I'm finding myself tempted by Berlin Woodwinds myself. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts so far. Here's some of my breakdown:
Fluffy Audio Woodwinds $179
(=$45 per instrument)
(Flute, Bassoon, Oboe, Clarinet)
Looks like about 5-6K samples, 5-7GB per instrument
3 dynamic layers.
No sampled runs? Is this capable of doing runs?
Pros: Lowest total sticker price, many praise the instruments, particularly the clarinet and flute
Cons: Maybe more specialized for solo or intimate work as opposed to in an orchestral setting. Missing piccolo, alto flute, english horn.
Claire Bundle
$344 (for me, with 50% VIP discount)
Fast and slow legato, arcs, runs (one octave major and minor)
3 mic positions
40GB for 7 instruments
About 5-7k samples per instrument
Pros: Praise, especially for the oboe and flute
Cons: Some complain of the programming from 8dio in general. Most expensive from a per instrument perspective of these options.
Chris Hein Winds Complete $240
(13 instruments, $18.50 per instrument)
Legato up to 4 dynamic layers
Shorts up to 8 dynamic layers
About 8K samples per instrument, 30GB total
Dry studio mic only (with convolution reverbs)--seems like people either like this or hate this, depending on whether you are in the wet or dry camp
Phase aligned samples (smooth crossfades at the cost of some sonic quality, to some)
Pros: Wins for dollar per instrument or dollar per sample. Most velocity layers. Most complete set of instruments.
Cons: Seems to require more programming to get the best results
Berlin Woodwinds Revive/Legacy
$432 Black Friday sale
3 separate flutes, alto flute, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoon
(So 12 instruments, $36 per instrument)
5 mic positions
3 attacks
Mostly 2, sometimes 3 velocity layers
Runs builder
157GB total revive and legacy
Pros: Many praise this library as their desert island wind library.
Cons: Do you need the expansions to make this a complete library?
Hard to decide. Each of the libraries seems to fill a certain need. Looked at from a dollar per instrument perspective, BWW on sale is more economical than I initially thought. However, that's assuming that you don't need the expansions to make it complete. I suppose if I could be reassured that this library would be the only one I would need, then I could justify the comparatively high sticker price.
I have experience with the 8dio instruments, and I find that I like their approach of selecting from several options with baked in expression, and relying less on using CC to shape the performance. However, it looks like BWW has something similar in that one can choose from various vibrato options. CH also has their shorts, which I think you can string along to get appropriate note lengths, but I'm not sure how this works out in practice.
Chris Hein seems like the best bargain, assuming that their instruments equal the other ones in the list. This may not be a bad assumption, given the reputation of the developer. However, I may be more in the wet than dry camp (haven't decided yet--I find myself really drawn to the sound of the Teldex stage, but Breeze has worked pretty well for me with VSL). Also, I may be more of a paint by articulation type rather than a play it and ride CC11 type, so the phase aligned sample approach might not be right for me. Also, I wish there were more demos or walkthroughs with just the individual instruments playing.
Fluffy has the lowest sticker price, and I've got a feeling I really couldn't go wrong with it, and then adding other libraries as I go along. However, I'd rather have a definitive library that I can learn and grow with, and it seems like Fluffy is not complete enough (with just 4 instruments) to serve as a main orchestral library.
Arrgh! One more day for the BestService sale, so a deadline approaches...