Good budget Orchestra sounds?

[hotmitts]

It should work OK with the free Roland Cloud account, so you'd need to sign up for that. Then after installing the Roland Cloud Manager, on the left side click where it says "Software", then at the top-right click on where it says "Discontinued".
RCM.jpg

Worth exploring for me. Do these run independently or do they need the 'Concerto' host plugin?
Which I'm not seeing anywhere as I did before in my free account. (Just the discontinued banks/packs.)

When you install the 4 Orchestral soundsets (or even just one of them) it has Concerto included. It is required.
You can see I loaded some various soundsets in this screenshot and they show up on the left side where you can set them to different MIDI channels, or layer them on the same channel.

Concerto.jpg

Thanks, it's good to find free stuff of this quality ! Easy to install and use, sounds good on first delve

[Adinoff]

Project sam is good and they have a free version you can try

[daychase]

Anthology Orchestra Instrument for Concerto is free now through Roland Cloud. It's not like Spitfire Audio super high-end sounds, but you may like it.
https://www.roland.com/us/products/rc_a ... orchestra/

Wow! I didn't know this existed. I'll have to give it a look, thanks!

May I ask what KVR thinks about EastWest Symphonic Orchestra (previously Quantum Leap) in 2022? I know it's quite old at this point, but it's $199 for a full orchestra, it offers more than VSL Special Edition Vol. 1 for less cost, and unlike others like Amadeus, I can actually name soundtracks off the top of my head that's used it.

[noiseboyuk]

May I ask what KVR thinks about EastWest Symphonic Orchestra (previously Quantum Leap) in 2022? I know it's quite old at this point, but it's $199 for a full orchestra, it offers more than VSL Special Edition Vol. 1 for less cost, and unlike others like Amadeus, I can actually name soundtracks off the top of my head that's used it.

It's got a lot going for it. The biggest drawback is no true legato instruments, but a lot of the ensembles sound terrific. And it's covered if you want to dip your toe into proper scoring, instrument by instrument with a good range of articulations. There's some real gems in there - the harp is still my goto, the trombones are stellar.

[chk071]

@hotmitts: What is your budget?

I specifically bought Halion Symphonic Orchestra for low budget reuirements, on a sale for 50 €. It's surely not the best (probably far from it), but, I think it's pretty complete, which was important for me. Need to spend more time with it though.

[hotmitts]

@hotmitts: What is your budget?

I specifically bought Halion Symphonic Orchestra for low budget reuirements, on a sale for 50 €. It's surely not the best (probably far from it), but, I think it's pretty complete, which was important for me. Need to spend more time with it though.

Thanks chk071, yes I was hoping for something around £50 optimistically... I do have the Miroslav as a refill which actually isn't bad, plus the various freebies suggested here to try...will look into halion.

[daychase]

I was hoping for something around £50 optimistically

That's a fairly low budget for orchestral libraries. Not completely undoable, but tough.
Have you looked at The Orchestra Essentials by Sonuscore? It's going for $49.50 at the moment, until the 10th.
You might also want to look at the Sell & Buy forum, or other places like Knobcloud - some good prices come up for things from time to time!

It's got a lot going for it. The biggest drawback is no true legato instruments, but a lot of the ensembles sound terrific. And it's covered if you want to dip your toe into proper scoring, instrument by instrument with a good range of articulations. There's some real gems in there - the harp is still my goto, the trombones are stellar.

Do you think there would be anything that makes it particularly worth the cost if I currently own Miroslav Philharmonik 2 SE and VSL Special Edition Vol. 1? The latter has legato, but not many ensemble options; I find the former has decent ensemble options, but isn't exactly the most intuitive library to work with.

[noiseboyuk]

Re East West Symphonic Orchestra

Do you think there would be anything that makes it particularly worth the cost if I currently own Miroslav Philharmonik 2 SE and VSL Special Edition Vol. 1? The latter has legato, but not many ensemble options; I find the former has decent ensemble options, but isn't exactly the most intuitive library to work with.

I don’t know Miroslav, but I do have some VSL SEs. It is actually quite a good complement to EW in the sense that they have opposite strengths and weaknesses - VSL’s legato is wonderful and their solo instruments are strong, but their ensembles aren’t nearly as convincing. If you are using the original (non-Synchron) version you’ll need to put it in a realistic space of course to match EW.

[mixyguy2]

May I ask what KVR thinks about EastWest Symphonic Orchestra (previously Quantum Leap) in 2022? I know it's quite old at this point, but it's $199 for a full orchestra, it offers more than VSL Special Edition Vol. 1 for less cost, and unlike others like Amadeus, I can actually name soundtracks off the top of my head that's used it.

It's got a lot going for it. The biggest drawback is no true legato instruments,

Really? Like a lot of companies, they advertise "legato" without being clear on what they mean by that, though I wonder how much of a thing that really is if you aren't doing anything hard core like composing classical or whatever. And I should have added that Amadeus' legato is scripted, btw. Frankly as long as it sounds good, I don't care though.

The thing about East West that always turned me off (besides the ilok requirement) is while they have many articulations, you almost need a degree in Cryptography to figure them out. And for me at least (and I think anyone who isn't hard core) it's actually TOO many. And the UI just seems unfriendly in general. It does have a great sound though.

I would also caution to be careful to read exactly what is or isn't included in any one you're looking at and whether that's a big deal for you or not...like what ensembles do they have? What solo instruments? What articulations? etc

[noiseboyuk]

The legato in the old Symphonic Orchestra isn't convincing at all. Some devs have done some good simulated legato, but this isn't one of them (EW's true legato in the Hollywood Series is good). IMO legato is essential for convincing exposed leading instruments, at the very least.

The organisation in Symphonic Orchestra is indeed horrendous (and in the Hollywood series, though I believe the Opus update has helped).

[PebbleInAStream]

What about EW's HO Opus as opposed to their Symphonic Orchestra-- Worth the extra cash?

[Timelapser]

Audio Imperia’s Nucleus Lite may also be a good option, especially if you like the sound of the full one. And certainly check out Orchestral Tools SINEfactory & Spitfire LABS for good quality free additions.

[mixyguy2]

It sounds like the OP is looking for an orchestral library, not bits n pieces like SINE and LABS offer.

[noiseboyuk]

Just an FYI for anyone interested that ProjectSAM’s free library got a 2.0 update recently, with an updated interface and more content. Staggeringly good for free, you can get a serial at their website and download is via Native Access.