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If you could only use 5 sample libraries?

My five, at least for the vast majority of my scores, would be:

Spitfire Chamber Strings
Ólafur Chamber Evos
OT Ark 1 (esp. for big drums and brass)
A toss up between the Embertone Walker Steinway and the Spitfire Ólafur Felt Piano
Omnisphere (counting this as one library, heh ;) )
 
Keys: Keyscape (I don't have it in real life BECAUSE in real life I am allowed more than 5 libraries, so I have piano's and EP's/synths in abundance. But if I could really have only one Keys-library, I think it would be foolish not to take keyscape, for its sheer count of keys - it's almost cheating). If I am only allowed to choose from the libs I do have, I think I will take Soniccouture's The Canterbury Suitcase with me.
Drums: Superior Drummer 3. Who could ever need more?
Strings: Spitfire Chamber Strings (pro). I have the core version, but would have plenty of time on my island to experiment with all the different mic positions the pro version offers.
Bass: Modwheel's The Lowdown has so many options for letting the air move and the sand rumble. You could problaby make an album with this one alone.
Extra: Spitfire's Sounddust Volume 2. This excellent collection of 5 Sounddust Libraries gives me a loopbased, Mellotronish thingy (Flutter Dust), a quircky piano lib to spice up Keyscape (Ships Piano), a quircky drum/groove lib to spice up SD3 (OddHop), a unique guitar based interument (Pendleonium) and a library no-one at a desert island should live without, due to its name at least: Infundibulum, which is indeed an infinite sonic playground.

Where can I buy my ticket?
 
Strings: Cinematic Studio Solo Strings
Winds: CineWinds Core
Brass: CineBrass Pro
Percussion: True Strike
Piano: CinePiano or Embertone 1955 Walker Concert D
 
Cinematic Studio Strings
Cinematic Studio Brass
Uhe-Dive
Embertone Steinway D
Spitfire Chamber Strings (I actually don't own it, but am confident it would suit my needs)

Don't have dream winds or percussion yet. :(
 
I'm trying to get an understanding for Strings, Brass, Winds, Choir, and Perc. But if you have any "honorable mentions" as far as softsynths or other non orchestral libraries that you use a ton, please share.

I think this depends a lot on the kind of music you are working on, it's not the same if you write cinematic or pop or funky songs.

But to answer your question and regarding that I'm a Japan freak I'll try to name what my generic "goto" libraries are:

- Strings: for general string sounds LA Scoring Strings
- Brass: I don't really use any
- Choir: well, I don't use any either but I hope I can use Vocaloid in some special way soon, it's one of the few vocal libraries that could fit what I'm doing
- Percussion: Taiko Creator and FXPansion BFD3

And as I only chose 4 libraries so far I would add the Sonica Instruments Libraries (Koto, Shamisen and Shakuhachi) to the list, which are also very specific for what I need.

If I could add a sixth one I would also add some synth like maybe Serum, Parsec2, Resonans... one that is versatile enough for me to get lots of sounds I couldn't achieve by using the libraries above.
 
Newby at this, but this is what I've gotten excited enough about to invest in:

- CSS
- EW Hollywood Brass & Strings
- 8Dio Claire Woodwind Bundle (just fell in love with this. Thanks so the earlier rec!)
- Albion One
- Vienna SE 1 (Synchron player)
 
Slightly more than five but covers the workhorse of my orchestral palette:
  • Strings: LASS
  • Woodwind: OT Berlin WW
  • Brass: Cinebrass (high)/Spitfire Orchestral Brass (low)
  • Perc: The original EWQLSO
  • Choir: OT MA1
Plus:
  • Piano: Emotional Piano or OT Orchestral Grand
  • Harp: Sonokinetic Arpeggio
Honorable mentions: Sonokinetic Phrase Libraries, Cinestrings runs
 
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Does pianobook count as one big library? :)
Ok then. Nowadays I'd go with:
Pianobook
Tundra
BDT
Perc+
And EWQLSOG for everything else, or maybe Albion One, not sure
 
Samplemodeling Brass
Samplemodeling Strings
Audio Modeling Woodwinds
ISW Ventus Ethnic Winds

+ Omnisphere with copious additional 3rd party banks :P
 
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NI Symphony Series String Ensamble (I know... I know is not that good but I've got so used to it and I can't live without the AutoDivisi)
Spitfire Studio Brass Pro
Spitfire Studio WW Pro
u-he Zebra

Honorable Mention 8dio Prepared Grand
 
If the OP is referring to core orchestral libraries ...

Having originally prepared a budget of over £2000 intended to purchase an "all singing all dancing" collection of orchestral libraries in last years sales I was mighty pleased to find that the bundle £349 deal I got on Orchestral Tools Berlin Orchestra Inspire Series was and still is ample for professional orchestral work. As far as core orchestral instruments are concerned I haven't even thought about looking at anything in the sales this time round!

Yes! there are those that argue it is too ensembles based to be regarded anything more than a "sketching library". Indeed who could argue with that especially when its designer even marketed it as such! But I think Orchestral Tools outdid themselves with this one! The fact is that the way the various sections have been offered is 99 times out of 100 merely what we end up gluing together with larger libraries! Also I think the variety of what it does offer in terms of instruments and their articulations is often overlooked. It's a surprisingly versatile, intuitive and superb sounding library series that literally lives up to its name! An absolute gem that is always a joy to work with!

As I've said before: the more I read about the hoards of libraries some people here keep buying it always reminds me of the angler walking into a fishing tackle shop: there's more kit in that Aladins cave to catch anglers than fish!

How many sample libraries do you really need to create great music?...!

So! for anything requiring core orchestral instrumentation and outright classical composition I only need two!

Orchestral Tools Berlin Orchestra Inspire 1 & 2
 
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So, I'm trying to decide what percussion library to buy so I scanned this thread whilst watching Arsenal having (another) mediocre game. Didn't get that much guidance percussion wise, but here are the top mentions overall.

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