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Why/how do YOU still use Albion One?

DivingInSpace

Senior Member
Hi guys, when i first started out around a year or 1,5 years ago i bought Albion one on sale (30 or 40% off) and was expecting the ultimate do it all orchestra for everything. I was happy with it when i first tried it out, but the more i used it, the more limited, synth-ish and weak it started sounding. Now, not even that long after, i rarely use it and go to Symphobia and other libraries instead. Still, i see a lot of people on here praising it in the 50% off thread mentioning that they still to this day use parts of it, so that made me wonder..

Why, and how, do you still use it? One part i still go to is the Darwing Percussion, the toms are amazing and the low/sub hits are out of this world, but what about you guys? Layering? Specific legacy patches? Specific contexts?

I hope you can inspire me to get some more use out of this, as right now it is mostly a percussion library to me (a very expensive one).
 
I don't use much of it, but the percussion, low strings in octaves, the woodwinds short (+short arranged), and legacy strings spicc ostinatum & high pizzicato are some of the workhorse patches I find good uses for time and again.
 
Hi guys, when i first started out around a year or 1,5 years ago i bought Albion one on sale (30 or 40% off) and was expecting the ultimate do it all orchestra for everything. I was happy with it when i first tried it out, but the more i used it, the more limited, synth-ish and weak it started sounding. Now, not even that long after, i rarely use it and go to Symphobia and other libraries instead. Still, i see a lot of people on here praising it in the 50% off thread mentioning that they still to this day use parts of it, so that made me wonder..

Why, and how, do you still use it? One part i still go to is the Darwing Percussion, the toms are amazing and the low/sub hits are out of this world, but what about you guys? Layering? Specific legacy patches? Specific contexts?

I hope you can inspire me to get some more use out of this, as right now it is mostly a percussion library to me (a very expensive one).
I use it mostly as a sketching tool, and in that context almost everything will be replaced. But you can also get a credible sounding orchestral piece/cue out of it very quickly if you are working against deadline, say, and you write for the strengths of the library.
 
I think its all about what kind of style you´re into. As a blend lib its good with chamber strings or SSW, and I do like it when it comes to subtle, yet big parts. Yes, some years have past, but the feel and ambience is still there. IMO I would not regard the sounds of the orchestral palate as syntish, but I guess it a matter of personal taste.
 
I use it all the time. A lot of it is in my main template. Not just one but also the original 1.

The Strings, especially the shorts sound really huge, also the Percussion is great as well.

It’s also great for layering with other libs to fill out sections that need a little more to cut through.

And then, sometimes you don’t really need any more than those ensemble patches (even though your ego might disagree $$$).
 
Let me hang on my wagon :)

Rather new to the field, so don`t be surprised if you see some stupid questions etc ...

Would it be useful to add Albion One / SSO / HZ percussion to my template - in the following context :

As you all know : Spitfire has special prices now, so this short list is no accident.
And I intend to buy at most one of these (unless someone comes up with extremely good arguments ...) !

Recently started a project that is situated in 13th century, and covered some bases with Tarilonte's (TARI) ERA2 & Vocal Codex.
ERA2 contains era-specific instruments in all sections, mostly solo. So looking at the "generic" orchestral backbone :
Years ago - in the context of a mixed sample/real performance classical project - I purchased VSL Dimension Strings, just one base of the concept of the library. Strange place to start with samples, I know ... (I knew them because of VEPRO)
Recently added BDT, SCS - adore the sound of these, and - somewhat motivated by special offer - Forzo.
And - to get some ideas & speed up some more generic areas - "The Orchestra" (TO).

Strings are to be covered pretty well I guess : there might be a lack of big symphonic patches but have TO & VSL Epic Orchestra with some decent articulations ...

Brass : I know there are things out there with more articulations (legato just a starter), but -for now- that should do the job (again some TO, VSL ,NI stuff)

Woodwinds : well ... (except special articulations in BDT) nothing there except TO, VSL - but not 100% convinced I need this - at least not for this project.

Percussion : Damage and Battery (included in NI`s complete), and Stylus RMX (although can`t see application for this project) and then some TO, VSL.


Albion One would offer a decent orchestral backbone , providing woodwinds, and has (additional) orchestral percussion. No particular intrest in hybrid stuff, since - from electronic music background - I have plenty of synths that can do that.
As a bonus it has the benefit of also being a kind of "writing tool" (small template with just albion to get things going).

Spitfire`s Studio Orchestra (SSO) : I would get great woodwinds, but I fear to much overlap, most of all in the string section ...

Spitfire`s HZ Percussion : together with Damage and the rest, that would keep me from buying percussion libraries for the first 5 years , no ?


thx for reading - hope someone has some interesting thoughts on this ...

Thanks alot,
Joh
 
We all have different needs. For me, I use it all the time. I'm comfortable with it and it does what I want. Compared with Symphobia which I rarely use.
 
I don't use Albion ONE a whole lot (it was one of my first libraries, too), but recently I returned to it to use its high strings because it had just the right sound -- somewhat vintage -- that I was looking for. Unfortunately, the samples cut off one not lower than what I needed... so I had to fudge it by loading up an instance of Melodyne to pitch shift my final note a step higher. Worked fine. I also found that the woodwind section provided some nice color in the same piece, so it found a place there, as well.
 
I don't use Albion ONE a whole lot (it was one of my first libraries, too), but recently I returned to it to use its high strings because it had just the right sound -- somewhat vintage -- that I was looking for. Unfortunately, the samples cut off one not lower than what I needed... so I had to fudge it by loading up an instance of Melodyne to pitch shift my final note a step higher. Worked fine. I also found that the woodwind section provided some nice color in the same piece, so it found a place there, as well.

Hmmm, interesting observations ...
That "vintage string" sound, I use the same term for the (orginally vsl) kontakt factory strings - is it similar ?
And how would you compare its woodwinds to other libraries ?
 
We all have different needs. For me, I use it all the time. I'm comfortable with it and it does what I want. Compared with Symphobia which I rarely use.

Can you give some insight in what parts of the library you particularly find useful and/or different from other libraries ?
 
That "vintage string" sound, I use the same term for the (orginally vsl) kontakt factory strings - is it similar ?
And how would you compare its woodwinds to other libraries ?

Here is a clip from the song I was referring to:



The Albion One strings are prominent and in the foreground. This is the type of string sound I was after. The Albion One woodwinds are there, too, providing color (esp. in the 10-15 second mark) and again at the end.

At other points in the track, I use solo instruments from Spitfire's Symphonic Woodwinds. I don't have many woodwind libraries, but I like Symphonic Woodwinds well enough. I'd say the woodwinds in Albion One are extremely limited in their usage because they are the entire section, or large portions of the entire section. They have their place, but I don't find myself using the Albion One woods too often. But, again, in the piece above, I felt they provided a very quick way to write and lovely tone, as well, so I used them.
 
I think it works great as a layering tool! I wrote a cue using CSS, on a Legato, Con Sord patch, and used the Con Sord in Albion One as a layer. But similarly to other posts, it's mainly a sketching tool. I've never really been big into the synth-y stuff it can do. And I don't particularly love the brass sounds. But the arranged winds are fun sometimes, for quick mock-ups.
 
Albion One would offer a decent orchestral backbone , providing woodwinds, and has (additional) orchestral percussion. No particular intrest in hybrid stuff, since - from electronic music background - I have plenty of synths that can do that.
As a bonus it has the benefit of also being a kind of "writing tool" (small template with just albion to get things going).

While I like Albion One as a sketching tool and with the additional sounds, that it has, I wouldn't recommend it necessarily for those uses.

The woodwinds are not bad, but they're quite limited and very reedy in the sound. I like the woodwinds for their variety of color and you won't have much choice there.
The percussion has some instruments of traditional orchestral percussion like the cymbals, but mostly there are some big and heavy hits which would probably be less used as classic percussion.
The orchestral ensemble patches are quite solid, if you don't have a better dedicated library for a section. With SCS, you got some fantastic strings already and the string ensemble in Albion One is pretty limited and not quite as great sounding, but since I'm also lacking a string library with a big symphonic size, I like to layer SCS with the Albion strings at times to give it a big sound and that seems to work quite well.
 
Here is a clip from the song I was referring to:



The Albion One strings are prominent and in the foreground. This is the type of string sound I was after. The Albion One woodwinds are there, too, providing color (esp. in the 10-15 second mark) and again at the end.

At other points in the track, I use solo instruments from Spitfire's Symphonic Woodwinds. I don't have many woodwind libraries, but I like Symphonic Woodwinds well enough. I'd say the woodwinds in Albion One are extremely limited in their usage because they are the entire section, or large portions of the entire section. They have their place, but I don't find myself using the Albion One woods too often. But, again, in the piece above, I felt they provided a very quick way to write and lovely tone, as well, so I used them.

the orchestral tones in that track actually sounded a lot better than I expected, great work.
 
Interesting how tastes differ: I often find myself asking the question the opposite way around, ie, given how good Albion is, do I need that other string library? I often then compare what I can get from Albion One, and whatever I'm thinking of buying, and think, 'close enough'.

For example, as I sit and wait for OACE to download, I'm watching OACE videos on youtube. One, here, is Ashton Gleckman - at 9:19, he mentions that the con sord patch in SCS is where he always starts if the piece has strings in, and it's the way he gets the James Newton Howard sound. So, then I fire up Albion, load the con sord patch, and to my ears: close enough! Perhaps if I had SCS and could A/B with Albion, the difference would be much clearer, but for now at least, I feel I can get what I need from Albion.

I think Albion One is actually a little TOO good strategically, in that it does what it does so well, I wonder how many others like me have looked at other products, including some of those from Spitfire, and felt that they're already covered? Sure, there are very distinct sounds (I have other Spitfire strings such as BDT/Tundra), but for a bread and butter string section, personally I find it hard to beat. YMMV.
 
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Well you kind of got the best first. Wish I did it that way around ... :whistling:

Unfortunately, not exactly an easy library to start with - I think you really have to be at the stage of "OK, and now let's spend 10 days on setting up all articulations, humanisations, positions, etc" after having done all the composing & orchestrating.
There`s a certain logic to record individual players, and then combine them as needed. Also, a straight arpeggiator (or named differently) using only one articulation makes less sense to me then a sequencer where a particular sequence of articulations can be programmed - if only they made it a little more practical to use ...
(Actually, can't understand why the other libraries are not copying this from VIPro...)
I still do like it, but it seems to take a lot of effort to get things right. (but then probably "more right" then anything else)

But the (immediate) feeling / feedback / inspiration that comes from playing Spitfire's BDT and SCS - up till now, is unrivaled.
Yes, the flexibility in VI Pro is greater, you have more control (only figure out whah they mean), don`t have to look at a tiny GUI because Kontakt does not give more space ...
But just being able to start playing / recording and getting the right sound & ambiance right there - wow ...
 
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I use it all the time, to the point it's embarrassing.

Strangely, I've never used the library for the "epic thing" or sketching but I keep finding weird little uses for it. Recent examples include:
  • A "Breaking Bad" style percussion bed for a recent short animation (Darwin percussion, close mics only + some organic loops.).
  • An audio ident reminiscent of the Playstation 3 startup sound (Strings, long, no vibrato.)
  • Strings and horns for R&B work.
  • Nasty brass for hip-hop. (Yeah, I went there.)
I also scored a half hour film using nothing but the library and a piano.
As always with these things, YMMV. For me, it's the gift that keeps giving.
 
Interesting how tastes differ: I often find myself asking the question the opposite way around, ie, given how good Albion is, do I need that other string library? I often then compare what I can get from Albion One, and whatever I'm thinking of buying, and think, 'close enough'.

For example, as I sit and wait for OACE to download, I'm watching OACE videos on youtube. One, here, is Ashton Gleckman - at 9:19, he mentions that the con sord patch in SCS is where he always starts if the piece has strings in, and it's the way he gets the James Newton Howard sound. So, then I fire up Albion, load the con sord patch, and to my ears: close enough! Perhaps if I had SCS and could A/B with Albion, the difference would be much clearer, but for now at least, I feel I can get what I need from Albion.

I think Albion One is actually a little TOO good strategically, in that it does what it does so well, I wonder how many others like me have looked at other products, including some of those from Spitfire, and felt that they're already covered? Sure, there are very distinct sounds (I have other Spitfire strings such as BDT/Tundra), but for a bread and butter string section, personally I find it hard to beat. YMMV.

Isn't that kind of the ideal place for your toolkit to be in? Close enough for whatever you want to do with it?
 
While I like Albion One as a sketching tool and with the additional sounds, that it has, I wouldn't recommend it necessarily for those uses.

The woodwinds are not bad, but they're quite limited and very reedy in the sound. I like the woodwinds for their variety of color and you won't have much choice there.
The percussion has some instruments of traditional orchestral percussion like the cymbals, but mostly there are some big and heavy hits which would probably be less used as classic percussion.
The orchestral ensemble patches are quite solid, if you don't have a better dedicated library for a section. With SCS, you got some fantastic strings already and the string ensemble in Albion One is pretty limited and not quite as great sounding, but since I'm also lacking a string library with a big symphonic size, I like to layer SCS with the Albion strings at times to give it a big sound and that seems to work quite well.

thx for insights !

Strings : that`s exactly what I intended to use it fore - check ;)
Woodwinds & Percussion : well, that sounds like - a little disappointing ? Still would need an additional wood & percussion library to get things right ??
 
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