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Albion 1 vs updates - Why so many prefer the old version?

rlundv

rlundv

Senior Member
rip_albion599.jpg


Why does the first version of Albion 1 show up in so many composers VST-lists?

Albion ONE has a "Legacy"-version included - is this the same as the original version? Both Junkie XL and Daniel James claim they use the original version for various reasons.

Do you guys still prefer the first version? Why?



I found this version from Spitfire's Youtube-channel. Are these sounds any different from later updates?
Click to read more...
 
Albion ONE doesn't include the full legacy library - only certain patches. I also prefer the old legacy version.

The ONE samples sound a bit too tight end overly processed for my taste, and some of the stuff sounds oddly synthetic. I find the strings much, much better in the old version - lively, colorful, quirky, raw, soulful. I actually think they're some of the most beautiful and interesting string samples ever recorded. The new strings sound odd ... like a gigantic cello section ran through some synth. No magic left. The only patch I like to use is the thunderous low shorts in octaves.

The brass is really just weird. Doesn't sound right at all, at least to my ears. The old woodwinds are softer and sweeter. I do however like the "arranged shorts" patch in the new Albion, it's very useful. But overall the woodwinds here sound too reedy - it gets nasal and biting real quick.

The percussion actually is better in Albion ONE. It's cleaned up and more comprehensive. It's partly the same material, but also comes with some great new stuff as well.
 
Albion 1 more realistic than ONE -- {String ,Wind,Brass,Overlay Patches } wonderful in old Albion 1 ..
 
Jimmy Hellfire said:
Albion ONE doesn't include the full legacy library - only certain patches. I also prefer the old legacy version.

The ONE samples sound a bit too tight end overly processed for my taste, and some of the stuff sounds oddly synthetic. I find the strings much, much better in the old version - lively, colorful, quirky, raw, soulful. I actually think they're some of the most beautiful and interesting string samples ever recorded. The new strings sound odd ... like a gigantic cello section ran through some synth. No magic left. The only patch I like to use is the thunderous low shorts in octaves.

The brass is really just weird. Doesn't sound right at all, at least to my ears. The old woodwinds are softer and sweeter. I do however like the "arranged shorts" patch in the new Albion, it's very useful. But overall the woodwinds here sound too reedy - it gets nasal and biting real quick.

The percussion actually is better in Albion ONE. It's cleaned up and more comprehensive. It's partly the same material, but also comes with some great new stuff as well.
Click to expand...

This. I can't count how many times I've been on ONE and changed over to Legacy. Some of it has to do with the above...the strings in ONE can sound outrageously synthy and edgeless, even with all the RR tricks; but I have to stick up for the spicc/stacc patch in the strings for ONE. They can be quite useful, even if only in layering. The woodwind legati aren't terrible either imo.

I do notice that I almost never use ONE in a final mockup, only Legacy and even then not too often.
 
hmmm... I'd agree that the two libraries sound different, not sure I'd call it dramatic, but certainly different. Wasn't able to put a name to it, but I like the description above, perhaps they are just a bit too polished for some applications? On the other hand, sometimes I prefer the Legacy patches in ONE over the original library. And of course I enjoy some of the new material as well. Which is a bit of a shame, since I can not bring myself to remove the original library. There are worse problems!
 
I was quite despondent to buy ONE and find the winds were gone. the new version are much more aggressive. You still have the legacy wind short. Which are gorgeous. but there’s nothing with the soft quality of the legacy wind Longs.

Of course the easy fix for this problem was to buy SSW, which itself is kind of life changing.
 
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Love Albion 1 legacy, but mostly for layering. String legato is notoriously poor (lots of “sucking” effect), and the winds and brass don’t sit well out front in a mix (maybe better if you’re template is 100% Spitfire), IMO. Perc is OK...drenched in the room verb and the close mics aren’t great.

That being said, they indeed have a quality I’ve not heard in other libraries...something organic and bitey, which is why they often get layered in to my tracks. The shorts, in general, just have something special...especially the low strings.
 
I too prefer Legacy, which has a more pastoral, less "in your face" sound overall. ONE is more polished, but also seems to be more self-consciously tailored for "film scoring" and is less natural, quirky and organic. ONE does the standard pulsating, ostinato strings-type thing quite well, but when you play slow and soaring ONE has less soulful character (although calling ONE's strings "synthy" is overstating it IMHO). The strings in Legacy are stunning, shimmeringly beautiful.

I wasn't a big fan of having the horns & trumpets/trombones & tuba only in octaves in Legacy, so ONE is an improvement there.

I wasn't ever going to get ONE, but Spitfire made a flash offer for it that I couldn't refuse, and I don't regret purchasing it because it's the closest thing to a broadly generic sketchpad in the Albion lineup. I am happy to have both.
 
I've seen other threads here asking the same question. Albion 1 just has a wonderful warmth which I keep turning back to, I tend to use it for slower more reflecive pieces. ONE feels more sterile and processed, better suited for writing faster puncher trailer music (and it's not my first choice library for that style). I've never actually used ONE in any of my tracks.
 
It's funny, but just last night I was reading a thread from 2015 on Spitfire at TheSoundBoard, and there were quite a few people who were saying the strings in Albion 1 were very poor, and the Albion One strings were far better.....

But I am glad I have the original library....
 
One includes a small variety of legacy patches but re-skinned. I don't know if they reprocessed or edited the original samples though.

Why do I prefer the original?

It sounds so much more raw and unprocessed than ONE. I prefer the way the orchestrated ensembles sound over the new one and all in all, it works so much better from a mixing perspective. ONE doesn't offer a split out of High Strings and Low Strings (except in the legatos) so you are stuck with their baked ensemble patch for the Strings. I don't particularly find the Woodwinds or Brass very pleasing to the ears in the new library. Legacy has it's downsides but for the most part, it still holds up compared to newer libraries, even compared to ONE. But yea, to sum it all up into one word it would be, "raw." I just feel like I'm listening to players play some notes versus a super processed, near synthetic, sounding ensembles.

Your mileage may vary though.

-C
 
Both the Albions are useful, but Albion 1 probably more so. I use them for different things, and somewhat sparingly.

For brass, I much prefer Albion 1. The mid brass especially in Albion 1 is great, there is nothing I've found that easily does the same thing. Still sounds great, right up there with other libraries. The shorts in either will do the trick, but the longs in Albion One are not so good.

For woods, Albion One is more reedy, Albion 1 is more beautiful and better mixed. Shorts on both are fine, depending on what you want, but Albion 1 is IMO preferred for most contexts.

For strings it depends. To me they sound very different and have different uses. I've used the Albion One consord longs to great effect before. But Albion 1 strings are my preference, even if the slower attack makes it a harder to use them. They are more realistic sounding, and can be quite beautiful. And those Albion 1 low strings... hard to beat.

For percussion I use both, but not often. Albion 1 actually has a good variety of percussion and loads of instrument effects, which can be occasionally useful. Albion One has string runs, also useful.

Albion One synth stuff is better, actually is very good. The pads/drones based on string sounds especially are very useful.
 
Jimmy Hellfire said:
[...] The brass is really just weird. Doesn't sound right at all, at least to my ears. [...]
Click to expand...
A thousand-million-bajillion times this! Coming from a trumpet player, the brass in ONE really pisses me off. The "Brass High" patch is utterly worthless. The Mid patch is meh, and the Low patch has its little gems here and there.

I'm actually fond of the woodwinds in ONE. I think they sound quite nice, especially the legatos.

Admittedly, I never had the legacy version so I can't compare personally. But the demos I've heard of the legacy library are really quite nice.
 
It is a complete mystery to me. For strings, I've always thought Albion 1 was a big ol' synth with unbelievable amounts of room noise, which I've never found an appealing combination for some reason. Indeed I've never heard anything convincing come out of it. Albion ONE is in another league - fantastic expressive shorts, buttery legatos. The brass and woods do very little for me, mind, but happy enough just to have it for the strings.
 
It's a moving target and IMO, in part, it depends on what string library you were working with immediately prior to auditioning the next one.

Here's an example:
NI Symphony Series --> Albion ONE = Yuck. These Albion strings sounds like a synth.
Albion ONE --> NI Symphony Series = My god. These NI strings sound thin and raw. Yuck.

The ear likes to fool us. FWIT, I like the sound of both Albions. There's also the pack mentality of VI control influencing our opinions. Read enough posts exclaiming that the strings "sound like a synth" and you'll start to "hear' it too. ;)
 
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I too prefer legacy. ONE has some useful stuff, but the brass just sounds better in legacy, and the legatos - especially the strings - are way better.
 
I don’t care about semantics.

But yes ONE is more synthy. Not as much as the Vienna stuff but sure is somewhere in between legacy and Vienna in terms of synthy.

It’s not all that bad to be honest. An organic sounding composition can still be achieved with it
 
Truly I'm on a different planet to you folks. Hey, at least that means I'm not suffering from groupthink, right?

I never bought 1 because every demo I heard had these awful synth strings. I got 1 for free when getting ONE, and under my fingers it was exactly the same, only I noticed what sounded like a bonus motorway crashing through Air Studios as well.

For ONE, I detect none of that tell-tale synthyness, and I have LASS, Sable, Cinestrings, Symphobias, Metropolis Ark etc. It holds up to them all, and indeed for warmth and butter exceeds them (albeit with limited articulations). It has a particular niche in the template, and I'm very happy its there.

So I genuinely find the comments here baffling. The best theory I have is that the original was a trailblazing product back in its day, and some folks have associated that particular sound with happy thoughts. Or something.

I have an, um, chequered track record on this forum re Spitfire, but on this one I 100% agree with them that completely redoing it was the only way to fix the problems with the original release, and good on them for doing so.

Just don't get me started on the Earth Redux...
 
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