# Starting in Music Industry - Host App + Plugins/Libs



## SEnergy (Apr 29, 2012)

Hello,

I want to start to produce my own orchestral/epic music, so could someone recommend me some free Host Application(or cheap one) and some free/cheap plugin/library or anything that I need to simulate instruments (like VST Instruments/EWQLSO) and that will be working on that Host Application?

Also what else do I need except Host Application and that plugin/library (or how is it called?) to produce orchestral music?


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## Resoded (Apr 30, 2012)

I think Reaper is either free or cheap. I'm not sure how well it works but I think at least there's a free demo for you to try.

Hmm, yeah east west has their symphonic orchestra gold, VSL has their Special Edition, Spitfire Audio has Albion, but they are fairly expensive and probably needs some added drums/guitar/choir for epic stuff. If you buy native instruments Kontakt you get a whole lot of samples with it. Not the best samples but the strings are from VSL and it has choirs, drumkits, guitars and ethnic instruments. If you're concerned with quality then the Kontakt library is probably not so good, but at least it has all elements you need for epic music.

You may need to get yourself a convolution reverb, or at least some form of reverb. I'm not sure if there are any free ones though, but there should be plenty cheap ones.


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## SEnergy (Apr 30, 2012)

Well NI Kontakt costs 400e (or 350 or something like that), so it's a little bit expensive for me, don't you know something cheaper to start with?


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## midphase (Apr 30, 2012)

I think you'll have a hard time finding anything cheaper than this:

http://www.garritan.com/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=54


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## Farkle (Apr 30, 2012)

SEnergy @ Mon Apr 30 said:


> Well NI Kontakt costs 400e (or 350 or something like that), so it's a little bit expensive for me, don't you know something cheaper to start with?



honestly, East West Gold is about the least expensive orchestral library you could get, and still have it sound good/professional/epic.

Truthfully, building an epic orchestral sound is going to take money. Period. The orchestral libraries are some of the most deeply sampled in existence. So, just be prepared to shell out 500 dollars for either NI Komplete (which gets you synths, drums, and orchestral sounds), or 500 bucks for EW Gold (which really has a great epic sound).

Here would be a "bare-bones" approach to getting an orchestral template up and running.

1. Use Reaper: it's free for 30 days, then costs 60 bucks for hobbyists.
2. Get Reverberate for convolution reverb. It is free for the lite, but I think the regular is 50 bucks or so.
3. Use one of the East/West sales to get a 2 for 1, then buy EW Gold library for 500, and grab Stormdrums 2 for the "2fer".

You're out like 650-700 dollars, and can put together a pretty decent epic/orchestral mockup.

FWIW, East/West Gold can do a nice job with epic stuff. Here's a cue I did with East/West Gold and Stormdrums 1. I did this about 6 years ago. God, when I listen to it now... there's so much more I could do with the mix and the orchestration. ARGH.  

Anyways, here's an example of some music for that:

http://soundcloud.com/mike-worth/fantasybattlemusic

*NOTE:* This is why professional composers sound good. Because they spend money on quality sound libraries. One cannot gain a professional sound, without spending some money on professional products.

I am sorry if that is sounding a bit harsh, but it's the same as if you wanted to start a carpentry business, or home remodeling. You would have to spend some money to get professional tools.

Good news is, you can be up and running for less than 1000 dollars of software. That's pretty darn impressive!

Mike


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## Simplesly (Apr 30, 2012)

If you use a mac you could buy Logic for $199 on the app store. It's orchestral samples are not gonna blow your mind or anything but at least it's cheap. Can't get anything halfway decent for free, I'm afraid...


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## Simplesly (Apr 30, 2012)

If you use a mac you could buy Logic for $199 on the app store. It's orchestral samples are not gonna blow your mind or anything but at least it's cheap. Can't get anything halfway decent for free, I'm afraid...


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## SEnergy (Apr 30, 2012)

Simplesly @ Mon Apr 30 said:


> If you use a mac you could buy Logic for $199 on the app store. It's orchestral samples are not gonna blow your mind or anything but at least it's cheap. Can't get anything halfway decent for free, I'm afraid...



I understand that it's not cheap, but I'm 17y old without job and here where I live is average salary 400e/month AT BEST, that's why I need something cheap for START, to learn things etc


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## Simplesly (Apr 30, 2012)

Then I would get Reaper and take a look at this thread - lots of information strung together. You should also check out KVR Instrument News and 440 software and see what you can find. Orchestra libraries are pretty hard to come by in the free realm, though there was some kind of SF2 CC library out there (Sonatina I think it was called) that was sort of an orchestra library cobbled together from a bunch of freebies.


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## Daryl (Apr 30, 2012)

Actually you don't need any of this stuff. A pencil and a few sheets of manuscript paper is all you need to write orchestral music. Everything else is just for the realization, and when it comes to orchestral music, if you can't write it on paper, chances are that you can't write it. :wink: 

D


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## spoon (Apr 30, 2012)

and if you don't like pen/paper try musescore; it's a free notationsoftware (very strong resemblance to Sibelius). At least there are some sounds (Midi from your soundcard).


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## midphase (Apr 30, 2012)

SEnergy @ Mon Apr 30 said:


> I understand that it's not cheap, but I'm 17y old without job and here where I live is average salary 400e/month AT BEST, that's why I need something cheap for START, to learn things etc



Dude, if $150 or $200 is not cheap enough...maybe you ought to wait a few years until you can afford some of this stuff or until you find a better job.

Orchestral music composition is not for everyone...as a matter of fact some would say it's a bit of a privileged endeavor in the same way that learning how to drive a race car or learning how to sculpt marble statues might be.

Then again...it's cool that you're looking for a legit way of getting some tools instead of heading straight for the torrent sites.


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## Resoded (Apr 30, 2012)

The only thing I could think of would be to find a synthesizer that mimics the orchestral instruments. I don't think it would sound so good but I guess that's better than nothing.

Oh, and if you drop the host and all possibilities of VSTs etc, a program like guitar pro 5 has a lot of orchestral instruments, guitars and drumkits that you can program and notate either through a virtual fretboard or a piano. That program is obviously made for guitarists and people making sheet music and tabs, but again, better than nothing and that sure is cheap. Maybe there are other programs similar to guitar pro 5 which are more orchestral oriented. And you don't need a fancy computer either.

Sure the sound sucks, but when I started out writing music I wrote everything in GP5. The quality of the sound doesn't matter when you have a great time writing music and doing what you love.


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## Resoded (Apr 30, 2012)

midphase @ 30th April 2012 said:


> Then again...it's cool that you're looking for a legit way of getting some tools instead of heading straight for the torrent sites.



+1


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## SEnergy (Apr 30, 2012)

midphase @ Mon Apr 30 said:


> SEnergy @ Mon Apr 30 said:
> 
> 
> > I understand that it's not cheap, but I'm 17y old without job and here where I live is average salary 400e/month AT BEST, that's why I need something cheap for START, to learn things etc
> ...



as I already said, I'm 17, I'm still in high school and I don't have a job, also, if I had a job, it should be 300e at max at start, we are not some madafaking big ass country or w/e, not everywhere you have 2000dolars/month salary, businessmans from capital city have about 3000e/month, but they have big companies etc... I just can't afford a plugin that costs 400e since start when I'm actually learning to do music... it's like buying electric guitar that costs 5000e when you actually never even touched a guitar..


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## RiffWraith (Apr 30, 2012)

midphase @ Tue May 01 said:


> Orchestral music composition is not for everyone...as a matter of fact some would say it's a bit of a privileged endeavor in the same way that learning how to drive a race car or learning how to sculpt marble statues might be.



Or tennis :lol:


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## RiffWraith (Apr 30, 2012)

SEnergy @ Tue May 01 said:


> as I already said, I'm 17, I'm still in high school and I don't have a job, also, if I had a job, it should be 300e at max at start, we are not some madafaking big ass country or w/e, not everywhere you have 2000dolars/month salary, businessmans from capital city have about 3000e/month, but they have big companies etc... I just can't afford a plugin that costs 400e since start when I'm actually learning to do music... it's like buying electric guitar that costs 5000e when you actually never even touched a guitar..



Dude - I understand your predicament. Most of us (me included) have been there. There have been some good suggestions for you in this thread.

Assuming you already have a computer...

Reaper: $60
GPO: $149

You can find freebie plugs (eq, compressor, reverb etc.) on the net if you look hard enough.

Here's a decent free eq to help you get started:

http://free-loops.com/vst-plugin-47.html

So for $209 USD, you get a decent sequencer, a decent starter orchestral VI, and some decent, useable plugs. Can't beat that deal.

Cheers.


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## JT (Apr 30, 2012)

SEnergy @ Mon Apr 30 said:


> as I already said, I'm 17, I'm still in high school and I don't have a job, also, if I had a job, it should be 300e at max at start, we are not some madafaking big ass country or w/e, not everywhere you have 2000dolars/month salary, businessmans from capital city have about 3000e/month, but they have big companies etc... I just can't afford a plugin that costs 400e since start when I'm actually learning to do music... it's like buying electric guitar that costs 5000e when you actually never even touched a guitar..



If you're only 17 and don't have a job, how about just getting an instrument and learning to play it? Get in an orchestra or band, learn about various instruments. Go to a library and listen to various orchestral recordings. If they don't have them already, have the library order the scores for you to follow along with. 

Start building your musical knowledge, so that when you can afford some of these tools you'll be able to make the most of them.

JT


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## midphase (Apr 30, 2012)

SEnergy @ Mon Apr 30 said:


> ... it's like buying electric guitar that costs 5000e when you actually never even touched a guitar..



But that's my point...if you wanted to learn how to play guitar, you'd probably have to shell out at least a couple of hundred $$$ right? If you can't afford to buy a guitar guess what? You ain't learning guitar until you can!

Reaper, PreSonus Studio 1 (which hasn't been mentioned but it's $100) coupled with either Garritan Orchestra or East West QLSO Silver for $200 (or less)...not sure what else you want to hear. Personally I think it's pretty awesome that you can get yourself a semi-pro rig within $300...apparently that's still too high?

How about you tell us what you want to spend? A better way to post this thread would have been:

"hey guys, I have $... to spend. Any ideas on what the best option would be for me to get a basic orchestral library and DAW?"


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## midphase (Apr 30, 2012)

Also...spending $400 on a sample library is not at all like spending $5000 on a guitar if you're just starting. Spending $5000 on a sample library would be like spending $5000 on a guitar.


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## Ed (Apr 30, 2012)

cough not garritan, cough. Although if you can make GPO sound good you should have no trouble once you upgrade :D

To the OP: I guess you need to figure out how much you are willing to spend, if its nothing then there are free or cheap sequencers and there are soundfonts and other freeware type synths, samplers, FX plugins etc. Now, will you be able to create the same quality of music and production values you are hearing in the music you like? No, very unlikely. But that doesnt mean you cant get musical, there's plenty out there and with enough obsession and creativity you can create some great stuff with it. It wont be exactly like what you want to make maybe, but that doesnt mean it cant sound good at all. If you're only 17, it means you're learning how to make music and then you will be in a great position when you do have more money to invest and get some more gear. No one gets all this stuff overnight and no one suddenly becomes experienced with it over night. 

If you want a more perhaps helpful answer deciding on how much you *are *willing to spend *and *what you definitely would like to be able to do (ie, have great synths sound design, or good orchestra etc) would probably yield more specific answers. However you will have to invest a decent amount, so 400euros isnt too much. I bought my first orchestral sample library when I was 18 and I had no money as well, that cost me about £500 and today you get much more for your money than back in 2002!


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