Hey friends,
I just got a mail that Native Instruments offers some discounts on several Orchestral tools!
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/komplete/orchestral-tools-offer-2020/
I’m thinking about purchasing Metropolis Ark 3 as it fits my taste being big, bold and in-your-face. 
Has any of you some experience with it? Do you think it’s worth the (50% discounted) price?
Have fun shopping!
Best Regards
Chris
I have all the Arks, and I love them! They’re not my go-to libraries or anything, though, and I don’t think they’re intended to be, even as a full set. Rather, they’re that extra spice you add when the main libraries aren’t quite right, and they do a fantastic job of that.
That said, they can probably serve as “main” libraries in certain genres. (As opposed to traditional orchestral scoring.) At least, Ark 1 seems to be a great main library for trailer scoring, for example. It gives you that big, epic sound right out of the box, and it’s easy and inspiring to work with when that’s the kind of sound you’re going for. And similarly for the others; dark, percussive, and focused, respectively.
Do you have any tracks made where we could listen to your use of the different Arks?
Do you own Jaeger @olofson? If so what´s your thought Metropolis ark 1 vs Jaeger? If that´s a just comparison.
I don’t own any of the Arks, but I do have Jaeger and it’s good for what it does; loud, in-you-face epic scoring, but it doesn’t have a whole lot of articulations, so it’s not good for an all around library. On the other hand, I do own Nucleus, which is Audio Imperia’s full orchestral library and I’m currently in love with it as it’s very versatile.
My only complaint is that it has no legatos for clarinets or bassoons! Also the brass is good but a bit bold for my taste so I usually go with Cinematic Studios Brass. I think if you go check Alex Moukala’s YouTube channel, a lot of his work is done with Metropolis Ark and he’s also used Jaeger on some.
I’d love to have Nucleus too but for orchestral stuff I already have enough for now. I’ve been looking at Metropolis and Jaeger for a long time for a little more punch. You know how it is, if money wasn’t a problem😊
Haha! If money wasn’t a problem, I’d have no problems…well, maybe 
I know, though. I keep buying more guitars, but I really only ever play 2 or 3 of them. It’s because were constantly searching for the “right” sound to our own ears’ artistic sense. It’s like you can listen to ten recordings of Beethoven’s 5th, but only one ever sounds “right”
I’ve used them in a bunch of tracks, and I usually list everything used on SoundCloud - but there appears to be no straightforward way of searching in the descriptions, so I’m not sure how to find them myself, even!
Here’s a random one where I tried out three patches from Ark 3 + some ISW Rhapsody percussion:
I also used them a lot on Mission: Baphomet (“hybrid orchestral metal” album-in-a-month; lots of choirs, epic brass and the like in there, and most of that is Ark), but unfortunately, those tracks don’t even have descriptions. :-/
Anyway, a few random ones that use a fair bit of Metropolis Ark patches:
https://soundcloud.com/david-olofson/crypt-of-the-undead (Various MA)
https://soundcloud.com/david-olofson/battle-of-the-unnamed-field (MA1)
https://soundcloud.com/david-olofson/karen (MA3)
https://soundcloud.com/david-olofson/choral-experiment-1-wip (MA1+3)
I do own Jaeger as of quite recently, and I really rather like it, but my impression is that Jaeger (and it’s “companion” libs) are more geared towards trailer and hybrid scoring. It can reach into more traditional orchestral, but its main strength is in that precise, in-your-face sound which blends well with synths, guitar, sound etc, and there are also nice sound design patches that are easy to tweak right in the UI.
I’d say the Metropolis Ark libraries feel more like traditional orchestral libraries in terms of sound and workflow, with more traditional mixes (lots of microphones!), and no integrated “sound design” facilities or similar. The focus is on articulations and playing styles, rather than recording and sound engineering.
Nice list. I’ll drive into it. 
David, the tracks you listed sound really awesome. (God dammit, Karen! Love it! ) Now I’m not sure anymore if it’s Ark 1 or 3… Or maybe both because, you know… I’m saving a lot on fuel at the moment from working from home instead of driving 140km every day and things like that… 
Thank you. As may be expected Battle of the unnamed field is an favorite. Is that Ark 1 instruments?
Thank you! The Hollywood Choirs is awesome if you’re prepared to put some effort into it - but of course, now you need lyrics as well!
Well, that’s a tough call… Ark 1 is about as close to “general” it gets in the series, I’d say. Ark 3 is focused on short articulations and great when you want strong rhythm in the whole orchestra. There are a bit of longs, legatos and whatnot in each one of them, so they’re not entirely limited to specific articulations, though even in those parts, there is an emphasis on the general style and focus of the respective library.
Thank you! 
No, it turns out it’s actually just the Schwarzdorn Horns a9 from Ark 1, for the wild clusters, flutter swells, rips and stuff in the battle scenes. These libraries have plenty of intense, amazing sounding articulations like that, which is great for spicing things up like that.
The rest is 8Dio Century Brass, and Spitfire Symphonic Strings, Woodwinds, and (JB) Percussion.
Hi @Fredrik,
I think Jaeger is a completely different sound compared to what I heard before…the library is extremely tight, hard and in your face. It’s perfect for giving an amazing drive and power. It doesn’t seem very “natural” if we compare the sound to even Albion One for example.
I think that you can’t do anything wrong when you have Orchestral Tools in your palette. I think what I loved the most is that the libraries are extremely dynamic and very musical. A bonus is that they are all recorded in the Berlin Teldex Studios which has an amazing sound. The next time I will invest in an orchestral library, this will be OT for sure. For whatever reason, I never had them on the list…but they 100% deserve to be in it…
One important fact is, that they do use a lot of RAM and hard disk space. So you’ll better have it before you go with them.
From my experience…it should be very easy if you look for one major library to start with…it’s either Albion One or Ark 1. Jaeger should not be the first choice, as it’s just designed for one task: Power.
Ah thanks for info. I have Albion one and use it and love it. I use very often. The reason I’m looking at ark 1 is that I imagine it to have more “bite” when listening to demos. Maybe it can complement Albion 1?
I think that Albion One and Jaeger would compliment each other better, however, it depends on what you want and need. And obviously it’s very beneficial to hear the instruments not in context on this case but more on its own to understand how the sound and room work.
For example: Albion is great for room and ostinato stuff, and have a very lush sounding room verb. On the other hand Jaeger is very aggressive, so if Albion miss the bite and attack in the strings, then Jaeger will help.
To make it clear, I think it’s far more beneficial to use two completely different libraries instead of using more or less the same when layering. You will create more potential Phase issues that could be avoided when using different rooms. And using too big halls over each other is not the best solution. Sometimes just one single library will do much better than layering two together. I hear it a lot and it’s „swammy“, if you know what I mean. It can work great as an effect but if start doing it all over the place you not only get muddy mixes, your music is full of reverb, almost no separation. If you do lush tracks, it’s the way to go, like HZ - Time, but Trailer stuff or more orchestral soundtracks with the goal to still have contrast in dynamics and punchy mixes, it’s better to go with two different libraries or just use one. I think it makes sense.
Thank you! The Hollywood Choirs is awesome if you’re prepared to put some effort into it - but of course, now you need lyrics as well!
I know, it’s quite hard to get some convincing results as long as you don’t just blare over it with your orchestra. 
I also fiddled around with it a lot but as you said, it really takes a lot of effort to make the results sound “griEt”. 
Btw: I couldn’t withstand the temptation and bought the Ark 1 now! It took the night to download it and I’m looking forward to explore it