Instant Orchestra
by Garritan · Instrument · Orchestral ensemble library
Not rated yet
Instant Orchestra is a Garritan library of pre-combined orchestral ensembles, mood presets and effects for quick cinematic writing.
It runs in the ARIA Player and costs $179.95.
Best for: Acoustic Instruments, Sound Design. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic.
Keywords: cinematic, ensemble, textures, sound design, film & game audio, brass, strings, choir, colored, sample-based, woodwinds.
What it does
Instant Orchestra is a Garritan library of ready-made orchestral combinations, built to give "full cinematic orchestrations from just a few lines of music." Instead of building ensembles from solo instruments, as in Personal Orchestra, you play patches that already combine sections.
- Patch folders: Blending Textures, Mixtures and family folders for strings, brass, woodwinds, choir and percussion, with full-orchestra patches such as Complete Orchestration and themed blends such as Baroquestra and Harpestra.
- Mood presets: presets sorted by mood and atmosphere rather than by instrument, aimed at film, video and game scoring.
- Orchestral effects: a set of effects and sound-design patches alongside the playable ensembles.
- Playing control: no keyswitches; the mod wheel shapes timbre, while velocity, CC11 (expression) and CC2 (breath) control volume.
- Sound shaping: each patch has a three-band parametric EQ, a stereo Stage control and MIDI-controllable ADSR and filter settings.
- Recordings: samples recorded in several locations, including with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic.
- Light and fast: low RAM use; Sound On Sound loaded a full 16-patch ensemble in 5 to 10 seconds.
It runs in Garritan's ARIA Player, which includes convolution reverb.
When to use it
Instant Orchestra is the pick when you want the orchestrating done for you: a melody and a few chords become a full texture in one patch. Compared with BBC Symphony Orchestra Core and Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition, it gives far less control over each part and sounds less lush, but it is much faster for sketches and loads on modest machines. Compared with Personal Orchestra 5, it trades separate solo instruments and articulations for combined patches and mood presets. Its fixed voicings are the catch: some chord patches can sound synthetic, and it is hard to make a patch do something it wasn't built for.
- Best for: fast cinematic sketches, game and media cues on a deadline, and composers new to orchestration.
- Genres: cinematic, trailer, game music.
- Look elsewhere if: you want to write each section yourself; BBC Symphony Orchestra Core or Personal Orchestra 5 suit that.
What producers say
Reviewers liked its colourful ready-made textures for the price; users are split, with hobbyists pleased and serious composers finding it limited.
- Sound On Sound (Dave Stewart, 2012) found "a large number of highly usable orchestral textures" and called it "cheap as chips, but a lot more nutritious."
- Sweetwater users rate it 3.3 out of 5 from 14 reviews; many call it good value, with "very VERY good" brass and nice strings.
- Criticisms: less lush than high-end libraries, a limited range of articulations, a piano without soft dynamic layers (Sound On Sound), and preset intervals some users found "very limited" for serious work.
Where to buy
- AudioDeluxe: $149
- Garritan: $179.95
Tutorials and reviews
- Garritan Instant Orchestra library review
- Garritan Instant Orchestra cinematic virtual instrument
- Garritan Instant Orchestra: Moods for Film Music
- More Film Scoring Tips with Garritan Instant Orchestra
- Blast Off with Instant Orchestra - a How To tutorial-part one
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