Orchestral emulation!

[Mark]

I'm more than certain this has been asked a million times before! I apologise if there is a thread that has answered this question, I have not spot it!

My question is, which orchestra emulators do you like and use? I've heard plenty of great orchestral sounds on some OC remixes!

I have produced for a long time but I've never got my hands on some genuinely awesome orchestral emulation. I'm now back on the hunt! xD

[Kanthos]

A lot of people use EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, Gold or Platinum versions, and supplement with other more specialized libraries if they've got the money and are writing music for a living.

Incidentally, if you want to get some EWQL libraries at a discount, take a look at this thread; I'm selling mine.

[Mark]

Yeah I'm looking at EastWest Quantum right now. I can see why people use it, it's excellent! and OOOO! I will be sure to look at your thread! ha ha!

[lazygecko]

There's also budget choices like Garritan Personal Orchestra which is probably a better buy for hobbyists. Having the sounds is just half the battle though, you won't get too far without any knowledge of orchestration.

[Rozovian]

For what little orchestral stuff I do, I have a lot of cheap and/or not primarily orchestral-oriented options to choose from, including the orchestral Jam Pack for GarageBand, Miroslav Philharmonic, Kontakt's VSL factory library, and stuff in Omnisphere. For a few instruments, I'm looking to synths rather than samples, primarily FM8 and Reaktor. What I use depends on what I need. Some simple backing strings can come from Omnisphere or Kontakt, a brass lead from FM8, and some woodwinds from GB/Logic's stuff.

While I have it but haven't really used it, the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra is free.

And as has already been said, once you have the sounds, you need to learn to use them. Don't expect realism from the first note.

[liquid wind]

Sonatina is one of the better freebies out there, I think my current orchestra setup is about 60-80% Sonatina layered over some twisted combination of Nutritious' palettes, Sytrus drums, and some other things I've collected

I'm also curious about this as I'm thinking about upgrading my sample library soonish, EWQLSO is the default recommendation but what after that? I'm currently aware of GPO or maybe getting Kontakt and using what's bundled in that, I'd rather avoid east west because of the dongle

[Mark]

Thanks for all this info guys. EastWest's Silver edition is pretty reasonably priced at $195.00 but I can see the appeal in Garritan Instant Orchestra as it's 145 for the full program.

However, Sonatina sounds pretty awesome and simple for free software! I'm definitely going to have a play around with this. I'll have to look up a few of the other things mentioned here, but this is definitely filling up my arsenal of tools for orchestration, thank you!

[XPRTNovice]

Thanks for the link to Sonatina, I'm loving it right now.

[PROTO·DOME]

Thanks for the link to Sonatina, I'm loving it right now.

Yeah me too actually.

I mean, I have EWQLSO, but this just the 'lite' package I was looking for.

And I also have a secret fetish for soundfonts. It's dirty I know, but they're just easy.