MOTU Symphonic Instrument VST PC

I have been making music for 16 years and using synths for 10 and into software synths for around 7 years now.

I'm using the latest version of 1.1.
I use this with Ableton Live 7 and Logic 8.
I make electronic and down tempo music.

I use a Black 2.2ghz Intel 13" MacBook with OSX Leopard and 1 gig of ram.

I monitor through a set of KRK Rokit 5's w/sub and a set of Sony MDRV-700 DJ headphones.

So far the only interface issues I have is assinging controls from my Axiom to the controls on the GUI(I'm sure its human error on my part).

Unlike another person said I had absolutely no issues installing this as a VST and AU plugin on my Mac and had no issues at all with the iLok or authorizing... And to further disagree with that other poster, The manual is very good and specific when it comes to install instructions(Its called human error dude, you did it wrong if it was difficult).
The specific thing it says in the manual is to install the MSI(MOTU Symphonic Instrument) File first(This is your library).
If you don't do that you will have issues.

I was up and running in about 5-10 minutes after the MSI was copied(About 15-20 min.)...

Manuals(Two! one for install and one for the usage) were very clear.
I don't think a manual is to blame ever its people who don't take the time to RTFM the darn thing.

As far as sounds..... The best library of string sounds I have ever owned.
People use to rave about Reason strings and how they were so huge.
Reason strings are like a gnat in comparison to a elephant.

Presets are always a drag in most plugins, I haven't really had to tweek these much at all. And it is very expressive.

Its able to be stereo or multi out.

I believe its 24 part multi-timbral, I could be wrong.

I never like buying plugins that are over $200, You never know what you will get.
I have a trusted friend who gave me good advice and helped me choose this over the IK media plugin and I think it was the best choice.
Surprisingly it isn't CPU intensive(But I have a pretty new machine with a faster CPU).

No Crashes Yet! Lets try shall we!?!?

Only thing that has been weird is when using certain reverbs it can be glitchy but I don't use it for reverb.

I plan to get the Etho instrument and the keys plugin in the future.

MOTU is well worth the money.

Been making music for 30 years. I play mostly guitar, but also some keybaord. I use Cubase 4 and run it on a dual core PC windows XP, 2,6Ghz. The Motu is used on progessive rock mostly.

It was a little troublesome to install. The authorization with the dongle was more difficult than most other software. Manual was not very good installation wise. The manual has however a very good lay out on how to place the instruments in an orchestra (if you do not know where the instruments are placed from before)

In use the Motu is very easy and comprehensive to use. You just use a well organized manu system, choose your sound and load up a sound bank. Various settings makes all the disired ajustments possible.

The sounds that are there are awsome! However some of the pre-made chords and runs are limited. If you do not mind building up a orchestra piece by piece it should give you all you can desire. For larger orchestras you will need to use more than one MIDI track as Motu has limitied timbral. For most orchestras this should be no problem. What I do miss is a bank for string quartet.

I red in another rewieve here that some of the samples were giving out sounds that should not be there. I experienced the same when the sound card had low latency and low buffer sieze. Increasing the buffer seize got rid of it completely. (I use a Hammerfall soundcard).

I've been playing keyboards/piano for over 20 years, jazz, funk, rock etc. I compose all sorts of styles of music, from electronica to classical.

I am using Motu Symphonic Instrument (MSI) with Sonar 5.1 on a PC with X2 cpu and plenty of RAM.

Interface/Ease of Use:

This is where Motu got it right. In fact this is probably where Motu always gets it right, if pictures of their other software interfaces are any indication. In the case of MSI, it's clear and simple, a no brainer to load up instruments, add reverb, and start making symphonic music.

Copy Protection:

Dongle! Stupid! Doesn't stop piracy in any way! It takes up a USB port and installs PACE iLok something or other which I'm not a fan of.

Formats:
Dxi, Rtas, Vst. No need for Rtas here. As for the other two, both are supported by Sonar but only VST works acceptably at 96khz. The DXi version has a clicking noise at 44.1, like the latency is too low, but this clicking occurs at any latency. At 96khz, the samples all sound sped up...

The VST at 44.1 also has the clicking problem. Only VST 96 works fine. As frustrating as this was to find out, the rating is an 8 here because once working (and I prefer 96khz), MSI is solid and easy to use. Furthermore, from looking at a Motu>MSI forum, it doesn't appear as though others are having the problem at 44.1. But other Sonar users report that only VST works for them. (there is also a "sticky notes" issue that I haven't experienced)

Most of the instruments sound pretty good and realistic. The problems arise from the many quirks I have found in the various samples. These may be a result of the way they were recorded, or edited, or a combination. For example, the marcato strings in String Ensemble>All Strings>Marc have this terrible squeaky background noise at higher registers. You can hear it here in fact:
http://www.mashedbuddha.com/sounds/MarcStrings.wav

Also the sustained strings seem to have a click when held out, like the loop of the sample is restarting. I have to test this further however.

Different keys of the same sample are different volumes at the same velocity. Really annoying. I also often hear sample switching.

Different keys of the same sample also seem to be placed in different areas in the stereo spectrum, really wacky and unrealistic. The only way to resolve is to record the track into audio and make it mono (assuming one wants to keep the stereo sound of the rest of the instruments in the plug in, otherwise you could just make the whole thing mono). Also I realize, or I assume, that Motu wanted to create a realistic stereo spread of an orchestra, and recorded the instruments that way, or panned them that way. But this is a huge mistake. If I have two melody instruments that are panned to the right, I can't just pan one to the left in the plug in, cause not much of the sample was recorded on that side. I have to record it, then edit it in Sound Forge (convenient sound forge button in Sonar) to mix it down to mono (the track's mono button in Sonar won't achieve the same result if I pan it), and then bring it back into the project and pan it. Most sounds do have a really lush and full sounding stereo spread, so I don't know that I have a solution for this problem. I'll have to try other symphony plugins and see what else there is.

There are plenty of nice sounding reverbs.

Overall, in spite of these really terrible quirks (if not so much the stereo issue), I have been able to create fairly realistic orchestral music, usually with minimal tweaking. But when you listen more closely, the warts start to reveal themselves, and I can't recommend this program.

It's so close really. Great interface, mostly great sounding samples. But too quirky, and some messed up samples. The magazine and internet reviews didn't dig in enough to find these things out. I can't recommend this program and I'm going to try some different ones.