“IK Multimedia Total Studio 3 & SampleTank 3 Upgrade” vs “UVI PlugSound Pro & Vintage Vault”

[jason_serrano]

Hi

I´m new to the site so treat me gently.

I´m currently running a 64bit Cubase Elements 7 system with Native Instruments Komplete alongside East West Complete Composer Collection (Goliath, Stormdrum 2, Symphonic Orchestra Gold, Symphonic Choirs Platinum, Ra, & Silk). Cubase Elements 7 comes with HALion Sonic SE 1.

So… my “realistic” acoustic instruments are pretty well covered. I’m after a library to fill the space a JV-1080 (with the cards: Super Sound Set, World, Session and Orchestral) would… that sort of quality and variety.

I want “synthy” synth sounds but also “synthy” acoustic sounds… not quite as realistic as the East West or Native Instruments libraries.

I´ve been looking at some deals and was thinking about either…

IK Multimedia Total Studio 3 & SampleTank 3 Upgrade

Or

UVI PlugSound Pro & Vintage Vault

IK Multimedia…
This pack has a lot in there and is “that kind” of rompler. Lots of variety… like the JV with those cards. But… a lot of the examples I’ve heard of SampleTank sound very watery and thin… almost like the sample or bit rate is low (without the warmth the JV would add in the same situation). I don’t know if the SampleTank 3 upgrade resolves this with a better engine or better samples?

UVI…
This pack gives me PlugSound Pro that covers all the JV style patches (but less patches than the IK pack). But… the UVI sounds seem to be all lot thicker, solid and warmer (even without effects). The UVI pack also comes with Vintage Vault nice a cheap, given all the instruments that are in there. The problem here is that I don’t think there is going to be much in the way of World, Orchestra, Electric and Acoustic Guitar and Bass in Vintage Vault… just a whole bunch of “synthy” synth sounds.

So that’s it basically. A JV-1080 replacement, with all that variety and synthy timbre to acoustic instruments as well as synth sounds… IK pack or UVI?

Maybe some of you have some other alternatives in a similar price range (about $500-$600).

I’m sure there will be heated discussion as to whether IK or UVI has better quality sound… defend your stand points please.

Thanks in advance
J

[Gosh]

Halion 5
https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/v ... ion_5.html
does not replace a roland rompler but is the closest thing in software to a yamaha fantom. imho much better than the packages you mentioned above
edit: just saw that you have Cubase with Halion Sonic SE, so you should be able to get at least an impression what the full version of Halion 5 can do

[jason_serrano]

Thanks for the info Gosh.

Im thinking of uprading to Cubase Artist 7... is it worth getting Halion 5 or will Halion SE 2 (that comes included) give me all the sounds? As far as a sampler goes, I already have Kontakt 5.

Cheers

[fmr]

You don't need HALion 5, but the full package of HALion Sonic has a much bigger library than HALion Sonic SE. Worths the upgrade, IMO. HALion 5 has the same library of HALion Sonic, but, as a full sampler, you can create your own instruments.

[Gosh]

what fernando said is absolutely correct. Halion 5 has a few instruments more than the Halion Sonic but otherwise the libraries are identical. if you go for Halion 5 you get an increased tweakability and of course the possibility to import and manipulate your own samples. if you are only looking for the sounds the full Halion Sonic is enough (and is a bit easier to operate than Halion 5).

[BBFG#]

I think much of the comparison for me would do more with CPU and backgrounds services usage.
Anything with PACE is attrocious, so UVI knocks itself out of the running because of it's own paranoia.
(Note: I just gave my entire account away to get rid of it.)
Halion 5 equally has eLicenser to deal with but seems nowhere near as intrusive as PACE,
however, the required dongle kills it.
So I would only consider Halion Sonic since I believe it doesn't require that paraphernalia.
STank3 seems to be showing reports of high CPU use via built in effects.

I'm starting to like Kontakt a little more with each of these considerations.

[Saukar30]

I'm also looking for the same thing. Considering the power of Kontakt... Is there a library that has a nice size variety of instruments that doesn't sound "kontakt" like?

[bigcat1969]

If your looking for sort of retro acoustic, you can probably find a lot of freebies for Kontakt that fit the bill. I made a little list of free GM sounds (but not the 3 synth categories) largely Kontakt.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2&t=408239
I just converted a cool soundfont to Kontakt http://bigcatinstruments.blogspot.com/2 ... ntakt.html that covers almost all the GM bases.

PS I'm enjoying the besnozzle out of Sampletank 3. It has tons of sounds and the included ST 2 sounds are definitely retro.
PPS Dimension Pro is on sale for $15 bucks. Interesting older style sounds in there.

[BBFG#]

I'm also looking for the same thing. Considering the power of Kontakt... Is there a library that has a nice size variety of instruments that doesn't sound "kontakt" like?

I guess it depends on what makes a sound 'Kontakt like' for you.
But as far as a 'GM' type of a little everything there is Vir2 VI.One and Infinite Player's Gold Bundle.
Both have sales to pick them up at around the same price as the STank3 upgrade. Infinite Player has the plus of being the same sampling as STank2 with key switching.
They all have their plus and minuses though.

[chroma]

sounds like you want omnisphere honestly, if you've already got Komplete and CCC. and IIRC eric persing actually programmed many of those JV sounds you love, so it would be a spiritual successor as well.

[Saukar30]

I just converted a cool soundfont to Kontakt http://bigcatinstruments.blogspot.com/2 ... ntakt.html that covers almost all the GM bases

Thanks BigKat. I tried out the Musyng Kontakt version.... and that was exactly what I was lookin for! Easy to use GM Sounds that sounds really decent and our setup properly... without sounding too Kontakty. Thank you very much for your efforts on these! I know converting them must've been painstaking.

As far as other retro sounds, I have Dimension Pro & Sampletank 2.5 with all of the expansions & all 5 synths ST3 really isn't appealing to me as I didn't want more samples just the chance to manipulate which IK is not focusing towards. For modern, I use all of my synths and Proteus VX with a couple of libraries.

I'm pretty much filled up with sounds, but having the basic sounds done right in new tools is very important to me.

[bigcat1969]

I'm glad I could help, Saukar30. Its always hard to tell what sounds someone is looking for and to be unbiased about projects you've worked on. I was really impressed by Sarcyan's work on Musyng Kite. It's his years of toil you are hearing in there.