Orchestral string samples

[Herman Munster]

I've got $500 and need some decent strings. These will be backing for a project I'm about to start on. I've got a Motif ES8 and the strings frankly suck. I also have Reason and those strings suck as well. I've looked at East-West and the Quantum Leap Gold look and sound good. Anyone have experience here. What I want is realism without having to tweak a whole lot. Thanks...

Mike

[Benmrx]

I'm in the same boat. I need some decent strings and a decent piano sound.

I think the EastWest stuff is the way to go here. I'm about to plop down for the silver edition (under $200 I think) and their Bosendorfer 290, but maybe I'll wait a bit and keep an eye on this thread.

[Poplab Studios]

get Apple Garageband Jam Pack Symphony Orchestra, it´s 99$ and the quality is very good. for that price you get well recorded loops + many many instruments.

it was my first symph.Library ( i also own the complete vienna cube) and i use it often to make some nice pop strings. mixed into a complete popsong, they sound very authentic

but you could also check out the siedlacek library,have not used it, but heard some nice reviews about them....

best

[league_of_james]

Originally Posted by Poplab Studios

get Apple Garageband Jam Pack Symphony Orchestra, it´s 99$ and the quality is very good. for that price you get well recorded loops + many many instruments.

it was my first symph.Library ( i also own the complete vienna cube) and i use it often to make some nice pop strings. mixed into a complete popsong, they sound very authentic

but you could also check out the siedlacek library,have not used it, but heard some nice reviews about them....

best

If I may ask, what would you play these from if your worlking from Logic, a sampler player from NI? or can you use them just in GB ?

[Albert]

Take a listen to the Kirk Hunter "Emerald" orchestral library. The strings sound great, in my opinion.

[Herman Munster]

East West Silver is OK, but my concern is that all the samples are recorded in a chamber and you cannot affect miking. This means you've got backing strings in a big room and the rest of the band might be in a small room. I'm concerned about how that might affect the mix. Any ideas?

[Herman Munster]

The Kirk Hunter Emerald does look good and I like the demos on their site. Anyone used these in a project for backing strings?

[Benmrx]

Thx for pointing out the Kirk Hunter stuff. The demos do sound pretty nice

[Ashermusic]

I also recommend the Kirk Hunter Emerald.

[Herman Munster]

Am I wrong in assuming one must have either Kontakt 2 or Gigastudio for these to play as a VSTi? I suppose if you do need either/or, the price is not much different from EWQL Gold, especially if you buy Kontakt instead of Gigastudio.

[ADino]

Im a new Logic user, like it....was pretty disappointed after going thru the softsynths that came with it....some useable stuff, but a lot of them really need a lot of work...
The piano and the strings just plain aint there, so I picked up Ivory...very nice, under 500, also picked up the Miroslav set...very nice strings and orchestral and easily workable...now these are more like it...that was under 400, but actually theres a deal going on at the site, so for the price, you can get 2 sets, although I only read it once..so check that out...also, if u can find a music store that carries Miroslav, I found 1 that had a few sitting on the shelf, so I was able to deal a bit, under 350, and the way it plays and sounds, I feel I got a great deal...

Now back to the Logic sounds? Truthfully, I have much better sounds and samples from my hard synths and samplers..

Anyone recommend some killer guitar sets?
I also listened to a demo of Memphis horns, so if anyone has that or whatever horn section set your using, let me know.

[cjogo]

KURZWEIL 2500rack--filled with some of the finest orchestral samples, especially solo !!! Right out of the box ~ no tweaking -- ++ 10 analog outputs/dig I/O ~~~ about $500 used. Wouldn't use anything else --we use the 2600/2500/k2vx : in all our studios.

[kosi]

Don't buy the EWQL Silver. It's very bad. I had it and sold it 2 weeks later.
I like the Miroslav Vitous Sounds, a lil aged but still working very good.
A friend recommended the new Siedlaczeks but I haven't heard them.

[Albert]

The trouble with the EWQL Silver and Gold is that you don't get the close miked samples, you need the Platinum for those. I own the Gold and while it has some nice sounds the heavy hall reverb on nearly all the samples makes the library less useful to me.

I've used Kirk Hunter strings for backing and they work extremely well. His library also blends with live players exceptionally well. A couple months ago a producer brought over some tracks recorded with a live string quartet and wanted to sweeten it with some sampled strings to make it sound bigger and more orchestral. We used the Kirk Hunter library and once it was mixed in you really couldn't tell where the live players ended and the sampled strings started.

I agree the Miroslav Vituo libs are showing their age, better stuff out there now. But he was one of the first to really do these big orchestral libraries, and there still is some good stuff in there.

I use Kontakt 2. Very happy with it, and have used it both in my studio and for live performances. If you get it, make sure you download all the most recent updates, as they make a difference.

[stevep]

For Piano . Ivory from Syntholigh sounds Awesome

[Poplab Studios]

Originally Posted by league_of_james

If I may ask, what would you play these from if your worlking from Logic, a sampler player from NI? or can you use them just in GB ?

sorry, for his late

no, it comes with exs24 ready presets, and apple loops, wich you can easily use in logic.
i would say, for the price range under 300 $ it´s the best library