Substantial Audio Imperia discounts over at NI

77% off the collection with Jaeger, Talos (new version, merging the two volumes), Cerberus, Trailer Guitars 2, and Legacy.

The first three have been on my wishlist for a good while, but my fingers aren’t itching like they used to… My collection doesn’t really have any gaping holes anymore, and what really excites me at this point (apart from fine violins and cellos) is realistic sounding modeled instruments.

That said, one can’t have too many good libraries… :smiley:

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Hey David, I think this sale also included Nucleus and Areia. I own Jaeger, Nucleus and Areia and I did a review of Areia a few days ago. I also used Areia on my latest piece for the sad music contest and must say, it’s the best sounding string library I’ve used to date. Not perfect, but better than Cinematic Studios Strings which I’ve been mostly using.

I definitely recommend it to anyone interested.

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Indeed, Nucleus and Areia are on sale as well; €299 each. (Not part of the 77% off bundle for €399, of course. :slight_smile: )

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So true @olofson. I have so many more libraries than I have skills for. :grinning:And I always hear the good advice from composers to not get more but instead work on my skills. Sorry but one thing I really like is to give my self the present of a new library once in a while. It’s really good for my inspiration and motivation.
Well that’s just me.
By the way I’ve got my eyes on Audio imperia stuff for a long time too.

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Well, I’m hardly an authority on the matter, but either way, I don’t think one thing rules out the other… :slight_smile:

It might be tempting to just browse libraries and factory presets until you find something “close enough,” and never really learn how to arrange, design, process, and mix properly. Limiting yourself to a minimal set of tools will supposedly force you to learn how to actively bend sounds to your will, and/or learn how to make realistic sounding arrangements within the limits of the instruments at hand - but of course, the best results will come when you have just the right sounds, and also use them to their full potential.

As for skills, I suppose that to “properly” warrant a large collection, you need the ability to tell when to use each library, which ones go well together, what needs to be done for them to blend in the mix etc. Of course, for any of that to matter, you need to invest the time to familiarize yourself with new libraries, and memorize at least their overall sound and character, so you can actually find them when you need them.

And, that touches on one of the potential major downsides of having “too many” libraries: If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, you can end up spending an awful lot of time looking for it… :smiley:

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Too true. I ave purchased libraries that I’ll sadly never use again. I agree that you should get really familiar with a libraries sound so you can best understand how to blend it of mix it, but at the same time, the more creative tools I have, the greater the possibilities!

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I agree with all of the above.
I have libraries I’ll probably never use again(bad choices). But I also have libraries where I use only one or two patches but those patches are instead essential for me.

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Grabbed! Quick impressions:

Sure, coming from big symphonic libraries with all the instruments, articulations, solo instruments and all that, Jaeger of course feels a bit limited in that respect, but what is there sounds great, and I really like how you can easily adjust the mix and tightness to any point in between classic and in-your-face, superhumanly tight, and then also have a nice set of easily accessible sound design features as well. Also, lots of nice hybrid braams, drones, risers and all that. Definitely a library I’ll be using, especially for hybrid scores and the like.

(Unfortunately, the amazing sounding vocals and some other stuff in Jaeger can’t be installed at this point due to an issue with Native Access or something, so I can’t say much about that yet.)

Talos adds some massive sounding french horns and low brass in the same style, with the same design/processing options, and more designed hybrid sounds.

Legacy seems to be a goldmine of effects and loops - and I don’t even care much for loops generally, but these are more like rhythmic textures and ambiences; focused, and easy to play and layer as desired, and again, with effects for easy sound design.

Trailer Guitars II is rather loop centered, which I’m not a great fan of, but still seems pretty versatile. Also, another bunch of nice textures, drones and whatnot. Plenty of inspiration… I’m getting a lot of Wolfenstein soundtrack feel!

Cerberus has some nice kits (more “big drum kit” than orchestral), lots of mics, plenty of loops, and an unexpected gem: More designed atmospheres, hits and effects! Some really inspiring evolving sounds in there.

So, all in all, Legacy, Trailer Guitars II, and Cerberus are not quite what I’d look for normally, but turned out to be more interesting than I expected. Jaeger and Talos seem well worth the full price for anyone looking for that kind of sound IMHO - and the bundle is an absolute bargain either way. All of these contain stuff that I’ll definitely be using.

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I do like Jaeger for the sound design stuff, and it’s great for big epic stuff, but I think they did well in creating Nucleus, which is now my go-to since it’s a full orchestra with more articulations plus they kept some of the sound design elements and seems to mix really well.

Can’t wait to hear what you create with these libraries!

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Matt as you have Areia and also Nucleus, I think you should change the string libraries that you use for the pieces in Your Music area - I think this alone would give you a chance to improve the overall sound of the pieces and also introduce more low end to the tunes. A further note: I don’t know how CSS sounds as I don’t have it but Areia and also Nucleus sound very good to me.

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I’d been using CSS for sometime and they are very good, but you are right, after buying Ariea/Nucleus I found that, while they are very similar in sound to CSS, the sampling is much cleaner and I spend less time trying to EQ them. Although I still prefer CS Brass to Audio Imperia; Jaeger and Nucleus brass are a touch too bombastic and loud for me. I don’t need 6-12 horns, that’s overkill😆

There is one older piece I never released that I replaced the CSS with Areia, it does sound a bit improved, so something to work on in the future.

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