Albion One is Half Price!

[TheSteven]

16 hours ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

The NKA files are presets for the Ostinatum arp feature.    But at least for me putting them in my Documents folder doesn't work.  Looking at the file access log it seems to be looking for %userprofile%\Documents\Albion ONE\Data which doesn't exist so the load button brings me to the Kontakt 5 default directory.

But if you make a Data folder and move all the .nka files into it, then the load button will work correctly.

To be honest this kind of poor attention to detail isn't uncommon with Spitfire.   I don't think Windows is their preferred platform.

 

Short version: copy the Albion ONE folder that is inside the Spitfire Albion ONE library folder to your user Documents folder (which may be something like c:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents

Then inside it make a new folder called Data and move all the .nka files into it.  Then you can load the Ostinatum settings with the load button without having to go hunting all over your hard drives to find them (which you can also do).

Truthfully this isn't how Kontakt instruments are supposed to work, they should have put them in the Kontakt preset settings directory.   And their installer should have put them there for you.

Note: I bought Albion ONE a while ago, your download may be very different than mine.  This may just be because of that, your mileage may vary, member FDIC.

Thanks for the info!

Maybe they changed a thing or two.  when I click on the Load button

it takes me to what would be the equivalent to:
c:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5

So I moved the folder to that location and it's working!
Thanks for providing the info needed to decode this mystery!

[simon]

9 hours ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

You run Microsoft's SysInternals Procmon.  It records all system accesses.  With the right filters you can see what exactly any software is doing and then use that to work out crazy stuff like this.

Download it from here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

ahhh, was hoping it was something built into Kontakt - but thank you anyway.  I think the issue is that the Spitfire download thing isn't actually a proper installer.  It just unzips the files into the directory that it has downloaded to and has no coding to allow it to move files around.

Edited May 11, 2019 by simon

[simon]

1 hour ago, TheSteven said:

Thanks for the info!

Maybe they changed a thing or two.  when I click on the Load button

it takes me to what would be the equivalent to:
c:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5

So I moved the folder to that location and it's working!
Thanks for providing the info needed to decode this mystery!

I don't think anything has changed from what Matthew wrote.  That's just the location that Kontakt defaults to when it can't find the location that's coded into the instruments.  If you move to c:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\Albion ONE\Data it should work as intended plus you can have separate libraries for each spitfire product, although that's not necessarily a good thing  

Either way if it's working now then sometimes best just to walk away ?

Edited May 11, 2019 by simon

[Matthew Sorrels]

When Kontakt can't find the directory the instrument wants it defaults to c:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5

That's the fall back dir.  Not really where you want to place anything like the Albion presets.

I think Albion V is very interesting.  Certainly has a very different collection of articulations than pretty much any instrument I have.  You can't help but feel the cinematic effect when you load pretty much anything and play a chord.  The problem of course is how exactly to use it.  It's very soft compared to Albion ONE so mixing the two is going to be tricky.  It's a lot closer to Albion II though and does seem to mix with it much easier.   I bought 2 because they were ending it and I regretted not getting Albion 1 before it become ONE.  Buying the bundle and getting the whole collection to be honest is maybe a sample library or two too many.

The only Spitfire library I've bought that I wished I hadn't is EDNA Earth.  It also was also the first Spitfire product I bought, which I held against them for a long time.  Albion ONE changed that a little, but at the same time it also made me realize that ensemble instruments are kind of limited.  Which is good for an amateur like me and also bad because at a certain point you have no where to go.   The same thing applies to the ProjectSAM Symphobia libraries.  Sooner or later your going to need a full orchestra and some soloists too.  And if you want that Spitfire sound it's going to be pretty expensive (money and computer resources), even I have not been willing to go quite that far with them.  At least not yet.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Matthew Sorrels

[antler]

58 minutes ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

The same thing applies to the ProjectSAM Symphobia libraries.  Sooner or later your going to need a full orchestra and some soloists too

It's interesting you mention that. At the moment, the only (full) orchestral libraries I have are GPO5 and Miroslav (the first one). I've been wanting to upgrade my sound for a while, and was tempted by both this offer, and the recent ProjectSAM Easter sale. I only do this as a hobby, but I was worried about combined sections (despite sounding beautiful) being limiting in some way. In looking around a bit I thought the Chris Hein libraries looked interesting, but are a little to pricey for me at the moment; maybe Best Service will do a BOGOF offer towards the end of the year.

[Marc Cormier]

Matthew, have you tried mixing British Drama Toolkit with Albion V?  I'm considering BDT for that reason but not sure if it will work.  It seems to be a good deal at the Wish List price.

 

[Matthew Sorrels]

I think British Drama Toolkit and Albion V are meant for each other.  In fact when I first loaded V up I was surprised at how much like BDT it sounded.  BDT is kind of like the slightly more automated, modern, studio version of Albion V.    The sound is cut from the same cloth.  I can easily see pieces that use BDT for say indoor scenes/background and then opening up into full Albion V when the camera goes wide.

[Marc Cormier]

I was thinking along those lines as well.  The articulations are equally unique in both.  I don't have a solo strings collection besides a couple of Fluffy Audio instruments so I hope to use at least some of the louder solo string patches in British Drama Toolkit with the softer edge in Albion V.  I really want to take the dive with Albion One for a more traditional orchestral tool but find myself going back to the Tundra "sound" more often than not.  Seems like BDT is a natural progression for me.

[Starise]

On 5/8/2019 at 10:09 PM, emeraldsoul said:

Well, I was on the fence, too. I forged ahead and got it, even though I already have Adagietto - the Albion stuff sounds exactly like I'm sitting in a big movie theater. Too cool. 

I reasoned: if I don't get it, Spielberg calls and offers me a job. SOL there.

If I do get it, no one ever calls me for a job. But I have a lot of fun.  WIN.

cheers,

-Tom

I think this is a good deal Tom. I did the same. I might make a track that gets 10 plays on SC woopdeedoo....it's going be fun though, and who knows, I might make something  memorable in a good way. I watched a lot of comparison  videos, toyed with the idea that I can make decent music with the libs I already have. In the end though, I think this will add something special to the kit.  I can really add some drama and impact to my home movies.