Muse Woodwinds Reviews
This is beautiful. My favorite part of it is the clicks/flap that have been included. The oboe/clarinette/english horns should have had a richer tone/less nasal to be realistic, but I’m confident that’ll be sorted out eventually… The saxophone sounds are incredible too, though it might be a bit much for some. Personally, I’m a fan.
Beautiful sounds within all sections. Good with runs and melodies. Could have better balancing (especially the altos) and with the saxes the staccatos are too short (like slap tonguing), how about a sound options that allows short and slap tonguing articulations. Would like Contra Clarinet and Bass Oboe. Overall great for symphonies and concert band.
Muse Woodwinds really has some beautiful sound to it. I love that they use natural vibrato, just as a reed player would normally. Clarinets sound hyper realistic. The only sounds I have any issue with, and only on the level of personal opinion, would be Flute 1 and Flute 2. Personally, they sound to airy to me. Like the player's air stream over the mouthpiece is somehow louder than the flute itself, and the Flute 2 sound, is nearly a non-vib sound, and sounds like a weaker player, compared to flute 1. But other than that, I have no problems using these sounds, and they sound very nice!
I second what last reviewer said. Luckily I've been using these woodwind sounds since they entered the MS4 Development branch so this small bug of the library being unable to work as of November 17th 2024 is easy to let slide. I've seen this library evolve rapidly since it's been available. Absolutely great soundfont if you want that classical music recording sound. Considering the MuseSounds team has kept everything completly free is very cool. Even though they're is plenty of work to do in terms of compatibility for users. I still think this library is beyond awesome for being free.
I like it! Although sometimes there can be problems with oboes playing out of tune higher notes and clarinets coming in early.
I love how there free but they have some issues. First the saxophones are too loud . I personally think there should be more instruments like a bass sax and a contrabass clarinet both of these instruments will make the bottom end of the low reeds much balanced as the only big low sound is only the contrabassoon. But overall i enjoy the muse sounds
This is overall pretty good, but it is missing some stuff. Sounds are sometimes noticeably repeated, not a wide variety of instruments, and balancing issues. Saxophones are too loud, dynamics are unbalanced. No alto clarinet, and no section sounds. There is some more issues that could be reviewed. Pretty great though since it is free!!
I compose for concert bands, and sometimes while composing, I run into balance issues. Specifically, in the saxophones. The saxophones are too loud! They tend to take over, especially at forte to fortissimo dynamics. For example, in a piece I composed and ended up abandoning, during the fast, loud, energetic part, the alto saxophones were just drowning out all of the other instruments with the melody. I would appreciate it if you were to maybe work on the balancing, especially with the saxes.
Nice! But the PIccolo trill doesn’t go up the entire range as with the other instruments! PLS FIX
Each instrument here sounds great, and there's some surprising variety with instruments like contrabass flute and the saxophone family. I do think an alto clarinet and a contrabass clarinet would be good additions in the future. However, it's not perfect. As with most of Muse Sounds, there is a problem with audio balance between instruments. In particular, the oboe is too quiet — even at ff dynamic it often can't be clearly heard over the orchestra, even though the real thing can cut through almost any mix.
It's amazing to have such good quality instruments one button away for... free! Overall they do sound really good and the instrument selection is pretty much what a standard orchestra uses regarding principal and auxiliary instruments (though an extra oboe, clarinet and bassoon, maybe even an Oboe d'Amore instead of a contrabass flute wouldn't hurt). Saxes are a nice addition to this, but be aware that they might not be suitable for all kinds of music (specially jazz and big band stuff), they really shine in an orchestral context or as a chamber group. As an important thing to mention: Currently this library defaults to legato no matter if there are slurs or not, this should eventually change like with Muse Brass and Muse Strings which got a "Classic Phrasing" Sound Flag.
No matter how many errors you've noticed when you download it, but I think, that the updated library is the way better than before... So I like it anyway
Actually to be honest the quality of samples in this library I really have no issue with, especially given the price. Just a bit annoying that MuseScore isn't able to send notes to the sampler with reduced durations so it doesn't try to use legato samples all the time. Oh and bass clarinet has stopped working for me, but I'm fairly sure that's just a temporary glitch.
Given that this is a free product, I will compare it to MS Basic rather than the paid sounds. Timbre: these new sounds are very realistic, much better than MS basic by a long shot. Some issues in the high ranges, but overall very good. Instrument selection: A very odd selection of instruments. Not quite sure how contrabass flute made it in but contrabass clarinet didn’t. Missing A clarinet (see next point for why you can’t just use Bb clarinet). Bass oboe and bass sax would be nice to have as well. Instrument ranges: has improved significantly since released. Still missing some sounds such as the written low E for A clarinets. Rhythm: very, very inaccurate. MS basic does a much better job here. Anything beyond a slow tempo is likely to be very sloppy. Even simple quarter notes or scales can be uneven. For example, at quarter=120, just repeated low E-E-A-A quarter notes on bassoon will be inaccurate. This problem gets much worse with faster music. This is one of the biggest problems with Muse Woodwinds. MS basic is way, way more accurate. Intonation: has improved since initially released, not bad. Doesn’t stick out, not a concern in my opinion. Slurs: everything is slurred. This is the opposite of MS basic, where everything is tongued. Personally, I think having everything tongued in MS basic is a more accurate representation because the slurs in Muse Woodwinds can be very sloppy, especially large down slurs (this may be a contributing factor to the rhythmic issues). Balance: Not great. Different instruments stick out at different dynamics. The piccolo is the worst offender up high. Seriously, do not write for Muse Woodwinds piccolo up high above a mezzo forte because it is painfully loud. Again, MS basic does a better job here Articulations: The sounds themselves are pretty good. My only complaint is that the accents rely on tongue rather than air, but this is up to interpretation. However, the big problem here is that the dynamics are pretty unpredictable. Depending on both the instrument and marked dynamic, some articulations (especially staccatos and especially bari sax) can stick out like a sore thumb or be completely inaudible. Though MS basic does not have unique sounds, it is far more predictable. Which is better is up for debate. Playing techniques: Significant balance issues, would not recommend using. MS basic does not have different playing techniques. Trills: Holds the base note before starting the trill. Effective for solo writing, but makes trills completely unusable for fast music or ensemble trills. Other: plays fast notes (including grace notes) much louder than other notes Overall: Has the potential to sound very nice given the right score. Does well with legato, chorale-like writing where parts are rarely exposed. Does a good job making your ears happy with nice timbres, but does a bad job accurately representing what is notated. Would not recommend using this over MS basic for most purposes.