Native Instruments Symphony Series Collection

VST & Plugins
1

Hello there,

I’m wondering if the Symphony Series Collection is worth it, heading for the Komplete 13 Ultimate Collectors Edition?

It’s actual 50% discounted while the Summer of Sound Event.

It contains a lot of useful instruments like:

  • Cremona Quartet
  • cinematic instruments like Arkhis
  • Guitars
  • Percs
  • Piano
    and a lot more.

But my main interest here would be to build a solid orchestral foundation, hence the Symphony Series Collection.

Or would you advise to go with something like Spitfire Studio Orchestra. Dispense all these nice goodies to have a better orchestral foundation?
Other Alternatives are welcome. (Unfortunately Packages like the Spitfire Symphony Orchestra are out of my budget range, even on sale)

Thanks for your thoughts.

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2

I’ve had the Symphony Series for a good while, and used them a bit initially, before I started collecting libraries from Spitfire, Orchestral Tools, 8Dio etc. They’re certainly usable, and the Percussion one is really rather nice, and I still use it here and there, but the others are kind of limited, extremely wet, and not very agile…

So, maybe worth having if you can get them at a reasonable price, but, short of the Percussion one, they do not even remotely compare to the Spitfire libraries. Note: I only have the Studio Woodwinds so far (which I rather like), so I’m mostly comparing with the Spitfire Symphony libs + Solo and Chamber strings. They’re of course in a different price range than the NI Symphony Series, but I’d say the difference in quality and usability is greater than the price difference. Different libraries for different audiences.

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Agree with @olofson. But if money is not a big issue they are certainly not a bad deal. And the strings do have polyphonic legato which is good in that price range.

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4

I have the Symphony Essentials what comes with Komplete Ultimate and I deleted it quite quickly, the percussion is not bad but the others sounded a bit fake to my ears. I don’t know how much the full versions from CE differ. I bought EWQLSO several years ago and even though it’s old and baked with reverb, I’d still use it over the essentials. I also somewhat dislike the cremona quartet, but Komplete Ultimate is full of really useful stuff in general. The CE doesn’t have that much additional stuff that I’d be interested in to make me buy it. It also ties you to costlier updates every version update.

2 Likes
5

Thanks for your replies. I’ve decided against the upgrade and rather save money for Black Friday. Hope to get a good deal on Spitfire Audio then.

Until then, I might take a look on the Originals.

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