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I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this question. If not, please direct me to any other forums which might be more appropriate.

I want to move towards more film scoring in my work with DP. Vienna and EastWest seem to be two of the top brands of orchestral VIs.

Any suggestions on which might be the best choice based on forum experience?

Thanks.

East West (in my opinion) is a whole lot of marketing…lots of sales…and lots of headaches with their PLAY engine.

Vienna is a bit too dry for my tastes. When used with their MIR stage positioning software and a convolution reverb, the results can be very good…but for me too much hassle overall.

Take a good look at Cinesamples. They use Kontakt. They have the whole orchestra covered now.

Spitfire

I LOVE VSL stuff.
I own most of it, and it is truly amazing. The thing is that it requires lots of work to make it sound great. You really need to get your hands dirty and delve into keyswitches and programming controls from the VI interface. The results are totally worth!

LASS for strings

The suggested replies have all been very helpful. There is so much out there to choose from!

I purchased a copy of the EastWest Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra Platinum Complete Plus about a year ago and have been frustrated with it. Part of it is probably that I am new to symphonic orchestral VIs and part of it I believe is that it may not be a good fit for me. I recently updated to the new PLAY 4.2.2 and have been having problems with it working with my system. So, I thought it might be a good time to start looking around for another option.

Like others, I'm sure, I want the best possible quality sound. I went with Synthogy Ivory for my piano keyboard and have been very satisfied with sound quality. But, my background is in playing keyboard and the Synthogy interface is rather easy to use.

My intent is to continue looking for high quality sounds with the available suggested orchestral VIs. But, I also need to learn more about composing and arranging for symphonic orchestras. I did not attend a film composing school and don't have the resources to do so. What I would like to do is learn more about composing and arranging for symphonic orchestras through any online courses or workshops.

Any suggestions on good composing and arranging for symphonic orchestras through online courses or workshops?

Thanks!

pacificm wrote:The suggested replies have all been very helpful. There is so much out there to choose from!

I purchased a copy of the EastWest Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra Platinum Complete Plus about a year ago and have been frustrated with it. ...


Thanks!

Are you frustrated with EWQLSO?? Please, take a couple of minutes and listen this link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbtt53kxporwa ... e.mp3?dl=0
This is an excerpt of first movement of Bruckner's "Romantica" symphony that I sequenced to test Soundstage2 plugin. Was sequenced on DP and all were EWQLSO platinum samples

Thanks for sharing the link with me! It sounds great.

I finally got PLAY working again after updating to 4.2.2. So, I'm going to give East West another try. I'm now accessing Groove3's tutorials on using East West. I think that will help. I'll also be researching more of the other orchestral VIs mentioned in this thread to get a better feel for the other available options. Thanks again!

A bit late to this party but one of the things that really makes the platinum version of EWQLSO shine is being able to mix the three mic positions to bring instruments forward or backward in the soundstage. Also remember that with other than the close mic position the other positions have the sounds pre-panned to the position they would be in a 'normal' orchestral setting.

Also keep in mind that EW has not only the Symphonic Orchestra sample libraries but a Hollywood Orchestra set of libraries. Vastly different sound than the symphonic library and not easily mixable between the two. The hardest thing is matching the ambience because the two libraries were recorded in two completely different spaces. Symphonic was recorded in Benaroya concert hall in Seattle and Hollywood was recorded in EW's own sound stage.

I too may be a little late but there is something that can be said about Vienna that no one is addressing; that is, Vienna Ensemble Pro.

Let me start by saying that I have asked the same question and have gotten every imaginable answer over a lengthy time and from actual professionals in the field.

However, to answer your question directly:

Personally, you should have both and not limit yourself to just one unless you have none...but seeing as you have EW already...here is my reasons for ADDING Vienna Samples.

"Disclaimer - this is MY opinion. I am only posting this as such. I am not looking to argue with anyone or step on any toes."

Vienna's Dry Samples - this is a consequence of experience for someone who is willing to put the time in to create "the sound" they want to achieve.

Vienna's Ensemble Pro - I tried to figure out where to mention this, so I'll just stick this non-sample program from Vienna here. VEP...this is what makes it possible to conduct monster templates. IMHO, if you're not using this...you're either: not serious about what you're doing, you are not up to date, you are just making music as a hobby, you genuinely don't know about it, you like to waste time loading samples over and over again (like EW samples) every time you load a project or change DAWs.

Vienna's Articulation Matrix - when you actually take the time to learn this, you'll ask why no one else is doing this. This CAN be a standard in all DAWs just like a mouse pointer for an operating system.

For now...this should be good enough. The list goes on. Again, having both is essential. Neither is "better" than the other but one will "do something better" than the other. I've used both. I rarely use EW now unless I need something fast. Seriously, look into Vienna Ensemble Pro. If anything, get that to load EW and your plug-ins once and have the ability to add more instances of EW on more computers with their respective sound and conduct all those systems from one host computer.

+1 for CineSamples. I did a ton of research and that's where I landed and I'm happy I did. My research thread: http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... 26&t=58786

That said, if I'd known more about VE Pro I might have gone that route - for me VE's endless and unknowably complicated bundling schemes made it impossible to know what exactly to buy from them. I think Mathematics over states VEP's case somewhat, but it does seem like a great tool regardless of what one may think of the VE library, especially if you host your VIs on another computer - which I do not. Once I have the funds I'll probably buy VE Pro just for the flexibility of the plugin/VI shell to load Cinesamples etc. ...since they don't sell VEP just as a plugin I'll end up with a small VE library, which can only be a good thing.

Mathematics, are you hosting VIs on separate computer?

Hey QIX.

I respect your reply to the post. Yes, the samples are hosted on the slaves. VEP is essentially for those who need it, not everyone. If what it does is something that is a solution to a current issue, then it is an Indispensable tool with a capital "I". I would say, keep an open mind to it IF it suits your needs. Knowing WHAT to spend money on is another issue but I leave you with this personal statement from experience "Don't want to buy something that you can live without but don't want to buy twice."

I rarely buy twice.