Help with complete Orchestral Library

[Gregg]

Hi everyone,

I\'ve recently been hired to write the score for an independent film. Since they do not have the money to hire an orchestra, I am going to try and build the best sample library I can find for approximately $1500 (I can go a few hundred above if needed). I\'m looking for strings, brass, woodwind and choir. Of these, the strings and choir are the most important in terms of quality. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. (Also, string section should have pretty good legato sounds)

Gregg

[composer22]

personally, I would get 3-4 really good instrumentalists and pay them. You\'ll get a better FS

[Gregg]

To Composer 22,

I thank you for the advice, and in general I would definately agree. My problem here is that the director is set in replicating a full orchestral sound and so while I probably will hire a few musicians to record the solo bits, I need something powerful enough for the rest.

Gregg

[A_Sapp]

I wish I had as much luck as you to write for a film, and not already having all the gear! For $1500, I\'m not sure what you can get that would suffice what you need. I\'m not too keen on the idea of buying a todays all-in-one package orchestras, because it seems that all the sections are not focused and tweaked to the absolute max. Concentrated libraries such as GOS has given me no limits of what I can do, and that\'s what\'s important to me. The only thing I hate is the Memory read-out in Gigastudio, which usually maxes out at 45-50 tracks with 768 megs of Ram. Good luck.

[KingIdiot]

depends on the sound you\'re after.

IMO 1500 can go pretty far but to optimize you really need a reference in what you\'re after.

Big choir VotA, smaller but nice choir sound SOV. Focus on Strings IMO GOS right now, but if you\'re doign extensive \"syrupy\" string lines, hire a solo string player to play over the sampled strings a few times to get some human expression.

If you need it ALL, I suggest AO and a few live players over the top.

I dont have Prosonous so I cant say how it compares.

In all cases I\'d still suggest room for live players jsut to add human expression. You\'ll still get the \"big\" orchestral sound, but live players will add realism.

[midphase]

I think the Peter Siedlackech (sp.) Advanced Orchestra is a great bang for the buck. The strings are not the best but they work very well (especially after you add some volume automation for dynamics), the horns are some of the best I\'ve heard and you can\'t beat the variety.

I would rely on that for your basic orchestral sound, and maybe add the GOS Lite for better strings?

Symphony of Voices is excellent for choir samples, I haven\'t played with VOTA, the demo sounded good but it all depends on what sound you\'re after.

[donnie]

Gregg,

This might help....I found this demo I did awhile back of the Prosonus lib.

http://www.dssoundware.com/sounds/Ala_Debussy.mp3 (\"http://www.dssoundware.com/sounds/Ala_Debussy.mp3\")

Donnie