Do any of you guys use "Orchestral Colors" or "Symphonic Adventures"?

[Damon]

I was just curious if Szeidlaczechs \"Orchestral Colors\" or \"Symphonic Adventures\" would be good CDs to have for adding hits, colors and stuff like that. I\'m not mainly looking for cut and pasting orchestral loops, but do these libraries have individual percussive hits and colors that could add nice flavor to demos kind of like Advanced Orchestras violin section phrases, etc.?

[Francis Belardino]

Symphonic Adventures, although it is a powerful and clean sound, it is just so used that I can bring myself to using it in my work. When we need to \"slap\" together something here in post we use it now and again but in a limited way. Ever watch, South Park? It\'s all over it!




------------------
Francis Belardino
Sound Designer
Audio Visions, LTD.
Wilmington, DE.
www.audiovisionsonline.com

[Damon]

Thanks for the reply Francis. I figured that \"Symphonic Adventures\" probably has been used alot by TV and commercials.
Can anybody comment on Szeidlececks \"Orchestral Colors\"? I\'m looking for some cool individual percussive hits and colors and textures that can be used along with my music. I don\'t want to cut and paste loops, just looking for some cool extra little fill in stuff.

[This message has been edited by Damon (edited 10-22-2001).]

[Robert Kral]

One problem with Orchestral Colors is just about the entire library is in a major key. All happy and grand sounding stuff for the most part. The recording and performance of the orchestra is excellent, its just that when you go to actually USE it, it\'s surprisingly limited.

You can get some great hits etc by chopping up Symphonic Adventures, IE using small sections of the samples instead of the phrases we\'ve heard on other shows, commercials, even films.

[Damon]

Thanks Robert, that\'s all I need to know. I definitely don\'t want phrases and stuff in all major keys.

[Didier Rachou]

Just to expand on this topic a bit more...

I agree with Robert on the extracting of hits, etc. to add a bit extra to compositions instead of the usual tired loop approach.

However, there are some other titles along these lines which I have seen, but not heard.
There is a collection of Orch structures/loops
available from the fine folks over at Sonic Foundry. It is a four CD collection for ACID.
I know....I know....BUT, extracting useful bits could only enlarge one\'s pallette. Have any of you heard the sounds or anything about the recording sessions...etc?

Best regards,
Didier Rachou

[Robert Kral]

Well, I just took a listen to the demos for \"Orchestral\" and \"Cinematic\" CDs for Acid that you mention. These demos are terrible, in my opinion. The performances are no where near as good as Orch Colors, and the snippets (and they really are SNIPPETS, they aren\'t ginvin anything away!) in the demos sound no where near as useful as Symphonic Adventures. (If you\'re looking to buy something like this my feeling is S. Adv. is the most useful).

Still, if anyone has heard all of these discs I\'d like to hear their impressions. The demos are way too short, and if they are indicative of what\'s the CDs consist of, its not at all promising.

[This message has been edited by Robert Kral (edited 10-28-2001).]

[Didier Rachou]

Robert,

I was a bit slow on the draw there. Thru sheer negligence I didn\'t check out the ACID site.
Doi!

I own & have used snippets of Symph Adv as well as PS Orch Colours for some time now. Frankly, I found the Orch CD demos on the SFoundry site underwhelming. Poor sound quality aside, the demos failed to convince me that there would be anything of real value (musical snippet-wise...ie-hits & the like) or of the caliber found in Sym Adv. both sonically & musically.

As an optimist, I always hope for the best when I hear about a new collection.

Respectfully,
Didier Rachou

[Chadwick]

I 2nd that - Symphonic Adventures 2 would be great, and now that time stretching can be done without total loss of fidelity, maybe more variety at the expense of alternate tempos.

[This message has been edited by Chadwick (edited 10-29-2001).]

[Damon]

I third that! More individual hits and textures for filling in colors.

[This message has been edited by Damon (edited 10-29-2001).]

[Robert Kral]

Yeah, there\'s definately a market for a Symphonic Adventures 2 type CD. Less of the loops though, and more hits, textures etc.

[David Govett]

I have most of these and there are some usefull peices in all of them. Symphonic adventures has some nice creepy orchestra slide buildups and other backgrounds that you can easily add your own instruments to in order to make the peice your own. It covers some of the creepy sounds that aren\'t yet covered in instrument libraries. However, GOS strings does cover the avant guarde and creeply slides and harmonics. It\'s getting closer anyway. Orchestral colors is also nice for some quick composing and effects. I find myself not using it all that much though except for inspiration. Same goes for Scoring Tools. Percussion adventure however (companion to Syphonic Adventures) is a must have for intense hollywood style percussion riffs.
Have fun
Dave