Orchestral samples

[MattCurious]

Hey there

I've been looking for some good orchestral sounds (particularly strings). I'm tempted by East/West Symphonic Orchestra but there are some snags around it (ie. it needs an iLok, which East/West won't ship to the UK for some reason).

Is it worth getting an iLok separately in order to download Quantum Leap, or are there other suites people would recommend?

Thanks!
Matt

[MusicComposer]

Hi Matt.
Someone asked a similar question in another thread.
They gave this link: http://www.scorecastonline.com/2013/11/ ... ed-today1/
I listened to this entire podcast. It was extremely enlightening.
They talked a little about the EastWest stuff but pretty much complained a lot about the EastWest "Player" that you have to use with their stuff.
Here are some string libs they recommended:
Spitfireaudio - Albion ( One of the best ) - latest version = 5
Cinesamples - Cine Strings Core - $499. ($429. Black Friday Sale Price)
Cinematic Strings II $399.20 Hollywood Sounds / Pop Recordings / very versatile / easy to use( just load and go )
LA Scoring Strings (an older product) - Light version for $399. (very reasonable)

These guys are top L.A. composers but they are talking here about affordable libraries for newbies.
I checked these libraries out online and they are all usable for broadcast quality tracks.
Don't be thrown off by the social banter that they engage in at the beginning of the podcast. It doesn't last long before they get right into the libraries.
I found this podcast was chock full of valuable library info for people like me on a budget.

Hope this helps.

[MusicComposer]

Hi again, Matt.
I actually took notes during the entire podcast.
You really need to listen to the entire podcast, but here are my notes in case you find them helpful.

Scorecastonline.com
Hollywood film composers, Deane Ogden and Brian Ralston Composers Podcasts
===================================================================

Podcast Radio Show
SCOREcast 40: If I Started Today - Sample Libraries

DAWS
===============
Pro Tools
Cubase
Digital Performer ( Very sophisticated - for Film Scoring)


Samplers
========
Kontakt ( you can use Batch Resave Function - improves load times 60-70% faster)
(SSD drives - load very fast)
EastWest Play is a joke - terrible (not really a sampler)

Sampler Libraries (Kontakt Libs)
===========================
String Libs
-----------------
Spitfireaudio - Albion ( One of the best ) - latest version = 5
Cinesamples - Cine Strings Core - $499. ($429. Black Friday Sale Price)
Cinematic Strings II $399.20 Hollywood Sounds / Pop Recordings / very versatile / easy to use( just load and go )
LA Scoring Strings (an older product) - Light version for $399. (very reasonable)

Performance Libraries (for specific functions / applications )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action strings from Native Instruments - good for motors and ostinatos , repetitive things
Sonokinetic DaCapo, Vivace, Tutti
Cinesamples - Cine Series

Brass Libs
=========
Cinesamples - Cine Brass Core, Cine Brass Pro ( best all around brass lib - at least get Cine Brass Core)
(very playable library - same as Cinematic Strings - very easy , just load and go)
Sample Modeling - The Trumpet (Solo Trumpet)
Embertone - Chapman Trumpet

Bargain Basement Libs ( overall general workhorse midi library )
=====================================================
Project Sam - Orchestral Essentials ( $449. ) - great complete starting library(sounds a little digital to me)
Project Sam - Symphobia 1 $949. and 2 (not Lumina)
Spitfireaudio - Albion 1 ($573.) - is also competitively priced - content very similar to Symphobia and Orchestral Essentials
EastWest Goliath ( 32 gig - covers everything ) ( but the bad news is that you have to use the Play player)
NI Komplete covers almost all areas of production over several synths and specialized string libs

Synthesizers (Overall workhorse synth)
=================================
Omnisphere ( nothing like this, great synthesis learning platform, laid out very sensibly )
- you get huge beautiful sample libraries with it
- $479. not cheap but what you get is well worth the money
- Omnisphere is probably the best professional synth
- Stylus RMX - you can create your drum beat and then drag it onto Omnisphere and it will create an exactly
synced Omnisphere part
U-he - Zebra 2
Camel Audio - Alchemy ( lots of usable stuff right out of the box )

Woodwinds
==========
Cine Winds Core, Cine Winds Pro ( same as CineStrins and CineBrass - very easy to use - load and go )
Orchestral Tools - Berlin Woodwinds ( super dry samples , blends very well with any other library )
EastWest Woodwinds (not recommended but not bad)
Eduardo's Anthology Series - ethnic woodwinds ( high end woodwinds lib )

Percussion
==========
Cinesamples - Cine Perc
Spitfire Percussion - $543
Project Sam - True Strike 1(orchestral perch lib), True Strike 2 ( projectsam.com $299. each )
TrueStrike 2 is not really needed.
Heavyocity - Damage ( includes orchestral as well as many other sounds )
ToonTrack - EZ Drummer, Superior Drummer for Rock or Pop (great sounding product, sounds are great)
Stylus RMX - contains numerous presets that are way overused, but
- you can use the "chaos function" to change the built in presets
Native Instruments - Studio Drummer ( most usable library out there, very tweakable, great sounding)
- very cheap for what you get, also bundled with Komplete
Addictive Drums - has add on packs like EZ Drummer ( same interface as "Addictive Keys")
SoundIron - Apocalypse Drum Ensemble ( perfectly recorded, articulations are extremely realistic )
- affordable $199. - huge library - epic percussive sound for blockbuster trailers
- you can control mic placement and ambience

Ethnic Instrument Libraries
=======================
Forest Kingdom 1, Forest Kingdom 2 ( South American sounds , etc. )
Eduardo Tarulante - Sapling Arts - Ethnic Libraries of all sorts
Era Medieval Legends ( old Renaissance instruments )
Sonokinetic - has a lot of ethnic libraries - affordable

Vocal Libraries
============
Sonokinetic - awesome vocal libraries ( 5 or 6 ) - cover ethnic genres
SoundIron - Epic Angelic Choirs - Olympus Choir, Venus Choir, Mars Choir, Mercury Boy Choir,
Soprano, Rapture, Gaia(ethereal, new age sounding)
8Dio - Requiem Pro - (This is by far the best)
Solo Libs - 8Dio, SoundIron, ADO, ToneHammer - Tara, Barberry
Cinesamples - VOXOS Epic Virtual Choirs


Reverbs
------------
Altiverb
Space Designer

[EricB]

Wow MusicComposer! This is a really great list. Only thing I would like to add is Toontrack Superior Drummer to the percussion list. It is an amazing percussion plugin with built-in Eq, compression, transient, etc. that gives you a lot of control over your drum sounds at a good price. It has full mixer capabilities with busses, panning and such as well with the ability to save presets.

[andygabrys]

Heavyocity - Damage ( includes orchestral as well as many other sounds )
ToonTrack - EZ Drummer, Superior Drummer for Rock or Pop (great sounding product, sounds are great)

Eric - its in there

thanks MC for the transcript!

[EricB]

So it is, haha.

[MattCurious]

That's absolutely amazing, thank you!

[MusicComposer]

Hi all.
Sorry I haven't responded recently.
I recently joined TAXI at the beginning of December and I saw the 2 listings for the TV adds etc.
I have been crunching 8 - 12 hours a day working on tracks for those listings.
I just submitted my first 11 tracks for those 2 listings.

Anyway, that makes me very happy that my notes of the podcast are useful to people.

I think it might have been AndyGabrys that originally told us about that podcast. (i.e. URL Link)

Thanks Andy, That podcast was awesome. I am going to continue viewing Michael's online Monday broadcasts but now I think I will
also start checking out some of those podcasts also when I can get out of crunch mode from working on tracks.

I have also been working on a couple of Hip Hop backing tracks for another listing that is due, I think, Dec. 30.
I just took a couple of days off for Christmas but then I will be right back at it , trying to polish up a couple of tracks for that Hip Hop listing.

Being a new member, I feel like I am playing " catch-up ", getting myself up to speed.
But I am having an absolute blast, listening and learning, and attempting to apply all this knowledge to my tracks.

Also, in one of the forums, someone mentioned for mixing: "Fett's Mixing Roadmap".
I bought it and read it all the way through.
If you are a beginner to mixing, then this book is an absolute must read.
Fett explains everything so down to earth that anyone, even I can understand the concepts.
I made an instrumental track and I was having a hard time mixing it.
I stopped and read Fett's book and pretty much applied all his ideas and then all of my track instruments then sounded clean and clear.

I still need more practice on all this basic mixing stuff but now I feel a lot more confident that I can move up to one of the more advanced mixing books
that some of you guys have been talking about.

Finally, I paid $20. each for 3 TAXI custom critiques of my Hip Hop tracks.
The critiques were awesome.... before the critiques I didn't know what I was doing. But now after reading the critiques and applying their advice I think I am
really starting to get a pretty good idea of how to produce a broadcast quality Hip Hop backing track.
I now have at least one track that I think is submittable.
I can't afford to do this kind of thing very often.
However, I looked at it like if I get 3 custom critiques on a style that I want to learn, then that will "kick-start" me into writing for that style.
And I think it really has.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to everyone.