IK Multimedia is back at it again with another giveaway. To commemorate Classical Music Month, you can get Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE ($149.99 value) in exchange for a subscription to the IK Multimedia newsletter.
So, what is Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE?
This particular piece of software is a smaller cutdown version of the full Miroslav Philharmonik 2 but comes with a plethora of instruments to enjoy.
You’ve got over 10 GB of samples at hand and a claimed 733 virtual instruments to utilize.
Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE comes with a 31-piece string section, with a full ensemble readily available. These sound fine in practice. They won’t replace the likes of high-end solutions from Spitfire or EastWest, but they sound good enough to my ears.
You’ve got a full brass section as well, with solo and ensemble instruments available. I always feel like brass instruments are the hardest to nail down, and these do remind me a bit of a high-quality vintage workstation like a JV-1080.
No orchestra would be complete without woodwinds, and you’ve got the same sort of ensemble and solo arrangements for the full tonal range of common woodwinds.
As an orchestral suite, Miroslav is somewhat lacking in terms of overall accuracy and immersion. The sounds are good overall, but you probably won’t be able to get the depth and nuance needed to perfectly simulate an orchestra in your digital audio workstation.
Of course, I’m sure someone could take this as a challenge and prove me wrong by creating a most breathtaking orchestral piece using Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE.
Either way, I see a huge potential for using Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE as a source of orchestral sounds in pop, electronic, and urban music production.
The strings might not be up to snuff for the likes of a big-name composer like Hans Zimmer, but they’d be well at home in a hip-hop beat that needs a slice of orchestra.
Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE isn’t a high-end solution for orchestral music, but it is a great way to dip your toes into some familiar orchestral sounds. Overall, it’s a fantastic starting point for composers and producers who want to experiment with classical sounds.
If you want to get Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE for free, act quickly because the offer expires on the 30th of September. Follow the instructions on the promo page linked below to claim your free copy of the software.
For more, look at our article about free orchestral plugins.
Download: Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE (FREE until September 30th)
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45 Comments
Xaither
onThanks for this!
Dee
onAs a long time miroslav user, I have indeed made some lovely pieces of music. The problem is, it has its own “sound” and doesn’t really mix well with other libraries. It definitely sounds it’s best when everything goes through its own fx to bring it all together (the reverbs are really nice). Lately however, I’ve been using the string and choir patches layered with synths for beautiful pads. A nice library for sound design, resampling and ambience, but doesn’t really cut it standalone when compared to Spitfire etc…
Nick
onDownloads fail and you have to resume…
Then there’s no digital sugnature in the installers..
Then you get an error message that “Philharmonik 2.vpa can’t be loaded”… (the formal solution by IK Multimedia is to… downgrade…)
Then you get a message that it is not authorized, while it shows as authorized in the Product Manager…
Then you get a message that it is not a valid .axx plugin…
WHAT A MESS!
I can’t imagine having paid $149.99 and having to go through all this…
It should always be free.
Klaus
onI had an error message “Can’t load Philharmonik 2.vpa”. Seems like almost everybody gets this. There is a workaround in installing a previous version. A little bit strange, looks like IK Multimedia is having that problem for three years now. Maybe time for an update. Just an idea.
Arthur
onYes, after installing 2.0.5 version the GUI has opened in FL Studio 21, though now I was downloading the sound bank, because the GUI was completely blank and I entered through Sample Tank. Waiting for returning home and testing it. Anyway, thank you for the announcement!
J
onWell… my hearing’s certainly been deteriorating over the past decade, but honestly, I kind of think that every orchestra has its own sound, and certainly everyone has their own preferences and needs. (For instance, if you want to capture a vintage 80s Hollywood type sound, Kirk Hunter’s old stuff definitely will get you into that ballpark. For more modern stuff, I think their much newer libraries are more tailored to that, etc.) But… the real problem here is IK. They just don’t understand that not every customer of theirs can afford to dedicate their professional life to their hobby. People have jobs, family, commitments. And sometimes that means having to put off downloading a giant library purchase for months. It sucks, but that’s life. But see, with IK, you can’t put things off, or have any disk failures, or anything. In six months, you simply lose access, meaning if you don’t download your IK sound library within that time–or worse, lose a backup copy of a library you downloaded after that time, you’re screwed, and have to pay 10 bucks or something like that, just for the right to download it again. And the second download is time-limited, too. Yes, the window is long, but it’s still finite. And the fee is small, but it’s still annoyingly there. In this day and age, with storage and bandwidth so cheap, it’s just a dumb policy, and makes me not even want to bother with them for anything–which sucks, because I used to really like some of their stuff. Ah, well. (Also–a quick caveat–if this policy has changed, ignore everything I wrote… but after all these years, I kind of doubt that it has…)
BPB Reader
onThank You BPB and IK Multimedia. I believe this is the best orchestral library I can find and get for free.
george
onno way
george
onit doesn’t come close to spitfire bbc discovery in sound it sounds very old fashioned like the old refill in reason probably a little better than that , also like a lot of free older library’s im suprised they was still selling this , as it doesn’t sound realistic one bit , it is so clunky and hard to install properly and use , and if i paid for this i would be pissed , ik multimedia stuff is outdated probably why a lot of it is being given away as they upgrade stuff behind the scenes , because these sounds don’t hold up unless they had a lot of processing , as this is free take it but i would rather use all the orchestral tools and spitfire audio and native instruments freebies they install far better and are far far superior in sound , but look if you want a nice sketching library it’s ok , with so many good orchestral freebies about now we’re spoilt for choice , and after the headache of installing and the under climax of using this i’ll give it a miss , thanks for the freebies though if i never had spitfire and orchestral tools i would probabaly take this , but we’re spoilt now in the freebie world
Numanoid
onWhat is difference between Miroslav 1 and 2:
Are the samples new or the same as in Miroslav 1 ?
Is it just the GUI that is updated in 2 ?
Rod Johnson
onDefinitely worth having for free.
Michal Ochedowski
onGreat news to receive in the morning. If anyone’s wondering, this is a large download over 10 GB. Definitely worth it.
Sachet Jay
onI have the full version, and I would personally recommend the free BBC discovery over Miroslav 2. IK make some great stuff, but this is a bit of a miss for me — it doesn’t sound very convincing to my ears.
Rox Roll
onReally?The demo songs of Miroslav 2 CE just sounds awesome,like some epic OST from moives and 3A games.
Tony
onA superb opportunity to fill up your hard drive with something you’ll never use – for FREE!
(There are much better free orchestral libraries out there)
alex
onThose who’re waiting for Denise Audio plugs can download them from Plugin Boutique.
Michal Ochedowski
onCan you share some details? How can it work without serial numbers? I’m still waiting to hear from Denise Audio, like probably a lot of people here.
alex
onThey’re listed as free plugins. Only My Crush requires a serial that you get when you add it to your account.
pluginboutique.com/manufacturers/237-denise
Arash
onI don’t know why everyone say there is so many better libraries than this available for free.
This is a free Complete Orchestra. The other free libraries have so many limits in many ways (instruments , articulations , velocity,…) and the quality of them is not good really enough.
There is not everything in Spitfire Labs or Orchestral Tools sine player for free.
And the sound banks from the samples of Versilian Studios , Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra , Iowa Electronic Music Studios , Aspen or other free libraries are not good as this one.
Maybe it’s not good for good & real solo and melodies , but it’s good for one shots & plucked strings , sustain notes and chords. So it’s better than nothing and it can be used for simple uses and also sampling and make something new from them with sound design.
Please tell me what free instruments you guys use for Strings , Brass and Woodwinds. And any other high quality instruments. If you know something better than this
In any format : kontakt , wav , sfz , sf2 , vst , …
Thank You
Good Luck
alex
onHave you tried Synful Orchestra? It’s a tiny install and may be exactly what you need.
synful.com/
Arash
onYes and I think the Spitfire BBC Symphony Orchestra & This Miroslav Philharmonik 2 is better than synful for my uses.
d
onthe sound ! i don’t care about all the articulations , bbc discovery sounds better play with the cellos and the brass side by side with miroslav and listen , the recordings of the samples are way more real and modern and , miroslav can sound a bit synth ish and dated , but look add them together and mix them up together and im sure it will sound great , for me it feels and looks and sounds like some software from year 2000s , i just find all of there instruments so fiddly and not intuitive , but like i said we are spoilt for free we have so much choice now
and were getting more and more
is this the most complete full free orchestra probably ? yes is it the best sounding which will make your music sound good ? no but just take it and try yourself mate the beauty of stuff is that we all like different stuff
it would
probably be perfect for someone getting used to the ropes of learning how orchestral music works
i’m not doing that im creating pop and soundscapes
so give it a try
Deez Nutz
onGooooood stuff!!!
Dakenu
onPROBLEM with it! Error vpa file… Since 2018 this problem occure. It’s sad big company like IK Multimedia does not solve this so many years.
Second problem, to use Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE you need to install Sampletank. So weird in 2023…
Pakenu
onThere is a problem with .vpa file. Not working.
g
onyou have to install the older version from there website then reinstall the newer version again such a headache
Ferenc Mosolyhozó
onAloha!
For all with the dll error, this solution works:
https://cgi.ikmultimedia.com/ikforum/viewtopic.php?t=24919
J
onMake sure to backup the installers. They have a 180 day limit. They’re on the IK Multimedia download folder.
I had the Orchestral Percussion and it expired. Not sure if it’s worthy to pay for the renewal.
Tibor
onSame here!
Wing Yee
onToo much reverb!
wang yo
onThis is 16 bit btw
Jeff
onUA Pultec EQ collection is on sale for $39 with the code PULTEC50 until Sept 25
Corti.Son
onHi, Plugin Boutique has this for the same price without needing a code.
Joop
onI’m using Cantabile, but it does not install, not finding the vpa’s. It only downloaded the program files and best, nothing like 10GB.
robsan
onHas this promo ended? The promo link does not show anything to the plugin and when I go to it’s page it’s listed as 79.99.
Christian H
onLogin and go to your account page to get the offer. IK has changed the promo link to:
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?item_id=14930
Tomislav Zlatic
onThank you for the new link, Christian!
robsan
onThanks! Above link still not working… But as someone else suggested, got the offer by subscribing (again) to the newsletter, disabling ublock and going to my account.
Wilson
onHi, In my user area does not open any pop up, so I couldn’t redeem anything!
Michal Ochedowski
onIK Multimedia tend to fix this type of issues pretty quickly. I’ve been in the same situation in the past. They fixed it not just for me but for a bunch of other users. Give them time or write to support. Either way this deal is not lost I’m sure.
Eduardo Brito
onThe link is not taking me to a specific Miroslav page, just to the latest news. If I go to the page itself, by searching the website, I do find the product but it’s like 70€.
DMN
onLogged in – Not getting a redeem pop up in any browser, on any internet connected device ???
Is it because I already own a previous version of this product ?
ALBiON
onI doubt it as I got it okay and have Miroslav 1 already installed.
Not saying it’ll work but you could try signing up for the newsletter here:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/newsletter/
and then see if you get the pop-up when you log in to your account.
jkh
onI am unable to install Miroslav Philharmonik 2 or any other Sampletank 3 library on macOS. The installers crash on startup
Denys
onInstalled version 2.0.6 from the IK Product Manager.
The plugin won’t load during the scan because it couldn’t find some .dll.
On IK support forums people recommend downloading older 2.0.5 version which is 6 yeas old.
Scan passed but the plugin won’t load. First it throws a pop-up which, if clicked “Yes” causes DAW to crash, and if clicked “No”, clicking on the “Settings” icon on the plugin itself causes DAW to crash.
Whatever I click it is a guaranteed crash.
IT IS F-ING IMPOSSIBLE TO USE AND THEY NORMALLY ASK $150 FOR IT. THAT’S A RIPOFF AND A PAIN IN THE ARSE. PEOPLE SHOULD BE PAID TO EVEN TOUCH IT.
AVOID! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!