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Once Great, Now Unavailable Libraries?

Lionel Schmitt

Senior Member
What are libraries that are now no longer available from the developers and most other places?

I'd list the "Gofriller Cello" by Garritan, SONiVOX Sonic Implants (although still physically available from some shops) and TASCAM/Nemesys Gigastudio Piano (of which I got one of the last copies on DVD).

There are certainly many more that are maybe not up to todays standards technically but still have interesting and inspiring qualities making their disappearance a loss to out sonic palettes...

Which come to your mind?
 
I'd list the "Gofriller Cello" by Garritan,
I could be totally wrong, but for some reason (probably wandering through various forums long time ago) I understand that the Gofriller Cello has been revived (with super powers) as the SWAM Cello? They both do sound very similar to me anyways
 
I could be totally wrong, but for some reason (probably wandering through various forums long time ago) I understand that the Gofriller Cello has been revived (with super powers) as the SWAM Cello? They both do sound very similar to me anyways
Oh that's interesting... it's possible since both Gorfiller and SWAM are the Audio/Sample Modeling guys.
 
Bardstown Audio used to have a few pretty good libraries (piano, jazz bass, accordeons). According to the Bardstown website, they're now distributed by Big Fish Audio, but I can't find any trace of them there.

Wizoo — if I remember correctly, the company that sampled the original Halion Strings — had a couple of good-sounding libraries, mainly drums.

And talking about drums: the one library that answers best to the thread's title description is Mixosaurus. In my opinion, still the best sampled drums ever created and unlikely to be equalled any time soon as no current developer seems to see the point in going the amazing distance that Mixosaurus' developer went.

Another excellent drum library that's no longer available is Sampleheadz' Peter Erskine Living Drums. (Some of those samples have ended up, as I understand it, in some IK Multimedia product or other, but the library as a whole has definitely disappeared from availability.)

The very first Miroslav Vitous String Ensembles was quite good too, certainly for its day. (I have the EMU E6400 version, which I later translated for Logic's EXS.) And if used wisely, it still qualifies for a place in a mock-up made today, I find.

Which can also be said of Denny Jaeger's string samples.

The reason I became a member of V.I. Control, 16 or so years ago, was to have it out, en plein publique, with Donnie Christian (who had sold me several libraries but never bothered to send them to me; this was in the days before downloads). Mixed with my extreme annoyance over Donnie's charlatan business practices however, there was always, and still is, a great admiration for his sampling work. Still use many of his woodwinds (despite being very incomplete libraries) frequently, I will never get rid of his percussion samples (many of which sound *exactly* as I want recorded percussion to sound, it's uncanny), and his 'Venus' harp compares favourably with much of what, harp-wise, has been released since as well.
Most of Donnie's percussion samples later found their way, in a cleaned up and remastered version, into Vir2 Elite Percussion, but I always preferred his original release.

And on the subject of wind instruments: Westgate is also still an often visited directory on my sample HD. Something about those samples — woodwinds and horns — that seems to fit my music in ways that few other libraries do.

_
 
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One that comes to mind for me is quite recent, it being Spitfire’s original Solo Strings. Loved Caroline Dale’s Cello, and saw her many times in concert.
 
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Garritan Steinway. They never did release the final promised update. I re-loaded the library recently and it's still one of the best. Shame I can't find v1.4 though as the discs default back v1.
 
Even when competing with other delicate libraries such as Tundra and Ark II I can't get enough of using Loegrias 1/2 section longs. It's retired since a couple of months.
I find there Spitfire retirements just rather bizarre and unfortunate...
I don't even know if it makes sense commercially since the library could still be sold in 20 years, especially when it's timeless well recorded textural stuff.
 
And on the subject of wind instruments: Westgate is also still an often visited directory on my sample HD. Something about those samples — woodwinds and horns — that seems to fit my music in ways that few other libraries do.

+1 for Westgate
 
Bardstown Audio used to have a few pretty good libraries (piano, jazz bass, accordeons). According to the Bardstown website, they're now distributed by Big Fish Audio, but I can't find any trace of them there.

Wizoo — if I remember correctly, the company that sampled the original Halion Strings — had a couple of good-sounding libraries, mainly drums.

And talking about drums: the one library that answers best to the thread's title description is Mixosaurus. In my opinion, still the best sampled drums ever created and unlikely to be equalled any time soon as no current developer seems to see the point in going the amazing distance that Mixosaurus' developer went.

Another excellent drum library that's no longer available is Sampleheadz' Peter Erskine Living Drums. (Some of those samples have ended up, as I understand it, in some IK Multimedia product or other, but the library as a whole has definitely disappeared from availability.)

The very first Miroslav Vitous String Ensembles was quite good too, certainly for its day. (I have the EMU E6400 version, which I later translated for Logic's EXS.) And if used wisely, it still qualifies for a place in a mock-up made today, I find.

Which can also be said of Denny Jaeger's string samples.

The reason I became a member of V.I. Control, 16 or so years ago, was to have it out, en plein publique, with Donnie Christian (who had sold me several libraries but never bothered to send them to me; this was in the days before downloads). Mixed with my extreme annoyance over Donnie's charlatan business practices however, there was always, and still is, a great admiration for his sampling work. Still use many of his woodwinds (despite being very incomplete libraries) frequently, I will never get rid of his percussion samples (many of which sound *exactly* as I want recorded percussion to sound, it's uncanny), and his 'Venus' harp compares favourably with much of what, harp-wise, has been released since as well.
Most of Donnie's percussion samples later found their way, in a cleaned up and remastered version, into Vir2 Elite Percussion, but I always preferred his original release.

And on the subject of wind instruments: Westgate is also still an often visited directory on my sample HD. Something about those samples — woodwinds and horns — that seems to fit my music in ways that few other libraries do.

_
Westgate. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. Beautifully recorded samples. And not just the wind and Brass, but the timpanis as well.

This is something that doesn't get mentioned too much around here. The recording quality of the samples. I mean the choice of microphones, mic preamps, etcetera. I've heard people comment over the years about the magic of the original East West symphonic orchestra Library without actually recognizing the fact that it was engineered really well. I wish I could remember the guys name.

I think the Westgate libraries are like that, just recorded really really well. I wish someone would take those samples, which are quite extensive, and reworked them into a modern scripted Library.

Another long-lost Library worthy of mention is the original Miroslav Vitous solo instruments Library for gigastudio.
 
Westgate. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. Beautifully recorded samples. And not just the wind and Brass, but the timpanis as well.

This is something that doesn't get mentioned too much around here. The recording quality of the samples. I mean the choice of microphones, mic preamps, etcetera. I've heard people comment over the years about the magic of the original East West symphonic orchestra Library without actually recognizing the fact that it was engineered really well. I wish I could remember the guys name.

I think the Westgate libraries are like that, just recorded really really well. I wish someone would take those samples, which are quite extensive, and reworked them into a modern scripted Library.

Another long-lost Library worthy of mention is the original Miroslav Vitous solo instruments Library for gigastudio.
The engineer of EWSO is Prof Keith O Johnson. Credited in the description.
I'm actually not a big fan of the EWSO sound. Very plasticy, with shrill hi-end and the strangest horns I ever heard.
Some of it I love, but mostly due to the performance (nice emotive vibrato on some of the strings) or character of the instrument (harp!).
Some of the other patches I love I mostly use in trailer music/electro-heavy scores interestingly haha. Despite Proj Johnson being a classical music engineer.
I find the sound extremely modern to an extent that I can only hear it in extremely modern productions.
 
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