Best Orchestral Sound Libraries

Hello guys, this is my first post here. My name is Giorgio and I'm from Italy. I'm a sound designer and a... young composer. I've taken a look at the forum and it seems really nice.

I'm looking for a complete orchestral sound library (complete orchestra, chamber ensembles and solo interments) good for classical and film soundtrack music. So... these are my questions for you:

1st Which is, in your opinion, the best library?

2nd Which is the best quality/price ratio library? (possibly a quite cheap one)

Obviously, they don't have to be complete bundles, but they can also be separate libraries (strings, woodwinds, etc.) that I can buy separately.

Thanks in advance.

hello Giorgio: You must reconcile your ears with the price. Check out the demos from these companies. East West, Project Sam, Garriton, Vienna Symponic Libraries. East West has bundles for a complete orchestra. Project Sam has Symphobia, which has premade ensemble sections. All good but $1000 per library.

Edited June 12, 201510 yr by Ken320

Probably the overall best for realism is VSL (Vienna Symphonic Libraries) but they are expensive. Also be aware that you would be getting samples in GigaSampler format. That does mean you can make use of VSL on Linux just as easily as on Windows, but with the other libraries with their own built-in players you would be stuck with Windows (though there may be ways round this restriction, they are not straightforward) so your choice of operating system also has a bearing on your choice. I'd say the overall best value for money would be the Garritan libraries, they have some very nice instruments and you can make ensembles by combining individual instruments, but the strings are a weakness (as they are in many other libraries: strings are hard to make realistic). The best idea may be to combine the Garritan libraries with something like Symphobia which has decent-sounding string sections.