Nick Batzdorf/Virtual Instruments Magazine
Kirk Hunter Diamond Orchestra Library, $699 (comes on a bus-powered USB drive)

Format: Native Instruments Kontakt 2.3+; Apple EXS24 version under development.

Kirk Hunter Diamond Orchestra Library

This orchestra is designed to provide a good “out of box” experience with very little fuss. It succeeds.

by Nick Batzdorf

Kirk Hunter Diamond is the top-of the-line library in a series of orchestras. At $699 list Diamond is priced in the lower midrange of massive orchestral libraries, but Hunter has versions going all the way down to $99. We’ll look at that one in the near future.

Diamond takes up roughly 66GB on a hard drive, and it comes on a bus-powered USB hard drive so you don’t have to swap DVDs for hours—just plug it in and copy. As far as we know, that’s a first: a sample library that comes on a hard drive.

Details

Bucking the trend toward embedding copy-protected libraries in OEM players, Diamond is a Native Instruments Kontakt 2 or 3-format library—you need Kontakt 2.2.3 or later to use it. An EXS24 version is in the works too, which means anyone who has Apple Logic Pro will run the library as well, although the EXS24 doesn’t have the same scripting features this library puts to such interesting use.

The library covers all the standard orchestral instruments, with very large “Concert” string sections (36 tutti vns, 18 1sts, 8 2nds,10 vas, 9 vcs, 6 bss), large "Symphonic" Strings (24 tutti vns, 10 1sts, 10 2nds, 16 vas, 12 vcs, 6 bss), (smaller “Studio” string sections (9-9-6-5-3), and both chamber (4-4-3-2) and solo strings. Similarly, the brass is available in Concert ensembles of four trumpets, horns, and trombones; three bass trombones; and two tubas; Symphonic ensembles of 6 Trumpets, 6 French Horns, 5 Trombones, 3 Bass Trombones, 2 Tubas (the bass bones and tubas being the same as in "Concert" brass); and also Studio brass; two each trumpets, horns, and tenor trombones, and tuba; and solo instruments. Both muted and unmuted versions of the strings and brass are included.

The winds—including alto flute and contrabassoon—are available in solos and/or duets. Finally, there’s orchestral percussion, celesta, harpsichord, and a piano.

The library uses a consistent set of keyswitches across all the instrument families, and it relies extensively on programming. If you load the full-on Concert cello section, for example, you’ll find keyswitches for velocity-sensitive marcato, marcato, legato, adagio, detaché, sforzando, pizz, trills, tremolo, and more. If you load the full violin 1 section, you’ll find the same keyswitched articulations available as for the cellos. A similar scheme is available across the whole library.

As far as computer impact, Diamond is equivalent to any modern streaming sample library. The full solo viola program, for example, uses about 96MB of memory at the default Kontakt streaming settings.

You can also load lighter versions of all the instruments, and individual articulations are available. Finally, there are ensemble programs—all the strings on one keyboard, for example. Rather than having you load up all the instruments and use up lots of polyphony for these programs, there are sets of “Bonus” programs made up of combined sections that have been merged into one set of samples.

Diamond has an interesting programming feature called IntervaLive® that’s used for connected notes. Raising or lowering the pitch wheel triggers manufactured release samples that bend up or down to lead into the target note. This takes a little practice, but it’s not too difficult. Used full-bore, the effect is almost portmento; used more subtly it just adds a realistic transition between two notes. The farther you move the pitch wheel, the louder the transition effect. You can also dial the amount of bend up or down using onscreen controls.

Another programming feature in Diamond is the gradual pitch correction known as Human Pitch Correction or "HPC". The notes start a little out and then gradually adjust, simulating what real players do. You can control the amount of this effect—a good thing, because the default setting can be a little too much in some cases (solo violin for example); turning it down adds a lot of realism.

Playing it

Kirk Hunter touts the out-of-the-box playability of his libraries, and indeed that’s definitely their strength. You don’t have to learn a lot of articulations and figure out which ones to load—at the top of the list under every category is a big enchilada program with all of the articulations.

Then the keyswitches are all labeled very clearly on the Kontakt 2 (or 3) interface; if you want to tweak the attacks, basic controls are provided. The mod wheel always controls volume, unless it’s set up to control vibrato; between that, velocity, and the pitch wheel-controlled transitions, this is a very playable orchestra. It auto-alternates between samples without user intervention.

Obviously, this kind of (relative) simplicity means that you don’t have the same kinds of specialized articulation choices as in the mega orchestral libraries, but then Diamond isn’t priced at the same level either. However, you do have a lot of string section choices, and the included articulations can do pretty much everything you’d need them to, in fact the articulations tend to cover a lot of ground; I found myself keyswitching less than I’m accustomed to doing in other libraries.

Sound

Now we get to the subjective part of this review. In general I like that this library doesn’t sound artificially clean—an effect that Hunter has cultivated very carefully. Even the included custom convolution impulses add an intangible and really nice “grit” to the sound.

Frankly, I was very pleasantly surprised by Diamond’s overall sound. The transitions between sample layers are smooth, and it’s been programmed and mapped to the keyboard very well.

If I had to pick highlights, I’d start with the solo strings. That takes nothing away from the ensemble strings, which don’t sound synthy even at the top of the violins, but I found the violin and cello especially highly addictive.

The brass and woodwinds are just fine, recorded in a way that makes them work well for ensemble writing. I’d have to say that the percussion and harp aren’t consistently sampled at the same level of detail as the strings, but they’re okay for basic parts. However, there are some standouts here too. The muted glock program is excellent, for example, and it’s not an easy instrument to record well at all.

Thus

This is an easy, good-sounding orchestra that would work very well as an only orchestra library or as an additional one to layer with others. It has some effective programming features, it’s—especially when you factor in the USB drive it comes on—priced fairly…and it has solo violin and cello programs to die for. Check out the demos.
Nick Batzdorf/Virtual Instruments Magazine

"Kirk's string sounds have been an integral part of my palette for several years now. From the "Medium" main title, and now my weekly score for "Ugly Betty" these sounds have both the warmth, bite, and drama I often need. With his new virtuoso series, I can now use some of his best string sounds in an extremely well organized and programmed package. The Kontakt interface and ingenious scripting make for very musical results with minimal fuss, and are remarkably easy on both memory and cpu. Thanks Kirk!"

-Jeff Beal - Emmy winning composer of such hits as Ugly Betty, Monk, Medium and many others.

"Kirk..........you did it again! I always loved your original Virtuoso Strings and I’m very excited to see the amazing evolution into your new Virtuoso Series Pro. This library encompasses all the features I need to make a truly professional sounding string track. The articulations and ornamentations are extremely easy to implement in the “heat of battle” and the sound flexibility is the most professional yet. You really got me when I was playing a large, broad, heavy sequence, and then with the turn of one knob.....a beautiful, delicate, European feeling section emerged. You’ve pretty well covered all the bases, and have made it easy for me to create the pro-level performances on my computer that would have been far too unwieldy before."

-Bruce Miller - Emmy nominated Composer/Arranger/Conductor for many hit television shows and films such as "Frasier", "Designing Women", "Wings", "Becker" and many many more.

“When composing orchestral music with sample based libraries, I sometimes tend to write within the limitations of  those samples. It is a rare occurrence that a sample library is released which has such dynamic expression and playability that it allows a musician to express himself with great believability in the final music.

Kirk Hunter's orchestral libraries are that rare occurrence.

They give tremendous creative freedom to the composer seeking orchestral realism, playability and tone. Kirk's Ruby strings have so much warmth and expressiveness it is simply staggering. The brass and woodwind samples have a dynamic range from extreme force to the most intimate tone one can imagine.

For that reason, Kirk's libraries are at the forefront of my orchestral sound."

-Shawn Patterson - composer and songwriter for the smash animated hit series, “El Tigre: The Adventures of many Rivera” on Nickelodeon. Other clients include Universal Pictures, Disney, Cartoon Network, The Sci-Fi Channel, and Sony.

"This complete orchestral library is the jewel in its maker's crown,..." (download full review - pdf...)

-Sound On Sound Magazine

"Kirk Hunter Symphony Orchestra - Emerald I've said this before, but I'll say it again. The days of bloated, gazillion sample orchestral libraries are numbered.

Oh, there will always be those of you who feel the need to have the latest and so-called greatest. You’ll make claims that you can’t do business without them. That your customers demand that you keep up to speed with your sample libraries and they’re always asking if you have Such-and-Such, because they really like the sound of it. That you need every articulation known to man because they give you choices – and more choices give your more artistic freedom.

Bulls__t.

Your customers won’t give a hoot what you’re using, as long as you have the talent and technical ability to make your compositions sing. They won’t know a VSL from a EWQSL, if you kill them with your work.

And to kill them with your work, you really don’t need any of those megabucks libraries. Not anymore.

I’ve sung the praises of GPO. I think it’s a very good starter library. But even Gary Garritan himself will tell you that it’s not meant to compete with the big guns.

I’m sure Kirk Hunter would probably tell you the same thing about his Symphony Orchestra Emerald. And he probably means it.

But that doesn’t matter. Because KHSO Emerald, the version he was kind enough to send to me for review, is a beautifully realized orchestral sample library that combines the sound of the big guns with the ease of use of the starter libraries and puts them in the hands of the average, budget-strapped composer.

KHSO Emerald, with its beatifully rendered samples, sounds every bit as good at the more expensive libraries, at a mere fraction of the cost ($325). The beauty of KHSO is that it DOESN’T give you a gazillion articulations to choose from. It gives you just the right amount.

You can read a list of those articulations here, and as you can see, there’s a lot of ground covered. Based on thousands of samples. Just about everything you need to make wonderful, realistic orchestral music.

So why do I think it’s just the right amount?

Pyschological studies have shown that when people are confronted with too many choices, they tend to get confused and shut down. And once they’ve finally made a choice, they tend to fret over whether or not it was the right one.

Add this to the simple fact that more choices means more time wading THROUGH those choices and what you have is a stituation that’s not very conducive to creativity.

And let’s be honest. When dealing with the mega-libraries, most of us look for and find the articulations we like best, then use them over and over again.

Yes, it’s nice to be able to go back and find new ones, but is it really worth three grand to ten grand to be able to do it?

My answer is no. Yours may vary.

Kirk Hunter’s Symphony Orchestra Emerald comes in two flavors: Kontakt 2 and Gigastudio.

Call me crazy, but why anyone would bother getting anything Gigastudio anymore is beyond me. Kontakt 2, with its scripting abilities, pretty much rules the roost at this point.

And Hunter's Kontakt 2 version takes advantage of that scripting. He's created something called Legato Live, which he's in the process of implementing for the Emerald orchestra.

As anyone who reads my reviews knows, I don't go into a lot of detail about the products because my reaction to sample libraries has more to do with gut than intellect -- just like music creation itself -- so if you want an explanation of what Legato Live is, check out Hunter's website.

My job is merely this: when I like something, I tell you about it. And I LOVE Kirk Hunter's Symphony Orchestra Emerald. Five minutes after I installed it, I was making beautiful music -- real world music that could be used in any project I take on.

To my mind, Kirk Hunter's Symphony Orchestra Emerald not only competes, it wins the competition."

-Rob Gregory Brown