Thing is, for a budding composer it's quite a good start regardless of what finer points are missing. It's full orchestra for under a grand that isn't recorded to be cinematic sliced bread. We already know it sounds good, certainly for an up-and-coming, and you have the whole orchestra to pick from. The goal right now is composing, not submitting a final piece to JJ Abrams.
(Editor's note: Long ass rant not directed at any body in particular and wanders all over the place and I have no time to check for mistakes.)
Of course he should think that he's going to be submitting things to JJ Abrams. Why not?
I hear what you are saying but also for a budding composer EWQSO library was created with a whole different set of standards that isn't around today. So, when he butts up against those "quirks" he'll have a hard time finding the support he needs to get over it. Not like back in the day when everybody had EWQLSO and the dry as a bone "VSL" orchestras and we developed a whole slew of techniques to get around the limitations, including scripts, legato scripts, ect. in Kontakt. All that now seems long forgotten and difficult to find.
So, again, if I were starting out I'd go for the all in one library that is new and has built up on that past history and not the one that we've all moved on from. With EWQLSO he'll soon run into the flutes hitting 0db not even adding any other instruments. Then we'll have to go through and explain, you know everybody back then use to normalize every sample so you have to fully balance your template and you'll have to use cc11 to temper the dynamic range....yuck! For somebody who knows how an orchestra works figuring all that out was a nightmare. Seems like BBCSO already has that covered even with prefabbed templates to get you going.
People say that we should "wait and see" but in truth even if they deliver on 1/2 of what they promised it's going to be light years ahead of just about everything in that price range and just about everything else.
A full sampled orchestral package for under a grand was unheard of back when EWQLSO came out. That orchestra was $5000 full in and VSL when you added it all up was closer to $20,000.
So we broke as composer are whining about $700 bucks yet we broke ass composers 15 to 20 years ago didn't think twice about dropping $2000 on one synth or $5000-$20,000 on sample libraries plus the 5 computers needed to run those dam things.
I'm not a fan boy as some suggest. I own "0" spitfire products. Not one. I met the chaps at NAMM once and boy are they really fine people. But, the price and what you get in their older packages was too prohibitive for me and just didn't seem like it was my type of sound.
BBCSO though is a bargain. It sounds friging great. It is untried but so what. EWQLSO when I got it. I just took a chance on it and immediately started scoring films with it and used it exclusively on about 10 projects spanning about 7 years until I got HO.
So it comes as no light thing for me, who has used nearly exclusively EW products in my main template to say, BBCSO seems like a really good buy. I almost feel like a traitor for saying that because I've been an exclusive user of EW products since 2005. Scored many films. Made some money at least enough that I'm still alive and my stuff is all paid for.
I bought EWQLSO just based on the demos. I didn't know of any forum. I was not looped into the sample community. I took a chance and it has paid off but it was a rough learning curve with sleepless nights crying at 4am wondering why it sounded like it did. Finding the forums, posting music, getting bashed, reposting getting some praise, getting tips from guys like Craig Sharmat and many others until I finally figured it out. I wouldn't wish that on anybody since nobody is really fully using that library any more and me for one won't spend the time to gen in a new user on the quirks of EWQLSO. Would be a waste of time.
It's not being a "fanboy" to just say to an up and coming young composer to seriously consider BBCSO and to take a chance on this library and yourself by getting it and the computer needed to run it. It's just common sense. It's what we all did back in the day. Saw were the industry was heading and made that work. Lots of sleepless nights, lots of money wasted, lots of tears of sorrow and of joy, but in the end it all comes down to just taking a chance.
That's what I kind of miss from these forums. When we had limited choices and limited options there was a huge effort to "make it all work" and make it better from the user end. Many of the pioneers of those days that did make it work and did make it better are now selling us their own libraries.
I know I sound like a ranting old geiser. But, this idea that he shouldn't take a chance on an untested product because he's new is so ridiculous. This is when he should take a chance, bust out that credit card. Put down $700 for BBSCO and another $1200 to build his own PC and start friggin' making the best music he can. Not invest in a 15 year old product with little support and very little if any future. EWQLSO "WAS" groundbreaking. It is still very good. There's better.
