The Orchestral Sample Library Thread

[filmmusic 1,837]

1 hour ago, Presto said:

Like creepy the creepy "reaaarowwreaarow" sound?

No, not creepy. I'm sure I had seen it in a Williams score, but I can't remember now...

[filmmusic 1,837]

I see this constantly as a facebook ad. Is it new?

They sound pretty good.
https://www.performancesamples.com/pacific-ensemblestrings

Does anyone have it?

[michael_grig 472]

1 hour ago, filmmusic said:

I see this constantly as a facebook ad. Is it new?

They sound pretty good.
https://www.performancesamples.com/pacific-ensemblestrings

Does anyone have it?

Not new (they are from December 22) but they are on sale right now! 

 

https://www.performancesamples.com/pacific-ensemblestrings/

 

They are probably the best strings you can get along with CSS and Spitfire's AR One.

The shorts in particular are the best ones I know.

 

Only thing it doesn't do good is runs, I use the CSS marcato legato patch for this, or should I say "used",  since the new Abbey Road Violins by Spitfire are just stellar.

 

The mix of Pacific Strings is very film-score like, much clearer than CSS.

If you want to do a "bread and butter library " purchase I would recommend it, but with the new Abbey Road series by Spitfire coming now those will be the most deep sampled strings to be ever made, but therefore much more expensive (and more resource heavy, Performance Samples libraries are extremely low on resources.)

 

 

 

[Faleel 5,357]

 

[filmmusic 1,837]

Does anyone know what setting should I use in altiverb? What do you usually use to have a nice natural reverb without being too intrusive? 

Whatever I use sounds awful to me!

[Faleel 5,357]

3 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

Does anyone know what setting should I use in altiverb? What do you usually use to have a nice natural reverb without being too intrusive? 

Whatever I use sounds awful to me!

You try TODD-AO?

[filmmusic 1,837]

5 minutes ago, Presto said:

You try TODD-AO?

What is this?

edit: Ok, I found it. Unfortunately, it also doesn't do for me. Whatever I use, I like the original (without the reverb) better.

[Faleel 5,357]

2 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

What is this?

https://www.audioease.com/IR/VenuePages/todd-ao.html

 

 

[TheAvengerButton 175]

Speaking of reverb...

 

...I only recently figured out that if I put my preferred reverb on a bus, it completely drowns my instruments, but if I put it on an actual instrument in my DAW (Studio One) the instrument sits nicely on top of the reverb and creates a much nicer sound.

 

I'm not great on the production side of things so I don't know why this is the case. I just wish that I could drop my reverb on my bus without having to tweak it for an endless amount of time instead of tweaking the reverb up front and sitting my instruments on top of it. Luckily, I am not actually putting reverb on my tracks a whole lot (I love the Todd-AO impulse and I actually use it whenever I need a reverb) because I like the prebuilt reverb on all of my orchestral libraries (my main is Nucleus, I know it's limited in articulations but with a little ingenuity I can actually get a lot of great sound out of it) so I only use reverb to match on a select small number of instruments, affording me the opportunity to just throw it on the instrument track itself and move on.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,547]

"... reverb on a bus"?

What on earth are you talking about?

Please explain.

[filmmusic 1,837]

3 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

"... reverb on a bus"?

What on earth are you talking about?

Please explain.

Hehe. I haven't understood buses too, and I don't use them.

[TheAvengerButton 175]

14 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

"... reverb on a bus"?

What on earth are you talking about?

Please explain.

Dude I can't explain, that's my problem. I know that buses in a DAW are something that you can connect one effect to multiple instrument tracks and that apparently they are somehow different than a FX track that you can also connect to multiple instrument tracks, but apparently putting effects on a bus creates a different sound than just putting it on the instrument track and I don't know why that is.

 

But my point was, buses kinda suck and they don't give me the sound I want.

[Faleel 5,357]

15 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

"... reverb on a bus"?

What on earth are you talking about?

Please explain.

Bus is sort of a track that you route multiple tracks to, so you can affect those tracks, and not others.

 

so if you wanted to have reverb or something on just the strings and brass, but not the percussion, you could do that, without having to do it to every single track.

[filmmusic 1,837]

4 minutes ago, Presto said:

Bus is sort of a track that you route multiple tracks to, so you can affect those tracks, and not others.

 

so if you wanted to have reverb or something on just the strings and brass, but not the percussion, you could do that, without having to do it to every single track.

Well, the thing I do is make a single audio with all the instruments from all the midi tracks, and put the reverb  there.

I know it's probably the wrong way to do, but I don't know any better. 

[Faleel 5,357]

Usually, I just put reverb on the thing I think needs it, which is pretty rare these days, as I find the built in ambience in most of the libraries these days sounds pretty good already.

 

 

Plus I am cheap, and Altiverb is expensive haha

[TheAvengerButton 175]

The 'verbs I have are ValhallaRoom and Waves, where I use my Todd AO IR. Otherwise I'm the same, using the built-ins.

[Faleel 5,357]

18 minutes ago, TheAvengerButton said:

The 'verbs I have are ValhallaRoom and Waves, where I use my Todd AO IR. Otherwise I'm the same, using the built-ins.

I use, I think, omnivore, I do have a vallhalla, but it's a trial lol

[filmmusic 1,837]

I don't suppose anyone has this problem in Cubase, does he?

I have it regularly and it slows down my work progress.

https://forums.steinberg.net/t/midi-channels-randomly-change/854401

I've found some threads in google, with people with the same problem.

[MaxTheHouseelf 324]

7 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I don't suppose anyone has this problem in Cubase, does he?

I have it regularly and it slows down my work progress.

https://forums.steinberg.net/t/midi-channels-randomly-change/854401

I've found some threads in google, with people with the same problem.

 

Haha yeah this happens to me as well from time to time (Cubase 9). Super weird and annoying.

[Manakin Skywalker 4,897]

8 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I don't suppose anyone has this problem in Cubase, does he?

I have it regularly and it slows down my work progress.

https://forums.steinberg.net/t/midi-channels-randomly-change/854401

I've found some threads in google, with people with the same problem.

 

That's so weird, I just started having this exact issue with Acoustica Mixcraft when they released their newest version a couple months ago. I think they just recently fixed it though.

[filmmusic 1,837]

Does anyone use any Westwood instruments untamed series?

https://www.youtube.com/@WESTWOODINSTRUMENTS/videos

I browsed through a bit the viola, brass, and winds walkthrough videos, and they sound incredible! I'm really impressed!

[filmmusic 1,837]

Hello again.

I want to write a brass fanfare.

Does anyone know what are the best brass that perform repeating 16ths or triplets right?
Like the 16ths in this score?

Do you use staccatissimo for just those notes or perhaps there is a specific sample in a library that handles them well?

 

[TheAvengerButton 175]

If I were you, I'd check out an Ostinato Brass library. The ones from Sonokinetic sound decent. Audio Imperia brass is great, I'm pretty sure they have an ostinato brass library separate from Jaeger or Nucleus but when I use Nucleus I'm able to just use the staccatisimo patches to create the exact sound I want. Hasn't faltered for me thus far.

 

The Audio Imperia library I'm thinking of is Fluid Brass. I haven't actually tried either of these suggestions myself, just have them bookmarked for when I have enough spending money for them--but these are their own thing and you don't have to buy a whole new sample library just to get that sound you want.

[filmmusic 1,837]

1 hour ago, TheAvengerButton said:

The Audio Imperia library I'm thinking of is Fluid Brass.

I see this has only short notes, so I'm not sure I can use it since the fanfare would be a combination of short notes and longer notes.

But I admit they sound good!

[Faleel 5,357]

 

[Faleel 5,357]

 

[Drew 590]

Apparently you can buy Cinesamples' whole catalog for $300 with their Musio player until December 31. This deal is unbelievable.

 

https://musio.com/

[Laserschwert 475]

46 minutes ago, Drew said:

Apparently you can buy Cinesamples' whole catalog for $300 with their Musio player until December 31. This deal is unbelievable.

 

https://musio.com/

What is the catch here? It doesn't seem to be a new offer, at is shows a discount from 399 to 299 already. But isn't 399 for ALL of CineSample's material already an incredibly deal? How is this a viable business model for them?

Edit: Ah, I see, 399 will be the regular price, 299 is the introduction price.

[Faleel 5,357]

Damn, might make this my Christmas list haha

[TolkienSS 407]

1 hour ago, Laserschwert said:

What is the catch here? It doesn't seem to be a new offer, at is shows a discount from 399 to 299 already. But isn't 399 for ALL of CineSample's material already an incredibly deal? How is this a viable business model for them?

Edit: Ah, I see, 399 will be the regular price, 299 is the introduction price.

 

Maybe people are slowly getting smart to the fact that Cinesamples libraries are rough, clunky, dated, buggy, and a pain in the ass to get a grip on, while being a strain on the wallet.

[filmmusic 1,837]

What cinesamples libraries does it include? I don't see it.

I see only 4 libraries.

And what is musio? Is it like Kontakt player?

 

[Faleel 5,357]

7 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

What cinesamples libraries does it include? I don't see it.

I see only 4 libraries.

And what is musio? Is it like Kontakt player?

 

1,500+ premium virtual instruments across 70+ collections by Cinesamples

 

 

 

 

https://musio.com/catalog/

[filmmusic 1,837]

thanks @Presto.

That is indeed a great deal! But I'm concerned about this musio thing. Is it easy to use?

I have got used to Kontakt.

 

edit:

Hmmm.. I found this video:

 

[Drew 590]

47 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

 

Maybe people are slowly getting smart to the fact that Cinesamples libraries are rough, clunky, dated, buggy, and a pain in the ass to get a grip on, while being a strain on the wallet.

 

I think they generally have a nice tone, which is why I use them as layering. They have an entire orchestral lineup recorded in the studio that John Williams most often uses.

[TheAvengerButton 175]

The libraries from Cinesamples are only outdated in their UI and playability, but the sounds contained are still top-tier, IMO.

 

Meanwhile, over at 8dio they have some crazy deals right now. Just got their Liberis choir for 38 bucks. They were giving away their Hybrid drums and the 1928 Steinway for free, there are several other libraries that are discounted like hell right now. I really like their stuff and for the price you can't go wrong.

[TolkienSS 407]

3 hours ago, Drew said:

 

I think they generally have a nice tone, which is why I use them as layering. They have an entire orchestral lineup recorded in the studio that John Williams most often uses.

 

Yes they do.

But their UI is beyond ridiculous. Un-intuitive is the nicest thing I can say about it.

[Laserschwert 475]

40 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

 

Yes they do.

But their UI is beyond ridiculous. Un-intuitive is the nicest thing I can say about it.

But isn't this Musio thing adressing exactly that? An improved UI for their samples? Haven't tested it yet, because I just found out my old version of Reaper isn't supporting VST3 plug-ins. So I gotta update that as well. Guess I'll wait for Black Friday.

[Faleel 5,357]

Trying it out with a free trial, it seems its kinda like a mix of Kontakt, and a sample download manager in one?

 

[Drew 590]

Orchestral Tools' Berlin Series is 50 percent off! First time in two years. I picked up Berlin Symphonic Strings, which I've wanted since it came out three years ago. This is the cheapest it's ever been (around $300 at the exchange rate) It may have some programming quirks, but tonally, it's the best-sounding strings I've ever heard. They sound a bit thin in some of the demos but that's because the demos are not mixed well. The mics provided can give a fabulous wide sound. I think layering this with something like Cinematic Studio Strings would be magic. I also may pick up Berlin Percussion and skip Musio this year. Since my brass sound is rooted in Berlin Brass, it makes sense to have as much as my orchestra as possible be based in the Teldex studio.

 

Anyway, I had projects where I was using wet Berlin Brass (a fabulous sound) and it just drowned out the dry strings like CSS and they were hard to hear. I will no longer have that problem.

 

Some people complain about the SINE Player, but I personally like it. The mic merge feature is amazing. It lets you download as many (or as little) mics as you want. Then when you mix them to your content, it lets you bounce a mix to use as one signal. As in, you can have a fully mixed instrument with the RAM usage of one mic! This is huge for me and it's a shame Spitfire didn't put any of that stuff into their player.

[Drew 590]

I've created a custom mix for Berlin Symphonic Strings that's reminding me of the LOTR scores' string mixes. Good stuff! Custom mixes can sound much better than the demos.

[TheAvengerButton 175]

On 19/11/2023 at 3:06 PM, Drew said:

Orchestral Tools' Berlin Series is 50 percent off! First time in two years. I picked up Berlin Symphonic Strings, which I've wanted since it came out three years ago. This is the cheapest it's ever been (around $300 at the exchange rate) It may have some programming quirks, but tonally, it's the best-sounding strings I've ever heard. They sound a bit thin in some of the demos but that's because the demos are not mixed well. The mics provided can give a fabulous wide sound. I think layering this with something like Cinematic Studio Strings would be magic. I also may pick up Berlin Percussion and skip Musio this year. Since my brass sound is rooted in Berlin Brass, it makes sense to have as much as my orchestra as possible be based in the Teldex studio.

 

Anyway, I had projects where I was using wet Berlin Brass (a fabulous sound) and it just drowned out the dry strings like CSS and they were hard to hear. I will no longer have that problem.

 

Some people complain about the SINE Player, but I personally like it. The mic merge feature is amazing. It lets you download as many (or as little) mics as you want. Then when you mix them to your content, it lets you bounce a mix to use as one signal. As in, you can have a fully mixed instrument with the RAM usage of one mic! This is huge for me and it's a shame Spitfire didn't put any of that stuff into their player.

 

Nice! I just picked up Areia strings by Audio Imperia. I really dig Nucleus as an all-in-one orchestra and while it's not the most emotive out of the box, I can still make it sing. Plus, for writing John Williams type material Audio Imperia is actually pretty nice. But now that I have Areia strings, I feel like I can get even more out of Nucleus by expanding the strings. Now, if Audio Imperia can make dedicated woodwind and brass libs, I would be very happy.

[Drew 590]

I'm leaning more toward Berlin Woodwinds now as the second purchase. I think I can make do with BBCSO and True Strike percussion for now. Cinematic Studio Woodwinds is getting buried in the mix with my Berlin libraries.

[TolkienSS 407]

On 20/11/2023 at 2:10 AM, Drew said:

I've created a custom mix for Berlin Symphonic Strings that's reminding me of the LOTR scores' string mixes. Good stuff!

 

Care to share the details of it? I've tried that.

[Drew 590]

On 29/11/2023 at 4:17 PM, TolkienSS said:

 

Care to share the details of it? I've tried that.

 

This is the custom mix I use. Don't take it as being perfect but I like it so far.

Spot 1 mic: -10

 

Spot 2 mic: -5 (This is a vintage mic, so it's very important for it to outshine the other close mics to get that LOTR sound)

 

Leader mic: -10

 

Tree mic: 0

 

Outrigger mic: 0

 

AB mic: 3

 

Surround mic: 0

[Faleel 5,357]

Got some money for Christmas, so I picked up that perpetual Musio license

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=csaiabsU3-s

[Faleel 5,357]

Apparently in 4 days True Strike is going away.

 

https://projectsam.com/libraries/true-strike

 

 

[Faleel 5,357]

 

@Giftheck Would it be worth it to pick TrueStrike up before it goes?

[Giftheck 916]

20 minutes ago, Presto said:

 

@Giftheck Would it be worth it to pick TrueStrike up before it goes?

 

I wouldn't know, I've not used it. I hear it's quite good though.

 

EDIT: Given the fact it is about to disappear forever, I have taken the plunge though.

[Faleel 5,357]

25 minutes ago, Giftheck said:

 

I wouldn't know, I've not used it. I hear it's quite good though.

 

EDIT: Given the fact it is about to disappear forever, I have taken the plunge though.

D'oh I conflated it with you talking about EW stormdrum (?)

 

I believe @Datameister has used it though

[Datameister 2,044]

2 hours ago, Presto said:

D'oh I conflated it with you talking about EW stormdrum (?)

 

I believe @Datameister has used it though

Yeah, TrueStrike is pretty good. It's usually my go-to for snares, mallets, and some toys.