Recently picked up Symphobia 1 & 2 and so far I'm really liking what they have to offer. Great review as always Sam, and really lovely short demo tracks!
I'm rarely tempted to push that "subscribe" button, but you offer so many valuable content that I don't wanna miss... really thanks for your time and efforts put into exploring & demonstrating those products👍
Great review. Thank you for this. Your playing and observations about the patches are pretty much on point. Also enjoy your accompanying compositions. 👍🏾
Con Sordino pretty good and useful here. I note that they are pretty easy to play under the fingers which is a challenge for many sample libraries. I think Project Sam revised some of the envelopes to respond well to touch and I suspect since these have been around for a long time that one reason is they are easy to play and sync up musically with later overdubs.
Great video,thnx!:)..I own a lot of Orchestra libs,like 8DIO - 90 libs !..Metropolis Ark..ALBION,Spitfire 10 libs,..Sonokinetic 20 libs,Cinematic strings,Cinesamples,Audio Imperia 8 libs,Embertone..NI Komplete ultimate,EWQL Platinum orch..etc etc...But i still love Project Sam sound!..but..when i wanna only one Symphobia now,cause is in sale,which one is better for more orchestral colors & phrases,Symphobia 1 or 2 ? thnx...
The review of Symphonia 2 is in the works, but I would say symphobia 1 is more complete as an orchestra, but the second one is more fun and has legato.
I've been looking at orchestral libraries and I really love the sound of Symphobia. Plus, there's this: Symphobia 1,2 & 3 take less than 80 Gb on your... Hopefully SSD, whilst Spitfire's Albion One solely uses more than 80 Gb. And Albion One doesn't open in Kontakt while Albion Tundra & Solstice do. Argh! Thank god Project SAM keeps it consistent.
Oh, and I know there's 4. But that's not so much what I like: the whole thriller, horror & dystopia thing. If I ever need it: sure, but not my thing. And yeah, the timestrechthing in the update comes from 4. So that's yay!
Albion one does open in kontakt. You might mean abbey road one, which is developed in their new Spitfire player. I also wouldn't really compare Albion one with symphobia, not entirely, because symphobia is more towards s specific style, especially 2 and 3, while Albion is a little more flexible. I really like symphobia, but it depends a little what you are after. If you want an orchestra with control I would look at BBC orchestra, Hollywood orchestra, or perhaps nucleus. (All similar price range) Symphobia is a speedwriting tool that sounds great for certain styles. Albion is a quicker all-round orchestra, and BBC is an orchestra with more control albeit requires a bit more knowledge. Cheers.
Great video! For Multis / stacking… would you only do that to sketch ideas but then want to move each section onto their own track for mixing purposes?
@@SecondTierSound thanks! After watching this, I decided to go ahead and get Symphobia 1 while NI has it on sale. I’m going to check out your other tutorials. I have Komplete UC 13, and East West CloudComposer+ (just switched to Opus, need to learn about Orchestrator, and none of my Gold Play tracks work now, yikes) NI and EW probably have functionality like Symphobia (?) but like you said, Symphobia seems like a nice entry level to easily sketch things as you are learning, which I am. :)
Hello. A lot to unpack there, but i have some videos on opus. Hollywood is a good orchestral library, but there is lots to learn to master it. Much better than anything NI has. Yes, Symphonia is a good starting kit.
@@SecondTierSound Have you tried NI's Cremona Quartet? I ended up getting Komplete UC pretty much just because it had those included. I love the tone of the Stradivari Cello and Strad Violin. I'm going to go watch your playlist for getting realistic sounds next. Lots to learn!
Hello. It has really nice samples, but personally I think the legato and vibrato has some phasing issues. For being included in the NI package, it is great, but for buying just a solo strings library, the cinematic studio solo strings is probably the best out there. Cheers!
to remedy the volume,cant you go under the hood and normalize,or manually change the volume of those indiviual samples in their respective kontakt groups? and when done save the library with the changes,thats the convenience of kontakt,you can always go in and change things,exept the locked script naturally 😁
Well, Novo is just strings with a "heavyocity" touch, while symphobia is a whole orchestra. If you mean just the strings, I'm sure Novo is much more complete. Perhaps the sound is similar?
As an owner of both: Novo is strings only (so you have to buy Forzo and Vento too if you want Brass and Woodwinds in a similar style), feels smaller and sharper but still powerful (I've seen the term "fake-big"), is recorded in sections + two range-limited Ensembles, has more microphone positions (3, while most of Symphobia has 2 - only Sul Tasto has 3), more round-robins and more dynamic layers (works very well with softer and more epic contexts) and there's the whole "Hybrid" instrument builder aspect of it (people who have other libraries usually get it for that aspect alone), plus it has a whole lot of phrasal content that hasn't been as done to death as Symphobia's has (and has an engine that lets you manipulate them), has a more limited set of articulations for the Traditional section compared to Symphobia, it has close to no vibrato in its longs (which feel like tanks sometimes), it does have (Polyphonic) Legato but it's "blink and you miss it", has a much more limited selection of shorts and some of the articulations which you'd love to have separately are only found in its two "High Ensemble" and "Low Ensemble" patches (for example, Staccato can only be found as an octave of Celli and Basses). Doesn't have soloist options. Also, it's pre-panned, which CAN be a problem sometimes, and for some damn reason in the Hybrid engine you get two round-robins per instrument instead of 6 in the Traditional version. Also, because its longs can feel Tank-y with no variation and vibrato, you sort of have to grab its expansion pack, Intimate Textures (Rhythmic Textures is excellent but not quite as critical to get, I feel). Honestly, if you're looking for a package from Heavyocity that has all sections, look into Symphonic Destruction - it's built in a similar logic than Symphobia is - quick-to-work-with ensemble patches, BUT you'll get less depth than if you go full Novo/Forzo/Vento. Symphobia is strings/brass/woodwinds/percussion + some hybrid content, feels larger but not as defined, is primarily built as an ensemble instrument (you do have the Sul Tasto patches, which are split into sections) feels stronger in its lower register for strings while it can feel a bit dated in mid-to-high registers (this can be corrected with tweaks/layering), actually has vibrato options, has an abundance of patches/articulations available (I love how it's choke-full with short articulations) while overall having a smaller memory footprint than Novo - but only has 2 round robins for most shorts so you have to be careful on how you work regarding that (you have to vary up velocity/short length), has a bit of a problem with playing softly as the dynamics are built for the more epic side of things - but it does excel in "energetic" playing, is really amazing for building your own custom Multis thanks to the engine update which lets you construct easy to play patches (this, I feel, is the best part about the overhaul - the way you can powerfully transpose and limit keyranges plus set up Note Stacking and have stuff only come in at certain velocities), doesn't have legatos at all (unless you also pick up Symphobia 2 - which, by the way, now supports Polyphonic Legato), is very easy and quick to set up for playing but can feel and sound artificial and MIDI if you're not careful (it's a much older product with limitations of its time - it's not crippling but you just need to know how to work around them and when NOT to use the instrument), has some Adaptive Sync patches which can work really well for certain contexts and, honestly, its sound might have been around for a while already but for me it's close to timeless. I have both and love both, but they both have very apparent weaknesses, so it's highly contextual. Which, honestly, most of these libraries are.
I really hate that when you cut between your video... The screen flashes black for a second! OMG.. I thought my handheld screen was going out! I had to rewind this video to be sure it was you doing it and not my handheld phone!!
I like your approach in the review. Topline first, then deep dive in each.
Thank you! Good to know. I think I have a fairly good recipe now, but I'll continue to see what works. Cheers!
Recently picked up Symphobia 1 & 2 and so far I'm really liking what they have to offer. Great review as always Sam, and really lovely short demo tracks!
Yes, the combination of those two is a good one. Cheers!
I'm rarely tempted to push that "subscribe" button, but you offer so many valuable content that I don't wanna miss... really thanks for your time and efforts put into exploring & demonstrating those products👍
Thank you Mohammed for your support. Only subscribe if it makes sense. 😊
man, your channel is so good. thanks for your content !
Well thank you very much!
Great Walk Through and Just purchased!
Thank you!
Enjoy! 😊
Thanks! Clear, good, helpful, but am only writing to say that I like the music samples in the vid.
This is the best review I saw so far and I've been looking for this quite a while. I never purchased it but after watching this I'm retriggert. *lol*
Thank you very much for saying this. I hope I can help you make an informed decision.
Thanks for this! Awesome review! This library is industry standard, the realism is amazing
It's pretty good😊
Great review. Thank you for this. Your playing and observations about the patches are pretty much on point. Also enjoy your accompanying compositions. 👍🏾
Thank you very much for your kind words. 😊
Con Sordino pretty good and useful here. I note that they are pretty easy to play under the fingers which is a challenge for many sample libraries. I think Project Sam revised some of the envelopes to respond well to touch and I suspect since these have been around for a long time that one reason is they are easy to play and sync up musically with later overdubs.
Yes, I very much agree. Both Symphobia 1 and 2 have truly great strings that you get very good results with, and it is easy to play
Thanks for the review, very useful.
Thank you. You're welcome!
Outstanding video! Thanks
Thank you Carmine!
Enjoyed your vids about the Symphobia’s a lot. Very insightful!
Cheers!
thx for this fantastic demonstration 🙏👌🥂
Thank you! 😊
Really good review
Thank you
I wonder if you have a mastering mixing orchestration course. Your class is formidable
Thank you. It is in the pipeline, but will take some time to complete. Hopefully soon.
Great review! I'm in doubt between this or nucleus. Dou you know nucleus? Thks forcthe vídeo!
For an all round multi purpose orchestra I would go with nucleus
Great video,thnx!:)..I own a lot of Orchestra libs,like 8DIO - 90 libs !..Metropolis Ark..ALBION,Spitfire 10 libs,..Sonokinetic 20 libs,Cinematic strings,Cinesamples,Audio Imperia 8 libs,Embertone..NI Komplete ultimate,EWQL Platinum orch..etc etc...But i still love Project Sam sound!..but..when i wanna only one Symphobia now,cause is in sale,which one is better for more orchestral colors & phrases,Symphobia 1 or 2 ? thnx...
The review of Symphonia 2 is in the works, but I would say symphobia 1 is more complete as an orchestra, but the second one is more fun and has legato.
I've been looking at orchestral libraries and I really love the sound of Symphobia. Plus, there's this: Symphobia 1,2 & 3 take less than 80 Gb on your... Hopefully SSD, whilst Spitfire's Albion One solely uses more than 80 Gb. And Albion One doesn't open in Kontakt while Albion Tundra & Solstice do. Argh! Thank god Project SAM keeps it consistent.
Oh, and I know there's 4. But that's not so much what I like: the whole thriller, horror & dystopia thing. If I ever need it: sure, but not my thing. And yeah, the timestrechthing in the update comes from 4. So that's yay!
Albion one does open in kontakt. You might mean abbey road one, which is developed in their new Spitfire player.
I also wouldn't really compare Albion one with symphobia, not entirely, because symphobia is more towards s specific style, especially 2 and 3, while Albion is a little more flexible. I really like symphobia, but it depends a little what you are after. If you want an orchestra with control I would look at BBC orchestra, Hollywood orchestra, or perhaps nucleus. (All similar price range)
Symphobia is a speedwriting tool that sounds great for certain styles.
Albion is a quicker all-round orchestra, and BBC is an orchestra with more control albeit requires a bit more knowledge.
Cheers.
@@SecondTierSound Oh right. Spitfire is almost as worse as Microsoft Gaming concerning their naming... :) Sorry.
No worries, I'm still trying to figure what the difference is between these libraries..
@@PendelSteven not to mention they suck at compression, istg it's like they're storing everything as bloody wavs
Thanks
Thank you!
A little update: since Native Instruments offered a good price for Symphobia 1 & 2 (because of the updates), I bought both of them.
Alright, I think that is the best way to go. Enjoy!
Great video! For Multis / stacking… would you only do that to sketch ideas but then want to move each section onto their own track for mixing purposes?
I've done both. I mostly sketch, but sometimes I've been really happy with the result and kept it as is.
@@SecondTierSound thanks! After watching this, I decided to go ahead and get Symphobia 1 while NI has it on sale. I’m going to check out your other tutorials. I have Komplete UC 13, and East West CloudComposer+ (just switched to Opus, need to learn about Orchestrator, and none of my Gold Play tracks work now, yikes) NI and EW probably have functionality like Symphobia (?) but like you said, Symphobia seems like a nice entry level to easily sketch things as you are learning, which I am. :)
Hello. A lot to unpack there, but i have some videos on opus. Hollywood is a good orchestral library, but there is lots to learn to master it. Much better than anything NI has. Yes, Symphonia is a good starting kit.
@@SecondTierSound Have you tried NI's Cremona Quartet? I ended up getting Komplete UC pretty much just because it had those included. I love the tone of the Stradivari Cello and Strad Violin. I'm going to go watch your playlist for getting realistic sounds next. Lots to learn!
Hello. It has really nice samples, but personally I think the legato and vibrato has some phasing issues. For being included in the NI package, it is great, but for buying just a solo strings library, the cinematic studio solo strings is probably the best out there.
Cheers!
Which DAW are you using that makes those note velocity curves? ProTools doesn't do that.
Cubase. 😊
What if i want only trumpet sound? Does it have any option like that?
It's a specific orchestral sound, with mostly ensembles. It has quite a limited solo section, and trumpet isn't one of them, but the brass is descent.
Great!
Cheers! But man, you watch videos very fast😉
@@SecondTierSound I comment while I'm watching! I can't watch videos completly because I follow a lot of youtubers.
I believe you. 😊
to remedy the volume,cant you go under the hood and normalize,or manually change the volume of those indiviual samples in their respective kontakt groups? and when done save the library with the changes,thats the convenience of kontakt,you can always go in and change things,exept the locked script naturally 😁
Perhaps. Let me know if you figure it out😊
@@SecondTierSound take a look at 2:00 th-cam.com/video/3r7-B201QOc/w-d-xo.html
What version of Kontack you need for this library?
6.5.3. And I think it is the free version. It was like that in the past, but better doublecheck with projectsam.
This versus Novo by heavyocity?
Well, Novo is just strings with a "heavyocity" touch, while symphobia is a whole orchestra. If you mean just the strings, I'm sure Novo is much more complete. Perhaps the sound is similar?
As an owner of both:
Novo is strings only (so you have to buy Forzo and Vento too if you want Brass and Woodwinds in a similar style), feels smaller and sharper but still powerful (I've seen the term "fake-big"), is recorded in sections + two range-limited Ensembles, has more microphone positions (3, while most of Symphobia has 2 - only Sul Tasto has 3), more round-robins and more dynamic layers (works very well with softer and more epic contexts) and there's the whole "Hybrid" instrument builder aspect of it (people who have other libraries usually get it for that aspect alone), plus it has a whole lot of phrasal content that hasn't been as done to death as Symphobia's has (and has an engine that lets you manipulate them), has a more limited set of articulations for the Traditional section compared to Symphobia, it has close to no vibrato in its longs (which feel like tanks sometimes), it does have (Polyphonic) Legato but it's "blink and you miss it", has a much more limited selection of shorts and some of the articulations which you'd love to have separately are only found in its two "High Ensemble" and "Low Ensemble" patches (for example, Staccato can only be found as an octave of Celli and Basses). Doesn't have soloist options. Also, it's pre-panned, which CAN be a problem sometimes, and for some damn reason in the Hybrid engine you get two round-robins per instrument instead of 6 in the Traditional version. Also, because its longs can feel Tank-y with no variation and vibrato, you sort of have to grab its expansion pack, Intimate Textures (Rhythmic Textures is excellent but not quite as critical to get, I feel). Honestly, if you're looking for a package from Heavyocity that has all sections, look into Symphonic Destruction - it's built in a similar logic than Symphobia is - quick-to-work-with ensemble patches, BUT you'll get less depth than if you go full Novo/Forzo/Vento.
Symphobia is strings/brass/woodwinds/percussion + some hybrid content, feels larger but not as defined, is primarily built as an ensemble instrument (you do have the Sul Tasto patches, which are split into sections) feels stronger in its lower register for strings while it can feel a bit dated in mid-to-high registers (this can be corrected with tweaks/layering), actually has vibrato options, has an abundance of patches/articulations available (I love how it's choke-full with short articulations) while overall having a smaller memory footprint than Novo - but only has 2 round robins for most shorts so you have to be careful on how you work regarding that (you have to vary up velocity/short length), has a bit of a problem with playing softly as the dynamics are built for the more epic side of things - but it does excel in "energetic" playing, is really amazing for building your own custom Multis thanks to the engine update which lets you construct easy to play patches (this, I feel, is the best part about the overhaul - the way you can powerfully transpose and limit keyranges plus set up Note Stacking and have stuff only come in at certain velocities), doesn't have legatos at all (unless you also pick up Symphobia 2 - which, by the way, now supports Polyphonic Legato), is very easy and quick to set up for playing but can feel and sound artificial and MIDI if you're not careful (it's a much older product with limitations of its time - it's not crippling but you just need to know how to work around them and when NOT to use the instrument), has some Adaptive Sync patches which can work really well for certain contexts and, honestly, its sound might have been around for a while already but for me it's close to timeless.
I have both and love both, but they both have very apparent weaknesses, so it's highly contextual. Which, honestly, most of these libraries are.
I really hate that when you cut between your video... The screen flashes black for a second! OMG.. I thought my handheld screen was going out! I had to rewind this video to be sure it was you doing it and not my handheld phone!!
😁
kinda nice library review/discussion but your green screen keying is terrible.
Kinda nice comment...
Sym - Phobia... oh my god what a bad name !!!!