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I posted about this a few days ago in the MOTU Symphonic Instrument forum because I'm wondering if this is UVI's packaging or subset of the upcoming V2 of that product.

I still haven't seen any posts or articles anywhere that give a clue, so am not sure whether it's worth taking advantage of the April discount on this product if it will be made redundant by a possibly larger library from MOTU shortly afterwards.

The demos I've listened to so far are impressive. Warm and natural. A very different character, also, from other libraries. I still use VSL the most of anything though.

My original hope for MOTU Symphonic Instrument 2 was that it would extend the range of historic instruments. As MOTU is in Cambridge MA; they are quite near the nation's largest collection of historic instruments (Museum of Fine Arts in Boston -- though I heard rumors the collection's future was at risk due to funding and also I think the original curator finally passed on at a very ripe old age -- was it Friederich Heune?).

Just to clarify, you can get this for around $160 or so this month. Forget the $200 price! I haven't listened to all the demos yet, but this library is certainly good value for money and more than competitive with other offerings in the budget range.

Jennifer Hruska (SONiVOX) recently rereleased (I'm guessing; they might be fresh new recordings though) her symphonic stuff in new packaging; presumably ARIA based vs. Kontakt hosted this time. I still can't find details and haven't taken the time to contact her personally yet as the last I heard she was quite busy working on a PhD in Music Composition. Anyway, hers was the first large symphonic library and was well recorded and also warm and natural (dry).

Hmm, the soloed demos aren't as impressive overall, but still sound good for the price. I think the strings are likely the main strength of this library in terms of the main instrument groups.

There could be a few 'gems' in the collection, but...

For less money, and the best deal on the planet, is the 'Diamond Orchestra' from Kirk Hunter Studios. Can't be beat for the price. Extremely versatile and great for pretty well any situation.

artfarm1 wrote:There could be a few 'gems' in the collection, but...

For less money, and the best deal on the planet, is the 'Diamond Orchestra' from Kirk Hunter Studios. Can't be beat for the price. ...

Really? You forgot, this is maybe good for full Kontakt player owners. Who dont have full Kontakt player it is + 400 € more.

Unfortunately, it's true that Kontakt is needed to use many of the great libraries out there. But once you get Kontakt, you wonder how you live without it!

I held off as long as possible myself (until I got tired of hanging onto Logic just so I could use my Kirk Hunter instruments by piping them into DP via Soundflower.... that was very cumbersome and counter-intuitive to quick work.)

UVI has some tremendous libraries. For chamber orchestra pieces with solo instruments you could probably do anything with what's available for UVI. And for the bulk of pop and world music too. Excellent synths and much more.

For the record, I own and love Mach Five and have bought some UVI libraries.

Their new orchestra library could be very useful indeed. I'd like to buy the UVI Solo Instruments someday.

But, having Kontakt is something once does need to consider. If you don't have it, you're really limiting yourself as to what's available out there.

Just an FYI, Machfive 3 is currently not compatible with the new UVI libraries I bought recently, String Machines, and Sweep Machine. Hopefully this changes with an update.

String machines is heavily affected, the samples do not loop... So yeah, Machfive is the big brother to UVI player, and it gets updated slower....

My big brother is slower than me.

So is mine, bro'.

I was torkin' 'bout 'u, boo!

... and I, yooo, booo!

Hey, you're the big one. I'm just the ugly one.