mutha of string samples

So who has gone through this already?

I am looking at the:

1-Garritan Lite Gigasampler Strings or AKAI.

2-The Sonic Implants Lite.

3-Advanced Orchestra.

4-Vienna Strings

I have the Miroslav for Kurzweil and love them already.

Any thoughts?

Jackson

 

Here are my thoughts on these sounds;

Garritan Lite Gigasampler Strings or AKAI
Fantastic sounds (I have the Giga version), for sure. I got some very pleasing results with them. I find that Garritan has a 'smoother' sound than Advanced Orch/Miroslav, but is not as good for really Forte stuff. Here's a snippet that I did with exclusively with the Garritan Strings (and some horns from Advanced - and yes, the guitars are all MIDI, so don't laugh - I don't have a GTR at work);

arkana.mp3

Sonic Implants Lite
Have you ever left food out on the counter overnight and bugs have started eating eat and it's all limp and gross? Well, that's what the Sonic Implants collection sounds like; complete ROT. Sounds like 1987 General MIDI!!! Don't go ANYWHERE NEAR IT!!!

Advanced Orchestra
Ahhh...Advanced Orchestra...my personal favourite; that and Miroslav. Like I said earlier, I found their samples cut more than Garritan (although I imagine the full collection of Garritan must be very good), so I tend to use them the most. Here's something I did with mostly Advanced Orchestra and possibly some Miroslav;

imx.mp3

Vienna Strings

I don't know anything about this, except for listening to the demo, which was truly hair-raising! Of course, demos ALWAYS sound great, becuase the guys who sampled them know exactly how to get the best results. But that sounds like it may be the one to beat, I'll have to keep my eyes on that one...didn't see a price?

So, I don't know...I like Garritan Strings Lite, but you know they're holding back on the good stuff; I've found Advanced Orchestra to be a perfect accompaniment to Miroslav, the sounds go well together - but Garritan is good for layering in softer sounds. Perhaps get both? Ha ha...you can check out my demos and see what everyone else has to say - because you know there will strong opinions on this subject, and I'm just a hack, anyway.

Merry Xmas,

 

hey thanks bduffy!

The samples are great. The guitars are fine, you are insane.

So do you have those garritans loaded in KONTAKT? I actually got a return email from Gary Garritan himself this morning who said:

"I am still waiting for the streaming feature to be implemented. There are a couple of other features, including keyswitching, that will be implemented soon. I am working on a native advanced Kontakt version.There are people who have used the lite version of GOS with great success."

So, I think between your opinions and KONTAKT having native Garritans, we may have some really nice things/strings coming our way, if NI would hurry up with the streaming...but that is another thread

Thanks again,
Jackson

 

Thanks for the GTR comment - perhaps I was fishing...

Yes - everything you heard was being fired in Kontakt. So, with the Garritan Strings, you don't get any of that Key Switching stuff (although I suppose you could set it up, if you were so inclinced), and I actually just got rid of all the lower-velocity levels to save on RAM; and I didn't find that I needed them - by the time you get to 50% Velocity, it's pretty hard to tell the difference.

So even though I've abandoned the Gigastudio, I can still use those samples with Kontakt - even with just RAM streaming. I'm not one of those people whose awaiting Disk Streaming with baited breath - I'm pretty happy with the RAM streaming, myself. But I will be curious to see what we can get away with, once it's implemented.

The thing I don't like about using Giga with Kontakt is how bloody long it takes to just preview the sounds, let alone load them. But if they sound good, I geuss it's worth it.

Best Regards,

 

String Samples Continued...

I've spent a good deal of time listening to a few string libraries - and
find the Garrison pretty nice. The Vienna sounds like they could be the
"Mutha" to beat though.

One problem I have is that I like smaller more intimate ensembles - say 4
each violins and viola, 2 cellos and a bass. Trying to combine solo
instruments don't give the sound I'm looking for, since those samples are
designed as a "solo player" sample and not an single player in an ensemble.

One of the best samples of this type that I had for a good while was a
collection of samples made from a friends Synclavier that I used on (when it
was the 'next big thing') an Akai S950. If you listened close, you could
hear each individual violin/viola player in the ensemble. It was very good
for legato style playing, but not much else though.

Anybody heard any smaller string groups that stand out?

 

I'd still have to say Advanced Orchestra/Miroslav are good for that - they have CDs of the solo instruments, and some of the banks are of smaller sections. If you check out my second mp3 link from the earlier post ( imx.mp3 ), it starts off as a small string section. I used Advanced Orchestra for that. I don't know if that's 'larger' than you had in mind. I was pleased with the results.

 

I don't know any of those, i've got the "Interactive String Section De Luxe" (2 Akai rom) and i'm really happy with it. All sounds were perfectly dry and brilliant recorded - it's superb.

They even overrule the Vitous Collection i've got.

Ronny

 

Never heard of that one, I'll have to check it out (you can never have too many strings!)

 

Where do I get info/web/price on the Vienna Strings?

 

http://vsl.co.at

It's not ready yet - Decmeber 18th.

 

bduffy,
I just ordered the giga lite Garritan strings (audiomidi.com 249.00)...Thanks for the advice. Also, I wonder after you save the files as KONTAKT patches does it still take a long time to load Gigas?
Anything is better than dealing with AKAI, which makes you leave the CD in during every load until you save them one by one. At least with GIGA I can dump the whole cd to hard disk and then procede.

Jackson

 

Wondering, is there an upgrade path if i buy the lite garitain strings and want to upgrade to the big thing?

 

Actually, yeah, it takes a long time for the Kontakt browser to de-compress and load the sounds (depending on their size). For me, once you click on the Giga folder in the Browser, it takes some time for the folder to appear; I assume this is because of the proprietary Giga file compression. Then if the patch is big and multi-layered, it takes a bit to load. But this all goes away once you save to Kontakt format.

I don't understand why you wouldn't convert your AKAIs to Kontakt? You'll save yourself the trouble of waiting for the CD to spin up, and you'll be able to access the samples more easily. Plus, if you're in a situation where Kontakt needs to do a search, it'll find the samples right away (if you save it in a folder that's saved in Kontakt's Favourites Menu). I understand that you wind up with a lot of wave files sitting on your hard drive, but drives are cheap these days and you can always delete what you don't need later.

Happy hunting!

 

Chaim--I asked that question directly to Gary Garritan who responded with a resounding, yes there is an upgrade path, and he said the upgrade is only 550.00!!
So, you actually save money doing it that way!

Bduffy--I should just bite the bullet and load every single AKAI patch, it would take me days!!! For now, I just grab the AKAI cd I need and load a few as I am going...

I may upgrade the Garritan once the disk streaming is going...

 

"Sonic Implants Lite
Have you ever left food out on the counter overnight and bugs have started eating eat and it's all limp and gross? Well, that's what the Sonic Implants collection sounds like; complete ROT. Sounds like 1987 General MIDI!!! Don't go ANYWHERE NEAR IT!!! "

BDuffy,

I see you wrote this back in December. But our MINI (Lite) version was not even released until February for the Giga version and this month for the Soundfont version! So I have to believe you have not actually heard this library.


I am thinking that perhaps you are confusing it with our old Solo and Ensemble Strings soundfont file, which we no longer sell. That file was only 8 meg of data and sold for less than $20. It was created at time when there were very few soundfont files of orchestral instruments available, and functioned as a better alternative to the string sounds on the Creative Labs card. But it certainly should not be compared to the current high end string libraries.

By contrast, our Symphonic String Collection is over 13 GIG of data (the MINI version is 5 gig for the Giga format and 2.7 Gig for the Soundfont format) and is a state of the art sample library.

Of course, everyone has their own opinions about what they like and don’t like. But by any objective standard, our Symphonic String library is absolutely fantastic sounding. Certainly all the reviewers writing about our library have raved about it. For example, Sound on Sound gave it 5 of 5 stars.

If you would like to read some informed opinions by users who not only own our library but also the Garritan and Vienna libraries, visit the Northern Sounds web site (www.northernsounds.com). There are a number of threads comparing the various string libraries in the Sample Libraries forum.

Also, in the upcoming May issue of Electronic Musician, there will be an article comparing all the various string libraries, and you will see our library compared very favorably.

Finally, I wanted to mention that we are currently hard at work converting our libraries into native Kontakt format. And what we have discovered is that there are numerous problems iin converting both Soundfont and Giga format libraries into Kontakt. Many programming parameters do not import correctly. So for those of you out there loading libraries from those formats into Kontakt, you may not be hearing the sounds as intended by the sample developers.

So the upcoming releases of native Kontakt format sample libraries from us as well as other soundware developers should be cause for excitement by Kontakt users. We look forward to announcing the release of these products in the near future.

 

That's interesting...than what version did I hear? I didn't purchase the Sonic Implants Lite version - a friend had bought it, as he still likes to use soundfonts in their native format with the SBLive MIDI synth...

It must have been the old library! That would make sense; although I definitely would have tamed my language A LOT if I had known someone from the company was going to visit the Forum, you might be able to understand my shock if I thought that this out-of-print library was your flagship product! I had no idea, and I was appalled by this misconception!

In lieu of that, please accept my deepest apologies, and I revoke my previous comments. This reminds me to watch what I say (again!). I have always been very impressed with Sonic Implants libraries; specifically the Drum Implants, which I have recommended to people over much more expensive and less satisfactory libraries many, many times. The only reason I was lashing out so badly was because I could not understand why Sonic Implants were pushing a product which just didn't seem to be on the same level as your other product.

Anyways, I'm VERY sorry and I'm thrilled that you're making Kontakt format libraries. I will actually be one of the first in line when you release your Drum Implants for Kontakt!

Sincerely,