For the last several weeks I have been trying to setup orchestral Multis on my Receptor 2... Especially string sections. Too say the least, I have been very disappointed. Let me explain: I feel that a cello sample library should sound exactly like a live cello being played by a competent cellist. I want to smell the rosin. I want to feel all the vibrations and emotions that go with it. This goes for viola, violin, contrabass, string sections and everything else. The only plugin (sample library) that I think comes close is Garritan's Stradivari (I wish I could buy Gofrigger Cello for Receptor). Of course VSL would be great, but it doesn't run on Receptor.

I know some of you are going to say, "You are not playing it right." But that will always be the case with musicians. I want samples that inspire me to play better, not the other way around.

I have tried EWQLSO Gold, Miroslav, Interactive Strings, NI Kontakt 3 Library, Sampletank, and Sound Fonts galore, and no of them do the trick for me. I have personally made violin and cello samples about 20 years ago with my Akai S900 that are just as good as the libraries I just mentioned. This is pathetic, or is it just me?

Has anybody really found the solution to this dilemma?

Use a live instrument being played by a competent musician.

Closest thing to the real deal i know is the Samplemodelling stuff. One of their guys was behind the ideas for Garritans Strad and Gofriller and they make much better use of that with their own instruments.
Hopefully they are going to do strings as well at some point.

Oh yeah baby! Their Mr. Sax T is awesome and so is The Trumpet. I can't wait for their strings... if you say they are coming. This might be the answer. I guess that Kontakt has opened up a new frontier with their script capabilities. Now we will definitely need the Solid State Drives to keep up with the streaming.

You cannot get any good result without extensive MIDI editing in your sequencer. If you need something to sound like it is played by a real player, you need to emulate the action and think about what happen in real life. This means extensive use of pitch bend (very slightly), vibrato and expression (CC11) data to make the sound move.

There are two good books to help you:

Andrea Pejrolo - Acoustic and MIDI orchestration for the contemporary composer

Paul Gilreth - The guide to MIDI orchestration

I'm sure Amazon will give you the details.

Try the EWQL Platinum Edition. The Orchestra plays much better. The Goldedition is played without any emotion. The platinum is the real deal.

Is the Samplemodelling stuff Kontakt player based? Is the library locked until you authorize the Kontakt Player? Will it even run on Receptor?

I'd also love to run the Garritan Stradivari on Receptor. Unfortunately, I have version 2 with the locked library you can't open with Kontakt unless you can authorize the Kontakt Player.

I haven't even heard our good friends at Muse mention the upcoming Kontakt Player instruments fix in well over a year. At this point, its a good guess that it will be Receptor 2 only, if it ever arrives.

K.