KVR Audio

dover666 · Post by **dover666** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:14 pm

yeah, tax time... Anyone who knows me knows how much i promote freeware and all that... but as good as modplug is for experimenting... I have to admit that is very hard for me NOT to experiment with it... and i've got to start making real riddims if i want anyone to use them... so, i downloaded the orion demo (pro and platinum) and found it incredibly easy to do "regular" beats in it... so i'm wondering the following ----

How good does it recieve external midi input... (ie, playing a piano bit in realtime, will it record the notation properly)

How short can you get the notes in the pattern editor? i've only used an interface like that one a couple times, i prefer hex notation

Pro vs Platinum -- just more samples and generators? any other differences?

I know i could go to the website and problaly find out the answers to these questions, but i think the opinions i can get from kvrians are more important... so the last questions is ...
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH IT? Bones apparently bought a yacht thanks to orion... (and his own talent) so i figure what with it being 1/10th the price of protools --- i may get a couple copies for my studio (license allows for 2 users i think?)
thanks, peace.

Glassback · Post by **Glassback** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:30 pm

dover666 wrote:How good does it recieve external midi input... (ie, playing a piano bit in realtime, will it record the notation properly)

Yes. How accurately depends on your latency of course. It has realtime quantize, if you're into that sort of thing.

dover666 wrote:How short can you get the notes in the pattern editor? i've only used an interface like that one a couple times, i prefer hex notation

If played through an external keyboard, as short as the note that's played. Using the pianoroll, you can reduce right down to 128 subdivisions per bar.

dover666 wrote:Pro vs Platinum -- just more samples and generators? any other differences?

More instruments and more effects are just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, I've got so used to Plat over Pro now that I can't even remember, but imo you want Plat.

dover666 wrote:ARE YOU HAPPY WITH IT?

Indubitably.

Sickle · Post by **Sickle** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:34 pm

dover666 wrote:How short can you get the notes in the pattern editor? i've only used an interface like that one a couple times, i prefer hex notation

At least 120 sub-divisions per bar.

If you get Orion, get Platinum; never had any(valid) regrets with it.

opia · Post by **opia** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:38 pm

dover666 wrote: so the last questions is ...
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH IT?

yes,very happy

get platinum

the price is right

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:04 pm

Pros:

1. Plenty of features for making soft-synth based music.
2. Several fun and good sounding synths come with it along with a bunch of various drum kits (some of which I find pedestrian but others are cool).
3. Handles convolution
4. Has a good array of effects.

Cons:

1. You have to pre-decide pattern lengths before you jam.
2. Not designed in a modular way in terms of saving mixer states or separating particular MIDI data from a particular instrument. Deleting an instrument from your song deletes all the notes and everything else associated with it.
3. Mixer doesn't really tell you much about levels or clipping.
4. Non-standard shortcuts. For instance, CNTRL+A opens a submixer. In the rest of the world, this is a "Select All" command.
5. Lacks power under the hood in terms of submixing and routing.

I don't recommend it compared with other hosts like eXT or FLStudio. But I've finished a lot of music in it and combatted stability issues along the way (I'm not alone in that but apparently we are not the majority)

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 1:43 am

dover666 wrote:How good does it recieve external midi input... (ie, playing a piano bit in realtime, will it record the notation properly)

Very well. There are two modes - Easy routes MIDI input to the currently selected instrument, regardless of channels, etc and Advanced requires you to set up MIDI channels but gives you more comprehensive options.

How short can you get the notes in the pattern editor? i've only used an interface like that one a couple times, i prefer hex notation

Very, very short. Just go into th eCFG dialog and set the number of divisions to whatever you like.

Pro vs Platinum -- just more samples and generators? any other differences?

As Glassback says, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The main things are the Master Section of the Mixer for lots of different routing options, etc and the multi effects containers, BandFX and MultiFX, which also increase your routing options and increase the total number off effects you can assign. You also get a hugely expanded Sampler that let's you create and edit your own multi-sampled instruments. And then there are the "Platinum" effects which are of the highest quality, incuding the real-time convolution reverb thingie and a delay modelled on the top-of-the-line Lexicon.
There is no way I could get anything serious done in Pro these days, I am way too reliant on the cool stuff in Platinum, especially the effects. There is no denying that some people still have huge stability issues but they are definitely in a small minority these days. A quick play with the demo should confirm how the full version will perform for you. Rich fixes every bug that can be reproduced and I wonder what it is that causes some people grief.
Version 7 is also in the wind and, whilst we don't have a beta yet, it seems that many of the little things that everyone has been complaining about or asking for over the years are finally being worked on. Rich is really excited about it and for the first time ever he has someone helping him. He's also got Coramel, maker of the Azura skin, tweaking up a new default skin. The bits I've seen of it look pretty cool so I think v7 is going to be a huge step forward in terms of Rich listening to his customers more than doing his own thing. That's probably a good thing for most of you but possibly of little interest to me, although I'll probably change my mind when I see what's been done.

Neurogen · Post by **Neurogen** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 1:51 am

It seems everyone else already answered your questions, so I would just like to add that ORION PLATINUM Rocks for sure! Get it!!

arke · Post by **arke** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 5:00 am

Orion is great. If it wasn't for FL I'd be using either Orion or T2.

opia · Post by **opia** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 5:14 am

BONES wrote: Version 7 is also in the wind and, whilst we don't have a beta yet, it seems that many of the little things that everyone has been complaining about or asking for over the years are finally being worked on. Rich is really excited about it and for the first time ever he has someone helping him. He's also got Coramel, maker of the Azura skin, tweaking up a new default skin. The bits I've seen of it look pretty cool so I think v7 is going to be a huge step forward in terms of Rich listening to his customers more than doing his own thing. That's probably a good thing for most of you but possibly of little interest to me, although I'll probably change my mind when I see what's been done.

and of course theres always that update to look forward to

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:37 am

Which, as far as I know, will be free.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:13 am

Shane Sanders wrote:Pros:

1. Plenty of features for making soft-synth based music.
2. Several fun and good sounding synths come with it along with a bunch of various drum kits (some of which I find pedestrian but others are cool).
3. Handles convolution
4. Has a good array of effects.

Cons:

1. You have to pre-decide pattern lengths before you jam.
2. Not designed in a modular way in terms of saving mixer states or separating particular MIDI data from a particular instrument. Deleting an instrument from your song deletes all the notes and everything else associated with it.
3. Mixer doesn't really tell you much about levels or clipping.
4. Non-standard shortcuts. For instance, CNTRL+A opens a submixer. In the rest of the world, this is a "Select All" command.
5. Lacks power under the hood in terms of submixing and routing.

I don't recommend it compared with other hosts like eXT or FLStudio. But I've finished a lot of music in it and combatted stability issues along the way (I'm not alone in that but apparently we are not the majority)

I'd agree with most of that apart from the stability issue - maybe this was more of a problem with earlier versions but I haven't had any - in fact its my most stable host and most compatible with VSTi's and DXI's too. However I would agree with many of the negative coments too - in particular having to set pattern length every time is a pain and so is the deleting notes - at the very least you should be able to exchange instruments. I also don't like the way you can't organise the instrument and effects lists and particularly for DX instruments they get mixed up with FX which makes it a pain to scroll through. On the other hand it has some of the best instruments and effects of any host - in particular Ultran, Wavefusion and now Toxic so I bought it for all that. I don't really use it as a sequencer though but as an instruments bank, I find the workflow doesn't really suit the sort of live jamming/recording as I go along I prefer to do most of the time.

dr. orange · Post by **dr. orange** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:15 am

jmh · Post by **jmh** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:28 am

BONES wrote:Version 7 is also in the wind and, whilst we don't have a beta yet, it seems that many of the little things that everyone has been complaining about or asking for over the years are finally being worked on.

Would that include the somewhat different way of handling windows?

I know, for a lot of you Orion people it hasn't been an issue, however I've never really gotten used to it. I know how you for example work with it (as you've described it) but... well, I'm still wishing and hoping that gets changed.

And no, I don't want to turn this question into an argument, so let's keep it clean

--------

As for the original question, go for Platinum. I haven't switched from Pro to Platinum due to working mostly in other software, but there's so much more goodies in Platinum.

JMH

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:28 am

Yeah, we're discussing how it will be done on the beta forum at the moment. Whatever change is made will be an option, the default way will be as it has been since version 2.x, when Rich changed it from being "X" button to hide to "X" button to delete. There will also be more ways to delete an instrument [and all its patterns, Playlist, etc] for those who choose the new method.
aMUSED, you can organise your VST instruments and effects however you like - just make folders inside your VST folder and put things in them.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:36 am

BONES wrote: aMUSED, you can organise your VST instruments and effects however you like - just make folders inside your VST folder and put things in them.

I do - its the DX list I have the biggest problem with as I said. You can't do anything with that and it doesnt sort instruments from effects.

KVR Audio

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