New Libraries

R

Rohan

Logician
Hi,

I am in the process of deciding which sound/sample libraries to buy as I would like to have more choice than what's currently available in Logic. Could you please suggest some good sound libraries, I am specifically interested in horns, strings and percussion. Are some libraries more compatible with Logic? Any suggestions / inputs would be much appreciated,

thanks,
Rohan
 
Welcome to the LUG, Rohan.

In order to be able to give you some specific recommendations, it would help to have an idea of your budget. There are sample libraries out there available for modest sums, such as Native Instrument's Session strings, there are also very costly libraries such as the larger VSL packages.

kind regards

Mark
 
Markdvc said:
Welcome to the LUG, Rohan.

In order to be able to give you some specific recommendations, it would help to have an idea of your budget. There are sample libraries out there available for modest sums, such as Native Instrument's Session strings, there are also very costly libraries such as the larger VSL packages.

kind regards

Mark
Click to expand...
Thanks for the prompt response Mark. I don't have constraints with the budget, and would rather spend more and get something of a better quality.
 
Then the question changes for you. There are packages which sound more or less "ready" because they got recorded in good sounding environments. And there are packages which are rather dry and let you (force you) to tweak them to your needs.

I normally do not use orchestral libraries but I know about the differences. VSL record on their "Silent Stage", which is a big room built just for that. The sound is not completely dry, it is natural for the single instruments. But you have to build your own room around it to get a natural sounding orchestra. Other libraries, I believe EastWest goes into that category, are rather made to be used out of the box, you may like the sound or not. A maybe contrary product is L.A.S.S. which lets you change almost every aspect. And it wants you to construct the sound you are after. There are several libraries available for Native Intrument's Kontakt player. They differ and Kontakt lets you change the sound a lot. Not the sound of the instruments themselves but the way the instruments appear in the context.

It is important to know what you want to do with such a library. Are you composing, arranging, or more into mocking up the work of other composers, which kind of music? Do you need a lot of different styles, accentuations, playing techniques, do you need them live while you play on a keyboard controller? Is your target convincing orchestral music or do you want to make pieces that are finally played by a real orchestra? Or do you want to integrate orchestral sounds into popular music?

Furthermore, with the huge libraries, expect extra work and equipment to be involved. The libraries are really large and need special technical attention, maybe a second computer, at least a big disk, a RAID, whatever.

This was almost all about I know about orchestral libraries. I think if you tell us what you want to do with such a library this can inspire our orchestral and film composers here to share some of their experience.
 
Computer Requirements for Large Sound Libraries

Keep in mind that high quality sound libraries like the ones you seem to be after require a lot in terms of processing power. Also it definitely helps to have separate drives just for your sample. East West have started actually selling drives 'pre-loaded' with all of their samples for Hollywood Strings, and some others. It helps to have plenty of RAM.

Also you should make sure you understand the concept of multi-channel instruments in Logic. Many users do not understand this concept and will instantiate many more instances of plug in instruments than they need to.

To make the most out of your plug-ins you also want to make sure you have the fastest computer you can afford- it does not make sense to invest in a lot of fancy sample libraries and suffer the frustration of not being able to use them effectively. Very high quality sample libraries involve a significant expense, and you'll find that the cost of the computer is a fairly reasonable fraction of the investment- but will yield much greater returns.
 
Reply - new libraries

Thanks Mark, Peter and Eddie for all the useful information. I'm really glad I joined this forum as I've started using Logic pretty recently and am still learning a lot of the features and it's really great that people are ready to share their knowledge with others. I'm working to be composer and the areas I'd be covering would be pretty broad from background scores for movies / documentaries to music for commercials and hopefully eventually a private album. So in some cases there might be times when I record music to be played by live musicians later on but I would also like to have the tools to create a finished product using my libraries. Even though I'm ready to spend a little extra for better libraries I don't have an unlimited budget, so I guess what might make more sense now would be to buy some good libraries in the mid price range and look at a bigger investment later on. I plan to visit all the sites of the libraries mentioned by all you, and also learn about the products and maybe hear their demos which will help me make a better decision. Thank you everyone for the feedback!!!
 
Rohan said:
Even though I'm ready to spend a little extra for better libraries I don't have an unlimited budget, so I guess what might make more sense now would be to buy some good libraries in the mid price range and look at a bigger investment later on.
Click to expand...

One library I won't recommend is VSL. It's been around along time now and so there are plenty of some staggeringly good demos, but when you look into how complicated and time consuming it can be to get that kind of result, all the fiddling knocks the creativity out of you.

I bought the original Symphonic cube for EXS, and the performance tool didn't quite work and the oboes and brass were really weak. So then I upgraded to the Vienna instruments, thinking it would all be that much better. (like I'd spent £3000 on something that didn't quite work, it would be good to pay just a mere £2000 to get it really functional).

NB: one issue I had was that that many stereo samples were badly out of phase (ie NOT mono compatible). When I contacted support about this, the reply was that most pros would use a stereo image plugin to reduce the width anyway. No attempt to address the issue beyond making you fork out for the upgrade.

Having done that I'm still disappointed. There seems to be a tacit understanding that the original library had rom for improvement, but instead of letting old loyal customers have an upgrade, you just have to keep buying and buying, as if it's a crock of gold at the end of a rainbow, but turns out just to be a crock.

</VSL rant>

The other library I have is EW Symphonic Gold, and as has been pointed out, that is recorded with more ambience, so works really really, provided that ambience fits in with your track.

I found its easier than Vienna for getting something very impressive sounding, though does have some restrictions due to the ambience being part of it.

Beyond that, I still have great respect for the cheap and extremely cheerful Garritan.

I echoe all the stuff about fast and many drives, processors, RAM to the max. And its only going to get worse as libraries get bigger.
 
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