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Native Instruments Symphony Series?

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Suntower

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I'm finally going to get round to updating my NI 'Komplete' to V12. Apparently for an extra $200 I can get the entire "Symphony Series". Woo Hoo! (where's the 'mild sarcasm' icon :D ).

But seriously, I have a bunch of libs and the handful of demos don't have anything that says WOW. IOW: If I had -nothing- I'd probably think it was "da bomb". But being an old guy, I'm thinking that if there isn't anything -really- extraordinary hiding in there, forget it. (Especially since after a while who wants to have 400QB of samples, right?

But... in almost every version of Komplete I actually -have- found several "Holy Shit" items. So...

Any real winners inside Symphony Series that make it worth that $200 for someone who already has a 2 TB of samples? :D

TIA,

---JC
Click to read more...
 
Suntower said:
I'm finally going to get round to updating my NI 'Komplete' to V12. Apparently for an extra $200 I can get the entire "Symphony Series". Woo Hoo! (where's the 'mild sarcasm' icon :D ).

But seriously, I have a bunch of libs and the handful of demos don't have anything that says WOW. IOW: If I had -nothing- I'd probably think it was "da bomb". But being an old guy, I'm thinking that if there isn't anything -really- extraordinary hiding in there, forget it. (Especially since after a while who wants to have 400QB of samples, right?

But... in almost every version of Komplete I actually -have- found several "Holy Shit" items. So...

Any real winners inside Symphony Series that make it worth that $200 for someone who already has a 2 TB of samples? :D

TIA,

---JC
Click to expand...

probably not..

to be fair its not at all worthless, but its hard to rank it. Its got interesting auto-divisi, good legato and portamento. its not trash but ive never heard it on people's fave list
 
rollasoc said:
I'd wait a few weeks. Isn't there the half price NI sale traditionally at the end of May????
Click to expand...

Indeed.

Also, to answer the OP, all the parts are decent, though woodwinds sounds a bit weird and I've been told the strings sound synthetic. I don't particularly agree. The percussion, however, is fine and the whole set for the discounted upgrade price is a very good deal. I will be getting it as well during summer sale.
 
chocobitz825 said:
probably not..

to be fair its not at all worthless, but its hard to rank it. Its got interesting auto-divisi, good legato and portamento. its not trash but ive never heard it on people's fave list
Click to expand...

Pretty much this. Decent sound and auo-divisi is nice, but sonically you've probably got better options already. I would venture to say out of the symphony series, the perc is probably the best
 
I think the strings are very good. The percussion too.. The brass is pretty good (could be better).. The woodwinds aren't great alright.. which is a sickener, because the arpeggiator is cool..
 
For $200? A steal. It's best thought of as 4 separate libraries though, as they're recorded in different spaces/mics/studios/engineers etc. For me, percussion is the highlight. Brass goes to "11" where other libraries don't, and the auto-divisi strings are a work of wonder. Like any library, it can be made to sound great in the right hands, and the inverse is also true.

There's lots to love for the money. Like another poster suggested, wait for the NI summer sale and cross your fingers that this year, it's 50% off upgrades. ;)
A
 
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Can someone tells me who is the vendor for each of the components?

I already have LASS 2.5 and EW Hollywood Orchestra
I'm about to pull the trigger on AudioBro MSB, but the Symphony Brass advertises that it includes serveral trumpets and bones with mutes which is intriguing.

I don't really -need- a bunch of percussion, but I'm always a sucker for good woodwinds.
 
Alex Fraser said:
For $200? A steal. It's best thought of as 4 separate libraries though, as they're recorded in different spaces/mics/studios/engineers etc. For me, percussion is the highlight. Brass goes to "11" where other libraries don't, and the auto-divisi strings are a work of wonder. Like any library, it can be made to sound great in the right hands, and the inverse is also true.

There's lots to love for the money. Like another poster suggested, wait for the NI summer sale and cross your fingers that this year, it's 50% off upgrades. ;)
A
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Really? I didn't think upgrades ever went on sale. Good to know.
 
Suntower said:
Can someone tells me who is the vendor for each of the components?

I already have LASS 2.5 and EW Hollywood Orchestra
I'm about to pull the trigger on AudioBro MSB, but the Symphony Brass advertises that it includes serveral trumpets and bones with mutes which is intriguing.

I don't really -need- a bunch of percussion, but I'm always a sucker for good woodwinds.
Click to expand...

Strings are in collaboration from Audiobro, percussion with sonuscore and the brass and woodwinds are from Soundiron, if thats what you mean. i think people generally find the woodwinds to be the most lackluster part of the set.
 
I'm actually keeping money set aside for the summer sale in hopes the upgrade to the Collector's Edition will be half-off as well. That would basically be my only reason to upgrade my 11 Ultimate to 12.

Full Symphony Series would definitely make it worth it.
 
Am I missing some deeper editing in this series, or is it really as limited as the main GUI would suggest? I've read the manuals and didn't spot a more advanced editing mode. As a result, I'm not using any of them yet, as I keep running into obstacles I can't get past, no matter how much I edit, in terms of getting the sound I want vs. the over-the-top defaults. It's frustrating, because the recording quality is very good in most cases, and the sampling depth is quite extensive.
 
Manuel Stumpf said:
Mark Schmieder said:
Am I missing some deeper editing in this series, or is it really as limited as the main GUI would suggest? I've read the manuals and didn't spot a more advanced editing mode. As a result, I'm not using any of them yet, as I keep running into obstacles I can't get past, no matter how much I edit, in terms of getting the sound I want vs. the over-the-top defaults. It's frustrating, because the recording quality is very good in most cases, and the sampling depth is quite extensive.
Click to expand...

What advanced editing possibilities do you miss?
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I'm wondering this as well. Whatever faults Symphony series has, lack of articulations or effect-options aren't among them in my opinion.
 
Mark Schmieder said:
Am I missing some deeper editing in this series, or is it really as limited as the main GUI would suggest? I've read the manuals and didn't spot a more advanced editing mode. As a result, I'm not using any of them yet, as I keep running into obstacles I can't get past, no matter how much I edit, in terms of getting the sound I want vs. the over-the-top defaults. It's frustrating, because the recording quality is very good in most cases, and the sampling depth is quite extensive.
Click to expand...



This helped give me a few ideas.
 
chocobitz825 said:
to be fair its not at all worthless, but its hard to rank it. Its got interesting auto-divisi, good legato and portamento. its not trash but ive never heard it on people's fave list
Click to expand...

That is remarkably spot on! And also probably not very useful for people trying to decide on whether or not to get it. When I looked for reviews I didn't quite understand why it isn't in any of the fav lists, but now that I have used it for a while I do. (which also is not at all helpful to anyone trying to make a decision :D )

Shiirai said:
I'm wondering this as well. Whatever faults Symphony series has, lack of articulations or effects aren't among them in my opinion.
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E.g. not being able to set attack and release per articulation slot sucks. And I'd have liked optional single-articulation patches. I also don't like how the keyswitch patches are organized so that you need two or three different keyswitch patches to even be able to choose from all articulations. And that's not even consistent accross the different ensembles.
It has a ton of articulations that I'll never use, but still misses a bunch that I would use in every piece. I bought Met Ark 1 to fill some of those gaps. MA1 has 2 articulations of different length between sustain and staccato, SSC only has Sustain, Staccato even shorter articulations (spiccato, double/tripple tongue). And the sustain/legato doesn't have a sharp enough attack to play it like those libraries designed to be played just with modwheel on a single patch. Layering the staccato on top doesn't sound right either imho.


P.S.: to be clear, I would absolutely not recommend it at full price. I think I paid 300 for the whole collection...
 
MartinH. said:
That is remarkably spot on! And also probably not very useful for people trying to decide on whether or not to get it. When I looked for reviews I didn't quite understand why it isn't in any of the fav lists, but now that I have used it for a while I do. (which also is not at all helpful to anyone trying to make a decision :D )
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Agreed. I don’t know really what to say. For some people it might be all they need and it’s sufficient as a very basic orchestral library in collaboration with a quality developers. The quality is deceptive because it feels like it should be enough, but when you dig in, its lacking for anyone doing more than just basic orchestral articulations. The strings auto divisi is a nice feature but also sometimes nonsensical in its execution. It’s just fine...better than one might expect from a kontakt/NI official library, but less than one probably wants for a workhorse library that can do what you need it to do. Honestly I’d say that’s the theme of most NI libraries. Great intro to the concept but not for the people doing more than basic pop.
 
Warts and all _ have Essentials and will surely Update to Symphony Series when Komplete 12 - Collector's Edition Summer Sale hits.
Expecting something close to $300. :unsure:

Using even more warts with NI_ Kontact Factory Library, Kirk Hunter Diamond Symphony Orch, Spotlight Solo Strings, Virtuoso Ensembles _ but enjoy the 'challenges'. :speechless:
 
OK, I may have been looking at the wrong manual then, as these have two versions and I have the advanced. I could not find much if anything in the way of articulations, and no mixing capabilities at all; just the rather hard to control coarse knobs for ambience (I'm doing this from memory as I'm at work).
 
Thanks for the video link -- I'll watch that this weekend (can't do it at work).

I do like that there is consistency within the series, in spite of multiple vendors involved.
 
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