Carl Ewing

I have Collectors Edition so have the full Komplete Symphony Series. I think the brass is extremely underrated. Although CineBrass Core / Pro are my primary brass, I'm still surprised Symphony Brass was received so poorly. There's some excellent patches in both the strings, brass. The percussion I think is absolutely excellent - it's one of the best orchestral percussion libraries for the price IMO. The winds are pretty awful though imo. About the NI Symphony strings. There's a funny video of a guy comparing the Komplete Symphony Series Strings with Spitfire Symphonic Strings and how similar they are. Understand that when it came out, people were specifically shitting on those Komplete strings compared to that specific Spitfire library. It's so funny. I think some people just have to mentally justify the money ($800 for Spitfire Symphonic Strings) they put out for these libraries. The string library was made by Audiobro (LA Scoring Strings, Modern Scoring Strings, Genesis Children's Choir), and the brass were made by SoundIron. I wouldn't trust impressions of that orchestra library - IMO it's much much much better than people give it credit for. I've used it a lot, and amazed it came with a Komplete Ultimate CE update. And for sure - I'd definitely recommend searching "Audio Imperia Nucleus" walkthrough videos. Very very good for the sale price. This is done with Nucleus: (And sorry to hijack the thread. I actually love a lot of 8Dio libraries!)

Actually - scratch my comments about Kontakt Factory Library 2 orchestra. Just spent some time with it. It's not very good and really limited. It's deceiving, because there are a couple spectacular patches (eg. the Cello / string spiccatos are strangely excellent), but it's really just a "hey, here's some basic orchestra patches if you don't already have any". My recommend would still be Audio Imperia Nucleus, considering the sale price + having strings, brass, winds, choir, percussion + being extremely intuitive / easy to use (meaning less customization) + quality is excellent for $225. And it gives you good crossgrade opportunities for their other products in the future.

Do you have Komplete 14? If so, you should have Kontakt Factory Library 2 which includes an entirely new orchestra library made up of selections from Orchestral Tools libraries (the really expensive ones). It surprised A LOT of composers, since it's a 1000x improvement over the old Kontakt library orchestra. There are some absolutely amazing articulations in that set. Audio Imperia's "Lite" libraries are also on sale for $80. Limited articulations, but Areia Lite (strings) & Nucleus Lite (orchestra) are pretty great for the price. Actually the full Nucleus library is on sale for $225. It covers the entire orchestra. Walkthrough video. The thing about Audio Imperia libraries is that they are great for hybrid styles - like using orchestra in pop or electronic music or rock. They have a very upfront sound, and 2 mixes, Classical (softer, but still quite full), and "Modern" (more full cinematic / trailer / pop music style). And they are dirt simple to use. I think I would go the direction of Audio Imperia based on your description of how you use orchestra. A lot of walkthroughs and reviews of their Nucleus, Aeria, Talos, Jeager, etc. libraries that should immediately show their unique tone. Their solo instrument is also quite good for pop music, as the mixes / recordings are quite forward sounding. If you want an idea of how forward sounding their libraries are -- for example, their spicatto patches -- here's a comparison of spicattos across 40 different libraries. IMO each Audio Imperia selection (Jeager, Aeria, Nucleus) stands out as the best for more hybrid genre use. Many others have that very warm cinematic tone that disappears in non-soundtrack mixes. But some stay that makes the AI stuff sound overly cold / machine like:

Ha. Ya, I have a lot of adult choirs, but most of them are either old, or I don't like them. Except 8Dio choirs - which sound gorgeous (especially Insolidus / Silka) but they aren't very flexibile. Was so disappointed in Omnia. It's the main reason I updated my Komplete CE edition. Voxos was also a huge disappointed, but got it with Musio, so no big loss. Same with being disappointed with East West's choirs via Composer Cloud. Interesting through - was checking out Voxos's childrens choir patches, thought it sounded pretty bland, then opened Genesis to compare and the first note I hit was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. Haha. That choir is incredible - also blows Liberis out of the water. So it'll probably become a battle between Chorus (sat through a couple hours of walkthroughs and love the sound / versatility) & Eternity - one of these will free up a lot of hard drive space after deleting all these other libraries.

Order also cancelled + refund. Went to JRR shop, got it for $85 with GROUP code. So still decent deal. And that granular engine is absolutely bonkers. Endless modulation possibilities, and it's set up sooooo much easier than Absynth or Omnisphere. Can do grain / position / randomization modulations in seconds, unlike Absynth which requires a PhD in engineering to get certain envelope modulations to work properly.

Same. And just when I was trying to make a decision on AI's Chorus. Will definitely wait and see now. This could be amazing. Also curious if they'll have crossgrade / loyalty pricing for owners of Genesis.

I'd agree here - Pro-R has some incredible features - especially with the addition of ducking in the v2 version. It's really an incredible piece of software, like all FabFilter stuff. I would never need another reverb again if Pro-R, with all its features, sounded like Cinematic Rooms. But honestly, those Pro-R features really make it versatile, I just find it takes way too long to get a sound I like out of it. Perhaps it's too transparent / clean, whereas I like grain / color (my second favorite reverb is UADs Lexicon 224 because it's so messy sounding imo)

Picked up all the ones I wanted last week with sub voucher: U2A , SA2RATE2, Masterdesk Pro, Amek 200 Console (already had 9099 from last year), Amek Mastering Comp and XStressor. I'm now grandfathered into Mix & Master bundle at $149.99 a year, so no brainer to get 6 of their best plugins per year for essentially $25 / each, and get to use everything else in the catalog all year. (but i forgot, subs suck, right?? hehe)

This is a very subjective question. I find Pro-R extremely cold. It has it's uses, but I rarely use it because I find it lifeless / sterile. no matter what the source is. I love Cinematic Rooms Pro & Seventh Heaven. I think CRP is the best reverb on the market - for pretty much any instrument, and by a wide margin. But some people feel the same about Pro-R. This is really something that needs to be demo'd in order to make a decision. But honestly, Valhalla DSP reverbs are $50 and I'd be entirely happy if these were my only options. But if I had a few hundred to spend on reverbs, my choice would the CRP. Again, totally subjective.

My experience back in early 2022 - i did get support from "Natan" for a Windows problem. Not a solution, but he responded pretty quick and let me know future updates would correct the problem (which they did), although the only thing I occasionally use of the bundle is Vybz & Tape Piano 2 (this v2 version corrected a problem I had).

To clarify - it's 2023 and prior - so the entire Cinesamples catalog (Musio versions) including anything released in 2023. It's about 75 libraries in my app (all CineBrass, CineStrings, CineWinds, CinePerc, all pianos, keys, solo instruments, synths, choirs, etc.) Not so far. I own CineBrass Pro & Core and a few other libraries already, which I use heavily, but I haven't switched to the Musio versions of CineBrass yet. From what I understand it's less mic options, no keyswitching for some libraries & not as much customization, I just haven't compared yet. I don't generally use a lot of keyswitching (and don't really like how CineBrass is set up in Kontakt), and prefer microphone blend mixes, so liking the app so far. Also - they've added keyswitching patches to a few of the libraries. There seems to be keyswitching patches for all the CineOrchestra stuff that I've opened. There is a Youtube review where the guy actually prefers the simplified versions of the instruments and explains why. Wish I could find that review again, it the one that convinced me to get it as we had a similar work flow (preferring single articulation patches, a lot of library blending, etc.)

I haven't grabbed any of the pianos (I have way too many, and was set on never installing another one unless it was Keyscape or Ravenscroft), but I don't like any of my upright libraries. Anyone recommend any of the Musio pianos? I have not heard much about any of them. EDIT: I guess I could spend a half hour downloading them all. So lazy.

I think it's the size. Especially with the addition of Fantasy Orchestra - which is basically an entirely new 120GB orchestra library (including choir) outside of HOOPUS. I have both Musio & CC, but the East West catalog is just absolutely enormous by comparison. $150 already seems insane, considering how much content there is compared to Musio. For data / articulation / mic position comparison, Hollywood Orchestra (OPUS edition) alone is 4 times larger than the entire Musio catalog.

You can get 1 year of Musio for $90 right now (3 months free). Or buy the entire Musio catalog for life for $300. Both the Cinesamples & East West subs are insane. EDIT: Musio is a bit of a beta test though. Finding quite a few bugs, but it's early days.

Oh - I don't actually own these so can't comment. Noticed in later comment that you bought them - definitely let us know what you think once you get a chance to play around.

Ya - they've allowed me to registered 3rd party purchases in the past - for example, from Time + Space way back when. Just had to send them the invoice / purchase info.

That's a great hint. Going to pick it up now too.

My upgrade price from Majestica 2.0 is $40.

Ya - Tina Guo is definitely quite processed, in that that dark / warm Zimmer tone. I've actually paired it with LASS 1st chair to give it some sharpness, but only in larger pieces where you can't tell it's paired - not really possible in quartet or strictly solo work. I'd definitely keep close eye on Performance Samples the next 6 months - looks like 2 different solo libraries coming out, and I think Vista may have a much dryer tone than Pacific. which I assume will be mix-matched with the ensembles which are quite warm.

Intro offer ends November 23rd. I have a feeling they'll then create a Fabrik bundle for BF. They did a few bundle deals last year (ARK series 50% off, Creative series, etc.) last year. I'm going to gamble and wait for that bundle before buying individual instruments.

It seems these recent demos are just for Vista II, but no indication they will be sold separately. Pacific Strings (also Performance Samples) has a solo expansion coming as well, but I don't believe there are demos yet, or indications if it will be sold separately. But I love Pacific Strings ensemble, and hoping the solo strings have a similar tone. I'm also not a fan of Blakus. I am a fan of Cinesamples Tina Guo Acoustic Cello Legato - it's one of the only virtual solo cellos I've ever liked. But it is very limited in what you can do with it - just two articulations (legato & sustain). Definitely more for live performance - especially slow melodies - than programming. I think you can test it out with the free Musio trial. This would also allow you to try CineStrings Solo Cello, which is also supposed to be excellent (have not tried). Virhamonic's Bohemian Cello is considered one of the best - tone wise and playability. May want to check that out. I have not tried it yet though.

Speaking of Performance Samples - noticed someone on VI-Control posted this Legato demo for the upcoming Vista II. Was posted yesterday: I f******* love this developer. I love how they take customers through the entire development process. And have never regretted a single purchase. Just gorgeous libraries. And that's got to be the best damn legato (and possibly solo cello tone) I've ever heard in a sample library to date. By a mile.

They make some exceptional libraries (eg. percussion, choirs, solo vox, orchestra, hybrid, world), that are used in very high end productions. Perhaps stop buying the $5 phrase libraries thinking they'll auto-write you a masterpiece? lol. If you can't make incredible music with their products than it ain't the product's fault. It's like blaming the joystick.

Unfortunately no. However, I think Pro-Q 3 has so many features that are beneficial across the board that it would be worth having regardless. With something like Sooth 2 being an addition to cover specific use cases. I think the question is, how often would you need the specialized features of S2? Versus the almost-every-single-situation features of Pro-Q 3. Interesting though - if Pro-Q 4 introduces some of these AI tracking features of these other plugins they are going to obliterate the market. I'm sure they are looking at them for subsequent updates - and Pro-Q 3 has already been out for about 5 years.

^^ This is what you want to do. You don't need a specialized plugin like Soothe to do it. Just any EQ that has a "match" function and sidechain - and there are plenty on the market. The great thing about the above video's technique is that, once you have the EQ signature, you can apply it to reverb, eq, delay, distortion, compression...anything. Much more useful.