Amicus717

I use Engine only for Eduardo's libraries.

It's pretty bare-bones, but I find it easy enough to use and it gets the job done.

FWIW, the support from Best Service is really great -- I had some issues with the "Ancient Era: Persia" library over the holidays, and they responded promptly and very helpfully.  I appreciate that a lot - good customer service seems to be getting rarer, and my experiences with Best Service have always been good ones.

So I jumped in, got it.

Symphobia is awesome. I really like the new interface and setup, although I never used the previous version, so I can't compare the two.

The overall sound of the samples is freakin' exquisite, and they are so easy to play. I always wondered if the baked-in sound and Project SAM's predilection for combos, multis and blended sections might not work for me, as I like being able to control every element of the orchestration. But so far I find the patches to be really useful and surprisingly effective. 

I can see a lot more Project SAM libraries on the horizon...

20 minutes ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

With Time+Space 15% off code valid on Project Sam products, it could reduce the price even more 

You are right -- Symphobia 1 for $195.76 with code applied.

That's kind a good price.

On 12/16/2021 at 10:31 AM, Reid Rosefelt said:

aka "tomorrow."  😄

Thanks for the news. 

Reid, when you get your Symphobia updated to 2.0, I'd be really curious to know what you think.

Project SAM has got a 30% off sale going on, and I've been thinking of jumping into their ecosystem since forever, and so maybe it's the time to do it.

Anyone who owns Drums of War 1 should check their inboxes for an update notice and a personal code. Says the email: "Cinesamples Drums Of War 1 has now been upgraded to work with the free Kontakt Player 6.6.1+!  As an owner of the original Drums of War library, you can upgrade to the new encoded version by entering your following unique coupon code at checkout"

They have also announced Drums of War 3, coming soon. 

Drums of War 1 page is here: https://cinesamples.com/product/drums-of-war-1

I have eyed the OT libraries for a while -- they're right up my alley, for the most part -- but Sine Player is pretty unappealing. I've used it a little bit, as I have a few of their free libraries and got a couple of patches in a giveaway that ran a year ago. But it did nothing for me, and I really find it clunky and awkward. I much prefer using Kontakt, and I've no interest in dropping a pretty big chunk of cash on stuff that I won't enjoy using, no matter how useful it may be in my template.

I do my midi in Cubase, which I picked up when Gibson shut the doors, but I always do my final mixes and mastering in Cakewalk. And when I help my partner record her V/O work, we use Cakewalk also. 

Cubase's midi tools are pretty much state-of-the-art, but I've never come across a DAW that I find as intuitive or fun to use as Cakewalk when it comes to audio editing and mixing, and I really like ProChannel. So, Cakewalk has remained a key part of my workflow and I fire it up routinely.  

3 minutes ago, Jay Legere said:

Hey @Amicus717 I've always had issues with opus on both my pc and Mac but I've found a way around it. so if you go into the actual plugin in your daw you'll notice the database button beside your libraries button. Click that go to your desired instrument/sound go to the cloud beside it and right click. Then download to your correct directory(where you want or keep all your sounds). This way for me is actually better then downloading everything at once and gives you the option to pick exactly what your looking for without overexerting space. Hope this helped. Cheers.

Hi Jay, and welcome aboard. Appreciate the suggestions, and thanks!

However, to be honest, I've kind of moved on from Opus (and EastWest in general). I still pull up one or two of their instruments every now and then, but my full template is mostly Kontakt, Engine 2 and VSL libraries, all of which are generally better and easier to use than the EastWest stuff. 

1 hour ago, kitekrazy said:

So how many of you would actually use this? I rarely use their stuff. It's not a quality issue it's just I never bother with it.  Would you buy it for $56?

Shouldn't this be in their new strings package?

I will use this one. I found two of the three Ostinato libraries disappointing, and the only one that sees occasional use is the Brass one. 

But Modal Runs is in my template and sees regular use, and I'll be adding this Sordino freebie to my template, also. I actually think this one will be get used quite a bit. 

I have to think they can do this successfully because their samples are so good. I've only got a couple of their libraries, but from what I've heard in them -- and from the demos and walkthrus for the rest of their products -- Project SAM's samples are exquisitely recorded, and so the fact they are ten years old or whatever is not an issue. Some clever new scripting and programming, and its the same as a having a whole new product.  

38 minutes ago, Fleer said:

They actually changed it. Sneaky fellows. 

Yeah, I also saw the original 97 GB compressed stat on their site, and thought "whoa!", that's a hell of a freebie. However, it still a pretty impressive freebie at 24gb -- the library sounds great. 

Just now, Reid Rosefelt said:

This is a 24.3 GB library.  Compressed.  To my knowledge, this is the most substantial library Sonokinetic has ever given out.  

Definitely I think this is a way to get people to want to buy the strings, which is still available for €199.99 (reg price €399.99) for over 5 days.   They are giving people time to play around with  the Sordino. 

I think it is brilliant marketing.

 

That was my exact thought on the subject. I am actually surprised they didn't give Orchestral Strings owners like myself a free upgrade to the Sordino Strings as a separate deal, and leave more Xmas freebie licenses for folks who might be lured into getting the whole package. 

And wow, is this a nice freebie.

Just so folks know: the interface and feature-set is identical to the Orchestral Strings library they released last week -- they mention that this a companion library for it -- and it works the same way, and has the same features. Obviously, the Orchestral Strings has more articulations than the Sordino Strings, but otherwise they are twins.  

Admittedly, I've only been noodling around with the Sordino library for a half-hour or so, but I find that it totally has the exact same vibe and feel of the full Strings library.

I figured anyone eyeing the intro pricing for the Orchestral Strings library might find this info useful.

Rob

1 minute ago, cclarry said:

Mine registered ok....

Fourth try was the charm. Registered properly. 

Hmm, hit a speedbump. Tried to register the library with Native Access, and got this:

"The serial number does not belong to a known product"

Anyone else get this?

Down to 50 licenses, and falling faster than I can type this. That didn't take long. 

Update: it hit zero before I could post. That has to be a record for their freebies.  

So, I grabbed this one. Watched all the walk-thrus and listened to the demo recordings (which sound gorgeous), and decided that it was a really intriguing library. 

This is a preliminary assessment as I've messed around with Orchestral Strings for about three or four hours, but so far I like it.

My impressions (and as always YMMV):

It's very Sonokinetic, and by that I mean it's got a certain vibe and style that is unique to their stuff. The user interface is stylish  and quirky, and a bit annoying (just like all their other ones). The string samples sound really gorgeous, and the legatos are subtle compared to many other libraries that I have; in my experience, Sonokinetic has never gone over the top in regards to portamentos or slurs, and this new library follows the pattern. The transitions are smooth and low key, with lots of configurable elements so you can tailor it to suit the task. I do find that the portamento slurs are a bit too understated for my tastes. I have no shame when it comes to schmaltz, and am one of the few people who actually likes throwing in a few 8Dio uber-slurs from their Anthology Strings when I need a super-dramatic melody line. Orchestral String's slurs are much more polite, although that does make the library pretty agile and responsive. 

The run and phrase tools are interesting. I've only spent a bit of time with them, but they are pretty easy to work with. I don't find the runs entirely convincing -- especially in the cellos -- but I haven't yet used the run tool in an orchestration or mix, and so it probably isn't fair to judge how they sound when fully exposed. The higher strings sound a lot better in the run tool. However, I have Sonokinetic's great Modal Runs library, which sounds quite convincing, and I tested it alongside Orchestral Strings. They blend together seamlessly, which makes sense as I believe they both use the same players, in the same recording space. I can see me using Modal Runs a lot with this library, and to great effect.

The ability to effortlessly stack articulations together and blend them back and forth is nice. So far, I've had good results mixing the straight and expressive strings, the sustains and the spiccato, the trems and the sustains, etc. Potentially very useful.

On the downside, I find that the library is pretty CPU heavy -- it eats up a surprising amount of horsepower when you've got all the main patches loaded up and running. 

Interesting side-note: 8Dio's Century Brass library was apparently recorded in the same hall as Sonokinetic's Orchestral Strings, and when I tested them together, the results were pretty nice. To my ears, they did sound like there were in the same acoustic space. I like Century Brass, so this should be a nice combo for my template. 

Rob

1 hour ago, ZincT said:

Cool that they did this so that anyone who missed them last time can have another go 👍

Also, it made it a bit less stressful for me as I got them the first time around. 

Yeah. Freebies are great, but it's kinda nice to sit this one out...

6 hours ago, pseudopop said:

I agree that 8dio string instruments often feel less agile than some other libraries, but I don't regret buying them. Like Amicus717 said they have their own sound which I find suites certain situations better than the more refined libraries, though I only have strings from the Agitato series which I believe many think is one of 8dio's better ones.

In fact, looking at my library it seems I mostly have just vocal and percussion libraries and some exotic instruments from 8dio, all of which I think are quite good for the money I paid for them. So maybe I haven't encountered the issues you mentioned because I haven't used their orchestral libraries so extensively?

Anyway, my biggest issue with 8dio libraries is the long load time.

I have mine on an M.2 drive, and it helps a lot.

I like their percussion libraries, too. They can be quite useful, although I find them kind of heavy on system resources and only load them up if I need that specific sound. But they're nice to have in the arsenal.

6 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

It's all subjective, of course. and our workflows are a major piece of this --- how important playability is to us. To those who love midi editing string and orchestral parts, they may love having the motherload of articulations the way 8Dio does them with libraries like Deep Solo Strings. Personally, playability is everything to me. I'm not going to go through and edit things as pros do, I'm creating music for my own enjoyment, but want it to sound good, so if it requires a ton of midi editing -- like 8Dio does (and that's relative to other libraries that have more intuitive scripting that make them very playable -- like Fluffy Audio's libraries that I recently picked up_, I'm out. In my case,  for a number of reasons, including pretty bad tendinitis. But yeah, as I just wrote in my previous post, midi editing is unavoidable if you're looking for a very realistic performance. But I think it's pretty important to feel inspired when playing and when I recently picked up another library that was incredibly more playable that a friend who composes music for games recommended, the difference was incredible. I really don't want to go back to my 8Dio libraries. 

On another level, I clicked on the link in your sig file after reading your post and listened while writing my response and really liked what I heard. You're very talented! Kudos!

Thanks, PavlovsCat! Appreciate you listening.

And yeah, I agree about playability. It's really nice to have, if you can get it. I have gotten into the habit of composing fast -- get stuff down at breakneck speed and don't think about it too much, then go back and examine the mess and see if something cool can be created from it. So playability can make a pretty big difference in that situation, and my newer libraries go a long way towards making that work. I'd never use 8Dio in that role.

I think 8Dio creates libraries with so much content, they sometimes stumble by accident onto a patch with a great vibe that you can't find anywhere else.

Their Deep Solo stuff doesn't interest me at all, pretty much for the reasons you mention.

I have a pretty big selection of 8Dio stuff, mostly bought on steep discounts and big sales (which is how everyone buys everything, nowadays, I think). I do get why their libraries experience a lot of criticism -- they are not the easiest to use, and I agree they seem to emphasize lots of articulations and sample content rather than refinement or simplicity of use. 

But they have their moments. Over the past few years my library collection has really expanded and I've got a lot more options to choose from when revising or expanding my template, but I still have 8Dio patches in there -- even though my current template is bigger and a lot more sophisticated than ever. There is just a certain vibe about some of their stuff, and in select moments it works for me.

The Anthology Strings legatos are a good example. They're not elegant or polished in the least. They're totally over-the-top and more than a bit rough around the edges. You gotta use them really judiciously. But when I want to record a string melody line that totally blows out the schmaltz-o-meter, I turn to the Anthology Strings celli or violins "Legato I" patches. I have yet to find strings that combine the same mix of melodiousness and blunt-force-trauma legato transitions that 8Dio gave to their Anthology stuff. They work really well in those moments, although I'd never use them in any other role. My Spitfire, Cinesamples and Musical Sampling string libraries do most of the heavy lifting. But 8Dio still has a place. 

FWIW, I also find that if I want to make stuff as realistic as possible, I still need to do a lot of note-by-note and line-by-line polishing and editing anyway, regardless of library.  Using the 8Dio stuff doesn't really make that any worse, from my perspective. 

By my standards, a low-purchase BF:

1) Audio Imperia - Jaeger Hangar 4 (Vocals By Merethe Soltvedt)

2) Red Room Audio - Pallete Orchestral FX brush pack

I was eyeing a lot of other stuff. In particular I was this close to grabbing Albion: Solstice for it's "intro" price, but while it has a some stuff I think I'd find useful, I've also heard it has a lot of filler that I'd never use, and there has been some criticism of the scripting (especially the legatos).

1 minute ago, Carl Ewing said:

I always go through these big libraries and delete everything I don't want, and put what's left into an organized-by-genre sample library database. Took about 1.5 hours, but in the end, I only have the stuff I like, trashed the rest, and got it down to 3GB from 22GB And now I know the only thing going on the drive is stuff I can use...which I know will save me time down the road. Don't even want to know how many days I've spent scrolling through sample libraries over the last 20 years - finally decided to always filter through new purchases right away, and get rid of the crap.

I did the same thing went I built my new machine. I have lots of super-fast drive space but still had to economize, and eliminating the "never-gonna-use-it" stuff was pretty essential. Also, it just kind of feels better knowing the only stuff on there is front-line material. 

Regrets, I've had a few...

1) Pretty much every plugin I've bought except Nimbus, a couple of IK compressors, and Shimmer by Valhalla. That's not a knock against plugins. Plugins are great. I just bought many that I was never, ever destined to use. I'm sure no-one else has done that.

2) Anything that says Kirk Hunter in the name -- sorry, I know there are some Kirk Hunter fans here, and I've heard decent stuff done with KH libraries. I've grabbed a few over the years, mainly due to "epic-what-the-hell-why-not" discounts. But I've never really found them useful, and their Kontakt interfaces are so old-school they give me debilitating  Windows 95 flashbacks.

3) 98.5% of the phrase-based libraries I've ever purchased. I don't say 100% because I'm ever the optimist and still have hope that one of them might come in useful at some point down the road.

Either way, that is an epic steal.

Nimbus is a beast -- a smooth, clear, polished beast of exceptional transparency. In my very humble opinion, the best reverb for orchestral work or similar.