MOTU Symphonic Instrument

[woodlakesound]

I have an order coming soon. I have listened to the demos and am really impressed with the total palette of blended sounds. The solo sounds are not 'solo quality', to my ears, so those can be better handled by Synful or other samplers. I am anxiuosly awaing using the combo. Synful will be coming out with ensemble instument sounds as well. But, for the $ the Motu sounds wonderful and will be a great sketchpad for further more realistic realizations using better sounds. Whadaya think of that?

[beldenmusic]

Originally posted by Splinter:
More reports! More reports! I'm eager to hear what people are experiencing with the MSI. Is is really all it seems cracked up to be? I'm sure it won't replace the real deal, but is it an effective tool for creating a nice pallette of orchestral sounds that will work in a track or even be convincing to an untrained ear? What are some of the highlights of the VI what does it seem to be best at?

So far it is pretty darn impressive, and I have only touched the surface. Of course, I am also ecstatic that it isn't causing Logic7 to crash as well, so I have to keep that in mind. I am applying it in the exact same way that you suggest, using my solo instrument samples from the Gigastudio in conjunction with the MSI, which is much easier to set up than my Garritan stuff, and honestly sounds brilliant..VERY VERY easy to use and fast, and overall I would give the string sounds an 8.5 out of 10, especially in the Arco and Legato modes, which are simply wonderful and rich.

So far to me the best part is the large brass ensembles, especially on sfz and robust passages, the depth and definition of the brass has a very John Williams feel to it..much better than any other sample library I have..works REALLY well when doubled with the old Miroslav brass library.

The winds are tricky, I haven't really played with any of the solo stuff, but wind flourishes still sound shrill and mushy, but I think with some tweaking that will work out. The wind sustenatos are superb though..full and amazingly delicate.

The percussion doesn't cover as many bases as I'd hoped (but to be honest I haven't gotten that deep there yet), but it sounds great, especially bass drum and timpani.

The piano is fine when mixed in, but not a great solo piano by any stretch..I'll take my Ivory or Bosendorfer anyday.

I haven't touched the reverb or any effects yet.

Overall I would give the whole package a 9 out of 10, not just the sound quality (which is about a good 7.5 overall I'd say) but factoring in the cost and ease of use, along with the stability (so far..knock on wood) you can't really go wrong with it. I don't think you can replace the QL or Vienna libraries with this, but for composing quickly for orchestra before arranging some parts with other libraries it simply can't be beat in my opinion.

[phmurphy]

I received MSi yesterday and worked with it last night and this morning. Installation went without a hitch. It works flawlessly. And it's very intuitive to use. But is it just me, or are some of these samples just flat out bad? I noticed on some instruments that the switch in sample from one range to the next was worse than it was with my old Akai S900 w/1M of ram. I kinda expected that sort of problem to be a thing of the past. My biggest surprise was particularly the violin and viola sustain presets. I hear more noise than signal. Well, almost. I would love to hear that there is something wrong with my setup - something that I could fix, rather than believe that some of these presets are made from sub-optimal samples. On the other hand, some of the stuff is great. What are some other people's experience with the quality of the sounds?

[beldenmusic]

Originally posted by phm:
I received MSi yesterday and worked with it last night and this morning. Installation went without a hitch. It works flawlessly. And it's very intuitive to use. But is it just me, or are some of these samples just flat out bad? I noticed on some instruments that the switch in sample from one range to the next was worse than it was with my old Akai S900 w/1M of ram. I kinda expected that sort of problem to be a thing of the past. My biggest surprise was particularly the violin and viola sustain presets. I hear more noise than signal. Well, almost. I would love to hear that there is something wrong with my setup - something that I could fix, rather than believe that some of these presets are made from sub-optimal samples. On the other hand, some of the stuff is great. What are some other people's experience with the quality of the sounds?

My violin/viola sustain samples aren't bad as far as noise goes, although the playablity in relationship to the keyboard is WAY off, but I think that can be tweaked. They certainly don't sound noisy though..can't imagine what would cause them to sound that way..I haven't come across that yet.

[beldenmusic]

ok, correction on my part. I had not tried the solo viola, only the ensemble, and you are correct..it is VERY noisy. Not just bow noise, which is considerable, but a weird harsh digital noise in the 4k range. Oh well, so far it is the only bad one I've encountered.

[Arpeggio]

How does the sound and variety of instruments in MSI compare to the Vienna Symphonic Library + Steinway D + Harpsichord included in Kontakt 2? The one thing that first attracted me to MSI was the fact that it had quality piano, harpsichord, and orchestral samples all in one program. However, today I just learned that Kontakt 2 does as well.

Also, what is the recording quality of the samples in MSI? Bit-rate/sample-rate?

<small>[ August 09, 2005, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: Arpeggio ]</small>

[Arpeggio]

^^^^^ Anyone?

Also, what are the total sizes of the Steinway D and Yamaha C7 pianos, in MB/GB?

I apologize if my questions seem trivial, but they are important to me.

[Arpeggio]

For crying out loud, someone must have the answers to my questions! (see my above two posts) Please?

I've contacted MOTU directly as well as music retailers, and no one will answer me.

Since I know that there are people on this board that are actually using Symphonic Instrument, please please please take a moment and answer my questions. The answers will determine whether or not I buy MSI.

[beldenmusic]

Originally posted by Arpeggio:
For crying out loud, someone must have the answers to my questions! (see my above two posts) Please?

I've contacted MOTU directly as well as music retailers, and no one will answer me.

Since I know that there are people on this board that are actually using Symphonic Instrument, please please please take a moment and answer my questions. The answers will determine whether or not I buy MSI.

Goodness gracious hold on to your horses! The Pianos are about 230MB each and sound good in the mix, not great for solo piano.

I have no idea how it compares to VSL but the overall sound is pretty darn good...I would give the brass the highest rating of the lot, especially the french horn ensembles. There is some great string sfx stuff too, and the tutti orchestral is great.

[Arpeggio]

Thanks! I really appreciate the information!