# Where to go from here?



## 3DC (Dec 3, 2022)

Please help me think. I have Cubase Pro, Absolute 5 and Iconica Opus which is for now more then enough for beginner like me. I like this "closed and focused" music production setup from Steinberg. 

Now the question is what to buy next when things go on sale? There are so many options and I would appreciate some guidance and help in this chaos. I am aiming at trailer music, hybrid and classic symphony music for film and animation.

I am guessing the logical direction for Iconica Opus would be Orchestral Tools libraries but I am not sure what would complement or extend Iconica best? 
Then there are sales from Spitfire Audio, EW and VSL. EWHO Opus is currently on sale for just $251 which is very tempting.

I know I will upgrade Absolute at some point to get my hands on elusive HALion 7. With Zebra 3 and Serum 2 next year I think I am all set in synth sound design department. Should I get anything else? 

I am not that interested in NI Kontakt path. Too many very expensive choices and limited budget for this route. 

Thanks for any help and suggestions.


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## Markrs (Dec 3, 2022)

If you are looking for cost effective orchestral library with a more hollywood sound than Iconica at a bargain price, then it is hard to beat EW HO Opus.


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## easyrider (Dec 3, 2022)

Opus !


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## Markrs (Dec 3, 2022)

I would also say that that various versions NI Komplete come with a lot of Libraries, FX and Synths, plus Kontakt. If you already have Kontakt then I would recommend the Ethera Vocal libraries, especially Atlantis 2


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## 3DC (Dec 3, 2022)

Markrs said:


> I would also say that that various versions NI Komplete come with a lot of Libraries, FX and Synths, plus Kontakt. If you already have Kontakt then I would recommend the Ethera Vocal libraries, especially Atlantis 2


I don't have Kontakt. While I am sure its extremely important tool for professional musicians its very distractive for lean and focused music production I am interested in. Just too many free stuff, excellent libraries, options. You can spend days exploring sounds, libraries,...I am unfortunately prone to this.  
As for EW HO Opus I am not sure how it fits with Iconica Opus in terms of mixing (wet-dry). Also is it complementing or redundant to Iconica Opus. How usable is for trailer music for example. 

Sorry for my limited English.


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## Markrs (Dec 3, 2022)

3DC said:


> Sorry for my limited English.


Your English is great, no need to apologise 🙂 



3DC said:


> As for EW HO Opus I am not sure how it fits with Iconica Opus in terms of mixing (wet-dry). Also is it complementing or redundant to Iconica Opus. How usable is for trailer music for example.


Opus can do quite nice trailer music. The close mics are quite dry which is useful for trailer music as you can add plenty of reverb (you can use the internal reverbs if you like which are from Spaces 2 which is a very well regarded convolution reverb), which means you get plenty of bite. HO I believe has larger sections than Iconica so will help add a bigger sound to the focus of Iconica.

There are lots of example content from HO Opus online that might be worth exploring.



The below playlist also uses libraries from Composer Cloud.


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## Chi (Dec 5, 2022)

3DC said:


> Please help me think. I have Cubase Pro, Absolute 5 and Iconica Opus which is for now more then enough for beginner like me. I like this "closed and focused" music production setup from Steinberg.
> 
> Now the question is what to buy next when things go on sale? There are so many options and I would appreciate some guidance and help in this chaos. I am aiming at trailer music, hybrid and classic symphony music for film and animation.
> 
> ...


Maybe check out the Spitfire Originals series. It's all inexpensive and highly usable even for composers with very extensive libraries. The intimate strings flautando could put me to sleep even if I was living in San Diego. (No offense, sane Diegoans. It's the insane Diegoans I'm worried about).


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