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So far I have been mainly using Spitfire’s Albion in most of my orchestral compositions rather religiously because of its ridiculously low CPU usage, despite it still having severe limitations (i.e. no solos, brass is too weak, limited true legato etc).
Even though I have invested enough to acquire better VSTs, the reason why I haven’t expanded my rig so far yet is because I am quite hesitant in having several hundred gigabytes (or terabytes) of VSTs lying around in one place, and taking literally forever to backup. (Not to mention, external hard-drives also sometimes fail in the process, which unfortunately happens)
Considering the fact most Sample libraries seem to only offer a download option, I don’t exactly have several weeks to download them again in the case of a worst case scenario. (And thats assuming my computer doesn’t suddenly die in the process, which would be a double whammy of disaster)
Therefore, paranoia aside, I was wondering if any composers here have managed to succeed in setting up an ultra efficient rig consisting of “cheap” but “realistic” sounding sample libraries and still getting steady stream of placements? Like under $1000?
Xeon92, I’m not sure what you’re really asking, so I’ll give you two answers.
1) EWQLSO is a bargain now (not when I bought it), and yes I’ve recently gotten recent placements with it. But, I only used the woodwinds, choir and some perc. Brass, Strings and most perc were from newer libraries.
2) Get used to dealing with this issue, rather than avoiding it. I use 1,600 GB of sample libraries spread over three 1TB hard drives on two computers. I keep clones of each sample drive in case one goes down.
I keep copies of the downloads / installers on 1.5 TB portable drives that are stored at my bank in a safety deposit box.
I use an external hard-drive enclosure with 4 1TB SATA drives connected via a PCIe card, which yields the same transfer speed as internal drives.
Keep a record of all your serial numbers. For anything that you didn’t download keep the portion of the package with the serial number. I had a problem once and FXpansion (BFD) actually made be send them a photocopy of my original serial number (might have been to go from BFD2 to 3).
Therefore, paranoia aside, I was wondering if any composers here have managed to succeed in setting up an ultra efficient rig consisting of “cheap” but “realistic” sounding sample libraries and still getting steady stream of placements? Like under $1000?
What do you mean by “placements”….reality TV or RF? Either of those scenarios can be accomplished with a budget set-up.
“Steady stream” is more result of the amount of music that you have in the pipeline.
I noticed another thread in which you inquired about trailer libraries. That isn’t my interest, but I can tell you that you need higher-end sounds, with possibly the addition of live musicians to be competitive. Even with top gear, it’s a very very hard area to break in.
Others, like Mark Petrie or Rob (Cruciform) can confirm that.
Done on VSL I think.
Done on VSL I think.
Yes, Denis. As I recall, done with Logic, using VSL instruments, which is not cheap for the larger collections, and you need decent FX plugs.
The VSL orchestral strings bundle is $1,000 (USD), the price of LASS, and is 42 GB.
For strings and brass, you really don’t need much more than three or four libraries that, combined, give you realism and fullness (you get one or the other usually).
I recommend something like:
-8dio’s adagietta
-Symphobia 2
-cinebrass with the pro update
-Some of 8dio’s epic perc, also damage and good old true strike 1 and 2. I still use SD2 a lot too.
You’ll need $3000 – $4000 (depending on if you get them on sale).
That’s still a good chunk of change, but less than what you paid for a light version of VSL, the standard just a few years back.