I'm considering getting hold of an orchestral type plugin, but I don't have a huge budget for these 200gb fellas at £800.
The two I've looked at are Garritan PO4 and East West Symphonic Orchestra Silver version.
I can't get hold of demos of them, so I'll need a bit of help. I understand the Silver version is like a watered down version of the Gold one? Does anyone know if it still has a decent selection of instruments?
The garritan is a good bit cheaper (almost half), and I've heard good reviews of it.
If anyone has used either, I'd be grateful if you could give me a few pointers.
I'm running FL 9 so would be using it as a VST.

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quote:

Originally posted by RickyM I understand the Silver version is like a watered down version of the Gold one? Does anyone know if it still has a decent selection of instruments?

Yes, the Silver Edition is essentially a sub-selection of the Gold edition and comes with the basic instruments, but far fewer variations, articulations, mic placements, etc. I have the Gold Edition and it suits my limited needs, but there are other guys here (e.g., L4C, tehlord) who can probably provide better guidance.

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Thanks lad, hopefully they can help me out then.

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The EW symphonic line is just brutal.
For about 400, you can get the Session strings from NI which has a great arp tool that does the batman thing everyone has to have. It also has legato which EW doesn't. EW has awful scripting especially the PLAY versions which are locked. You get this nasty reverb tail you can't get rid of, it is just awful for the price. Even hollywood strings diamond is garbage. And hollywood brass. I own all of them and just can't use them in any way because of the awful scripting.

That is for the pro version. The normal one is 200 but really, just get the pro.

For a great cheap allround orchestral tool, Albion by Spitfire.

just stay away from EW.

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Despite L4C's hatred of EW, by coincidence, I just got an email from the Florida Music Company that all EWQL Symphonic Orchestra and Piano products are half-off.

EWQLSO Silver - $97.50

EWQLSO Gold - $247.50

I've purchased products from these guys before and they're totally legit. But, I've also noticed that other vendors (e.g., Sweetwater, Musician's Friend, Audiomidi) tend to follow up with price matches whenever FMC has these sales.

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If your needs are limited, Sonatina is a freebie that a lot of the Reaper forum guys use/440MB download

http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/download.html

Basic and no match for EW or MS, much the top stuff, but it layers well and sounds decent.

Might be worth a look and can hold you over until you can afford a good library.

quote:

Originally posted by RickyM I'm considering getting hold of an orchestral type plugin, but I don't have a huge budget for these 200gb fellas at £800. The two I've looked at are Garritan PO4 and East West Symphonic Orchestra Silver version. I can't get hold of demos of them, so I'll need a bit of help. I understand the Silver version is like a watered down version of the Gold one? Does anyone know if it still has a decent selection of instruments? The garritan is a good bit cheaper (almost half), and I've heard good reviews of it. If anyone has used either, I'd be grateful if you could give me a few pointers. I'm running FL 9 so would be using it as a VST.

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Despite L4C's hatred of EW, by coincidence, I just got an email from the Florida Music Company that all EWQL Symphonic Orchestra and Piano products are half-off. EWQLSO Silver - $97.50 EWQLSO Gold - $247.50 I've purchased products from these guys before and they're totally legit. But, I've also noticed that other vendors (e.g., Sweetwater, Musician's Friend, Audiomidi) tend to follow up with price matches whenever FMC has these sales.

they are legit but that particular library has no legato and thanks to PLAY, you can't script it yourself. PLAY is just aweful. It cripples the library.

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Last edited by Looney4Clooney on Mar-09-2012 at 23:55

Garritan is real good for classic classical music, rather than the more in yer face Hollywood type of scores.

Not as expressive with solo stuff like violin and flute.

quote:

Originally posted by Normie If your needs are limited, Sonatina is a freebie that a lot of the Reaper forum guys use/440MB download http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/download.html Basic and no match for EW or MS, much the top stuff, but it layers well and sounds decent. Might be worth a look and can hold you over until you can afford a good library.

+1

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CHeers for the help so far... I've also heard about Miroslav Philharmonik, anyone know if it's any good?

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Any of the cheaper ones will do you ok for some basic orchestral sounds, but none of them will be particularly realistic and will require a bit of work and know how on your part to get the best out of.

It really depends what sort of sound you're after as well as they tend to fall into two categories, one being traditional classical orchestra sound and the other being Hollywood omfg 3pic!

Best thing to do is buy Kontakt 5 and start with the included orchestral libraries which are relatively decent. This will also allow you to expand your library later on as a lot of the sample packs will require that you have a full version of Kontakt anyway.

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