Quality of audio "Sinfonia"/"OrchExtra"/"InstrumentalEase"

[gafftaper]

Has anyone used Sinfonia or its re-branded versions "OrchExtra" and "InstrumentalEase" lately?

We've got some issues going on with our orchestra for our upcoming show. I'm wondering about using this software to fill out the rest of the orchestra. Our music director says he has used it but it sounds like bad midi from 30 years ago. I think his experience was a while ago and I'm wondering if it sounds better these days.

Anyone use it recently? How did it sound?

 

[Malabaristo]

I hadn't heard of it before, so I was doing some reading on MTI's website and found this FAQ that includes a note about a free trial version. Apparently it's a fully functional trial of the first few songs in a given package, so you should be able to get a sense of how it sounds.

 

[themuzicman]

I've used StageTracks from Concord Theatrical and OrchExtra from MTI a few times over the years. For pure audio quality, StageTracks was fantastic because it was a real recorded Orchestra and the StageTracks folks worked with us to get us what we needed - I as the sound designer wanted stems from each instrument so I could source to speakers placed in the pit and our MD wanted cuts and vamps in certain spots. We were both pretty pleased with the end result.

From a flexibility point of view, OrchExtra has a ton of flexibility - not being tied to a specific tempo is nice. I've toured Broadway pits on second national tours with systems like OrchExtra and it all comes down to the quality of samples used. From a quick look at MTI's website it looks like samples vary show-to-show, it's a real shame you can't rent the system out and then load in samples you want, but I think it's worth doing a trial of the show you are looking at to see if the samples they use satisfy your needs. From my experience the moment you can hide OrchExtra under a few acoustic instruments you're going to forgive most of the more egregious sounding instruments (until they happen to have a solo or standout musical phrase).

 

[gafftaper]

Thanks everyone. I just tested out the trial version of the show and it was pretty rough. I'm a little surprised that in 2024 we still have someone trying to sell audio that poor. Parts of it are okay, but certain instruments remind me of video games I played in the late 90's.

 

[Footer]

Thanks everyone. I just tested out the trial version of the show and it was pretty rough. I'm a little surprised that in 2024 we still have someone trying to sell audio that poor. Parts of it are okay, but certain instruments remind me of video games I played in the late 90's.

I bet it depends on when the show came online. Last time I touched that system was 20-ish years ago and ya... it sounded like a bad midi controller... because it was. We ended up just re-recording it to mini disc for rehearsal use and never used it for the actual show.