Miroslav Philharmonik Sound DVD 2 .rar
Roseanne Devon
Compelling output requires spectacular input, and Miroslav Philharmonik 2 delivers in grand style. Miroslav Philharmonik 2 offers a massive range of instruments that have each been recorded with jaw dropping level of detail. Its solo and ensemble instruments come with a treasure chest full of useful articulations that go far beyond the standard sustained, staccato and pizzicato. In the established Miroslav style, these instruments are full of emotion and musicality. These are NOT static, generic acoustic instrument samples. With Miroslav Philharmonik 2, you get not only the sounds, but also the passion of a composer and his musicians who have spent their whole lives mastering their craft as living, breathing fine art.
These macro controls let you customize the library so that it suits your taste and needs. Miroslav Philharmonik 2 gives you the know-how and ability of a master sound designer, only without having to spend the time to get an engineering degree!
A key part of this are the articulations on offer, and the easy articulation switching system inside. The strings, brass and woodwinds categories each have their own master key switching instruments that let you effortlessly switch between articulations from the keyboard while on the fly. You can also access single instrument articulations as individual instruments if you prefer to work without key switching. Articulations let you really bring your performances to life. In addition, the new mallet instruments have been recorded using different types of mallets for the utmost in sonic and tonal flexibility. The new piano's soundboard has been modeled to facilitate a striking degree of acoustic realism. And, where appropriate, Miroslav Philharmonik 2 also takes advantage of round robin playback for an extra level of realism that provides multiple takes of the same note.
With full-length samples, a deep matrix of velocity splits and soundboard modeling from the specific piano we captured, the Philharmonik Grand is ready to perform as both solo instrument and supporting cast member of the larger orchestra.
The box's one surprise, a USB copy-protection key, is a first for IKM; their other software will follow in due course. Hardware dongles are a real bummer, but I appreciate software developers' need to combat piracy. At least the chosen Syncrosoft system is used by several other software houses, most notably Steinberg, and authorisations from various programs can be consolidated onto one key. Doing so is a bit of a faff but at least you only have to do it once, and at least it means you can install the software on more than one machine (though you can only work on one copy at a time!). Installation and authorisation also seemed to be a bit convoluted, but again needs to be done once only. It wasn't entirely clear from the documentation what the user is meant to do with the sound library: sticking the sound DVDs in your drive reveals separate installers. There's no further help or info, such as whether this large library can be placed on a disk that's not your main drive. (It can.)
The central display is also largely identical, bar colour scheme and a slight rearrangement of the file and search buttons. This ground has been covered in SOS before, but to briefly summarise, each of the 16 parts in Philharmonik is equipped with the same set of parameters. The 'Instrument' assigned to a part has its own slot, and your choice is made using the hierarchical instrument selector to the right. Any parts set to the same MIDI channel are layered; dig deeper and you'll find parameters that let you split or layer parts for true 'combination' creation. There are dozens of combis in the factory collection that put whole orchestras, sections and specialised soloists (complete with switchable performance effects) at your fingertips; sensible use of key ranges and velocity-switched layers makes these examples very playable and surprisingly authentic-sounding.
Each part is equipped with four auxiliary sends, each switchable post/pre the level control, and a part can access up to four insert effects, as discussed in the 'Effects In Philharmonik ' box. If you think 16 parts each running four effects, plus send effects on top, sounds like a recipe for CPU overload, it is. So use the insert effects sparingly if your computer seems to be struggling. And be sensible: reverb, for example, should suit nearly every situation if accessed as a send effect rather than inserted in each part individually.
The more obscure folders in the browser hide some rather interesting collections. First of all, the 'elements' folder provides patches that are aimed at getting the best out of performance-style combinations. For example, the dynamic performance elements are quite complex 'Instruments' that would normally be created in a Combi. Their role is to take up fewer parts and less polyphony in a combi, offering a faster way to a fuller sound.
At the other end of the spectrum are the 'mono elements'. Here, a 'best of' collection selected from the main library is provided in mono format, again mainly for use in Combis (they take up less RAM and polyphony and can be panned at will). As a bonus, they still sound great and can be used for normal multitimbral sequencing if desired. I find the mono elements Instruments to be particularly welcome when quickly scoring for small virtual chamber ensembles. Many solo instruments in this set are ideal for just this application.
There are several other families of patch that are primarily aimed at keeping the CPU load down during Combi creation, but which work fine in any situation. Special ranges elements offer low- and high-range maps of samples for plonking within specific Combi key ranges. The orchestral sections group, divided into string sections, mixed orchestra and brass/wind sections, provides rich full sound and sonic variety in individual patches.
Like these subtractive synth elements, not all of the pitch-manipulation technology accessed in the Tune menu is relevant to an orchestral sound set. For basic coarse or fine tuning and setting pitch-bend wheel response, the Resampling mode, which just plays back samples as normal, is appropriate. It also offers, rather incongruously, a pan control, for the 'zone' option we'll encounter in a moment.
The Pitch-shift/Time-stretch option is best suited to looped rhythmic material, none of which is included here, but the Stretch resampling option is worth knowing about, as it allows the sample assigned to a keygroup to sound more natural when played above or below its central pitch, and when pitch-bent. Keygroup transitions can still be apparent, but the pitch-shifting artifacts you might normally hear are not so obvious.
IKM try to tell us that the effects available are 'classic', implying, I think, that they suit the classical environment. Hmmm... Five delay and reverb/ambience choices are crowned by the CSReverb, a deceptively simple three-parameter effect that's derive from IKM's forthcoming studio reverb plug-in. On this evidence, that reverb is going to be worth a listen. While nearly all Philharmonik Instruments sound vibrant dry, mixes sparkle even more with a little of this reverb. IKM obviously think so, too, since it's provided as a default process whenever you start up the plug-in: you need to switch it off if you want to start properly from scratch.
The organ, on the other hand, is magnificent. I haven't that much use for one personally but it does sound and play fantastic. It can also add even more weight to an arrangement if the context can handle it. And there is delicacy, in the portative organ-like 'Cathedral Organ Flutes', and subtle depth in the fundamentally bass-heavy 'Bass Pedals'. Amongst the other unexpected instruments, I liked the piano and harpsichord, though the latter is a little too 'baroque' and big-sounding for most of my needs. The classical guitars are quite natural-sounding (some genuine finger noise helps), and the harp set includes a nice range of arpeggios and open tones plus straightforward notes.
The flip side of this situation is that existing MIDI data created with a different sound source in mind may not sound right, at least initially. You may have to spend a little time searching through Philharmonik 's presets to find voices that work, and then still be prepared to fine-tune the MIDI data or the preset to produce the desired performance.
So go to IK Multimedia and there you find a News post with the infos. Create an account and click on the info/news thing saying philharm. 2 is free. Do what the website tells you to. (Sub to the newsletter when it pops up) You will have to install quite a lot of other software but it isn't too bad. When you have the program installed you have to install philharm. 2 but for me, the newest version didn't work (2.06 i think). However, on the website under My Products, you can download the 2.05 version which works fine for me. But we sadly aren't done yet. We go in the IK M. Application and download SamplerTank4 (for some reason) because we have to do this to install the 8.8 GB sound gallery to get Philh. 2 to work. You may have to select the install folder yourself and select the place where SamplerTank4 is installed to. No, go into FL and it will hopefully work. (I know this isn't the best guide but better than nothing I thought)
I have only the le version of miroslav for sampletank. it sounds nice. I think people like it because it was one of the first serious attempts at recreating orchestra. the sounds that come with kontakt 5 are more realistic. then again, the sampletank ones load faster and use less ram. and sound nicer if doing pad type work as opposed to accurate orchestral mock ups. ed
I feel that different beasts are being compared. each one has its place. - I mean you just cant compare miroslav or HSO or GPO to ewql or albion or project sam or kirk hunter or vsl, it just not right!
whereas miroslav and HSO, well again different beast. I find HSO good for somethings and miroslav quite good for tother stuff, usually both mixed together to do mock ups. saying that - if you use halion 5 as HSO driver. then you can flip the whole thing upside down and backwards, meaning you have more flexibility than mirolslav! ps you will still need miroslav for some stuff- horns etc.
there are times I might use albion for a solo senction and the rest gpo/miroslav.