Let's Play: Maximo by Sonokinetic!

Maximo has an intro price for a limited time: www.sonokineti...
Twitter: @GeoffManch
Website: Geoffmanchester.com

[@AlexMoukala]

Thanks for the awesome review man! Gotta get my hands on this asap. :)

[@ManchesterMusic]

+Alex Moukala thanks for stopping by!

[@willhelliwell]

Just come across this library and it sounds amazing! I love that you can see the notation and learn how all the phrases are actually played. It's 50% off right now too so I think I need to get it. Already have Ostinato Brass and Strings. Thanks for the good video.

[@PereRevert]

Love your videos man ! Humble and practical reviews through real life example cues to look at. Liked your minimalistic approach about not over-process individual tracks. Great recommendations. Keep up the good work !

[@ManchesterMusic]

+PereRevert super kind of you to say so. Means a lot man. THANK YOU.

[@ricshaw4358]

Great review.

[@ceciliafbrown373]

Love your videos Geoff! Precise and concise. No fanning around. Sweet! ;-)

[@ManchesterMusic]

Awww, thanks dude. Means a lot to read comments like this.

[@reazallykhan8614]

best review I've seen so ar

[@FollowTheirLeadMUSIC]

Im using this library alot in my music and its just incredible how good it is. Awesome review of course.

[@ManchesterMusic]

+Follow Their Lead my pleasure thanks for the comment.

[@VOTECHGURU]

Great review. Thanks, man.

[@hodshonf]

big sale right now. just grabbed Ostinato Winds (new), Oud, and SOTTO !!! and this is just day 5 out of 12.

[@JeremyJames_studio]

Great insights Geoff

[@hermannwagner160]

Hey great video mate! Ive been looking into alot of sonokinetics stuff lately and it sounds great. I just have this feeling that its kinda cheating? I would like to get someone elses opinion on this. I just feel like when you use something like this, that you arent making the music yourself, it is already made in the software? What do you think?

[@KevinWendellJones]

Good review. I have all their libraries except the last one that came out. The last few are great for getting those cinematic sounds if you're not into charting. The early stuff was good for adding fill in stuff here and there because you was playing one note. But their latest stuff makes you sound like you great composer for batman type film.

[@MaxxMcGeeImpactStudios]

I like the sound of it! Some phrase based libraries are difficult to use in a composition, because you have to go through all the phrases looking for a fitting one. I often use Action Strings as a quick base for staccato strings and stack it up with other libraries. How is your experience with Maximo so far? Does it blend in well? The midi function seems to be brilliant.

[@ManchesterMusic]

I really like it. It blends well so long as all the other instruments and midi from external stuff 'fits the dress code' set by Maximo, if that makes sense. I think it's especially ideal for trailer scoring. Nothing's more powerful, except maybe Albion 1 and Ark, which are sample libraries and not phrase libraries.

[@augustodalmolin4353]

Excelent Review!!

[@argreenlee]

I love the reviews you do for Sonokinetic. They currently have Maximo on sale for anther day. However, I'm restraining myself to only one new phrase library for this year. I already own Vivace and Capriccio. Vivace seems to have a lot of the same feel, particularly with the Inceptive Brass and percussion patches. And while they're entirely different libraries, if you had to choose between Sotto and Maximo, which would you choose?

[@ManchesterMusic]

Oh boy. Those couldn’t be more different as libraries, honestly. I’d take a hard look at the kind of music you make or are hoping to make before taking the plunge on one. I have both and they’re strikingly different. I’d say Sotto takes the road less traveled in the sample library world with really delicate passages similar to lots of demos from Spitfire, actually. Maximo is essentially your go to library for a ‘Marvel Movie’ type sound. It totally depends on the kinds of things you write

[@argreenlee]

Thanks. I decided to pass on Maximo. I think Sotto is more what I'm after. Hopefully it will be part of their 12 Days of Christmas promo.

[@guitngood7944]

Hi Geoff - another great vid! Thanks for all you do. I just started investing and now have Komplete 11 Ultimate as well as Cinematic Strings 2. What in your opinion would you add to these libraries to get more of an all around orchestral sound. I'm getting overwhelmed with the options and wonder how to mix and match. For instance Albion V Tundra demos are wonderful.

[@ManchesterMusic]

Appreciate the kind words! Oh dear, tell you what, I have a video coming out on which libraries I use for solo and ensemble strings next Wednesday but it's still in production, so I can't give away any answers as the content is changing. Please check back for the video! However, You've got the select Symphony Series in K-11, which seems great; can't speak for Cinematic Strings 2. If I were you, I'd very carefully read up on the lit involved for each VST as they tend to be recorded for specific production applications. Depending on the type of music you're creating one VST might suit the other. For an 'all around orchestral sound', you'd be fine with the select series in K-11, but I'd consider something like Chamber Strings from Spitfire (which I'll speak more about in next week's video). For tougher fare, Maximal and perhaps Albion 1 would be more suitable. There's a lot of variables!

[@guitngood7944]

Looking forward to the next video then :) Btw the brass stabs etc in the Maximo video sound really good and are pretty much a must have for trailer music anymore.

[@ManchesterMusic]

agree 100%, they killed it on the low end.

[@simoncortes8196]

Hey ! Nice review, how do you do the impacts tho ? is it in the Maximo library too ? thks !

[@JIVIarshall]

Excellent video Geoff! I was wondering about a couple of things. Does a phrase library, such as this, force you to write in certain time signatures? Also, I was just looking into the Sonokinetic product range and I wouldn't know where to start. For example how is Maximo different from Grosso? (Another "grand" sounding library). Do you have any other Sonokinetic libraries that you could recommend? (Big fan of your channel by the way, I always look forward to new videos :) )

[@ManchesterMusic]

Hey James. Thanks for the questions! Let's tackle them one by one. Time Signatures: I believe the players you're hearing in Maximo were recorded at 4/4. Other phrase libraries were recorded at different measures like Grosso which was recorded at 12/8. Good news is that 12/8 is already the time signature that most fantasy/action stuff is written. Not sure if you noticed, but there's also a function for you to slow the speed, quicken it, etc and there's options to offset the samples too which makes for interesting rhythms. But for the overall I think you're locked in to whatever time signature it was originally recorded at, but I may be wrong; haven't experimented enough with that possibility. Different Phrase libraries from Sonokinetic: IMHO: I'd say Minimal is a fitting tribute to the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass and John Adams, great for documentary scoring. Grosso is a 'grand' library fit for fantasy, chase scenes and action based stuff. Cappricio is almost a companion piece to Grosso, except unlike Grosso it's in 4/4. Sotto, is for more quiet, delicate scoring; it's very cinematic, sweeping and 'emotional' if that makes sense. I wished I owned Sotto, it might be my next addition from Sonokinetic. What else I own: I own Minimal, Cappricio and now Maximo. Maybe if Sonokinetic is reading this comment they'd like to send me the rest! :). I love Cappricio and it was a no brainer for me as I was going to get Grosso, but wasn't sure I was prepared to write much in 12/8. Seeing as Cappricio was 4/4, I dove in. Thanks for all the positive comments! Let me know if you have more questions!

[@JIVIarshall]

Lots of food for thought there. I did suspect you'd be working within a time sig, but that's fine I suppose. I'm definitely interested in picking up one or two of these libraries. It seems like a great way to quick-start compositions, and like you said also learn how certain sections are played. Thanks for the comprehensive response :)

[@OneShortMoment]

James Marshall (and everyone else reading this, trying to make sense of the ever increasing catalog from Sonokinetic) : In addition to the excellent replies that Geoff already gave you, let me point out that there's a comparison table for all their orchestral libraries that Sonokinetic added recently to their page: www.sonokinetic.net/comparisontable/ Although there's only on line of description there for each library, it also lists other key data like the meter / time signature the lib was recorded in. (And it seems that Minimal is the only one that has phrases in more than one meter.)

[@JIVIarshall]

Thanks Manuel! I wasn't aware of that page. You're probably seen already but they've got some great deals over the next few days: www.sonokinetic.net/sale. I'm debating whether to pull the trigger on Vivace....

[@OneShortMoment]

Yes, I know... I'm also very tempted by the current sale. While Vivace might be a bit more "niche" than the other libraries Geoff mentioned (and owns), it sure does sound nice... so I'll probably gonna get it at this great price. (I'm actually hoping they also put Minimal or Sotto etc. on sale on one of the remaining days of their sale... although my wallet might really hate Sonokinetic by then. 😉 )

[@millsmixx5080]

great overview Manchester! hey you mentioned in a previous video that your 'go to' Sonokinetic library is "Minimal." I own all the other major starter libraries, the Albion's, Symphobia, Cinesymphony Lite, Ark 1, 8dio stuff, etc..., but other than Action Strings I don't have any Phrase libraries. I'm trying to decide on which Sonokinetic library to be my gateway drug as you would say lol :--) is Maximo the right place to start or do you recommend something else from them?

[@ManchesterMusic]

+Stephen Mills hey dude. It really depends on what kind of music you're making. Minimal: Steve Reich, Philip Glass. Documentary. Maximo: Zimmer, Epic. Marvel-Style. Capriccio: Intense, Action, Heroic. Sotto: Delicate, Moving, Drama. Grosso: Action, Epic but all passages are in 12/8 time where as all others mentioned are in 4/4. I own Maximo, Minimal, Capriccio and Sotto. Minimal is a favourite but Sotto is downright beautiful. I'd say Capriccio may be the most versatile. I'd recommend really getting familiar with all the preview and promo stuff on the website to give you an idea of what it might sound like in your own workflow. Good luck!

[@MehulPandit]

Are there any more phrase libraries like these apart from what sonokinetic makes? I mean ones for classical orchestras. Thanks!

[@ManchesterMusic]

+Mehul Pandit not really, actually. NI make a few libraries that might be up your alley that are phrased based.

[@chasvox2]

Kudos. I do VO for a living and so from my perspective you did an EXCELLENT job. I find so many of these KZbin (narrators) presentations unendurable. In your case, you absolutely "get it." As to the library itself, these guys do some amazing orchestration libraries. I worked for them sometime back - doing a number of their "trailer package" VO's (sample below)...I believe the folks I worked with at that time may no longer be part of their team...but whoever is running the organization now is doing just fine...keep up the good work...(link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWK3m4yFrZx4q80)

[@CybreSmee]

I bought this a while back and find it totally useless. It sounds great for about 20minutes untill you work out you can't actually incorporate it into your arrangements as everything is rigidly set in stone. You can't play melodies or anything legato. The only thing you can do with it is start something from scratch using this for vamps or ostinatos, then use other libraries to build on it. But then, all the cool sounding grooves have been used everywhere, so good luck trying to shoehorn a unique sounding line from it. Its a gimmick, the same money over at Spitfire Audio will give you a lifetime of creativity.

[@hodshonf]

20 minutes - glad you spent some quality time with it.

[@loot6]

90 second demo? You have a terrible judge of time - its only 20 seconds....

[@ManchesterMusic]

Thanks Loot6. What is time anyway? hahaha. Just kidding. But seriously.