What's new

Let's Get Up to Date: Favorite Vibraphone VSTs

Parsifal666

I don't even own a DAW, I'm just a troll.
Being a massive fan of Bernard Herrmann, I use vibraphone regularly in my writing (mostly the BHCT patches, but GPO and even Kontakt Library sometimes). I have also the free Vibromaster which can be useful.

Which Vibraphone is your favorite?

As always, I come here to vi control first when I'm looking for reliable opinions :)
 
Which Vibraphone is your favorite?
For upfront and jazzy I have Orange Tree Pure Jazz Vibes and for orchestral I have Berlin Percussion.

I think the Waverunner Audio Rosehip Vibes is really special, and it's currently still on £10 intro price. It's soft mallets and soft hits only, so it's meant to be more of an ethereal effect rather than all around vibes.

I suspect the most sought after is Soniccouture's Vibraphone, though I don't have it.
 
Last edited:
For upfront and jazzy I have Orange Tree Pure Jazz Vibes and for orchestral I have Berlin Percussion.

I think the Waverunner Audio Rosehip Vibes are really special, and they're currently still on £10 intro price. It's soft mallets and soft hits only, so it's meant to be more of an ethereal effect rather than all around vibes.

I suspect the most sought after is Soniccouture's Vibraphone, though I don't have it.

The Rosehip sounds great, I might have to go for that one, thank you!
 
Fluffy Audio My Vibes. 3 types of mallets, 2 mic positions, really good sound and dynamics, motor with speed control.

REALLY liking that one. Might have to pick it up, thank you!

You know, I have been messing around with vibes in BHCT and listening to Bernard's Fahrenheit 451...the vibraphone in that library does sound really good to me. I wish I had a bit more control over the release than what's offered, however sound wise I think it's quite good.
 
I got xperimenta audio xvibe and it is really nice one with a tone I was looking for a long time. I want to try the vsl vibraphone in a future. It's wide array of features is very tempting. Recent Root-sounds release also looks interesting.
 
I went through this recently. I spent a whole bunch of money on a whole bunch of vibraphones and other mallets including Soniccouture and Spitfire and a bunch of others. I think you tend to get what you pay for, I was quite disappointed in Xvibe... and Roseship Vibes is nice and pretty but more colored, I would liken it to getting Emotional Piano or felt piano if you were looking for a real piano.

The clear winner for me:

https://www.cinematique-instruments.com/inst_vibraphone.php

But that's just, like, my opinion, man.
 
I went through this recently. I spent a whole bunch of money on a whole bunch of vibraphones and other mallets including Soniccouture and Spitfire and a bunch of others. I think you tend to get what you pay for, I was quite disappointed in Xvibe... and Roseship Vibes is nice and pretty but more colored, I would liken it to getting Emotional Piano or felt piano if you were looking for a real piano.

The clear winner for me:

https://www.cinematique-instruments.com/inst_vibraphone.php

But that's just, like, my opinion, man.

It sounds good and versatile indeed. Especially the custom tremolo feature looks stunning. Could you tell more what makes it stand out in your vibraphone collection, especially that you own Soniccouture one, which seems to have much rave in here.

I am also interested what dissapointed you in Xvibe. I agree it has its flaws, especially in a technical area but in overall view I have a feeling comparing to more pricy options it looks like a quite good choice. I don't have comparison though beside what can be heard in demos.
 
The SonicCouture Vibraphone is fantastic for a very detailed and flexible, relatively closely mic'ed instrument (although it's easy to put it into any context with the usual tools). It's my favorite. I played percussion through college and played a fair amount of vibraphone back then (I only own a xylophone and orchestra bells these days). The SonicCouture instrument feels like I'm really playing one. Fantastic for jazz, too.
 
Can anyone inform me whether Handheldsounds vibraphone has rotor/tremolo feature? I cannot find info about it.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately, Scoring Mallets does not include rotor/tremolo, unless it was added in an update that I don't have. Otherwise, it is my 2nd choice after the Soniccouture library, which is the only one that sounds and feels close to an actual Vibraphone (important if the instrument is soloed or up front).

HandHeld Sound's Scoring Mallets is an interesting library overall though, and takes a unique approach to the "four mallet" style. It's good to have in the arsenal, but the Vibraphone is less applicable to orchestral work (it's better for jazz) than is Soniccouture's (which shines in every genre). The Xylophone and Marimba similarly are my fifth and third choices, respectively.

I keep hoping Frank Ricotti will do a Vibraphone library, as his Mallets library is my top choice for Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Marimba, and a tie with VSL for Crotales.
 
I think it's the one from EWHO that I use generally..

Just saw Splash Sound have a free one there that looks ok too..
 
I use ArtVista Cool Vibes.

Jumping in as if months hadn't passed - Cool Vibes are great, but they're only motor-on.

And when I was playing vibes back in the day, using the motor carried a mandatory jail sentence. But this library is fun to play, and it really sounds good.
 
Last edited:
So did only using two mallets, by the way. Four is mandatory (unless you're playing an orchestral part that only needs two).

I tweaked the stock EXS vibes (for motor-off) and came up with a pretty good one. But it doesn't compare to the Pianoteq ones, but unfortunately they don't come with the stock instrument.
 
The OTS Pure Jazz vibes are my third choice; second choice for coverage of the real instrument's natural attributes, but below HandHeld Sound's as that one also uses a Yamaha model like Soniccouture and OTS uses Musser, whose timbre I don't care for as much (in person either).

If OTS updates theirs with even more realistic motor/rotor/tremolo handling, it will improve the longevity of that library.

Does East/West Hollywood Orchestra cover real-world Vibes playing, or is it done more like a ROMpler patch, like most are? I used to be able to live with that, as well as FM-based Vibes, but time marches on and now my expectations have risen (as have many others here) due to what Soniccouture did.
 
Top Bottom