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Choosing an Orchestral Library in 2024

mybadmemory said:
CinePerc, CinePerc in Musio (which also gives you everything else for the same price), or TrueStrike are good choices. :)
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I agree. Musio gives you access to Cineperc, which is a vast collection in its own right, as well as the complete Drums of War collection, Sunset Drums, etc. it’s kind of a no brainer to try it for a month and see if it fits your needs. I purchased Musio One (perpetual license) which offers a ton of content and is a great value. I used the percussion in Cinesymphony Lite as my main perc library for years.
 
Hi,

I'm trying to decide between Steinbergs Iconica Opus (when in a sale) or Hoopus. My budget is £400 tops. What would you recommend from these and is there anything you would recommend as a great sounding complete and comprehensive orchestral library?
I current own :-

Native Instruments :-

Symphony Essentials Woodwind Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Brass Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Percussion
Symphony Essentials String Ensemble
Cremona Quartet
Action Strings
Emotive Strings
Session Strings Pro 2

Steinberg :- Iconica Sketch

IK :- Miroslav Philharmonik 2

What would you recommend as a great sounding orchestral library that is very comprehensive and complete within my £400 budget?
 
dickiefunk said:
Hi,

I'm trying to decide between Steinbergs Iconica Opus (when in a sale) or Hoopus. My budget is £400 tops. What would you recommend from these and is there anything you would recommend as a great sounding complete and comprehensive orchestral library?
I current own :-

Native Instruments :-

Symphony Essentials Woodwind Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Brass Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Percussion
Symphony Essentials String Ensemble
Cremona Quartet
Action Strings
Emotive Strings
Session Strings Pro 2

Steinberg :- Iconica Sketch

IK :- Miroslav Philharmonik 2

What would you recommend as a great sounding orchestral library that is very comprehensive and complete within my £400 budget?
Click to expand...
Within that budget, probably BBCSO Core
 
dickiefunk said:
Hi,

I'm trying to decide between Steinbergs Iconica Opus (when in a sale) or Hoopus. My budget is £400 tops. What would you recommend from these and is there anything you would recommend as a great sounding complete and comprehensive orchestral library?
I current own :-

Native Instruments :-

Symphony Essentials Woodwind Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Brass Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Percussion
Symphony Essentials String Ensemble
Cremona Quartet
Action Strings
Emotive Strings
Session Strings Pro 2

Steinberg :- Iconica Sketch

IK :- Miroslav Philharmonik 2

What would you recommend as a great sounding orchestral library that is very comprehensive and complete within my £400 budget?
Click to expand...
Both Iconica and HOOPUS are good options. Other contenders within the 4-500$ range on sale are BBCSO and Spitfire Symphony Orchestra from Spitfire or Musio 1 from Cinesamples.

There is no best choice here, they are all great in their own ways and have their own quirks so the choice would be very subjective. Listen to them closely, go with what seem to appeal to you the most, and be prepared to never be happy with any of them regardless. ;)
 
dickiefunk said:
Thanks for suggestion. Could you give me any more detail as to why you would recommend this one over the other two libraries I mentioned please?
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Actually I won't recommend it 'over' other options but rather suggesting to watch some walkthrough videos before buying. :) Also you can subscribe EA's composer cloud for a month to try out HOOPUS.
I don't have experience with Iconica Opus so cannot comment on it.
SA SSO and HOOPUS both have up- and downsides. To me I prefer SSO's AIR sound. But I don't think you can go wrong with either purchase if you just begin to produce in full orchestra.
Here is a discussion thread about SSO relaunch vs HOOPUS which is worth having a look
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/spitfire-symphony-re-issue-vs-hoopus.149481/
 
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I would look at the issue from a completely different angle.

Instead of investing thousands in different libraries for different sections, I would have a very close look at the following thread, where fellow members compose music with 1(!) library for everything.

Then, I would pick the ones that I liked most (or suited my aesthetic preferences) and I would buy the cheapest one.

You learn what you like by trying out (or buying) different libraries, so I would suggest refraining from spending thousands at the beginning of your journey.

That way, you can focus on composition without the pressure that all this money adds to the process while having normal expectations from your tools. A 2k USD worth of samples won't make you a better film composer.

My 2 cents as a beginner who fell victim of FOMO enough times during Black Friday.
 
Houdini said:
I would look at the issue from a completely different angle.

Instead of investing thousands in different libraries for different sections, I would have a very close look at the following thread, where fellow members compose music with 1(!) library for everything.

Then, I would pick the ones that I liked most (or suited my aesthetic preferences) and I would buy the cheapest one.

You learn what you like by trying out (or buying) different libraries, so I would suggest refraining from spending thousands at the beginning of your journey.

That way, you can focus on composition without the pressure that all this money adds to the process while having normal expectations from your tools. A 2k USD worth of samples won't make you a better film composer.

My 2 cents as a beginner who fell victim of FOMO enough times during Black Friday.
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+1

When you start out you really want to focus on the music. Orchestration, arrangement, and midi programming. Having a premixed all in one that lets you do this is a huge benefit here.

The moment you start mixing different libraries together you add on production and mixing to the list of things to handle, and it’s very easy to get stuck in technicalities and template building instead of music writing. :)
 
dickiefunk said:
Hi,

I'm trying to decide between Steinbergs Iconica Opus (when in a sale) or Hoopus. My budget is £400 tops. What would you recommend from these and is there anything you would recommend as a great sounding complete and comprehensive orchestral library?
I current own :-

Native Instruments :-

Symphony Essentials Woodwind Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Brass Solo + Ensemble
Symphony Essentials Percussion
Symphony Essentials String Ensemble
Cremona Quartet
Action Strings
Emotive Strings
Session Strings Pro 2

Steinberg :- Iconica Sketch

IK :- Miroslav Philharmonik 2

What would you recommend as a great sounding orchestral library that is very comprehensive and complete within my £400 budget?
Click to expand...
The main question is what music are you going to make with it? :) I don't have Iconica so can't comment on it. The rest have its own goods and bads and different sound/flexibility. BBCSO Core is good but it's only 1 mix mic - I would wait for the sale on Pro if you decide to go with BBC, overall Pro is very solid and flexible - as well as new SSO package. HOOPUS is much drier than those two which can be good or bad for you but it's also very comprehensive. BBC's mix mics are very good and give nice cohesive sound out of the box which is very good feature - no need to tinker with instruments levels etc (and with Pro you have much more mics to change the sound if you wish). MUSIO is an awesome deal but for orchestral I would go for former 3 libs (this might change when Musio brings different mics in there).
 
jules99 said:
Well, this might influence your next decision on "buying" a library. If you still can.

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I don't understand how they can generate revenue from Labs, which are free libraries.

Or is LABS going to be the name of the subscription, which gives access to all their libraries?
 
When I made my first premium orchestral library purchases I decided to base it entirely on what I though sounded the best. I bought Afflatus Chapter 1 Strings, Berlin Woodwinds Revive (Kontakt version), Cinematic Studio Brass and BBCSO core for the percussion and to have a library with all sections recorded in the same space. I'm still VERY happy with my original purchases. They sound wonderful. I still use them too. You can hear them in this piece that I orchestrated.



If I were to start over, I'd likely buy Berlin Strings, Aaron Venture Infinite Brass & Woodwind bundle, True Strike and a Musio + Composer Cloud sub with a student discount. I'd then pick up the Best Service Emotional series for solo strings and the Leonid bass from Embertone.

Infinite Brass can handle a studio sound, symphonic sound, and big band swing style brass.
Infinite woodwinds may not sound as good to me as Berlin Woodwinds, but they are just so easy. Easy is important. It also makes it easy to copy MIDI parts from instrument to another.

Berlin Strings does everything I need it to. All those many articulations work great for demanding classical pieces. It even has ostinatos which I find useful. What missing in the Berkley series is what makes Berlin Strings great, so I'd go for the full version if you can afford it.

Berlin Strings is wet, so depending on your situation, you may want or need a more dry library that can do it all too. I'd recommend Tokyo Scoring Strings for that.

I used the above instruments in this piece along with instruments from Rinascimento by Fluffy Audio.


Most anything else you need for scoring, you can find in the huge selection provided by Composer Cloud and Musio.
 
Houdini said:
I would look at the issue from a completely different angle.

Instead of investing thousands in different libraries for different sections, I would have a very close look at the following thread, where fellow members compose music with 1(!) library for everything.

Then, I would pick the ones that I liked most (or suited my aesthetic preferences) and I would buy the cheapest one.

You learn what you like by trying out (or buying) different libraries, so I would suggest refraining from spending thousands at the beginning of your journey.

That way, you can focus on composition without the pressure that all this money adds to the process while having normal expectations from your tools. A 2k USD worth of samples won't make you a better film composer.

My 2 cents as a beginner who fell victim of FOMO enough times during Black Friday.
Click to expand...
Another vote for this approach - I really like this from @BenBotkin
 
As much as people hyped up cineperc, and I got it on sale:

I still use bbc pro percussion the most for my orchestral writing.

Cineperc has nice timpani and grand casa options and SO many options except that I much prefer bbc pro snare drums (and sometimes depending the timpani for the dampened options).

I don’t really like cineperc’s snare. And it’s melodic percussion is so noisey and hissy, there’s a lot of hiss all throughout.

Bbc pro really shines for classical percussion.

Cinepercs ethnic options tho and variety ARE a great deal, especially if you’re doing kind of exotica style music it’s the best.

But not my first orchestral choice.
 
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