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Black Friday Woodwinds Choice

pipedr

Active Member
I'm in the market to upgrade my woodwinds from VSL Special Edition.

BF deals that I'm looking at are:

Chris Hein Woodwinds Complete $240
Fluffy Audio Woodwinds Bundle $179
8Dio Claire Bundle $344
Orchestra Tools Berlin Revive $432

VSL SE is pretty good, but the articulations are limited and it's not very expressive. I got 8Dio's Alto Flute and Clarinet, and I quite like them.

Chris Hein seems the best deal at $240/12 = $20 per instrument.
Fluffy known for the flute and clarinet, but not quite as complete a set.

Thoughts?
 
I'm in the market to upgrade my woodwinds from VSL Special Edition.

BF deals that I'm looking at are:

Chris Hein Woodwinds Complete $240
Fluffy Audio Woodwinds Bundle $179
8Dio Claire Bundle $344
Orchestra Tools Berlin Revive $432

VSL SE is pretty good, but the articulations are limited and it's not very expressive. I got 8Dio's Alto Flute and Clarinet, and I quite like them.

Chris Hein seems the best deal at $240/12 = $20 per instrument.
Fluffy known for the flute and clarinet, but not quite as complete a set.

Thoughts?

Have you checked VSL SE Vol 1 Plus Woodwinds and Vol 2/Plus Woodwinds?
 
What do you guys thinks of audio Modeling’s swam engine woodwinds? I really love sample modeling brass and have been really wanting to buy their woodwind librairies. Thoughts?
 
Any here with opinions on Cinewinds Core or Pro? Those are on sale at the moment. I own a license for Core, and while it's fine I normally use Berlin Woodwinds. So far I haven't found many reviews on Cinewinds Pro specifically.
 
I've just released a new woodwind library - https://librewave.com/sofia-woodwinds/ - it might be of interest to you

Looks interesting! But seems to be missing short articulations....? Would love to see a video walkthrough or two...

Also, why is the library so small? Space wise? BWW Revive takes up 157 GB?
 
Looks interesting! But seems to be missing short articulations....? Would love to see a video walkthrough or two...

Also, why is the library so small? Space wise? BWW Revive takes up 157 GB?

It does have shorts, you just need to play short notes with high mod wheel and it sounds staccato. It’s really, really playable and well recorded, with individual seats. I love it.
 
Any here with opinions on Cinewinds Core or Pro? Those are on sale at the moment. I own a license for Core, and while it's fine I normally use Berlin Woodwinds. So far I haven't found many reviews on Cinewinds Pro specifically.

I didn't like them at first because of the programming but after their latest update I find I probably use them more than all my other ww libraries. It took a bit of work as I'm not a big fan of the wetter sound with some of the legatos but with a drier sound and some room verb and EW spaces they work well and are generally pretty responsive.
 
@AV
It does have shorts, you just need to play short notes with high mod wheel and it sounds staccato. It’s really, really playable and well recorded, with individual seats. I love it.

Doesn't sound so great though. Gave the demos a few more listens. Thanks for the feedback.
 
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@AV


Doesn't sound so great though. Gave the demos a few more listens. Thanks for the feedback.


Hey thanks for listening, I enjoyed writing my two demos. :)

I have to say that I had been waiting for a long time to have a woodwind library with independent seats, low memory usage and easy to use. Also, it has three mic positions, so it's a breeze to mix with other libraries, plus it has independent vibrato control.

I really liked Concert Flute II, Oboe I, Clarinet II and Basson I. Very expressive and really good programming. I think the tone is really great and sonic-wise, it's on par with other libraries from other developers.
 
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Looks interesting! But seems to be missing short articulations....?
Hi, thanks for the questions.

There are lots of examples of short notes in the https://librewave.com/sofia-woodwinds/ (demos) and https://librewave.com/knowledge-base/sofia-woodwinds/ (user guide). The instruments are intended to be played so there are no key switches, if you want a shorter note you can just play a shorter note and the instrument will respond, if you want more force then you can play more forcefully and use the dynamics controller. These techniques can be used to create almost any articulation.

Would love to see a video walkthrough or two...
Coming soon :)

Also, why is the library so small? Space wise? BWW Revive takes up 157 GB?
The main reason is libraries like BWW have lots of recorded articulations. This is good if you like to hit a key switch and trigger a recording of a performance.

Sofia Woodwinds is not designed to just play back pre-recorded performances though. It is meant to be played and the performance is created by the user. The benefit is you get a much more expressive and unique sound than you can achieve with pre-recorded articulations.

Sample Modelling is really the gold standard for this approach, the sampling modelling trumpets for example are less than 300mb. You don't need to record that many samples if you're not trying to capture static performances.
 
I didn't like them at first because of the programming but after their latest update I find I probably use them more than all my other ww libraries. It took a bit of work as I'm not a big fan of the wetter sound with some of the legatos but with a drier sound and some room verb and EW spaces they work well and are generally pretty responsive.
Thank you. This is how I felt about the Core library. With so many wind libraries available now (like those mentioned in this thread) it has been hard to find a clear choice.
 
If you only need bread and butter and not every articulation in the world, Fluffy Audio for sure IMHO.

Interesting, I'm not sure I can name a library that has more articulations, especially for a clarinet :) trills, flutter, glissandi, several flavours of legato and staccato, what more could you need?
 
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