What's new

Thoughts on OT Arkhis?

My biggest concern is the single mic "mix" which basically means "wet." I'm guessing this was a requirement per OT.

@Simeon would be great if you could demonstrate how dry the library is sans all the FX. Looking forward to your reviews!
 
I think that the market for this is people who decided that they were unwilling, or financially unable, to purchase the full Orchestral Tools versions. There are two questions. What are people giving up for the lower price? Secondly, is what’s being sold worth US$200, which Native Instruments, outside the “introductory“ period, says is the standard price.

In other words, I don’t think that a lot of people who own the full-price libraries are going to be buying this, notwithstanding “new, additional samples”.

This is an Orchestral Tools/Native Instruments exercise in recycling libraries. The questions are whether it’s worth the price and to whom.

At least one of the people who made the “review“ videos linked in @Simeon‘s and @ka00’s posts above owns the originals (I suspect both do), and I’m not impressed that he treats this as a new offering and completely ignores these questions.
I was in the market for this?

Because of something I heard in the walkthroughs and two early “reviews” that indicated to me a “great sounding timesaver” with respect to how I periodically reach for things like Time Macro/Micro, SA Kepler, Swarms... etc., yet find myself wishing for a different palette, and something a bit more intuitive, nevertheless. Especially for those nebulous and/or ethereal moments in life.

My orchestral template isn’t lacking in full-priced libraries, and still my ear picked up on elements of this today where I heard a workflow and quality that seemed very much worth the price. But I also buy a tool with a specific project in mind, this being a stage musical I’m composing and creating a soundtrack for, with dream/dreamy sequences galore. In such a project, there are always holes to fill, where the incoming and unexpected “cheating” tool seems to arrive on time.

But I get your points. I think, also, that some in the forum frequently speak primarily from a vantage point of scoring and mockup work, while a fair number of us also use these tools in and of themselves - in their final digital form. But arguments about tools that work in our different capacities is not necessarily a question of its viability. Very good tracks will get made with this tool, even as it may not pass a litmus test others seem compelled to make.

I’m impressed with the engine, and the curated instruments;. I have no criticism here of OT building on already solid source material for this approach. It’s very well thought out. There’s no rule that says it is a dereliction of duty to not re-record strings from scratch. There are some surprising intimate aspects (like the guitar), which work very well in my soundtrack.

I will say this: the presets and infinite options for cc control and shaping each layer is superb, but this is a soundscape, with an underlying textural approach, even as the layers can be quite expressive. As I put this into practical use, I suspect I’ll add to it, to broaden the spectrum and/or enhance the mic perspective. As is, it’s quite expressive already.
 
My biggest concern is the single mic "mix" which basically means "wet." I'm guessing this was a requirement per OT.

@Simeon would be great if you could demonstrate how dry the library is sans all the FX. Looking forward to your reviews!

Yeah, I was really disappointed when I saw there was only one mic option. The Inspire series has the same issue with one super wet mic mix. It makes those libraries unusable for me which is a pity as they sound great, but I can only use them as initial sketch pads.

I don't need 16 different mic option but nor can I get away with just one, realistically.
 
Some beautiful sounds in Arkhis for sure!

However, I think there are a few small usability missed opportunities:

- You can't mute or solo a layer (which would be useful when creating presets)
- You can't choose an "empty" sound source for a layer, you have to choose something
- You can't choose a sound source twice (e.g. the same for layer 1 and 2, and pitch them differently)

Also, Arkhis has never been updated since release (still at 1.0.0), so this issue (and any other that may have been discovered by other users) still persists: https://vi-control.net/community/th...native-instruments-arkhis.124970/post-5103872

There's another discussion on Arkhis here: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/arkhis-some-missed-opportunities.123130/

All the best
 
Top Bottom