I need synth/string/orchestra VST recommendations

Mattayus

Sir Groove-A-Lot
Jan 31, 2010
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Cambs, UK
www.numbskullaudio.com
I'm mixing a metal band at the moment that have the really huge epic thing going on, lots of MIDI tracks thrown my way, but my Synth library is rather limited and I'm not getting anything ground-breaking from what I'm using.

Anybody recommend any synth/string/orchestral VST's that really stand out? String ensembles, that kind of thing. But nothing too synth-y, it's gotta have that 'real' feel, not that super 80's pad feel.

Thanks :kickass:
 
Depending on how much they have programmed so far I would recommend either symphobia or VSL. VSL is top notch, it has pretty much everything you would need but as in most libraries its all separated into each instrument and each articulation per instrument, that means that you have to "arrange the orchestra" yourself... its a shit load of work, but if the tracks are already programmed that way, then it'll work. In Symphobia, you have the orchestra arranged for you, with a lot of presets that give you different sounds (epic, soft, percussive, movie-like, etc). I searched and saved for a long time, trying out what I could from VSL, EWQL and finally went for Symphobia, it rules! its not cheap though but neither are good guitars or amps.

 
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Awesome man thanks! Not a fan of Kontakt player though, bit of a system raper, especially when I'll have Metal Foundry and 4 instances of Revalver on the songs too :lol:

I'm gonna give IK Multimedia's Miroslav Philharmonik a go too, looks spiffy!
 
I can't wait to buy Vienna Symphonic Library. After Slate FG-X, it's my next purchase. I use East West Symphonic Orchestra Silver now and it sucks. The sound is mediocre and the PLAY engine is buggy as shit.
 
Edirol Orchestral is decent if you can't get anything better. It's okay for full strings, but anything else sounds horribly fake. Miroslav Philharmonic is where it's at, especially if you can't afford Quantum Leap stuff. I use FM8 for electronic synth stuff.
 
Yeah I'm using FM8 currently, but there's nothing very real on there, it's very very synthy. I mean, i'm only going to be using whatever i get for epic string type things, nothing major. I'll give Miroslav a try
 
Orchestra

Symphobia (i just read that symphobia 2 is gonna be released in september)







LASS (L.A. Scoring Strings)






holywood winds (cinesamples)



Project sam TRUE STRIKE 2 (percussion stuff)



PIANO

Alicias keys


tonehammer emotional piano


CHOIR


EastWest Symphonic Choirs


The upcoming Requiem by Tonehammer
 
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What's your price range? I don't normally use it for orchestration, but Omnisphere has all that and a lot more, you can mash it up and make it synthetic. For straight up orchestration, I use EastWest. The vast majority of what I do is midi, guitar being the only audio I record.

EDIT: I just realized this is a very old thread