KVR Audio

sonarman · Post by **sonarman** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 4:58 pm

Just bought the EastWest Silver symphony and feel need to share my concerns.
Have the samples been played around with or cleaned up?
Some of the instruments sound slightly synthetic (double basses in particular).

Doesn't the grouping of certain sounds ruin the authentic nature of the sample - In other words, if I play a 3 note chord using 18 violins, does that mean I'm actually playing 54 violins?

Armadillo · Post by **Armadillo** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:14 pm

yeah. but you wouldn't wanna play a 3 chord note anyway if you want it to sound realistic. You would eg. if playing a C major let the violins play G, the violas play E and basses play C.

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:15 pm

That is a problem. It's a small library and the number of articulations / sections are limited. It doesn't sound realistic anyway though

Yes, I believe there's a fair bit of processing been done, though I'm not sure what and why. The stereo imaging is different from Gold. Everything seems more centrally placed. I upgraded to Gold very soon after getting Silver, as Silver really isn't a production tool. It's a compositional tool.

Sequent · Post by **Sequent** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:28 pm

Armadillo wrote:yeah. but you wouldn't wanna play a 3 chord note anyway if you want it to sound realistic. You would eg. if playing a C major let the violins play G, the violas play E and basses play C.

Precisely!

If you want it to sound "real" regardless of whether you're using Silver, GPO, or even Platinum or VSL, etc...

you have to stop thinking like a keyboard player!

Sequent · Post by **Sequent** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:32 pm

sonarman wrote:Just bought the EastWest Silver symphony and feel need to share my concerns.
Have the samples been played around with or cleaned up?
Some of the instruments sound slightly synthetic (double basses in particular).

Doesn't the grouping of certain sounds ruin the authentic nature of the sample - In other words, if I play a 3 note chord using 18 violins, does that mean I'm actually playing 54 violins?

The instruments presented in Silver are not chromatically sampled as far as I know. For that you would need to move up to Gold - where you have separate samples for each note.

Sequent · Post by **Sequent** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:39 pm

chagzuki wrote:That is a problem. It's a small library and the number of articulations / sections are limited. It doesn't sound realistic anyway though
Yes, I believe there's a fair bit of processing been done, though I'm not sure what and why. The stereo imaging is different from Gold. Everything seems more centrally placed. I upgraded to Gold very soon after getting Silver, as Silver really isn't a production tool. It's a compositional tool.

If all you wanted was more articulations, then I think there is a Silver Pro addition that will soon be available.

As a compositional tool... as an alternative to Silver... I'm finding that I REALLY like Miroslav. It's actually a nice item as you have the orchestral textures, the choral, textures, and also piano and organ.

I'm pretty sure there is a lot of processing going on there under the hood, and I wonder how things are sampled. But overall, I think it's a very solid and usable item and I would recommend it as an alternative to Silver.

It also has a nice softness and intimacy to it that contrasts with and works well with EWQLSO if you're looking to add to your toolset.

There is also the gpo range, but I can't speak for that as I don't have it.

CANE CREEK · Post by **CANE CREEK** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:47 pm

ive got silver its crap i never use it what a waste of money , later i bought miroslav philharmonik and im very very very happy with it.

sonarman · Post by **sonarman** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 7:03 pm

When will I learn?
Note to self - Ask advice before spending money.

Armadillo · Post by **Armadillo** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:43 pm

I disagree. I think you can write great tunes using just Silver

Listen to Berlin
and Be Quick and
Hollywood in 2 1/2 min.
and tell me that they don't sound great.

sonarman · Post by **sonarman** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:16 pm

Just listened to Berlin - You've inspired me to stick with Silver but put me off going to Germany.

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:18 pm

Edit.

sonarman · Post by **sonarman** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:38 pm

Had a problem from the start trying to register the software - the bloody site was down. I visited the NI forum looking for help and found a shit-load of complaints about bad customer service.

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:21 am

Silver isn't crap at all. It has it's limits, but writing for orchestra is an infinitely rich pursuit, and silver is a great sketchpad.

sonarman · Post by **sonarman** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:13 pm

Chagzuki - I'm sure I'll get used to it. Thanks for your thoughts.
BTW - had a quick listen to the Jigsaw Mind stuff on your site. Impressive. Is that your music?

kevink · Post by **kevink** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:24 pm

Armadillo wrote:yeah. but you wouldn't wanna play a 3 chord note anyway if you want it to sound realistic. You would eg. if playing a C major let the violins play G, the violas play E and basses play C.

Just to put in a plug for my freebie plug, if you're using Sonar or some other host that can use MFX (like Cubase with the MFX->VST adapter), Orchid (see http://www.paralogos.com/music/) can be inserted ahead of EWQL and programmed to do exactly that: assign notes of real-time chords to different MIDI channels according to the user's specified range/priority scheme. You play chords and they come out orchestrated, albeit very simplistically.

http://www.kevink.net/tunes/Krell-Orche ... ation1.mp3 is a quickie demo, using EWQL Gold, freely improvised in two passes, one for the strings, one for the brass.

Thoughts on EastWest Symphony ?