Spitfire Albion NEO
- Thread starter Dandezebra
- Start date
jbuhler
Senior Member
If only there wasn’t already a whole thread about it!
xguitaristx
Never trust the living
I dig the strings, but i already own a bunch of stuff that does a great job doing what i hear from Neo. I think it's just too redundant to justify the purchase.
Lovely sound though, minus the gross bacon sizzling.
Lovely sound though, minus the gross bacon sizzling.
jbuhler
Senior Member
It really depends on how you use these things. If you are using Albion One extensively for sketching or whatnot and want something similar for a chamber ensemble, Neo will fit the bill. Also if you want something like Tundra but with a smaller orchestra, Neo will again fit the bill. In the other thread, @ism suggested Neo and a good woodwind library as a starter set for non-epic media scoring. If you add to that something like Organic Samples' $2 Majestic Horn (through Orchestral Tools), you'd have a nice chamber set up.
Why do you hate breakfast?
I was really excited when I heard it would features smaller section sizes and new instruments. Then when I watched the walk-through for Stephson's Steamband, this was the section that blew me away. If I had to guess, I think the vocal majority here isn't buying it, and it would appear Spitfire didn't give many review copies out to get that hype going. I agree with OP, and I'm hoping we see more comments. I'm not seeing independent reviews that would push me over the edge into "buy" territory yet.
There's lots of enthusiasm for they library on the other thread (including from myself - I think it's wholly new and exciting).
I mean, I suppose you could argue it's a bit niche. But only if you allow epic trailer music to be archetypal of the mainstream and anything deviating into softer more textured music as what's marginal.
Which may be true on certain vi-c threads, but I really don't its true in general.
Regarding the Stevenson sections, I have Albion 1 Legacy, Albion One, Albion 5 and eDNA Earth. So much of this sounds the same. There is massive redundancy throughout these. So many similar to nearly identical sounding presets. I have gone through all 4 and have boiled it down to maybe 25-30 presets for each out of the up to 2 hundred or more available in each. There are some great sounds, but fishing through folders with long lists of identical sounding presets is a painful waste of time. It pays to go though it all and make a Quickload favorite folder your favs. With that said, I have no interest in more of the same.
Neo does sound nice and if I didn’t have Tundra I might have considered it.
Neo does sound nice and if I didn’t have Tundra I might have considered it.
jbuhler
Senior Member
With respect to the steamband stuff, I tend to agree, though I suspect the 25-30 presets you chose would differ from the 25-30 I chose. And I've found an overabundance of presets to be a general problem with synths. But then so many of us turn around and buy more presets, so it's hard to say that the approach of offering lots of presets is a problem the developers have created. The Segla patches are a nice addition. Some of the previous steamband stuff had done similar things, but I don't recall anything as comprehensive and it does make it an easy way to morph between the orchestral patches as well as warp them. Yes, there are other ways of doing this, but this is quick and easy.
I find Neo generally more flexible than Tundra. Neo is also a chamber sound rather than the full orchestral sound of Tundra. Tundra has a bit more variety in terms of the characteristic frail, edge of silence sounds. But it doesn't do standard shorts and longs as well as Neo does. But it does come down to what you think you will get use out of. Personally I think I will end up using Neo more than I use Tundra.
dzilizzi
Senior Member
There was a Sample Talk thread on it, but it just died out after release of the actual library. Then it seems people either lost interest or moved to the official thread.
I think it sounds nice, but I can't see any use for it right now with everything I have. More of the same really.
I think it sounds nice, but I can't see any use for it right now with everything I have. More of the same really.
I'm sure that if you take the various Albion hybrid sounds though lens of "transcendent synth music" they all function pretty similarly.
But it seems to me that the point of building synth patches on orchestral samples is precisely the spatialization and sense of presence of the original samples is (hopefully) preserved in the synth.
A lot of synth music (in so far as I understand it) seem to me to be going quite precisely a sense of transcendence. And in this sense Albion are nothing special, or at least limited compared to the Omnispheres of this space.
Conversely, at least a certain type of orchestral music is going for a sense of "embodiment" (which is why the tree mic are so important, and probably also why I've never been able to make anything sound remotely satisfying with the VSL (absent MIR)).
So here's my perceptual take on the Albion patches (riffing on a comment by Paul in one of the eDNA videos) :
Insofar as the spatial presence and embodiment inherent in the orchestral samples of the Abions is preserved (ie the processing isn't so crazy as to completely obliterate it) it breaks the dichotomy of the transcendence-embodiment duality, and you get a result that, instead of participating in the duality inherent in the transcendence-embodiment spectrum, gives a more multivalent sense of simultaneous transcendence and embodiment.
Understood in a synth-as-transcendece paradigm, the Albion are weak tea compared to the vastness of the Omnispheres or the world, and the distinction between hybrid patches across the different Albions is probably quite minimal.
But understood in terms of how the underlying orchestral samples bring this spatialization/ presence/ embodiment to a sound - assuming of course that your track is located with a musicality of embodiment rather than simply synthy-transcendence-as-usual ) - I feel the difference between the hybrid patches in Albion One, V and Neo (not sure about III) are enormous.
That is, they offer completely difference senses of this "transcendent-embodiment".
But it seems to me that the point of building synth patches on orchestral samples is precisely the spatialization and sense of presence of the original samples is (hopefully) preserved in the synth.
A lot of synth music (in so far as I understand it) seem to me to be going quite precisely a sense of transcendence. And in this sense Albion are nothing special, or at least limited compared to the Omnispheres of this space.
Conversely, at least a certain type of orchestral music is going for a sense of "embodiment" (which is why the tree mic are so important, and probably also why I've never been able to make anything sound remotely satisfying with the VSL (absent MIR)).
So here's my perceptual take on the Albion patches (riffing on a comment by Paul in one of the eDNA videos) :
Insofar as the spatial presence and embodiment inherent in the orchestral samples of the Abions is preserved (ie the processing isn't so crazy as to completely obliterate it) it breaks the dichotomy of the transcendence-embodiment duality, and you get a result that, instead of participating in the duality inherent in the transcendence-embodiment spectrum, gives a more multivalent sense of simultaneous transcendence and embodiment.
Understood in a synth-as-transcendece paradigm, the Albion are weak tea compared to the vastness of the Omnispheres or the world, and the distinction between hybrid patches across the different Albions is probably quite minimal.
But understood in terms of how the underlying orchestral samples bring this spatialization/ presence/ embodiment to a sound - assuming of course that your track is located with a musicality of embodiment rather than simply synthy-transcendence-as-usual ) - I feel the difference between the hybrid patches in Albion One, V and Neo (not sure about III) are enormous.
That is, they offer completely difference senses of this "transcendent-embodiment".
Well here's the other thread.
INTRODUCING Albion NEO. The next chapter in our bestselling Albion series.
...I think that brings up another good point. This was never meant to be a comprehensive new option for a sax wind ensemble. It's a toolset geared towards a specific style and aesthetic. If any of you were waiting for a good orchestra sax library, this just ain't it.I didn't think this was it...
vi-control.net
There's lots of good, engaged discussion on in (in addition to at least a little bit of the usual nonsense).
And while its true that there hasn't been a post in about 4 hours, I don't think this could as a thread "dying out", and I particular don't think this warrants an interpretation of a general loss of interest in the library.
xguitaristx
Never trust the living
That's the commerical announcements thread. The Sample Talk thread is the one that lost momentum.Well here's the other thread.
INTRODUCING Albion NEO. The next chapter in our bestselling Albion series.
...I think that brings up another good point. This was never meant to be a comprehensive new option for a sax wind ensemble. It's a toolset geared towards a specific style and aesthetic. If any of you were waiting for a good orchestra sax library, this just ain't it.I didn't think this was it...
There's lots of good, engaged discussion on in (in addition to at least a little bit of the usual nonsense).
And while its true that there hasn't been a post in about 4 hours, I don't think this could as a thread "dying out", and I particular don't think this warrants an interpretation of a general loss of interest in the library.
jbuhler
Senior Member
That commercial thread has a lot more critical discussion than is typical for commercial threads. I kept having to remind myself that it was the commercial thread and not the sample talk thread and so I shouldn't bring up comparisons to Ark II and IV.That's the commerical announcements thread. The Sample Talk thread is the one that lost momentum.
Ah. In which case a lot of what was discussed on there shouldn't have been. Quite a good thread for critical discussion on the whole though.That's the commerical announcements thread. The Sample Talk thread is the one that lost momentum.
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xguitaristx
Never trust the living
I think you're right. Probably a bit too much drama for a commercial thread, which is one reason I bounced, aside from ultimately losing interest in Neo.
MaschineMind
Pro Crastinator
Just wait for the next library, it's guaranteed to be a game changer.
