolis Ark 1, Majestica) Majestica is - in my opinion - the one library you should stay away from. Jaeger and Ark 1 are both excellent but suited for different types of epic music - Jaeger sounds more modern/processed, Ark 1 is more on the raw/natural side and therefore closer to Majestica. Ark 1 doesn't have the oversized ensembles of Majestica, but that's actually a good thing because it results in a more defined and detailed sound.
> When it comes to Ark 1 vs Jaeger it's a choice of style rather than a choice of quality, as they are both great but different. I made a short video comparing the two (and at some point I'll probably make one about how they compare to Majestica, but I can't say when):



Thank you. I omitted to say I got Jaeger on sale for $340, but I haven't tried producing an epic track - mostly I do creative things that are more electronic music-focused. I do experiment with some hybrid stuff, but I get lost in the technology because I'm a would-be developer. I will certain enjoy your video when you make it - How can I find your channel?


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## Laurin Lenschow (Jul 22, 2022)

jesussaddle said:


> Thank you. I omitted to say I got Jaeger on sale for $340, but I haven't tried producing an epic track - mostly I do creative things that are more electronic music-focused. I do experiment with some hybrid stuff, but I get lost in the technology because I'm a would-be developer. I will certain enjoy your video when you make it - How can I find your channel?


There's a link to my channel in my signature - just click on "2nd Channel (Library Walkthroughs and Reviews)" at the bottom of this post


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## PebbleStream (Aug 11, 2022)

Thanks for taking the time to review this! Was looking into Majestica as a first orchestral library, think I made the right decision to not get it.


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## czyzczyz (Jan 4, 2023)

8dio's having a 'flash sale' of Majestica 2.0 for $80. Does that make it less of a library to stay away from, at that price?


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## syrinx (Jan 4, 2023)

czyzczyz said:


> 8dio's having a 'flash sale' of Majestica 2.0 for $80. Does that make it less of a library to stay away from, at that price?


I bought it during this sale, mainly for the percussion and for layering strings/brass with other libraries. I don't regret it! But don't buy it if it will be your main library. The high woodwinds are pretty much unusable, imho.


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