Samples only Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra is a free orchestral sample library. While not as advanced or ambitious in scope as commercial offerings, SSO contains all the basic building blocks for creating real virtual orchestrations. It's primarily aimed at beginners, but also more experienced composers looking for something lightweight and/or portable might find it useful. http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/
Got Vienna full and LASS - LASS poppy Vienna very like the real thing with some programming, have used Vienna in conjunction with real Abbey Road 80 piece orch and no-one saw the join - it's pretty damn good.
FYI: a little birdie told me to wait till NAMM 2012 next month before investing in any new sound collections today, and check out new sample/synth collections in SURROUND...
Nice topic Vitaliy - I am a singer first actually and the video thing comes second. Got a quote for a video once and nearly fell over and decided to do this myself.
You know the Roland superquartet VST was a great piece of kit for small four piece arrangements. Tons of keys and kits. Had this annoying copy protection of having to run the CD every once in a while. Dunno if you can even find them anymore.
We are soooooooooo spoilt for choice now. NI complete should keep most people happy. Here is some other stuff......Lots of Christmas sales going on as well
LASS as well. No brainer. Mix many different libraries to get the vibrancy is what I have been told. http://audiobro.com/ . Andrew is a nice guy to deal with as well.
Guitars - Get the Pettinhouse stuff - best in the biz. 24 bit 96 khz sampled stuff. VERY authentic with good programming scripts in Kontakt. http://www.pettinhouse.com/
Scour ebay for gigasampler/ gigastudio libraries. Going cheap since it was discontinued. Some very nice legacy sounds....The 500mb Tascam has surprisingly good sounds.
@HenryO What do you use to play Gigastudio libraries on PC?
I have a GeneralMidi 500 MB disc which was OK 10 yrs ago, but have no program to play it on the PC- currently have ProTools LE. Had cakewalk pro studio back then, but no longer...
What I like about both is that they don't have a huge footprint on the harddrive like other sample libriaries (look at the sizes above) and that they use physical modelling in a great way to improve the samples. Especially Synful has put this to great use with their expression mode. Randomness, legato transitions are added in a very natural way. Listen to the simple cello tune and see how it changes during the track. Pianissimo has in my ears, the most natural sound for solo piano sounds like the one of Olafur Arnalds.
I used both in this clip. Good for subtle stuff. Composed and mixed in Ableton Live
On the topic of pianos, I use Pro Audio Vault Bluthner Digital Model One, East West Quantum Leap Pianos and whole lot of others I've accumulated over the years.
Anyway, the one I enjoy using the most in the "ppp" to "mf" dynamic is the Pro Audio Vault Bluthner Digital Model One (though it extends dramatically beyond that as well). But there is always a big issue of personal taste.
Because of that, I mention that the company behind it posted a comparison of it with other popular libraries a while back. It might be of interest.
But for the "Thomas Newmann" sound, the other libraries worth looking into (other than Pro Audio Vault Bluthner Digital Model One) would be Art Vista Malmsjö Acoustic Grand (vary narrow dynamic range but warm baked in sound) and SoundIron Emotional Piano (I've only heard the demos but very interesting timbre).
@NickBen That's just good advice in general this time of year - unless you want to take advantage of holiday deals.
If anybody else is planning to be at NAMM in Anaheim, let me know and I'd be happy to chat. This will be my 4th or 5th year there and it's a nice crowd.
@oscillian Nice ostinato sound! I've never liked the sound of Synful from the demos, but you do something really great with it here. Convincing ostinato's something nearly impossible to do with samples, so good idea to use Synful. Very nice sound. Thanks, man.