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Buyer's Basic Guide to Orchestral Sample Libraries

Curious about why HW brass isn't in the brass section, it often goes on sale to $200 which is an incredible value for a solid brass library. It also does a better job of the louder dynamics than some of the other brass libraries imo.
 
RandomComposer said:
Curious about why HW brass isn't in the brass section, it often goes on sale to $200 which is an incredible value for a solid brass library. It also does a better job of the louder dynamics than some of the other brass libraries imo.
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It's under the ORCHESTRA tab as an entire package....
 
JohnBMears said:
It's under the ORCHESTRA tab as an entire package....
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Ah, so it is. Although I'm confused at to why it's not split when other orchestral packages (such as Spitfire) are split into individual sections. There may be people looking for just a single section and go directly to those sections.
 
RandomComposer said:
Ah, so it is. Although I'm confused at to why it's not split when other orchestral packages (such as Spitfire) are split into individual sections. There may be people looking for just a single section and go directly to those sections.
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Actually on second look, it appears each separate 'breakout' page that is linked from the Orchestra page has been deleted....so that is odd
 
RandomComposer said:
Ah, so it is. Although I'm confused at to why it's not split when other orchestral packages (such as Spitfire) are split into individual sections. There may be people looking for just a single section and go directly to those sections.
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I kind of decided to narrow the focus of the guide a bit after realizing that it was getting hard to decide which releases I needed to cover versus which would just be bad suggestions for a beginner - it is a beginner's guide after all. IMO it is simply not worth it to buy individual Hollywood products when you can get the whole orchestra for not much more.

I am thinking of making a comprehensive index of most useful/valuable products though that isn't as limited in scope.
 
madfloyd said:
Unfortunately it's very out of date.
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Interestingly (to me at least), it is somewhat out of date, yet is completely missing the EW Hollywood series. Pretty bad oversight, considering most of the composers I know still use at least the Strings and Brass. Hard to beat for clean ensemble samples, imo.
 
Parsifal666 said:
Interestingly (to me at least), it is somewhat out of date, yet is completely missing the EW Hollywood series. Pretty bad oversight, considering most of the composers I know still use at least the Strings and Brass. Hard to beat for clean ensemble samples, imo.
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Nah, Hollywood Orchestra is on there, I just couldn't bring myself to mention it in the individual orchestral section pages because it's simply not worth it to buy individual volumes.

And yes, it's pretty out of date, as I've been extremely busy for the past few months. Hope to remedy that soon... Gotta catch up on that whirlwind of brass releases!
 
Zhao Shen said:
Nah, Hollywood Orchestra is on there, I just couldn't bring myself to mention it in the individual orchestral section pages because it's simply not worth it to buy individual volumes.

!
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I meant the individual volumes: Strings and Brass (Hollywood). And they are more than worth it, even at full price. I'm not the only professional whom thinks that.
 
Parsifal666 said:
I meant the individual volumes: Strings and Brass (Hollywood). And they are more than worth it, even at full price. I'm not the only professional whom thinks that.
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I agree, but Hollywood Orchestra gives you much more bang for your buck. You do make a good point though, I never really considered the effect this might be having as people looking for just a string library aren't going to browse the Orchestra page. I may end up taking HO off the Orchestra page and re-incorporating it into the section pages, with a note about the bundle being great value.
 
Zhao Shen said:
I agree, but Hollywood Orchestra gives you much more bang for your buck. You do make a good point though, I never really considered the effect this might be having as people looking for just a string library aren't going to browse the Orchestra page. I may end up taking HO off the Orchestra page and re-incorporating it into the section pages, with a note about the bundle being great value.
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Definitely worth the bucks. Sounds like a cool idea.
 
Zhao Shen said:
Nah, Hollywood Orchestra is on there, I just couldn't bring myself to mention it in the individual orchestral section pages because it's simply not worth it to buy individual volumes.

And yes, it's pretty out of date, as I've been extremely busy for the past few months. Hope to remedy that soon... Gotta catch up on that whirlwind of brass releases!
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Zhao Shen, any update as to when a noobie like me can be expecting an up-to-date guide? I'm just starting out in the sample world. Subscribed to Composer Cloud X at the end of November, and I just got shafted. I was experiencing software problems and lost it, so I'm getting refunded and my CCX subscription is ending early. The hunt now begins for sample libraries that I can actually own...

EDIT: Just clicked on the link, saw that it was updated last in December. Nevermind! Looking forward to taking a detailed look at this!
 
PianoMan7 said:
Zhao Shen, any update as to when a noobie like me can be expecting an up-to-date guide? I'm just starting out in the sample world. Subscribed to Composer Cloud X at the end of November, and I just got shafted. I was experiencing software problems and lost it, so I'm getting refunded and my CCX subscription is ending early. The hunt now begins for sample libraries that I can actually own...

EDIT: Just clicked on the link, saw that it was updated last in December. Nevermind! Looking forward to taking a detailed look at this!
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Yeah actually, I've been thinking a lot about the guide. Hopefully I will get around to updating it, but I am also considering letting someone else take over, since I will be starting a full-time job this year and music composition continues to move closer toward pure hobby territory for me.
 
Is it better for me to subscribe for 1 month with EW to see if I don't have technical problems getting Play to work? Plus decide if I want to buy any of their stuff? Isn't that a no-brainer? It's only $20 special discount.
 
toomanynotes said:
Is it better for me to subscribe for 1 month with EW to see if I don't have technical problems getting Play to work? Plus decide if I want to buy any of their stuff? Isn't that a no-brainer? It's only $20 special discount.
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Consider it a sample library trial period. Wish all libraries had a feature like that...if you feel that EW is the library you want to invest in, then yes...get the subscription. I subscribe when I need their Spaces II reverb...no other reason for me.
 
Any chance of getting this updated to include more recent libraries as well? Perhaps letting other people contribute if you don't have time? :)
 
Too bad the music industry doesn't have a collaborative tool like GitHub where people could just make change requests with additional libraries and stuff. I mean as a developer I feel like it would be the perfect solution, but I can understand why most musicians would avoid it :emoji_grin:
 
darthdeus said:
Too bad the music industry doesn't have a collaborative tool like GitHub where people could just make change requests with additional libraries and stuff. I mean as a developer I feel like it would be the perfect solution, but I can understand why most musicians would avoid it :emoji_grin:
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Funny you should mention that. Currently working on migrating the guide to GitHub pages so that this very thing becomes easy to do. Was stuck a while on finding an appropriate theme but think I figured it out. Just working on it in my free time right now, but will update this thread when it's done.

Also, just a note - this will open the guide up to contributions, but it won't make the guide a collaborative document. I will deny pull requests when I personally disagree with the information added. Maybe that rubs some people the wrong way, but I think it's important for the guide to be wholly consistent instead of representing a smattering of different people's (possibly contradictory) opinions.
 
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