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Spitfire Audio Abbey Road One: Orchestral Foundations

NI just announced an Orchestral Tools sale. Including Berlin Orchestra Inspire...which appears, to me anyway, somewhat similar to AR1. Any thoughts? Before I buy AR1, would it be worth comparing to OTI?

Any other similar packages to Abbey Road One I should check out, or should I just give in and send Spitfire my money?
 
NI just announced an Orchestral Tools sale. Including Berlin Orchestra Inspire...which appears, to me anyway, somewhat similar to AR1. Any thoughts? Before I buy AR1, would it be worth comparing to OTI?

Any other similar packages to Abbey Road One I should check out, or should I just give in and send Spitfire my money?
You really have to buy both 1 & 2 to get the full orchestra. It is a weird setup for me a lot of the time. I actually would find AR1 to be more useful. Or really, BBCSO Core. For example, the Hi Strings come as 8va only. You have legatos, sustains and spiccato. The low strings are the same. There's also a violin/viola combo patch and first chairs combo patch with the same. And I only see one mix mic.

Inspires are a good basic library. I don't think AR1 is supposed to meet the same goal as being a basic starter library. It is being made for fast composing for media composers. Start with the foundation and add the extras and maybe a few other things. Boom, you're done. Background for a TV show complete.
 
NI just announced an Orchestral Tools sale. Including Berlin Orchestra Inspire...which appears, to me anyway, somewhat similar to AR1. Any thoughts? Before I buy AR1, would it be worth comparing to OTI?

Any other similar packages to Abbey Road One I should check out, or should I just give in and send Spitfire my money?

Huh I wonder if now that SF and others are moving away from Kontakt, NI will get more agressive with sales around the launch of competing products. I mean, damn they must have quite the mailing list by this point. One to put even SFA to shame xD

-DJ
 
Huh I wonder if now that SF and others are moving away from Kontakt, NI will get more agressive with sales around the launch of competing products. I mean, damn they must have quite the mailing list by this point. One to put even SFA to shame xD

-DJ
I don't think NI has to change anything, Daniel, since buying NI's Komplete Ultimate CE is so much cheaper than buying Spitfire's Everything Collection. These products are not anywhere near the same price point, so people can continue to buy NI Komplete and any of the Spitfire libraries without feeling that one replaces the other. NI Komplete Ultimate certainly has its usage even if you own all the Spitfire libraries, and Spitfire excels at orchestral instruments. It's ideal if you own both.
 
NI just announced an Orchestral Tools sale. Including Berlin Orchestra Inspire...which appears, to me anyway, somewhat similar to AR1. Any thoughts? Before I buy AR1, would it be worth comparing to OTI?

Any other similar packages to Abbey Road One I should check out, or should I just give in and send Spitfire my money?
I'm going to guess that Metropolis Ark 4 might be the most similar product (of Native Instruments' Orchestral Tools sale) to Abbey Road One. Both products are supposed to have a wide dynamic range and are currently priced in the same ballpark.

Ark 4 has smaller ensembles and "power legatos," though; and of course, it was recorded in a different space.

Best,

Geoff
 
Word. Maybe it’s because they can’t do decent legatos. Seriously. I have a few Spitfire products, and not one of them has legatos that are any good.

I think it's more that they don't, not can't, which makes it even worse imo haha. The legatos in their recent offerings I've bought like Studio Strings Pro have been terrible, but at the same time, Chamber Strings have some of the best legato offerings out there, so they're definitely capable, they just don't do it anymore. I would find their stuff much more useful with less mics and more dynamic layers, short variations and detailed legato transitions. I think the disregard for basic short consistency is even worse than the subpar legatos of late. Even AR1 for example:

Strings: Spiccato
Trumpets: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
Horns: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
Low Brass: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
High Woods: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
Low Woods: Staccatissimo, Marcato

I really don't understand this kind of thing, makes no sense the strings not having marc or tenuto, and low woods not having tenuto, to complete a consistent palette in a library that only has like 5 - 7 articulations per section 0_o
 
I think it's more that they don't, not can't, which makes it even worse imo haha. The legatos in their recent offerings I've bought like Studio Strings Pro have been terrible, but at the same time, Chamber Strings have some of the best legato offerings out there, so they're definitely capable, they just don't do it anymore. I would find their stuff much more useful with less mics and more dynamic layers, short variations and detailed legato transitions. I think the disregard for basic short consistency is even worse than the subpar legatos of late. Even AR1 for example:

Strings: Spiccato
Trumpets: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
Horns: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
Low Brass: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
High Woods: Staccatissimo, Marcato, Tenuto
Low Woods: Staccatissimo, Marcato

I really don't understand this kind of thing, makes no sense the strings not having marc or tenuto, and low woods not having tenuto, to complete a consistent palette in a library that only has like 5 - 7 articulations per section 0_o
It makes sense if the $49 extras have these articulations. Won't know until it comes out though.
 
As Christian says about the partnership with Abbey Road Studios: "This is a massive creative Partnership. We are developing a number of new ranges, the FIRST of which is called Abbey Road ONE film scoring selections. The first product within THIS range is called: Orchestral foundations"

That would mean, all those mini libs soon to be released is all part of the ONE range .
After the ONE range is completed, or during releasing the extra's, ANOTHER range will be introduced, also recorded in abbey road studios.

tldr:
I think listening to his words carefully, the future scenario will be (how many ranges isn't said, so i just pound in some amount):


- Abbey Road Studio ONE range -> a main library + extra addons (announced and main lib is ready for preordering. The addons will be announced when ready)
- Abbey Road Studio <fill in name> range -> ?? + ??? (to be announced in the future)
- Abbey Road Studio <fill in name> range -> ?? + ??? (to be announced in the future)
- Abbey Road Studio <fill in name> range -> ?? + ??? (to be announced in the future)

etc...

it might be that there, in the future besides the ONE range, will be a Film orchestra (with individual sections + solos) range, or a studio focus series (smaller space of studio two), etc....

if that is indeed the case, it might become very nice, having all their future libraries recorded in the same studio, and having a great mic setup/recording engineers etc...

So i guess they waved their partnership with Air goodbye, and started the new one with Abbey Road for the future of products.
 
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Do people really buy libraries based on the space the samples were recorded in?

Absolutely, for several reasons.

First, it's an important aspect to the tone, natural reverb, etc. There's a reason why people want to record live works at AR1, AIR, and so on. They're quite suitable for modern orchestral works.

Second, places with legit pedigree and heavy use often have mic'ing that's been perfected over the years, with staff who know the space well.

Third, the more great libraries that are provided from the same space, the less effort you likely have to put into getting your separate instruments to complement each other in a mix.

I'm not interested in AROOF, but I'm expecting to be heavily tempted by a future, top shelf release.
 
Thanks! My question reads as a bit snarky, but I'm legitimately curious. The second answer here makes a lot of sense to me. In my own practice, at the end of the day, the ambience of the space of one of the elements in a project is a very small consideration compared to other features a library might offer.
 
Depends on the kind of music also. A lot of orchestral hybrid usics works well with a very stylized reverb added by plugin on dry or dry-ish samples (8dio, and Audio imepria, it seems to me, are more catering to this aesthetic than Spitfire or Orhestral tools, for instance).

The reason you buy a SF library recorded in AIR, for instance, is for the sound of the tree mics. The close mics, in my estimation, are there to add detail and nuance to the (glorious), and deeply spatially embodied sonority of the tree mics. The way the close mics are recorded, apparently, isn’t how you’de record dry-ish samples for use in a stylized hybrid mix starting from dry samples.

It also depends on the instrument. Picolos - probably, all things being equal, not that big a difference between AIR and Teldex or Abbey Road or Meida Vale.

Cellos ... where you record, and how you record, the tree mics put you in entirely different musical universes.

So yes, even though no one who would ever listen to one of my compsitions (and you could count these people on your fingers) is ever likely to have heard of AIR or even Abbey Road One, the room matters enormously. Even to my wholly amateur self.
 
Three years ago Spitfire posted a video on youtube about blending the recordings made in different places. I took this as advance notice of the subsequent move to a wider recording location platform. Maida Vale was clearly a one-off but Abbey Road came as no surprise to me and imho there could easily be more as SA doesn't own a studio - maybe they should - and as a consequence is entirely dependent on the management policies of the ones it does use. Business and the arts must try to co-exist but sometimes the choices can be challenging. For all we know AL could even be up for sale.

Abbey Road seems likely to be an exclusive deal of an as yet unspecified term. I've pre-ordered AR1 as my own collection of libraries is still in its early stages and I'm impressed by the opportunities AR1 represents in terms of both the Studio One ambiance and AR's technology like the vast range of microphones at their disposal, some extremely rare vintage models with amazing dynamics. I acknowledge that it's a bit different if you already have a number of Air-recorded libraries but there are other solutions. At some stage I'll be adding altiverb to address any residual blending issues and to assist the sound image I want to achieve with my own compositions. I could well end up with a cross-section of libraries so the ability to blend is essential.
 
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Comparing AR1 to some of Cinesamples offerings, they both seem to dishing up the same sort of platas.

Shorts -- staccato or equivalent, marcato and something like tenuto -- one patch.

Legato -- another (albeit as a separate module for AR1).


Also the main melodic component of AR1, could be compared to Cinebrass (Core).

The rest follows their Albion and BBC SO strategy. Leaving AR1 to be a kind of hybrid effort.


Those looking for an all in one orchestral ensemble may want to seek out other alternatives, as this seems to be aimed at a very specific market segment.


So now if you want a single track that does it all, look elsewhere, as the preference of similar developers with all these players almost follows like articulations on one track. And lots of microphone positions -- who knows how deeply sampled these libraries are.


One good thing going for Spitfire, at least they tell you the consistency of their instrument sections, which helps to plan out your orchestrations.
 
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