Looking for a good orchestral VST

[warfighter67]

Hey guys. I'm looking for an orchestral VST (or soundfont), doesn't matter the cost. The only big thing that matters is size. I'm aiming for less than 7GB.

Other criteria:

It has to be better than Edirol Orchestral

It cannot be Vienna Symphonic

It must work on a system with Window's 7 32bit PC with a quad core processor and 3GB of RAM.

I would prefer it not be that CPU or RAM intensive.

The main thing I'm after are Strings, woodwinds, and brass. Percussion is optional.

If it is a little over 7GB (max i'll go is like 10GB), that's fine too.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I'm afraid you're out of luck. GOOD orchestral libraries have lots of options/content, which means your 7GB library limit is very difficult. Another problem is your RAM, a good orchestral library needs more than 3GB when you have a lot of instruments open.

I think you should look for a better hard drive or external before looking for a good orchestral library. Buying a smaller, not as good one is a waste of money in my opinion. I don't know any free ones to suggest, so I'm just going to put in my two cents that you should get more space and then buy a good library. Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra is an orchestral soundfont collection that I heard is pretty good, you could start there for free stuff.

As for what big one you should get, I recommend Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra. It's highly rated.

[SonicThHedgog]

I run east west with 2 gb perfectly on my pc with no lathency

but it is a good idea to upgrade to 4gb or higher altho i dont see a need depending on your mother boards max memory allowance.

Other then that you need atleast 20gb of space, well my set took me 32gb

[warfighter67]

It's not my hard drive limitation, I got 700GB of free space. The RAM issue is a side effect of 32bit, and due to compatibility issues, I am not going to upgrade to 64bit yet. I just want a compact VST with at least realistic SOUNDS for sustain, tremolo, staccato, and pizzicato on strings, staccato and sustain on brass, and just the basic sustain for woodwind.

Edit: Because Edirol is really shitty and it's a synthesizer that's trying horribly to emulate realistic sounds.

[SonicThHedgog]

It's not my hard drive limitation, I got 700GB of free space. The RAM issue is a side effect of 32bit, and due to compatibility issues, I am not going to upgrade to 64bit yet. I just want a compact VST with at least realistic SOUNDS for sustain, tremolo, staccato, and pizzicato on strings, staccato and sustain on brass, and just the basic sustain for woodwind.

Edit: Because Edirol is really shitty and it's a synthesizer that's trying horribly to emulate realistic sounds.

def try east west symphonic gold, its about 33gb

http://www.eastwestsamples.com/details.php?cd_index=1090&cart=purchase?cd_index=1090

[Nabeel Ansari]

It's not my hard drive limitation, I got 700GB of free space. The RAM issue is a side effect of 32bit, and due to compatibility issues, I am not going to upgrade to 64bit yet. I just want a compact VST with at least realistic SOUNDS for sustain, tremolo, staccato, and pizzicato on strings, staccato and sustain on brass, and just the basic sustain for woodwind.

Edit: Because Edirol is really shitty and it's a synthesizer that's trying horribly to emulate realistic sounds.

I don't understand, if you have 700 GB of free space, why do you want a 7GB orchestral library? That's kinda dumb that you're settling for worse, especially when you said cost isn't much of an issue. Definitely get QLSO.

I run east west with 2 gb perfectly on my pc with no lathency

but it is a good idea to upgrade to 4gb or higher altho i dont see a need depending on your mother boards max memory allowance.

Other then that you need atleast 20gb of space, well my set took me 32gb

RAM has no relation to latency.

Also, orchestral samples take up a lot of memory. You don't strike me as the orchestral type (judging by your songs on the WiP forums and whatnot), I don't think you really understand what goes into an orchestral project. You need way more than 2 GB.

[warfighter67]

Well I have 3GB, and all I really need are a couple of string articulations, brass, and maybe 1 or two woodwinds, xD. I don't compose full-classical, I compose orchestrated heavy metal.

[PrototypeRaptor]

Well I have 3GB, and all I really need are a couple of string articulations, brass, and maybe 1 or two woodwinds, xD. I don't compose full-classical, I compose orchestrated heavy metal.

for epic tutti orchestral sounds like what you describe, project sam Symphobia 1/2 are exactly what you are looking for minus the size requirements.

you can't do something convincing like that with most orchestral libraries, sorry, not even east west sounds good at that type of thing

basically orchestral mockups suck cause you either do them very well or they sound terrible. there's really no in-between

[big giant circles]

If you're bound and determined to get a small orchestral library that sounds decent, try this - http://astore.amazon.com/overclocked02-20/detail/B000A76UOS

[Chernabogue]

I have QLSO Gold version. It doesn't need lot of CPU/Ram/etc. However, it is around 14Gb, but you won't regret it.

[SonicThHedgog]

I don't understand, if you have 700 GB of free space, why do you want a 7GB orchestral library? That's kinda dumb that you're settling for worse, especially when you said cost isn't much of an issue. Definitely get QLSO.

RAM has no relation to latency.

Also, orchestral samples take up a lot of memory. You don't strike me as the orchestral type (judging by your songs on the WiP forums and whatnot), I don't think you really understand what goes into an orchestral project. You need way more than 2 GB.

I did not say ram was related

and but becides the 2-4 wips your looking on

http://soundcloud.com/aires/star-heaven

I have tons of orcha tracks(that i dont post) but mosts of them are symphonic (Modal),I make (try to) alot of genres,orcha tracks are the easiest for me to make with out running out of ideas, and again you only need 2gb to run these samples, i run them on my temp pc often for some house tracks as well and its only running on a celeron and 2gb, or it was till i maxed it to 4gb and a core 2 duo(just gunna make it my main pc).

composition has nothing to do with this anyways, im just saying you definatly can run east west gold with only 2gb.

@BGC

http://astore.amazon.com/overclocked02-20/detail/B000A76UOS

Is this from MOTU the hardware company?

I see it on there site, i did not know they made samples

[Nabeel Ansari]

composition has nothing to do with this anyways, im just saying you definatly can run east west gold with only 2gb.

No, you can't.

If you only have a few instruments open, sure, but orchestras have more than a few instruments.

@Chernabogue

QLSO Gold is 33 GB.

[Tensei]

No, you can't.

This is just plain wrong.

I can run EWQLSO gold with 2 GB RAM with full string and brass sections and multiple articulations loaded for each, and you're not going to want to use EWQLSOs woodwinds anyway, because they're kinda bad.

The only time I get issues is when I want to use an orchestra ALONGSIDE other resource intensive libraries like choirs or acoustic drums, and in that case it's still not very hard to just use a seperate project file and bounce down to .wav

[Rozovian]

You guys are forgetting that a lot of samplers these days stream from disk. In those cases, disk read/transfer speed becomes the big issue (preload size and lookahead settings can make it less of an issue). You still need enough RAM to load the samples into (the more, the better, obviously), but it can be considerably less than the size of the instruments themselves.

[Nabeel Ansari]

You guys are forgetting that a lot of samplers these days stream from disk. In those cases, disk read/transfer speed becomes the big issue (preload size and lookahead settings can make it less of an issue). You still need enough RAM to load the samples into (the more, the better, obviously), but it can be considerably less than the size of the instruments themselves.

I was assuming it was faster to load it into RAM than stream from disk, which is why I wasn't counting that in my posts.

[SonicThHedgog]

No, you can't.

If you only have a few instruments open, sure, but orchestras have more than a few instruments.

@Chernabogue

QLSO Gold is 33 GB.

I Agree but i can open 9 intruments with midi outs tracks and 8 intruments midi out in ableton with not problems fir up to 5-7 min of music recored but besides that i usually resample audio so i dont have any uneeded problems and have ease of moding the sound.

its all about how you get around in your daw of choice.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I Agree but i can open 9 intruments with midi outs tracks and 8 intruments midi out in ableton with not problems fir up to 5-7 min of music recored but besides that i usually resample audio so i dont have any uneeded problems and have ease of moding the sound.

its all about how you get around in your daw of choice.

The DAW has absolutely no bearing whatsoever. A MIDI track doesn't magically make you take up more RAM in one DAW than another.

[dannthr]

I don't understand why you're willing to spend whatever it costs to make sure this stuff works on an outdated computer--you're setting yourself up for failure here.

In the long run you will have wasted your money because you're much better off replacing your computer.

Especially if cost is no objection.

[Kidd Cabbage]

Well I have 3GB, and all I really need are a couple of string articulations, brass, and maybe 1 or two woodwinds, xD. I don't compose full-classical, I compose orchestrated heavy metal.

I would highly recommend AGAINST East West, then. Cheaper East West symphonic libraries are far miked in a concert hall, meaning there's so much reverb cooked into the samples that you're going to have to have a real hard time getting the sounds to cut through in a metal mix.

[EC2151]

Ha ha ha

You guys recommending your expensive VSTs

I know i've posted this link before, but here's a NG topic that has 3.5 GB of orchestral soundfonts. This has got permutations of just about EVERYTHING:

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1200140

[SonicThHedgog]

The DAW has absolutely no bearing whatsoever. A MIDI track doesn't magically make you take up more RAM in one DAW than another.

thats not what im saying at all....

You said you can only open limited instruments, I said you can or I can and how i route instruments with the built in midi channels in East west player, a method of using the midi channels in your daw when you output midi from east west to a midi IN channel in ableton.

I would highly recommend AGAINST East West, then. Cheaper East West symphonic libraries are far miked in a concert hall, meaning there's so much reverb cooked into the samples that you're going to have to have a real hard time getting the sounds to cut through in a metal mix.

good point...............did you change your name?

[zircon]

QLSO Silver sounds perfect for your purposes. It's basically pre-mixed for a Hollywood kind of sound, which is exactly what you want for symphonic metal. By far the best option you have. Kidd is not correct about the reverb. Yes, it has built-in reverb, but the recordings are done w/ stage mics, not far mics. Silver actually doesn't even have release tails meaning it sounds less roomy than QLSO Gold.

[Draconiator]

As far as what kinds of stuff you have for freebies, This can't be beat.

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/09/29/free-orchestra-vst-for-windows-dsk-overture/

It can't have more than a few instances running (on my computer anyway) but check it out.

[dannthr]

QLSO Silver sounds perfect for your purposes. It's basically pre-mixed for a Hollywood kind of sound, which is exactly what you want for symphonic metal. By far the best option you have. Kidd is not correct about the reverb. Yes, it has built-in reverb, but the recordings are done w/ stage mics, not far mics. Silver actually doesn't even have release tails meaning it sounds less roomy than QLSO Gold.

EWQL calls the stage mics Far mics.

Far mics in Symphonic Orchestra are mics set up at the conductor's position on stage.

If you get EWQL Gold, then you can spend an extra few bucks to get the CLOSE mics as an add-on, and then you can delete the Far Mic samples (I believe) and just keep the Close mics on your machine. The Close mic samples will be smaller because they do not contain the same length of release tails as the Far or Surround mic positions. Their release tails are smaller files.

[Nabeel Ansari]

thats not what im saying at all....

You said you can only open limited instruments, I said you can or I can and how i route instruments with the built in midi channels in East west player, a method of using the midi channels in your daw when you output midi from east west to a midi IN channel in ableton.

You blew that completely out of context. I was talking about RAM usage, not a limited number of tracks in your DAW. That was never an issue and was never brought up in this thread.