KVR Audio

audientronic · Post by **audientronic** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 1:36 am

This one's half off at vstbuzz. I see a few positive comments over at vi...

Any thoughts on this set? I know it's old--but that doesn't mean the samples can't be great. Wondering if folks think it's worth it at this price.

The demos sound very clean-- not synthy. The Soundbytes review was pretty glowing "for the price", wasn't really considering it before that.

But I'd like to hear from some other folks.

Also, I have Project Sam Orchestral Essentials 1, Miroslav, and some Kirk Hunter stuff, but wondering if String Essentials adds something. The vocal effects sound cool as well.

Thanks...

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:20 am

thinking the same...
i already have garritan personal and instant orchesrta, kontakt 5, kirk hunter solo strings and miroslav (the full edition with sampletank).

i read somewhere that kontakt patches does not add much in term of programming, there is no round robin, no velocity layers... so i don't think it's a really great deal...

now prove me wrong!

anomandaris1 · Post by **anomandaris1** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 10:34 am

It is outdated. Even the vocal effects are outclassed by the newest Sonokinetic library.

SirKen · Post by **SirKen** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 2:40 pm

Posted this on the Bargain Center Discussion but let me place a link here as well.

http://vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... 76#3826620

I found String Essentials usable. Advanced Orchestra stuff sounds dated but could work when layering with other stuff.

Recommend using the dry samples going through a good reverb like Acon Digital Verberate or 2cAudio Aether.

audientronic · Post by **audientronic** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:23 pm

SirKen wrote:Posted this on the Bargain Center Discussion but let me place a link here as well.

http://vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... 76#3826620

I found String Essentials usable. Advanced Orchestra stuff sounds dated but could work when layering with other stuff.

Recommend using the dry samples going through a good reverb like Acon Digital Verberate or 2cAudio Aether.

Thanks for the input.

I spent an hour with it over at try-sound, and there was some good stuff in there. I doubt I will ever touch the Advanced Orchestra. The Orchestral Colours sound great and there's some fun stuff there--classic adventurey Hollywood stuff, and some riffs that might work well with Animator. If the String Tools are just as good that gets me most of the way there. String Essentials was not available on Try-Sound. It was an older version of the bundle. There are some great sounding Choral FX--you could squeak out some poor man's Ligetti with them, obviously not as deep as the new VOX library from Sonokinetic but also not $300. YMMV, but before demoing I was a pass, and now I've heard plenty of useable stuff. And that's without hearing the String Essentials which are supposed to be the best of the bunch.

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:34 pm

I'll drop this over here as well for what its worth.
The String Essentials are roughly between a 1/2 and 3/4 gig in size when you load the full patch set and choose sampler to load them all into memory. The basic sustain seems to have 3 velocity layers, but pretty smooth transition between them. While not up to the modern monsters, they sound reasonable and you can tell that care went into sampling them.
The rest of the package varies wildly, but tend more toward being 10 to 40 meg patches with the main piano being 88. Many of solo instruments seem to have two velocity layers and to have 4 samples per octave. There tend to be a lot of patches and they are fun to play with. They also sound like nice 'patches' which is basically what they are.
So nice fun package with decent strings and lots of old school orchestral sounds created with loving care for 100 bucks.

Using just a midi of the first minute or so of Beethoven's fifth and the basic patch, I made a couple quick and dirty demos. Obviously you guys can do much, much better.
First the String Essentials which are the nicest thing in the pack
https://soundcloud.com/bigcat1969/the-5 ... sentials-1
Then the much much older Advanced Orchestra string patches
https://soundcloud.com/bigcat1969/the-5 ... -orchestra
To compare with even great vstis suffer at the hands of amateurs especially when plugged into a midi file, Session Strings Pro
https://soundcloud.com/bigcat1969/the-5 ... trings-pro
Against for comparison the freebie Sonatina Orchestra
https://soundcloud.com/bigcat1969/the-5th-sonatina

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:05 pm

To me, it is worth it for String Essentials, most of all. That's what I bought it for, a couple of years ago. There's no other product with that kind of excellent recordings which is so easy to get a really usable sound from. Don't expect VSL-like articulation. It's all about lush, very simple, very usable (if simple is all you need) string sections. It is LIMITED and generally NOT good for anything fast.

The other stuff has some nice things, lots of cheesy stuff, but generally well made rompler-style arrangement with better than average recordings. If you want a "modern" sample library, DO NOT buy it, there's nothing modern about it. The String Essentials part is uniquely easy + great sounding, and that's why it works better than modern libraries for me. No one records orchestral sample libraries with such sound and performance anymore.

audientronic · Post by **audientronic** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:08 pm

Thanks for the input, guys.

Can anyone who has these tell me if it comes with wav samples? Or are they protected? Just wondering if I can load these in Machfive...

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:11 pm

Massive locked files, no way to unlock them.

audientronic · Post by **audientronic** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:14 pm

bigcat1969 wrote:Massive locked files, no way to unlock them.

Thanks. Too bad since they are from older samples that would have been readable by Machfive.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:20 pm

According to Sound on Sound, this lib from Zero-G is taken from the same source:

http://www.zero-g.co.uk/store/orchestra ... v-p354.php

Until tomorrow they offer those libs as: buy 3 for $20

audientronic · Post by **audientronic** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:24 pm

Numanoid wrote:According to Sound on Sound, this lib from Zero-G is taken from the same source:

http://www.zero-g.co.uk/store/orchestra ... v-p354.php

Until tomorrow they offer those libs as: buy 3 for $20

Wow, that's funny. That was one of my favorite thingsin the demo, and I already own it

.

Thanks for the heads up!

audientronic · Post by **audientronic** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:42 pm

audientronic wrote:
Numanoid wrote:According to Sound on Sound, this lib from Zero-G is taken from the same source:

http://www.zero-g.co.uk/store/orchestra ... v-p354.php

Until tomorrow they offer those libs as: buy 3 for $20
Wow, that's funny. That was one of my favorite thingsin the demo, and I already own it .

Thanks for the heads up!

On further inspection--although there may be some crossover--this Orchestral Flavours is different, albeit from the same guy. The one I demoed had a lot of fully composed riffs.

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 10:30 pm

166 megs versus 26 gigs, so I don't feel too bad.

Thoughts on Complete Orchestral Collection by Peter Siedlaczek?