The dynamic range goes from pianississimo to fortississimo, but the underlying force and bite is always there – every whisper is a controlled scream. Just like the oppressive calm before a returning storm, the sound is always powerful and aggressive. All performed and mixed in such a way that the listener perceives them as a single sound. Similarly, the mixed wind sections are not instrumental sections in the conventional sense, but rather special blends of colors that come together to create a broad palette of virtual instrumentation. The sections are not small – they are sharply focused like the Maschinenmensch robot in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, all unbridled expressive energy and singularity of purpose. This latent symbiotic power comes to the fore in the same way with Metropolis Ark 4 – Elite Orchestral Forces, which integrates various approaches from the previous three collections, performed to perfection by the Metropolis Orchestra. It does not store any personal data.Size may be king in the natural world but sometimes the real power lies beneath the surface.Īfter all, some of the tiniest insects are hardwired to floor a six-ton elephant. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. If you can point us in the right direction. Something wrong with this post? Thanks for letting us know. (and yes, I did copy this from the Ark 1 page, because I feel the same about both.) That’s probably harsh, but there was no way to take off one half a star!įor the money I can not imagine a much better way to learn to use these libraries. There is no solution, they can’t very well include setting for every known reverb plugin, but it was a bit of an obstacle, so I took off one star. It is a lovely reverb, but I do not own it, so I had to substitute, which took some time. One caveat – the projects use EW Spaces for reverb. I prefer one track per instrument and using CCs to switch articulations, and one exercise will be to see if I can translate one to the other. I’m even beginning to understand why one would make that choice. Side note – the projects are arranged with a single articulation per track, which is one way to do things. You know you are starting on the right foot.Īt the moment I am still figuring out how he is using different articulations and controllers – which is key I think. So product specifics – the first thing that strikes you is that when you load the project it sounds a lot like the demo, and at least some of the differences are due to the difference between compressed and non-compressed audio. In fact I am not only picking up ideas for production (which is the goal) but I am also getting a few pointers about harmony and composition. Almost like sitting over the composer’s shoulder.
You can read the reviews of Metropolis Ark 1 and Metropolis Ark 2 in, respectively, the September 2016 and October 2017 issues of SOS.
MA3 works with the free Kontakt Player or Kontakt 5.7.1 full version, and occupies 60GB of disk space once installed. I am not there yet, but I find the two Ark projects to be remarkably revealing. The Kontakt GUI for Metropolis Ark 3, showing the trademark circular dynamics display. I have no idea what made me think I could learn, but I am – learning. It is a more comfortable setting for me.Īnd yet I absolutely love the sound of Orchestral Tools and Project Sam libraries – so I bought a few, and struggled, and eventually moved them to an off-line drive to make space for other stuff. I just do not think that way, I grew up working with real instruments, and later multi-sampled (for lack of a better term) libraries where I had control over each section (or even each player).
I have posted elsewhere that I never really got along with ensemble style libraries. Disclaimer – this is almost an exact copy of my review for “Born to Protect” which features Ark 1.