MOTU Symphonic Instruments

[Dorian27]

I'm not sure if anyone can answer this or not. I would like a decent sound module for playback and recording when writing. I currently write with Finale.
I came across the MOTU Symphonic Instruments tonight and it looked great, especially for the price. I however am really out of touch with this area. I have an old Korg Audio AG-10 that I stopped using when Windows default began sounding better.
Anyone know if the MOTU can be used with Finale for pc.
Thanks!

[Dorian27]

Everyone is pretty quiet in regards to the MOTU unit. Can anyone recommend a good sound module? I would like to add some string parts, french horns, and some other orchestral arrangments to my songs and would like something as realistic as possible, but I am not willing to spend real lot for it (like over $350.00)
Anyone know of any soft or hardware? Oh and they must be pc and Finale compatible.

Thanks!

[jpmorris]

Originally Posted by Dorian27

Everyone is pretty quiet in regards to the MOTU unit. Can anyone recommend a good sound module? I would like to add some string parts, french horns, and some other orchestral arrangments to my songs and would like something as realistic as possible, but I am not willing to spend real lot for it (like over $350.00)
Anyone know of any soft or hardware? Oh and they must be pc and Finale compatible.
Thanks!

There's probably something better now for that price range, given that it's dated from about 1995, but the Roland orchestral module is not bad. With careful programming you can do some quite reasonable things with it. It has been used commercially by Bal Sagoth and apparently in a number of film scores and so forth.

Here's a few of my scores which use it. I'm doing this as a hobby - Jonny Maudling of Bal Sagoth is a lot better at it.

http://dmfa.it-he.org/dmfa/609demo3.mp3 - Full mix
http://dmfa.it-he.org/dmfa/609score.mp3 - score only
http://dmfa.it-he.org/dmfa/084song2.mp3

There are two primary ways of getting it - pick up a Roland JV1080 and the orchestral expansion card (I use a JV1010) or a similar device, the XP50 has it built-in, I believe. It's also in the SRX-06 card for the XVs.
The other way is to find the Roland M-OC1 which is essentially the expansion card in a rack, like the M-VS1 is to the Vintage Synth expansion card.