Studio Instruments Bundle

 
Sorry Tom, I'm using Sonar and I don't have the Studio Instrument package of which you refer.
 
But I just feel compelled to mention that I think it was very silly for the moderator to move this thread from the MC forum as this certainly is a question that would have been best answered by the users in that forum. In fact you probably would've had several responses by now had it remained in the MC forum instead of no response at all, which is what you're receiving in this forum. Me thinks the new moderator must be Barney Fife from Mayberry. A bit too eager to uphold the law.
 
OK, I'm done.
 
Pete

I would never look in the MC threads but I can tell you about Studio Instruments. I bought it some time back and use it it Sonar.
 
If you have EZ Drummer I don't think you will be impressed by the Studio Instruments drum kit, it is no where near as good as EZ Drummer. There is no latin here either. I think AC hit the nail on the head with the description "session drummer lite"
 
The Bass is is very good and I used it quite a bit. It's a bass guitar with a couple of pickup positions, compressor and drive. There are some basic articulations like the ability to slide between notes. I don't use it much these days as I now have Scarbee Pre Bass and Jay Bass which are much better (and much more expensive).
 
The Striings are useful for pop/rock/r&b etc. as opposed to "classical".
 
The piano is an electric piano with a useful range of sounds and effects like drive, tremalo and phaser.
 
The midi patterns for each instrument are OK but very limited.
 
In conclusion you are getting some good VSTi's for the price. There is better stuff out there but it's more expensive.
 
If latin drums and MIDI patterns are essental to you then the Latin EZX for EZ Drummer is one option but does not get that good feedback.  Also check out Kitcore which has several latin kits and a lot of grooves from Luis Conte and Michale Shrive. However you may need to check compatability with Music Creator

And Pete, what is the problem w/ moving an instrument question over to the instrument section?

 
Guess I was just having a bad day. I re-read my post and...wow...looks like I certainly had an opinion for the moderator on that day didn't I?!
 
LOL Sorry.
 
Pete

I think for the price - Studio Instruments is a pretty solid product.  I've had it for quite some time now and while I have replaced much of the functionality with other products over the last several years, I definately got my moneys worth out of it. 

The drums are pretty similar to the older version of Session Drummer which comes with Sonar, they work in a very similar fashion.  While the loops provided are pretty basic, you can always buy some from groovemonkee.com in the styles you use most often.

The keyboard sounds are classic electric piano type sounds - once again, basic, but sounds good enough for most general needs. 

The strings are made up of violin, cello, and bass strings and have midi grooves that are more geared towards pop and R&B styles and more as supplementary use to accentuate portions of existing music instead of full string pieces.  I've actually had a lot of fun just adding a little string part in the background of some of my rock tracks with SI as it's pretty damned easy for that sort of thing.

The best component of the bunch is probably the bass in my opinion.  I've gotten the most mileage out of it when compared to the other components. I still use it today when writing for a quick bass line - it's so easy to just load it up and make a quick and dirty bass track.  It's low overhead, quick to setup and program.

I think overall for the price, you get quite a bit of usable functionality that is not overwhelming in it's complication to use.  If you are just getting into this whole DAW business and are looking for methods to supplement whatever your primary instrument is, then I think it is well worth the investment.  At times I wish Cakewalk would invest a little and upgrade it some, but once again - you get what you pay for and it's a pretty decent product as is.