I use a bunch of vst and vsti to put sounds on midi files:

vsti Addictive Drums for drums
sampler Kontakt 4 and its K3 Library for brass and strings and Grand Piano, mainly
Plugsound for the rest (woods, brass / string / choir ensemble / Bass / guitars / organs / electric piano)


I wonder if there is a wide in scope vsti to substitute Plugsound. I heard about Halion, for instance. Sure there are more options

What I need is a vsti that has decent orchestral sounds, responsive to as many MIDI messages as possible, and the cheaper, the better

For me, Plugsound is not very rich when dealing with individual instruments (cellos, violin, trombone, ....

Since you already have Kontakt, I would recommend exploring all of the various orchestral libraries that are available for that. In the long run you are going to be much happier and be able to do much more with perhaps less work.

If you're looking for a standalone vst based instrument (and for something more budget conscious) then also check out Miroslav Philharmonik from IK and some of the products from Garritan. I've heard some really nice work from folks using those platforms. And I think Sonivox has an orchestral based vst as well.

Also... alone, some of those choices might not be any "richer" than Plugsound (I don't know how Plugsound is)... in that case you might want to combine/layer with the Plugsound instruments you already have and thicken things up that way.

Oh, and there is also VI One from Vir-2, which has orchestral sounds in it and I think would fit your budget. VI One might be a good option as it includes a lot of other sounds besides just orchestral... so more flexible for your investment.

How about using Soundfonts? There are some great free ones out there.
You can load them in using the excellent free Cakewalk SFZ+.
You can get that from here:
http://www.cakewalk.com/products/sfz/

Might be worth investigating this ( I think they have a demo)

http://www.garritan.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=ar ticle&id=169&Itemid=171

Very nice ensemble sounds. No good if you're looking for solo instruments though.

thanks for such clear directions to follow

I have no idea what a Soundfont is. Are there any choices around.

For instance, I use Sibelius (score editor with playback abilities). I think that it uses a thing (soundfont?) called Essentials, that in some cases (string or brass ensemble) is not that bad.

Try these:

http://the-filmmusic-group.deviantart.com/journal/Free-HQ-Or chestra-Soundfonts-224143947

I thought the Kontakt library which you already own was decent enough. Certainly more decent than any soundfont I've heard.

We are actually talking about extending the Total Workstation Group Buy this month, which would get you all 5 of IK's workstations, including Miroslav Philharmonik, for less than the regular price of Miroslav by itself. Just a thought since it has been mentioned already.

thanks
I would like to further know which of them are "fully-GM". I mean that connecting a midi file in the input (a midi file containing the proper Program Changes and so on,...) it will sound straigth-forward, with no further steps (like assigning instruments to tracks/channels like in Kontakt or Plugsound or Halion (as far as I suppose)