Any Good Free Orchestral/Strings/Violin Samples Out There?

[idfpower]

For Kontakt users there's also "Strings Staccato Freebie" from Strezov Sampling (taken from their "Cornucopia: Strings" library) which has a very classic orchestral sound - way more pronounced than the "other staccato strings ensemble that used to be free, but not anymore"

[bigcat1969]

I did a list of free instruments over on Stream, here was my list for orchestras, strings and brass.

Entire Orchestra

Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (sfz)
http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/

Bellatrix Orchestra Final and SJ Orchestral GM (sf2) along with others
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1200140

DSK Overture (VSTi)
http://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-overture/

String Section Only

Squidfont Orchestral (sf2)
http://paperstreetfreesamples.blogspot. ... stral.html

DSK Strings (VSTi)
http://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-strings/

Orchestral Strings One (VSTi)
http://www.supremepiano.com/product/string1.html

Brass

DSK Brass (VSTi)
http://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-brass/

NoiseCrux Multisampled Brass Ensemble (Sfz)
http://www.noisecrux.com/2013/09/29/bra ... nstrument/


also for kontakt

TC Orchestra
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/the-tot ... -composure

Embertone Intimate Strings LITE
http://embertone.com/freebies/intstrings-lite.php

Don't forget that in addition to the orchestral instrument that comes with Kontakt there are all the old versions in the Legacy directory.

Individual samples

Philharmonia Orchestra
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/explore/make_music

University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples
http://theremin.music.uiowa.edu/MIS.html

Erans MSLP
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/adi9nrp7o2n5eh7/52q6tJSW7f

[MA-Simon]

For very, very nice Brass samples:

Jasper Blunk: Fortissimo Brass Series (Kontakt 5)
http://www.jasperblunk.com/things_for_composers.html


Fortissimo Trombone Ensemble - basic FF trombone ensemble short marcato patch for Kontakt - Note: with the marcatos, move the mod-wheel to highest before playing, since it operates a lo-pass filter. . - Patch + Sample pool


Fortissimo Horn Ensemble - basic FF horn ensemble marc/stac/sfz-decrescendo patches for Kontakt - Note: with the marcatos, move the mod-wheel to highest before playing, since it operates a lo-pass filter. Also with the marcatos, SIPS legato is active on initiation, and can be bypassed in the third tab of the Script editor. - Patches + Sample pool

Fortissimo Trumpet Ensemble - basic FF trumpet ensemble marc/stac patches for Kontakt - Note: with the marcatos, move the mod-wheel to highest before playing, since it operates a lo-pass filter. Also with the marcatos, SIPS legato is active on initiation, and can be bypassed in the third tab of the Script editor. - Patches + Untuned sample pool - Alternative gently hand-tuned sample pool

[Sparky77]

I did a list of free instruments over on Stream, here was my list for orchestras, strings and brass.

Entire Orchestra

Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (sfz)
http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/

Bellatrix Orchestra Final and SJ Orchestral GM (sf2) along with others
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1200140

DSK Overture (VSTi)
http://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-overture/

String Section Only

Squidfont Orchestral (sf2)
http://paperstreetfreesamples.blogspot. ... stral.html

DSK Strings (VSTi)
http://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-strings/

Orchestral Strings One (VSTi)
http://www.supremepiano.com/product/string1.html

Brass

DSK Brass (VSTi)
http://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-brass/

NoiseCrux Multisampled Brass Ensemble (Sfz)
http://www.noisecrux.com/2013/09/29/bra ... nstrument/


also for kontakt

TC Orchestra
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/the-tot ... -composure

Embertone Intimate Strings LITE
http://embertone.com/freebies/intstrings-lite.php

Don't forget that in addition to the orchestral instrument that comes with Kontakt there are all the old versions in the Legacy directory.

Individual samples

Philharmonia Orchestra
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/explore/make_music

University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples
http://theremin.music.uiowa.edu/MIS.html

Erans MSLP
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/adi9nrp7o2n5eh7/52q6tJSW7f

Very nice list!
A BIG thanks for the effort!

[jancivil]

But even if you are a n00b or a certified moron, I don't think you deserve jancivil slapping you down.

Not that you need someone to fight your battles for you - I'm just explaining why I'm muting jancivil from now on, and can safely return to zooming in on the posts column without fear of encountering the kind of drive-by bitterness that makes everyone except jan's day a tiny bit worse.

This is you reading as much as you could bring, ad culum into what I said, which directly follows a post which read:

These embertones and pocketblakus sound very natural sounding. With a lot of the others I've heard including the commercial Vienna Symphony Orchestra, they sound good for what they are but you can tell they are samples.

Which still looks more like an effort to persuade that free is better than paying than anything else. I think it was a pretty dry & accurate post, certainly next to your juicy storytelling.

I mean inventing shit:

Then there's the username, which is very clever indeed. Jan may be needling, terse, patronising and passive-aggressive, but she never descends to language coarse enough that one could accuse her of being uncivil - that is providing one considers the letter of the word's definition...

It's my fvcking name, asswipe. I would say I'm thankful you ain't posted in five, six yrs but I believe you have just changed your user name or adopted a sock puppet account. Your TONE and desperate, sick projection look mighty familiar this day.

You took this opportunity to do what? Do you think your rather vicious personal attack is you showing people how to behave civilly? Or how to refine one's own passive aggressive discourse in a lame slapdown effort, really. Can you be more of a projecting hypocrite?

[jancivil]

The U of Iowa samples are not only one articulation but they are provided one note at a time. So one can use up a lot of time building an instrument out of that. They're good samples but not spectacular.

[jancivil]

I haven't tried Kontakt's factory selection. Is there anything in there worthwhile that in Kontakt's Factory Selection that is not in Kore (not gonna use bagpipes and I'm happy with the piano already)?

I think everything is in Kore. I think if you have this, since you don't seem to be interested in articulating strings extensively, you have basic strings for a pad and some basic lines here without reaching for your credit card if money is tight.

It varies a little bit; eg., the viola section has some intonation issues but I find the solo viola expressive and jumps out in a mix nicely. It's a demo for their libraries as they were some years ago. Maybe you actually hate it but maybe it being something that doesn't cost means you don't need a story in order to find yourself opposing it.

VSL does not make for Kontakt and hasn't for years. They use their own engine with its own unique and ultra-powerful interface.

[bigcat1969]

Oddly in my never ending quest for free stuff, I just bumped into a free violin
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=124005
and to add verisimilitude to your orchestra a 3d insect simulator
http://durkkooistra.com/2011/09/freebee ... imulation/

[rp314]

also for kontakt

TC Orchestra
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/the-tot ... -composure

From the comments section:

oscgit [reply]
The sample-library do not work. After 30 minutes contact-player will switch all instrumentes to demo-mode. That means, you cannnot use it anymore.

Die Sample-Library funktioniert nicht. Nach 30 Minuten schaltet der Kontakt-Player alle Instrumente in den Demo-Modus, d. h. sie sind nicht mehr benutzbar.

[MA-Simon]

The sample-library do not work. After 30 minutes contact-player will switch all instrumentes to demo-mode. That means, you cannnot use it anymore.

Well, so do all libraries with the free kontakt player. It is the natural demo mode limitation. If you don't want that limitation you have to either purchase Kontakt full, ore buy special powered by kontakt player libraries.

[arkmabat]

If no one has mentioned this freebie yet...

http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/

[noisecrux]

+1 for the Philharmonia Orchestra samples. The violin and cello samples are some of the better free ones out there, with a good number of multisamples and velocity layers. They're in mp3 format though, so have to be converted to WAV and then some samples have some leading silence that needs to be trimmed. I made some Shortcircuit VST sampler patches for the violin and cello which I can share. Unfortunately the licence for the Philharmonia Orchestra samples doesn't permit re-distribution so I can only provide the .scm files if anyone is interested.

Here are some demos of the Philharmonia violin and cello:

https://soundcloud.com/noisecrux/philha ... tra-violin

https://soundcloud.com/noisecrux/philharmoniccello

The free pocketBlakus cello Kontakt instrument is also very nice. You can get some convincing legato phrases from it. If you only have the Kontakt player you have the 15 minute timeout limit but I just bounce the part to an audio track.

http://soundcloud.com/blakus-mfm/blakus ... h-a-little

[idfpower]

For Kontakt users that like the samples provided by the University of Iowa, but don't feel like building their own library, here's this:

Patchlist


Download links:
Part one: http://www.mediafire.com/?ec7gg8b692h6dju
Part two: http://www.mediafire.com/?21th6g8wbpi351m

IMO it sounds pretty good.

[bigcat1969]

WOW idfpower that is awesome thank you! I've been working on my version of the piano for what seems like forever, so I know some of the work you put into this. These are really great contributions to the community.

That is brilliant noisecrux. I've been wishing I could use those samples and you made me realize, I could make kontakt shells that include everything but the samples and folks could download the samples themselves, convert them to waves and plug them in. I'd love to see how you did it with Shortcircuit.

[idfpower]

Huh...sorry for the confusion, but the library is not my creation. I've just found the links and thought it might be useful for someone else. I couldn't find the author's name in order to give him give the proper credits...