The Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold Complete blew my mind. When I first started playing with it, I couldn’t believe the lush violin strings, the realistic winds, and powerful percussion instruments.
This is a fantastic choice for those who compose for film, TV, or video games. I love the convolution reverb and convincing release trails, which gave this sampling software that big Hollywood sound. It totally made my projects for my Berklee class sound full and professional (even the little ones I that I threw together in Sibelius when I had a time crunch).
I was also impressed that I could upgrade seamlessly to the Platinum platform. Plus, I could just change my 16-bit files created in Gold into 24-bit files by using the Platinum samples. That’s great because my computer is too slow for the 24-bit right now.
The repeating notes that change slightly to avoid the machine gun affect adds the realism needed for compositions. The keyswitches are also rad! I don’t have to pull up a new instrument track to get different articulations going (from staccato to legato on the same track). I can switch on the track with a MIDI note, or play it and hit the keyswitches with my left hand to access the change in articulation. I used this especially for a flute solo in my orchestration. It made it alive (not the stale sameness I would normally use, and it was fast and easy).
On the fly when I’m playing from my MIDI controller, it is great to just mess around and get some ideas of what I want to lay down. Not only that, it makes me sound better than I actually am, which is always a plus.
You don’t need to do a lot of tweaking to get Symphonic Orchestra to sound good. Many of the higher-end samplers require a lot of finagling, but this one is ready, right out of the box.
Great price, for an amazing product. This is a definite must for media composers.
