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Can't choose between Orchestral sets

LordLarsa

LordLarsa

New Member
Hello everyone,

I need a little help about choosing the right sets. I compose time to time by pure hobby and I like doing orchestral suff. I'm currently struggling choosing which library to choose between all the propositions: EastWest, VSL, Best service, for the one I heard about.

The kind of sound and stuff I love and my goal are the sounds of Hitoshi Sakimoto (a video game composer):



I'm more into video games musics/composers with colored music than movies and I need an orchestral set of course but also I would love world mystics sounds like the RA set from East west.

I saw the deals on Eastwest and the Hollywood Gold Orchestra deal at - 60%, and I'm seriously interesting to buy it.

Also I love how the RA set sounds, but someone told me the library was sounding out dated and Best service Ethno World Instrument 6 was better... I listened the both, and I don't know if it's caused of the music samples proposed but I found the RA set from EW maybe less realistic sounding but more beautiful and colored than Ethno World that sounded really realistic but more "washed out". I don't know... What do you think? Am I wrong?

Thanks for your advices! I would like to decide me before the Eastwest deals are off :)
Click to read more...
 
Last edited:
LordLarsa said:
Hello everyone,

I need a little help about choosing the right sets. I compose time to time by pure hobby and I like doing orchestral suff. I'm currently struggling choosing which library to choose between all the propositions: EastWest, VSL, Best service, for the one I heard about.

The kind of sound and stuff I love and my goal are the sounds of Hitoshi Sakimoto (a video game composer):



I'm more into video games musics/composers with colored music than movies and I need an orchestral set of course but also I would love world mystics sounds like the RA set from East west.

I saw the deals on Eastwest and the Hollywood Gold Orchestra deal at - 60%, and I'm seriously interesting to buy it.

Also I love how the RA set sounds, but someone told me the library was sounding out dated and Best service Ethno World Instrument 6 was better... I listened the both, and I don't know if it's caused of the music samples proposed but I found the RA set from EW maybe less realistic sounding but more beautiful and colored than Ethno World that sounded really realistic but more "washed out". I don't know... What do you think? Am I wrong?

Thanks for your advices! I would like to decide me before the Eastwest deals are off :)
Click to expand...

Perhaps have a look at (and try out) EastWest’s Composer Cloud for a month or so to see if it is what you are looking for?

Their deals are quite frequent so I wouldn’t suggest rushing into an immediate big purchase in case you regret it, as happens.

I haven’t used the Cloud personally but I do own EW products such as Hollywood Diamond Orchestra, SD3, Silk etc and it is great.

Arguably there are better libraries out there if you are happy to mix and match, but I find workflow is easier, for the most part, when dealing with one developer.
 
You leave out some of the better options in your list, in my opinion. But I guess VSL and EW are at least reasonable options, even if a bit harder to use that some of the more recent libraries. Best Service will only be good for specialty libraries like ERA II.

If you are looking for mainly orchestral material, then the EW subscription service is easily the best place to start. It gives you access to the Hollywood series, and also Silk/Ra, if that's your thing (although these are considered pretty old libraries nowdays). The Play engine it is based on is a bit annoying sometimes, but you can achieve very good results. You could go for the 60% off deal for the Gold version of this (really all you need)... it is a fantastic deal - much better than anything else you can find for the price.
 
The EW Hollywood series is one of the best values in orchestral sample libraries currently available, especially on sale. The biggest caveat is that while it has a handful of keyswitched patches, it mostly uses a track-per-articulation workflow, so if you're used to a keyswitch workflow, you may find it awkward to use.
 
pmcrockett said:
The EW Hollywood series is one of the best values in orchestral sample libraries currently available, especially on sale. The biggest caveat is that while it has a handful of keyswitched patches, it mostly uses a track-per-articulation workflow, so if you're used to a keyswitch workflow, you may find it awkward to use.
Click to expand...

If you are using Cubase, you can add the instruments/articulations you want to an empty Play engine, assign a MIDI channel per patch and then use an Expression Map to have only one track with articulation switches.
 
If you want orchestral samples, Hollywood Orchestra at 60% off is the best deal you'll find, period.

As for the other libraries, you'll find stuff that's either in two-sections (High strings, low strings, high brass, low brass etc.) or with individual instrument sections like 5 sections for Strings, 4 for brass etc, all the way to divisi instruments like Flute 1, Flute 2, etc.

I personally stay away from "High strings, low brass" type of libraries because they take control away from me. I write for a full orchestra and so I stick to libraries that let me write for each instrument individually and maintain full control over my texture and expression.

Hollywood Orchestra will give you a unified sound right out of the box, you just have to set up the microphone positions to your liking. If you go anywhere else, you'll spend much more money and/or will have to deal with mixing and matching libraries, which can be a nightmare for anyone not familiar with it. If you don't have trouble mixing and have money to spend, then by all means.

If this is to be your first orchestral library, I'd say go with Hollywood Orchestra. Some minor hurdles that Play may bring along will be less of a pain in the ass than if you get libraries recorded in different rooms and have to worry about mixing them too much. It's pretty far from being rocket science, but if I didn't have experience mixing, I would want to focus on writing and not mixing.

Hollywood orchestra workflow will pretty much consist of selecting your articulations, playing in your music, dropping some reverb if you think there's not enough and that's about it.

As for the RAM Requirements, here's what I found on the forum:
Jdiggity1 said:
If you're just loading individual patches as you need them, 16GB won't be a problem.
If you want to use legato patches from Hollywood Strings, you best only use one at a time, for the CPU's sake.

For reference, loading a really basic HO template such as:

Piccolo KS
Flute 1 KS
Oboe KS
Clarinet KS
Bassoon KS

Solo Horn Legato
2 Horns KS
6 Horns KS
3 Trumpet KS
3 Trombone KS
Low Brass KS

Orch Perc Kit 1
Orch Perc Kit 2
Orch Chimes
Glock

Violin 1 (various longs and shorts)
Violin 2 (simile...)
Violas
Celli
Basses
Uses about 10-11GB including Cubase.
(This is with the sample cache level set to "1" in settings.)
Click to expand...
 
aaronventure said:
If you want orchestral samples, Hollywood Orchestra at 60% off is the best deal you'll find, period.

As for the other libraries, you'll find stuff that's either in two-sections (High strings, low strings, high brass, low brass etc.) or with individual instrument sections like 5 sections for Strings, 4 for brass etc, all the way to divisi instruments like Flute 1, Flute 2, etc.

I personally stay away from "High strings, low brass" type of libraries because they take control away from me. I write for a full orchestra and so I stick to libraries that let me write for each instrument individually and maintain full control over my texture and expression.

Hollywood Orchestra will give you a unified sound right out of the box, you just have to set up the microphone positions to your liking. If you go anywhere else, you'll spend much more money and/or will have to deal with mixing and matching libraries, which can be a nightmare for anyone not familiar with it. If you don't have trouble mixing and have money to spend, then by all means.

If this is to be your first orchestral library, I'd say go with Hollywood Orchestra. Some minor hurdles that Play may bring along will be less of a pain in the ass than if you get libraries recorded in different rooms and have to worry about mixing them too much. It's pretty far from being rocket science, but if I didn't have experience mixing, I would want to focus on writing and not mixing.

Hollywood orchestra workflow will pretty much consist of selecting your articulations, playing in your music, dropping some reverb if you think there's not enough and that's about it.

As for the RAM Requirements, here's what I found on the forum:
Click to expand...

Aaronventure, I know you didn’t write the post you inserted but just out of curiosity ... if using that template set-up, would you use divisi parts I.e. 3 clarinets in different instances (so 3x clarinet KS) or just multilayer the parts on one instance?
 
hozierschurch said:
Aaronventure, I know you didn’t write the post you inserted but just out of curiosity ... if using that template set-up, would you use divisi parts I.e. 3 clarinets in different instances (so 3x clarinet KS) or just multilayer the parts on one instance?
Click to expand...

If they're different instruments, I'd personally use 3x Clarinet (or rather, I use 2x Bb Clarinets and one Bass Clarinet). I do see from the instrument list that they don't have a separate second Bb Clarinet, so you'd just transpose that one down to use a different samples so that when you layer it with the other clarinet, it sounds like two clarinets (otherwise 2x clarinet playing the same samples in unison will just increase in volume and still sound like one clarinet).

But that's just me. You can get away with just playing on the one instance and simply playing chords when you need them, composers have been doing that for nearly two decades now, I think.

I think that template looks solid and if your writing chops are decent, it will sound pretty good to a degree that 99% of people won't be able to tell whether it's one or two clarinets in unison.
 
hozierschurch said:
Aaronventure, I know you didn’t write the post you inserted but just out of curiosity ... if using that template set-up, would you use divisi parts I.e. 3 clarinets in different instances (so 3x clarinet KS) or just multilayer the parts on one instance?
Click to expand...
To add to what Aaron said, you can to an extent 'fake' a 2nd (or 3rd) instrument for divisi purposes by duplicating an instrument and adding different EQ and panning/spatialization settings. This is helpful because it doesn't load a new set of samples, since they are already loaded in ram. However, I would still be careful not to use the same MIDI data and articulations as it can still cause minor phasing issues, which for those who don't know, can decrease the volume instead of increasing it.
For example, I have 3 different Solo French Horns from Hollywood Brass. Each one panned slightly differently and with a different EQ. One is more mellow, one is brighter, etc.
But generally, going to these lengths is unnecessary, and shouldn't detract from the composition itself.
 
Jdiggity1 said:
To add to what Aaron said, you can to an extent 'fake' a 2nd (or 3rd) instrument for divisi purposes by duplicating an instrument and adding different EQ and panning/spatialization settings. This is helpful because it doesn't load a new set of samples, since they are already loaded in ram. However, I would still be careful not to use the same MIDI data and articulations as it can still cause minor phasing issues, which for those who don't know, can decrease the volume instead of increasing it.
For example, I have 3 different Solo French Horns from Hollywood Brass. Each one panned slightly differently and with a different EQ. One is more mellow, one is brighter, etc.
But generally, going to these lengths is unnecessary, and shouldn't detract from the composition itself.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. So if you duplicate an instrument it uses the same RAM? Makes sense but I wasn’t aware of it!

So 3 instances of a KS clarinet in Hollywood would just be the 1.5gb or whatever it is ...
 
hozierschurch said:
Thanks for this. So if you duplicate an instrument it uses the same RAM? Makes sense but I wasn’t aware of it!

So 3 instances of a KS clarinet in Hollywood would just be the 1.5gb or whatever it is ...
Click to expand...
The instruments do all have to be in the same instance of Play for the RAM savings, though.
 
Eastwest Hollywood Orchestra is really great. And for ethnic sounds, I got UVI World Suite which is 40% off right now, and there's a ton of quality stuff in this library.
 
I'm surprised Garritan hasn't been mentioned. Great sound and IMO the best bang for the buck at the very least.
 
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