Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

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GraysonPeddie
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Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

Hi. I want to go beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra since as an open source musician, it will be hard to find good quality wind/ensemble/brass instruments out there for free.

I am into New Age-type music like from Yanni's Reflections of Passion and In Celebration of Life and something based in music of Future World at Epcot, like Horizons (old attraction), Innoventions and music near Captain EO (new), Honey I Shrunk The Audience (Old), and the fountain (not inside attractions but outside). Amd maybe, just maybe add a little bit of flavor of 80s instrumental pop music -- something like Axel F. This depends in what style of music I'd like to write. Sometimes, I could start at slow for new-age style and then slowly build up with some 80s style drums along with a bass instrument -- something set in a theme of Los Angeles (Demolition Man) and Chicago (I, Robot). Or how about classical music?

Basically, I'm looking for something that would compliment with synthesized musical instruments (warm strings using PADsynth in ZynAddSubFX, bass sound like from Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror, and drums created from ZynAddSubFX), such as violin (sustain, staccato, pizzicato), viola (sustain, staccato, pizzicato), cello, clarinet, brass instruments, saxophones, flutes, timpani (high quality), concert harp, anything I can add as a background to new age-type music. I really don't care to do film or television scoring as a hobbyist musician, so my budget is around $100 if not $50 since I'd be surprised if there is one that low.

Am I asking too much at such a low budget and beyond the mediocre sound quality of Sonatina Symphony Orchestra?
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by AnthonyCFox »

Take a look at http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/philharmonik/ ($79) it's based on the SampleTank engine. You can get their demo SampleTankFree and see if it works for you with Wine. I had it running on a 32-bit machine but it wouldn't install on my 64-bit. I was very disappointed because I really liked it when I was using it on my old machine.

There is also http://pro.magix.com/en/independence/in ... .1013.html which I did get working on my 64-bit machine but for the instruments you want it will cost quite a bit more ($330). I haven't used this much because there aren't many free sounds that come with it that interest me, but it seems okay.

If SF2 fonts are acceptable there's https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/pro ... nstruments it's only $29. I can't vouch for the quality of that soundbank but I did get their demo freebie and I was really surprised at how good it sounded.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

Do you have any opinions in how well the E-MU Virtuoso sounds? I'm looking for a concert hall-sounding reverb in Carla just to hear how the demo sounds like. Freeverb does have a preset for that, but that is only in Yoshimi/ZynAddSubFX which I've used most often.

I want to try out the soundfont first before going with a WINE solution.

Update: I checked the review of Virtuoso 2000 and I noticed that 64MB of ROM is way too small. I'd like to go with 256MB if I could, but space in my hard drive is not an issue (500GB of home partition). However, the instruments in a demo song actually sound pretty good. At least I get what I pay for.
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

I bit the bullet! I have ordered Studio Orchestra, although it would be nice if I could tell a difference between E-MU Virtuoso 2000 and Digital Sound Factory's Studio Orchestra other than the size of the library. I could go for Symphonic Strings HD, but that is Cakewalk Dimension only, which is a bummer (24-bit is great, but oh well).

It's been a decade since I've visited Digital Sound Factory looking for SoundFont sample library, but then I wasn't looking for orchestra sample libraries even if it interest me. So yeah, I've completely forgotten about it until now.
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by AnthonyCFox »

GraysonPeddie wrote:I bit the bullet! I have ordered Studio Orchestra
Great! I see it's on sale too; that's a nice bonus. Keep us updated on how it works out for you.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

With the purchase of Studio Orchestra, it also included Mega Pack 1500 Instruments that you linked above, spanning Electronica, Hip Hop, Orchestral, Pop & Rock, World, and SFX, a $30 value (but then I made it sounded like an advertisement...oops!).

About the orchestra, it includes a pre-recorded glissando of harp. You press one key in your keyboard, it makes one glissando of harp. Press a different key, and it makes a different glissando. You can do that in sequence. It is great when using a sustain pedal as you don't have to hold it down to experience it.

http://graysonpeddie.com/misc/sounds/ha ... ations.ogg

If only I could make my own version of glissando, though, but it's very hard to do even with a MIDI keyboard. It would be nice to see a MIDI-controlled harp so that I could control the speed of glissando.

If you are using LinuxSample (I use QSampler), you won't get the name of the instruments unless you click OK in the instrument setup dialog. But with QSynth, it will show you the list of instruments if you open a channel dialog box and double-clicked a channel to open up a program list.
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--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by AnthonyCFox »

That sounds nice.

So are you happy with the sound quality of the instruments you've played with so far? Do you think it was a good investment?
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

If you can afford $100, you should go for it. But there's a catch when I played the violin. Being that A0 is the lowest and C8 is the highest, the notes for violin do not get cut off below G3. Musical notes for viola do not get cut off below C3 and above A6, for cello: C2 to A5, and for contrabass: B0 to G4.

Not that I would make rules or guidelines when it comes to music creation, but these kinds of instruments would sound natural if you stay within the range of notes. The only thing that I found are in Strings list, which is in here (http://www.openoctave.org/wallpaper) and I don't know the note ranges for brass and woodwind instruments.

Another thing is I wouldn't expect the sample library to be on par with EastWest or Vienna Sample Library in terms of sound quality, but it's okay if you want to add some violins and brasses to compliment with your style of music. When I listened to the demo song of Studio Orchestra, they sounded so convincing, but I don't have the MIDI file to dissect and pick apart any instruments. Heh, something tells me I have got to study classical music so I could appreciate it even more, even if I listen to classical music in FM radio. I really wish that same demo song were used for E-MU Virtuoso 2000 sample library, as I think it's unfair to compare two sample libraries without comparing two libraries with the same song. I did patch Virtuoso 2000's demo song through a LinuxDSP SR-2B Reverb so I could hear how good it sounded through reverb, but an unfair comparison still stand. Anyway, I'm not going to pay for E-MU Virtuoso 2000 since I have already spent $30 for SR-2B reverb from LinuxDSP.

The positive thing about Studio Orchestra is that I like the sounds that I heard from violin, viola, cello, contrabass, brass, and woodwind instruments. You could make use of this using LinuxDSP's SR-2B Reverb plugin.
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by AnthonyCFox »

GraysonPeddie wrote:The positive thing about Studio Orchestra is that I like the sounds that I heard from violin, viola, cello, contrabass, brass, and woodwind instruments.
That's good to hear. For the moment I'm satisfied with the samples I have but I expect one day to want to add more instruments. I've got my eye on the Proteus Pack; that would give me a lot of classic keyboards, world percussion and a bunch of nice synth presets (since I hate futzing with synthesizer knobs).

Oh, Holy Crap! It's been under my nose all this time and I had no idea... Cakewalk Dimension is an SFZ player! Digital Sound Factory has a ton of libraries for Cakewalk Dimension. I just downloaded DSF's freebie sample pack for Cakewalk Dimension and it works with Sforzando (the SFZ player I've been using for the last few months).

Forgive me, I've been trying to find quality SFZ libraries for months. I did find one for bass guitar and another for drums, which IMO are the weak points in what Digital Sound Factory has to offer, but not much else. The Proteus Pack would pretty much round out my library. This is a huge discovery for me. I've been looking into networking a windows machine so I could incorporate Kontakt into my studio. This will keep me going for years before I have to consider that option again. :D
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by AnthonyCFox »

Hey! I just figured out that the stuff they sell for Cakewalk Dimension works in LinuxSampler. They're SFZ files. They have a free sample pack for Cakewalk Dimesion; I downloaded it and the samples played in LinuxSampler.

Digital Sound Factory does say "Satisfaction Guaranteed"; maybe you could contact them and tell them what you bought and that you just realized you actually want the Cakewalk version of it instead. Chances are that since it's the same sample library they'll go ahead an give it to you. :D
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

Ah, that is all right. You got me surprised for checking out that Cakewalk Dimension is an SFZ player and I can play that in LinuxSampler or in Carla. How could Digital Sound Factory not mention SFZ is beyond me!

I'll just keep the SF2 as I don't know if there are any quality differences between SF2 and SFZ.
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by AnthonyCFox »

As a format SFZ is superior to SF2. There are good SF2 samples and crappy SFZ's, but generally speaking SFZs are better. That's why I was curious as to what you thought of the samples you bought and if you were happy with the quality.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

Yeah, they actually sounded good to my ears. I'm unsure if Studio Orchestra's samples are in 24-bit format with SFZ, though. Symphony Strings HD are in 24-bit.

I found this thread about SF2 vs SFZ.

I will ask Digital Sound Factory if I could go for SFZ format. Really, how can I did not know Cakewalk Dimensions uses SFZ?
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by AnthonyCFox »

GraysonPeddie wrote:I will ask Digital Sound Factory if I could go for SFZ format.
Sure, why not? The worst they can say is no.
GraysonPeddie wrote:Really, how can I did not know Cakewalk Dimensions uses SFZ?
Yeah, tell me about it. I've been looking for SFZ fonts for months, I knew Cakewalk was the major company using them and I've been to Digital Sound Factory a bunch of times looking at their stuff.

If they give it to you they'll probably give you a copy of Cakewalk Dimensions LE also, if you can get that working in Wine I'd love to hear about it. The sound should be better if it does work, AFAIK they do additional scripting that LinuxSampler can't handle. If you don't want to mess with it that's okay though. In September, I'm going to get the Mega Pack 1500 and I'll test it then.
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Re: Going Beyond Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Post by GraysonPeddie »

I got an e-mail and they will send me the Dimension version at no charge. They will send me an additional e-mail shortly, but since it's late, I'll have a look tomorrow.
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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