Moving away from the strings, there is a sense that Orchestral Tools raided its local instrument-hire facilities in order to provide some more obscure low-end orchestral instruments for Metropolis Ark 2. It’s highly musical, but I can imagine that the continued suggestion of lag might mean that a little nudging would be required within the DAW in order to get things to sit properly within some tracks. In practice, I found that many of the patches took a while to speak, which keeps them in line with their slightly sub-dynamic roots. Low patches essentially play in octaves, dropping to the depths of the lowest note on the cello, with the basses accommodating an octave lower, clearly with double-bass extensions – expected in a library such as this, but highly effective nonetheless. The Mid string section scans down to a C below middle C, placing it at the bottom end of the viola register, presumably with some second-violin content in the upper range. Here, we’re talking about sustained polyphonic patches, swells, tremolos and some really interesting harmonic-based notes and glissandi all an absolute gem for any soundtrack composer.
#Metropolis ark 1 vs 2 Patch
Patch assignment can be made by singular articulation, or with my favoured option of key-switch based patch, where all is on offer. Not surprisingly, this level of excellence is continued through the Mid and Low strings, but if leisurely legato is not the order of the day, there are plenty of other choices. But this shouldn’t detract from the quality, which is purely outstanding. In context, this can almost be a little too on the back of the time, so some helpful thought in the programming here will assist. This library is about sonority and darkness, not epic volume, so you wouldn’t expect the legato movement to be too fast: rather, just on the back of the time, to make it sound realistic.
#Metropolis ark 1 vs 2 registration
Now, this effect is always a difficult thing to achieve, as the movement from one note to the next has to be treated carefully, especially when trying to take the specifics of the original instrument into context – and what we have here is something which is, by design, a leisurely movement from one registration to the next.
Starting with the strings, these are organised into High, Mid and Low assignments, so starting with a High patch, I was immediately treated to a level of legato assignment which, frankly, is a bit special.
Helpfully layered into usable sections, the 21 instrumentation assignments are allotted to ‘Districts’, in some post apocalyptic, Hunger Games-esque categorisation, beginning with District One – which offers the main orchestral samples, drawn from strings, wind and brass. Metropolis Ark 2 is billed as offering ‘low dynamic epicness’, and in keeping with its beautifully Germanic roots, offers a palette with far more than simply pure Wagnerian dark sonority, thanks to some really useful and interesting inclusions. This stunning library, which is loud and epic in nature, is now followed by Metropolis Ark 2 – something completely different. German-based company Orchestral Tools has managed to establish an excellent reputation within a short space of time with its ever-expanding libraries of predominantly orchestral flavours, but having covered the main symphonic bases, the company took the decision about 18 months ago to release Metropolis Ark 1.
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