like the title says are the Spitfire Albion (1, 2, 3, 4) worth the price?
 
I think in USD each library is about $500+. 
 
There is a 4 day 50% off on a bundle of all 4 Albion products comes out to $1000+ but you get all 4 libraries.  $250+ each doesn't seem so bad.
 
I just don't know if they have gotten long in the tooth for symphonic libraries.  I have read and looked at product reviews but so many of the reviews just seem a bit to biased and just rave and paint the products great.  others seem like the samples have baked in reverb and the reviews absolutely hate the products.
 
I don't know that I NEED more symphonic libraries but this seems like one of those once in a lifetime sales.  am I wrong?  worth it?  not so much?
 
thoughts?  quit spending money, make music and donate money to charity? (okay that last one isn't going to happen but maybe.....).

As far as quality & sound yes, excellent libs.
Yes, the verb is baked.
If you don't really need them or won't use them much it's probably not a wise investment.

There IS NO VERB!!!  I own a lot of Spitfire and they are just exquisite.  By far the most popular libraries among all the heavies over at  VI Control.  Spitfire CONSTANTLY updates them, improving the GUI so it is consistent among their entire line of products... oh, and the ostinatum generator is badass!  
 
As to this reverb nonsense, Spitfire does all their recording at Air Studios - Lyndhurst Hall, London, which is HUGE and the ambience is captured via far off mics... you dial in what you want from various mics, trees, etc... no synthetics, the REAL FRIGGIN DEAL.  Just watch a few vids... they have a zillion.  Paul always goes on about the mics.... 
 
I'm very jealous... I paid full price for each Albion.   They include absolutely monster drums, amazingly tweaked sounds and rhythmic stuff all on top of some of the most beautiful instruments ever captured.
Albion 1 is the momma... mother ship.   2 is the delicate, smaller packages and 3 is just a balls out mega f"ck of a beyond awesome low end orchestration package.
 
Albion 4 is totally weird stuff that may or may not make sense... sorta like "cage"
 
but this is a monster deal...wow! What I could have used all those savings for!   
 
btw, I own ewql platinum orch, all Kurks stuff (cept the latest new thingy), all NI's crap (and compared to Albion, it is total crap) and Project Sam's OE 1&2 which I use on occasion.  Mostly I use Albions... they are soooooo exquisit!

Vastman
There IS NO VERB!!! 
As to this reverb nonsense, Spitfire does all their recording at Air Studios - Lyndhurst Hall, London, which is HUGE

Not nonsense at all.
The samples aren't recorded dry.
The reflections of the room is the space (reverb)

Carl... the close up mics are Dry!  As dry as any other library out there...however they simultaneously capture three other sets of mics...overhead and tree and whatever... They are capturing the natural ambience of the hall, if you want to dial that in; If you want to call that Verb, so be it... but you can use the close in mics, which are for all intents and purposes, DRY then and dial in your own "verb" if that floats your boat...  This is a totally different than the approach of EWQL, which uses impulses from their stellar Spaces verb ( I own it and use it all the time).
 
Doesn't really matter...as to Machine's queri...  either you want um or not... either you like their gui or don't...the ostinatum engine is hella rad but maybe you don't care about all the prebaked runs and riffs and things you can play freehand and modify/create which would be impossible to play (at least I can't and Daniel James noted it is a huge timesaver), either you like their approach and the sound of it or you don't...and either you like all the extra gooodies they include (very unique and awesome in their own right) or you say "I already have enough earth shattering drums and twisted synths and other things they include and bypass the deal.
 
I don't know why you're asking here...You should be over at VI Control... those folks are pros...and very helpful... and  you can spend days listening to the vids, endless compositions from all the Spitfire composers out there (soundcloud has ooooooodles) 
 
 

Claw, As to long in the tooth, the libraries are constantly being updated, gui enhancements, new features, new content... I have never known a company who constantly improves their products as Spitfire... and it's all free.

Very cool info.  thanks.
 
I'll have to listen to demos and really think about it.
 
 

You're confusing dry samples with close mics. There are no dry samples in Albion.
The close mics still have a small amount of the hall (reverb) in them. You can open them up further using the tree, amb. or outrigger mics.
You cannot get rid of the reverb using only the close mics.
Try a dryer library from VSL , you'll understand & hear the difference.

Also the REDUX version release of Albion introduced baked ensembles.
Some prefer this type, others dryer sampled libraries to set up their own stage positioning & reverb.

It's also one reason why it's difficult to balance them using other sample libraries. You can use software like Parralax-Audio VSS & get decent results but you still have to deal with ER, micing & phase issues between them.

Either way they sound great, one of the best orchestral libraries to date.

"Either way they sound great, one of the best orchestral libraries to date."
 
are you sure you mean that? - you seem pretty critical of the sounds/Verbs.

Not critical at all, I said "quality & sound excellent libs."
 
You just have to be aware that you can't completely isolate the reverb & the baked ensembles can't be placed anywhere on the stage. You can run into problems using other libraries together.
It's something to consider when investing a good sum of money.
 
Myself, I use it all the time.
It's the first string, wind & brass ensemble choice I go for when starting a new project.