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Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Printable Version

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Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Terry93D - 12-20-2018

So on Facebook I'm a member of the VGM Academy group. I don't comment much (and post not at all) but a few days ago someone posted this:

Quote:Hello, everybody! I'm a mexican composer. New member here, but looking to get practice and connections. I mosty arrange using synthetic sounds, since I have almost no practice in recording orchestral instruments. I wanted to ask a couple of things: a) Do you know a good affordable sound library for orchestral sounds? b) Do you know any good online resource to learn orchestration? Thanks!

I saw this and read it and realized that yes! This is something for which I have a level of knowledge adequate to help them. So I wrote a small book.

Quote:1: the SONiVOX Film Score Companion is reasonably inexpensive, but the software is, frankly, not very good. There's no disk streaming which means it's a nasty RAM hog. They are monotimbral; you'd need a separate instance for each section of the orchestra. I've heard various other problems with it, too, which have been detailed over at the Scoring Central forums. I would recommend only as a very last of last resorts - I might even go as far as to warn you against purchasing it. This option is a difficult one for me because the sounds are fantastic; warm, rich, lush, etc.; but the front end is awful.

2: Digital Sound Factory offers a number of cheap, older sample libraries. These are, however, not really ideal for if you intend to write orchestral music commercially because these samples, again, are very old. Once again, not ideal.

3: If you have Kontakt or Kontakt Player, the Versilian Chamber Orchestra 2 Full Edition may fit your needs. It is inexpensive and offers all standard orchestral instruments and a reasonably generous selection of auxiliaries, too. However, because this is a chamber orchestra, it may not be ideal for massive, epic-type tracks, at least not without layering in some other sample libraries. You can, of course, take a listen to demos yourself to find out - they have a website and a Soundcloud. VSCO2 offers two pro options.

4: If you can not afford the above three, there is still a completely free option - the Virtual Playing Orchestra, which is comprised of public domain samples, all of them looped, retuned, etc. so that they fit together. The sample sources come from as diverse as the Sonatina, the No Budget, the Versilian CO2 Community Edition, and various others. You will need a soundfont reading VST, of which there are a number of options. With a good reverb applied to the VPO, you have the best free orchestra there is.

5: If for some very bizarre the VPO does not fit, you can, of course, utilize the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra in its original form, likewise with the No Budget Orchestra. I do not recommend this.

6: There is, of course, beyond this, something which is neither inexpensive but poor, inexpensive but good, or free - I speak of the abandonware software Edirol Orchestral, which is... iffy. It's comprised of Roland samples ranging from the 80s to the 2000s, and the quality correspondingly varies. It's all wrapped up in a very low RAM usage VST. I've had two instances loaded without a single problem, and this at a time when I had only 2 GB of RAM. (For comparison, my computer and DAW could only run 2 instances of the SONiVOX Strings before Reaper crashed.) For a PS2-type of sound, it's positively ideal. 

7: EWQL offers a subscription service called the Composers' Cloud which allows you to use their products at a far lower price than it would take purchasing them. (They currently have a holiday sale on for their ComposerCloud X option putting it at $19.99 a month for a year.)

8: In the realm of older libraries, the Garritan Personal Orchestra 5. This is, mind you, rather dated and old. I've heard other stuff about it such as it requiring babying by way of effects to sound good; but do NOT take my word for it.

9: Best Service offers the Complete Orchestral Collection of Peter Siedlaczek's libraries. This is, as with DSF's orchestral libraries (not, mind you, their Emu libraries but their own libraries), is one of those retro sample libraries.

10: In the same realm of the retro sample library is the Prosonus Orchestral Collection.

11: Miroslav Philharmonik 2 is almost, but not quite, a library akin to this. I say almost because it has been updated, so it's a very weird sort of in-between library. This is a nice option because it has a few auxiliary instruments in it that, say, SONiVOX and VPO lack. MP2 is currently on sale (€149.99 = $170.23 [usually €299 = $340.46], VSCO2 PE $229), which means you can purchase it for less than it would cost you to purchase the VSCO2 Professional Edition.

12: Naturally, there are numerous General MIDI soundsets. I wouldn't recommend these; crawling through them to find something that sounds at least reasonably professional would be extremely time-consuming. Again, if you have no money to spend, just get the VPO.

13: There also the DSK Music VSTs. These are not very good.

14: Beyond this, options become progressively more and more expensive, and, correspondingly, more and more professional and with a larger and larger learning curve. There are probably other inexpensive options out there, but if there are, I don't know of them. (The old adage: do your research.) I, personally, would recommend either the VSCO2, MP2, or VPO if you're aiming to go as cheap as possible. Beyond that you'll have to listen around to demos, see what people say about the library. 

15: TO ORCHESTRATION. It must be noted firstly that the usage of sample libraries for orchestral music, and writing for an actual orchestra, are subtly different skills. MIDI Orchestration is the art and practice of making sure your virtual orchestra sounds realistic; while Orchestration itself is the art of writing for a genuine symphonic orchestra such that you achieve a good sound and the orchestra can play it. MIDI Orchestration involves a great deal more hands-on editing with CC parameters etc. to make your sounds sound like they are being performed. With Orchestration your concern is much more with "can the orchestra play this?" and "can this actually be heard?" Sample libraries are dishonest - you may get an audible sound with a harp with a library that you can hear at least a little well no matter how loudly the rest of the orchestra plays. In a genuine orchestra, a harp played forte could only be heard if the rest of the orchestra played mezzo-forte or piano. 

16: I can not really recommend anything as regards to MIDI Orchestration. There are videos and articles out there if you look for them, but I can not at this moment recall any specific sources. In the realm of orchestration itself you have a variety of options - the YouTube channel OrchestrationOnline, the blog Orchestra Sounds, and obviously you will want a few books: Adler's Study of Orchestration 4th Edition, Piston's Orchestration seem to be the best consensus picks, the latter for starting out with and the Adler later on. The OrchestrationOnline website has other recommendations as well as a blog.

You thought I was exaggerating. 

Anyway, having written so much, I realized that I could probably, with a little bit more research, turn this into a fully-fledged article.

So I'm thinking of doing just that. Since I know this forum is filled to the gills with people more knowledgeable then I, about free and affordable libraries, and not only that but people who have recorded and compiled and created such libraries - three of which I mentioned in my post (SSO, VSCO2, and VPO) - I figured you all could, possibly, help. Even so much as direction as to what to research, and where, would be helpful. This is stuff that you all are experts at. I am a dilettante. If you can help in any way, however minor, I would appreciate it. Smile


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Paul Battersby - 12-20-2018

You have a good collection of information there (and thanks for the glowing review of Virtual Playing Orchestra). For your article, one thing to consider is including links to all the libraries and also including this new library:

Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra


It's been mentioned in another thread here. It's current introductory price is $119 (and apparently even works with the free version of Kontakt) so maybe it belongs on your list?

RE: item #5 : just recently, the download for Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra is no longer available.


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Terry93D - 12-20-2018

(12-20-2018, 01:42 AM)Paul Battersby Wrote: You have a good collection of information there (and thanks for the glowing review of Virtual Playing Orchestra). For your article, one thing to consider is including links to all the libraries and also including this new library:

Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra


It's been mentioned in another thread here. It's current introductory price is $119 (and apparently even works with the free version of Kontakt) so maybe it belongs on your list?

RE: item #5 : just recently, the download for Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra is no longer available.

Ah yes! Links. Of my original comment I replied to it with a list of all links mentioned (including to this very forum w/ regards to the issues with the SONiVOX VSTs) but I did not include it for brevity's sake - and forgot to even mention it. xp In any case, though, you are quite correct, and I will include links in the article.

The Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra, huh... the increasing amount of affordable orchestras is a wonderful thing. It's good to have such a variety of choices. I certainly shall include it. Thank you!

RE the Sonatina Symphonic: That is unfortunate to hear. A developer on Github by the username of peastman has a "2.0" available, though I had intended - for the sake of completeness - to include both versions. Oh well! I'm sure there's a back-up somewhere; perhaps on Archive.org.


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Mattias Westlund - 12-20-2018

(12-20-2018, 02:00 AM)Terry93D Wrote: RE the Sonatina Symphonic: That is unfortunate to hear. A developer on Github by the username of peastman has a "2.0" available, though I had intended - for the sake of completeness - to include both versions. Oh well! I'm sure there's a back-up somewhere; perhaps on Archive.org.

peastman is on this forum and there's an SSO 2.0 thread here somewhere Smile

As for removing the original SSO package, I basically had to since my bandwidth limit is exceeded every month and 90% of the b/w was SSO downloads. For me it's more important having my site and the forum running smoothly than offering a very dated orchestral library. I'm sure it's out there somewhere though, if you look around.


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - bigcat1969 - 12-21-2018

If only someone had made a VST of Sonatina and maybe even VSCO2 and it was available on VST4Free or VSTBuzz... oh well you can't have everything. Not that I don't love VPO of course but you would think they might get a mention or at least Sam's SFZ version of VSCO the Two Community. Goes away and sulks...

And if Mattias will forgive me and doesn't mind, I think this is a mirror I made three years ago for myself and never mentioned to the public (0 downloads atm). I'll run out of bandwidth sometime next year I suspect, but hey until then...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/xcmcl628miy4qju/SSO-sso.mattiaswestlund.com-SFZ-Samples.zip/file


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Terry93D - 12-21-2018

(12-21-2018, 12:58 AM)bigcat1969 Wrote: If only someone had made a VST of Sonatina and maybe even VSCO2 and it was available on VST4Free or VSTBuzz... oh well you can't have everything. Not that I don't love VPO of course but you would think they might get a mention or at least Sam's SFZ version of VSCO the Two Community. Goes away and sulks...

And if Mattias will forgive me and doesn't mind, I think this is a mirror I made three years ago for myself and never mentioned to the public (0 downloads atm). I'll run out of bandwidth sometime next year I suspect, but hey until then...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/xcmcl628miy4qju/SSO-sso.mattiaswestlund.com-SFZ-Samples.zip/file

I will be honest: I completely forgot there was a VST version because I personally have never used the VST versions. I promise that if I do write this article that I'll include links to your VSTs. Smile Likewise, I'll include VSCO 2 CE.


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - bigcat1969 - 12-21-2018

Thanks I knew if I threw a tantrum you would! ;P

If you want more thoughts about orchestral stuff, surf VI-Control. It is mostly upper end but they do discuss less expensive stuff and sketching orchestras. The instruments bit of KVR is also a useful place to look.

I don't know if you want to get into the Kontakt thing. Once a yearish they tend to put on an upgrade sale and if you get free Drummica (sp) you can upgrade to full Kontakt for about $125 otherwise they have half price sales for $200. It has an aging but decent set of instruments including orchestral and choral. Plus Red Room has a free orchestral things for it and Project Sam is going to come out with a free orchestral thing for it. I also got more experimental (with mixed results) with VSCO2 including crossfading, legato and even arps and chords in the Kontakt version.

I've done free instrument and free Kontakt instrument lists from around the web. There are a lot of nice pianos for instance which go well with orchestral stuff.

https://freedigitalinstruments.wordpress.com/

As mentioned Amadeus is turning heads and UVI has an orchestral suite out for $200. EastWest Symphonic Orchestra Silver is about $100 and Gold is about $200 on sale right now. Mind it and UVI use ILok which I hate.


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Terry93D - 12-22-2018

(12-21-2018, 03:57 PM)bigcat1969 Wrote: Thanks I knew if I threw a tantrum you would! ;P

If you want more thoughts about orchestral stuff, surf VI-Control. It is mostly upper end but they do discuss less expensive stuff and sketching orchestras. The instruments bit of KVR is also a useful place to look.

I don't know if you want to get into the Kontakt thing. Once a yearish they tend to put on an upgrade sale and if you get free Drummica (sp) you can upgrade to full Kontakt for about $125 otherwise they have half price sales for $200. It has an aging but decent set of instruments including orchestral and choral. Plus Red Room has a free orchestral things for it and Project Sam is going to come out with a free orchestral thing for it. I also got more experimental (with mixed results) with VSCO2 including crossfading, legato and even arps and chords in the Kontakt version.

I've done free instrument and free Kontakt instrument lists from around the web. There are a lot of nice pianos for instance which go well with orchestral stuff.

https://freedigitalinstruments.wordpress.com/

As mentioned Amadeus is turning heads and UVI has an orchestral suite out for $200. EastWest Symphonic Orchestra Silver is about $100 and Gold is about $200 on sale right now. Mind it and UVI use ILok which I hate.

Tantrums are well-known for solving all problems, all of them.

Your website has an extremely  impressive collection of orchestral instruments! There's certainly enough - between the Aspens, SSO, VSCO2 CE, and others - to put together an entire orchestra, or a chamber ensemble of your choice.

---/

Okay. So, I've done a great deal of looking around - for complete orchestras, not for "ensemble suites" (e.g. Palette Primary Colors) or software dedicated to only one section - and I have found more then I bargained for in this respect. (Surely, a good sign for the state of music, if not for me. XD) 

I've set the price cap for this possible article at $300, since it seems to me that anything that costs more is high-end and may require a better computer than someone just starting out might have. The objectives of this article are much more descriptive then proscriptive, though it is not exclusively either. My goal is to list all options regardless of quality, and to provide demos of all (insofar as is possible) and only present my thoughts after describing it. This so as to keep with my philosophy of "provide all the information" and "write a small book." 

I have compiled a list of the following, in no particular order...
  • SONiVOX Film Score Companion
  • Versilian Chamber Orchestra 2 (Pro and Community)
  • Emu Virtuoso 2000 Orchestral
  • DSF Studio Orchestra
  • Virtual Playing Orchestra 3
  • Best Service Complete Orchestral Collection (Peter Siedlaczek)
  • Prosonus - The Orchestral Collection
  • Garritan Personal Orchestra 5
  • Miroslav Philharmonik 2
  • Edirol Orchestral
  • DSK Overture & Virtuoso
  • Sonic Score Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra
  • Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (Original and 2.0)
  • HALion Symphonic Orchestra 
  • EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Silver
  • Impact Soundworks Rhapsody: Orchestral Colors
  • No Budget Orchestra
  • Signal Experiments SFZs
  • Varazdin Orchestral
  • Kirk Hunter Virtuoso Ensembles
  • UVI Orchestral Suite
  • Vienna Smart Orchestra
  • Bigcat's Kontakt, VST, and SFZ collection
This is, I'm certain by now, an incomplete list. It is also almost large enough as to be unmanageable; it is certainly large enough that it will take more time then I had bargained for, especially because I have a somewhat unfortunate habit of wanting to learn as much as I can so as to pass it on to the reader - I believe in going in-depth... Certainly a multi-part article, probably I could even bundle it as an eBook and sell it for $.99 a pop, maybe! Oh, the trials of being born to embrace pain. God knows if I can't find what I'm looking for online I'll start emailing them and asking the all of you.

(In my ideal world, I'd compose demos for it all myself. A single demo for all of them, for direct comparison, and then a unique demo for each, to try and showcase its best side.)


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - bigcat1969 - 12-22-2018

Wow amazing list! Depending on intended use you might whittle it down by combining somethings like orchestras derived from VSCO2 and / or SSO. Possibly leaving out something like the Prosonus which I think requires Studio One Version 3 to use or Varazdin Orchestral which I think requires FL Studio. I might be wrong there.

Thanks for doing this it would be a great book for newcomers and even some of us old timers as well.


RE: Thinking about an article about free & affordable orchestral libraries - Terry93D - 12-22-2018

(12-22-2018, 01:08 AM)bigcat1969 Wrote: Wow amazing list! Depending on intended use you might whittle it down by combining somethings like orchestras derived from VSCO2 and / or SSO.  Possibly leaving out something like the Prosonus which I think requires Studio One Version 3 to use or Varazdin Orchestral which I think requires FL Studio. I might be wrong there.  

Thanks for doing this it would be a great book for newcomers and even some of us old timers as well.

I may consider leaving out such libraries, but if I do that then probably I'd have to leave out Kontakt libraries too, which begins limiting options severely and in any case I personally wouldn't feel right doing it. 

Yeah, after I finished writing the post I realized "hey, this might be useful to pros that want a cheap sketching library."