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Black Friday Woodwinds Choice

Agreed - and after using the Synchron player for a while, VI Pro 2 stands as one of my favorite sample players.

I keep thinking of upgrading VSL SE, and it looks like I can get VSL SE Woodwinds 1 plus for about $80, which would add Fortepiano, portato, trills, repetition performances, fast repetitions. But that commits me to the dongle, and also I don't have VI Pro 2, only the free Vienna Instruments Player (which is not bad, but people keep talking about VI Pro2 as having much more function). The individual instruments look like about $50 standard library and $100 full library. At these prices, the other options look like better values, at least based on number of samples. Whether the quality of VSL makes it worth it compared to others, I'm not sure, so I appreciate input from those who have used these libraries.
 
Fluffy Clarinet vs Embertone Clarinet. Opinions? Can Fluffy bumblebee as well as Embertone? :)
Had both, I sold the Embertone Clarinet. To me the Fluffy Clarinet has a very nice legato, good dynamic transitions and sounds classical. Embertone sounds more jazzy to me. Both are good but I much preferred the tone of Fluffy. For fast stuff, the Embertone wins.
 
Why isn't Chris Hein woodwinds in contention?

Chris Hein Woodwinds is very much in the running. It wins for being the best deal, per instrument, and by number of samples per dollar. Do you like it better than the other options?
 
Chris Hein Winds and Fluffy win it for me for quality and value. VSL SE Winds are cheap and offer a lot of expensive and confusing upgrade paths, but the quality for the $$'s isn't comparable IMO.
 
Chris Hein Woodwinds is very much in the running. It wins for being the best deal, per instrument, and by number of samples per dollar. Do you like it better than the other options?

I don't own it. Been trying to find out some more and gauge people's opinions but most people seem to talk about BWW (only) when it comes to woodwinds....
 
I don't own it. Been trying to find out some more and gauge people's opinions but most people seem to talk about BWW (only) when it comes to woodwinds....
Yes, this is why I'm still thinking of getting the BWW on sale, since it doesn't happen very often. Chris Hein's seems to have a more mixed reaction. I mostly like the VSL's SE winds I have. But I am just getting started. I'm finding that some of the bad sounding parts are probably more my lack of skill than anything actually wrong with the sounds.

But I am coming to the conclusion that buying an inexpensive library to start, then save up and buy the best you can afford of the various parts when they go on sale is probably better than buying bits and pieces of okay stuff just because they are a good price.

Too bad I don't follow my own advice
 
Yes, this is why I'm still thinking of getting the BWW on sale, since it doesn't happen very often. Chris Hein's seems to have a more mixed reaction. I mostly like the VSL's SE winds I have. But I am just getting started. I'm finding that some of the bad sounding parts are probably more my lack of skill than anything actually wrong with the sounds.

But I am coming to the conclusion that buying an inexpensive library to start, then save up and buy the best you can afford of the various parts when they go on sale is probably better than buying bits and pieces of okay stuff just because they are a good price.

Too bad I don't follow my own advice

What would the okay stuff in this context be? ChW or BWW or VSLw?
 
What would the okay stuff in this context be? ChW or BWW or VSLw?
I think the VSL SE falls in the good to better. Ive been pretty happy with it. The BWW would be on the better/best side along with the full VSL winds and Spitfire. Not sure where CHW falls in this. I hear good things about it, but it doesn't seem to come up as much when they talk about the best. And I think winds and legato seem to be the hardest things to get right in sample libraries.

Okay is probably EW Hollywood Winds Gold. Right now, you can get the whole EW HO gold for less than any of this. The winds, however, are considered the weakest of the sections. But on the whole, it is a great starter orchestra.

At least this is what I've picked up. I'm still learning and I've been told a good composer can make even a crappy orchestra sound good. And a bad one can make the best orchestra sound bad.

Edit: I should put the caveat that this is my impression from listening to YouTube videos and reading comments on these libraries. I haven't tried all of them.
 
I really feel like this is comparing apples and oranges. Mixing a CH or FA wind instrument with an orchestra makes it sound like a concerto for that instrument, whereas something like Berlin/Spitfire WWs can easily blend into the orchestra.

I'd use CH or FA woodwinds for solo stuff, or very small groups, or situations where the instrument should be upfront. Meanwhile I'd use something like Berlin WWs for orchestral part writing. It just doesn't sound right if I use them the other way around (or maybe I'm just not that experienced?)

Can't comment on VSL as I don't have it
 
I had CH's woodwinds, the compact version. Although I ended up reselling it, I don't have anything but praise for it. I found them far more lovely than the VSL winds.
 
I had CH's woodwinds, the compact version. Although I ended up reselling it, I don't have anything but praise for it. I found them far more lovely than the VSL winds.
Interestingly enough, I just tried both, thanks to Best Service's amazing TrySound service, which allows you to test libraries via a remote VST plugin server thing. I much more preferred VSL (SE) than CH. One of these "each his own" moments :)
 
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