Hi, everyone. I'm in the market for a virtual orchestra and I was hoping for some opinions. Which is the most affordable orchestra that you'd still suggest? I'm willing to spend around 250$ (200€), so a full VSL package is not an option at this moment. I've listened to some examples of Garritan Personal Orchestra, East West Symphonic Orchestra and Miroslav Philharmonik, the latter being my favorite right now. Do you have any suggestions, which other (cheap) Orchestra I should look into? Thanks a lot! Kai

Garritan Personal Orchestra is great!
Has everything you will need to start off.

EWSO is great but the price tag on a decent version is a big jump, if you can afford to splash out anymore i do believe EW complete composer edition is on sale for $900 (not sure for how much longer) you get a wide range of VSTi including S.O and Chiors and a bunch of other awesome instruments!

Me personaly i use a mixture of Kontakt 3 library orchestra which uses VSL orcherstra and GPO!

Hope this helped!

Joel Azzopardi
Sound Designer
www.joel-azzopardi.com

As nice as East West Complete Composer's Collection sounds, I really can't afford it.
For a while I was considering an upgrade to Logic Studio 9 (which includes the orchestral jam pack), but I can't use it on the PC - I'd be stuck with a Mac for the rest of my musical life ;)

OK, I'll have a closer look at GPO then. Thanks a lot.

GPO is definitely the most affordable one out there but it is also the lowest quality. Also you're not missing much with regards to Logic's orchestral samples. They're not that great either. East West's "CCC" is definitely worth the investment especially considering all that you get with it. It will add a realism and flexibility to your collection of samples that you simply wont find with GPO.

East West offers the Silver Edition for around $150, which provides enough instruments to substantiate a full orchestra. Although the string and woodwind sounds are less than favorable, the brass is great (especially the french horns.)

The Brass from EW is great because it gives you that extra "oomph" from brass that you simply won't find from GPO.

As far as versatility goes, in my opinion, EW is more versatile for sequencing programs, like FL Studio, where you are able to manually control channel volume and velocity. Doing so allows the instruments to sound very realistic, as their timbre changes with variations of velocity.

As for using EW with a music notation program, I definitely wouldn't recommend it. It doesn't integrate well with Finale at all - the samples won't read dynamic changes often, and when they do, they're like terraced dynamics. They also don't read well with articulation markings - slurs, staccato, accents, tenuto, marcato, staccatisimo, mordants, grupettos, etc.

Also, if you want a realistic sounding staccato sound from that library, you need to use a staccato patch - an entirely seperate patch - to get that type of sound. Which means that if you're scoring something for orchestra in Finale, you're going to need about 80 tracks.

And if I want legato, staccato, and pizzicato string sounds, I'll need a seperate track for each.

Not only that, but you have to install it yourself once you get it, or else you just have a stand alone vst.

That all being said, I find that EW samples provide for a more aggressive sound. Which is nice, because sometimes you want the orchestra to be loud and obnoxious.



As for GPO, it integrates extremely well with Finale, it reads all of the dynamics, articulation, and phrasing markings. You also don't need a sample for staccato / legato sounds - just put the articulation in, and it'll play it as such. GPO also allows for quantization with Human Playback, a feature which "humanizes" the instrument's interpretation of the music.

The Brass is wimpy, not much to say about that. However, I find that even though the sounds are more reserved, they are perfect for doing quiet, textural work.

I think the strings sound more realistic that EW, as they allow for natural variation in volumen, instead of it just being 100% loud all the time.

The woodwinds have more of a relaxed sound, and sound less robotic when playing continuous runs of 16th notes.

Not to mention that GPO also has an impressive array of ethnic percussion sounds, which, although difficult to use with Finale, sound authentic and realistic.



Bottom Line:

EW is great for sequencing, the sample authenticity is great for the price,and it's a good library for when you need a "punch you in the face" sound.

GPO is great for integrating with music notation, it's versatile with dynamics and articulation, and great for a more reserved, textural sound.




Hope this helps.

I always thought Miroslav sounded better than GPO for the size and price. Miroslav packs a punch in that tiny library.

With that in mind, however, I do not own either nor do I plan to--I started with EW and have branched off into larger more elaborate libraries.

EW will give you a good but professional base from which to move up or out.

GPO will require a LOT of elbow grease to sound good.

If you get EW Silver, you will alwyas have the option to upgrade to Gold or Platinum.

The nice thing about Silver is that it actually shares samples from Gold, it's just a stripped down version.

So there's no quality lacking, more like there's a resolution lacking.

If you end up not wanting to upgrade later, you can still use Silver in your compositions when you get VSL or WGS or SI or whatever tickles your fancies.

I'd recommend East West Symphonic Orchestra Silver, as it is most affordable, having the great quality at the same time. You can always upgrade to Gold if necessary (and with funds).

If you have any doubts - head to my myspace profile here - http://www.myspace.com/mirrorsith

The Infinity Battle (first tune in the player) is EWQL SO Silver Pro XP (the old one, Kompakt based, right now they sellling the PLAY version called EWQL SO Silver Complete, in the 1:05 the bongos and the large snare drums are from EW Stormdrum 1 though).


Cheers,
Michal

Hi, everyone.

Thanks for the many answers!
Since I'm not using notation programs (yet) but only work with sequencing programs, I don't think I'll miss the sophisticated integration features of GPO. So, basically, I'll have to choose between EW and Miroslav now.
Both sound pretty awesome for the price.

I've also heard some cool samples from Edirol Orchestral, but I couldn't find the software in any shop - does anyone know, how deep it cuts into my wallet?

Thanks again!