OK, I am NOT a fan of threads that ask "which one would you choose . . ."

Yet, here I am on the fence and creating a "which one would you choose" thread. I was seriously impressed with Sonokinetic Vivace's sound and visual presentation, but do not like Kontakt at all. Using Kontakt is nearly a deal breaker for me.

Garritan Instant Orchestra seems really close, although I was not blown away by the sound quality of the audio demos and even heard a lot of noise in the demo songs. However, the Aria Instrument looks really awesome.

Sonokinetic Vivace is roughly $253 USD and Garritan Instant Orchestra is $150 USD, so the latter is quite a bit less expensive and right now money is truly an issue (when is it not).

Both seems to lean close to the same type of sounds, but the Sonokinetic video demos just blow me away. They seems to have their s--t together more than Garritan when it comes to professionalism of presentation.

Overall, I am leaning towards Garritan because of the really nice Aria engine and less expensive price, but that noise in the demos is putting me off. Do I get more for my money with Vivace? Instant Orchestra? Is Vivace noticeably cleaner sounding than Garritan or vice versa?

What is your opinion?

Mike

Hi,
i allow myself: if you may be interested, as i do not use them any more,i can offer you my Garritan Personnal Orchestra and my Jazz Big Band for a very small price...

i just send a email to Garritan for asking how much are transfer fee

regards

No, they're similar, noise-wise.

And does that mean they are unusually noisy or just normal - with a bit of noise?

Mike

They're both not great, noise-wise. Apparently they both used "standard" (I don't mean "not high-end") preamps and mics for their recordings, while they should have used equipment that could lower the noise floor by about 8 or even 10 or more dB, which would have made a huge difference -for an orchestral instrument sample library- of that type.

You'll notice the noise much more with the string ensembles, for example, and not with single instruments or small sections, simply because more mics + more preamps, especially when combined with quiet playing with that mic setup (they can't just get the mics closer, the entire uniformity of the recordings would be ruined) = tons of noise no matter what. You better use specialized equipment to record this kind of stuff, especially if the aim is to make a "virtual instrument" from these recordings.

All that said, I'd say it's not so bad and both are definitely usable, but people should expect noise. "For the price, it's fine", "don't expect", etc.

Great answer.

So, in anyone's opinion that have used both of these, which one is better?

Is the lower-priced Garritan just as good or "good enough" as compared to the more expensive Sonokinetic Vivace?

Is there anything 'mind shattering' in Vivace to make me choose it over Garritan Instant Orchestra?

Thanks for the insight so far.

Mike

Vivace sounds good, but it looks like it is basically a loop library, not really playable samples.
You, too, can sound like everyone else!
It comes with Kontakt player, so you don't have the expense of buying Kontakt.

From the demos and the websites the Garritan looks to be more of a playable sample collection.
They have built sections for you, but you play the notes.
The Garritan also seems less bombastic and more classical.

The demos for Garritan sound good, but not great. The videos sound pretty bad, so I don't know what to think.
Also, I don't see any staccatos or spicatos.

My thoughts exactly. That is why I am on the fence.

For a name that big, you would think they would have really kick butt demos.

Grrrr. Still not sure. Thanks for the heads up on Vivace - i'd rather not buy just a loop library and I HATE Kontakt - I just do not like the interface at all - plus it has ALWAYS crashed on me repeatedly.

Mike

First and foremost: what is it you want to achieve with an orchestral library?
GIO and Vivace seem to serve different purposes. The former is a 'pocket orchestra', offering instrument patches for strings, brass, wind, percussion etc. Vivace is a library of orchestral chord patterns and harmonic phrases. Kontakt's TMPro is needed as the phrases are time-synced. Two different things and hence difficult to compare.

No, Garritan Personal Orchestra is what you describe. Their instant orchestra is presets of playing styles much in the same vein as Vivace.

Read the description of the product on their site.

Mike

They are both fairly vague as to exactly what they are offering.

Though, if you watch the videos carefully you can see some things.

With Vivace I saw very little actual playing of notes and the keyboard color setup only shows a few active keys.
It looks, and sounds like a loop library.

The Garritan offering looks to be multi-patches where they combine instruments and sections, but you play the notes of your choosing. It does not seem to contain loops, or not many at least.
There may be some runs and orchestral effects like glisses.

The multi patches are things like a full woodwinds patch, or flutes plus clarinets, or strings plus brass.

They really are not comparable packages.

P.T.,

Yes. Exactly. I am leaning towards Garritan because I like the ability to create these kinds of combos and patches.

I like the glisses and other film-scoring effects included.

Thanks.

Mike

P.T. already indicated it. You can't compare these two products. I don't have GPO but the way I understand it is, that you can play ALL instruments via your keyboard note by note: string sections (staccato and sustain), brass, woodwinds, percussion etc. With Vivace (which I own) you can't play note by note. They sampled full (or part) Orchestral performances (or phrases) which you can then tempo sync and also have in different keys. It's great to use it TOGETHER with something like GPO but you can't really use it by itself and can honestly say "you" composed it.

As I said I don't have GPO but heard quite a few times that the quality is not that great (hence the low price). I own Symphobia and they now have a new library called "Orchestral Essentials" which offers everything you need but in great quality. I know it's quite a lot more expensive but worth it. I think for a full set of Orchestral libraries (for under $500) you can't beat "Orchestral Essentials". I wouldn't worry about Kontakt. It works flawless. Anyway, just my opinion. Good luck with everything.

I fixed FrankT's "blank" post above.