I’ve just downloaded OT’s new Miroire sample library, and will spend the next few days getting to grips with it.
It’s on special offer for the next two weeks.
First impressions are: the sounds are lovely, the violins and violas are sufficiently ‘authentic’. The brass and wind are probably the best and most useful elements.
The choir is nice, with no vibrato, and an option for a rotating syllable, which is subtle enough to be a noticeable change without actually sounding like nonsense.
The down-sides:
There’s just one “Basso Continuo” instrument, which is a combined Cello, Contra (an octave down, yay!) and there’s a Bassoon in there, too. But no separate instruments, so no celli, bassoons separately.
The sustains are a bit slow in the attack, and the release a bit late, leading to some ensemble issues, so it’s going to take some work with Expression Maps to get the best out of this in Dorico. The same for the balance, as the choir can’t be heard over the instruments. But there are plenty of controls in the player to adjust envelopes and what-have-you.
Other missing instruments include organ, harpsichord (though there are plenty of samples of those); nor theorbo.
I think I should be able to get something usable out of it, even if I have to use it alongside other libraries. The great thing about the SINE Player is that you can load your own selection of articulations, and then assign them Key switches, or CCs, or Program Changes. So you have complete versatility; but at the same time that makes sharing Ex Maps difficult, unless you’ve loaded the same samples into the same slots.
I’ve only been messing with it for a couple of hours, but here’s some snippets. I’ve only done Short and Long in the Ex Map, and there’s no other tweaking of anything.
Here’s quite a good bit of strings, possibly some oboe in there as well:
The choir are late!! (Authentic!)
Here’s the Solo oboe. The Cello, Organ (and voice) are from other libraries.