I've been thinking about writing an article on free orchestral samples, I haven't decided though if it's going to be a roundup or something of a more general nature. In any case I decided to sit down and have a thorough look at what's around these days. Obviously I'm well aware of VSCO2CE, VPO and NBO and the other usual suspects (MIS, MSLP, Philharmonia etc). But aside from that, has anyhting interesting popped up in recent years?
And well, what can I say. Wow. I found so much stuff that I decided to whip up a quick composition using only freebies.
Please note that this does NOT use SSO/VPO/VSCO2 or any other complete orchestral package. It's just various instruments added together into a pretty impressive (if not highy versatile) setup. The composition doesn't make much sense I might add, it's more of a demo reel.
Samples used: Sonuscore Orchestra Chords, ldk109 violin, Carlos Vaquero Transverse Flute, Intimate Strings Lite, Strezov Tutti Staccatos, Ixox Flute, Flcellogrl cello, Meatbass, Rubner bass, Christian Schwenk Studio 49 Royal Percussion, JH Windchimes (well, they're bar chimes actually), Cinesamples Triangle, G-Town cymbals and bass drum, Gothic Harp, MTG clarinet, trumpet and piccolo, Ethan Winer bassoon, MIS oboe, Jasper Blunk fortissimo horns, ProjectSAM trumpets, MIS bass and tenor trombones, Philharmonia tuba.
There's a lot of other stuff as well, though not used in this composition (yet). It's incredible how the orchestral freeware market has changed over the last eight years or so!
I finally got a relatively solid build of a game for which I was hired to write music a while back, and I've been brainstorming and recording ideas for the different cues.
I'm trying to gather ideas about different ways a soundtrack can affect the player. I know it is possible to:
stay in the background, simply replacing the silence with something, leaving it up to the game to set the tone.
amplify what's there, and have the music reflect what you see in the game. Tablas and sitars for tropical areas, chimes and choirs for ancient temples, and so on.
guide the player. Combat music comes to mind. The difference between major key chugga chugga and a more dissonant cue for combat is huge. While the latter might just fit what's there, the former might guide the player towards feeling confident and awesome.
misdirect. For example, play super-positive music as you're talking to an NPC who is more than slightly objectionable. That way, the player might feel really uncomfortable and out of place.
So, how do you think a soundtrack can come into play? Have you seen a movie or played a game where the music did something you didn't expect?
So I decided it's time I put all this 80's/90's hardware to good use- I decided I'm going to make a "Vaporwave" CD (basically cheesy 80's/90's music based around TV show themes, elevator music, and other elements of "consumerism" embracing the optimism of the era with almost satirical zeal).
Here are a few tracks I have so far. Names are temporary and order is speculative. https://instaud.io/Ypg (using the Mirolsav Symphonic Orchestra String Ensembles 2.0- remarkably good for 1995!!) - (humble parody of Mannheim Steamroller's Classical Gas) https://instaud.io/Q2i https://instaud.io/LkO https://instaud.io/Y72 (probably the cheesiest of all of the above- "helping" a friend come up with ideas for an advertisement score)
Has anyone here tried this one? I played around with the free edition a bit and while I haven't come to any real conclusions (that would require using it project-wide for an extended period of time, experimenting and going back and forth) it does feel a bit more user friendly than Proximity while doing the same type of job, sound wise. Its Z-depth displacement is more noticeable while Proximity is more subtle, which can be either good or bad. I feel it might be a little too easy overdoing it with Panagement.
So I've thrown a number of free things up here that aren't on my site for one reason or another or aren't actual instruments, just raw samples, and I figured it'd be a good idea to put it all together.
Untuned Rope Snare/Field Drum
I also just did a super light sampling of a rather large untuned rope snare drum today. Rope snare drums use ropes rather than tuning rods to tune and were common during the American Revolution. It has a big, low sound and lots of resonance (pretty easy to remove with an EQ or filter, or by just having a low (e.g. 500 ms) release on the sampler).
Typically I believe they are tuned higher and more consistently (so they don't "warble" like this one), but I'm not a drum specialist and I liked the boomy sound and resonance.
Hopefully I'll be able to record this drum and a few others and make a proper sample library, with the help of a competent drummer.
Zuckermann Kit Harpsichord
This harpsichord was built in the 1960's from a kit made by a maker named Zuckermann. It's more on the English or Italian side, I guess (I'm not a harpsichord expert by any stretch of the imagination). Unfortunately the action is pretty tired and it needs someone to come in and redo all the action.
Dumpster Hits
These are some cool dumpster hits I recorded a while back but never got around to cutting/using. With the branding Versilian Studios has today as making traditional instruments, I don't really think it would be fitting to make a product, but maybe Bigcat or Sample Science would be interested in taking it on. It hasn't been cut yet, but there's a lot of cool stuff in here, all multi-sampled.
I've finally managed to put some new music together performed by my Virtual Playing Orchestra sample library and the not yet released dynamic cross faded brass patches I have.
It's about time I gave the library a good shake down while composing something new. Fortunately I didn't find any new problems.
As is usual for me, I started with someone else's unfinished composition (with permission) and added (a lot of) orchestral accompaniment. More details and the music at the above link.
This is my first post in these forums. I am an amateur composer who has had a bit of instrument, live sound, and music theory training. I don't have much training in any of these fields, just enough to mess around with, and fill in the rest with my ears, and trial and error.
Earlier this year I took on what was for me my first real music project. I've been writing songs here and there since high school as composing is a hobby and passion of mine, but have never taken it beyond that. I happened to stumble upon a project called Open Source RPG Maker and was interested in the project. Turns out the lead programmer was essentially doing everything by himself (with a small amount of community help) and didn't have anything in place for music. I got in contact with him and eventually volunteered myself to write stock music for the software.
The music is intended to be in the style of RPG maker 2003, which is to say heavily based in somewhat generic JRPG sounds.
I have no previous experience in doing this other than things I have made on my own.
I would love to get any and all feedback from anyone here willing to listen.
![[Image: Personality_test.png]](http://www.mediafire.com/file/kyowbdud0ybjavk/Personality_test.png)
