THE INTERFACE
MP uses it's own version of the IK Sample Tank (free download) which is a very powerful tool in itself giving you control over almost everything in the sounds you want to tweek (and a lot of things that are best left alone, so remember where the dials where before you started playing with them, or reload the instrument after you've totally messed it up) There are also quite a few effects included that could be applied to each instrument or instance of MP. They might be really good, but are lacking any presets that I could see so you have to experiment on your own. The powerful sample tank interface also allows you to split the keyboard between 2 groups of instruments and also will play instruments according to the velocity a key is hit (example: the faster you hit the key the more instruments play). This is mainly useful for live performance and lazy orchestrators, but I could see myself eventually 'building' a solo violin for instance that would change articulations (using 'Lanes' in MC6) according to the velocity of the note but that would be a hobby in itself
So a good solid B for the interface. It IS easy to use initially but to realize its full potential it really needs presets so the users can educate themselves better as to what all those knobs and buttons actually do. The same holds true of the included effects which I was not all impressed with them in their default settings.The Samples
The samples for MP were taken from the Czek Philharmonic in the late 1990's to early 2000's and yes by today's standards some are a bit dated, BUT the underlying musicianship of the players comes through more so than in some of the more 'modern' sample collections. You are given a huge array of samples and I have listened to all of them at least once now and used or tried to use many so here are my opinions"
The winners:
Solo Violin, Solo Cello, Solo Oboe, Strings except as listed below String Ensembles, Percussion, massed brass, trombones, trumpets, tuba, guitars, organ, bassoon, clarinet, flutes & solo flute
SO-SO:
choirs, horns, section violas
The Losers:
Harp, soft solo horn, solo viola, English horn,
Artifacts:
MP really needs 4 cores to run properly in MC6. My 2 core machine gets lots of artifacts (pops & clicks) even in the mixdown. I purposely left some in the woodwind section at the end of the sample I'm providing so you can hear. BUT ALL IS NOT LOST for the owners of dual core machines. One needs only mix the tracks that are producing artifacts down to wave AND no artifacts
I got this trick from the EWQL forums where some people need mix all tracks down to wave (bounce) except for the 1 or 2 they are currently working on. The real test is in what you can produce so here is an example I've been working on using only MP samples and some Acoustica effects as will be noted below the sample. I hope you enjoy:
http://soundcloud.com/clyde-lindman/newtunetest
