Good summary! To add on what you're saying, I would say VSL Special Edition isn't really that too far out of someone's budget. There are student discounts (I'm speaking from Australia but I'm sure it's a worldwide thing) available which lowers the price even more.
Just getting the first SE without the Extras will give you some damn good basic samples to learn how to sequence and (hopefully) orchestrate properly. Orchestration will always be a funny one in the world of MIDI sequencing, but if you can make VSL sound coherent I think you'll be on your way to higher level sequencing.
What's good about VSL is that it's dry mic'ed. So there's no way to try and lie to yourself about what the mix or the balance of instruments sounds like cause it's right in your face!
ProjectSAM is years out of date.
Orchestral Essentials should have been called ProjectSAM's Greatest Hits 2002-2010.
Symphobia should have been called Orchestrationphobia, as it's a library designed specifically for people who don't want to spend time with instrumentation. It's only useful for people who have to write 10-12 minutes of music a day for TV and need a lot of one-button-wonder patches. For what it offers with respect to substance, it's about 4 times overpriced.
ProjectSAM's Orchestral Brass Classic stood for years as the best orchestral brass library around, but has since been outclassed by more recent libraries.
I would not recommend any currently available ProjectSAM library as a starting point for any student looking to delve into the orchestra, who wants to learn about orchestration and how to write music better.
What is your budget, and what kind of music do you want to make?
What are the best orchestral libraries for cinematic music?
in Music Composition & Production
Posted
Good summary! To add on what you're saying, I would say VSL Special Edition isn't really that too far out of someone's budget. There are student discounts (I'm speaking from Australia but I'm sure it's a worldwide thing) available which lowers the price even more.
Just getting the first SE without the Extras will give you some damn good basic samples to learn how to sequence and (hopefully) orchestrate properly. Orchestration will always be a funny one in the world of MIDI sequencing, but if you can make VSL sound coherent I think you'll be on your way to higher level sequencing.
What's good about VSL is that it's dry mic'ed. So there's no way to try and lie to yourself about what the mix or the balance of instruments sounds like cause it's right in your face!