• SONAR
  • Edirol Orchestral Alternative
2016/08/21 22:26:20
typeguy
I have been using Sonar Home Studio 4 for a while and will continue using it. The MIDI synthesizer I've been using is Edirol Orchestral (since discontinued). What I like about EO is that it also includes instruments such as Alto Sax and Flugelhorn. It is (or was) only compatible with Windows XP so guess what, I'm still using XP.
 
I want to get a new operating system and that will mean leaving my beloved Edirol Orchestral behind. So I'm hoping that someone will know of an alternative to Edirol that contains a combination of regular orchestral instruments along with some 'jazz' like instruments such as sax and flugelhorn.
2016/08/21 22:37:08
Michayl Asaph
Garritan stuff is pretty decent, not too expensive.... I just got XPand 2 for a dollar, Yes a dollar from Plugin Boutique...   Halion Sonic 2 is great.... kinda depends on how much you want to spend, the XPand deal is almost over so I would jump on it, I picked up the Sonivox Eighty-Eight 2 for 18.00 bucks and I'm floored how great it sounds. Hope this helps.
 
2016/08/21 23:16:28
Sycraft
Sure, there are lots of options if you want an "all-in-one" sampler. One is the TTS-1 synth that comes with Sonar. I dunno if it comes with the Home Studio variants, but it comes with the big boy Sonar variants. Has the entire General MIDI capital tones and one variation on them so covers basically every kind of music you could think of. Of course it isn't super high quality or anything, but it gets you some of everything.
 
Along those lines is Roland SoundCanvas VA. It is Roland's own highly competent software implementation of a number of their SoundCanvas modules (the SC-55, SC-88, SC-88Pro and SC-8820). I'd say its sounds are a little better than TTS-1 and there are a more variations (Roland claims 1600). Not high quality, it is an implementation of old GM hardware modules, but I like it. Costs $125.
 
Same rompler idea but higher quality would be Steinberg Halion Sonic 2. It has like 10 gigs of samples as opposed to the maybe 30-50 megs of samples in Soundcanvas VA or TTS-1. Tons and tons of instruments (like 2500) which are very easy to control. It gives you like 6 dials per instrument to control the main aspects of the sound (what they do varies by instrument) and it isn't just samples, it does some synthesis too. Has a very good browser and a lot of built in effects. Good sound quality over all. It has a Yamaha MOTIF flavour of sound, no surprise since Yamaha owns Steinberg and they shared engineers on the projects. Downside is it requires Steinberg's crap eLicenser activation (I think it'll work with the software system now, I don't know I use a dongle). Costs $250.
 
Sampletank is another general-purpose plugin out there. It has a load of instruments, over 4000 they claim spanning 33GB of samples. Pretty easy to use. However I'm not a fan overall, it was a waste of my money. The instruments tend to be pretty "meh" quality wise, and I rarely use it. However I do have a bunch of other options, so maybe I'd be more enthralled with it if it were my primary choice. Costs $350 normally but they like to do a lot of sales so probably look for those. Note that Sampletank 3 is 64-bit only so if you need 32-bit then you want the old Sampletank 2.5, if you can find it.
 
If you want to go all out, Kontakt/Komplete are good options. Kontakt itself includes a pretty competent factory library that spans band (saxes, trumpets, french horns, guitars, etc), orchestral (strings, brass, winds and percussion), choir, world, synths and so on. All their stuff is competently done and while the factory library isn't the highest quality (it is old) it is well done, diverse, and useful. Komplete then comes with a ton of other content for Kontakt and other NI programs. You get all kinds of pianos, drums, horns, synths, organs, etc, etc. Like 155GB of instruments in Komplete, not to mention all the synths. Also there's approximately infinity other things on sale for Kontakt, so you can buy more instruments to your hearts content (or more realistically your wallet's limit). $600 to get Komplete, $400 for Kontakt (and its factory library) by itself.
 
 
Those are the ones I own that are "general purpose" type plugins, and that have both orchestral and band/jazz type instruments.
2016/08/22 07:42:55
Soundwise
This looks like a good substitute for EO
http://www.steinberg.net/...mphonic-orchestra.html
2016/08/22 08:35:10
tenfoot
Kontakt is very good, with every type of expansion library imaginable available for it. You will notice a huge improvement from Edirol Orchestral, which was my goto orchestral sampler many moons ago too.
2016/08/22 11:03:21
Stu_Art66
Whilst many good suggestions here, I also moved from 32bit XP to an i7 64bit win10 monster, and re-installed a number of 32-bit VSTs (that didn't appear to have 64bit /newer versions) and amazingly, all is well using them in Sonar Platinum (and stand-alone via 32bit Savi-host). So maybe, if you like it / have projects that have used it, try installing before looking to shell out of something new :)
 
Best Stu
2016/08/22 11:47:29
JonD
As mentioned before the AIR XPand!2 deal is worth jumping on.  A huge library of sounds for literally only one dollar.  You can't afford not to get in on this. Even if it doesn't meet all of your orchestral needs, you'll still have gotten a huge amount of sounds for next to nothing!  Don't think, just buy it! 
 
http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/1560-Xpand-2
 
 
2016/08/22 16:49:03
MandolinPicker
I have the Edirol Orchestra plugin and it works just fine on my setup (Windows 10 and Platinum). I really like the sound of it.
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