Looking for orchestral samples

[Kat]

I've been using the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra(SSO) for a long time. It's nice enough, and probably one of the better free orchestral libraries. It's also a rather old SFZ. and has several issues. It has no velocity layers and very few articulations. A few samples have round-robin(adding a bit of realism), but that's about it. I figured I'm long due for an upgrade anyways. I don't have any particular price range in mind, but I'd stress that I'm not looking for the absolute best. I'm looking for something relatively cheap and more on the "entry level" side of things. For reference, here's one of my bigger influences of late, one of the things that pushed me more towards orchestration:

 

 

 

It's a really long video so I'd jump around a bit, but that's sort of the sound I'm looking to emulate. Obviously I can't expect to match the realism with something entry level, but I'm just looking for a start at this point. Any suggestions?

[Slimy]

Right now EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Silver is on sale for $97.50, + an iLok for $49.95, adding up to $147.45. It's basically a stripped down version of the Gold version, but there's an upgrade option for when you have more money.

 

You can listen to pretty much any song on my soundcloud page to see how it sounds.

 

If you don't mind subscription payments, you can subscribe to the Composer Cloud for $29.99 a month and get 7 libraries.

[Nabeel Ansari]

You're not going to even get close to that kind of stuff for cheap; that stuff has a lot of small/chamber ensemble writing in it. Very intimate, and thus, very hard to sample. Most cheap stuff is recorded big, the sound can be blurry, so the timbre of stuff like vibrato and legato isn't as noticeable. So to clarify, the sound you will get from cheap offerings isn't necessarily bad, but it will be very very very different from what you're trying to accomplish.

 

That being said, there are cheap offerings for starting orchestrators. If you're versed in actual orchestration theory, something that gives you individual instruments is probably better for you. For that, I can recommend:

 

-Complete Orchestral Collection

-Da Capo

-Miroslav Philharmonik

-EastWest Symphonic Orchestra

 

If you want pre-made ensembles for faster writing and easier "well-mixed" orchestral sounds you can do:

 

-ProjectSAM Orchestral Essentials

-Spitfire Albion

 

If you want more intimate, small ensemble recorded stuff, you're gonna have to shell out, quite a bit, but to get an idea of the difference in sound, look at Spitfire Sable.

[Kat]

EWQL caught my attention and seems nice. The problem is that it requires iLok(adding an extra $40 to the cost). That alone wouldn't be a deal-breaker given the quality vs price, except it's not available for purchase through their website anymore. They only offer it on UK Amazon, which won't ship it to the US. I've found similar ones on US Amazon, but they're at a higher price and I can't verify if they'd actually work. I've also heard more than a few stories about bad iLok customer support and things not working as they should because of it, so I'm wary to try it out.

 

I'll take a look at some of those other ones as well, though. Like I said, I'm not hoping to match that quality at this point.

 

Any opinions on the Andrew Findon Kitbag? Or any of the smaller session instruments packs for that matter.

http://www.spitfireaudio.com/andrew-findon-kit-bag-2

 

It's got some really woodwinds at an affordable price, and another consideration I had was -building- an orchestra from various samples over time as that would be a bit better for my financial situation. In particular, the BML Horn Section and Kitbag 2 stood out to me, as horns and woodwinds are one of my more preferred orchestral elements.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Not sure why the Kit Bag 2 is of interest to you, since it doesn't have orchestral woodwinds. If you want to build an orchestra, you should cover your bases first.

 

Also a quick google brings up the iLok just fine. There's no reason it shouldn't work, because iLok is only made by one company. If that doesn't make you feel better, I bought this particular Amazon item listing for iLok and used it with EWQLSO.

[Kat]

Not sure why the Kit Bag 2 is of interest to you, since it doesn't have orchestral woodwinds. If you want to build an orchestra, you should cover your bases first.

 

Also a quick google brings up the iLok just fine. There's no reason it shouldn't work, because iLok is only made by one company. If that doesn't make you feel better, I bought this particular Amazon item listing for iLok and used it with EWQLSO.

 

That's good to hear about iLok. Definitely reassuring.

 

While they aren't orchestral woodwinds, I enjoyed the sound in the demos and felt they'd be a nice addition all the same. I'm taking a quick look at Complete Orchestral Collection as well, though. It's more of a direct upgrade to what I'm working with now and seems like a decent start.

[hoshihearts]

sonatina is actually really bad because it sounds too muddy and the reverb is already there making it too hard to edit. and the reverb they used to make sonatina isn't allowed for any money making. my suggestin is you use dry instruments whenever you can in general, so you can eq and add reverb after if you want.

[akalink]

I have most experience using EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold and the Garritan Symphonic Orchestra (it came with my copy of Finale 2012). My peers recommended I stay away from the Silver version of EastWest because the upgrade to gold gives you a vary large difference in instrument variety. Regarding Garritan's Orchestra library, well lets just say I prefer Logic Pro's default orchestra instruments over what Garritan has given me, they just aren't really versatile.

 

Now this is what I would recommend doing if you want to go with EWQL Silver or Gold. Save your money and wait for a sale. With the Holiday's approaching EastWest is undoubtedly going to put their samples on sale. You may be able to snag Gold version for less then $200 USD. As for the ilok, stores such as musiciansfriend, guitarcenter, sweetwater, you name it distribute coupons around sale times. Try to save a few bucks by taking advantage of those coupons.

 

Overall my recommendation is that if you keep spending money on budget libraries you will waste money upgrading constantly. So try to get something, even if it average or ok, and that will save you in the long run.

[RadicalDreamers]

EWQL Symphonic Orchestra is okay for entry level, and I still use some of the patches from an old Kontakt version (current versions run in PLAY now). They're lightweight, and inexpensive, but they are not dry recorded (they were recorded on a stage, and even the closeup mics that come with the platinum edition have some of that natural stage reverb), and most of them do not have dynamic crossfading, which is really what you want. Velocity layers are important, but you also need to be able to hear the change in timbre when, say, a horn has a crescendo from p to f, which you just won't get with most of the EWQL patches. (There are some dynamic crossfade patches available, but they are limited in scope). The EWQL Strings sound super fake, and all of the samples date back to the late 90s and don't reflect the best of current recording technology. But if you're going to get it, get Gold, not Silver, which is seriously lacking in the instrument department. At least with Gold, you will have a relatively complete orchestra set. (Platinum gives you more mic positions.)

Garritan Personal Orchestra (the version that comes with Finale) should not be used for sample mockups. Garritan sells other libraries which may be of some use to people, though I haven't been particularly impressed.

 

VSL (Vienna Symphonic Library) was considered the king of samples for a long time, and they're definitely very good, but they are incredibly expensive. They've also been superceded recently in many ways.

Spitfire and ProjectSAM stuff sound really nice, but as mentioned they are pre-orchestrated sections, as well as effects. This may or may not be what you're looking for.

EastWest has other libraries besides EWQLSO, like the Hollywood Series, Hollywood Strings and Hollywood Brass, which I'm told by colleagues sound very good. But they are heavy on the system and only run in PLAY, EastWest's proprietary sampler, which has a reputation for being difficult.

Cinesamples would be an excellent choice, and all their libraries run in Kontakt, and they offer several packages for all sections of the orchestra, as well as combo packs. They're not cheap, but it may be worth it.

LA Scoring Strings is a strings library that has a good reputation. A bit more intimate in scope, but it has a high learning curve (I'm still not sure I fully understand it and I've been using it for awhile). A "lite" version is available.

Anything from 8dio, especially the Adagio Strings libraries. But again, not cheap.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Correction, Spitfire Albion is pre-orchestrated. The entirety of the Spitfire BML line is all instrument-based, and quite a line-up it is.

[RadicalDreamers]

You're right, I was thinking of Spitfire Albion. The BML line is indeed quite extensive.

[Kat]

Thanks for all the recent suggestions. At the moment, I now have Kontakt 5(which has a usable selection of orchestral samples), along with Peter Siedlaczek's Complete Orchestral Collection. Combined it ran me about $400 and gave me a really solid selection of instruments and ensembles. I've supplemented it with a lot of single instruments(Embertone's Friedlander Violin, for example).

 

I'm still looking around, though - In particular I'm looking for some decent orchestral percussion, which is what I'm really lacking. Any suggestions there? Spitfire Percussion looks like my best(albeit a bit spendy) option there, but I haven't properly looked around.

[RadicalDreamers]

It depends. What kind of percussion do you want? I'm assuming you mean orchestral percussion since we're talking orchestral samples here. Do you want general purpose orchestral percussion, or are you looking for cinematic impacts, loops, etc?

[Kat]

A bit of everything, really. Sometimes I need a very booming cinematic sound, while other times I just need something light to decorate the song a bit. I have a pretty good selection of snare and timpani samples so I'm good there, but I'm really lacking when it comes to bass drums and especially cymbals.

[timaeus222]

Rhapsody Orchestral Percussion is always going to be my orch percussion recommendation. It's really versatile and comprehensive (including auxiliary percussion like clave, guiro, vibraslap, cowbell, chimes, etc), and it's quite dry to begin with as well. You can still get that "booming cinematic sound", however, by layering the tom ensembles with the bass drum, gran cassa, cajon, etc. Their snare and timpani selection are quite nice too; the rolls and stops/chokes on everything are a huge plus in my book.

 

Here's one of the audio demos (dressed, naked)