Old 08-16-2012, 10:09 AM   #1
4658dan
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Default Which Orchestral VST out of these?

Hi guys, I'm trying to decide on what orchestral VST to get. It will be my first.

The options are as follows:

Miroslav Philharmonik
East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Silver
Kontakt 5

At the moment, I'm leaning towards Miroslav Philharmonik as it seems to be the best bang for buck. Sounds good, nice big library and isn't too expensive.

EWQL Symphonic Orchestra, I don't know how well it works with Reaper and there is an iLok security key you need to purchase as extra to use it....which is rather annoying IMO.

Kontakt 5 does look rather good however it is pretty expensive. It has alot of sounds but I'm only interested in the orchestral side of things and as Kontakt isn't dedicated to orchestra I feel I would be buying more than I need.

I know it seems as though I have answered my own question but before I make a purchase I wanted some more opinions.

Thanks
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Old 08-16-2012, 01:02 PM   #2
Serenitynow
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I always thought that EW stuff sounded the best, but was maybe harder to work with - as far as stability etc. IMHO
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Old 08-16-2012, 05:31 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 4658dan View Post
Hi guys, I'm trying to decide on what orchestral VST to get. It will be my first.

The options are as follows:

Miroslav Philharmonik
East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Silver
Kontakt 5

At the moment, I'm leaning towards Miroslav Philharmonik as it seems to be the best bang for buck. Sounds good, nice big library and isn't too expensive.

EWQL Symphonic Orchestra, I don't know how well it works with Reaper and there is an iLok security key you need to purchase as extra to use it....which is rather annoying IMO.

Kontakt 5 does look rather good however it is pretty expensive. It has alot of sounds but I'm only interested in the orchestral side of things and as Kontakt isn't dedicated to orchestra I feel I would be buying more than I need.

I know it seems as though I have answered my own question but before I make a purchase I wanted some more opinions.

Thanks
i don't know east west that well, but philharmonik, i find is great. kontakt 5 is good as well, but i think for orchestra philharmonik is better.

i do think though bang for buck, komplete is the best. you get kontakt 5 and sooooo much more. if it's me, i would do that. but philharmonik is great for orchestra.
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Old 08-16-2012, 08:00 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by 4658dan View Post
The options are as follows:

Miroslav Philharmonik
East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Silver
Kontakt 5
I don't know anything about Miroslav Philharmonik but I do have Kontakt 2, 4, and 5, as well as EWQLSO Gold.

Although EWQLSO does sound pretty good, it gets rather old after a while because it was recorded so wet (room reverb) and in all honesty I'm using it less and less. Fortunately for me I go EW-Gold in Kontakt form so it's more versatile then the Play version.

Kontakts VSL is more flexible and even though it doesn't have a huge selection, it does have all the bare essentials.

The thing about Kontakt is all the instrument editing and manipulating you can do. You can assign any CC controller to anything you want and with VSL you can create cross fades, copy and paste groups so you can make keyswitches for legato, etc, etc.. And if you get into script writing you'll open a whole new dimension for programming.
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Old 08-17-2012, 12:24 PM   #5
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Don't buy Kontakt for the content.
It's not that good.

Buy Kontakt if there are libraries that require Kontakt that you want to have.

Miroslav is good, but if you are going to be doing full orchestral work you will probably grow out of it quickly.
I have it, and never regretted buying it, but I got the full version for just $100.
I use Miroslav more than I use the Kontakt VSL stuff. But you will find the choices of sound to be very subjective.
Have you listened to the demos on the IK Multimedia website?

Miroslav is also available from esoundz as an Infinite Player library which would be more versatile than using Sampletank, but then you would need to buy the infinite player and Kontakt.
That is getting a bit too pricey.

There are many libraries out there these days and there are demo tunes and videos.
Spend some time looking around.

Last edited by PAPT; 08-17-2012 at 12:30 PM.
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Old 08-18-2012, 10:18 AM   #6
4658dan
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Thanks for the help so far guys! At the moment it's very close between EWQL Silver and Miroslav Philharmonik. I'm still unsure. I have listened to the demos on both websites and they sound great to me.

They are both very affordable too. Anymore advice before I decide?

Thanks again .
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Old 08-18-2012, 10:35 AM   #7
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Years ago, I purchased most of the Vienna Symphonic Library "Horizon Series" products on DVD/GIGA format. After Tascam killed off GigaStudio, I purchased Kontakt & converted all of the samples to the Kontakt format.

The Kontakt Factory Library contains sample content also found in VSL's "Opus 1" library. There are VSL strings, brass, woodwinds & percussion samples in both collections.

You may find these sounds useful, but take note: they are recorded rather dry with minimal reverb. Essentially, they contain just enough ambience to capture early reflections off of the walls & ceiling. You'll probably want to add your own reverb to add a sense of space to the sounds. The Quantum Leap library has multiple microphone positions from what I recall, so you don't need to add your own reverb, or at least much less reverb (don't quote me on that.)

VSL is very very clean-sounding with essentially no noise (average -90dBFS noise floor.) I have been a VSL user since 2004.

Wait until Kontakt is on sale. Kontakt 5 was $199 a month ago, and that is a great deal, in my opinion.

I've heard the EW PLAY engine is very buggy. They may have fixed the bugs by this point, but that is ridiculous & unexcusable when you're shelling out lots of cash for a proprietary VSTi player.

I'm unfamiliar with the Miroslav library so I can't coment on it.

Hopefully this helps.
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Old 08-29-2012, 12:08 AM   #8
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I have Miroslav and EWQLSO Platinum. They are both nice, but I know Silver has far fewer articulations.

Miroslav has a nice sound and warm character, but not a lot of versatility if you are looking for many different stylistic options in your music. If you are aiming towards film/TV/game scoring, Miroslav can certainly add some nice background tracks for sure.

I have several recorded tracks using only Miroslav on my site, musicfororchestra.com, any of the tracks with a date of 2006 or 2007.

PLAY works fine in Reaper, maybe freezes occasionally but nothing that has interfered seriously at this point. I'm still learning the ropes of EWQLSO myself but it has a lot of potential and you can get good sounds out of it.
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