Amicus717

Yeah, it's fun. Sounds pretty good, and it's only 400+ mb -- so it's not eating HD space. It's a lot of short recordings, so while there isn't a ton of content, it's got enough to be useful. I can see me using some of these little patches.

Their orchestral sample-based libraries are pretty good, too. Orchestral Strings has a lovely sound and lots of articulations and setup flexibility. Ensemble Woodwinds offers the same. The both blend seamlessly with the phrase libs. I find them a bit resource intensive, though, and they wouldn’t be my first choice for quick work or sketching. Neither are they good enough to eclipse my other options; basically, they’re a nice additional color in the palette, with some unique features. And a really irritating GUI.

If this is only regarding the phrase libs, then based on the ones I’ve used the most, so far: Sotto Capriccio would be runner-up; Grosso a (very) distant third. That is really subjective, though. I mean, depending on what kind of music I end up writing this year, maybe I never use any of those libs at all, and Largo becomes my goto. I see all these libraries as the same beast in different clothes. None are better or worse than any other, and it totally depends on what you’re writing .

Their GUIs are awful, frankly. Stylish and clever and occasionally intuitive. Overall I think their stuff is a very mixed bag, and I would never pay full-freight for them.

I use Sonokinetic’s libraries as accents to my main template. Basically, if I need a particularly agile string line or some bowing pattern, brass flare or woodwind noodling that simply isn’t possible with conventional samples, I will dig through my Sonokinetic libs for a sample loop that does the trick. It can be effective at pushing the illusion of a live orchestra, but it took me a while to figure out how to do that. So, I see Sonokinetic’s stuff as useful supplements to my main tools. I’d never try to build a track using nothing but their loops and overall they don’t get a ton of use — but when I find a way to drop them into a project I really appreciate what they can do.

It turns out my sound spends more time at the edge of bombastic. Tundra would probably be wasted on me.

I have to admit, Tundra has intriuged me. It sounds like an interesting library, but I worry it would be good for one kind of sound that you might need twice a decade, and otherwise would sit unused taking up HD space...

I can understand the polarizing nature of the Spitfire products. I don't own a ton of their stuff -- Albion ONE, Solstice, Loegria, Appassionata Strings and BBC Core -- and even with that small selection, it's a really mixed bag that goes from great to useless. I got a lot of use out of Albion ONE, although it's fallen out of my template as I've gotten more expressive libraries. But for a while it was one of my desert island libs. I do think it's a great starter tool for folks wanting to create trailer music or similar. You can do a lot with it in that genre, but it really isn't useful outside of it. Loegria has some nice patches, but the overall product is really uneven, and has weird stuff like the horribly tuned recorder patches that I have yet to successfully use in any project. I actually thought they had retired Loegria, as I bought it cheap when they were putting it out to pasture, but it seems to be back. Solstice seemed like a good idea, but I was dissappointed with it. It's got a few good patches if you're doing the music for Wicker Man II, but beyond that... However, BBC Core has become my main goto for orchestral fundamentals and currently forms the heart of my template. I think it's outstanding and for the price offers a lot of great stuff. The Appassionata Strings meld with BBC pretty nicely if you play around with the mic settings, and I use it as a supplement to the BBC strings if I need to punch up the schmaltz. They are great for that.

Those sound amazing. I don't need another string library, but now I need another string library.

I agree about Sonokinetic's interfaces, for the most part. I like their libraries, and I've developed ways to make good use of them (for a while I found them fun to play around with but it took a while to figure how to fit them into my template and workflow). But their interfaces drive me nuts. I sometimes think they emphasize style over intuitiveness and ease of use, and it irritates me. Making orchestral music is hard enough without having to decipher the interface along the way.

I have all of Tarilonte’s Era libs. They are in a class by themselves and worth it, regardless of the player. Persia is great, Forest Kingdom 3 is even better (one of my favs). I use them both regularly. In particular, FK3 is my current goto for ethnic flute sounds. As for Engine - the interface is ancient and clumsy, but its otherwise perfectly useable. I’ve never had any issues with it.

My fav game of all time. I have retail box versions of this, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and HL2. But I don't have a t-shirt. I'm envious :)

Check! Can't help myself. I am so well-libraried, I could never purchase another library ever and want for nothing. But where is the fun in that? Holding on to your money is so overrated...

90215 hit when I was in high school, and my buddies and I thought it was the greatest thing. It introduced us to Yes' music, and we went on to become major fans. Love this album, have listened to it end to end maybe a million times, and hope to do so a million more before I shuffle off...

I noticed they finally fixed the spiccato repetition keyswitches in the 2.0 versions of Cinestrings. They did not work before, and Cinesamples confirmed this and gave me the impression it might take a while to get patched, but I downloaded the most recent update and it's all better...