Meteo Xavier Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Well, the fall part-time job I thought had slipped out of my grasp just showed up again unexpectedly and it looks like I could come into some decent money here. Since upgrading myself into a decent music-maker is my number one concern right now, it is only fitting that this money, which I have little else to really spend on, should go towards that. I have between $500-$1000 conceivable budget to spend here. Because I'm planning to work a wide range of styles and not particularly interested in trademarking a certain style, I need very general versatile stuff - whatever I can get. I fully understand I can't get the absolute cream of the crop going so general and with a budget as limited as that, but thats fine. I just need to be able to make tracks with believable quality where the instruments work well with each other and help minimize any extraneous effort and time-wasting. I'm already planning to get EWQLSO Silver (Silver is what Nutritious uses, so you can imagine why I'd want that version), and maybe some good monitor headphones that Dannthr recommended me. Here is what I generally lack (aside from what EWQLSO Silver can offer me): - Decent, believable pianos - A good PROG Hammond organ sound, the kind that you hear whirling and screaming in a lot of Pink Floyd and Motoi Sakuraba tracks (maybe B4 II does something like it. I don't know) - Acoustic guitars and electric guitars, though I'm not in a huge rush for the electric. - Good, mystic harps - Vox, Vox, Vox! I'm a choir freak. From the synthie washes to the Celtic chanting. Anything I can get here of decent quality is essential. - Reliable acoustic drums. Maybe that one Zircon did. - Good ethnic stuff so I can do Middle East and Japanese music. I have some stuff here already, but it only seems to really work as loops and samples. - Any further electronic samples, sounds, and soundscapes so I can do Metroid Prime style tracks. Again, I have a start here, but I'm missing the atmospheres. I considered Spectrasonic Atmosphere. Its really not a good idea right now to be concentrating quality into one thing here, so narrowing it down to just spending the budget on one or two really high quality things is not going to work. I need my foundation to be wider and filling in the holes before I can build something on top of it. Anything else I might need to be able to really get to work on decent-quality track writing? Recommended FX and processors and so forth to get a more professional sound going? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Keep in mind QLSO now comes with PLAY, which is very CPU-intensive. You may want a better computer first; what do you have now? Also, depending on the kind of music you're doing, VSL Special Edition may be a better bet than QLSO. The former is a lot "warmer" with more realistic legatos and a more close, personal sound, while the latter is better for Hollywood type stuff. However, QLSO is also quite overused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Vagrance Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 If you can, I'd recommend getting actual studio monitors as opposed to headphones. Granted, you might not be able to for whatever reason but if you can they're well worth the money and I highly prefer them to headphones. Also the B4 II is a pretty wicked organ simulator, it sounds a bit thin sometimes but if you work with it you'll get some stunning results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theshaggyfreak Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 I admit, I LOVE Reason and pretty much everything you need can be accomplished with it and a handful of good refills. http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Propellerhead-Reason-4-Premium-Edition-Bundle?sku=500286 That will get you pretty damn far, IMHO. While the orchestral samples that come with Reason are usable, you can always do better with the refills from Miroslav or Garritan. BTW, there are lots of examples of some of the Reason premium refills on propellerheads site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 Keep in mind QLSO now comes with PLAY, which is very CPU-intensive. You may want a better computer first; what do you have now? Also, depending on the kind of music you're doing, VSL Special Edition may be a better bet than QLSO. The former is a lot "warmer" with more realistic legatos and a more close, personal sound, while the latter is better for Hollywood type stuff. However, QLSO is also quite overused. VSL Edition is quite a bit more expensive and probably more than I really want to work with right now. I discussed EWQLSO with Usabellchan, he uses the gold edition, and he told me its all about the hard drive memory, not so much the resources it uses. Is Play something you can turn off? My computer? Brad built it, and he put in a dual-core processor of which the name escapes me and 4gig RAM. It has worked extremely well so far and I don't imagine it would struggle too much with EWQLSO, more so at least with Colossus which is not even close to that level of quality yet still costs me over 100MB for a harp or a violin each. Right now I can guarantee you that buying a whole new computer, new speakers or new DAW is quite simply out of the question. I had to do earlier this year and it was a nightmare made flesh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avaris Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Spectrasonics Omnisphere...zomg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 If you can, I'd recommend getting actual studio monitors as opposed to headphones. Granted, you might not be able to for whatever reason but if you can they're well worth the money and I highly prefer them to headphones. Also the B4 II is a pretty wicked organ simulator, it sounds a bit thin sometimes but if you work with it you'll get some stunning results. I suggested headphones since he was on a budget, when possible, you should get monitors but if you get monitors, you should also look into treating your space to ensure you don't get sympathetic resonances or destructive spatial elements that will adversely or surruptitiously color your sound. Headphones are a good way to stretch a dollar and get some measure of decent audio monitoring done. Also, it doesn't wake the girlfriend. I would like to recommend Kontakt, since it comes packed with some fair to decent samples (including some old VSL samples) and it will open up the door to great sales like this one: Lyrical Distortion - Intimate Auditorium Guitar 2 -- only $10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmony Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Lyrical Distortion - Intimate Auditorium Guitar 2 -- only $10I want to be on whatever mailing lists you're on! For $10 that's a great sounding guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theshaggyfreak Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Right now I can guarantee you that buying a whole new computer, new speakers or new DAW is quite simply out of the question. I had to do earlier this year and it was a nightmare made flesh. Well, with Reason, you can always Rewire it to whatever DAW you use since pretty much every DAW has that ability. The one nice thing about Reason is that it's really CPU efficient and Propellerheads support has always been good to me and my friends. I honestly can't say the same about NI. I suppose I'm a pretty heavy equivocator of Reason since it pretty much replaced all other VSTi for me. I like the fact that I don't have to think about upgrading so many plugins when a new version comes out. Your mileage may vary, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 Here's a question, what about Miroslav? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 If you're referencing IK's Miroslav Philharmonik Orchestra I'd advise otherwise, I'm not a fan of the Sampletank type player, and the library isn't too great in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoboKa Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 Spectrasonics Omnisphere...zomg Ug I still need to get that. But I can't now that I had to get rid of my Visa T-T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole Adams Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 Here's a question, what about Miroslav? Years ago, I used the Miroslav ReFills quite a bit. I thought they were okay, but there are much better options available, in my opinion. I'm sure Miroslav would be good for layering, but for a standalone orchestral library they sound pretty raw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 Years ago, I used the Miroslav ReFills quite a bit. I thought they were okay, but there are much better options available, in my opinion. Well, what are the other options? I'm up to four now and none of them seem to be the right choice. EWQLSO is a great sound for a cheap price with a huge flaw called PLAY EDITION. Philharmonik has good sound for low size but costs a lot and no one seems to like it despite good reviews. Dannthr introduced me to Complete Classical Collections 2nd Edition which is a decent price and seems to be pretty good, but I played with a demo of it and it didn't sound great to me at all. Then there's VSL Special Edition which seems to be the best overall, but might be too expensive and too big for my computer. For a lot of quality VSTs, its pretty difficult to ascertain a proper decision here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole Adams Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 I'd either go with EWQLSO or VSL, but you're right about PLAY. You can get Miroslav to sound pretty good, but it would require a bit of tinkering. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but in the long run I would think the other two options (esp. VSL) would be a much better investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 I'd either go with EWQLSO or VSL, but you're right about PLAY. You can get Miroslav to sound pretty good, but it would require a bit of tinkering. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but in the long run I would think the other two options (esp. VSL) would be a much better investment. Ok, so how good does a computer need to be to handle PLAY EDITION fairly well? My computer specs, I don't know if I wrote them down earlier, are 4gig RAM, 3.0 Intel Core Dual Processor, XP SP3, and like I say it handles a LOT more than my old computer used to and even handles quite a bit from Colossus, which is a bloated piece let me tell you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 IK Miroslav? Eh, it's not bad, exactly, but you'd be better off trying to track down a copy of QLSO Kontakt edition, or Vienna Symphonic. Also, remember that Komplete 6 comes out here in a couple days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 you'd be better off trying to track down a copy of QLSO Kontakt edition. Easier said than done so far. I can't even find sponsored links for 'em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 No one ever mentions Kirk Hunter. http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/purchase.html The Emerald version is a good deal right now. Seems like the hard drive version for the same price is gone by now though. closeout sale @ $150, i assume they're abandoning it because its patches aren't as flexible as Ruby's. at 25 gb, it's quite comprehensive though. Ah, you need Kontakt for it I guess. or would the new Kontakt Player be able to load it? I haven't checked it out. Kontakt is pretty much a must have though if you want to build up a good sample library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 Easier said than done so far. I can't even find sponsored links for 'em. nah, you'd be better off looking in stores. call Guitar Center and have them do a chain search for you. or sam ash or something. most places will ship to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 I just talked to both and it didn't take them long to shoot me down . I looked through that Kirk Hunter site but I couldn't find any Audio Demos at all. I'd say just for simplicity's sake to narrow it down between VSL Special Edition and Philharmonik. Is VSL going to be too big for my computer though? I still have a good 400GB of hard drive space that I'm not likely to fill, but naturally one has to be concerned with such an enormous and costly program to be purchased and not returned going on his computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nase Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 I looked through that Kirk Hunter site but I couldn't find any Audio Demos at all. top menu: products | purchase | listen take a wild guess! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 Its no secret I have a talent for missing the Elephant in the Room. EDIT: Ok, lets try this then. I'm looking at MOTU now. They have an Ethnic Instrument with great Mp3 demos (at least) and a Symphonic Instrument which is about what I'm looking for at $300 each. Has anyone tried any of these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 I have both. MOTU Symphonic is pretty decent, although it's kind of unstable in FL, similar to PLAY, so there's your catch 22 on that product. MOTU Ethno I'm not as impressed with compared to say, QLRA. Also, both require an iLok to use. Also, did you specifically ask GC to do a chain search? Or just have them look in store? I can tell you the one here in Knoxville does NOT have QLSO Kontakt version in stock, but if you just ask for an Assistant Mgr, they can look it up across the chain. There's a chance you may still be able to track one down. Stores sometimes have left-over or discontinued inventory that they don't carry on the website. If you've narrowed it down between Philharmonik and Vienna, go with Vienna. 400 GB is plenty for now. And hard drives are cheap nowadays. I used a 500 GB external drive for a long time before building my new PC, so really, there's no need to worry about running out of space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 Its not worth tracking down. Vienna might be the way to go I guess. How good is it on CPU and RAM and so forth? The money isn't technically an issue, I just don't like spending it, but the resources are. Additionally, and I'm coming down to the end of the wire here I assure you, what about MOTU Ethno? I understand its probably not great compared to others, but by itself? It sounds like the kind of stuff I want, but are there issues there too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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