REQUEST : List of cheap/inexpensive sample libraries

[StevenT2112]

I don't know if these are worth mentioning or not. They're pretty old for one, they're sparsely sampled (Strings are in minor 3rds, brass and winds are in fourths.) They are also unprocessed .wav files. So you'd have to edit them and map them in a sampler yourself. If you don't mind doing all that, they're not too shabby although I personally wouldn't use them for any solo parts. I'd avoid using the section samples though. Completely unusable in my opinion.

https://www.producerloops.com/Download-Z...le-CD.html
https://www.producerloops.com/Download-Z...le-CD.html
https://www.producerloops.com/Zero-G-Dru...nload.html
https://www.producerloops.com/Download-Z...le-CD.html

There's also Symphomania. It's got some decent brass and some of the woodwinds are useable. Only bad thing I have to say about it is a lot of the samples are really short and some of them have noises within the samples themselves (things like chair creaking and what not.) There are only solo instruments and like the Zero-G libraries, there are only unprocessed samples that you have to set up in a sampler yourself.
https://www.producerloops.com/Download-M...mania.html

[Mattias Westlund]

I own Zero-G String Textures and Woodwind & Brass. As you say the sections are pretty horrid but there's a few useable solo instruments in there (IIRC the oboe is good). And for that price I think they're no-brainers, you never know when something might come in handy.

Never heard of Symphomania though, thanks for the tip! Some stuff in the audio demo does indeed sound fairly useful.

[StevenT2112]

Has anyone ever used this library before? It has quite a variety of instruments, even some less common ones. It looks like it also has a decent amount of articulations. Some of the demos sound decent too. Can anyone tell me if it's worth getting?

http://www.image-line.com/content/Sample...rchestral/

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-03-2016, 04:03 AM)StevenT2112 Wrote: Has anyone ever used this library before? It has quite a variety of instruments, even some less common ones. It looks like it also has a decent amount of articulations. Some of the demos sound decent too. Can anyone tell me if it's worth getting?

Unless I'm mistaken it's all solo instruments.

A variety of samples came with a demo of DirectWave I downloaded years ago and they're still sitting in my Documents folder where the plugin left them when I uninstalled it. Never used them for anything, not so much because of legality issues but because I don't find them to be anything special. Not terrible, but definitely not €159 good either!

[bigcat1969]

I looked about the V however you spell it library and it seems like it basically is specifically for FL Studio or you have to buy the 100 buck player for it. It seems from just comments made years ago where is was considered worse than the then GPO to be something like the instruments that came 'free' with my Studio One 2 purchase.

I probably have the wrong mentality but I tend to look at gigs versus price. So the good deals of the four packs is 70 bucks for 0.7 gigs or 100 bucks a gig, so not sure its a good deal. Of course at price versus gigs, Sonatina is the best orchestra ever.

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-06-2016, 06:58 PM)bigcat1969 Wrote: I probably have the wrong mentality but I tend to look at gigs versus price. So the good deals of the four packs is 70 bucks for 0.7 gigs or 100 bucks a gig, so not sure its a good deal. Of course at price versus gigs, Sonatina is the best orchestra ever.

Not the wrong mentality at all IMO, I have "max fifty" rule of thumb for lesser known/old libraries. Meaning, if they're more than ~$50/€50 and the audio demos are unconvnincing and I can't find any mention of these libs being used by people over the years, I say thanks but no thanks. I can live with spending up to that amount on something that ends up being disappointing. But at higher prices than that, I demand a lot more value for money and a clearer idea of what the samples can actually do.

It's outrageous when you think about it how few (if any?) sample developers offer demo versions of their products.

[Fealow]

@Mattias Westlund

I noticed that you have a dislike for the miroslav products. Seeing as I have recently purchased miroslav philharmonik 2 I was wondering if you could elaborate on your reasoning behind that please?

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-14-2016, 01:18 AM)Fealow Wrote: @Mattias Westlund

I noticed that you have a dislike for the miroslav products. Seeing as I have recently purchased miroslav philharmonik 2 I was wondering if you could elaborate on your reasoning behind that please?

Well I have no opinion on Philharmonik 2, I've just heard some audio demos, and while it sounds miles better than its predecessor it strikes me as grossly underwhelming considering the €624(!!!) price tag.

As for Philharmonik 1, it was misleadingly advertized as a "natural" and "real" sounding library when in fact it's anything but that. It's a bunch of very dated samples that have a tendency of sounding fake at best, and at worst more like a Mellotron than an orchestra.

I'm also not a fan of IK, but I'm not going to go into that here as it would be in violation of the forum rules

[kmlandre]

(07-14-2016, 04:52 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Well I have no opinion on Philharmonik 2, I've just heard some audio demos, and while it sounds miles better than its predecessor it strikes me as grossly underwhelming considering the €624(!!!) price tag.

As for Philharmonik 1, it was misleadingly advertized as a "natural" and "real" sounding library when in fact it's anything but that. It's a bunch of very dated samples that have a tendency of sounding fake at best, and at worst more like a Mellotron than an orchestra.

I'm also not a fan of IK, but I'm not going to go into that here as it would be in violation of the forum rules

Honestly, in my experience, most of the problems with MiroSlav are the player and forcing SampleTank into doing what you need it to to do.  There's no capacity for shared neighbor round robin, only one dynamic level per patch (as far as I can tell, anyway) even though there are alternate patches that seem to have different samples, dynamic control over EQ and filters is difficult at best, etc.  

And don't get me started on the French Horn looping.... errrrrgh.  

I've only used MS by itself on a few occasions and wasn't terribly overwhelmed.  Back in the day, I paid $50 for it (some weird sale at Musician's Friend or something) and figured it was at least worth the price tag for layering, as in this (Notion and Miroslav):

• In the Garden of Faries
  

But that being said, I've been working on a "resampling" of the Miroslav stuff and porting it to Kontakt and hooking it up to Big Bob's WIPS script.  Once you eliminate the the RR issue, put in some pseudo dynamics with volume control and filtering, and use WIPS to get some decent legato control over it, things get a *lot* better.  The woodwinds in particular hold a lot of promise.  When I get a little further along with it, I'll post some examples.  Maybe one of you geniuses can help me figure out a method whereby I can share my results with legal Miroslave owners without sharing the actual samples (which would completely violate the license)...

  --  Kurt

[Mattias Westlund]

(07-14-2016, 06:44 PM)kmlandre Wrote: Honestly, in my experience, most of the problems with MiroSlav are the player and forcing SampleTank into doing what you need it to to do.  There's no capacity for shared neighbor round robin, only one dynamic level per patch (as far as I can tell, anyway) even though there are alternate patches that seem to have different samples, dynamic control over EQ and filters is difficult at best, etc.

That plays a big part, yes. ST2 is a terrible engine that will give you gray hairs. But there's also the fact that a lot of the samples are of pretty lousy quality by today's standards (or even by the standards of 10 years ago or more when Miroslav Philharmonik was released), especially the strings. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the work Miroslav Vitous did when creating the original samples. Recording something like this in the era of Sega Mega Drives and Fresh Prince is an amazing feat, and kudos for that. But sadly the samples haven't stood the test of time very well.

(07-14-2016, 06:44 PM)kmlandre Wrote: And don't get me started on the French Horn looping.... errrrrgh.

Not to mention the vibrato'ed solo horn... freaky stuff. Somebody wanted to play jazz but all he could get was a lousy spot in an orchestra. Then someone shows up, puts a mic in front of him and asks him to just play all the notes. And he sees his moment to rebel!

(07-14-2016, 06:44 PM)kmlandre Wrote: I've only used MS by itself on a few occasions and wasn't terribly overwhelmed.  Back in the day, I paid $50 for it (some weird sale at Musician's Friend or something) and figured it was at least worth the price tag for layering, as in this (Notion and Miroslav):

• In the Garden of Faries
  

But that being said, I've been working on a "resampling" of the Miroslav stuff and porting it to Kontakt and hooking it up to Big Bob's WIPS script.  Once you eliminate the the RR issue, put in some pseudo dynamics with volume control and filtering, and use WIPS to get some decent legato control over it, things get a *lot* better.  The woodwinds in particular hold a lot of promise.  When I get a little further along with it, I'll post some examples.  Maybe one of you geniuses can help me figure out a method whereby I can share my results with legal Miroslave owners without sharing the actual samples (which would completely violate the license)...

  --  Kurt

Yep, I agree that the woodwinds are decent and that the libary as a whole is useful for layering. What irks me is that a company buys the rights to an oooold bunch of samples and then re-releases them, passing them off as a capable orchestral library (with a price tag to match) while KNOWING FULL WELL that it couldn't hold a candle to EWQLSO or anything else around at the time.