Reccomendations on a string VI/library for a String Quartet?

[BKK-OZ]

He doesn't mean for you to use any cracked software, the Kontakt player is free and will likely do what you need...

No, I don't think you are right there, check out the system requirements page here "...You must have the full version of Kontakt, NOT the player version that ships with other libraries...."

only needs to make you know what it will be like, and to give a rough idea to your players, so I wouldn't really sweat it too hard.

Agreed, although like all of us, I would dearly love to have it all, to have it for free, and to have it now!

On the other hand, lots of articulations are one of the benefits to the larger libraries.

Yes, and that is one of the reasons to go for something a bit more 'professional' - a more expensive option will help me get a more realistic demo together.

[Movies]

I've been looking for some sort of orchestral situation as well. I downloaded the Miroslav Philharmonik demo this morning and messed around with it for a few minutes. It seems like the amount of time one would need to put into making it sound awesome is just about equal to the extra amount of money a better program might cost.*

I'm definitely looking to dive in deeper -- probably next week

My first impression, though, is that for some like me (who is still relatively new to the world of, like, making-MIDI-instruments-sound-good), this might not be the best plan.

*I'm guessing that they all take a ton of TLC to sound amazing, but the ground zero patches sound nearly Casio-esque to my ears.

[mhschmieder]

Xsample has just recently upgraded their Chamber Ensemble to a full-fledged Orchestral Library, with way more articulations, much more advanced playability, even better integration with notation programs, and a lot of rare instruments to boot.

The upgrade price is quite appealing, but for those who never bought the CE edition, they now offer singles as the "Modular Library" and have proper upgrade pricing, along the lines of VSL. In fact, the revised MIDI CC handling is rationalized compared to the CE version, and much simpler and easier to learn. A lot of lessons were drawn from both SampleModeling and Vienna Instruments Pro.

I am really looking forward to putting this new edition to the trial, as I already loved the timbre in CE but simply felt it was too basic a library to be of widespread use (yet I had already targeted it, in shootouts, as the best source for strings when part of a non-classical project involving a lot of synths and/or other non-acoustic instruments).

The developer is a busy composer and so doesn't have a lot of time to market his goods. He also has two other intriguing libraries that I intend to check out in more detail later on: one for voices, and another one that appears to be a tool to use with other libraries, called "Hybrid" -- my German isn't very good; although my reading comprehension is by far the strongest and I can generally do fairly well reading German manuals if I'm not stressed (as I am these days) by too many must-do's.

There are some clever programming choices made by the developer of Xsample Library that allow for more fluid phrasing than most other libraries. Also, the way to get good attacks without forfeiting the preferred overall articulation is quite brilliant. I look forward to trying it out for the solo viola and violin parts on the two klezmer songs that are part of my current "Global Jazz" album.

Special note (not related to this topic, but important for anyone purchasing Xsample): The Orchestral Horn (referred to here as the French Horn, which is a misnomer many of us are trying to correct ) is the newest addition and must be purchased separately as it is not integrated into the overall library downloads, but it does install as part of the main library and thus plays well with it.

For this particular topic, the strongest relevance is in the library's inclusion of both a Violin I and a Violin II instrument.