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SONiVOX Orchestral Libraries $4.99 each at JRR


Reid Rosefelt

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https://www.jrrshop.com/sonivox?dir=desc&order=special_from_date

Okay, I know the string library was only $1 a few years ago, but this is still an amazing deal.  

People say the sounds are very good in these libraries even though they are old.  The main defect is that they lack modwheel dynamics.  You can only control volume with CC11

I'm going to pick up the woodwinds.  It's got multiple  key-switched articulations for Solo Piccolo, Flute, English Horn, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Contrabassoon.
Plus ensembles and sections

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1 hour ago, Tiger The Frog said:

https://www.jrrshop.com/sonivox?dir=desc&order=special_from_date

Okay, I know the string library was only $1 a few years ago, but this is still an amazing deal.  

People say the sounds are very good in these libraries even though they are old.  The main defect is that they lack modwheel dynamics.  You can only control volume with CC11

I'm going to pick up the woodwinds.  It's got multiple  key-switched articulations for Solo Piccolo, Flute, English Horn, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Contrabassoon.
Plus ensembles and sections

Their samples are good, but the players are "meh". Not much expression control, except for a few articulation switches for some patches. Not sure how many velocity layers there are. The main gripe I  have was their claim of "Keyboard mod wheel swells volume for intense dynamics". That is B.S., and noticeably absent.

Useful if you just want to drop in an instrument here or there. But it's not multi-timbral, so you will need multiple instances for more than one part, if you plan to attempt a full orchestration.

For this price though, if you don't already have these instrument sounds  elsewhere, it's a no-brainer territory. But if you do, better think again about the disk space you will be giving up to use these. They are about 15GB each. ;)

Edited by abacab
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The woodwinds are 7.2 GB on my drive.   Maybe the others are bigger?

The flute ensemble and solo oboe have 2  glisses each, which surprised me.  I don't think I have anything like that in my existing woods, so that's worth $5 right there for me.  I could see using them. 

The advantage of their sonic and control limitations is that they load up instantly. This could be a great laptop orchestra for when you're away from your rig. 

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abacab is right, the decision is whether or not you already have Garritan or some other orchestral library. If you do, pass on them. If you don't, jump on them like a trampoline, because you'd spend $15 at a burger joint and the samples are really good.

I think I paid $10 for the strings and $20 each for the other 2 and it was money well spent. The downside is indeed the player, complete with missing mod wheel swell function. Why do they still advertise it after so many of us have pointed out that it's not implemented?

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8 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

abacab is right, the decision is whether or not you already have Garritan or some other orchestral library. If you do, pass on them. 

1

I don't want to make a big deal about this, but there are a few professional composers on VI:Control who disagree  with this.  They all probably have thousands of dollars worth of orchestral libraries and they still find this worthwhile because they believe the sounds are of high quality.  Even without modwheel or legato.  If for nothing else, for layering. 

Also, there is a workaround that does compensate somewhat for not having the modwheel swell function.  

You can read their comments, find out about the workaround, and hear demos HERE  If you want to decide for yourself everything from SONiVOX downloads with a fully functional [EDIT: at least some of them make noises at regular intervals ] demo from their website. You need iLok, but not a dongle.

Personally, I bought the string library for a buck years ago to make myself eligible if I ever wanted to upgrade.  I never bothered downloading it, as  I have Cinematic Studio Strings as I couldn't see the point.  And so I ignored every deal on these libraries until I read the thread on VI:Control and listened to the demos there. 

I downloaded the woods and was impressed.  Not just $5 impressed.  While I have clarinets, flutes, etc on every library I own, not all have piccolos, english horns, contrabassoons, and ensembles.  Definitely will help fill in some blanks for me until Cinematic Studio Woodwinds come out, and maybe even after that.  So I bought the brass too after seeing the articulations in the VI:Control post.

Most orchestral composers have more than one developer's libraries in their templates, because some instruments work better for different musical phrases and articulations.  If you can add one for a few bucks, then why not?   

Edited by Tiger The Frog
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I bought their entire SONiVOX Premier Collection 2 years ago, which includes all of the Orchestral Companion and Film Score libraries. I will admit it was a good bang for the buck at the time. The samples are very good.  That bundle is also on sale right now for $49.

This is a good price, and in no-brainer territory for sure.

But just a word of advice if you buy their stuff, be prepared to use it as is, and don't expect any improvements. If you are good with that, then great!

SONiVOX apparently does not respond to feature requests or provide any bug fixes for their existing products. It appears to be virtually unsupported, and they have never come clean about that mod wheel thingy. You can view their support forums that will back this fact up.

But otherwise it can be useful.

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46 minutes ago, abacab said:

SONiVOX apparently does not respond to feature requests or provide any bug fixes for their existing products. It appears to be virtually unsupported, and they have never come clean about that mod wheel thingy. You can view their support forums that will back this fact up.

But otherwise it can be useful.

This is true. They acknowledged the Big Bang Cinematic drums GUI problem over two years ago, promised that someone would look into it, and nothing has materialized.

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@Tiger The Frog, I'm with you here. I was being conservative and just assumed that these other libraries with their full-featured players could do anything that the Orchestral Companions could do. I'm happy to stand corrected.

Anyone who uses orchestral samples should drop the $15. Tiger is correct about the almost total lack of support, but I will say that they did issue an update and after that they became

And thanks for all the tips and links to making better use of these.

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