The Sound Board

Cinesamples libraries are on sale @ Native instruments.

Single Cinematic Libraries are 50% off.

Or you can get the Composer Toolset at 75% off. Makes 629$ for these libraries:

CineBrass CORE
CineHarps
CineWinds CORE
CineStrings CORE
CinePerc
CineBrass Sonore
CineWinds Monster Low Winds

I don't have any Cinesamples libraries. This seems to be a comprehensive package. I was thinking about buying BBCSO on the next sale to replace mmy VSL SE. Now this is a tempting alternative. Can anybody compare the two? I can't even make out which articulations are included in the Core libraries, and which come with the Pro expansions. Is it true that Cinebrass core only includes legato patches for the soloists, while all other articulations for the soloists are in Cinebrass Pro? And on the other hand, Cinestrings Core includes all articulations, but no runs and no solo strings? It's all pretty confusing to me.

Wow yes, that's the biggest discount they've ever done.

CineBrass Core has the following legatos - Trumpet Ensemble & Solo, Two Horns, Six Horns, Horn solo, Trombone ensembles brassy and mellow. (The six horn legato has always been rubbish, but the others work well). There is no Cinestrings Pro, but you're right that runs and solo are separate products. I think all four original CinePerc series are now rolled into the single CinePerc product.

If you go to the individual product pages at https://cinesamples.com , there's a list of articulations right near the bottom.

Thank you Guy. I've seen that list, but it remains a mystery to me. For trumpets, for instance, it lists:

01 Trumpets Ensemble Articulations

02 Trumpets Ensemble True Legato

03 Trumpet Solo True Legato

What are 'Ensemble Articulations'? Are these just the staccato, tenuto, marcato, and sustain they mention somewhere else? And is it true that the solo trumpet does not have these 'Ensemble Articulations'? So the solo trumpet comes only with legato, no other articulations? If so, that would be slightly odd.

Hi Linos, yes, you'd probably have to trawl through the videos to get more details than that, and there are definitely plenty of holes in the brass core lineup. The basic articulations are fairly frugal - short 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2, along with sustain / legatos. Some are less than this, such as two horns which are just short 1/8 and sustain / legato. The solos in core are just legato patches, the Pro has Pro versions with articulations but truthfully I've never liked those at all, the velocity crossfading is very poor and I always use the limited core patches if they're appropriate and if not reach for something else entirely.

At the time, CineBrass was a big step up for CineSamples but looking back now they were still very much in transition to where they are now. They're much more uniform in the way they sample these days. They kept patching on bits and pieces to fill some of the holes here and there (it was years until a trombones legato patch appeared for example).

Does anyone own and have strong opinions on CineHarps? I'm moderately tempted. Same goes for Sonore.

Thank you Guy, appreciate the help.