Sound designer and regular Sonic contributor Simon Power dissects the orchestral sampling software they’re all talking about.

Symphobia Review from meonmedia on Vimeo.

 

Symphobia 2 is the follow up to Symphobia, the standalone Kontakt based virtual instrument for producers and sound designers looking for that bombastic cinematic orchestra emulation. What makes it unique is that the instruments are mapped in groups of matching timbres with specific splits specifically designed to give you that huge cinematic sound on every patch. Great news for over worked sound designers . No more hours spent positioning and panning virtual orchestras or figuring out which instrument s to use in stacks or ensemble pieces. Alot of the tedious grunt work taken care of before you begin composing, which is a nice way to start.

That’s as maybe, but does it sound like a convincing orchestra?

With its layer upon layer of rich solo and ensemble instruments it offers you a very dynamic orchestral palette.
It also has an extensive set of articulations for each instrument and close or stage micing to give you lots of choices for tailoring the overall sound to suit your compositions. And with its multi layered samples, It’s certainly as close as anything I’ve heard to an extensive professional orchestra.

But I’ve already got Symphobia, why would I need Symphobia 2?

This package operates independently, or as an add-on to the original Symphobia.
What’s new is that the strings have been extended to include major and minor trills, as well as long and short expressive notes and crescendos. The horns, too, have been enlarged and now feature eight players. New sustains and staccatos have also been added to the full orchestra section, then there’s the super-cinematic 'wide octave' articulations.
There’s more to add to the string glissandi, rips and full orchestra stabs found in the original Symphobia library. Plus a set of 'wild effects' in the string sections with lots of plucked and bowed performances. Plus, the Dystopia section. A whole bank of top notch sound design that adds a whole new dimension to this release.

Out of the Box

For this review I’m using Cubase 5.5 and Kontakt 4, but I’m reliably told that Symphobia 2 behaves itself on a number of different platforms and in a variety of DAW’s.
Despite its size, Symphobia 2 is surprisingly quick to install coming as it does on 3 DVD9s (DVD9’S can hold approx 7.93 GB each).
With its 30 gig library compressed to 20 gig, each DVD takes 15 minutes to install with a further few minutes to install Kontakt 4 from disc 1 if you don’t already have it. And in under an hour you’re ready to take a look around.

The manual is simple, intuitive and mercifully short on clutter and unwanted detail. In the ‘quick start’ section, it advocates playing around with the MULTIS to give you an instant feel of what Symphobia 2 is all about.

The MULTIS

The MULTIS are found in the library next to the instruments bank. They’re combinations of multiple instrument splits mapped out across 88 notes. There are chords, legato lines, marcatos, flagiolets, flourishes, FX and drums designed for specific context or cinematic genres. The nice thing about MULTI’s is that the sets of individual instruments are all triggered on the same MIDI channel. Giving you instant results every time he presses a key. MULTIS are intended as inspiring templates. Quick and easy shortcuts to complete phrases, passages and compositions.

There are 11 MULTIS out of the box, and more will be added with each Symphobia 2 update.
Each MULTI has a mood described in a brief sentence under the main panel in the multi rack.

As a footnote, all the sounds featured in these MULTIS are available as soloed instruments in one of the five instrument banks. But more of that later.
A warning. When you go to install each MULTI you are prompted as to whether you want to replace the existing one or merge the two together. To demo each MULTI individually punch “YES”. It’s confusing and easy to get this wrong, ending up replacing your previous patch and all its edits.

So let’s look at the MULTI patches in more detail.

1. A Story Unfolds. “A magical story unfolds”. Wistful flutes and clarinets with legato strings, low basses and a signature ‘Deep Boom’ that features in a lot of the patches. This is a great patch to start with. It’s very gentle but powerful , too.

2. Garden of Eden. “Both Heavenly and majestic” This one introduces us to Symphobia 2’s Dreamy textures. Highly usable Rich fluid legatos that twist and turn through the entire emotional spectrum. They can also be found as their own separate patch in the Full Orchestra bank.

3. Grandfather Reminiscences. “Grandfather reminiscences the war.” Legato horns, flutes & clarinets are treated to a soundbed of wide string octaves which swell nicely with the use of the mod wheel. These new addition wide octaves feature in quite a few of the MULTI patches.

4. I Will Never Let You Go. “The ship is sinking the water is getting cold”. And, yes, the good ol’ Uilleann pipes & whistles give this one a Titanically Celtic feel, backed up by swelling strings & legato trombones you could produce everything from Braveheart to The Legend Of King Authur.

5. Make It So. “The captain’s on the bridge awaiting orders.” The first indication that ProjectSAM are huge Trekkers comes in MULTI 5 with its patriotic sounding horns, trombone and violins. A nice cruising speed of around warp factor 5.

6. Massacre Lodge. “A night at Massacre Lodge.” At this point we switch gear and demonstrate Symphobia’s spikier ‘Dystopian’ side where orchestral hits and low staccatos are complimented by the blood shattering drone of a chainsaw. Here you can build a sequence with the eerie violin grace notes that are reversed by the mod wheel. Again, as a reminder, these sounds are all available in one of the five instrument banks. A lot of the Massacre Lodge sounds are to be found in ‘Dystopia’.

7. Movie Logo. “The Golden Age movie logo sound.” This MULTI offers major and minor splits in full Cinemascope with huge trumpet and horn ensembles. Pretty good for creating epic, popcorn munchers and tear jerking life affirming moments. Roll credits!

8. Only Seconds Left. “Only seconds left to disarm that bomb!” The introduction of some spine numbing string FX and the unique Symphobia drum sounds. The drum patch itself is a little disappointing, though. Featuring only a taiko and a cymbal as far as I can make out. But more on that later.

9. Phasers on Kill. “The ship has been boarded. Phasers on Kill.” Yep, it’s more Trekking references with these high energy staccatos, horn ensemble marcatos, orchestral stabs and drums. Modulation wheel adds staccato strings to the orchestral stab suggesting phrasing. This urgent MULTI will be highly usable for serious action compositions.

10. There and Back Again. “A long, long time ago.” Introducing some major trills with mod wheel velocity. Great for building tension and complimented by string sustains and wide octaves.

11. When All Hope is Lost. “Post apocalypse. A city in ruins.” Wow! Orchestral chords with key switches at C0, legato cello, bass and violin and of course that everything-sounds-great-with-a-bit-of ‘Deep Boom’ signature drum hit. Yep, these guys sure know how to go out with a bang!

So that’s a brief description of the MULTIS, now let’s take a look at the instruments.
Back to the Library tab and load the instruments folder. When the instrument is loaded, you will be able to choose different articulations from a list below the ProjectSAM logo on the instrument GUI. You can also choose between close and stage mic and alter settings for velocity, reverb, attack, decay and sustain.

Symphobia 2 has five instrument banks. Each bank comes with extensive key-switched instruments.
1. Full Orchestra
2. Individual Sections
3. Legato Ensembles
4. Dystopia
5. Miscellaneous

FULL ORCHESTRA BANK

As the full orchestra bank demonstrates many (if not all) of the individual sounds and articulations, let’s focus on that part of the library first and give an overview of the other 4 banks individually later.

1. The Orchestrator. And what a beast this is. With full pre orchestrated articulations such as arco and pizzicato, velocity switched sustains. A complete legato orchestra at your fingertips

2. Strings and woodwinds. Nicely articulated Hermann style Marcatos and long lingering Sordino violins. Also featuring a nice, impish high staccato with xylophone. Good for comic effect.

3. Textures & Effects. These come in seven different layers and feature everything from dark brooding brass and timpani to shocking surprise of ‘wild rips’, the like of which may have taken hours and hours of programming to produce on other conventional VI’s. The rhythmic phrases and tonal textures somehow conjure up the suspense interludes of John Williams or films like The Shining. Lots of fun to be had here, for sure.

4. Symphobian Stacks. These hefty stabs and slithering, needle sharp textures are accompanied by a combination bass sound that sends shivers to places you didn’t know you had places. Simply put, you could compose an entire score for a short horror film using this one patch alone. Outstanding!

5. Dreamy textures. As used in the Garden Of Eden MULTI, dreamy textures comes in various modes and movements which are really worth exploring in full. There’s the straight forward ‘sustain’ mode, or the more fluid and interesting ‘moving’ mode with its this-is-a-very-dark-and-scary-forest articulations. Phrase 4 completes the articulations with a chilling ‘trill’.

6. Tutti Chords. If you haven’t come across the phrase, Tutti refers to ‘all together’. Everyone playing at once. Which is something of a mission statement for the whole Symphobia 2 package. And this particular instrument patch demonstrates yet another set of useful articulations with sustain, crescendo, staccato, repetition and (particularly useful for that ‘Big Finish’) Fortepiano crescendo.

7. Tutti effects. This patch rounds off the instrument bank nicely with some monster stabs and tutti clusters that will leave the audience gripping tightly to the arm rests in heart stopping horror.

INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS & LEGATO ENSEMBLES BANKS

This is where you’ll find strings, woodwind and brass in more conventional articulations (in as much as anything in Symphobia 2 can be termed ‘conventional’).
Yes, there are huge amounts of spiccatos, trills (major & minor), marcato strings and horns, cresendos and espressivo effects in the Individual Section. But also pairings such as flute & piccolo and violin & viola. I guess the intelligent aspect of Symphobia 2 is pairing instruments that are instantly recognisable as tried and tested orchestral tones. As soon as you hear them, you will recognise their intended emotional response. And that’s largely what the individual & legato sections are about. Pairings and ensembles. There are also some pretty amazing solo instruments. The flute, horn, whistle and Uilleann pipe can be found in the Legato Bank.
Be sure to check out the chilling musical phrases, with bending chords and octaves that slip and slide to a gory ending.
Notice that many, if not all, the patches have a variety of articulations which you can access from the centre of the panel.

DYSTOPIA

Welcome to Dystopia.
Well, as if Symphobia 2 hasn’t already had several layers of icing-on-the-cake. Lo and behold, here’s another one. Almost like a completely separate entity, or an entire sample collection, Dystopia contains layer upon layer of detailed sound design created by Robert Dudzic and Don & Roel Funcken. Mind you, a lot of these phrases & sounds appear in other patches, but here they are processed and manipulated even further adding extra value to this high value package.

There are 11 Dystopia patches all with a variety of splits.

1. Announcing The End

2. Channel Bashar

3. Demolition Tools

4. Reverse Engineering

5. Sending Orbs

6. Stingers, Drones and Risers

7. Symphobia Drums

8. Chainsaws

9. Trailer Hits

10. Welcome Sumerians

11. White Noise

As I mentioned before, perhaps the only disappointment here is Symphobia Drums. I was hoping for more from this patch. As far as I can tell it features just a taiko sounding hit and a cymbal. Perhaps more will be added in time.

The miscellaneous section features concert hall noise and orchestra tuning.

SUMMING UP

And, well here we are at the other end. And now, in the name of good, balanced no holds barred warts ‘n’ all journalism, I’m going to try as hard as I can to pick out the bad points about Symphobia 2.

The Bad and the Ugly

OK, you could argue that this is just a sample collection that has been mapped across a keyboard and like any sample collection; it’s not long before you find that all your compositions are beginning to sound the same. But, having said that, there are so many deep layers to this product, that you could go a heckuva long time before you finally start repeating your ideas.
I could mention the prohibitive cost, and yes, this is a factor that may put it out of the reach of a lot of jobbing producers. Not all of us have nearly 1000 Euros to flash around. But you could look at it as being a speculative investment for your studio, as S2 will definitely encourage you to take on more challenging scoring jobs.

The big thing is this. if you’re expecting oboes and harps and timpani and pianos all laid out with their nice neat articulations, then, well I’m afraid Symphobia 2 doesn’t have any. This is not Kontakt 3 or EastWest. This is more like an arsenal of highly useable phrases, FX and instrumentation for sound designers who need good sounding results in the shortest time possible.

What else? Well, there is so much info squeezed onto a Kontakt panel these days and sometimes it isn’t very intuitive looking for some hidden information. For instance, to view info such as MIDI channel, output, tuning and velocity on each individual instrument of a MULTI, you have to hit the + - button on the far right of the instrument. These are tiny buttons, and of course hitting the X will close the instrument all together. A minor Kontakt-based point, but important when you’re pushed for time on a project.

Of course, not everyone has an 88 note keyboard and with my pauper-sized Alesis Q49, I found myself constantly using the up and down octave buttons to access all the samples. Another small point, I grant you.

And, well, that’s about it for the bad and ugly stuff (oh, maybe I could add that Close and Stage switch is a little unresponsive), so now, let’s give you some more of the good points.

The Good.

I was quite surprised at how little post production was necessary on purely Symphobia mixdowns. Every instrument sits obediently in its predesignated space in the spectrum, giving the entire mix an unusual amount of cohesiveness.
The layout of each patch and instrument layer is instantly intuitive. A monkey could operate this thing in minutes. The recordings are so dynamic that any narrative you may layer ontop just beds itself in there with very little fuss, settling nicely into the mix alongside the instrumentation.

In summing up, if you want to produce that Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, John Williams sound, but you don’t happen to have access to a philharmonic orchestra, then you could do worse than investing in the Symphobia 2 package. For sound designers, game music composers, film and TV, there’s really very little that comes close. I can highly recommend it as being currently one of the best cinematic orchestra symphonic FX packages on the market.

Simon Power

Symphobia 2 retails for 999.99 Euros or bundled with Symphobia for 1,699 Euros.
More details from ProjectSAM:

 

More Information

• http://www.projectsam.com/Products/Boxed-Products/
• Simon Power

 

 

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