Miroslav Mini vs Prosonus

[JohnS]

I am just beginning with GigaStudio96 and am considering either Miroslav Mini Orchestra or the Prosonus Orchestra. They are similar in price, under $300. Any comments on quality of each, their relative strenghts and weakenesses is appreciated. Or would you not recommend either.

[donimon]

I can only speak for the Miroslav Mini, but it\'s pretty great for covering basic orch stuff. All instruments are pretty good - i think the winds (flute, basoon, clarinet) are great, the timpani is great, strings are really good but better for slow emotional stuff, can\'t do the fast runs that great because only one patch for each. but, I\'ve since added the miroslav string & brass ensembles and they are not that hugely different. overall the mini lib has some good emotional sounds to it, where i think the AO stuff i have is a bit more clinical.

jc

[zquarles]

While I can\'t speak for Miroslav, the Prosonus is an excellent \"starter\" orchestra set. There is some nice and expressive instruments, you can choose between vibrato and non vibrato on the strings, there are some great swells with the brass, and the string FX are really fun.
I seem to recall that the miroslav mini is all recorded in mono, but i can\'t remember...might be something to look into. Hope that helps somewhat.

[MrArkadine]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JohnS:
I am just beginning with GigaStudio96 and am considering either Miroslav Mini Orchestra or the Prosonus Orchestra. They are similar in price, under $300. Any comments on quality of each, their relative strenghts and weakenesses is appreciated. Or would you not recommend either. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hello JohnS,

I purchased the Prosonus around 10 days ago, and I have been messing around with it for a little bit (Last week I had midterms, so I haven\'t been able to get deep into it)


The Prosonus has a huge ammount of instruments and articulations, specially for the Strings. The quality is really nice if you ask me, and what\'s holding my music right now from sounding great is some nice sound processing plugins in my sonic chain(reverb, and accurate spacial placing of each instrument in the mix).
To be honest, the only instrument that I don\'t really like that much is the solo violins on the upper registers. Also, the Bass Clarinet seems to have 3 or 4 notes with some strange frequency added to it (Although this might be the way the instrument was played and recorded)


Overall, you can\'t go wrong with the Prosonus as your starter library, believe me! Once you spand your libraries, it will even hold some sounds that you will still keep using, because they are the best out there at any price (Some string articulations, such as the marcato and the pizzicato are very nice, and that has been mentioned here before)


If you would like me to send you some demos, let me know your email and I\'ll email them to you (I was using geocities to post demos, but the traffic gets too high too easy, and they block the website).


As far as the Miroslav Mini, I\'m sure that the ammount of instruments and articulations doesn\'t even come close to the Prosonus.
You gotta realize that Prosonus went out of business, and Big Fish Audio acquired the rights to their stuff, commissioning Donnie Christian to remake the library for GigaStudio. Thus the incredible price! And Donnie did a very good job for the most part.
Besides, BigFishAudio.com will credit your purchase if you decide to return it because you\'re not happy with it, and you can apply that for other libraries. (Go to their website, and check their policy out)
So, you can\'t go wrong.


I\'m sure this probably sounds like a commercial for the Prosonus, but I was in a situation similar to you, and KingIdiot pointed the Prosonus. Great advice!


I forgot to mention that the Prosonus has a great ammount of FX (Short Crescendos, Long Crescendos on some brass instruments, Brass FX, Great String FX, Percussive FX). Also, it is recorded in stereo and it sounds very clean and warm. I seem to recall that the Miroslav libraries are recorded in mono, so that\'s a point against them as well.


Good luck, and let us know what you decide on this! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by MrArkadine (edited 03-01-2002).]

[This message has been edited by MrArkadine (edited 03-02-2002).]

[Haydn]

You\'ll get more bang for the buck with the Prosonus. I have the Miroslav Mini and it definitely does not give you the choices of Prosonus.

[JohnS]

Looks like Prosonus wins round 1 by 3-1 with lots of positive feedback. As I think about both sample libraries, the stereo issue could be important. Sure would like to compare the libraries side-by-side!

I do have a questions for Prosonus users on how the instruments are set up. Are the string articulations (sustained, marcato and pizz)set up with key-switching in a single instrument, or are there just 3 individual sample articulations that are loaded separately? I ask this because I really liked the way the free SAM Trumpet articulations were set up with kew-switching.

[Chadwick]

John,

If you want to make a few files keyswitch it\'s a very quick job. I wouldn\'t let that hold you back.

[MrArkadine]

JohnS,

I haven\'t checked one by one to see if ALL instruments with different articulations have files with keyswitching, but it seems to me that that\'s the case.

[donnie]

I know that I\'m a little \"close\" to this situation since I programmed it but I think the Prosonus library is the best all round FULL orchestral library for the money. Everything is useable and much better than most full orchestral collections for the money. Some of the string patches (the marcatos in particular) are the best I\'ve ever played........anywhere!

So...for the money $299 you can\'t go wrong for two discs of the full orchestra.

Donnie

[JohnS]

Donnie, I don\'t mind you being \"close to the situation\", in fact it could help! Can you get me a discount? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/cool.gif

[MrArkadine]

KingIdiot, thy words shall rise above the Earth and vanquish the arcane chants of imbecility from us mortals!

Really, you were indeed very helpful pointing the Prosonus, and for the money, you get much more than what you pay for! Right now I don\'t have as much time to mess around with the library as I would like to, but this library can sound very very good in the right hands and with the right reverb.

Regarding the Vitous Library, who\'s bought that one in the last 6 months?
Let\'s see...
Miroslav Complete-------------->$4500
_____________________________________
Garritan Orchestral Strings---->$1000
Dan Dean Woodwinds------------->$450
Dan Dean Brass----------------->$550
Dan Dean Solo Strings---------->$125
London Orchestral Percussion--->$400
East West Steinway B----------->$200
Quantum Leap Rare Instruments-->$400
Voices Of The Apocalypse------->$400
Symphony of Voices------------->$400
XSample Vol8 (For Harp)-------->$150
Early Patches------------------>$125
_____________________________________
TOTAL-------------------------->$4200

You still have left $300 to make it up to your ol\' lady for those endless nights on the
keyboard http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif

Really, when is Ilio going to lower their prices or come with something new that will blow everybody out of their socks? I\'m not saying that the Miroslav is bad (from what I have heard), I\'m just saying that it is unreasonably priced for an old sample library which can be replaced and surpassed by more inexpensive libraries (that are being updated and supported too!)

Peace

[donnie]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>
Miroslav Complete-------------->$4500
_____________________________________
Garritan Orchestral Strings---->$1000
Dan Dean Woodwinds------------->$450
Dan Dean Brass----------------->$550
Dan Dean Solo Strings---------->$125
London Orchestral Percussion--->$400
East West Steinway B----------->$200
Quantum Leap Rare Instruments-->$400
Voices Of The Apocalypse------->$400
Symphony of Voices------------->$400
XSample Vol8 (For Harp)-------->$150
Early Patches[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


And here\'s the really funny part: Miroslav total is what 5 discs (maybe)

Garritan Orchestral Strings---->$1000 16 discs
Dan Dean Woodwinds------------->$450 10 discs
Dan Dean Brass----------------->$550
10 discs
Dan Dean Solo Strings---------->$125
1 disc
London Orchestral Percussion--->$400
4 discs
East West Steinway B----------->$200
2 discs
Quantum Leap Rare Instruments-->$400
4 discs
Voices Of The Apocalypse------->$400
2 (I think..) discs
Symphony of Voices------------->$400
5 discs
XSample Vol8 (For Harp)-------->$150
1 disc

Donnie

[KingIdiot]

Prosonous. Much better deal.

Miro Mini was a waste of time for the developers. What they should have doen wwas lower the price on the whole Miro library. 5 grand, indeed......

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Really...I am an Idiot