Need some advice on entry level Orchestral libraries! EWQL gold, or Vienna Special Edition?

[Nabeel Ansari]

Kontakt VSL doesn't have ensemble woodwinds or as many articulations as EWQL. Doesn't have as much percussion either. Also the brass is kind of wimpy.

On the other hand, Kontakt is the nexus for loads of third party libraries, so it's definitely useful to have. And there are times when dry orchestral sounds fit in a mix much better.

My honest opinion, I say get them both. They complement each other nicely.

If money is a concern, get EWQL. Otherwise, get Kontakt then build you library out of 3rd party section libraries for Kontakt.

For example, my plan is to eventually get Cinematic Strings 2.0 and CineBrass in a few years both Kontakt libraries, and I'll use the woodwinds and percussion of VSL (or Albion, depends how much $$$ I can throw at my studio at the time and how sufficient the VSL stuff is).

[dannthr]

Kontakt is required.

There are so many libraries available to you if you have Kontakt that would otherwise be completely out of your ability to use.

Kontakt is required.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Kontakt is required.

There are so many libraries available to you if you have Kontakt that would otherwise be completely out of your ability to use.

Kontakt is required.

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[Dissidia]

You really can't go wrong with Kontakt. I can't imagine how it's like not having Kontakt. As far as orchestral libraries go I would recommend Albion or Loegria from Spitfire Audio. In contrast to EW they have very nice support and the libraries aren't too expensive.

[Chimpazilla]

People really need to do some research before spreading misinformation.

The Composer's Collection is not a 75% off sale of its own price. It's 75% off of the whole sum of the products were you to buy them separately.

Oh good lord... of course you're right Neblix, man do I feel silly... *hangs head in shame* Well it isn't the first time I've said something stupid, and won't be the last. All I can say is "duh... oops."

But still, I'm not sold on that PLAY engine, and I don't like being forced to buy an iLok to use their stuff. If they still had their SO library available for Kontakt, I would probably buy it, drenched reverb and all.

[Nabeel Ansari]

WAIT!!!

I just realized, Da Capo is a modern full-featured Kontakt orchestral library and it's $400!

It's the perfect fit for an all-in-one, however, it DOES require Kontakt.

[Argle]

Oh good lord... of course you're right Neblix, man do I feel silly... *hangs head in shame* Well it isn't the first time I've said something stupid, and won't be the last. All I can say is "duh... oops."

But still, I'm not sold on that PLAY engine, and I don't like being forced to buy an iLok to use their stuff. If they still had their SO library available for Kontakt, I would probably buy it, drenched reverb and all.

I'm glad I picked up most of the kontakt EW stuff back in the day. I've avoided dongles so far, and most people agree that PLAY consumes more CPU than Kontakt.

Although, there are a few products that tempt me, like Stormdrum 2. But every time I get to the checkout page and it tells me to add an iLok, I always have second thoughts. Dunno why I keep forgetting this.

[Chimpazilla]

Just took a quick look at DaCapo... looks very versatile, and sounds really great... watched the first of their demo videos, going to watch the others, never heard of this before but it does look quite interesting!

However (and let's see if I can get the pricing thing right this time), it is 300 Euros not dollars, so that amounts to $396.66. Still if it does what it looks like it does, and sounds dynamite, this is definitely one to consider.

*wanders off to consider it*

[Meteo Xavier]

WAIT!!!

I just realized, Da Capo is a modern full-featured Kontakt orchestral library and it's $400!

It's the perfect fit for an all-in-one, however, it DOES require Kontakt.

That's still going to be quite an expensive purchase to get. Kontakt 5 is $400.00, Da Capo is $400. With shipping and taxes, it's going to be close to $900. For that, the EastWest Composers collection gives you a Symphony Orchestra, dedicated Pianos, dedicated Choir and Wordbuilder, a sweep of instruments with Goliath, ethnic libraries, rock libraries (though I seem to be the only one that likes Ministry of Rock), the awesomeness that is Stormdrum 2, etc. and it comes on its own external terabyte.

Granted, Kontakt is already quite the requirement and PLAY is problematic, I'm just bringing some balance to the decision. I still personally like EW more than most libraries I've heard, but its somewhat controversial for a reason.

[Nabeel Ansari]

That's still going to be quite an expensive purchase to get. Kontakt 5 is $400.00, Da Capo is $400. With shipping and taxes, it's going to be close to $900. For that, the EastWest Composers collection gives you a Symphony Orchestra, dedicated Pianos, dedicated Choir and Wordbuilder, a sweep of instruments with Goliath, ethnic libraries, rock libraries (though I seem to be the only one that likes Ministry of Rock), the awesomeness that is Stormdrum 2, etc. and it comes on its own external terabyte.

If you're not careful about your money and don't pay attention to the world around you, yeah, Kontakt is $400.

It's $200 every year during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Or instead, go $100 more than $400 and get Komplete, at which point the value quickly overpowers that of EW CCC.

And when you go EW, you get crappy DRM, bad customer support, a bad engine, ancient samples, and no expansion options... It's a great deal, if you like taking a risk.

And yeah, Ministry of Rock is kind of terrible. You know it's bad if the company demos sound bad.

The Shreddage family + Komplete is more than enough to cover you there.

[Sole Signal]

I've used EW PLAY Platinum/Choirs/Gypsy/Pianos/Goliath/MOR/Stormdrum 2 with an ilok for two years without any problems. They're tools in the toolbelt; you learn what samples shine and which you wouldn't expose in, say, a solo. Most are quite good, though.

Ironically, it's my old EWQL silver Kompakt/Kontakt build that hasn't worked since my new PC--frustrating when trying to open old projects.

[dannthr]

Kontakt is necessary and purchasing Kontakt stand-alone is ridiculous next to Komplete.

Komplete is a no-brainer for anyone starting out making music or sound.

Kontakt is a deeply powerful sampler for which entire business have been built around sampling for it.

Reaktor is a deeply powerful design tool--want to create your own synth? Go for it. What to create your own processor? The world is at your feet.

Buying a single stand-alone library is like buying a model, buying Kontakt and Reaktor is like buying Legos.

[Nabeel Ansari]

I've used EW PLAY Platinum/Choirs/Gypsy/Pianos/Goliath/MOR/Stormdrum 2 with an ilok for two years without any problems. They're tools in the toolbelt; you learn what samples shine and which you wouldn't expose in, say, a solo. Most are quite good, though.

Yes, but remember, these are really old samples. There are modern sample libraries now.

These sample libraries have better scripting and more options, and you can mix and match libraries conveniently inside of one instance of a sampler.

When you go PLAY, everything's all pre-made for you, and if you don't like the way something is done, you're stuck with it. There aren't 3rd party PLAY libraries.

[dannthr]

Yeah, but with Pianos, what do you want to do with them?

QL Pianos is a fairly recently sampled library in addition to the fact that it has repetition scripts/samples which most Piano libraries do not have.

I would probably really enjoy them, if I didn't already have several satisfying piano libraries, and I wasn't worried that they would not perform well on my system (I have a pretty beefy system, but I've heard QL Pianos is just murder).

Gypsy, MoR, and Storm Drum 2 are both recently recorded comparitively, and I think they would serve well in someone's template.

PLAY is just inefficient, especially on Mac OS. :-\

[Meteo Xavier]

The guitars in MOR really are pretty bad, I will admit, but it has some awesome drums and even some good bass in there.

Pianos isn't too bad, it's works fine on my system and mine is at least 1/4th as good as yours, Dan. Omnisphere is a lot more intensive.

[jnWake]

What is a good piano library? The ones that come with Komplete are good? Alicia's Keys seems nice too.

[dannthr]

The guitars in MOR really are pretty bad, I will admit, but it has some awesome drums and even some good bass in there.

Pianos isn't too bad, it's works fine on my system and mine is at least 1/4th as good as yours, Dan. Omnisphere is a lot more intensive.

Meteo, are you running Gold or Full?

It could be that my info is from someone I knew who was a beta tester before QL Pianos released--they've probably updated it to be more efficient since.

But the full versions are like 60GB per Piano, right? That's no small library.

jnWake, Alicia's Keys sounds GREAT, probably one of the best Yamaha Grand Piano libraries out there.

With that said, I prefer Steinway--I just like the sound of the Steinways better.

The two Steinway pianos I dig right now are Galaxy Vintage D (which uses the Kontakt Player, so you don't need Kontakt) and CineSamples Piano in Blue (which requires the full version of Kontakt).

[XPRTNovice]

What is a good piano library? The ones that come with Komplete are good? Alicia's Keys seems nice too.

I've actually been really happy with the Komplete 8 piano libraries, particularly the Berlin and New York ones. I'm using them right now for a Rachmaninov-esque remix and it's sounding just as epic as I need it to. I also noticed yesterday that when you depress the damper pedal (if your midi controller has a damper pedal) you can actually hear the sound of the dampers lifting off the keys, which I think is cool.

[jnWake]

jnWake, Alicia's Keys sounds GREAT, probably one of the best Yamaha Grand Piano libraries out there.

With that said, I prefer Steinway--I just like the sound of the Steinways better.

The two Steinway pianos I dig right now are Galaxy Vintage D (which uses the Kontakt Player, so you don't need Kontakt) and CineSamples Piano in Blue (which requires the full version of Kontakt).

Galaxy Vintage sounds pretty cool, thanks for that tip! It's a bit more expensive than Alicia's Keys though...

XPRTNovice: Cool, I don't own Komplete yet but I may buy it and that's nice to hear. The Vienna piano also sounded good on the demos.

[dannthr]

The Pianos that come with Komplete are okay--not my favorite.

New York = Steinway

Berlin = Bechstein

Vienna = Bosendorfer

Upright = Steingraber

I prefer the Steinway B that comes with EWQLSO to the New York Grand, but the New York Grand and others do have better scripting than the EWQLSO one.

[jnWake]

I'm a bit torn right now. I want to buy a piano VST but there are so many good options (and I'd really like to limit myself to only one piano library for now).

On here and other forums I've seen people comparing The Giant, Alicia's Keys, Vintage D and Addictive Keys. All are somewhat similar in price, but I can't seem to choose one of them... Which one is the most versatile? I usually make rock-ish mixes so the sound I'm looking for has to match that too.

[dannthr]

I haven't tried The Giant or Addictive Keys, but if I was looking to do a lot of pop and rock stuff, I would go with a Yamaha Library--Yamahas, to me, always have a high-end crispness or brightness to them that cuts well through pop or rock mix.

Alicia's Keys is a Yamaha C3--but it's not the only Yamaha out there.

Synthogy Ivory has a Yamaha, QL Pianos has a Yamaha as well.

EDIT: The Bosendorfer 290, which is popular for its unique range, also has a brightness that could work well in a pop/rock context, but to me it always sounds too refined/classical.