MiroSalivate

[Bobby Hull]

As I sit and wait for my Miroslav to arrive, I had a chance to read the Computer Music review:

-"9/10"
-"sounds absolutely incredible"
-"samples have a warmth and depth"
-"truly spectacular cathedral organ"
-"represents great value"
-"convenient plug-in interface"
-"massive sound"

SR and IK are to be congratulated on such a positive review. Of course, the review was careful to point out that you still need to know what you are doing to achieve good results. Damn, I coulda sworn someone told me that STRETCH referred to the users' talent level.

[sghoughton]

Actually, since you mention stretch, i find that to be a very useful feature for some of these non-chromatically sampled instruments. It sounds very very good. I think there may be a slight bug with it though - sometimes in the highest sample thats stretched over a few keys, it seems to keep the same pitch no matter which key in the range i hit. Not sure what triggers that.

But it does sound very very good.

steve

[Squids]

Stretch is a technology that works differently depending on the sound. Sometimes it reaches its limits. But, I agree that there are some incredible things Stretch can do with Philharmonik that make it a unique tool for orchestral music composition and production. I go over it in detail on an upcoming video demo (just saw the near final of it today in fact so it is coming real soon!).

Thanks for the quotes from the review and thank you for the congratulations.

[Mr. Tunes]

-"9/10"
-"sounds absolutely incredible"
-"samples have a warmth and depth"
-"truly spectacular cathedral organ"
-"represents great value"
-"convenient plug-in interface"
-"massive sound"

yeah i got my copy recently and from what i've been playing so far I'll have to agree. It's just oozing with warmth that i've never heard or played before.

it's also new for me cause i'm not used to having an entire 2 dvd set devoted to the orchestra. i'm used to all that memory being split with vintage keys, drums etc so this is really cool for me to focus on just the orchs.

[nexussynth]

picking this thread up late...

I'll just add that STRETCH is waayyy improved from my original experience with ST2. It's actually useable for many of the orchestral sounds. It also sounds much less grainy to my ears than it used to.

The Philharmonik sounds are so warm and hi-fi sounding that some people might notice the effect of STRETCH on the sound quality of a given sample more than they normally would.

I just keep wanting to use the Miroslav instead of my other libraries. These sounds really mesh together well; 'orchestras' and other ensembles you can make with the combis work so well because of the great homegenous timbre and ambience of the samples. This quality is more apparent in Philharmonik than with the original sample library (Vitous).

CSR is great and a perfect partner for this library! Don't turn it off! It is not a CPU hog as I thought it might be.

I love this GUI and wish my Kontakt-based libraries were as nice as this. Everything is there in front of you and you can set things up quickly. It's fun!

I hope to see this library expanded soon with more instruments (even though it's VERY complete! I'm just greedy ).

[Squids]

There are some interesting possibilities for expansion down the road. We have more Miroslav material so... but more on that later!

One thing I've been thinking about when comparing Miroslav Philharmonik to other orchestral products on the market is that the sound of it is very realistic when in musical context. Sometimes you can even hear a punchier timpani with bright highs on its own from a few other products and think that the timpani is better. But, then you hear it in context and the timpani in Miroslav Philharmonik which has a hall version recorded in the back of the symphony where it would normally be just sits right in with the orchestral mix and doesn't "stick out" like a soar thumb. It's weird but sometimes when an instrument, particularly an orchestral instrument that is meant to be part of an ensemble, is recorded with the intent to be as present and in your face as possible this can sometimes result in a sound that is out of place when in context. Maybe played on its own it is powerful but it can "take over" too much perhaps when played with the rest of the orchestra. Don't get me wrong, I still like "in your face" sounds too and there's always a way to make sounds work for some context or another. But, for some reason I find Miroslav Philharmonik to just easily fit in musically with what I've been doing. So, yeah, I have been gravitating toward it more than my other collections that I own. I go there first and then go to the others if I need to. I often don't though.

[nexussynth]

There are some interesting possibilities for expansion down the road. We have more Miroslav material so... but more on that later!

One thing I've been thinking about when comparing Miroslav Philharmonik to other orchestral products on the market is that the sound of it is very realistic when in musical context. Sometimes you can even hear a punchier timpani with bright highs on its own from a few other products and think that the timpani is better. But, then you hear it in context and the timpani in Miroslav Philharmonik which has a hall version recorded in the back of the symphony where it would normally be just sits right in with the orchestral mix and doesn't "stick out" like a soar thumb. It's weird but sometimes when an instrument, particularly an orchestral instrument that is meant to be part of an ensemble, is recorded with the intent to be as present and in your face as possible this can sometimes result in a sound that is out of place when in context. Maybe played on its own it is powerful but it can "take over" too much perhaps when played with the rest of the orchestra. Don't get me wrong, I still like "in your face" sounds too and there's always a way to make sounds work for some context or another. But, for some reason I find Miroslav Philharmonik to just easily fit in musically with what I've been doing. So, yeah, I have been gravitating toward it more than my other collections that I own. I go there first and then go to the others if I need to. I often don't though.

Yes thats it exactly.

The percussion sit better than even the EWQLSO because they don't sound like they are at the front of the orchestra. Many film scores have much percussion overdubs and so QLSO provides that sound but Miro orchestras just seem to blend like the many fine modern classical recordings I have.

Again, the CSR helps out in that with a more natural reverb than the muddy convolution reverbs which seem to overpower the instruments. I have gotten good reverb from convolution but only after much tweaking and eq'ing, etc.

The filtering in the new ST engine is very nice sounding and makes the sounds get softer in a realistic way, not as a synth filter would (though i can get that too with them ).

I hope anybody reading this and considering an orchestral library will consider these comments. I can't believe how much better these sound than the original Vitous (which were pretty good!).

This library really needed to be rescued and brought into the present as a plugin