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Hey everyone,

Dave let me know about a big sale that was going on at http://www.soundsonline.com/ You choose 7 different programs to create a bundle. If any of you have their software and can let me know which ones you liked/disliked, I would really appreciate it! Though it is very expensive, it would be a great way for me personally to build up a good collection of virtual instruments at a HUGE savings (75%).

Thanks!

I picked up a deal like this mid-late 2010 and customised it to get:

- Symphonic Orchestra Gold
- Silk
- Symphonic Choirs + VotA Expansion
- Goliath
- Stormdrum 2 + PRO expansion
- Voices of Passion
- RA

For me, SO, SC and SD2 are indispensable now. The only one I haven't really used yet is RA. They're all top quality and used constantly for what I do (which is trailer music with world elements). The question is deciding which of the available ones will be most useful to you. For instance, if I had my time over, I'd replace Goliath with Pianos.

Depending on what you foresee as your future needs, Symph Orch is a bit outdated now with products like LASS and HollywoodStrings raising the bar. But it's still a great sounding package.

For such a great bundle, these East West deals can't be beat.

That is a huge savings, I love the fact that they have discounts frequently.

I only have one program - which is Ra. I love it, but I don't know how much you are into world music. Ra, Silk, and Storm Drum are the world music trinity from soundsonline. Ra is cool, but there actually aren't THAT many instruments. I wish it had more. But I guess that's why I'll have to add the others at some point!

Cruciform wrote:Symph Orch is a bit outdated now with products like LASS and HollywoodStrings raising the bar. But it's still a great sounding package.

I'd add that the Symphonic Orchestra package isn't really a good direct comparison to LASS or Hollywood Strings, mostly because it's a complete package, the whole orchestra including brass, woodwinds, percussion, etc. In that realm it's still a flagship product I think, one of the best values out there, especially as a "centerpiece" to other instruments (synths and organic instruments alike).

FWIW, I'd for sure start with the fundamentals, the stuff that you'll use over and over. For me that would be Pianos (which are *awesome* by the way) and the Symphonic Orchestra. Platinum is nice because of the choice of "mic positions" which in practice just gives three different sounds from dryer to wetter from a reverb standpoint. For just $132 more than Gold, Platinum Plus has the addition of the three mic positions plus the 16-bit samples (in addition to the standard 24-bit samples) can really stretch the computer power a lot further. If you're doing orchestral blended in with other instruments and sounds (as opposed to pure orchestral pieces) Gold would probably be more than enough.

Normally you'd spend nearly $1000 just for Orchestral Gold and Pianos. So the other five things you get are really freebies. Whatever you get would be based on what you do most or what you might do if you had some of those goodies that you don't have now. For example, you might find yourself writing more ethnic music if you had RA or Silk. Or you might find yourself doing (or being able to do) more dramatic music with Stormdrum 2 and Symphonic Choirs. Actually, since you have seven choices I guess you could do "dramatic orchestral ethnic percussive with piano" and still have two more packages in the wings.

Cruciform might be able to shed some light on this but I always had the idea that Goliath was kind of a hodge-podge of the various instruments... a little bit from each package. Since there's seven choices you can make, I would think that Goliath would be kind of obsolete if you have all those other things to choose from.

Thanks for the thoughts!

Has anyone tried Gypsy? That sounded really good to me!

davewalton wrote:Cruciform might be able to shed some light on this but I always had the idea that Goliath was kind of a hodge-podge of the various instruments... a little bit from each package. Since there's seven choices you can make, I would think that Goliath would be kind of obsolete if you have all those other things to choose from.

That's about it. Goliath is a broad-brush selection worth getting if you were buying one product and needed a wide range of instruments. But throw it in the CCC mix and it loses its shine. I mainly bought it for the basses, new age elements and drones. If I had my time over I'd choose Pianos instead. Since I've bought The Dark Side, Goliath is now all but redundant to me.

Also Dave makes a good point in comparing SO with LASS etc. SO does give you all the instruments whereas LASS and HS are just strings.

Desiree - I haven't tried Gypsy but you can be sure that all their products are great. Just think about what you want to do and which would be most useful to you.


PS. Edit: I just opened Goliath and had a look. I'm actually surprised by how much is in it that I'd forgotten. There are HEAPS of great drumkits for starters. Hmmm....I might have to spend some more time in there.

It's an awfully tempting offer. The East West Vi's are all amazing!
If I were getting them, I would pretty much go with Rob's list, though (but swap Goliath for Pianos).

As a guitar player I would stay away from the Vi's based on bass and guitars (Fab Four, Goliath, Rock ect.). Not because they don't sound great, but because it's very very hard to get to sound real from a keyboard (and I would rely on more specialized vi's for drums). The best vi guitar stuff out there IMO is those that does not (only) aim to sound real (except for Spectrasonics Trilian), something a la Sample Logic's Cinematic Guitars.

I have no basis for picking these up, though, as I don't do the film genres they are great for. If I get a gig like that sometime, these vi's would be the first ones I picked up, but be aware, they require a powerful computer setup. From the EW Gold, that I own, I know the Play engine is quite particular of what other stuff you have loaded up simultaneously.

So, just a suggestion to carefully consider what kind of music you are doing, and can imagine yourself doing. There's always a good offer, but it may still be a bit steep to find out that this is not the type of music you do best, or want to do. You can find great vi's out there that may be more versatile go-to starting points for you, depending on what you have and do (like Omnisphere, Motu Ethno 2, and NI Kontakt).

Either way, these are great sounding Vi's, and the offer is amazing, for sure!

I have almost the same collection as Rob's except I also have the pianos. Of those titles I haven't used Silk that much yet but I have used RA a lot!

As far as Goliath is concerned, I agree with the above comments but I have to point out that absolutely every forward that I have gotten recently has something from Goliath in it. Probably because its all so easy to use! Just sayin'... doesn't mean it works for everyone.

The Orchestra and Storm Drum are my "go to" titles these days. I am aware there are "better" string VIs out there and that SO Gold is getting long in the tooth. However, don't sell it short, just listen to some of the demos on the website of just SO Gold and you can quickly tell that there is still a lot of room for killer music to be created with it! You can also check out the EW Hollywood Strings there.

Opinions are just that, opinions. I hear of lots of folks rave about LASS and I respect their opinions a lot! But having not actually tried it I have to say I haven't been nearly as impressed with the demos on their site as the demos on the EW site. Probably because I like all of the other instruments included with SO and they all sound so good together. This in itself is a whole thread topic! You'll have to decide for yourself.

Be aware there is a learning curve and you will need to have a large disk.

Overall, I would advise you to think about what kind of content you want in the music you write and choose your titles accordingly. But realize that different tonalities can open doors you never thought of.

Good Luck!

It's hard to go wrong with any of these packages. I almost exclusively use the following for everything I do:

Platinum Orchestra
Goliath (actually a lot of good stuff in there)
Storm Drum 2 (Just bought it a month ago, LOVE it)

With the exception of live guitar's and Superior Drummer the above represents virtually everything that I use on everything I've written so far.

I should add that unless you are doing really cinematic instrumental music, getting all of these packages might just be overkill.

From Gypsy I've used the Spanish Guitar quite a bit and the nylon string guitar, which I think sounds quite nice, and I use the Django guitar chords for the 2 and 4 chunking guitar parts on loungy stuff and for some latin stuff as well. I've used the solo violin but not in a while, but others here have gotten some great stuff from it.

I love the Cimbalom as well.