Cinesamples Musio

You can browse the full Musio catalogue within the plug‑in while the Instrument Rack shows all currently loaded sounds on the left side of the UI.

Cinesamples’ subscription package promises an awful lot of bang for your monthly bucks.

Cinesamples’ extensive catalogue of Kontakt‑based orchestral sample libraries will be very familiar to those who inhabit the world of film and TV composition. They create premium libraries suitable for high‑profile projects and, as with the obvious competition from Native Instruments, EastWest, Spitfire and others, they are also priced accordingly. For example, one of Cinesamples’ most popular orchestral strings libraries — CineStrings Core — will currently cost you upwards of $400.

Understandably, therefore, building a complete orchestral palette via individual Cinesamples Kontakt libraries represents a significant investment. Or maybe not... because Cinesamples have now introduced Musio. This platform provides access to a substantial (and growing) selection of their sample libraries for either a $9.99 per month subscription or a one‑off payment of $399. So, what exactly is Musio?

Top‑tier Sounds

The Musio platform combines two key elements; a catalogue of sample libraries and a plug‑in front end to access them with. In order to keep this review at a reasonable length, let’s address the first part of the Musio equation — the catalogue of sample libraries — by saying something simple and on‑point; the libraries themselves sound fabulous.

Within the current Musio catalogue, you get access to a huge selection of the CineBrass, CineString, CinePerc and CineWinds titles, the various Drums Of War libraries, the Men and Women Of The North vocal libraries, a whole range of the more specialist titles and, currently exclusive to Musio, a series of ‘Artist’ titles and some more contemporary libraries covering classic synth and drum‑machine sounds. Cinesamples maintain a complete list of what’s currently included on their website and for orchestral/hybrid orchestral composers, you could easily create a complete score without stepping outside the sounds Musio has to offer. And, since Musio’s launch, Cinesamples have been gradually porting more of their individual libraries over to the Musio format, so this is a catalogue that is undoubtedly going to expand over time.

Access All Areas

Musio is actually available in two forms; Musio and Musio 1. The former is the subscription model and currently priced at $9.99 per month (or $99 per year if purchased annually). An active subscription gives you unlimited access to the existing libraries via the Musio plug‑in front end, as well as access to any new library additions, and all updates to the plug‑in itself.

In contrast, Musio 1 is available for those that prefer a one‑off payment. For $399 (less than the price of many of the...