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Inspector Actionman - my first Albion One track

visiblenoise

Active Member
My first two (and only) orchestral library purchases were Spitfire Studio Orchestra and Albion One. After a long while of exploring Studio Orchestra, I realized that I had never really used Albion One in a song, apart from the percussion. So here's my attempt at some kind of thriller/action theme.



Thoughts on Albion One orchestra: I am underwhelmed. It's likely due to my inexperience, but I was expecting to have an easier time than with Studio Orchestra. Strings are alright (low shorts are great), but I found it difficult to get the brass to feel alive. I also found writing for full ensemble patches more difficult than having each instrument section - I felt like I couldn't decide how to arrange lines, whether to play the whole chord in a patch, etc. I'll be sticking with Studio Orchestra for any full orchestra stuff from now on.
 
Those were also my first vst purchases. I also thought Albion was more or less useless because of the ensemble approach: I didnt know how to use them and I therefore started to explore de studio orchestra, which was easier for me due to my classical background. Now, one year later, I have rediscovered A1. I use to layer the 2 libraries, with A1 in the background (I no longer care about how many string instruments are sounding) and SSt for definition. The spiccatos in A1 are great, also the low 8 shorts and longs, I use them almost in every piece. I’m also a great fan of the woodwinds. When I don’t need them to do separate lines, I tend to use the shorts to do some accents. Easter island Perc is also awesome. There’s a lot of good content, I suppose it’s a matter of see what you find useful. I agree that the brass is not great, but, again, have you tried the “nasty shorts” of the low brass? I find them wonderful.

maybe yo could try to layer the sst brass over the brass lines of Albion in your piece? I think it’s nice, but yeah, the sounds are not helping in this case
 
Those were also my first vst purchases. I also thought Albion was more or less useless because of the ensemble approach: I didnt know how to use them and I therefore started to explore de studio orchestra, which was easier for me due to my classical background. Now, one year later, I have rediscovered A1. I use to layer the 2 libraries, with A1 in the background (I no longer care about how many string instruments are sounding) and SSt for definition. The spiccatos in A1 are great, also the low 8 shorts and longs, I use them almost in every piece. I’m also a great fan of the woodwinds. When I don’t need them to do separate lines, I tend to use the shorts to do some accents. Easter island Perc is also awesome. There’s a lot of good content, I suppose it’s a matter of see what you find useful. I agree that the brass is not great, but, again, have you tried the “nasty shorts” of the low brass? I find them wonderful.

maybe yo could try to layer the sst brass over the brass lines of Albion in your piece? I think it’s nice, but yeah, the sounds are not helping in this case
Appreciate your thoughts! I'm kinda done with this particular piece (I work way too slowly and wear myself out on ideas easily), but I'll consider layering the two next time.

Yea, the low octave strings is definitely my favorite part of the orchestra. But the rest of the strings and the brass seem a little warm and mushy. The brass was nigh unusable in this song until I realized I should turn the release times down! Woodwinds, I have not developed a good sense for judgment yet.

When you layer the two, is it a one-to-one layering or more of an effect reserved for certain song sections?
 
I also have Studio Orchestra (which were my first dedicated Strings, Brass and Woodwinds libraries apart from the Orchestral Packs that come with Ableton Live). At some point I upgraded to Pro and complemented it with the Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit (which in my opinion is like Albion with a bit of Herrmann flavor for the Studio Orchestra - it also gives you Percussion from the same room).

Obviously, sooner or later I started using more and more stuff from other rooms/halls as well - still, it simplifies the process if things were recorded in the same room.

I also have to say that I can understand why people sometimes have a hard time with Studio Orchestra. After experimenting a lot, I found that the right mic blend and a good reverb can really make it shine - feels like a completely new library to me since I have been using it with Seventh Heaven and other nice reverbs.
 
Appreciate your thoughts! I'm kinda done with this particular piece (I work way too slowly and wear myself out on ideas easily), but I'll consider layering the two next time.

Yea, the low octave strings is definitely my favorite part of the orchestra. But the rest of the strings and the brass seem a little warm and mushy. The brass was nigh unusable in this song until I realized I should turn the release times down! Woodwinds, I have not developed a good sense for judgment yet.

When you layer the two, is it a one-to-one layering or more of an effect reserved for certain song sections?
I started layering one-to-one, but nowadays I tend to only use the SSt for the lines I want to grab more attention. For example, I would use A1 for a big sounding spiccato rhythm, and then add the corresponding instrument from SSt for the top line. The instruments I use more often are the Brass (core) and the woodwinds (pro), because I find that the strings from A1 are usually fine, but I need a lot more control for the rest of the orchestra. I also use the JB percussion. I'm going to post my last piece if you are curious about this approach
I also have Studio Orchestra (which were my first dedicated Strings, Brass and Woodwinds libraries apart from the Orchestral Packs that come with Ableton Live). At some point I upgraded to Pro and complemented it with the Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit (which in my opinion is like Albion with a bit of Herrmann flavor for the Studio Orchestra - it also gives you Percussion from the same room).

Obviously, sooner or later I started using more and more stuff from other rooms/halls as well - still, it simplifies the process if things were recorded in the same room.

I also have to say that I can understand why people sometimes have a hard time with Studio Orchestra. After experimenting a lot, I found that the right mic blend and a good reverb can really make it shine - feels like a completely new library to me since I have been using it with Seventh Heaven and other nice reverbs.
Yeah, when I started using and adjusting the mics (also the reverb slider) of the Studio Orch, it was a totally different game. Do you have also the Brass pro? I upgraded the strings and ww, but until now, the brass core does its function nice enough for me
 
I started layering one-to-one, but nowadays I tend to only use the SSt for the lines I want to grab more attention. For example, I would use A1 for a big sounding spiccato rhythm, and then add the corresponding instrument from SSt for the top line. The instruments I use more often are the Brass (core) and the woodwinds (pro), because I find that the strings from A1 are usually fine, but I need a lot more control for the rest of the orchestra. I also use the JB percussion. I'm going to post my last piece if you are curious about this approach

Yeah, when I started using and adjusting the mics (also the reverb slider) of the Studio Orch, it was a totally different game. Do you have also the Brass pro? I upgraded the strings and ww, but until now, the brass core does its function nice enough for me

Yes, I upgraded all of them to Pro when I could get them for a good price. I made one or two pieces just using the built-in reverb (because I wanted to see what you can get out of the box with this library) but now I never use it (so the slider is all the way down) because most of the time it's not the sound I am looking for.
I could also get quite good results (at least in my opinion) from just the Core edition. But when you want to blend it with other libraries, the extra Mic positions definitely help. The Stereo Mixes are also quite nice.
 
I will check the stereo mixes, I have forgotten they were there. Usually use the Outriggers and the Close, I'm not a fan of the tree mics in this library
 
Hey, since we're on the Studio pro mics, did you guys notice something odd with the stereo mix patches for violins 1 divisi? The legato transitions sound like they're missing. The patch with the regular mics don't have this problem. Was going to open a ticket, but forgot about it.

I actually upgraded to pro during the Christmas sale, but haven't finished anything with it yet.
 
Hey, since we're on the Studio pro mics, did you guys notice something odd with the stereo mix patches for violins 1 divisi? The legato transitions sound like they're missing. The patch with the regular mics don't have this problem. Was going to open a ticket, but forgot about it.

I actually upgraded to pro during the Christmas sale, but haven't finished anything with it yet.

You should definitely report issues like that. Also, sometimes things like that only occur in the single articulation patches. After all, most articulations appear in several patches with several signals and I guess some of these mistakes go unnoticed for quite some time ...
 
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