KVR Audio

PastorTheDoctor · Post by **PastorTheDoctor** » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:38 pm

Hi guys! I've already read about this topic,and got informed about that matter.
So, I'm going to ask my question:
in your opinion, what are the best orchestral sound libraries:

not only built for Kontakt
multitimbral
with many articulations
with "full" and realistic sound
which use the least memory/CPU allocation
400/500 €

Am I asking too much?

Chandlerhimself · Post by **Chandlerhimself** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 1:07 am

VSL special editions are pretty close to what you want. Also I think spitfire Albion one might satisfy you, but I forgot the price. Ark by orchestral tools might be something to check out too. Kirk hunter diamond might also fit your criteria. Unfortunately for your price range you're going to have to make some compromises somewhere. Check some of those out and see how they sound and how the features suit your needs.

nineofkings · Post by **nineofkings** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 2:59 am

Having Kontakt helps greatly with multitimbrality and fitting many articulations into a low RAM footprint. I used to be against it too, but once I gave in and got it secondhand I realized how much better it is for large sample libraries than anything else on the market. It's simply in a different league.

planetearth · Post by **planetearth** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 3:34 am

PastorTheDoctor wrote:Hi guys! I've already read about this topic,and got informed about that matter.
So, I'm going to ask my question:
in your opinion, what are the best orchestral sound libraries:
not only built for Kontakt

multitimbral

with many articulations

with "full" and realistic sound

which use the least memory/CPU allocation

400/500 €
Am I asking too much?

You're not asking too much.

Have you looked at Miroslav Philharmonik? They've just updated it to a new version with a new sound engine and new samples. Multi-timbral, full sound, many articulations, and not too heavy on the CPU usage. All of the instruments in this (https://soundcloud.com/shadowsoflife/sunrise) are from Miroslav's previous Philharmonik library.

EastWest Quantum Leap's having a sale on their orchestra libraries. Half-off right now, I think.

And PlugIn Boutique is offering SONiVOX's individual orchestra section libraries for $9.99 each. These aren't the greatest, but they offer several articulations (I believe), and are very low-footprint samples.

There are some free orchestra libraries you may also want to check out, to "fill out" some of the sounds of some of these libraries. Bedroom Producer's Blog has a good list (including a new one out just this week), and some websites offer very good, consistent samples of orchestra sections for free, though you have to "build" your own orchestra in your sampler that way.

Here's the new, free library from BigCat Instruments which just came out this week: http://bigcatinstruments.blogspot.com/

Steve

JonSolo · Post by **JonSolo** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 4:16 am

Sadly the EastWest sale has ended.

If I were going for fullest, all around, I would go with EastWest Symphonic Orchestra or Hollywood Orchestra. For the money you are willing to part with you would get more bang out of Symphonic Orchestra. I have both. You will have to use the free Play interface though and some struggle with it.

If you went with a Kontakt based instrument you have many more choices. Spitfire Albion One comes to mind. Though not traditional (the instruments are divided into Woodwinds, Strings, Brass, and Percussion along with tons of articulations and other bonus content, but no individual parts such as flutes, violins, cellos, clarinets, etc.) you can get incredible results with this. I have this as well and would have no trouble making orchestral music with it. Also Orchestral Tools make Metropolis Ark I & II. I have Ark II and it leans toward the dark a bit. But I love it.

Philharmonik II was mentioned and it is a great tool that is not Kontakt related. Solo instruments really add to the quality of this library. While I don't use it alone, it stacks well with other libraries. Some of the solo instruments are exceptional.

Optionally is the Hollywood series for Nexus 2 which is pretty decent and you can probably get to your budget if you purchased Nexus 2 and Hollywood II bundle. Another none traditional library but it has some great construction/starter type stuff to get your tracks going.

But EastWest gets my vote for the non Kontakt instrument.

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 4:35 am

Well one of the stipulations was low memory usage and mrisaslov and sample tank in general is horrible for mrmory management. VSL is the best at that by far.

nineofkings · Post by **nineofkings** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:43 am

VSL and Kontakt, both by virtue of their disk streaming. Sonivox Orchestral is alright, but it is not low footprint at all. It loads the entire sample set into RAM and thus eats RAM for breakfast lunch and dinner.

PastorTheDoctor · Post by **PastorTheDoctor** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 11:30 am

Thank you guys, you are great!

Timezone is different here in Italy, you replied during my nighttime

I did a fast read and I've noticed many cool suggestions, I'm going to read 'em all to give a unique and good reply!

Mathematics · Post by **Mathematics** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 11:00 pm

I must suggest VSL as they have Vienna Ensemble Pro for future expandability; there's nothing else like it. They have Special Edition Bundles which offer a complete orchestra to get you started.

They have a dry sound which allows you to place the instruments in any environment. From my experience, having at least two different orchestral sound libraries will help make your mock ups sound more realistic. Definitely make VSL one of them. I'd say East West is the other one but unfortunately, their instruments are recorded wet, so you'll have to find a reverb to use with VSL to match EW's.

8dio is also awesome but they too are recorded wet. I would suggest them for Orchestral FX that no one really does as well. I'd say, if you're serious, VSL. Most every Hollywood composer has a VSL bundle they use for film scoring mock ups for Disney and DreamWorks, and others.

So yea, I would highly suggest VSL, that is, if you're not scared about applying reverb and positioning instruments. It take a little bit of time to learn to use the articulation matrix but once you do, it's really very, very powerful.

Ah_Dziz · Post by **Ah_Dziz** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 3:46 am

Second hand VSL special editions. Albion one. Either of those two will let you write nice orchestral music. Albion will cost some flexibility in exchange for a great sound out of the box. VSL is worth the setup time and is useful in more scenarios.

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 9:44 am

I have all the Sonivox orchestral libraries and to be honest they aren't all that

.
But then again, they're incredibly cheat at Plugin Botique and for the most part, they sit well in a mix. I got the Premier collection upgrade for less than €60 just because I had already owed one of their instruments (that I got as part of another deal) so getting it was a no brainer. It included synths such as Wobble, Twist and TimeWARP 2600 as well as various drum and percussion instruments and the so-so Eighty One piano.
Current price for the full premier collection is €395

. Surely the package isn't worth that much when Komplete 11 is available for €200 more.

PastorTheDoctor · Post by **PastorTheDoctor** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:07 pm

OK guys! Read everything and did a bit of research. This is what I got...
I think the best for me would be VSL SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 1 BUNDLE. I'll show you why:
I'm looking for something that sound good, at a reasonable price, quite complete, with many articulations (I was born with classical music and I'd like to give scores sound and vice versa), low RAM/CPU usage. I’d like to use it with Ableton Live too (in live contexts), possibly with one computer. If not possible, I can manage to use IAC with another Mac laptop I have.
Multitimbral is in my interest because, as a composer, I’d also like to have a score of it (and - for this purpose - wish to be able to use the libraries with Avid Sibelius too).
Albion would be the best, but... moneyyyyyyy, where are you?

Said that,

Chandlerhimself wrote:Ark by orchestral tools might be something to check out too.

Yeppp, I gave a listen and I really like them, though I think they're pretty "personal" and hardly adaptable to every situation (just as I'd want to build a typical Oberheim OB brass sound with my Juno-60... IMPOSSIBLE!). In addition, they are expensive.

Chandlerhimself wrote:Kirk hunter diamond might also fit your criteria.

They're pretty complete, but I listened to the official demos and, apart from YouTube compressing quality, it seems like I can hear some sort of aliasing... in other words, I can hear the "digital/fake" (no offense) sound.

planetearth wrote:Have you looked at Miroslav Philharmonik? They've just updated it to a new version with a new sound engine and new samples. Multi-timbral, full sound, many articulations, and not too heavy on the CPU usage. All of the instruments in this (https://soundcloud.com/shadowsoflife/sunrise) are from Miroslav's previous Philharmonik library.

EastWest Quantum Leap's having a sale on their orchestra libraries. Half-off right now, I think.

And PlugIn Boutique is offering SONiVOX's individual orchestra section libraries for $9.99 each. These aren't the greatest, but they offer several articulations (I believe), and are very low-footprint samples.

There are some free orchestra libraries you may also want to check out, to "fill out" some of the sounds of some of these libraries. Bedroom Producer's Blog has a good list (including a new one out just this week), and some websites offer very good, consistent samples of orchestra sections for free, though you have to "build" your own orchestra in your sampler that way.

Here's the new, free library from BigCat Instruments which just came out this week: http://bigcatinstruments.blogspot.com/

Steve

Thank you Steve for all those suggestions, but none of those plug-ins have good sound, multitimbral, good number of articulation, low CPU allocation at the same time.

K-Bee wrote:I have all the Sonivox orchestral libraries and to be honest they aren't all that .
But then again, they're incredibly cheat at Plugin Botique and for the most part, they sit well in a mix.

Thank you K-Bee, but I don't like their sounds and SONiVOX uses a lot of RAM and CPU, as nineofkings said:

nineofkings wrote:Sonivox Orchestral is alright, but it is not low footprint at all. It loads the entire sample set into RAM and thus eats RAM for breakfast lunch and dinner.

So, this is why VSL SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 1 BUNDLE (and in the future, Vol. 2) would be my best choice.
I got some questions about it:

it would need a USB dongle, does it create problems? I ask you because I read sort of this in another discussion through this forum
do I need Kontakt to run it, or can I run as Audio Unit or simple VST?
has it got multioutput available?

I also heard about UVI Orchestral Suite, but still listened to nothing from it. What do you think about?
Eventually, I think it will be VSL vs UVI

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:20 pm

you only need dongle, it runs as VST AU AXX etc. you do not need kontakt.

word of warning though, Live 9 compared to Cubase/Logic (only ones i tested) is at least 50% less efficient.

so you could do yourself a huge favour and get Logic Pro X for orchestral work.

ps, I love live and made my last album in it but CPU wise with large orchestral libs it's appalling..

PastorTheDoctor · Post by **PastorTheDoctor** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:16 pm

topaz wrote:you only need dongle, it runs as VST AU AXX etc. you do not need kontakt.

word of warning though, Live 9 compared to Cubase/Logic (only ones i tested) is at least 50% less efficient.

so you could do yourself a huge favour and get Logic Pro X for orchestral work.

ps, I love live and made my last album in it but CPU wise with large orchestral libs it's appalling..

Thank you topaz!
Ok, I understand about using Ableton Live with VSL and I was waiting for an answer like this, it is just sort of demand I can get rid of. Even though I own a MacBook Pro 15" mid-2014, 2.2 GHz i7 Quad, 16 GB RAM, SSD... you say that it's not sufficient to use VSL live with Ableton Live?

Maybe I used the wrong word, sorry for insisting, but I wanna be sure I've asked the right thing: in the Vienna website, I read that I need a USB key (which I understand it's the same thing as "dongle", right?). So, do I need a USB key to run VSL or some other thing?
Thank you again

Ah_Dziz · Post by **Ah_Dziz** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 2:27 pm

The dongle is the same as is used by cubase and a few other companies. In addition to the Vienna instrument sample player, you also get the Vienna ensemble (not pro) software to host many instances of Vienna instruments multitimbrally. So as far as getting the instruments going you'll have no trouble as the player is included.

Orchestral library