1) Orchestral Percussion
2) Funk/Soul brass
My needs are simple. These will always be complementary "background" pieces in my compositions, never the main focus. My music tends to be a hybrid theatrical-rock melody and chord progression (Meatloaf, Styx, Queen) over a hip-hop style drum beat, with some synth bass and arpeggios and ethereal pads. Rather than do *one* thing well, I seem to do *many* things poorly. Not going to lie, people mostly don't much like my stuff.
I don't care, it's fun for me and it's a 40-year hobby that I greatly enjoy.Point being, while I have a solid understanding of classical music theory, I do not compose for orchestra and don't need 100 articulations or 12 round-robin samples per note. I don't care about having 30 instruments that would be minimally useful in my arrangements like triangles, xylophones, etc. I mostly want the epic big Hollywood drums to add drama in intros, bridges, etc. And some gritty 60's soul brass when I feel like getting funky (to the extent that a 50-year old, bald fat white guy in the midwest can...)
As I was browsing percussion options, I noted that even in cases where the percussion section is available separately (e.g. EW SO Percussion Silver), the full product including strings, brass and woodwinds was often only incrementally more expensive. I use the Kontakt Factory strings as pads quite a bit but know they're *very* long in the tooth and quite feature-bare. So I thought, "A strings upgrade wouldn't be the worst thing if it didn't add too much expense".
So I shifted from looking solely at the percussion libraries to their more full-featured parents.Then I figured, "Hell, if it turns out that I'm actually in the market for an entry-level orchestral plugin, I might as well consider all of them" (e.g. Versilion Chamber Orch 2, Amadeus, Garratin, PreSonus Symphonic Orchestra, etc). A < $200 budget eliminated many options but left some good ones. Ultimately I narrowed it down to two, VCO2 and Amadeus. After much reading, evaluating, head-scratching and guessing, I decided upon Amadeus.
"But wait!", I exclaimed. "Since Amadeus includes brass, maybe it could do double-duty and I won't need a separate brass library at all!". I was really getting warmed up now. I totally realize that orchestral brass and funk brass are VERY different animals and have little in common beyond the fact that the instruments are generally brass-colored. However, since I use brass only occasionally and virtually always as a pad, I'm wondering if I could kill all reverb in Amadeus and sneak it in my arrangements' back door without anyone noticing. This would be great because I'm having trouble finding a convincing funk brass library that's within my price range (< $100). Vintage Horns 2 looks and sounds great, but I can't justify $200 for something I'll get limited use from. NI Session Horns looks cool, but I'm unsure how good is at at freestyle playing w/ articulations vs. the "midi phrase" paradigm typical of NI's "Session" series. I have Session Guitar Electric Sunburst and it's really quite amazing at what it does, but limited by the requirement of manipulating it's pre-fab patterns. Session horns claims it can be freely played in addition to the patterns. There's no demo for me to try.
So now I've gone round and round about what the right move is for me, and am thoroughly stumped. Indeed, I think I'm further from a decision than I was when I started investigating. To borrow a quote from a friend of mine who drinks not too much but just the right amount, "I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here".
- Use the orchestral percussion and brass from Amadeus or similar. Much improved orchestral percussion, strings, woodwinds and brass (caveat no saxophone) vs K6 Factory, and just hope the brass sounds passable when used in non-orchestral arrangements. $150.
- Amadeus in conjunction with NI Session Horns or similar. All the improvements above but also includes a tenor sax, and likely to sit better in my arrangements. More expensive at $250.
- Standalone Orchestra Percussion like EW SO Percussion Silver, NI Symphony Essentials Percussion, with Session Horns or similar. This gets the parts I'm *really* after, percussion and brass, for $200. But for the extra $50, would I regret not getting the strings and woodwinds? And how does the percussion in EW SO Perc or NI SE Perc compare to the offering in Amadeus or VCO2 anyway? Is it as good?
- Save my $200 and use it to buy a case of half-decent dry, red wine, and just keep using my K6 Factory samples circa 2005, but not really care so much because I have a beautiful, pleasant wine buzz? (Note that, unlike the others, this option is *not* mutually exclusive; I'll totally still drink the wine even if I decide on one of the other options).
I'd be grateful for any advice, suggestions or sympathy that any of you sample library experts might have to share!