EastWest Symphonic Orchestra

[Drayde Wernick]

http://www.soundsonline.com/Symphonic-Orchestra

I know I'm still a beginner and this seems to be professional quality stuff, but I feel that having high quality tools like this right from the start would be great motivation for me.
Does anybody have experience with this sound library, is there anything I should know that I wouldn't find out on that site itself?

[Versilaryan]

Actually, spending money on something so high-quality right off the bat would be pretty detrimental for your motivation. (Yar-harring doesn't really count, 'cause you don't really lose anything.) Not only do these sample libraries cost a small fortune, but they have a MILLION settings and you have to invest a lot of time as well as money just figuring out how to do anything in them. And then, if you end up not using it that often, you have the guilt of spending so much money on it.

I know Dr. Dissonance uses East-West for a lot of his music, so it's good stuff there. But if you're planning on buying (and if you weren't, I'm not sure why you'd have a thread like this), I'd recommend getting something smaller and easier to use like Garritan Personal Orchestra (or even the free soundfonts floating around) until you know you're willing to spend the time and money for a professional sample library.

[Dr_Dissonance]

Whilst I'd always recommend EastWest's stuff (it's ridiculously good), I'd be careful with investing in something so expensive from the get-go!
Unless you're thinking of breaking into a career in music, I'd suggest looking for something smaller first.
I didn't start with EastWest, I started with the rubbish Sibelius Sound Sets, then moved to Kontakt and its factory vsts...THEN I moved to EastWest!
What Vafrous said makes a lot of sense, it's good to get some experience with smaller stuff first, as if you play about and find this isn't really for you, you'd have saved yourself a small fortune!

But if you want to know about EWQL Symphonic Orchestra, then here's the low down:
It's great, but you need a decent machine to get the full potential out of it. The samples used are very large, so loading a fair few at once will eat up your RAM very quickly!
There are a lot of settings with it, but it has a few which save you a lot of time. Like the portamento one, which you just turn on and it'll imitate it for you! And even if you don't like a specific section with it, you can adjust the portamento yourself if needed!
You need to know your musical terms, as there are a load of articulations that would probably be alien to a regular joe who doesn't know their musical terms! (Terms like staccato, legato, etc)
But I've used it so much! The samples are great! It needs some woodwind clusters though, as it seems to be lacking them...
I got the Complete Composer's Collection, so I got a load of other stuff too!

Here's a brief review of others I have:

EWQL Symphonic Choirs (Get it, they really speak! Fantastic amount of samples in there!)
Pianos Gold (Really nice, but some equally good ones for lower prices out there...)
Goliath (Has a bit of everything really...plus stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else! I've only used the organ in this, so probably not worth the money if you already have samples that you want!)
Stormdrum 2 (Epic drums, the Middle Earth Ensemble is probably my most used percussion! Seriously, if you want to make action music, you NEED this!)
Gypsy (The solo violin in this is fantastic! Lots of accordions and acoustic guitars too, a decent purchase!)
Ra (Used it once or twice, seems pretty good! A nice selection and some epic didgeridoo samples!)
The Dark Side (Really distorted and electronic stuff, very cool!)
Voices of Passion (Really nice, but you won't be using it much, they're more for one off pieces...)
Ministry of Rock 2 (Haven't used it properly yet )

[Drayde Wernick]

Well money's really not an issue for me so this more about whether I'll actually benefit from having all this content right at the start. If you're saying I'd be better off to start small, then I trust your judgment. I've taught myself many a complicated program in my life by simply jumping right into them, but I get the feeling that this would be an even greater challenge than what I've already dealt with.

My main problem is that I'm currently using a lot of soundfonts and I'm almost completely disatisfied with every single one that I've found. Maybe I'm just not experienced enough to make them sound good. :p Right now I need good sounding violin(s), acoustic guitar, choir, a harpsichord that doesn't make my ears explode, a better sounding piano, flutes, and more flutes.

It sucks having music all planned out but then having to learn so much just to make it real. XD

Versilaryan, I just looked up Garritan Personal Orchestra, and it looks (or sounds, rather) promising. I'm gonna give the demo tracks a good listen and then decide if I want it.

[Versilaryan]

Also note that a good deal of a song's realism, especially pieces with fewer instruments, comes from the different musicians' phrasing. So if you don't already, it might be a good idea to load the MIDIs into something like Cubase that can fine-tune the MIDI tracks' volumes to work with that a little bit.

[Navron]

I've just made the jump up from free VSTs and SoundFonts to Cubase 5 and its built in HALion One orchestra, a few synths, and just recently, Nexus. I can definitely say you learn a lot trying to work with what you got, because when you can polish a turd, you can polish anything.

I actually dislike certain elements of Nexus, because it seems like you gotta buy multiple expansions just to get the sound you want. Can you get dubstep wobbles through default Nexus? Yes, but it's pretty difficult compared to simply buying the expansion for it that's dedicated to dubstep.

I'm at the point where I'm just clicking around. Takes awhile til I get the sound I want, but when you know exactly what kind of sound you want, you end up learning more about the VST just by which settings and knobs effect the sound in which way.

[Drayde Wernick]

"Clicking around" is what I've been doing in my spare time. But I don't have much free time or energy because of my job and other obligations, so as far as production goes I've come up with nothing but random sounds that are stupid when put together. I've got songs all written out to the best of my ability (I do it at work, when I'm not otherwise engaged with anything), but I'm really struggling to find the time and the proper environment to learn how to produce this music.

I'm thinking that right now is not a good time in my life to be doing this. :/ I'm gonna be learning to play the piano real soon, so maybe I'll just focus on that for a few months. Small steps.

[Navron]

You seem to be in the, "Applebuck Season," mode, and taking way too many things on at the same time. I was in that mode about a month ago, trying to learn Cubase 5, Autodesk Maya, and Adobe After Effects, all at the same time, combined with balancing out my military duties and still trying to start college courses.

Don't do that

Pick something to learn and build a decent level of knowledge before tackling something else, otherwise you won't make much progress in anything, and just end up burned out and frustrated, like I did.

[Drayde Wernick]

You seem to be in the, "Applebuck Season," mode, and taking way too many things on at the same time. I was in that mode about a month ago, trying to learn Cubase 5, Autodesk Maya, and Adobe After Effects, all at the same time, combined with balancing out my military duties and still trying to start college courses.

Don't do that

Pick something to learn and build a decent level of knowledge before tackling something else, otherwise you won't make much progress in anything, and just end up burned out and frustrated, like I did.

Yeah pretty much. I normally wouldn't have issues with the amount of stuff I have on my plate, but my job takes a huuuge portion of my time and energy. I actually started training on a whole bunch of new and important skills at work, on top of what I'm already responsible for. Now I'll be dealing with money and very expensive electronic and mechanical equipment, so I have to bring my A-game every day. I don't even take breaks anymore, and there's not much left of me when I come home.

I've decided to just slow myself down outside of work. I'm not gonna learn music just yet, and I'm not gonna pay as much attention to my Youtube channel (I'm Sedaheht, if that means anything to anybody). I'm just gonna enjoy the simple things that don't demand as much effort, such as reading and listening to music. And ponies, of course!

I definitely still want to come around this forum and contribute in what ways I can, but I won't be making any music. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta finish reading Crusaders of the Lost Mark.