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Hi all,

Question. Was listening to the Cinesymphony Lite demos today and it sounded really good for someone with little budget atm. But then I noticed that Komplete 11 ultimate upgrade (which is same price) has their brass and string essentials as well as respective solo instruments and they sound pretty good too. Kind of stuck on which way to go. Of course Komplete comes with other things also. Looking for input. In terms of my current soundest I have Garritan PO 5, Garritan IO 4. And Albion One. Would one or the other be more beneficial to my admittedly sparse library?

TIA
Mark

I know that most will dislike this answer but, really, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

Can you give more details about your rig and what you want to do?

Sure. And thanks for taking the time! I'm really just a novice at anything orchestral. Coming from electronic music and rock(ish) background. I have a stationary setup. A couple macs with some RAM and I'm just trying to get to a point where my soundset is adequate enough. (Meaning good enough. Yes I accept that in skilled hands probably even not so good sound sets can sound good but I'm trying not to give myself too much of a handicap). I recently got a laptop which isn't all too powerful but as I spend a lot of time on the train commuting I am looking for an orchestral soundset that is both lighter on resources (and wallet) while still affording quality sound and reasonable flexibility. The Cinesymphony lite sounds good. It's not exactly cheap but then I noticed the Komplete upgrade but I'm not really familiar with the quality of their orchestral stuff. I think they partnered with Soundiron who are solid but the Cine stuff sounded really good in the demo. Basically I want to sketch on the go which the Garritan stuff does for me but the Cine stuff just sounded so much better to me. anyhow. Input/opinions/advice appreciated and thanks in advance for taking the time!

Mark

The walkthrough it pretty impressive. Seems to me that what it does, it does very well. It looks like it would be a lot easier to set up sketches with this than with GP 5. Of course, Kontakt does a lot more, but I don't think it does this stuff anywhere near as well. So maybe the thing to think about is what it doesn't do and whether that matters to you. For big bright ensembles in big rooms, this is great. If you need more variety, maybe this isn't flexible enough. That's hard to tell from the demos and walkthrough.

Thanks bayswater. This is a good point. I'm relieved to hear that you think there would definitely be benefits vs. GPO5. (Can be very hard to separate need from desire in this area). I think if I can zero in a bit more what I would like to know what opinions are of the orchestral content included with Complete 11 ultimate which includes the Symphony Essential Brass Ensemble/Solo, Woodwinds Ensemble/Solo and Strings Ensemble. I figure the fact that I would get some solo instruments already gives it an advantage over CS Lite but my concern is that the overall sound is just not on the same level. Ultimately I'd rather have better quality with less articulations, instruments etc. Is anyone using this NI stuff?

Thanks!

Yes, solo instruments are the obvious missing piece. Others, from what I can see; there are no effects, so the room reverb is probably wired in, there is no legato, although you can advance the sample starts, no trills.

All good points. The real question for you is what's the end game? What are you trying to accomplish?

Are you are looking to sweeten pop tracks, write film scores, get into classical orchestration, explore and experiment, all of the above?

Awww damn, that all sounds like fun. I want to retire right now and just write music, reverse mortgage both homes, spend my kids' inheritance...