Kind of sad though, that the ultimate flagship of their products is Spaces II.
100% Agree. I have Composer Cloud plus which is the whole package with all the mics....and at the end of the day Spaces II is the best thing they have going. It is an amazing reverb. It has something perfect for every situation...so easy to use too.
Strangely enough I actually quite like VOP (Voices of Passion). It has a few niche things that I really like. Then I got Clara (Zero-g) and use that way more.
Voices of Empire has a half dozen niche things that I find interesting....but I wouldn't pay 200$ for either of them....
I use the harps...they are decent, but I don't own much else in the way of harps to compare it to.
I own both Genesis children choir and Olympus Full Venus and Mars which are both phenomenal....with that said....I rarely use either of the HW or EW choirs....plus 8dio Studio Sopranos is another one I reach for when looking for niche choir at the higher notes.
I tried with everything in me to make the HW solo strings work, but then I got the solo emotional violin and solo emotional cello from Harmonic Subtones and that put a real quick end to ever using HW solo strings for anything ever again. Again....I do use the harp though.
I wanted Voices of Opera to be good, but I just can't grasp it...Voices of Rapture is way easier to use.....and sounds better..and the legato of Voices of Opera just isn't what it should be. Unless you want to make tracks full of prebuilt phrases....it is too limited.
Pop brass seems pretty good....but not my style of music....others may really like it.
I think Gypsy is really good....but again....not my style of music.
Ra and Silk get a bad rap.....they have their issues but there is some really cool stuff in their that works well.
The dark side and ghostwriter...….I'd feel so ripped off if I bought them outside of the composer cloud...not sure how even at 50% off these are a fair deal.
But yes.....the HW orchestra is pretty good....other than the Woodwinds. The percussion is really nice, but then I got Rhapsody Orchestral Percussion from Impact Soundworks….and use that most of the time.
The old EW Symphony Orchestra has some good stuff too....but its really getting outdated....but sounds good.
And last but absolutely the worst....do NOT waste your money on the Pianos.....possibly the worst virtual pianos ever....
All in all, I'm on the fence about renewing my subscription come January. Most of the stuff I like I use for a niche thing here and there....and now that I have CSS.....well....I find that I'm using HW strings less and less....but there are some cool articulations in there that CSS doesn't have....but 95% of the time CSS takes care of what I need....and the sound of CSS is another class completely.
Making music with CSS is like someone slowly spooning creamy chocolate pudding down my throat. Its just so silky smooth....
I would make a similar comparison of CSB to HW brass too.
Finally....even though it is expensive...I'll probably by Spaces II outright.