You were so excited when you first got Ark 1 and now you seem to be quite down about it.

I'd be interested to hear your comparisons if you had the time. They've got a lot of character and in my opinion nothing else quite captures the sounds they make. As I'm in the practice of making epic trailer-type tracks at the moment I'm having a lot of fun with them. I'm not saying they're completely inflexible, but that they are made with specific interests in mind. As I've said before: if you like the sounds of the demos you hear, you're going to like using the library - because that's the sound you're going to get, more or less. I think, when there's disappointment with libraries like the Arks, it's usually because people have misunderstood the intention of the library or have unrealistic expectations about it. It has fantastic tone out the box, low memory usage and comes in at a fair price - the only downside is the lack of mic positions (which I can live with). That isn't a slur on Ark3 being as I have nothing else quite like it - it just doesn't fit my natural composing style as well - so I need a bit more time with it.ДЇor anyone just starting out, I'd suggest also considering the excellent Berlin Inspire library (this is an underrated gem). To be honest, whilst I love the first two Arks, I haven't really got into Ark3 (yet). I rarely find myself using icini now aside from the string shorts (which I do still adore) and some of the quirky extra content.ДЇor me - Ark1 is about orchestral brute force, Ark2 is more reflective - works particularly well for malevolence/darkness (think the baddies revealing nefarious plans), Ark3 is a mix of percussion, driving rhythm and atonal clusters. Icini is low-end, Ark 1 is immense power). I feel there is a lot more variety in Ark 1 than A3 - although I consider both niche (ie. Just to provide a counter-point, I'd take Ark 1 over Albion III: icini in a heartbeat.

Orchestraltools metropolis ark 1