Orchestral modules revisited

C

Cratinus

Member
allright,...i've been mowing lawns, picked up a "paper-route" and have even sold a few of my priceless autographed Scott Baio posters on eBay and i'm ready to take the plunge on a good orchestral module. it's the best "bang for the buck" i'm after (but NOT at an "extreme" espense of sound quality/realism). i've narrowed it down to these:

1) EMU VIRTUOSO --------great magazine reviews but user reviews have been all over the charts (mostly NOT GOOD). 64 megs of DEDICATED orchestra sounds that require MEGA editing to get good results. i'm not so sure on this one.

2) KURZWEIL PC2R w/Orchestral ROM---
never seen it in person. only read positive reviews and heard the VERY impressive demo at the company website.

3) ROLAND XV-5050 (or older XV-3080) w/SRX Complete Orchestra and SRX Symphonic Strings cards----never demoed these cards,..only the stock XV-5050....sounded really nice.

4) ROLAND JV-1080 w/SRJV Orchestral I & II boards installed. perhaps the best "budget" solution but certainly lower conversion and sample rates (maybe adding the M-SE1 "String Ensemble" module to supplement the string sounds).

cd sample libraries are out of the question (at this point). my PC is a dinosaur and any future upgrades will be dedicated STRICTLY to multi-tracking and mastering software.

any recommedations/condemnations of the above hardware will be greatly appreciated. thanks and have a good weekend everyone. cheers.
 
The only one I've had an experience with is the Kurzweil Orchestral ROM for the K2600. For all intents and purposes the two are identical, except the K2600 takes advantage of VAST and KDFX. I have always been impressed with it, it's very expressive and playable, and if you perform properly (meaning you play parts that would be idiomatic of the instrument being emulated) sounds quite realistic. The only instruments I wasn't too impressed with were the low ranges of the bassoon, which sounds a bit thin and tympani. The tympani are fine as long as the rest of the orchestra is playing, but alone they are kind of cheesy.

I'd have no problem recommending the PC2R.

E-MU... while I have no experience with the Virtuoso, my overall experience with most E-MU hardware is that they are cheap feeling, but sound pretty good.
 
I've used all those extensively except the Emu Virtuoso, although I have auditioned it carefully as well. There's no competition, it's the Roland XV-5050 with the SRX-04 and SRX-06 cards all the way.

That's what I'm using now as my bread and butter gig box. I get called a lot to play synth strings on shows, and I've had nothing but favorable comments about my sounds with the XV-5050 and those two cards. You could get the 3080 and have the 128 voice polyphony plus more expansion slots, but otherwise the XV-5050 is the one in my opinion. It sounds great and is a light one rack space, a really nice combination in my book! I've got mine in a 2 space soft rack and just carry it in like a briefcase.

Great synth, and the others don't compare. I know because, like I said, I've used them all.
 
Throw in another vote for the P2C. Great strings which Im guessing it what you are after. It was recommended to me on this board a couple months ago. Especially as you get a free orchestral ROM with it (only free at certain places..others try to charge extra for it)
 
There's not a lot of difference sonically between the XV-5050 with the SRX-06 orch card and a XV-3080 with the JV Orch 1 and Orch 2 cards.

If you wanted to go cheaper you could try a JV-1010 with a single orch card (Orch 1 is fine alone), or consider a XV-2020 with the SRX-06 card.

I've never seen the need for the SRX-04 (Symphonique Strings) card. While Roland supply good ensemble stock patches on the XV modules, and good solo patches on the JV Orch 1 & 2 cards, (or SRX-06) you sort of have all the bases covered.

If I was on a budget, I'd use a JV-1010 with an Orch 2 JV card.

If price was no object, I'd find a XV-5050 with a SRX-06 card.

Listen to the sounds and decide for yourself.
 
The thing about the SRX-04 board is that the quality is so much better than on any of Roland's previous string boards. Giant steps better. I use both the SRX-04 and SRX-06 together in my XV-5050 and it's a great combination.

I just programmed the synth book for a tour and used an XV-2020 with the SRX-04/06 combination as well. They are very happy with the way it sounds. Even other musicians in the various shows I've used the SRX-04 on have commented on how excellent it sounds. That's why there's a need for the board: it sounds good.

Like I said previously in this thread, I have actually used and heard all the synths and boards under consideration here, and having done so I recommend a Roland XV series with SRX expansions.
 
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