Hello All!

I am just starting out with making (producing) music.

I play the piano and I read notes.

I have bought Cubase 8.5 Pro. And because I love pianos / electric pianos I have bought Keyscape from Spectrasonic.

I want to start doing some "scoring".

Since I dont have the budget of Hans Zimmer - I am looking for either some affordable packages or some single instrument VSTs (Violin, Cello, Brass, Woodwind etc).

So in short terms. Nothing that costs 1000's of dollars. It doesn't need to be industry standard, just something to get me started.

/ Visephy.

You might want to check out Virtuoso Ensembles from Kirk Hunter:

https://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/pr...uoso-ensemble/

It's only $199 on sale right now, it works with the free Kontakt Player plug-in so there's nothing else to buy, it sounds quite good, and it's got basically the whole orchestra, from tympani to full strings, brass, and woodwinds sections. It's also quite efficient on memory, disc, and cpu usage, so it will work well on laptops or lower-spec systems. I have dozens of high-dollar libraries and the sound of Virtuoso Ensembles can hang with the big boys quite well. At $199 it won't break the bank, it won't max out your computer, and you won't lose your mind scrolling through dozens of patches looking for the one you want.

I have a I7-4790K - 32 GB Memory. And 3 500GB SSDs. So computer power isnt the issue At least not for now :P

But that does look like something I could be interested in. It looks super simple. What if I had 400-500 dollars to spent? Anything you could recommend in that range?

I like Albion One as a starter library. It's what I use when I begin most of my orchestral style tracks.

Albion One surpasses Virtuoso Ensembles by far right?

The samples are much higher quality right?

I agree that Albion One is fantastic, as is pretty much everything from Spitfire Audio. I also like Metropolis Ark from Orchestral Tools, although it's a bit more oriented at the mega-epic Hollywood sound. I only recommended Virtuoso Ensembles since it's a dead-cheap and still pretty good "all-in-one" orchestral library.

Also, if you don't already have the full, paid version of Kontakt: be careful when buying libraries - some ARE compatible with the free Kontakt Player, but many require the full-on version of Kontakt, so read the requirements carefully before hitting "add to cart"! The full version of Kontakt is available by itself, but most wind up buying Komplete, which includes the full version of Kontakt as well as tons of synths and effects plugins as well as a decent selection of Kontakt libraries. But don't get "Komplete Select" for $199 as it does NOT include the full version of Kontakt - only Komplete and Komplete Ultimate do.

And, yes, Albion does sound a bit more lush maybe, but it's hard to say "better or worse" - it's just different than the Kirk Hunter stuff. Read carefully what instruments and sections are included with each, since Albion One is sort of a "most useful subset" of the orchestra, with some combined ensemble patches, as opposed to the Kirk Hunter layout which is a more traditional and basic layout, but DOES include the whole orchestra broken out more completely than Albion One. They both have some good demos and videos on their websites so spend the time to watch, listen, and compare.

I have Komplete 10 Ultimate. (Forgot to mention that).

But as far as I can read/see Albion offers a greater selection of instruments right? And by the look of the disk space needed the samples must be of a better quality no?

If you don't mind a steep learning curve, Eastwest Hollywood Orchestra can't be beat in terms of value for the money right now:

Hollywood Orchestra

For 450$ you get all the instruments of the orchestra, tons of articulations, and all recorded to professional standards. It cost several thousand dollars some years ago, and it still costs you several thousands were you to buy a comparable amount of samples from any of the competitors. If you don't like Eastwest, Vienna Symphonic Libraries Special Edition and Special Edition+ is a great option. But you need a reverb for it, and know how to handle it. Not as complete a set as the Hollywood Orchestra, but you can get a lot of mileage out of it.

If you want to do trailer and don't need individual instruments, have a look at Spitfire Albion and Metropolis Ark. These offer instrument sections only, mind you. So if you want to write a line for a single oboe, you can't do that with these libraries. You'll have flutes, oboes, and clarinets stacked together. This might be a help (for working fast, or if you know little about orchestration) or an impediment (little control over orchestration).

If you are looking for a vintage hollywood sound, Cinematic Studio Strings are a great option. They are easy to work with and you'll learn to use it quickly. What they do they do exceedingly well. But due to it's specific sound it isn't the best option for all-purpose strings.
Another very good string library that can be bought for a very reasonable price are Light & Sound Chamber Strings. Very versatile sound. Smaller section sizes, but its probably good for everything except huge trailerish braaaaaaaam. Maybe a bit harder to learn than Cinematic Studio Strings, but right now you'd get a complete string library for 150$ or so (they are on offer right now. Click on the buy button to see the price - oddly the offer isn't advertised on their homepage).

I agree with what goodkeys said above - EastWest libraries sound awesome and they are a great deal right now. I've been using their stuff for many years and even though I bought in at the old, high price I still think their libraries were worth the money. The only drag is that they are not Kontakt-formatted libraries - they use their own engine (called "Play") and it's a little less flexible than Kontakt and some older versions were a big pain in the butt for Mac users. The current versions are much better than the bad old days and if you're on Windows you should be okay. There are a lot of instrument articulations to wade through and pick from, so it's not as plug-n-play as simpler libraries like Virtuoso Ensembles or Albion One.

One reason Albion uses so much more disc space is that it has multiple mic positions sampled, so for most patches you can mix four stereo pairs of audio that were recorded simultaneously from different mic pairs - or route them into surround if you want. So that massively increases the size of the library. You will not be disappointed with Albion One. But the Kirk Hunter stuff is well-recorded and does sound good - and it was specifically designed to have a low memory footprint. It also does not have multiple mic positions so that drastically reduces the disc space needed. I've been using Kirk Hunter libraries for 20 years and they still hold up. I guess it all comes down to whether you want the full, traditional selection of orchestral sounds (Virtuoso Ensembles) or a collection that is technically not as "complete" but sounds STUPIDLY AWESOME (Albion One).

Like, let's say you're doing a version of some classical piece that has the bog-standard orchestral score, and it calls for tubular bells and celesta or some other "traditional" orchestral instruments - you may find that Albion One is missing some of that stuff (as well as solo instruments). That's why I have some of the more "plain jane" orchestral libraries in my collection, for that one occasion per decade where I need some instrument that's considered a part of the "ordinary" orchestra. I don't need a 20-gigabyte library of tubular bells, but it's nice to have one or two of those patches lying around just in case. In those cases, I just dive into some Kirk Hunter or East-West libraries and I can usually find a decent version of those sounds.

That said, I have almost everything Spitfire makes (much to the distress of my accountant) and their stuff is top-shelf all the way. I use them all the time.

Isn't EastWest a bit outdated compared with Albion One? (Ive seen people say that on various sites).

Im really new in the world of scoring. I was almost set on Albion One. But is this:

"These offer instrument sections only, mind you. So if you want to write a line for a single oboe, you can't do that with these libraries. You'll have flutes, oboes, and clarinets stacked together. This might be a help (for working fast, or if you know little about orchestration) or an impediment (little control over orchestration)."

Is that bad? When trying to get started?

I guess I am trying to do some epic sounding scoring.

Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams, are some of my favourites with James Horner (RIP) as my absolute favourite.

You should check out Daniel James's YouTube channel. He's got a ton of in depth reviews for sound libraries (with a bonus of getting an idea of how cues are put together too).

Ive watched his streams on Twitch.

I think I will go ahead with Albion One, and maybe join EastWests Composer Cloud - It is only the Gold versions of their stuff, but its for like 20 dollars a month) and you get ALOT.

I think I will go ahead with Albion One, and maybe join EastWests Composer Cloud - It is only the Gold versions of their stuff, but its for like 20 dollars a month) and you get ALOT.

I think I will go ahead with Albion One, and maybe join EastWests Composer Cloud - It is only the Gold versions of their stuff, but its for like 20 dollars a month) and you get ALOT.

Great advise by Charlie. EastWest doesn't sound outdated at all. As Charlie wrote it's the scripting thats a bit behind todays competition. The samples are pristine. Composer Cloud is a good idea to test it for a bit.
For epic Albion is a safe bet. Also check out Metropolis Ark by Orchestral Tools.

So with Albion One I wont be able to say play just the Cello? It will be all strings?

Yes to the first Q, but it's not "all strings"

Albion is multiple sections, not individual sections. The celli and bass were recorded together, then there are several more strings patches - mid, high, oct., etc, and these consist of violins I & II, and violas in some combo or another. If you want just celli, just violins, just violas - that's not what you get with Albion. Same with the other ensembles.

For the EW stuff - the Hollywood series is not at all dated, tho EWQLSO is to a degree. Still useable, however.

Cheers.

Well. I am new to scoring I dont know if I "NEED" the individual instruments to begin with, or having ensembles like Albion One is fine for me for the first many many months.

if you love these composes then definitely albion legacy or albion one are perfect options. personally if i was starting again i would choose albion legacy.

Whats the difference? I only see Albion One in their shop

Does: Metropolis Ark also have "MID" sections for strings etc? I just see in the intro video "HIGH" and "LOW".

And on their site its kinda hard to see whats exactly in the pack in detail like you can with Albion One. But the sound is amazing.

Im torn between Albion One and Metropolis Ark now :|

Legacy is no longer avail.

Yes - Ark vs. Albion - tough choice.

I was told by someone to perhaps go for: Cinematic Studio Strings, and wait till 2017 to get their Brass and Woodwinds.

It would according to him give me more control than Albion One or Metro. And give me more of what I wanted if my hero composer was James Horner :P

Why nobody mentions ProjectSam libraries? For starters I think they are the best (but pricey) and for strings in specifics LASS are also excellent.

I picked up CinematicStr when it was on sale Friday. It's intuitive and doesn't clog up my DAW with hundreds of tracks to sift thru. Look forward to using it.

LASS sounds great, but is a huge PITA IMO. I am on v 1.5 and was thinking about upgrading to 2.5. Watched their videos and wanted to bang my head into the wall. Using it is worse. Classic example of coders and engineers running the ship, without much thought for the end user. You can do anything, buy need a masters degree to run it effectively. Creative Inspiration? Not even close. I don't want to have to relearn their paradigm just to do something simple. I passed on upgrading. I will sometime in the future when I can spend a week learning their system (which will probably be never.) Sad. So many of the other libs are so simple and intuitive to use.

Cinesamples is kind of the same for me. Simple to use, but not intuitive for me. I like to stay in that creative muse while writing, and if your library takes me too far out of it, it won't get used.

I upgraded Albion to One and added Tundra this time around. Oh,,,,,,AND picked up Ark. More is better? Right?