Sonar 8.5, Miroslav Philharmonik and Windows 7

Should work fine,  i use it with Vista....but before you buy an Orch library have you checked out the threads in this forum with the Orchestral shoot out?

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?&m=2054686&mpage=1

You should be able to hear all the different libs and how they stack up against each other

Alex, if you are going to buy Miroslav, you should go through this group buy as you'll get 4 more instruments for the price of 1. More info here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2070154

I'm also concidering getting on this super deal....(I already have SampleTank and it works very easily with Sonar). 

I have Miroslav, and a few other orchestral libraries. (Check out the orchestral library shootout going on now - see my sig for a link).

If you can still get in on the sale, it's an incredibly good value given all the other sounds (SampleMoog, SampleTron, SonicSynth) that come with it. However, if you are primarily interested in orchestral sounds then Garritan Personal Orchestra is, IMO, a much better library for about the same price.

Sounds great and works great for me on Win XP.

Don't judge a sample library by its size. I have huge libraries that are almost useless and very small ones that are my first-call go-to solutions.

In fact, the Miroslav samples are rather "thin" in that they are all single velocity layer samples. That means when you hit the key harder, you don't get another sample, just a louder and brighter version of the same sample. That, coupled with the lack of keyswitches for toggling between articulations, makes it more challenging to come up with realistic-sounding parts.

This is not to say that Miroslav can't sound good. It most certainly can. And for backing strings and brass for pop music it will do the job just fine. But if you're looking for something you can really feature out front, as in classic styles or movie soundtracks, it would not be my first choice.

alex2081


Thanks guys for all the info and I'm certainly keeping an eye (and ear) on the ongoing orchestral shootout.

As for GPO vs Miroslav though, I believe GPO comes on 1 DVD whereas Miroslav has two, so it must be sampled more deeply. Or am I wrong?

h

Hi Alex,

I haven't had much time with Miroslav - both have their strengths and weakness, and even those can be different things to different people or situations.
There's certainly a larger volume of samples with Miroslav - it's "Different" from GPO. Deeper, broader, bit of both ?. Definitely different.
For example, Miroslav has a lot more variety of choir sounds. The more I use it the more I like it.

I find the lack of keyswitching in Miroslav the biggest PITA, otherwise I've been using the "AMV" for mod wheel control, or the "EXPD" suffix instruments for using an expression pedal and it works well for a lot of stuff - which is much how I'm using GPO.

I not running 64bit yet, but was pleased to see the sites say both Miroslav and GPO are 64 bit - planning to go that way soon.

I think on the Garritan site you can just create an account and download a limited time trial, and you definitely get a 10 day trial woth Miroslav.
Best thing I'd say is to go download the trials for both and try them out yourself while there's still a couple of weeks before the group buy above finishes.
You'll soon know what you like best ... maybe ?., or both.

With Miroslav, you can load the instruments into SampleTank too (if you really want), I guess it just gives you a choice of interface.
With that group buy Miroslav will cost you $175.00 after the $25 coupon and you get the other 4 intstruments too.
I'm not aware of any GPO special at the moment, but it's only $149.00 regular price for the download version.

I recon the best opinion you'll get will be your own.

Cheers,
-Cliff