What do you use?

Mike, thank you for this! I am the first one to say that everyone can, and should, pick their libraries based upon what *they* want to achieve... but having heard your score to ID, and really liking the "silvestri sound", I was interested in seeing what libraries sounded good in your ear. Good to know that these libraries sit well in your ear for your mockups.

And yes, libraries are only part of the answer; playing them, and producing them is another big part of it, of course.

Mike

 

• WW
I use almost entirely Spitfire for this, but also have the Embertone Clarinet in the mix.

• Brass
Horns - A mix of CineBrass and Hollywood Brass with a dash of Jasper Blunk's 'Angry Brass' freebie. It's a pretty awesome combo.
Tpt - Same as Horns
Low Brass - CineBrass and Angry Brass only at the moment.
* I sprinkle Sample Modeling where necessary.

• Perc
This is mostly all Spitfire Orchestral Percussion with just a few odds and ends from HZ Perc 1 and True Strike 1.
Piano and Harp are also all Spitfire.

• Strings
This is all Hollywood Strings

My only plans for expansion at the moment are to add the WW and String FX libraries from Orchestral Tools when they're needed. I prefer to keep things lean. There are of course other little cameos here and there when needed, but this is what I use for 99% of my orchestral template for those rare occasions I get asked to do something traditional. Also, to add a bit of beef in the low end, I send my Contrabass buss to a dbx120a emulator called "Lowender" by ReFuse. If used in moderation, it works magic for a little bit of extra ooomph if you happen to be doing a more modern production on your mix. I tend to model my modern mixes after JNH or Alexandre Desplat releases.

 

I love Desplat's mixes! Aside from his great orchestrations, you can hear everything so clearly in the mix. What are some of your favorites from him that you use as references?

 

Here is my complex list:

Woods - Kontakt Factory library.

Brass - Kontakt Factory library.

Perc - Kontakt Factory library.

Zimmer Perc - Kontakt Factory library.

Piano/Celeste/Harp - Kontakt Factory library.

Strings - Kontakt Factory library.

 

It depends on what I'm working on. The last score of his that I referenced the mix from was Rise of the Guardians.

 

I used a wild grow of libraries but was always demotivated when reviewing stuff. The positionings and balance was mostly good, but the sound...so I now use the following (looks like I've got stocks there xD):

Woodwinds - Spitfire Symphony Woodwinds
Brass - Spitfire Symphony Brass
Percussion: Spitfire Percussion Redux
Piano/Harp: also Spitfire (Orch. Grand piano)
Strings: Spitfire again, Symphony Strings

Before, I had Auddict MSW, Bravura Brass, Kontakt Factory and LASS lite

Very happy with the base sound now, closest to "inside my head". Later on, I will add Aleatoric (Uist I think) and a "front" Piano like HZ-Piano. HZ-Percussion is planned far later, since I concentrate on getting my chops up and atm. Staying away from "epic" stuff.

 

For what it's worth, I made the same mistake of pigeonholing HZ Perc into the "epic only" category as well. I also refused to buy into any hype because a name is on it. Thankfully, I had the chance to play it at a friends house and was blown away. It's far more flexible than just epic and one hell of a great sounding library.

 

I just finally finished updating my template, and this is the result for my main orchestral stuff:

Woodwinds: Berlin Woodwinds (unbeatable by pretty much anything I think)
Brass: Berlin Brass (layered with Angry Brass and sometimes Ark if I want that bite)
Orch Percussion: Berlin Percussion + Timpani (best timpani, hands down; the normal perc is very very nice as well)
Other Percussion: HZ01 and Thunder X3M (both are super versatile beasts and can do both EPIC and aux)
Piano: Chocolate Audio's pianos (these things have a lovely sound)
Harp: Spitfire Harp (Harp in AIR, what more can you ask for)
Strings: Berlin Strings (I love this library so much...)
Choir: Oceania, Wotan, Freyja, Ark1+2, Olympus, Liberis (Strezov choirs and Oceania are my go-tos, but I use them all)

Interesting enough, I find I mostly use Spitfire libraries for a lot of my mobile game work. Spitfire Chamber Strings + Spitfire Symphonic Winds + Spitfire Symphonic Brass all with close + tree (plus a bit of Berlin perc) fits really well.

I also want to mention that my entire template includes almost every library I have and like, so I "use" a lot more than listed, but these are my main go-tos.

 

I may be a bit of the odd man out, with my CInesamples fetish, but, here's what I'm currently using.

Winds: Cinewinds core, Westgate Winds, and 8diOboe. I do like the sound of the Sony stage, and the Westgate winds were played with a great amount of passion and character.

Brass: Cinebrass Core, Cinebrass Pro, Dan Dean Ensemble Horns/Trumpets/Trombones.. They really have a nice sound to them, and some good scoring stage energy. I am having a lot of trouble with their solo horn and solo trumpet, it captured a pretty listless performance, so I'm looking for alternates (more on that later). Dan Dean is a hidden gem from years past, one of the best trumpet recordings I've heard in a while. Problem is, it's horribly programmed, so you have to build it from scratch in Kontakt.

Perc: Cineperc. What can I say? I love the punchiness of the perc. The Timpani is especially beefy.

Strings: Cinestrings (although I'm changing them out). They're currently what I have in my template, but I can't get behind their recordings; just too bright and nasally, and the recordings
are all over the place. They'll do for now, though.

Choir: Mars and Venus Choir (Soundiron). Still sounds huge and great to me

Extras: Sympbobia, Sonokinetic Tutti, Evolve, Damage, Drums of War 1 and 2. Yep, I'm a Cine-Shill. It had the best sound for me, and I like that it's in Kontakt, for when I need to customize samples.

Having said that, I'm seeing the limitations of my template; most notably, I don't like the sound and character of Cinestrings. I just bought Hollywood Strings Diamond, and will be incorporating them into my template this summer, and swapping out Cinestrings. I think that there's no library out there that's better scripted, and has the sound I'm looking for, more than HS. I also might revisit Spitfire Percussion, as I do love Mike's sound from ID.

 

Here is my current setup.

• Woodwinds
  • Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds
  • Spitfire Ablion One
• Brass
  • Spitfire Symphonic Brass
  • Sample Modeling
  • Spitfire Albion One
• Percussion
  • Spitfire Redux
  • Spitfire Albion One
• Piano/Harp
  • Spitfire Orchestral Grand
  • 8Dio 1928 Steinway
  • Spitfire Harp
• Strings
  • Spitfire Chamber Strings
  • Spitfire Symphonic Strings
  • VirHarmonic Bohemian Violin/Cello
  • Spitfire Albion One
    

 

That's my current setup for orchestral sound:

• WOODWINDS
  • Hollywood Woodwinds
  • Samplemodeling
• BRASS
  • Hollywood Brass
  • Symphobia 2
• STRINGS
  • 8DIO Agitato
  • Hollywood Strings
  • Samplemodeling
• PERCUSSION
  • East West QLSO
  • Cinesamples
  • Hollywood Percussion

Looking forward to buy samplemodeling Brass bundle, but I'm not there yet

 

after suffering with demanding like libraries (for the modest 16 GB Ram on my macbok pro), i'm finally getting a new beefy PC for video editing/color correction/music in 2 months or so and i think i'll just buy the whole Spitfire Symphony Orchestra, it seems easy to use and it sounds lovely. Part of my frustration comes for being working as an arranger for live shows here in Chile for many years, so i wasn't really doing any mockups, just writing on my notation program. Since then i've been working more and more as a composer (web series, short films, commercials, and lots of corporate 1 min crappy tunes that pay the bills). My setup varies from project to project but it is mainly:
DAW: Logic Pro X, just got Ableton Live but i won't use ir for any scoring job.
Gear: M-Audio Axiom 61, small Korg Nano Key2 (for keyswitches), TEC Breath Controller, Ableton Push 2.

Woodwinds: Hollywood Woodwinds Gold (great sound, but the legato scripting on some of the instruments sucks, also, i'd kill for an easy keyswitcheable patch). I also use the VSL Special Edition Woodwinds (it was my first orchestral library, well, without counting the ol' amazing and quick Edirol Orchestral )

Brass: Hollywood Brass Gold, VSL Wagner Tuba (yes, that's only because i'm a wagnerite). Same issues with HB, lovely sound but a pain to use.

Percussion: I still don't have a good perc library, i'm using the VSL Special Edition Perc, and for more "epic" stuff (i don't like that style at all, but sometimes i get asked to do it), Storm Drum 2. I bought Cineperc Core a couple years ago, since they told me a Kontakt Player edition was coming (i don't own Kontakt) in a couple months... i ended up waiting a year and a half (or something like that) and once it came out, i found out i had to buy an uber expensive upgrade that included all their perc libraries just to use the one i had bought sometime ago... Anyway, i think i'll just get the Spitfire Redux Perc.

Harp: VSL Harp 1

Strings: Hollywood Strings Gold (again, lovely sound, but it's almost impossible to use on my current system) and VSL Dimension Strings (great library).

 

Well it's all been a bit of a change for me recently - so here goes:

• Hollywood Orchestra Diamond

I recently purchased Hollywood Orchestra Diamond in a sale (what a surprise), which also lead directly to the purchase of 64gb RAM, a 5m Ethernet cable, a second hand copy of VE Pro6 and some aspirin. It's much more comprehensive that anything I've had before and I'm still trying to tame it somewhat. But I think it will be the back bone going forward once I've shown it who's boss.​

• Cinematic Strings 2

I just love this library. It has more air then my wife's hairdryer. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. I have a voucher to 'upgrade' to CSS, but simply haven't ever felt the need - at least not yet.​

• Embertone Intimate Strings

Excellent for solo parts - particularly when used with Touch OSC on my iPad. The Freidlander Violin played with Touch OSC control makes my Schindler's stand on end.​

• Ivory II Pianos

I've got most of them, but my favourite is the American Concert D with the reverb turned off and shoved through QL Spaces. Beautiful. However, I love playing Boogie Woogie, Blues and old time rock'n'roll piano (usually in an attempt to score free beer), and the Ivory II Uprights collection is just pure piano pornography for me. You know it's wrong but it feels so right....​

• Spitfire Albion

I have both the original Albion and the Albion ONE, and was surprised to find how different they are. These are the only Spitfire products I own but I just keep going back to them again and again. They are both just big boxes of really nice stuff and I rate them as one of my best ever purchases. Wish they were not quite as wet though.​

• Metropolis Ark I & II

I bought Ark I in a sale and then foolishly bought Ark II on preorder. Ark I is terrific. If I ever want to shout at the world, then ARK I is my megaphone of choice. ARK II I've never really used too much - and is one of those impulse purchases (bought on pre-order) that I won't be doing again. However, to be fair to ARK II, I've never really given it much of a chance - so I think I will have to set up a date where we can get to know each other better.​

• Symphobia.

You never forget your first, and Symphobia was my first. I'll never forget my first Multi ! The neighbours must have thought I had the Royal Philharmonic upstairs with me. It might not have all the bells and whistles of some of the newer libraries, but it sounds terrific. Quality never goes out of style. ( I also have 2 - a great addition)​

I have a few other bits and pieces - Tina Guo Cello, NI Symphonic Series stuff, and I do occasionally like to go swinging with the Project Sam people - but enough of that - this is a family show.

I think my next purchase will be the the Orchestral Tools Woodwinds - but that's a way off as I need to focus on developing personally rather then just getting more stuff.

 

• DAW: Cubase Pro 8

• Woodwinds: Cinewinds Core / Hollywoodwinds / EWQLSO Platinum Woodwinds / Embertone Clarinet / Orchestral Tools Berlin WW Exp A

• Brass: Sample Modeling Brass / ProjectSam Orchestral Brass

• Percussion: True Strike 1 / LUX NOX Perc+ - XP1

• Harp / Piano: Soundiron Elysium Harp / EWQL Pianos (Bösendorfer 290 88dyn Patch) / Spitfire Orchestral Grand

• Strings: L.A. Scoring Strings / LASS Legato Sordino / NI Symphony Series String Ensemble

• Reverb: Altiverb 7 / Valhalla Vintage Verb / EWQL Spaces

 

DAW : Cubase Artiste 9

All : EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold

Beginner

 

DAW: Cubase 8
Strings: Spitfire Mural / Chamber / Albion One / 1 / 2 / 3 /
Woodwinds: Spitfire / OT ARK 1+2 / HollyWoodWinds / Symphobia Solo Flute / Embertone Flutes
Brass: Spitfire / ARK 1+2 / CineBrass / Samplemodelling The Trumpet / Symphobia / Performance Samples Angry Brass
Percussion: Spitfire Percussion / HZ Perc 1 / HandheldSound Flying Percussion / Strezov Thunder
Choir: OT ARK 1+2 / Strezov Storm Choir / Soundiron Requiem Light / Omnisphere
Piano: Ravenscroft / Keyscape / Malmsjö
Reverb: B2 / Valhalla Plate

 

DAW: Logic X

Strings: Hollywood Strings / VSL (Special Edition)

Woodwinds: VSL (Special Edition) / HollyWoodWinds

Brass: CineBrass / OT ARK 1

Percussion: Hollywood Drums

Choir: OT ARK 1

Piano: Ravenscroft 275

Reverb: Altivreb 7

 

WW:
Berlin

STRINGS:
Spitfire Mural
Cinematic Studio Strings

Brass:
Cinebrass Core/Pro
Spitfire Symphonic Brass

Perc:
Spitfire

Harp:
Spitfire

Piano:
Too many to list

Other:
Omnisphere
Trillian
Stylus RMX
The Ladies
Various 8dio stuff