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Orchestral Tools Ark 5 and complete Ark bundle

Yan Filiatrault

By Yan Filiatrault
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antler

antler

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

Ark 5 to he announced later today 249 Euros (regular 449 Euros). Complete Ark bundle for 999 Euros.

I'm not getting those banners - is the bundle a time limited special? 999 Euros is a huge discount given that each volume is at least 549 (Kontakt), and the Ark 1+2 bundle is 839 (Sine)

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antler

antler

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I don't have anything from Orchestral Tools, and I've never used Sine; what's so bad about it? Just trying to figure out whether it's worth getting the Sine version of these, or just sticking to my current set of Kontakt orchestral libraries (which too be honest is good enough: GAS is bad)

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Matthew Sorrels

Matthew Sorrels

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To be fair, Sine is better than Spitfire's player.  But both of them have yet to pull even with Kontakt (which is also not as good as it could be, to be honest).  I'd be a lot happier if they started by at least matching Kontakt.

It was good of them to give the Sine versions to Kontakt users for free, but all that did was use up a bunch of disk space for a version of a product I'm not likely to use.

Maybe this one, since it was designed for Sine, will be better.  These "ports" from one library engine to another are never as good as something designed for an engine from the get go.

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Matthew Sorrels

Matthew Sorrels

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4 minutes ago, antler said:

I don't have anything from Orchestral Tools, and I've never used Sine; what's so bad about it?

I thought they had something they give away for free for it, so you can try it out.  I may also be somewhat critical because I do have the Kontakt versions.  Without those to compare with the Sine versions might be seen as awesome.

As for what I don't like about Sine there are a few issues.  How it manages library storage is a big deal for me (I have a lot of libraries and a lot of disk space to manage) and I really don't like how it works with that (keeps wanting to stick directories in the root of my hard drives which drives me crazy).  Though Kontakt has issues too, it I've gotten used to how it works.  How it's UI looks/works isn't as comfortable for me as Kontakt.  And I don't like the effects engine (I'm not even sure there is one? Certainly not like Kontakt) and whole sample playback system.  It just doesn't sound like the Kontakt version.  There are also crashes and bugs as well as overall library memory and CPU performance issues. I think they are 2 or 3 versions away from equaling Kontakt.

On the plus side they do let you buy individual instruments which seems like a good idea.  But their pricing is anything but a good idea.  The whole download/library management stuff seem crappy though.  And buying single instruments doesn't really help me unless they are priced fairly (and they aren't).

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kevin H

kevin H

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Posted (edited)

info from another thread :

if you have Ark 1-4 and activate them all for Sine you'll get a discount price on completing the Ark bundle that's less than the Ark 5 promo price. $187 usd (166 euros).

Edit: updated prices after successfully registering kontakt copies 

Edited by kevin H
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Matthew Sorrels

Matthew Sorrels

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So I've been trying to enter my Ark 3 & 4 serial numbers (I bought them at NI during one of the few sales on OT instruments).  But their website decides you have entered the serial number before you finish typing and now has "locked" me out and won't let me try again (it says try again in 1 minute but that's a lie).  They have managed to achieve IK levels of anger and hate in just a few minutes of time.  Epic!

I've sent them a note with the serial numbers their broken website won't accept or even let me enter, but at this point I doubt they will do anything. 

They didn't fix the Choir in Ark 4 either see this post on VI:
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/any-guesses-as-to-when-ark-4-will-show-up-on-sine.118605/post-5006128

Guess I'm going to buy something from someone else.  I did pick up Cinematic Studio Strings on black Friday as my "big" instrument purchase for the season, but honestly I hate it.  I think this season is going to be a bit of a downer if I can't find something else interesting (and on sale).

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antler

antler

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So after thinking about it a bit more, I think I'll pass on this. The demos sound good but I already have orchestral libraries, even if they don't go up to fff. It's very expensive for a set of libraries in a player that sounds like it still has some problems, and I think I prefer each instrument type to be broken down into sections (e.g. violins 1, violins 2, etc); it might be a moot point for an epic library like this, but that's my preferred workflow at the moment.

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antler

antler

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18 minutes ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

I did pick up Cinematic Studio Strings on black Friday as my "big" instrument purchase for the season, but honestly I hate it.

Just curious, but what don't you like about it? I think it's quite nice for pieces requiring a smaller-sounding ensemble.

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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

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5 hours ago, antler said:

I don't have anything from Orchestral Tools, and I've never used Sine; what's so bad about it? Just trying to figure out whether it's worth getting the Sine version of these, or just sticking to my current set of Kontakt orchestral libraries (which too be honest is good enough: GAS is bad)

SINE is free and they have some free libraries, so you can check it out yourself.  ?

https://www.orchestraltools.com/sinefactory

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abacab

abacab

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, antler said:

I don't have anything from Orchestral Tools, and I've never used Sine; what's so bad about it? Just trying to figure out whether it's worth getting the Sine version of these, or just sticking to my current set of Kontakt orchestral libraries (which too be honest is good enough: GAS is bad)

You can try Sine for free. In fact, it has a few advantages over the Spitfire player, as you can load up multiple instruments and/or articulations in a single instance, and assign MIDI channels to each.

Orchestral Tools has a free service that you can subscribe to that provides free libraries, similar to the Spitfire LABS series, called SINEfactory. There are currently 8 free libraries for that. https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/get-sine

In addition, they offer a free orchestral library called "Layers". With woodwinds, brass, strings, and full orchestra presets. It is a sample of the possibilities, but very basic. https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/collections/45

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