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Orb Composer Pro S 1.5 (A.I Composing Software) - Review

Christian, before Orb Composer I worked with Rapid Composer which I think is comparable to Synfire Pro but the problem is really steep learning curve and lot of time just to keep up with the devellopment.

What makes Orb Composer great for someone like me is the general user friendliness which I may just let drop under the table while thinking about their targets and that is definitely the one they seem to manage the best so far and gets forgotten easyly while talking about the problems.

I know I really loved the idea tool in Rapid Composer and the tirelessly devellopment from one Guy doing this and stil try to keep up track a little following in the forum but you have to dig so deep into it and that is really done well with Orb Composer. You can open the program and just start. Choose a template, choose a scale, choose a chord progression, choose a block, choose some instruments and there you go (wherever that might lead you :) )
I was talking mostly about progressions where Harmony Navigator is a good solution, I think.

Synfire Pro is without doubt the best but most complex of all.
But, for me, it is very simple, because I am also a developer of "rather special" software (in predictive semantics) ...
 
Hello All,

In my opinion, the most important limit of Orb is the routing inside a Daw (Cubase 10 for me).

For example, if you use the Orb Orchestral template, Orb generates 135 tracks.
As the Orb plugin is absolutely ****, and if you want to have a correct sound result, you have to map the correct plugins in Cubase or in your favorite DAW.
So, you have to map 135 tracks (not really a problem, once it's done, it's done)

BUT !

If you use a sample player as Kontakt (probably 80% of Orchestral plugins are under Kontakt !!), aboslutely impossible to create a multi-rack to use each articulation into the same instance of Kontakt.
I mean, each articulation (Leagto, Long, Pizz, Stacc,...) needs one instance of Kontakt !

If you use only Kontakt for example, then you have to load 135 instance !! Wooooo.....

Just crazy for CPU !!
 
Hello All,

In my opinion, the most important limit of Orb is the routing inside a Daw (Cubase 10 for me).

For example, if you use the Orb Orchestral template, Orb generates 135 tracks.
As the Orb plugin is absolutely ****, and if you want to have a correct sound result, you have to map the correct plugins in Cubase or in your favorite DAW.
So, you have to map 135 tracks (not really a problem, once it's done, it's done)

BUT !

If you use a sample player as Kontakt (probably 80% of Orchestral plugins are under Kontakt !!), aboslutely impossible to create a multi-rack to use each articulation into the same instance of Kontakt.
I mean, each articulation (Leagto, Long, Pizz, Stacc,...) needs one instance of Kontakt !

If you use only Kontakt for example, then you have to load 135 instance !! Wooooo.....

Just crazy for CPU !!
I ended up using VSL SE to keep the RAM down, then deactivated the tracks I wasn't using. But yes, it would be better if you could use keyswitches instead or multi - outs.
 
Hello All,

In my opinion, the most important limit of Orb is the routing inside a Daw (Cubase 10 for me).

For example, if you use the Orb Orchestral template, Orb generates 135 tracks.
As the Orb plugin is absolutely ****, and if you want to have a correct sound result, you have to map the correct plugins in Cubase or in your favorite DAW.
So, you have to map 135 tracks (not really a problem, once it's done, it's done)

BUT !

If you use a sample player as Kontakt (probably 80% of Orchestral plugins are under Kontakt !!), aboslutely impossible to create a multi-rack to use each articulation into the same instance of Kontakt.
I mean, each articulation (Leagto, Long, Pizz, Stacc,...) needs one instance of Kontakt !

If you use only Kontakt for example, then you have to load 135 instance !! Wooooo.....

Just crazy for CPU !!

I think I'm misunderstanding your issue. Why would you have so many tracks and instances?
I use studio one, but for me, routing is just a matter of organizing your Kontakt instances whatever way works for you. For example, I break them up by instrument. So my multi-rack is Violin 1, legato, spiccato, pizzicato, etc. etc. all within one instance of Kontakt. Just the way I prefer to do it, but a simple method. Is this not possible in Cubase? I know it's not possible within Orb itself, which is a major problem, but it should be fine if you're routing Orb into your DAW and mapping midi correctly.

I think in the end for an orchestral template i ended up with about 40 instances of kontakt to fully cover the range...
 
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I think I'm misunderstanding your issue. Why would you have so many tracks and instances?
I use studio one, but for me, routing is just a matter of organizing your Kontakt instances whatever way works for you. For example, I break them up by instrument. So my multi-rack is Violin 1, legato, spiccato, pizzicato, etc. etc. all within one instance of Kontakt. Just the way I prefer to do it, but a simple method. Is this not possible in Cubase? I know it's not possible within Orb itself, which is a major problem, but it should be fine if you're routing Orb into your DAW and mapping midi correctly.

I think in the end for an orchestral template i ended up with about 40 instances of kontakt to fully cover the range...
The template that is provided to use with Orb Composer is one articulation per track. And, if you want to set up your own, it can be done. But using the template is just easy. You rarely use all, so it is easy to disable the ones not being used.
 
ah right. So for studio one, I think it sets up a similar template. All I'm doing is opening one Kontakt instance per instrument and then separating the articulations in that Kontakt instance by midi channel. Then routing those midi channels to the various tracks in the template. Is that not possible in Cubase.

So for example:
Violin Kontakt
Legato Track Violin Kontakt Midi Channel 1
Long Track Violin Kontakt Midi Channel 2

is this different than how you have it set up?
 
You can do it that way I think. To use the multi out in Cubase, you have to use the rack instrument version of Kontakt not the normal instrument track. I haven't quite figured it out yet. I came from PT in which setting up is simple. Put Kontakt in an Aux Input track and send multiple midi tracks to it.
 
You can do it that way I think. To use the multi out in Cubase, you have to use the rack instrument version of Kontakt not the normal instrument track. I haven't quite figured it out yet. I came from PT in which setting up is simple. Put Kontakt in an Aux Input track and send multiple midi tracks to it.

I just tried it out on my computer with Cubase 10. I believe you should be able to create a new instrument track with Kontakt, and then for the various articulations, you can create a midi track and have it route its midi in from the track with the Kontakt version you want it linked too.

is the functionality you're looking for?
 

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Thanks for your answer :)
This makes me understand that I (probably) don’t use Kontakt properly.

As said by [U]dzilizzi[/U], the Orb Template is one articulation by track. You have to load as many Kontakt instance as track. Forget this option !

I tried to make my own Template to decrease the number of loaded instance.
What I can do is have all the articulations of an instrument on the same track with a multi-rack
For example :
Track 1 = Piccolo
Instance loaded with a multi (channel 1 legato, channel 2 long, channel 3 staccato,...)

The first issue is that if Orb use Piccolo legato in a block and Piccolo stacatto in an other block, then, the midi data are recorded in the same track !
The second issue is that for some instruments, the articulation are not on the same Orb output, then I have to create 2 track for the same instrument (for example, trombones on Orb 10 - ch 12/13/14/15 + Orb 11 - ch 1/2)

But probably I don't use correctly the notion of mutli-rack (I'm a beginner user of Cubase, sorry)

What I want is to have each articulation recorded on an individual track.

I will try the method of Chocobitz. Makes sens !
 
Thanks for your answer :)
This makes me understand that I (probably) don’t use Kontakt properly.

As said by [U]dzilizzi[/U], the Orb Template is one articulation by track. You have to load as many Kontakt instance as track. Forget this option !

I tried to make my own Template to decrease the number of loaded instance.
What I can do is have all the articulations of an instrument on the same track with a multi-rack
For example :
Track 1 = Piccolo
Instance loaded with a multi (channel 1 legato, channel 2 long, channel 3 staccato,...)

The first issue is that if Orb use Piccolo legato in a block and Piccolo stacatto in an other block, then, the midi data are recorded in the same track !
The second issue is that for some instruments, the articulation are not on the same Orb output, then I have to create 2 track for the same instrument (for example, trombones on Orb 10 - ch 12/13/14/15 + Orb 11 - ch 1/2)

But probably I don't use correctly the notion of mutli-rack (I'm a beginner user of Cubase, sorry)

What I want is to have each articulation recorded on an individual track.

I will try the method of Chocobitz. Makes sens !

This is similar to the way I do it in studio one. So I believe what you would do is create your Instrument track, then create your midi tracks for each articulation, and for each midi track, change the midi input to the orb channel, and the midi out to the Kontakt instrument track with the midi channel matching the articulation set in kontakt..
 
You don't want a doctor to check your health if all he did was searching for information on the internet, do you? The same goes for a trained composer. Four years music school, six years at a conservatory of music (or university) and you are qualified enough to call yourself a beginning composer.

This seems like a very rigid way of thinking, there are many paths to becoming a composer and I think to create great music you need to be able to express emotion not just have the training. Its the difference between art and craft, some of the best musicians and composers don't know any theory at all.
 
I just tried it out on my computer with Cubase 10. I believe you should be able to create a new instrument track with Kontakt, and then for the various articulations, you can create a midi track and have it route its midi in from the track with the Kontakt version you want it linked too.

is the functionality you're looking for?
Truthfully, I find Cubase a pain for routing. But I'm trained in ProTools and everything in Cubase is a pain to me, except the Chord Track. Well, and the midi inserts. ProTools doesn't have any. Which is why I keep looking for a new all-around solution. Haven't found it yet. S1 is close.
 
This is similar to the way I do it in studio one. So I believe what you would do is create your Instrument track, then create your midi tracks for each articulation, and for each midi track, change the midi input to the orb channel, and the midi out to the Kontakt instrument track with the midi channel matching the articulation set in kontakt..
Wait, do you have Cubase? Because it is weird. Compared to all the other normal DAWs that route similarly. It actually may not be as hard as I make it out to be, but because Steinberg invented VST and uses it for everything, trying to figure out what they mean by reading the manual can drive you crazy coming from a more normal DAW. (now I'm going to get it!) :eek:
 
I just tried it out on my computer with Cubase 10. I believe you should be able to create a new instrument track with Kontakt, and then for the various articulations, you can create a midi track and have it route its midi in from the track with the Kontakt version you want it linked too.

is the functionality you're looking for?

Definitively, I don't understand the routing in cubase.
I try to apply your method, and the result is that all articulations are played, even if the channel seems to be correctly configured.

I hate Cubase !

Weel, i think I will stay with my method. Maybe nor perfect but it "works". Sufficient for my needs.
 
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Definitively, I don't understand the routing in cubase.
I try to apply your method, and the result is that all articulations are played, even if the channel seems to be correctly configured.

I hate Cubase !

Weel, i think I will saty with my method. Maybe nor perfect but it "works". Sufficient for my needs.
They have regular instruments and rack instruments. You have to use the "rack" instruments to do the multi in/out. There should be a YouTube video on it. I know I can't explain it well enough. I just know Cubase has some great things it can do, but easy to use is not one of them.
 
Definitively, I don't understand the routing in Cubase.
I try to apply your method, and the result is that all articulations are played, even if the channel seems to be correctly configured.

I hate Cubase!

Weel, i think I will stay with my method. Maybe nor perfect, but it "works". Sufficient for my needs.
I see your problem now. Sorry, the midi out method works for general routing, but for orb, it does seem to be more complicated. I cant tell how they are getting every track to receive the relevant orb midi channels, so that's why it doesn't seem like its working correctly when you set midi channels. I'll see if i can figure it out.
 
Mappable articulationTemplate OrchetralChannel
PiccoloLegatoXOrb 6 - ch 1
LongXOrb 6 - ch 2
StaccatoXOrb 6 - ch 3
Tenuto XOrb 6 - ch 4
MarcatoXOrb 6 - ch 5
LongharmonicsOrb 6 - ch 6
FluteLegatoXOrb 6 - ch 7
LongXOrb 6 - ch 8
StaccatoXOrb 6 - ch 9
Tenuto XOrb 6 - ch 10
MarcatoXOrb 6 - ch 11
LongharmonicsXOrb 6 - ch 12
OboeLegatoXOrb 7 - ch 8
LongXOrb 7 - ch 9
StaccatoXOrb 7 - ch 10
Tenuto XOrb 7 - ch 11
MarcatoXOrb 7 - ch 12
Cor AnglaisLegatoXOrb 7 - ch 13
LongXOrb 7 - ch 14
StaccatoXOrb 7 - ch 15
Tenuto XOrb 7 - ch 16
MarcatoXOrb 8 - ch 1
ClarinetLegatoXOrb 8 - ch 2
LongXOrb 8 - ch 3
StaccatoXOrb 8 - ch 4
Tenuto XOrb 8 - ch 5
MarcatoXOrb 8 - ch 6
Bass ClarinetLegatoXOrb 8 - ch 7
LongXOrb 8 - ch 8
StaccatoXOrb 8 - ch 9
Tenuto XOrb 8 - ch 10
MarcatoXOrb 8 - ch 11
BassoonLegatoXOrb 9 -ch 1
LongXOrb 9 -ch 2
StaccatoXOrb 9 -ch 3
Tenuto XOrb 9 -ch 4
MarcatoXOrb 9 -ch 5
LongharmonicsXOrb 9 -ch 6
TrumpetsLegatoXOrb 10 - ch 1
LongXOrb 10 - ch 2
StaccatoXOrb 10 - ch 3
Tenuto XOrb 10 - ch 4
MarcatoXOrb 10 - ch 5
HornsLegatoXOrb 10 - ch 6
LongXOrb 10 - ch 7
StaccatoXOrb 10 - ch 8
Tenuto XOrb 10 - ch 9
MarcatoXOrb 10 - ch 10
StaccatissimoXOrb 10 - ch 11
TrombonesLegatoXOrb 10 - ch 12
LongXOrb 10 - ch 13
StaccatoXOrb 10 - ch 14
Tenuto XOrb 10 - ch 15
MarcatoXOrb 10 - ch 16
LongharmonicsOrb 11 - ch 1
Bass TromboneLegatoXOrb 11 - ch 2
LongXOrb 11 - ch 3
StaccatoXOrb 11 - ch 4
Tenuto XOrb 11 - ch 5
MarcatoXOrb 11 - ch 6
TubaLegatoXOrb 12 - ch 1
LongXOrb 12 - ch 2
StaccatoXOrb 12 - ch 3
Tenuto XOrb 12 - ch 4
MarcatoXOrb 12 - ch 5
HarpUniversal
 
Violins ILegatoXOrb 13 - ch1
LongXOrb 13 - ch2
SpiccatoXOrb 13 - ch3
TenutoXOrb 13 - ch4
MarcattoXOrb 13 - ch5
PizzicatoXOrb 13 - ch6
TremoloXOrb 13 - ch7
LongharmonicsXOrb 13 - ch8
CollegnoXOrb 13 - ch9
LongflautandoXOrb 13 - ch10
LongrachmXOrb 13 - ch11
MarcatoattackXOrb 13 - ch12
PizzbartokXOrb 13 - ch13
ShortharmonicsXOrb 13 - ch14
Violins IILegatoXOrb 13 - ch 15
LongXOrb 13 - ch 16
SpiccatoXOrb 14 - ch1
TenutoXOrb 14 - ch2
MarcattoXOrb 14 - ch3
PizzicatoXOrb 14 - ch4
TremoloXOrb 14 - ch5
LongharmonicsXOrb 14 - ch6
CollegnoXOrb 14 - ch7
LongflautandoXOrb 14 - ch8
MarcatoattackXOrb 14 - ch9
PizzbartokXOrb 14 - ch10
ShortharmonicsXOrb 14 - ch11
Viola LegatoXOrb 14 - ch 12
LongXOrb 14 - ch 13
SpiccatoXOrb 14 - ch 14
TenutoXOrb 14 - ch 15
MarcattoXOrb 14 - ch 16
PizzicatoXOrb 15 - ch 1
TremoloXOrb 15 - ch 2
LongharmonicsXOrb 15 - ch 3
CollegnoXOrb 15 - ch 4
LongflautandoXOrb 15 - ch 5
MarcatoattackXOrb 15 - ch 6
PizzbartokXOrb 15 - ch 7
ShortharmonicsXOrb 15 - ch 8
CelliLegatoXOrb 15 - ch 9
LongXOrb 15 - ch 10
SpiccatoXOrb 15 - ch 11
TenutoXOrb 15 - ch 12
MarcattoXOrb 15 - ch 13
PizzicatoXOrb 15 - ch 14
TremoloXOrb 15 - ch 15
LongharmonicsXOrb 15 - ch 16
CollegnoXOrb 16 - ch 1
LongflautandoXOrb 16 - ch 2
MarcatoattackXOrb 16 - ch 3
PizzbartokXOrb 16 - ch 4
ShortharmonicsXOrb 16 - ch 5
Double BassCollegnoXOrb 16 - ch 6
LegatoXOrb 16 - ch 7
LongXOrb 16 - ch 8
LongflautandoXOrb 16 - ch 9
LongharmonicsXOrb 16 - ch 10
MarcatoXOrb 16 - ch 11
MaractoattackXOrb 16 - ch 12
PizzbartokXOrb 16 - ch 13
PizzicatoXOrb 16 - ch 14
ShortharmonicsXOrb 16 - ch 15
SpiccatoXOrb 16 - ch 16
TenutoXOrb 17 - ch 1
TremoloXOrb 17 - ch 2
Piano 1UniversalX
Piano 2UniversalX
 
Here below my method to record midi data from Orb to Cubase, without have 1 Kontakt instance by articulation (the result is that you have 1 instance by Instrument....better than 1 by articulation !)


Sans titre-1.jpg


The "problem" (if if we consider it as a problem) is that you can have different articulation of an instrument recorded in the same track.
No really a problem for me because I use this method only for sketches, and after, I re-work all tracks individually. i just use Orb as a general idea, inspiration,....

Alos, due to the Orb routing, sometime you can have 2 different orb Output (for example, Cor Anglais is routed on Orb 7 and Orb 8....in this case, no choice, you have to create 2 different track for the same instrument)

Capture.PNG



Probably my method is not perfect, not optimized, but this is the only I found easy and clear.
(racks is just inconcevable for me, too many tracks are generated, not clear at all !!)
 
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