What is the best way to stay in the loop regarding orchestra libraries?

[CarniverousSock]

I suspect this is a question with few easy answers.  I'm looking to expand my tool set for orchestra composition, and am having some trouble orientating myself among all the orchestra libraries out there.  I want to be knowledgeable about what's out there, to know what's good and bad, and to develop a strategy to keep on top of new products as they come out.

What strategies do you guys use to stay on top of virtual orchestra offerings and deals?  I'm happy receiving tips on which libraries are good, but I'm trying to get better at staying on top of this going forward.  How do you guys do it?

[FarleyCZ]

I simply don't. They are too damn expansive to stay on top of it. Especially when they're hot from the owen. I've bought a big one for epic orchestra sections, few solo strings here or there if I need a violin or celo, and then turned around and went back to making electronic music with synths. Found out, if you get moderately good at sound design, you can do really sweet, warm and emotional music too and it doesn't cost you a kidney. I'd be speaking differently if music was able to pay me for the libraries, but as I am, and probably always will be, a donor to my hobby, I can't justify 350 - 500 euros almost every month. I'd love to, but I can't.

[reddrake]

I find the best place for discussions for Sample Libraries is the Vi Control forumshttps://vi-control.net/community/:

[CarniverousSock]

I find the best place for discussions for Sample Libraries is the Vi Control forumshttps://vi-control.net/community/:

Thanks for the hot tip, reddrake! I didn't know about this.

[vitocorleone123]

Yes, VI is a treasure trove and makes it easy to stay up to date should you wish.

[Infinite5ths]

Loops are no good for writing orchestral music. Even sample libraries aren't all that great. Plus, the developers are always releasing new ones that cost a fortune and become the *NEW HOT THING*. So it's hard to keep up with all of them.

{switching ironic, sarcastic, playing-dumb-for-laughs-tone OFF}

It's a money pit. You don't want to stay in the loop. Just find what works and then stop buying until you have clients who want to PAY for the new libraries and also PAY you to use them.

[CarniverousSock]

Sage advice. Thanks people!

[FarleyCZ]

Also, on that topic, the actual big players in the scoring world use libraries like that only to do mockups to show directors. Then they usually have it transcribed, further developed and recorded by a real orchestra. New ideas, experimentations and ways to record are created at that stage. So no matter how much money you throw into it, you'll never gonna have THE top sound as that particular sound usually haven't been released as a library yet. Once it does get released, all of the early adopters (that sacrifice vast amount of money for it) are already copycats of people who had those ideas in the first place.

So my suggestion is to get just a few nice libs, but engineer your own creative way how to use them, so you have something new and original, not another ostinato arpegio, another Tundra swarm or another Omnisphere lightbulb patch...