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Marimba Libraries - recommendations!

I've got the Orange tree samples one, but find it doesn't really mix well in my tracks.

From listening to demos, my favourite is the Spitfire one, but I haven't tried it.

At the moment, as it's 50% off and comes with Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells, Glass Marimba, Song Bells, Vibraphone, and Crotales as well for just £80, I think Vital series: mallets from Vir2 is worth considering.

Just checked out Mallet Flux....wow that thing is awesome. It's just increasingly difficult to purchase a full price product now when everything else is on sale. :sad:
 
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Yes the Soniccouture Grand Marimba is great. Very full and rich. But the Spitfire Ricotti marimba offers a worthy alternative depending on the type of track I'm using it in. There's a more pointed, percussive sound to it. And the tremolo I find more useful. My recommendation is to get both if you can swing it.
 
Yes, it is absolute king of the marimba! There are times when I need Ricotti's library, which sounds like it has to be the exact same model but was recorded and played differently and so ends up working best in different contexts than Grand Marimba.

What I am finding is that the Grand Marimba especially works well in projects where I go back and forth between Marimba and Vibraphone (SC's library is so far on top for that instrument that I don't even bother with the others, unless I don't need any nuances in the playing), and generally in the jazz context.

I find this library to have more bottom end and mid-range than Ricotti's, which can be thin and bright (but sometimes that's what you need). I know this flies in the face of Cory's recent review, where he says the opposite. Anyway, the general stereo image and intimate placement help a lot, and I have more con fidence with this library than any other regarding the appropriate mallet-switching across the range.
 
Lilainjil said:
Yes the Soniccouture Grand Marimba is great. Very full and rich. But the Spitfire Ricotti marimba offers a worthy alternative depending on the type of track I'm using it in. There's a more pointed, percussive sound to it. And the tremolo I find more useful. My recommendation is to get both if you can swing it.
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Joining this thread late since I've just been looking around at mallet percussion libraries.

Soniccouture sounds the best to my ears (though no mallet choice), and is ideal for use in small chamber ensembles or solo. I think the spitfire library would be a better bet for orchestral use since it has more "bite" to cut through but at the same time lacks the nice resonant bass that soniccouture has, which you can only get with a massive 5-octave instrument.

The Ricotti library also includes xylophone, which also sounds good for orchestral use, but I'd love a good solo xylophone library on par with Grand Marimba. Meanwhile... I think I'm buying soniccouture.
 
Check out Handheldsound's Scoring Mallets. I recently used the marimba on a project where it fit way better than the Soniccouture (which I love) due to being a bit less round and big.
 
Yes, that's the only potential drawback to the one from SC, which is why it's not my only one, but I also suspect I could put more time into EQ and shape it into my only choice. I'm too lazy though, as I already had such great mic mix settings for the Ricotti Mallets by the time I added the SC to my arsenal.

I haven't needed to go to the Scoring Mallets much as a result as well, as its feature set doesn't seem quite as extended, but it actually samples my favourite model, which is the somewhat new brand Marimba One, who are quickly becoming dominant in the classical world (especially in San Francisco).

Thudinthenight has done a good job of characterizing the differences. Also, some think VSL might have one on the way, in perhaps a Volume 3 of Synchron Percussion. I haven't had time yet to compare Volume 2 (just released) for Xylophone etc. with Ricotti and other choices, so may find that Ricotti eventually slips from use in my arsenal.
 
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I just purchased the SC version and have been playing with it. It does sound lovely, and much more suited to solo use. I've already swapped it into an existing track where I just couldn't get the marimba to mix right. All the extra "sound design" patches were a nice bonus!

My only complaint is that it's a bit soft in the upper octaves. This is true of the real instrument too... when you have 5 octaves, the big soft mallets that work best on the low end won't project well on the high end. This is why it's common to play using graduated mallets when using 4-mallet technique, where the left hand uses softer mallets than the right hand. This would be hard to pull off in a sample library though, it would be better just to have multiple mallet samples and perhaps crossfade them from soft to hard from the low end of the keyboard to the high end.
 
Isn't that what it does? Or maybe only the Ricotti does that. Sorry, too busy to look it up; being unemployed is a full-time job (seriously). I depend heavily on the mallet crossfade feature of such libraries, but maybe it's CC-driven or even based on strike force or dynamics (Spitfire often is scripted based on the latter, which is a CC in most of their libraries). Maybe I can take a look this weekend. But don't forget also that some libraries gets triggered to do certain things beyond a specific dynamic range (such as rolls).
 
Mark Schmieder said:
Isn't that what it does? Or maybe only the Ricotti does that. Sorry, too busy to look it up; being unemployed is a full-time job (seriously). I depend heavily on the mallet crossfade feature of such libraries, but maybe it's CC-driven or even based on strike force or dynamics (Spitfire often is scripted based on the latter, which is a CC in most of their libraries). Maybe I can take a look this weekend. But don't forget also that some libraries gets triggered to do certain things beyond a specific dynamic range (such as rolls).
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SC has different articulations but I don’t see any mallet selection or cross fade options.When I get a break from my day job I’ll take another look.

I've been using the marimba in the "free" BBCO Discover, it's drenched in too much room reverb.
The marimba in the Logic Pro X sampler is also decent for general purpose use, but sounds like a more distant mic placement and is rather vanilla sounding. It could cut through an orchestral mix better than Sonic Couture though.
 
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