Best orchestral sampling for around $150?

I know that probably the only one in this price range is going to Garritan Personal Orchestra, but I'm not sure if there's a way to get a discount on EWQLSO or something like that. I'm going to be using it for composing both classical and film soundtrack type scores so whichever program will fit my needs. I have an intel iMac with a 1.8ghz processor and 1 GB 667 MHZ of RAM and won't really be able to upgrade. Should I go with Garritan or see about discounts for EWQLSO or Vienna? Also if I bought one of those would I have to buy Kontakt2 also? I'm going to be using the sound library with Sibelius 5.

Thanks in advance!

Some libraries come with their player. GPO, EW and VSL have their own player. Kirk Hunter does not (needs K2)

On which one...

EW is rather better in terms of final quality than GPO, but is more difficult to use, and don't really know if it even works in Sibelius. VSL is even more difficult.

With GPO you can make great final results, according to the price of course, but it takes more effort. It also works very very well with Finale, rather than sibelius...

discounts you can get from all, pretty much, if you're a student.

Some libraries come with their player. GPO, EW and VSL have their own player. Kirk Hunter does not (needs K2)

On which one...

EW is rather better in terms of final quality than GPO, but is more difficult to use, and don't really know if it even works in Sibelius. VSL is even more difficult.

With GPO you can make great final results, according to the price of course, but it takes more effort. It also works very very well with Finale, rather than sibelius...

discounts you can get from all, pretty much, if you're a student.

Ok. How can I get the student discounts? Do you know the EWQLSO website?

EWQL - Google Search

EWQLSO - Google Search

Google is your friend ;)

But anyhow.

EW: Sounds Online

Garritan: Garritan Home Page

VSL. Vienna Symphonic Library

Kirk Hunter: Kirk Hunter Studios - Products

Get EWQLSO silver + silver xp(if possible)

They're great, much much better than GPO. I've used the 2 of them before.

Ok, I think I'm gonna go out of my price range and get the gold edition of EWQLSO. I see though that on Intel Macs like mine I would need to have the Kontakt player already installed. Is there anyway to get this for free? I see you can get the demo of it and the only problem is that you can't save. Would I need to save if I'm using EWQLSO since it would probably have a save feature? Does Sibelius come with Kontakt?

Thanks in advance!

Should I just get Kontakt 3 and use the VSL sounds that come with it and then eventually upgrade to EWQLSO Gold? The only thing I'm worried about is that Kontakt may be too complicated for someone who has absolutely no experience with any of this stuff.

Gold comes with the Kompakt player, so you don't actually need Kontakt (2 or 3).

Gold comes with the Kompakt player, so you don't actually need Kontakt (2 or 3).

And I think it is compatible with MAC as well. Getting Kontakt is also fine, but VSL requires you to mix the sounds a lot to get a sweet sound. EWQLSO sounds sweet enough out of the box.

I contacted customer support earlier and they said I need Kontakt 2.2 to use EQWLSO Gold on an Intel Mac.

But, is EQWLSO going to be too complicated? I have no idea what any of this channels, or MIDI connections mean. Am I just going to give up because Kontakt and EQWLSO are too hard to use? I want them to be able to play when I use the playback feature in Sibelius. Is that going to be too hard to set up?

Yes, Intel Mac needs Kontakt. Kontakt and Kompakt, initially don't have many differences, if I may say so. Of course Kontakt can be hugely more complicated, since it's a sampler and not a player, but at the basic level it's a little bit the same.

You should google "midi" and learn a little bit before buying anything however. As for Sibelius, I'm not 100% sure that it will work well with EWQLSO. Maybe you should wait for Sibelius users to chime in on this. :)

Yes, Intel Mac needs Kontakt. Kontakt and Kompakt, initially don't have many differences, if I may say so. Of course Kontakt can be hugely more complicated, since it's a sampler and not a player, but at the basic level it's a little bit the same.

You should google "midi" and learn a little bit before buying anything however. As for Sibelius, I'm not 100% sure that it will work well with EWQLSO. Maybe you should wait for Sibelius users to chime in on this. :)

Good idea! I'll probably ask around on the Sibelius forums tomorrow also. Can't wait for Sibelius to be delivered tomorrow so I can hopefully post my first piece on here!

I know this an old topic, but I want to readdress it for a second. When buying software or hardware, it is of my opinion that you should buy the best you can possibly buy. I think this way because if you buy the low end product, find out that it doesn't do everything you need it to do, you'll need to make a new invest to get the better product anyway, but with less funds.

Save your money and get the best that you will need or the best out there. Make sure to read the manual! Make sure to actually learn your tool! Make sure you get ever dime out of your program and become a master.

expensive isn't necessarily the best. sometimes you don't want the best, especially when you're just starting out, you'd rather have something that doesn't hold your creativity back , so you wouldn't have to deal with (or even have the options in the first place) parameters for mic positions, release trails, amplitude envelopes, filters, etc. etc. you'd rather have it sound good straight away and be user-friendly.

I'm thinking about getting EWQLSO silver, but they don't have silver xp available, does anybody know why?/

Hadn't noticed... brrr...

expensive isn't necessarily the best. sometimes you don't want the best, especially when you're just starting out, you'd rather have something that doesn't hold your creativity back , so you wouldn't have to deal with (or even have the options in the first place) parameters for mic positions, release trails, amplitude envelopes, filters, etc. etc. you'd rather have it sound good straight away and be user-friendly.

You're right expensive isn't necessarily the best, thus I didn't say buy the most expensive product there is. However, often times people go for the cheapest and then find, it doesn't do what they need it to do. I simply feel it is important to find the best product for you and not settle for something cheaper.

I'm thinking about getting EWQLSO silver, but they don't have silver xp available, does anybody know why?/

No idea, but Silver is enough. Trust me ;)

How can you say that something is "enough"?

I have bought GPO, because I wasn't satisfied with the sibelius sounds anymore. They were better than midi anyway, true, but still I wanted more.

And now that I've composed quite some using those sounds, I find that still I lack many instrumental samples I would Like to use!!

But to expand it further, I would have to buy Sibelius 5, the sound libraries of choice, and maybe even a computer (I only have laptops at the moment, and they're surely not best to get those programs running...)

So, what I want to say by this, is that, if you get more, you still want more....

(I would get all those things if I really NEEDED it, or if I could AFFORD it!!)

How can you say that something is "enough"?

Because you don't buy things becasue you fancy them simply. you don't go about "OH! This VSL looks great! Here's $12,000!" You have to think on what you need, what your clients need, what your projects need. I mean if all you want to write is solo piano music, what good is an orchestral package?

Then you have to make the maths. You don't spend money with no hopes of making them back, on way or another. This means that you either could be a student (towards a degree), you take advantage of the student discount and give yourself a few years to "make back" the money. The other is being a professional. I don't have anything ethnic or world as far as sample libraries go. I don't plan on buying and I don't like this kind of stuff to be honest. Still I won't say no to a gig which needs such instruments. I'll go out and buy it. and certainly my fees will cover the expenses. This is hw I've built what I have thus far...

Gpo and EWQLSO silver are about the same price. To anybody that has had experience with both which one is better in terms of quality, instrumentation, etc.?

if yr looking for a good deal on EWQLSO silver I just got it for $175 at guitarcenter.com, cheaper then buying it from the host site which was $200 something.

East West all of the way. Try and go for something higher than Silver if you can (since you get many more samples) but Silver will also be a great starting point for you.