Orchestral Samples

Speaking as someone who owns (and regularly uses) both I would pretty much say VSL Special Edition is the first choice hands down. There are some pros and cons to each obviously but all round SE wins every time (though it is more than twice the price of course). There is one exception to this rule and that is (and I hate to say it) the piano. Yes, the most vital (arguably) component of any orchestral library is utter tosh on the VSL SE. It is unfortunately a reduced velocity layered version of their full piano and suffers considerably. Seriously, its unusable in my eyes (Sound On Sound said the same thing). I recently did a solo piano piece and used garritans piano instead as it is pretty good.

There's nothing else i would use from Garritan anymore though I'm afraid - Its fine for demos but thats where the buck stops. Also SE does not have less articulations as you mentioned... or certainly not if you take into consideration the 'extended' version (at extra cost). And, you have much more flexibility with their Vienna Instrument player (basically their sampler). The VSL SE is a no brainer for the price... i know it's still a lot to some, but what you are getting is basically the 'best of' their whole library - and it sounds (when used properly), excellent.

Buy it, and maybe get a piano extra if you need it.

In that price range, you may want to also check out Kirk Hunter emerald orchestra.

check out kirkhunterstudios.com .....GREAT strings

Do check out Garritan Jazz and Big Band for your commercial/jazz/Broadway-style scoring needs.... for $250 you get a lot.... fall offs and doits and the like.... definitely worth it. There is also another program called Broadway Big Band or something like that...but at over $2K it is prohibitively expensive.

This is a big area in some ways... you're asking for a lot from the low range price band of orchestral sampling. Yes, VSL SE will do many of the articulations you want, but you may need the extended edition to be sure... or you may actually be wanting the full editions of individual sections for some of these articulations (which is big bucks). So yes, you may find gaps... but without spending thousands, thats probably going to happen (without compromising quality).

The Kirk Hunter set doesn't seem to have too much info about articulations, and I certainly don't know but I would compare this carefully before making the decision. Also, a lot of this comes down to very thorough programming at the end of the day to make things convincing. If you've not done this type of thing before, be prepared - its going to take a long time with ANY orchestral set to make it sound right. And thats also about learning how to arrange properly - not writing in a way which is unnatural/unrealistic etc.

At the end of the day, listening to audio demos and others advice doesn't always help... its when you boot it up for the first time and you begin to get a sense of what it does that makes the difference. Unfortunately you can't trial this stuff. How many times have we brought sample CD's in the past based on demos, got them home and gone... "oh, this doesn't sound like it did on the demo..." All I know is I've not been disappointed by VSL SE (and I've been disappointed with a fair few things).

I wouldn't be too carried away by Kirk Hunters presence either... you can still speak to Gary Garritan on that side of things, it doesn't mean the products any good (not dissing Garritan, but it doesn't cut it anymore). As for 10.5.1 - I think its fine (I'm running 10.4.11 on my G5), but check with Time and Space who distribute them (in the UK). They're very helpful as are the Vienna team in Austria who do it well over Email.

Choose wisely... and good luck.

Both libs are good, but consider one thing: how much time are you prepared to spend messing about with tracks with different articulations, key switching etc. It's enough to put many people off, there is a huge time investment required to make orchs sound vaguely real, it's much more difficult than you imagine. where VSL scores is in their player. If you want to get results quickly and without going slightly mad, then consider the worth of the player carefully!

Its a good point mentioned above... the Vienna Instrument player is a big plus over using the ESX24. You can easily set up 'matrix' presets for your favourite articulation combination in conjunction with sensitive velocity control via mod wheel etc.

Not that I'm trying to sell you VSL at all. I really don't know the KH package - its just quite an important factor in terms of workflow. Once you get your head round it, you'll realize you couldn't do this with EXS24.

check out the track FOLLOW ME on Kirk Hunter...
The Chamber Strings are really turning me on.... they have that lush, vibrato-y hollywood sound.

So anyone else out there weigh in on ease of use with respect to string samples and workflow?

It's all kind of a crapshoot...I love my Garritan Jazz and Big Band, often... but the EXS24 Bari Sax (or maybe GB) blows away the Garritan.... it's a big fat, nice sound. So who knows...it's what you like as well. But I, having been seriously sequencing with Logic 8 for only 3 days now, have outgrown EXS24-- for strings especially.... can't find a good legato patch with a fast articulation.. only staccato strings. AND WHERE IS THE BASS AND CONTRABASS CLARINET? Hmmm....