Best Virtual Orchestra?

[ernstinen]

My fave is EWQLSO Gold. When I first got it, I thought "How do you turn off the reverb?" Now I LOVE the built-in ambience!I try to match the ambience with a little reverb on my other "dry" libraries:Sam Horns (really great!)Dan Dean WoodwindsQuantum Leap BrassVSL Orchestra (Kontakt 2 --- fantastic solo trumpet!)Garritan GOS & GPOG-Town PercussionPeter Siedleczek Advanced Orchestra Proteus 2 (still love the oboe!)Roland JV-90 OrchestralWhen I blend these libs with Gold, they all have their positive attributes.Ern

[nickbatzdorf]

There is no best sampled orchestra, just several that are very good and have different strengths.Vienna Symphonic OrchestraEWQLSOSonivox Sonic Implants Symphonic CollectionKirk Hunter (less deluxe but a lot of very good stuff)Those are the ones to look at right now. But there's also Project SAM and Westgate to consider - not complete orchestras, but a lot of instruments.As Ern says, the best you can do is mix and match and pick and choose the best from different libraries. Not too many people have that luxury, unfortunately.

[mazz]

I'm a big fan of the Westgate woodwinds. You can download a solo instrument and then upgrade to the full sections at a later date and apply the price of the solo instrument to the upgrade. They are very expressive, I'm using their oboe for some emotional moments in my film score and it really hits the mark, IMO.I'm starting to use the Kirk Hunter strings and I find they blend very nicely with the EWQLSO strings. They are a little bright on their own for my taste, although that could be useful at times too.If I were just now looking to expand my palette beyond EWQLSO, I feel the Westgate woodwinds deserve a close listen. for what is a reasonable price, if you get the download versions, they sound great. They do have Timpani and French Horn as well but I haven't tried those yet. You will need to use reverb on them, though, they don't have the release trails like the EW stuff does.Cheers!Mazz

[ernstinen]

Jul 21, 2008, 8:54pm, nickbatzdorf wrote:As Ern says, the best you can do is mix and match and pick and choose the best from different libraries. Not too many people have that luxury, unfortunately.Nor do I! I'm frickin' BROKE buying all this stuff over the years, Batzdorf.I can't even afford gas to go to my studio. I'm writing on an old Mac, Performer 6.03, and my Proteus 2. Our air conditioning bill is OUTRAGEOUS! --- Maybe I'll get to my studio sometime in October to do some serious orchestration --- Ern

[stoney]

Perhaps we should also discuss the impact the room has on your library both on sound and power. EW Plat is brilliant but sounds pants if you only use the close mics. As soon as you bring up the stage and far mics bam it's massive it's the room that helps make it so powerful.However, I find when I am writing purely orchestral score it's great but not so good when I have to combine it within the context of a non straight orchestral score. I find I am turning to VSL more now than my EW platinum. The reason? I find it time consuming having to create the right sense of space VSL is dry so you can make the library as big or small as you want not forget it's much easier to fit it in with the mix.I'm using waves Ir 1 Parametric Convolution reverb, it's brilliant. Obviously there's Altiverb which is another good one too. My Space Designer in Logic is ok doesn't have the same depth as the two just mentioned but still good.

[mazz]

Although I've never done this, my understanding is that the ambience built in to the EW orchestra is on the releases of the notes. If that's the case, one should be able to adjust the amount of ambience simply by adjusting the release time in Kontakt (or soon Play). It may not be as simple as I make it sound but it's certainly doable given the flexibility of the envelopes in Kontakt.For me, since I'm doing more Hollywood style composing right now, combining libraries with different ambiences actually works well. Since the Hollywood aesthetic is to use both full orchestral and also spot mics on sections, having a solo oboe that I can "zoom in" on and control the ambience separately on helps to, for instance, make solos stand out more than they would if the whole orchestra sounded like it was in the same room, like in a classical concert hall. Also having something like the Kirk Hunter strings, which are drier, mixed in with the EW mid mic strings allows me to control the amount of "bite" and rosin in the sound. It's a bit like using the Platinum close and mid mics together but it's not blending the same samples together which gives the sound a bit more character, to my ears.I've not used VSL because I never liked the dryness of the sound. I gravitate towards a big epic sound which, of course, is not always appropriate but I've been able to get a pretty nice, more intimate sound by combining libraries and careful mixing.Lots of ways to operate, in the end it's the music and it's emotional impact that matters anyway. The audience doesn't care how we got there, they just respond to it.Cheers!!Mazz

[nickbatzdorf]

Quote:I'm frickin' BROKE buying all this stuff over the years, Batzdorf.Oh, you want to get rich. I didn't know that.Well, the answer is simple: just launch a magazine. Quote:I can't even afford gas to go to my studio.My solution was to buy a scooter. 85 MPG and really fun.But it's the smallest one they make - 49cc, cruises at 25-30 MPH. I'd be afraid to go on anything more motorcycle-like than this.

[Mark Kaufman]

Yeah, but then how are you supposed to haul the orchestra??Jeez...