SONiVOX Orchestral Companion for $3.99

[Penguin]

Hi!

I am considering buying the SONiVOX Orchestral Companion Strings, Brass, and Woodwinds libraries from https://www.jrrshop.com/ while they're on special for $3.99 each. Are these libraries any good?

I realize that you can't expect too much for a few dollars, but I don't have the money to spend on the expensive libraries. I've been using SSO, VSCO2 CE, VPO 3, and have been experimenting with Palette Primary Colors in the demo mode of Kontakt 5.

So, what I'm asking is are these SONiVOX libraries worth getting for $3.99 each?

Thanks in advance!

[Mattias Westlund]

Hi Penguin and welcome to the forum! The Orchestral Companion libs sound pretty good but the sample player they come with is... flawed. More on that here. For $3.99 a piece I'd say go for them though, I'm sure they'll come in handy and you can't argue with the price.

[Penguin]

Thanks Mattias!

I don't suppose SONiVOX would have updated their sample player since you used it? I see there's a trial version, so I'll download that when I have a chance.

Also, does the strings library come with any solo instruments, or is it only the sections?

[Mattias Westlund]

(11-23-2018, 01:18 PM)Penguin Wrote: I don't suppose SONiVOX would have updated their sample player since you used it? I see there's a trial version, so I'll download that when I have a chance.

It's possible I guess, but I haven't checked.

(11-23-2018, 01:18 PM)Penguin Wrote: Also, does the strings library come with any solo instruments, or is it only the sections?

No it has solo instruments as well, all the OC libs have both sections and solo instruments.

[Penguin]

Quote:

Penguin Wrote: Wrote:Also, does the strings library come with any solo instruments, or is it only the sections?

No it has solo instruments as well, all the OC libs have both sections and solo instruments.

OK, thanks! I wasn't sure, as the website makes no mention of there being any solo strings.

[Mattias Westlund]

Correction: OC brass and winds have solo instruments, strings do not. I could have sworn that there were solo instruments in the strings, but what threw me off is the fact that cello and contrabass patches are named "cello" and "contra bass" rather than the plural form.

[Penguin]

Well, that's not too bad. I still haven't gotten a chance to download the OC Strings trial version yet, though. 9GBs will probably take the whole night to download on my internet connetion...

[Chris Spyratos]

Hi, Penguin! I have the whole range of these products. They are based on samples from an older collection, the Sonic Implants Symphonic Collection. Although the samples are very nice, the rompler is very badly done and they don't seem to bother fixing it but it is really ok if you plan to use it in a pop song etc. If you plan to use it in an orchestral setting you would find that the lack of controls in the rompler along with some badly programmed regions in the samples would make it very difficult. Not to mention the lack of a multitimbral instance. For the price range I don't think that there is really any alternative but I don't think that this is a product that would give much in return. Even the wav files are locked so there is no way to use them with another sampler.

[Penguin]

Thanks Chris. Hmm, that doesn't sound good. Unfortunately, I was hoping to use the libraries for orchestral music. I'll probably still download the demos just to see if I could use the libraries for anything. I don't understand how they can charge $99 for them normally.

I just listened to some of your music on Soundcloud (Very nice music, BTW). Were any of the SONiVOX libraries used for that?

[Mattias Westlund]

(11-24-2018, 03:54 PM)Penguin Wrote: I don't understand how they can charge $99 for them normally.

That is indeed the big mystery here. If they were sensibly priced normally I wouldn't have as much of a problem with their shortcomings, but $99 a pop... that's nuts. Admittedly the M-Audio ProSessions discs I have (which are based on the same samples though with fewer articulations and dynamic layers) cost something like that ten years ago. But at least those were multi-format and not locked into a completely useless sample player.