Miroslav Philharmonik... Now what?

[GregV]

Howdy Gang. A previous thread had recommended the East West VI as being the best (for the money) orchestral option.
Well, I went the "save even more money" route and bought Miroslav Philharmonik Classik Edition.
Ah, regrets...
I like the solo strings, but everything else (especially brass) is disappointing.

Now for Step Two... Is it worth upgrading to the full version of MP? Or should I admit defeat and go with a different VI altogether.
In other words, are the extra samples worth $60 or so? It will still end up being cheaper than East West or most other options.

Thoughts? Thanks all...

[musicman691]

IMO Miroslav will never touch the EW product for quality (I find Miro a little too 'gritty' for my tastes) and getting the full version of Miroslav won't help any. EW is having a half price sale on the EWQLSO series and Gold is currently going for $248 US. And some of the other EW stuff has even deeper discounts right now. Go to the soundsonline page (home of EW) and you'll see what I'm talking about.

I have both EW product and some Miroslav stuff and I almost never go to the Miroslav library.

[bad jitter]

I bought full version of Miroslav for $49.99. But just to be able to pre-order SampleTank 3 for better price. You don't always get what you pay for I guess.

[John_Toolbox]

Yes, miroslav's strong point is the strings. Everything else in that library can be useful as reinforcement for other libraries, but IMHO is not that great by itself. I actually prefer the sound of the miroslav strings to the eastwest strings but the EW gold is superior for brass and perc. And the eastwest strings have more articulations to choose from. I think you should buy EW gold, it's the best starting point for orchestral work, and very easy to use. Gold is worth the extra money over silver, and is usually on sale at 50% off or as a 2 for one. If you get it as part of a 2 for one, I would strongly recommend getting the eastwest choir library to compliment it.

[GregV]

Thanks Everyone!
For those of us with Miroslav, I did find a good trick! If you use "Stretch" (in the "Tune" menu) you can adjust the Harmonics of the instruments. I actually managed to assemble a decent (not great) brass section by playing with the Harmonics of each instrument.
At least it let me finish this project on time!
But the next time I need any orchestral instruments I will take the advice given and get the EWQLSO!
Thanks again

[topazuk]

Philharmonik was a nice library for getting ideas together... the problem is IK multimedia.

The original 32-bit player never had keyswitch so what seems like 10 years later we finally get sampletank version 3 and it still has no key switching.

If you don't use a daw like logic or Cubase there is no way to split the input channels so accessing all the articulations is a nightmare.

Ew gold is nice but it's smothered in ambience so it's no good for more intimate orchestrations.

My money goes on Kirk Hunter Diamond Orchestra the library is a bit of a mess, but if you spend some time picking the instruments you need (there are so many) that you need is far superior to Philharmonik.

Imagine having a sample library today with no keyswitch. Only switching of midi channels. Its such an out of date way of doing things, but that sums up IK multimedia to me nicely.

out of date.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by topazuk

Philharmonik was a nice library for getting ideas together... the problem is IK multimedia.

The original 32-bit player never had keyswitch so what seems like 10 years later we finally get sampletank version 3 and it still has no key switching.

If you don't use a daw like logic or Cubase there is no way to split the input channels so accessing all the articulations is a nightmare.

Ew gold is nice but it's smothered in ambience so it's no good for more intimate orchestrations.

My money goes on Kirk Hunter Diamond Orchestra the library is a bit of a mess, but if you spend some time picking the instruments you need (there are so many) that you need is far superior to Philharmonik.

Imagine having a sample library today with no keyswitch. Only switching of midi channels. Its such an out of date way of doing things, but that sums up IK multimedia to me nicely.

out of date.

While keyswitching in ST3 would be a neat idea it's not needed. You can address each slot in Sampletank 3 on separate MIDI channels to take care of that issue. This can be done standalone or in a daw like PT. I do it all the time.

[topazuk]

well that is down to favouring multiple articulations spread across multiple messy tracks, stealing screen space, let alone the fact of programming each part separately.

Personally i'd go for a keyswitching via one instrument anytime.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by topazuk

well that is down to favouring multiple articulations spread across multiple messy tracks, stealing screen space, let alone the fact of programming each part separately.

Personally i'd go for a keyswitching via one instrument anytime.

How is using one instance of Sampletank 3 with multiple instruments stealing screen space versus keyswitching? You have only one gui instance in each case. And if you're talking screen space in the daw - that's not an issue. Ever hear of scroll bars? Besides in PT you can make track height whatever you want it to be. Non-issue.

Personally I'd rather have the ease of programming multiple tracks versus trying to ferret out where keyswitches are in a single track. Talk about messy tracks!

[topazuk]

Because where as you need 16 tracks for 16 articulations a KS instrument only needs 1.

its quite simply really, isn't it ?

Originally Posted by musicman691

How is using one instance of Sampletank 3 with multiple instruments stealing screen space versus keyswitching? You have only one gui instance in each case. And if you're talking screen space in the daw - that's not an issue. Ever hear of scroll bars? Besides in PT you can make track height whatever you want it to be. Non-issue.

Personally I'd rather have the ease of programming multiple tracks versus trying to ferret out where keyswitches are in a single track. Talk about messy tracks!