Anyone here familiar with this program?
 
It's been out a while, I've watched several videos, and it does look pretty cool--but I'm not finding many reviews or discussions about it.  The ones I do find have all been very positive.
 
Jerry

I downloaded the demo to try it out, so why don't you do that too?
 
I found it to be pretty weak - the results I got were rather boring.  And it crashed a couple of times.
 
I've already un-installed it.
And now I need to get rid of the 20 something software MIDI interfaces it created to control each instrument as the un-install did not remove them.  Yechh... 

Friendly reminder to create a system restore point or even disk image before demoing software. The rubbish that could potentially remain is a not worth blindly installing things.

I picked it up (the Artist version).  To be honest it's kind of weak, compared to Rapid Composer or even Band-in-the-box.  It does crash, a lot.  And it only works with its virtual MIDI device, with no options to route or control where one of the instruments goes.  It lacks a lot of the fundamental controls you'd want it to have really, to control the composition and results.  The Pro version with the larger instrument set might be better.  I'd definitely recommend you try the demo.  Setting up a project for it is kind of a pain.  Without their Cubase starter I doubt anyone would be willing to do all the routing work it needs.  Making a complete starter project/template for SONAR/CbB would be very painful.
 
You can remove the MIDI virtual driver by uninstalling "Bome Virtual MIDI 2.1.0.44" which should be in your control panel Programs and Features.  It installs it but the uninstaller doesn't uninstall it.  Seems to co-exist with my LoopBe30 driver.  But it does mean I have a ton of MIDI devices/ports.
 
 

Thanks for the feedback, guys--and I especially appreciate the human/computer sacrifice involved.  I WOULD have eventually downloaded the demo--and I HAVE watched a couple of hours of YouTube videos on it...but I'm glad I'm going to take a pass on this.

@msorrels - I just recently pick up the Artist verson of ORB.  You had mentioned above that "Without their Cubase starter..." there would be a lot of work to set it up . . .
 
Can you elaborate a bit as to what the process is (understand I have not attempted to set it up yet with CbB) . . .  Let me know if I should start another thread for this.  I'd like to get a heads up on what I'm in for.
 
I also considered installing Reaper to run it - but I'd like to not be sidetracked by another DAW.
 
Any pointers would be helpful . . .
 
Thanks,
 
Syphus

msorrels
I picked it up (the Artist version).  To be honest it's kind of weak, compared to Rapid Composer or even Band-in-the-box.  

I felt exactly the same. I use Rapid Composer occasionally, but the complexity is a bit overwhelming and the tutorials are all based on older versions which look very different from a GUI perspective.
 
I was hoping that Orb would be a friendlier experience. It was... kind of... but the results weren't great.

Syphus
Can you elaborate a bit as to what the process is (understand I have not attempted to set it up yet with CbB) . . .  Let me know if I should start another thread for this.  I'd like to get a heads up on what I'm in for.

 
Let me explain how Orb Composer works and how the Cubase starter template is setup.  Inside Orb Composer there are a bunch of instruments (depending on the version of Orb Composer).  Every instrument is defined to output to a specific MIDI port and channel.  The MIDI ports are all provided by the Bome virtual MIDI driver and have names like "orb 1", "orb 2", etc.  Inside Orb Composer you can't change the assignments or make your own even.  It's all hard coded to the instrument.
 
So what they have done is setup starter projects and templates for a handful of DAWs, sadly not including CbB/SONAR.
 
The Cubase template has every instrument setup with a MIDI track set to receive input  from the right orb port and right orb channel.  They are doing this using a Input Transformer feature in Cubase that is kind of a pain to setup.  And we are talking about a lot of tracks.  Even for the Artist version (I count more than 80 tracks in the Artist version template).  Each MIDI track has to be setup to receive the right port and right MIDI channel and have a name that matches the Orb instrument.  They group them in folders by type, with the Artist version having 14 folders (like "KEYBOARDS", "LEADS", etc).  Then in order to "use" one of the MIDI tracks they have setup you have to hook an actual instrument to that MIDI track and you have to turn the echo on for that track.  You also have to configure Cubase to sync along with the external MIDI timecode (which comes in on orb port 0 channel 1).
 
All of these things can be done in CbB, but your talking about hand building a 80+ track template.
 
Now you don't have to hook up every track of course, and I have done a small handful of tracks.  But in that case you have to create a MIDI track, figure out the correct inputs for the instrument (with no guide other than the software itself).
 
This kind of routing nightmare is pretty common with MIDI though.  I think I'd be happier with Orb Composer if it would allow me to setup my own ports and channel assignments rather than having a completely fixed list.  It also seems to have some settings for each instrument track inside itself, none of which you can control.  Which is why the Artist version can't do orchestral strings for example.  The AI/Logic controls for the type of instrument is hidden/built in.  Just like the MIDI port and channel it will use.
 
Setting up a template for CbB wouldn't take more than a few hours though but I haven't bothered to do it (I'm mostly using Cubase these days since the death of SONAR).
 
Orb Composer Artist even with the sale price is still way overpriced.  The Pro version is super overpriced.  I might be willing to upgrade for less than $99 but anything more than that I'd just pass.
 
It should be a VST which would solve a bunch of the template and routing issues (though not all) but I guess they figured this "solution" was better for them.

@msorrels - Thanks for the information.  This gives me a better idea as to how I will proceed with this.  I'm still going to try to make a go of it (since I bought it ).  I'm hoping that it will progress into something better as time goes on.
 
I assume that they provided a "Cubase template".  (I just saw your comment as I re-read your post) I'll be looking at it today to see what is what.
 
 
Thanks Again,
 
Syphus

They have templates for the following DAWs:
Cubase
FL Studio
Live
Logic
ProTools
Reaper
Studio One


This is all in the Resources folder (or maybe it was a zip that I extracted into the Resources folder).  There are some PDF files in the Resources folder that explain the templates/starters.
 
Truth is setting it up in CbB/SONAR isn't hard/tricky, it's just a lot of busy work.  I suspect you'd spend more time just typing the instrument names and verifying the connections than anything else.
 
But even with a template/starter project you still also have to load in soft synths and set them up with the right instruments.  No short cuts there really.
 
Given that CbB is free they really don't have much reason not to build a set of templates for it.