# Are NI UCE symphony libraries any good?



## 3DC (Jun 4, 2021)

So with upgrade options I could snatch NI Ultimate Collectors Edition for half of the original price, however I truly don't know how good or bad are all those symphony libraries for (future) professional work? There are 25 of them. Would you recommend them?


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## theStyg (Jun 4, 2021)

The Symphony Series libraries sound nice, only major downside being the underwhelming legato across the board. Even then, I especially love the tone of the brass libraries. Cremona, I haven't tried, and many of the phrase-based/textural libraries are quite handy and sound good.


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## thorwald (Jun 4, 2021)

I'm assuming you mean their Cinematic range, as the Symphony series does not have 25 libraries to my knowledge.

To be fair, I don't know anyone who uses the Symphony Series (strings, brass, winds) in a professional setting.

In general, the legatos are quite sloppy when compared to other, third-party libraries, and sometimes the tone needs a bit of massaging in a mix. I'm also not a fan of the spiccatos, but that might be just a me thing. They can work as a first library though, or when you layer them with something else.

Session Strings 2 Pro is great, though it's an older library. I find that the playing style is not as passionate as it perhaps could have been, but the legatos are good.

The new solo strings are quite good, I find, however, that the vibrato depth needs to be increased a bit to sound more natural, as by default it's quite synthetic-sounding. Also, the entire Cremona Quartet is not recorded in SATB positions, so you will have to adjust the channels if you'd like to achieve this.

Don't expect Cineperc-details from the Symphony Percussion, but it's quite usable, so is Damage, which is regarded as a classic by many these days.

Pharlight and Straylight are somewhat experimental in nature, Mysteria is great for horror or when you need to score for a scene with what it can offer.

Arkhis is beautiful, but that's to be expected from Orchestral Tools. It's great for underscoring, or when layered, or when you're looking for some inspiring, unusual instrument combinations.

Mallet Flux is also quite good, maybe not as detailed as other libraries, but it certainly offers some things that stand out, the arp being one of these.

I'm probably leaving out things, and there's a lot in here that is just my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt ☺️. I think that most people will agree with at least a few things I mentioned.


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