Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Digital Perfomer in the context of television/film scoring and post-production.

Moderator: James Steele

Forum rules
This forum is for discussion related to the use of Digital Perfomer in the context of television and film scoring and post-production.
Post Reply
funkyfreddy
Posts: 418
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: upstate NY

Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Post by funkyfreddy »

HI, I'm looking for opinions.... what is the best and most versatile virtual orchestra for film scoring? Thanks, Fred
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 16 GB RAM OSX 11.2 Big Sur
UAD Apollo Quad DP11.22 some Waves, Soundtoys, Digital Performer 11.2, Reason 12, iZotope 11, and lots of real instruments to play :)
User avatar
buzzsmith
Posts: 3097
Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Houston
Contact:

Re: Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Post by buzzsmith »

Many will respond, most likely, but I like LASS for strings and strings is all you get with this library.

And this Kontakt hosted VI does take a while to get sounding good as the strings are not out of the box luscious.

The samples are recorded from ppp to fff with all of the accompanying rosin and hard bowing on the louder ones. Controllable with CC1.

I usually insert a value of 35 or so of CC1 at the beginning of each track and modulate from there for swells, fast runs or decrescendos.

A starting point, perhaps...

Buzzy




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1>5,1 3.33 GHz Hex Core Intel Xeon OS X 10.8.5 SSD (32 gigs RAM)
DP 9.51 PCI-424e / original 2408, 2408mkII, 24I/O, MTP-AV

Yamaha C7 Conservatory Grand
Hammond B-3 / Leslie 145
Focal Twin6 Be(s)

User avatar
stubbsonic
Posts: 4600
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:56 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Contact:

Re: Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Post by stubbsonic »

I am similarly saving up for and hoping to find a satisfactory orchestral library for composition. Kontakt's included library is fatally flawed and though there are sounds I use for mockups, it is often a mess and unpleasant to work with.

I hesitate to give you this piece of advice as it has prevented me from buying some more affordable libraries. But it is this: Listen to as many demos as you can, and listen critically. Notice what sounds good and what sounds fake. Decide where YOUR priorities are. Getting a sampling library RIGHT must be very difficult as it seems few developers have done it really well.

Buzzy is right about LASS, those are beautiful strings, and I've got that on m wish list.

So far the most impressive demos I've heard are from the Vienna Symphonic Library. Don't look at the price yet. Just listen for a while. At least you can hear what is possible. But yea, maybe just don't look at that price at all. I can't imagine ever being able to afford that library. I think I can afford the 1 TB of drive space required to run it.

https://vsl.co.at/en/Products
M1 MBP; OS 12, FF800, DP 11.3, Kontakt 7, Reaktor 6, PC3K7, K2661S, iPad6, Godin XTSA, Two Ibanez 5 string basses (1 fretted, 1 fretless), FM3, SY-1000, etc.

http://www.jonstubbsmusic.com
labman
Posts: 1940
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: Unspecified

Re: Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Post by labman »

Everything orch lib recorded in Air Lyndhurst by Spitfire, and as others have mentioned LASS
AMPGUI themes - Andy rocks!, 3 macs, MacPro 768GB ram, 16core OS11.7.10, DP11.31, all Waves, all SLATE, PSP, IK multimedia & Audioease plugs, all PAlliance, Softube, tons of NI VI's all air Spitfire, all Audiobro, all Berlin, EW PLAY, LLizard, MachFive3, Kontakt5, Omnisphere, RMX, LASS, all Soundtoys, Lexicon AU's, melodyne and others I know am forgetting, cause I'm old...Also mucho outboard rigs, MTPs, DTP, antelope WC, and 4 control surfaces with Raven.
User avatar
mikehalloran
Posts: 15132
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:08 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Sillie Con Valley

Re: Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Post by mikehalloran »

Here's another recent thread on the subject.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=62860
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
dix
Posts: 2986
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: San Francisco
Contact:

Re: Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Post by dix »

There's sooo many great libraries nowadays. I'm a Cinesamples fan. Not only do I like the sound a lot, their bundles and packages are easy to comprehend. The options for Vienna and Spitfire were so sprawling and complicated I couldn't figure out what to buy. Both those companies seem overly focused on open-endedness while Cinesamples is more contained.
14-inch MBP M1 Max (2021), 13.6.x, 64GB RAM, UAD Quad Tb Satellite, 4 displays ::: 2009 4,1 > 5,1 MacPro 12-core 3.33 ghz , 10.14.x, 96GB RAM, GeForce GTX 770 , NewerTech eSATA/USB3 PCIe Host Adapter, UAD-2 Quad, ::: 15-inch MBP (2015) 10.14.x, 16GB RAM ::: Lynx Aurora (n) USB ::: DP (latest version), Vienna Ensemble Pro danwool.com
Morpheo
Posts: 295
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Montreal by day...Paris by night...

Re: Best Orchestral Library for Film Scoring?

Post by Morpheo »

NI's Komplete Ultimate is an outstanding package, but not enough when it comes to orchestral sounds. So I added Albion One, Olympus choirs from Soundiron and I already had Vienna Special Edition and Chamber Strings. I like my current setup, it covers about everything I need right now, but as dix said above, there are so many great libraries these days. But I'm really impressed by Spitfire's quality.

One thing however, lately I'm getting tired of East West for some reason - not a great sound and not that much flexible, regardless how attractive their Composer Cloud might seem, just my opinion though.
Mac Pro 5,1 12-core 2.4 GHz//40GB RAM//RX 560//macOS 10.13.6//SSDs//MOTU 896//Keylab 88//Faderport 8
Pro Tools 2018.7//LPX 10.4.1//DP 9.51
NI Komplete Ultimate 11//Albion One//Soundiron Choirs//Pianoteq//Analog Lab//VSL SE & Chamber Strings//etc
Post Reply