How does Miroslav compare to EWSO Gold ?

[Rellik]

Just to be clear, the instruments in Gold are recorded in their "correct" places as well.

Yeah if it weren't for that and the reverb, I think I would have gone for Gold on that group buy last winter! Philharmonik and Gold share a lot in common in that respect - Philharmonik seems to have a better sound than Gold for a better price, from what I can tell (need more /better demos!). But that only applies if you're getting a single library - for one who already has Gold, there is much to consider.

[Innominandum]

From the demos, it sounds like a good all-purpose set. It "sounds" great but it also sounds difficult to make realistic - there wasn't a single convincing demo on the site. Which is fine if you just need it for the background. If you need realistic, keep your sights on EWSO or Vienna.

[Yossarian]

I just read a post on the NorthernSounds forum that might be of interest. The post is by Bruce Richardson and he writes about orchestral sample libraries in general and the Miroslav library in particular. Bruce is a long-time user of the original MV library so he knows it very well. Here's the thread:

http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/sho ... post321206

I don't always agree with Bruce's posts but they often make for very entertaining and though-provoking reading.

/Yoss

[Squids]

Yeah, Bruce is great. Real food for thought. Good one Yoss.

If you want to sound like a real orchestra then nothing beats the real thing. As far as getting "close" then in terms of the tools you have different options out there. This one is really inspiring, easy to use and fast for getting your ideas out.

[telebunke]

Yeah, Bruce is great. Real food for thought. Good one Yoss.

Pretty impressive article by Bruce.

tele

[telebunke]

Yeah, Bruce is great. Real food for thought. Good one Yoss.

Pretty impressive article by Bruce.
tele

Some thoughts...

I really like how he explains that one has to treat a sample library as an instrument on it's own. This is what applies to any Virtual Instrument actually. Use it in a way within how it's designed and you'll have the best results. Don't use it for something it is not designed to do - that's it.
I also like the way he explains that it is impossible to completely recreate a group of real musicians with a number of samples. Nice idea for someone who'd like to exactly program a special classical piece, but not workable, at least not workable with what we have today.

Treat it as an instrument and get to know and use it the way it's intended to get great results.

Reminds me a little of some comments on some of the string licks I do. 'Perfect' musicians sometimes(often?) say that a real string section would not articulate it in this way, that it sounds not real. And I think - SO WHAT? Does it sound cool or not, do I like it, does it make my music shine? That's what a virtual instrument is about for me. If it's darn cool this way I don't care if real musicians would (or sometimes could not) play it this way.
Example: There's an articulation called sforza, playing with a strong attack (sforza=strength) and while the bow continues to move, the power of the sound becomes less after the attack. If I take that patch to play 10 notes exactly succeeding each other it might not be something a string player would or even could do, because it would be kind of legato with a strong attack but without the transient sound when moving from one note or string to another.
Take this 1 minute example with the not-legato-like passage in the middle to see what I mean.
Strings in a Pop song part (Bridge & Break)
Strings alone
EDIT-Start
The links didn't work, I took them away.
Try this link to my topic in my friend's forum. The mp3s are attachments of the 2nd post of the thread. The link leads you to directly to the 2nd post.
http://24.9.145.185/smf/index.php?topic ... 6#msg12196
EDIT-End


I don't intend to say that 100% faithful RECREeation of an orchestra wouldn't be great to have, but use the instrument the way it was designed and you'll have faithful CREation.
Even if you bought ALL the libraries you would not be able to perfectly recreate a few dozen real humans with their instruments.
I realise, that this merely reflects my thoughts and others may think different, so no need to argue who's right or wrong.


tele

[basic channel]

Well after much umming and ahhing I decided to take the plunge.

If those demos are just scratching the surface then I think this will be worth it.....


BC

[Squids]

I've noticed a large spike in pre-orders recently so I imagine there are quite a few people who were on the fence and then just decided to "take the plunge". One thing I know you'll get is great value for money. There's no question of that. Each person's tastes are different so no one should be expected to like every single thing with any product. But, overall I think you just get so much bang for the buck with Philharmonik that you can't go wrong really. Of course, I WOULD think that! Easy to say for the guy selling it. But, still, I think a lot of you will agree with me when you have it. It represents a serious effort on both IK and SR's part as well as Miroslav in the first place.

Thanks for the support guys! Keep those pre-orders coming. If we can get a large enough group of users for the launch perhaps we can do something cool like a user demo contest and that way there will be a lot of different demos for people to hear. That would be fun.

[Caleb]

Squids - I've wanted Philharmonik since you first mentioned that it was coming. I just can't wait to receive it so that I can play conductor.

I just wanted to ask you something about the ST2-related products - as you would know this very well.

If you want to put together a live setup using items like SS2 and Philharmonik and ST2 extenstively what setup do you use?

I've never been game to go on the road in the past - especially as the only thing I like to do in performance is sing. Means I have to find a number of people to do the rest.

But I still toy with the idea of performing live and I'm imagining those 3 IK/SR products getting a real work out so I wouldn't mind reading about what you use and how effective it is, what latency problems you've found --- all that sort of thing.

It's a clear invitation for a "Squids Post" too.

Caleb

[telebunke]

Take this 1 minute example with the not-legato-like passage in the middle to see what I mean.
Strings in a Pop song part (Bridge & Break)
http://www.winksbbs.com/smf/index.php?a ... 9.0;id=182
Strings alone
http://www.winksbbs.com/smf/index.php?a ... 9.0;id=181

I don't intend to say that 100% faithful RECREeation of an orchestra wouldn't be great to have, but use the instrument the way it was designed and you'll have faithful CREation.tele

Not one single download? Ups, guess my little article must have been darn boring.

tele

P.S.:
I'd be soooooo interested to hear how this little easy lick passage sounds with Philharmonik. The choice of articulations could be more, of course, like staccato, legato, and crescendo for some of the longer notes.

[Yossarian]

Not one single download? Ups, guess my little article must have been darn boring.

I tried downloading but couldn't get the link to work. Sorry, should have mentioned that.

BTW, I sat down with Melodyne Cre8 last night and had a blast. You should definitely install this puppy.

/Yoss

[telebunke]

Not one single download? Ups, guess my little article must have been darn boring.

I tried downloading but couldn't get the link to work. Sorry, should have mentioned that.

BTW, I sat down with Melodyne Cre8 last night and had a blast. You should definitely install this puppy.

/Yoss

Try this link to my topic in my friend's forum. The mp3s are attachments of the 2nd post of the thread. The link leads you to directly to the 2nd post.

http://24.9.145.185/smf/index.php?topic ... 6#msg12196


tele

P.S.:
Wanna show us something you've tweaked with Melodyne? By one person of the VSL manufactoring team, I was told that Melodyne is almost ridiculously good on pitching strings, as well - easily up to 5 or 6 semitones and it'll still sound cool.

[Yossarian]

Try this link to my topic in my friend's forum. The mp3s are attachments of the 2nd post of the thread. The link leads you to directly to the 2nd post.

http://24.9.145.185/smf/index.php?topic ... 6#msg12196

Now the link is working but my Windows Media Player doesn't seem to like the mp3 files. When I try do save them to disk I end up with two files with a size of 0 KB. I have no idea what the problem is.

P.S.:
Wanna show us something you've tweaked with Melodyne?

Let me get back to you on that. I'm just playing around atm, trying to get my head around this thing.

By one person of the VSL manufactoring team, I was told that Melodyne is almost ridiculously good on pitching strings, as well - easily up to 5 or 6 semitones and it'll still sound cool.

I can believe that, it's an amazing piece of software.

/Yoss

[Caleb]

I never got these links to work either.
Not the original and not the link in your friend's message.

Caleb

[telebunke]

I never got these links to work either.
Not the original and not the link in your friend's message.
Caleb

Unfortunately, there seem to be some people having problems with downloading the attachments. The admin says he can't see anything wrong in his installation, it seems that 95% of the people are doing fine.

tele