Musio: A Game-Changer For Composers

As a composer for film, TV, and video games, I already own many of Cinesamples' Kontakt libraries. So why would I bother paying monthly for Musio? Well, much to my surprise, the application has some incredible features to help streamline the composing process for professionals. In this video, I share what features I've just started using in my own studio, and why I think beginner composers need to consider this cloud-based music library.
Video Chapters:
00:00 - Overview
02:28 - Application Overview
04:26 - Musio Libraries VS Kontakt Versions
07:38 - A Game Changing Feature
09:52 - What's Possible? Hear The Sounds
11:22 - What Do You Do Next?
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#filmcomposer #composer #musio

[@michaelpatti296]

Thank you Jonas!! Mike here, founder of Musio, thanks for the thorough review. And yes, Keyswitches are a matter of weeks away, and multi-mics by years end.

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure Mike! Excited to see what you guys have in store.

[@dB_Twelve]

Oooooo, so mic positions, although delayed, are very close. Awesome!

[@musio.official]

Thanks for making music with Musio, Jonas! We're so psyched you like it-and we're just getting started. ☺

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure 🤘

[@jenstornell]

I may actually buy this thing. I already use Eastwest cloud which really is a mixed bag, good and less good stuff. What is the price drop about really? A way for a healthy future or a desperate attempt to get new users before getting bankrupt? 😮

[@jonasfriedman]

@@jenstornell not sure about the price drop intentions but i do think composers and other music makers are benefiting greatly - I’ve never personally been a fan of east west’s stuff, which made me wary of a cloud based option in the first place, but I think what Musio is offering is pretty amazing

[@Frank.Zimmermann]

Once again, a fantastic as well as extremely helpful video. Thanks for this, Jonas! Gosh, Musio seems very promising to me. As you said, even more so on the subject of collaboration. This library sounds really bombastic. I'll definitely go ahead and take the free 30-day test drive. I'm already very excited about it. Until next time, Frank

[@jonasfriedman]

Thanks Frank! Happy music creation 🙌

[@jeradatherton]

Hey man. This is the first video I’ve seen of yours and I’m impressed. You seem like a cool guy that’s not overhyping or weird. You offered info I didn’t see in any other videos…and your production quality of the cameras, lighting, colors, and even moving shots really made me take notice and say, “I should pay attention to what this guy is doing.” Just wanted you to know. Well done.

[@jonasfriedman]

Really appreciate these kind words! Thanks for checking out the vid

[@CB-Music]

Great review Jonas. Subscribed. I've been using Musio since April (lifetime license) and use it literally every day. Many nice features. Like you covered a big one is that you only download the articulations you need. Huge saving on storage especially when using the bigger libs.

[@jonasfriedman]

Thanks @CB-Music ! Ya the storage savings is something I don’t think many people think about but great SSD’s aren’t cheap!

[@RickOli]

Great Tutorial, described exactly what I think about Musio, I'm loving using Musio.

[@jonasfriedman]

@RickOli Me too!

[@markhensonguitarist-composer]

Great video Jonas, and a fantastic piece of music to showcase Musio !

[@jonasfriedman]

Many thanks!

[@samheightsgaray]

Another great vid! Straight to the point for how the application matters in actual workflow for producers and composers.

[@jonasfriedman]

Happy to hear you found it helpful thanks for watching

[@GregLassalle2015]

Only recently found your channel Jonas. Great info...........well presented. I will surely stick around. Your piece here was awesome! 👍🏾

[@jonasfriedman]

Really appreciate it @greglassalle2015 !!!great to have you here

[@njt_music96]

thanks for an amzing video. your content always keeps me up to date which i love. This is incredible news, that companies like Cinesamples are starting to use Musio. Which hopefully means more competition, between Native Instruments and interface/ software companies like Musio. Can't wait to see what the future holds for them :)

[@jonasfriedman]

Appreciate your comment! More competition amongst sample makers has undoubtedly been beneficial to music makers, what an amazing time to compose and produce music🙌

[@Theprettyone234]

Love it!! Super helpful!! 👏🏼🙌🏼

[@jonasfriedman]

Happy to hear it!

[@pavelkravitch]

This man is pragmatic, honest and talented. In the end it's not the tool that counts, it's what you do with it. What a chance to have some pros composers to show us there skills and knowledge. Such a great thing to have you in the game. I have my eyes on Musio, but is it worth it if i already have the Complete Cinesymphony + Tina Guo Bundle ? I wish you the best. HB

[@jonasfriedman]

Really appreciate the kind words. I honestly I think it is worth it...even with cinesymphony and guo bundle, at least for me personally - I have cinestrings both core and solo, cinewinds, brass, perc - all of it and I still feel this is worth it…especially if u collaborate with a team for the share feature - I’m currently building an entire new template around that so we can easily go back and forth headache free. I have the kontakt libraries in my template but disabled - so I write exclusively with Musio and then I can easily move the midi to the kontakt channel if I want more microphone freedom and so on. I also am really enjoying some of the synths I’ve discovered through here and imagine they’ll just keep adding to fulfill the claim of “infinite instrument” - so currently Im feeling it’s worth it 🤘

[@brandonallen5566]

I would add as well, there are things that are musio exclusive that Cinesamples isn’t planning on releasing in the kontakt format, as far as I understand! I highly recommend it! :)

[@jonasfriedman]

@@brandonallen5566 yes I discovered this like Gina’s flute library - really awesome stuff and I imagine there will be more exclusives to come

[@GavinPotter]

I had no idea about this, thank you for this video! I've always loved Cinesamples but couldn't afford them all. Great video thanks.

[@jonasfriedman]

This is exactly why I made this video - really happy to hear this is helpful!

[@brandonallen5566]

Thanks for the video! :) keyswitches and mic positions are coming in future updates I believe, according to their website! The fact that they are continually and consistently updating the interface and sampler itself, as well as the content with new and exciting instruments, musio was a no brainer for me! (Especially at such a low LOW cost). Thanks again :)

[@jonasfriedman]

Ya they have a home run IMHO - really excited to see how the application develops overtime. Cool to know about those key switch updates…will be good for anyone that prefer that method

[@musio.official]

Keyswitching - October Multi-mic positions - December 😉

[@shurikennoprob]

Sold. Im in. Thank you for helping me decide😊

[@jonasfriedman]

Any time!

[@Bitimi]

Great overview, Jonas! Personally, I'm optimistic about more companies adopting this model, alongside offering an outright buying option for those who prefer it. When you think about it, the cost of two full-price sample libraries could cover a subscription for 7-10 years, and who knows what kind of music you'll be creating during that time.

[@franco7709]

Thanks for this video! I'm trying out the trial period version and they have included the Keyswitch function that you can now download for certain instruments. Sometimes is simpler to jump over every articulation by hitting a midi note and having less audio outputs. The mic positions availability is something that I would REALLY miss... I hope they can reconsider including them in the future.

[@jonasfriedman]

@franco7709 - yes keyswitches were added! Super helpful for anyone that likes to work with them. I know what you mean about mic positions, I personally do like to use them sometimes, but for me personally, having a smaller footprint is definitely helpful for certain projects especially if I"m not composing in surround. enjoy the trial period!

[@NeuroPete]

As a hobbyist, I wish Musio had being around in its current form before I spent thousands on orchestral sample libraries I don't need just because they were on sale. However, it should be noted that Musio lacks some of the features that require Kontakt programming, such as harp glissandos and Voxos phrase builder, though these features may be coming.

[@jonasfriedman]

Totally know how you feel! That’s a good detail to point out about the kontakt programming - it will be interesting to see if these feature are added down the line. Thanks for watching !

[@AtlasBenighted]

Great video mate! 👍

[@jonasfriedman]

Thanks so much 🤘

[@jezzaroddy]

Damn. Musio seems like the way to go! From what I'm reading and seeing, I also think getting this is a no-brainer

[@meister_musicus]

Love your Channel. Would you consider doing a video about your Template? Routing, plugins, settings and all that good stuff🎉 Keep up the good work

[@jonasfriedman]

Thank you! Yes a template video has already been recorded and is being edited…stay tuned!

[@TeddyTOG]

I wasted hours/days trying to find "affordable" libraries which as you know in film is not the case. Unless you go with an "essentials" or "lite" versions. With that being said, Musio is a game changer. I have only been using it for 3 days but it covered all of my Brass, Viola, and soft piano for scores needs. The sound quality (sonically) is very close to what I spend hours trying to achieve through plugins with dry samples. Great video.

[@vinniedixiemusic]

Cool ! this plus A.I and no composers needed very soon 😮‍💨

[@jonasfriedman]

I’ve though about that, while I’m not sure how this application will eventually integrate with ai - these days anything is possible and pretty much every industry is in the same boat of “wait and I see”…

[@kennethjackson4858]

Thank you, Jonas! Great learning experience for me. I only have Opus and seeing MUSIOi feel I can learn orchestration and maybe learn from you what you do. The price sounds good. I use Logic but what screen monitor Is that you use?

[@jonasfriedman]

The monitor is an old aoc 4k monitor I believe 30” - nothing special honestly was a cheap option at the time so I bought 3

[@LeonThomasian]

Hi Jonas, thank you for this wonderful video and demo. Any difference in sound quality between the kontakt version and musio aside from mic positions?

[@jonasfriedman]

Not that I found - I thought initially the mix was a bit different, but not in a bad way. Just had to make a few minor adjustments on my tracks eq’s

[@andrewmanzano]

Great review! I hadn’t looked into that application, although I’ve seen it advertised. Amazing sounds! What is that piece at the end? From a show? Your stuff is amazing!

[@jonasfriedman]

Thanks Andrew! I personally recommend checking it out - pretty incredible what 9.99 a month can get you to create music these days. That piece at is something I did for a project that actually didn’t make it in! So now it’s in my portfolio :)

[@andrewmanzano]

@@jonasfriedman It's great! Hey, maybe a behind the scenes tour of your filming setup? You've got a killer look to your channel! Very inspiring!

[@jonasfriedman]

I really appreciate that Andrew … I’ve actually had a couple people ask about doing that…I put something together :)

[@abettencourtmusic]

I started watching looking for informative content and I not only got that, but being a video producer, I was also surprised at how good and professional the whole video looks. I loved it. Thanks for this, it was very helpful and it’s definitely an asset to the computer community as well as KZbin in general. Subscribed.

[@jonasfriedman]

Really appreciate these kind words @abettencourtmusic - it’s always great to hear that the information is helpful to someone and an added bonus when people notice the care put into the video production. Thank you for watching and joining this slowly budding community. I’m excited to share more content with you.

[@babadivamusicprod]

Thanks for this helpful video, Jonas. I concern about building templates with Musio. It doesn't seem easy to run Musio with a full orchestra with this amount of articulation for each instrument and making a template could be huge. Am I right?

[@jonasfriedman]

Great question - I actually go over this in my very latest video from last week about my template. You’ll see that I actually built it with individual articulations (not with Musio but cinesamples split patches - built it long before I checked out Musio) because I happen to not like or use key switches. It’s not a small template but it’s also not the biggest I’ve worked on and taking the time to build it this way has been an incredible investment for me as it allows me to work very efficiently. I don’t load every single articulation either, just the ones I most commonly use and then if I end up needing something I can load those in designated racks for a particular cue. Check out the video and it may be able to better demonstrate an answer to this question

[@guotesuoze]

I need expression maps for symphonic compositions because I can use any simplification in a score that even with expression maps needs vertical scrolling on my screen.

[@jonasfriedman]

I know a lot of my people that use expression maps - I imagine once Musio has been updated with key switches a lot of people that prefer to work like this will be happy 😃

[@guotesuoze]

@@jonasfriedman I tried to find the least complicated way of getting expressions done, and expression maps were less than 1% of the effort that any other solution I could find brings. That's at least how I ended up there. I keep an eye on every sampler subscription, so goo to know that musio exists.

[@micwarren21]

Using Cubase I create an expression map. I give each instrument articulation in my rack a separate midi channel. For example Legato violins channel 1, Spiccato chanel 2, etc. for all the violin articulation patches in my rack. I name the expression map Vln 1, and save my Musio rack as Vln 1. Now when I pull up that rack as an instrument track, I can add the Vln 1 exp. Map. It works perfectly.

[@jonasfriedman]

Thanks so much for sharing this! I believe this is how I’m using it as well. Appreciate you watching and sharing your technique.

[@kennethjackson4858]

Hey Jonas, I have or I'm just new to composing and orchestrating, and before MUSIO can't out I got Hollywood Opus Edition in the sale. But watching what MUSIO has in it, do you think I can still learn with OPUS? It seems they see entirely differentl in their approach.

[@jonasfriedman]

@kennethjackson4858 - I’m not familiar with Hollywood Opus but you can learn to compose on anything - I learned on a rather poor sounding library I believe from VSL something like 15 years ago …I happen to like Musio from what I’ve experienced so far but at the end of the day these are just different tools to create music. Use whatever sounds you can access and that inspire you and just keep at it!!!

[@envrie9423]

I have a question! I was playing with the 4 horns patch in cinebrass pro on the free trial and I only heard one dynamic layer. Is this exclusively a feautre with Musio versions? or no

[@jonasfriedman]

I actually don’t know - I’d have to look into this - everything I play with has multiple layers that switch with the modwheel

[@oliverostermann2612]

I have got Musio as Trial Version since a few days. But I could find Keyswitches.

[@jonasfriedman]

Yep they added it a month or two after this video came out

[@rogermathews145]

Agree all this, but with a fast internet connection I find the downloads very slow, which means that I do not use Musio much.Perhaps I am too impatient!

[@jonasfriedman]

Hmmm I haven’t personally run into that. I have about 5-600 gps download speed on average and never had a problem. Not sure what is common though for people. Interesting point! I’d say since they only need to be dowmloaded once take a little time - select everything you’d like to download and then go do whatever you want while it does! I’ve certainly found it faster than waiting for entire libraries to download which can be just enormous compared to these individual patches

[@rogermathews145]

Good point! Will do.@@jonasfriedman

[@moabl2020]

impressive

[@williamscolaro1159]

For those bothered by the lack of keyswitches, it is coming with a future update.

[@jonasfriedman]

Great to know! Thanks for sharing 👍

[@musio.official]

October! :)

[@ipoponq]

DAmn, but I really gonna miss the multiple mics, because I can mix and most of the times I don't use their full mix. I'd really prefer at least 3 options: close, mid/overheads and room.

[@jonasfriedman]

I get that - on certain VEP templates I have my own mixes as well, but I happen to use the full most of the time especially for stereo delivery

[@lofomuses]

I'm sure you know this already, but maybe some of the people that will read this do not... I believe Musio has now added keyswitching. I know you are anti-keyswitching, and I can't blame you, since you probably have a gigantic one-track-per-articulation template. I'm not a pro film composer... I'm a pro chemical engineer, and only a semi-pro musician. I like keyswitching(!), because of the type of music I make, the type of sounds/articulations I use, and because my DAW makes keyswitching particularly easy. Thanks for the content! I will subscribe, and I look forward to more from you.

[@jonasfriedman]

yes, key switching was released recently, thanks for sharing this info and commenting! Great to have you here, appreciate you checking out the video!

[@jeetray11]

I have got a quick question for you Jonas. For cinema music or orchestral music this seems like a no brainer. How about for lyrics based songs that use may be two or three instruments. A percussion or two. A Piano or Gutar. Some strings. May be a banjo. Basic pop, folk type songs? Is this still a good choice? Because buying nice instruments is also pretty expensive. For example the guitar VSTs from Kontakt are 100$ at least each.

[@jonasfriedman]

Great question. I’d say there’s definitely still stuff in here that will be super useful for songwriting - drum set, synths, bass guitars and so on. While its definetly a no brainer IMHO for scoring work, being a music producer of any genre these days is about having lots of different tools to get the job done and Musio i feel does that really well. I would still recommend at the very least doing a month long trial and seeing how much you use it for your particular genre or style of music creation but I think most producers will find it to be pretty useful as I have (I don’t just do scoring work as I’m a songwriter as well 🙃)

[@dangeeestudios]

hey man! I'm a composer from The Bahamas, great stuff!! would love to connect with you.

[@stefankraft-DE]

They have got my payment but didn’t give me a license code. No reaction from support.

[@jonasfriedman]

That’s strange but I imagine it may be due to the holiday? I have no association with them in any official capacity so can not comment as to why that’s happened

[@rmcq1999]

Musio has keyswitches for most sample sets now.

[@jonasfriedman]

Yep! They updated this after my video

[@EtherealDawnOfficial]

Musio is the best!

[@jonasfriedman]

Agreed!

[@ArthurKlisiewicz]

My I ask why the GUI is so bad ? so unreadable ? so dark ? have you tested your plugin on 4K monitor ?

[@jonasfriedman]

I’m sorry I don’t understand the question - I have 4 monitors and Musio is not my plugin - it is from another company that created it and I use to for my work. Hope this clarifies

[@dfizzbom]

Musio is only gonna get better and better. I think the lifetime subscription is the no brainer if you can swing it. Do you get every articulation you have in the full kontakt library? How is it that a person who spent 1k or more for a single library will now have access to that library and everything else for the same money? That's gotta sting for people who have laid out thousands with them already. I have always grabbed the cinesamples stuff on sale but never invested in big full blown single libraries of theirs. Now I'm glad I didn't! But I've grabbed c-string runs, hollywoodwinds, c-brass 12 horns, Taylor Davis and all the Guo libraries. These are essential. But I just have so many other full blown libraries that for me, musio is on pause to see how it all develops. For a new composer looking to have it all, there's nothing better than musio, imo. It's the incredibly good deal on the lifetime subscription that can't be matched.

[@jonasfriedman]

I agree, I and someone else just pointed out that the lifetime subscription has sales for up to half off which would be amazing. For some libraries it seems like every articulation is there, while others it appears to be a more compact version leaving some things out. I was one of those people that spent thousands and so when this came out I really didn't look at it for the reason you pointed out. That said, it's all technology, it's like the people that bought six figure synthesizers and now they can use digital versions that retain presets and you can have 100 of them in a single session. Just the nature music technology over time. Happy I decided to take another look at this though, as now my entire template is being overhauled so that it's movable between myself and collaborators with this awesome share feature!

[@dfizzbom]

@@jonasfriedman true and that's awesome. Not to mention your demo is really top notch. You certainly gave musio a quality spin.

[@jonasfriedman]

Appreciate it!

[@bobbydolan]

Isn't the constant necessary downloading distracting to the creative process? What do you think?

[@jonasfriedman]

Good questions…I personally like to download when I’m not creating….so for example I schedule specific days to update my template and during that time is when I download and streamline my system

[@bobbydolan]

Thanks for replying. Are you suggesting that you download the entire library? If not, then how do u know which articulations to download before you create anything?

[@jonasfriedman]

@bobbydolan sometimes I download the entire library, other times if it’s something like a string library I know which articulations I use most of the time with my writing style and the types of projects I get so based on that I’ll download what’s relevant…if I find myself needing something I use less commonly then every once in a blue moon I download what’s missing

[@bobbydolan]

Thanks. I get it.

[@VeganKebabDoRuky]

Yes, Musio is affordable. Unfortunately, a lot of the libraries are poorly programmed, even if they are well recorded. There are instanced where I run into inconsistent timings of attack (one quick example Hardanger Fiddle Legato, I feel there's trouble around the C5 note, and even going from a lower note like B4 to C5 I'm convinced there's a missing slur that should happen) or velocity inconsistencies and etc.. Or some notes being more resonant while other sounding more natural, nitpicky things at times but a fair criticism. I guess we get what we pay for. These issues can be limiting for some intimate styles where these errors and inconsistencies are far too obvious. But for big orchestras with many layers it's not really a problem, so at least there's that. Also percussive and plucked sounds should generally be safe and not liable to such issues.

[@jonasfriedman]

Appreciate you sharing your experience…Most of the work I’ve been using Musio for has been larger orchestral arrangements so I haven’t noticed these things.

[@VeganKebabDoRuky]

@@jonasfriedman Your example score was very good, and I want to stress that I don't think it's a bad service. Especially for composers starting out it's very helpful and I try to report what I believe to be programming errors or missing layers, etc. to the support. It's just that people who will want to deal with more intimate sounds should spend extra time on free trial to see if they'll be content with the sounds they would like to use.

[@jonasfriedman]

@VeganKebabDoRuky absolutely!

[@croakingembryo]

I read "future of composting."

[@jonasfriedman]

It’s referring to the cloud composing and share features. While cloud composing has been around a while (east west composer cloud) I’ve never felt it was really something that beneficial until I checked out Musio, due to the share feature being made possible by what a library in the cloud provides

[@vicfirth1]

Watch for sales, usually they do the lifetime for $500 bucks, during sale periods.

[@jonasfriedman]

Whoa! A half off sale…I couldn’t imagine not buying in. That would be amazing

[@zariisofficial]

I really hate the monthly cloud sub model companies have adopted. Id much rather pay the full amount to own.

[@Doty6String]

I’ve fooled multiple people with cinewinds. So much character.

[@jonasfriedman]

Right!? I’m using. I’m using cinewinds all over my latest project.

[@Doty6String]

musio seems cool but ANOTHER SUBSCRIPTION?!?! pass @@jonasfriedman

[@TachyBunker]

Your camera makes your eyes very big, uncannily like an owl. The cinesamples libraries were always hyper big, godzilla-style. Love that to the bone. But Musio seems very inconvenient to me, I hate having to be connected to the internet for things as simple as composing in my DAW.

[@jonasfriedman]

Hey @tachybunker - appreciate your input regarding cinesamples and Musio! While I’m not sure of your intentions regarding the first part of your comment, I don’t feel it’s relevant to the community we’re building here.

[@TachyBunker]

@@jonasfriedman the intent was honesty, and a bit of humor :D No malice.

[@user-vp9ub1fm8y]

Musio is all about having 1 mic position.

[@jonasfriedman]

I’ve heard they might be adding more but for now that seems to be the case that it’s just a full mix option

[@user-vp9ub1fm8y]

@@jonasfriedman so if its a full mix,what kind of mic position is this?Deca,tree?what?

[@jonasfriedman]

@user-vp9ub1fm8y a full mix means that the engineers have blended all of the mic positions to what they feel is the best final mix for the library. It means you can not customize to your own taste for example if you prefer close mics to be more in the forefront or maybe less close mics and more room. Their mix has all of these mics to achieve the sound you hear but you don’t get to control them

[@user-vp9ub1fm8y]

@@jonasfriedman now i got it.But.What about the articulations?Does musio include all the articulations of the original libraries?

[@jonasfriedman]

@user-vp9ub1fm8y yep and worth a recent update I’m pretty sure you can assign articulations to whatever key switches you wnat

[@jamesscottvideos]

What's wrong with real instruments? Why such a low like ratio?

[@jonasfriedman]

@jamesscottvideos - nothing! I always highly recommend and prefer live musicians for a score. These days productions use real instruments combined with midi which is where apps like Musio come jn. The industry standard is to create mock-ups of all cues for a project and those mock-ups should sound as close to the real thing as humanly possible, because that’s what directors and producers are used to hearing for “demos”. On most major productions the midi is then performed by live players and the sounds are mixed together. This application gives composers access to the tools to create those professional mock ups for a monthly cost rather than buying each instrument library individually. Hope this answers your questions!