Opinons on Orchestral Software

I've been checking out some orchestral soft-samplers like Miroslav Philharmonik, Halion Symphonic Orchestra, and East-West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra. For some reason I keep ignoring Garritan's Personal Orchestra, which I admit I should be looking at as well.

My two favorites, based on ease of use and apparently a nod towards conserving CPU resources are the Miroslav Philharmonik and the Halion Symphonic Orchestra. There are things I like about each and things I don't like about each. I like everything but the string ensembles on Philharmonik. With Halion, I don't like the omission of harp and choirs. But I do like the way Halion deals with varying articulations using a "crescendo" feature which involves MIDI continuous controllers like the Mod wheel.

Nevertheless, my gut is telling me to go with the Miroslav as my first foray into this apparently very complicated universe. I don't have a dedicated audio PC with gobs of RAM and super-CPU power, as well as multiple hard drives. So I need something compact and reasonable, yet able to do some decent mock-ups such as Tchaikovsky ballets, etc...

Can anyone give any input? Thanks!

Please, have a look at:

Virtuoso Series by Kirk Hunter

http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55601

I have 2 gigs of RAM, but not yet owning a dedicated audio PC, with the requisite 2 hard drives, my home/office/studio PC, on which thus resides an every growing basket of typical home and business software, I think would not be up to the task of some of the hard-core disk streaming solutions.

I, too, prefer the demos of the Halion Symphonic Orchestra, but it's a hard comparison to make, since the Miroslav demos are mp3, you can download them and play them on a good system. The Halion demos can only be played on the PC. Even so, I like the sound of the strings more on the Halion. And the Halion seems to have an easier system of crossfading among the various articulations via MIDI CCs on your controller keyboard.

Nevertheless, I would probably wind up with Miroslav, since overall it offers a wider variety of sounds (incl, harp and choirs), and it sounds really good on the demos - especially the woodwinds. Maybe I would get Halion Symphonic later on just to have a different set of string samples to layer.

The East West, Vienna Symphonic, and Kirk Hunter to me fall in to a different class - one where you need a super powerful PC with tons of RAM (the new "Play" software from EW will allow 64 bit operation, thus breaking the 2-4 gig of RAM "limitation), 2 hard drives, and certainly the machine dedicated to audio alone. So for me that would involve at least a $2,000 investment in addition to the orchestral software (assuming a machine being built by an audio PC specialist).

Thus, at $500 each, the Miroslav and Halion, both which advertise features which supposedly conserve RAM and CPU usage (i.e. the absence of disk streaming?), seem more suited to a beginning user. I know the HIGs (Heavy Industry Guys) who are doing hardcore orchestral mockups in Hollywood are using the massive EW, VSO, or Hunter libraries. But I think you could go pretty far down that road with Miroslav or Halion before you would start to miss the features of the more expensive and more resource-hungry solutions.

(*cough*halion*cough*)

EWQLSO Gold Pro XP is on sale for a ridiculous low price now- $595 for a 30 gig library. I use it on a 3 gig system but it flies on my 2 gig desktop E-Machine. Also recommended is VSL Vienna SE although its base price is $450 for the Standard library and another $595 for the Extended Library which you have access to for a month, then the trial key expires and you're left wanting those bloody saxophones and Epic Horns so you whip out your credit card and purchased the full license in a matter of minutes.

Seriously though, VSL stuff is nice and their Vienna instruments player is cool too. Check some demos out, Of all the libs I have (I own EWQLSO Gold Pro, Silver Pro, HALion Symphonic Orchestra, Miroslav Phil., MOTU Symphonic Instrument (sucks), Apple Orchestral Jam Pack, Garritan Pocket Orch, Garritan Strad 2, SAM Horns, SAM Solo Sessions, Prime Sounds Studio Strings, etc) the VSL Vienna lib is the best for legato winds and horns. Nothing comes close. I personally like the staccato strings from HALion though. I use a bit of everything., Sorry to tell you there is no one-stop orchestra.

Some quick price checks on EWQLSO Gold Pro XP :

• Musician's Friend: $535.50
  
• Sweetwater Sound: $495.97
  
• Direct from EastWest: $495.00
  
• Kelly's Music & Computers: $289.00
  

Geez, is that last price for real? I've never heard of Kelly's before...

Seems that way. On closer inspection it turns out that the Kelly price is for real, except that it is not the Gold XP Pro Bundle, just the "Pro" add-on bit.

Thanks, David. BTW, doesn't the new version of Kontakt (3) come with a certain amount of VSL library?

So while we're on the orchestral subject, can anyone recommend some good (or even lousy) choral software? I have all the orchestra I need, but some choral instruments (solo or ensemble) would be great.

My dad uses GPO for some of his writing, and it sounds pretty good -- once the mix has been worked on! As I learn more about the art of bringing a score to life, I'm starting to think that, though there are indeed better and lesser packages, a major part of the sound you end up with also ties into the post-prod angle. Some of the GPO stuff sounds flat to me, until it's been mixed, maybe a little reverb on certain parts, that kind of stuff. Then, "the sound" starts forming. I guess I'm trying to wind up to this: buy what sounds good to you, at the cost that you're able to handle.

My .02 worth - FWIW!

Have a great day.

Russ

I really like Garritan's String Orchestra. I do not have GPO. I resently picked up Vienna Instruments Special Edition. It really sounds good, it's easy on your CPU and costs about $449.

I just like the overall ambiance of the Philharmonik demos. Just sounds pleasing to the ear. I am concerned about the strings, however, and Fretlessb's comments aren't making me feel any more secure

Thanks, BJ. I'm actually taking my first experiments in orchestral "mock up" using the sounds that come with DimPro. So far, so good. I'm still leaning towards the Miroslav library as a purchase, however. After doing a bunch of research, it appears the key to these libraries is how easily and intuitively the user is able to switch between string articulations, because that's where the lion's share of the work is involved. Other sections will also have multiple articulations, but nowhere near the strings. From my research, it appears that each library - i.e. Vienna, Miroslav, Halion Symphonic, EWQLSO, has their own playback module and method of making these switches. More stuff to learn!

Anyway I'm making another post about instructions for DimPro's library. Another thing that will influence my purchasing decision is the quality of the manual and online training resources such as videos and tutorials. That's essential.

There's also a new book coming out "Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer" which looks good

http://www.amazon.com/Acoustic-MIDI-Orchestration-Contemporary-Composer/dp/0240520211/ref=sr_1_2/105-8497444-1342859?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182783934&sr=8-2