List of all multi-sampled orchestral libraries

[theupgrade]

I added a poll, so now you can vote for your favorite library.

There is no such thing as a "favorite" library. Different libraries fits different purposes. So the result of the poll is useless.

[Aryaroman]

I added a poll, so now you can vote for your favorite library.

There is no such thing as a "favorite" library. Different libraries fits different purposes. So the result of the poll is useless.

I'm not preventing You from voting multiple. If you have 8 favorite libraries, you can vote them all. The question of the poll is "Your library of choice?" And it reads after that you can vote multiple. "Library of choice?" just sounded better (no pun intended) than "library/libraries of choice?"

And there is such thing as a (single) favorite library Some people own only 1 library and are happy with that. And some people who own different libraries, have a favorite they prefer over their other libraries and only use the other libraries for extra layers, or when they don't have a choice, like when you need an articulation your primary/favorite library doesn't have. Simpy put, it's just that library you would chooce to keep if using multiple orchestral libraries was suddenly outlawed.

The result of the poll is not useless. Maybe it is to you, because you already had a clear image of what is popular and what isn't or don't care. I admit, It has not been very surprising to me either. Albion, East West and VSL are dominating just as one would figure. Then again, Miroslav is currently up there too, who would have guessed? And Kirk Hunter's popularity was the one surprise to me. Then again, that might and probably will change if more people vote, but so far it has seemed very indicative of the true popularity. (that of KVR atleast)

[theupgrade]

A very small percentage of those who vote have dig deep into all the mentioned orchestral libraries. Thus, poll lacks credibility, thus poll is useless. I don't even feel like I have the authority to vote and I have tried a few of them.

[Aryaroman]

A very small percentage of those who vote have dig deep into all the mentioned orchestral libraries. Thus, poll lacks credibility, thus poll is useless. I don't even feel like I have the authority to vote and I have tried a few of them.

Let's say I want to buy an orchestral library. Instead of scrolling through endless lists of reviews and topics of this and that library all over the internet, I get to this thread. then I think:

"Well, that's cool, there is a list. But what's in, what's out? What do people use? Do people still use Miroslavik? Does anyone use Da Capo?"

Then I see the poll and I can see an estimate. It is not 100% credible, no poll is. It can't ever be 100% objective or accurate. Clearly, it's what small percentage of people on KVR have voted, whether they are novices or pros. Yet, it has proven quite accurate based on my knowledge preceding the poll.

The poll is there to support the list and give a general idea of what's popular, what's not. It's not intended to tell you what library is the best. Only an idea of their popularity.

Not everyone cares about these kind of results. But some people do care, even just out of curiosity. It's not so serious.

[garywilliamson1]

A very small percentage of those who vote have dig deep into all the mentioned orchestral libraries. Thus, poll lacks credibility, thus poll is useless. I don't even feel like I have the authority to vote and I have tried a few of them.

Poll is not useless and you're taking this way too seriously. He put some effort in to try to help, not a bad thing

[bigcat1969]

Out of curiosity what Miroslav are people using? I was just comparing the Sonatina with both the Session Strings / Horn and the Sampletank 3 Miroslav. Predictably the Session version was delicious, but the ST3 Miroslav sounded terrible to me, worse than the Sonatina. I tried a couple of my other instruments including the cello and bass for the mighty D Smolken and I thought that sounded better as well. These are just the out of the box sounds dropped into a midi. Maybe ST3 needs more tweaking and then it sounds better?
I dropped it on my soundcloud account.
soundcloud.com/bigcat1969

[Aryaroman]

Out of curiosity what Miroslav are people using? I was just comparing the Sonatina with both the Session Strings / Horn and the Sampletank 3 Miroslav. Predictably the Session version was delicious, but the ST3 Miroslav sounded terrible to me, worse than the Sonatina. I tried a couple of my other instruments including the cello and bass for the mighty D Smolken and I thought that sounded better as well. These are just the out of the box sounds dropped into a midi. Maybe ST3 needs more tweaking and then it sounds better?
I dropped it on my soundcloud account.
soundcloud.com/bigcat1969

Well, I've heard few as bad orchestral mock-ups as that ST3 version. That was plain digital orchestra horror. If it sounds that bad out-of-the-box, I'm glad I didn't buy it at the time. The DIY Smolken's quality isn't very good, but at least it doesn't sound like a synth. The Sessions version was okay, but Sonatina wasn't bad at all next to it.

[bigcat1969]

It should be noted this was just dropping the basic sustain sound into a fairly basic midi that was trumpet and then two 'strings' sections. So awful rudimentary even by my non-musicians standards. Still yeah it did stun me. I tried it with both each instrument section individually (which I used) and the basic string patch. The string patch actually sounded worse.
Sorry to the mighty Dman for attaching his name to something not so good. Only the bass stuff was his, the less good was probably the DIY trumpet, violin and viola and my execution (favored by many).

[Aryaroman]

It should be noted this was just dropping the basic sustain sound into a fairly basic midi that was trumpet and then two 'strings' sections. So awful rudimentary even by my non-musicians standards. Still yeah it did stun me. I tried it with both each instrument section individually (which I used) and the basic string patch. The string patch actually sounded worse.

Could it be the lack of release, reverb and dynamic on the strings, that makes it sound like a cheap synth or rompler?

It should NOT sound like that out of the box, if the Midi is the same or almost same as with the Sonatina demos and the Sessions out-of-the-box, if you ask me. The demo with D Smolken bass and Diy instruments sounds like it's been recorded in low-quality and the instruments somehow clash. Just what I'm hearing from a few listenings.

[bigcat1969]

Good question I'll take a look at the adsr stuff on ST3. I did them all with no effects of any kind, maybe ST3 needs effects... actually I just dropped them in I should look and see if they came preloaded loaded with effects...
Yeah I probably made a bad choice mixing the different sample types of the Philharmonia and D Smolkin.
I dropped in a Kirk Hunter version which to me sounds quite good.

The actual midi file
http://www.mediafire.com/download/o2owo ... umpvol.mid

Here's me actually messing with ST3, then briefly Sonatina, and the midi file.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3wnnelG6xU

[Aryaroman]

I think the ST3-trumpet is lacking round-robin, so it sounds so synthesized. The Kirk Hunter version sounds lush, but the string section is quite big and takes some of the stage from the trumpet, maybe a smaller section would do?

[bigcat1969]

Thanks I'll try a smaller section. I must admit there is so much to Kirk Hunter's stuff that I'm not quite sure what is where, too much is a nice problem...
I just got the free trial month of composer cloud when comes with Symphonic Orchestra Gold so I'll try that too.

LOL, I forget that people actually follow me and see my sh.. junk. I got some complaints about all that classical music stuff.

[Aryaroman]

I just got the free trial month of composer cloud when comes with Symphonic Orchestra Gold so I'll try that too.

LOL, I forget that people actually follow me and see my sh.. junk. I got some complaints about all that classical music stuff.

Where you go, there you are... and there your followers are.

How does the Composer Cloud work by the way? I've read the FAQ page on EW's website and still I don't understand, because it seems too good (or rather cheap ) to be true. Do you use the libraries through internet, or can you downlaod them to your hard drive and use them even after the subscription ends?

[msorrels]

In that video you are using the stock SampleTank3 library and not the full Miroslav Philharmonik Sampletank library. The ST3 sounds I don't think are nearly as good as the real thing. They may be related though? Not sure. I did a super quick test and it seemed to sound better with the (imported into Sampletank 3 from the Sampletank 2 library) real thing. Though it has dozens of variants of every patch, it's hard to tell which one would work best for non-customized MIDI file. I think with a little programming care though the real Miroslav library can sound less-synthy.

[Aryaroman]

I've been looking at the poll results. Are people using just the phrase-libraries from Sonokinetic, like Tutti, Vivace, Grosso, etc?