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Hi all,
Before I get to my question…
I have been a longtime viewer of this site and I want to thank Art, Mark Petrie, MichaelL and everyone else here as well for all of the fantastic insights.
My career thus far has been doing pop/rock singer/songwriter albums and TV cues, but I have an opportunity to write for a company that does mostly film trailers and other filmic-type music. I want to attempt to do something the company can use. Even if I don’t succeed, I know I’ll learn a lot and gain valuable tools(knowledge and software) to use in my musical endeavors. I have spent a few weeks going through mountains of software reviews, threads on this site and others, etc. and have come up with a pretty extensive list of software that, with an unlimited budget, I would like to have. Until I win the lottery, I would like to keep my budget under 3k for a starter collection of software. I know just buying software isn’t going to make me a great trailer writer, and there is a steep learning curve and a lot of practice involved, but everyone needs some “bread and butter” software to even begin to try to learn. I also figure a lot of the software would be very useful for my singer/songwriter and TV work as well. I have wanted some great string software for a long time(tired of Session Strings!)
This stuff is pricy, so under 3k doesn’t buy a whole lot of stuff which leads me to my question:
What would you buy if you were starting out and had a budget of 3k and were wanting to do orchestral/epic music?
Here is my current list, feel free to tell me why I’m wrong!
8 Dio Adagio Bundle(best-sounding strings to me)
Albion 1(seems like an affordable do-it-all collection)
Project Alpha(Mark Petrie seal of approval, enough said)
Cinesamples Drums of War 1 and 2(they seem cheap and awesome)
Soundiron Olympus Choir Bundle(seems like the best deal on choirs although 8Dio’s are amazing too just a tad more expensive)Symphobia and LASS seem amazing as well, I’m hoping to get them down the road when budget allows along with more 8 Dio, Soundiron and Cinesamples stuff. I am inspired by the high-quality samples these companies are putting out.
Thanks everyone!
i use complete composers collection 2 by eastwest you can pick what samples you would like and 70% off is good. theres the pro vertion too if you pc is up to there spec sadly mines not and cashes quite often lol 🙂
Hi Dan and welcome.
If on a Mac be wary of East West Play stuff, great sounding but can cause issues. If on PC it works great.
If I was to get the definitive string library AND I could afford it Lass would be my choice, however the field changes all the time. 8Dio have a new ensemble library ‘”Adagietto” which may worth looking at.
The only omission as far as trailer percussion would be Heavyocity Damage which set the standard for hybrid sounds.
Check out the Daniel James youtube channel, he reviews all of this stuff.
If on a Mac be wary of East West Play stuff, great sounding but can cause issues. If on PC it works great.
I think most of the issues are with the “Hollywood” series. I have EWQSLO Platinum. With Play IV and VEPRO, everything’s working like a charm on my Mac Pro. In fact, I just downsized to one computer, and have 9 EW libraries on an external SATA drive.
I don’t have it, but speaking of Daniel James, his Project Alpha should be on that list. http://hybridtwo.com/newsite/project-alpha/
I don’t have it, but speaking of Daniel James, his Project Alpha should be on that list. http://hybridtwo.com/newsite/project-alpha/
Just picked it up thanks to danleigh and Mark for that. Daniel James has a 2 hour video on it.
While I am here, VE Pro is an option you might consider too, especially if you are using a lot of sample based stuff.
If I were starting now and had a budget of about 3k, my list would look very similar. I wouldn’t bother getting Drums of War 1 and 2, but would get Soundiron APE instead.
EWQL Symphony Orchestra still sounds nice but sampling technology has moved on and recent libraries sound better and are easy to work with.
You’re going to need a decent synth or two as well. Camel Audio Alchemy is currently 50% off until Christmas or New Year’s. Or there’s Omnisphere, or Native Instruments Komplete for their synths. Absynth, Massive, Padshop Pro and Zebra are my personal picks but you need to get ones that inspire you and you can work with.
Ps. As an alternative to APE, also look at Cineperc Epic.
Im demoing Alchemy now and considering to buy it while they still have the sale. The demo is a 4 week full working version of the synth. There is some pretty cool things in it and right now it sells for $149 and they include one of the add on packs for free.
Anyone using it and has some recommendations regarding which of the expansions to choose with it?
EWQL Symphony Orchestra still sounds nice but sampling technology has moved on and recent libraries sound better and are easy to work with.
A lot of it is pitchy. I, more or less, only use it as a layer now.
Hi Dan…
Maybe this article will help.
http://www.scorecastonline.com/2013/11/26/scorecast-40-if-i-started-today1/
Best of luck to you!
Michael
Would it make sense to run VE Pro using just one Mac Pro or does one need a multiple computer setup to take advantage of it?
I’ll give you my spin on VEPRO, because I’m a MAC Pro user. I’m sure Denis will add his experiences. Right now, I’m using VEPRO on a single MAC Pro with DP8 (because my second MAC more or less died). VEPRO allows me to host all of my VIs outside DP. Even though DP is 64 bit, I find the hosting in VEPRO still lightens the load on the CPU.
I have a question for anyone…is LASS user friendly? I don’t have any experience with orchestration per se, and I have been afraid I might be in over my head if I got LASS as a first library as far as divisi, too many options, etc. Any thoughts? Many thanks to all of you!
I have LASS full and LASS Sordino. I love the mboth. But,the short answer is, yes, it’s complex, especially, if you’re not experienced at writing for strings. It takes a little work to set up your banks in Kontakt to take full advantage of LAss’s divisi capabilities. But, once you get the hang of setting it up, you shouldn’t have any problems.
The second thing about LASS it that, out of the box, it pretty much sounds like a bunch of string players recorded in a studio. That can be a shock, if you’re not familiar with that sound. So, it takes EQ, reverb and some finesse, but it’s well worth it. There’s a lot “under the hood” that you may not use, if you’re not doing “string writing” per se. The Auto Rhythm Tool,and Auto-Arranger scripts help.
If that’s not for you, look into 8dio, Cinematic Strings, CineStrings, Berlin Strings, or the new Sable Strings from Spitfire.
If I had the money, I’d be adding Berlin or Sable.
Berlin was recorded in the Teledex hall. http://www.orchestraltools.com/libraries/berlin_strings.php
Sable was recorded at Air Lyndhurst, and has that “UK” sound, as opposed to an “Epic” Hollywood sound. http://www.spitfireaudio.com/bml-sable-vol-1
I hope that you can get what you need. Have fun!!!
Michael
Thanks for the advice on Alchemy. I know It will work fine without the soundpacks. But with this sale they give away one for free, so I was just wondering wich one to go for. I will check out your recomandations.