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Do you already have what you need?

whole heartily agree with this! very well said!

Especially when it comes to phrase libraries; I learned the hard way: they're good for inspiration, but ultimately it's best to just do your own thing. The pieces I wrote with phrase libraries are all listened to with embarrassment by me today. I keep thinking "why didn't I just take that and do something new with it?".

Another Spitfire free Bird here. Thay sound great but try to use the close mics..eww. I like libraries that can be used in more than one context.

The close mics in Albions I to III are indeed pretty disappointing. I kept trying to default to them for use with other libraries by other manufacturers, but the room was still there, often in an unusable amount.

Fair enough. To use any of the Albions means you're also renting space in a facsimile of AIR Studios, and that's where you are. You can't just decide to record in a drastically different environment as you could with a dry library. Both a strength and a limitation IMHO.

This puts it way better than I did.

From listening to his music and from watching all his videos online, I think JXL has got a huge musical vocabulary and

Really? No offense...I thought Junkie best when he stuck to making patches for synths. I've been pretty mortified at his soundtrack work, it all sounds the same to me. I thought Zimmer teaming up with him for Batman vs Superman was what sunk that score.

I...okay, apologies to any Junkie fans here. I just got so disappointed so many times...I actually bought Mad Max and was astonished at how monotonal the whole thing was. But then, that could have a lot to do with the hyper compressed production.

Again, sorry fans. I just didn't expect people to be big on him. I love Hans Zimmer's music.

All just my know-nothing opinion.
 
Especially when it comes to phrase libraries; I learned the hard way: they're good for inspiration, but ultimately it's best to just do your own thing. The pieces I wrote with phrase libraries are all listened to with embarrassment by me today. I keep thinking "why didn't I just take that and do something new with it?".



The close mics in Albions I to III are indeed pretty disappointing. I kept trying to default to them for use with other libraries by other manufacturers, but the room was still there, often in an unusable amount.



This puts it way better than I did.



Really? No offense...I thought Junkie best when he stuck to making patches for synths. I've been pretty mortified at his soundtrack work, it all sounds the same to me. I thought Zimmer teaming up with him for Batman vs Superman was what sunk that score.

I...okay, apologies to any Junkie fans here. I just got so disappointed so many times...I actually bought Mad Max and was astonished at how monotonal the whole thing was. But then, that could have a lot to do with the hyper compressed production.

Again, sorry fans. I just didn't expect people to be big on him. I love Hans Zimmer's music.

All just my know-nothing opinion.

Hey, we like what we like. No need to apologise.
 
It's far too wet for my taste. I was hoping the close mics would be much drier, but they aren't. I like to be in control of the room.

+1. This is my biggest complaint about the Albions. I hate a lot of reverb,and I hate it when developers rely on the natural reverb of the room or hall to make things sound good, or larger than what it actually is (Ark1, Majestica). That's what I love about ProjectSAM, or the Hollywood Series from EW. The instruments just by themselves (with no reverb) sound great, and also give you a lot more control over your sound. I will say this though, using the Albions with just the close mics work great for when making custom patches/stacks with other libraries.
 
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I guess to give a serious answer to the question:

I think that between the stuff I own (real instruments and samples) and the occasional composer cloud subscription, I have everything I need.

For example, I still use CS2; CSS seems like an improvement, but not such an improvement that it warrants spending 500 USD. I also can use Hollywood Strings thanks to the cloud. I think we're getting to point, at least with certain instruments, where the jump between a generation of sample libraries isn't as extreme. So "old" tech isn't as much of a hindrance as before.

Learned the hard way that a lot of things I thought I "needed", I really didn't need them and wasted a lot of money with samples collecting digital dust bunnies.

I always said I was going to buy a new guitar or at least new pickups to make it "sound better", but that was ten years ago and somehow...I'm still using the same guitar and pickups, and it sounds just fine now.
 
Well I mean you can't always get what you want, but I have heard, that if you try sometimes, you might just get what you need.

-DJ

If you are Canadian, you'll get this ;)

All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah your honesty

One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity, yeah
 
If you are Canadian, you'll get this ;)

All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah your honesty

One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity, yeah
Ha. I'm not Canadian. But I love me some Rush! Great quote for this thread. Cheers!
 
In opposite to real instruments I sooner or later get tired of using the same sample instruments over and over again. They are the same recordings used again and again in different songs (what never happens with real instruments). Especially when working a long time on lots of details from composition to mix. So it's good to have a variety of sounds for every instrument.
And different approaches of playability (CCs, velocity, key switches, etc) give different results. I think the workflow is even more important than the sound itself. If notes are sucking or pumping instead of connecting to phrases the best recording and reverb will not help. I have a lot of instrument libraries. Most of them fail my workflow (doesn't mean they wouldn't match others workflow). Like princesses that have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the right one there are a lot of libraries that doesn't find their way into my daily work. But it's getting better. If I compare libraries from ten years ago with todays there's really a huge development visible. And I don't think it's over now. And as I spend a lot of lifetime with it and like to have a good life I'll probably go on looking for good libraries.
 
So many truisms in this thread.
I've got most things covered. A couple of holes but I am trying to be patient in finding the right thing.

I'm not alone from what I read but I really need to step up on the composition/production.
 
Have you heard Brimstone or Distance Between Dreams?

I've heard Distance. It was good.

Just ignore me please, for some reason I just can't get on board with XL. Every time I've spent time listening to his music (and collaborations, like B vs. S) I find myself wanting to throw on some Goldsmith or Shore.

No offense or disrespect meant to XL fans in the least; obviously he's an excellent composer or he wouldn't be getting so much work. It's my silly taste, that's all.
 
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I most certainly have what I need; it's a long time ago where I could "blame" my instrument collection for how my music sounds :) That being said, I still like the inspiration derived from new instruments but more often than not find that new purchases didn't really add that much.

One important thing for me, however: sometimes new instruments makes the writing easier. For instance, I find the Spitfire libs generally sound excellent very quickly whereas some of my other libs take far more midi-programming.
 
In opposite to real instruments I sooner or later get tired of using the same sample instruments over and over again. They are the same recordings used again and again in different songs (what never happens with real instruments). Especially when working a long time on lots of details from composition to mix. So it's good to have a variety of sounds for every instrument.

For me, this is spot on. Sometimes I experience tremendous relief when I substitute a different string library on a passage that is sounding unconvincing.
 
This thread REALLY resonates with me. I actually have the YouTube link below bookmarked to remind myself that I need to work harder at knowing my existing VIs...(AND orchestration!) it's all done with EWQLSO Gold. The mix is a bit thin, but I find it very inspiring nonetheless:

 
I've heard Distance. It was good.

Just ignore me please, for some reason I just can't get on board with XL. Every time I've spent time listening to his music (and collaborations, like B vs. S) I find myself wanting to throw on some Goldsmith or Shore.

No offense or disrespect meant to XL fans in the least; obviously he's an excellent composer or he wouldn't be getting so much work. It's my silly taste, that's all.
Check out Brimstone. I think you'll dig it.
 
This thread REALLY resonates with me. I actually have the YouTube link below bookmarked to remind myself that I need to work harder at knowing my existing VIs...(AND orchestration!) it's all done with EWQLSO Gold. The mix is a bit thin, but I find it very inspiring nonetheless:



Always my go-to YouTube link when people say Symphonic Orchestra is no longer relevant or something to that effect.
 
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