Orchestration, Spitfire Libraries and alternatives

This is a good example of BHCT:

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This one is quite interesting:

Here’s a quick orchestral piece from today with Blisko Strings, some of the Afterglow patches as well as Felt Instruments Jasno and Lekko piano, plus one line with the Spitfire Olafur Arnalds Chamber Evolutions. Used the Roli Seaboard Block for some expression in the Felt Instruments patches.

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Spitfire, just updated the BBC symphony orchestra, turns out they’re updating it quite often apparently :

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I’ve put some effort into software instruments recently… until Jan I’d never used any at all! I was purely hardware. So it’s been fun working in a new way. Here’s my latest work, which is made with 90% free sample instruments, hopefully proving you don’t have to spend a ton… It’s largely Pianobook stuff, alongside Spitfire BBC Symphony Discover and LABs.

And if anyone is interested, my previous piece that I did back in Jan is more of a hybrid, melding hardware synths with sample instruments:

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A familiar figure from many a synth video, J3PO, is at it with Spitfire’s Contemporay Drama Toolkit. Sounds pretty nice.

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Really like the vibe in that one, well done! Especially liked the drums, bass and horns. If I may say, I’d like it even more with a darker EQ and/or with some tape saturation or something but I understand it’s a work in progress and it’s just a matter of personal preference anyway.

You’re clearly on the right path here, keep going!

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Cheers, man. I’ll experiment some more with EQ and tape saturation.

I’m not quite happy yet with the strings and flutes yet either, but I’ll keep at it. This was mostly an experiment with getting my various libraries to gel together (trying to tame the various rooms). I have lots of ideas, so if I can figure out the mechanics of getting everything to sit together, there’s a lot I’d like to try.

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For reference, I’m a huge fan of old library tracks like this. I’d love to work towards this kind of stuff.

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I apologize if this is only tangentially related, but I’m looking for a sample pack with some high quality, but relatively basic set of traditional orchestral instruments, and you all seem to have extremely good ears for this.

I know most serious orchestration work is done with high quality VSTs, but I’m looking to add to my Octatrack for something new, and a VST library with super sampled instruments is a bit be overkill.

Any recommendations? License-speaking, I would like to pay for them, but then have free use of them thereafter.

For your needs I’d recommend this : VSCO Community

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The VSCO 2 samples are great. The free version is pretty extensive (and royalty-free too) but there are also paid versions if you need more.

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These are perfect, thank you both!

From the VST side the Spitfire Labs range is free. LOTS of different libraries and many that I’ve found useful. The downside is that many of them have a specific sound or use to them, such as ā€Scary Stringsā€. The basic strings libraries in the Labs range is pretty shite, unfortunately but one might get by using that as sample fodder.

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Also, you could get BBC SO Discover free if you fill out their questionnaire and then sample those into your OT.

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover/

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These might also be of interest if you have Kontakt.

It’s the spring sale at spitfireaudio !

Time to get a new hard drive :sweat_smile:

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Time to hide my wallet for a week. Have barely touched the Chamber Strings I got in their Christmas sale. Mostly because Olafur Arnalds Chamber Evos (and Felt Instruments strings) sound so good that I use them all the time.

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Good call, my goal is to hesitate long enough that I miss the sale, haha.

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Hey, does anyone have Spitfire’s Orbis? I only just discovered it in the last week or two and I’m fascinated by it! I missed the Spring sale, thinking I’ll wait for the next one, hopefully Summer / soon…