Ableton Forum

Me being a poor bastard, it seems that getting the regular boxed version of Live is the cheapest way to get both a sequencer and some orchestra samples. My question: how good does EIC2 sound?

Even if it sounds just "okay" in comparison to the top names, that is fine with me: I'm a total noob at this and probably will remain so for quite some time.

If it doesn't sound good, do you have any recommendations for a cheap orchestra sample collections/sequencers that won't break the bank (under 400$ ideally).

Secondly, how heavy are the system requirements? Would the following set-up be okay for minimal orchestral arrangements? I'm in the process of upgrading, so this isn't final:

Amd Athlon 64 X2 4200 Dual Core
2 Gb RAM (3 gb?)
"Creative Sound Blaster X-fi Xtreme Music"-ish sound card

Thank you, good sirs.

You have all requirements, but my friend I can't find my EIC instruments after the Live 8 upgrade. (same setup as yours)

william.jack38 wrote:You have all requirements, but my friend I can't find my EIC instruments after the Live 8 upgrade. (same setup as yours)

I've heard that's been happening to a lot of people: supposedly they're just mixed in with the regular instrument rack. Does anyone have experience with EIC2 from previous versions of Live?

I got Miroslav Philharmonic on sale at guitar center $99,

KZ9 wrote:

william.jack38 wrote:You have all requirements, but my friend I can't find my EIC instruments after the Live 8 upgrade. (same setup as yours)

I've heard that's been happening to a lot of people: supposedly they're just mixed in with the regular instrument rack. Does anyone have experience with EIC2 from previous versions of Live?

+1, wish Ableton would issue a fix for that

moosethree wrote:I got Miroslav Philharmonic on sale at guitar center $99,

I tried the demo of Miroslav and found that the string ensembles only cover the two top octaves... I like to use strings to do the support for the melody on the lower octaves. This was also true for the Oboe. In the full version, is there a way to change the transposition or are their additional instruments that cover the lower octaves? The demo only has a couple of instruments. Thanks.

CWoodOne wrote:

KZ9 wrote:

william.jack38 wrote:You have all requirements, but my friend I can't find my EIC instruments after the Live 8 upgrade. (same setup as yours)

I've heard that's been happening to a lot of people: supposedly they're just mixed in with the regular instrument rack. Does anyone have experience with EIC2 from previous versions of Live?

+1, wish Ableton would issue a fix for that

I wish they would too: the launch of 8 has been terrible.

EIC sounds are OK but if you want something that sounds like an orchestra you'd be better off with something like Kontakt 3 which has generally more and better sounding samples. You can run Kontakt stand-alone although in my experience it runs much better as a DAW plugin.

EIC installs in Live as 'instrument racks' in the browser and mine were carried forward fine from 7 into Live 8.

If you have Sampler you can import samples in lots of different formats and this can be a cheap way of building a tailor made collection if you have specific needs, or even making your own if you are really keen.

Kontakt 3 is good for orchestral sounds (Lacks a good piano). great on guitars, drums, and has a wide selection of instruments.
Garritan Personnal orcheestra, has good orchestral sounds, and an AMAZING piano sound for the 1/2 the price of Kontakt.

Agreed Garritan is a good budget option if you only want orchestral sounds. The kontakt pianos are much better than the EIC one IMHO.

the EIC sounds are fine for what they are and not very expensive when bought in the boxed edition packages - are they the best and most extensive - no - think Reason's orkester and factory bank type quality. If you are very much into scoring or soundtracks, you might need something with more depth, such as plugsound pro, VI. One, Kontakt, East West Colossus etc, which are varying degrees of tweakable sample sounds, many (excepting Plug SOund Pro) use Kontakt player as a front end.