Why You Shouldn't Use Free Orchestral Libraries (Edirol Orchestra Etc.)

Some of you aren't going to like this, but here's my thoughts on Edirol, Sonatina and the likes.
List of GREAT Freebies I recommend:

--------------------
⏫ PRIVATE LESSONS: Coming soon...
--------------------
--------------------
🎻 LIBRARIES & SOFTWARE:
(For each module, the libraries are sorted based on how much I like them).
- STRINGS: Metropolis Ark 1 & 3, Nucleus, Cinematic Studio Strings, Fluid Shorts, Cinematic Strings 2, Jaeger
- BRASS: Metropolis Ark 1 & 3, JXL Brass, Nucleus, Twelve Horn Ensemble, CineBrass CORE, Century Brass, Jaeger, Angry Brass
- CHOIR: Oceania, Metropolis Ark 1, Stormchoir 2
- WOODWINDS: CineWinds CORE, Nucleus, Metropolis Ark 1 & 3
- HYBRID PERCS & LOOPS: Damage, PercX, Decimator Drums, Cerberus
- BIG CINEMATIC PERCS: Los Angeles Modern Percussion, New Epic Toms Ensemble, New Epic Dhol Ensemble, CinePerc
- ORCHESTRAL PERCS: CinePerc, Rhapsody Orchestral Percussion, Kontakt Factory Library
- PIANO: The Giant, Woodchester Piano, Spitfire LABS Soft Piano
- HARPS & OTHERS: CineHarp, Kontakt Factory Library
- SYNTHS: Juggernaut, Serum, Harmor, Jaeger, Evolution Atlantica,
- ORCHESTRAL SFX: Metropolis Ark 3, Palette Orchestral FX
- SOLO STRINGS: Tina Guo Solo Cello, Solos of the Sea, Cinematic Studio Strings Solo
- SOLO VOCALS: Jaeger, Vocalisa
- GUITARS: Basic Live Guitars & Bass routed into Waves GTR / Guitar Rig, Metropolis Ark 1, Heavyocity Atlantica
- TRAILER SFX: Custom / Private Samples, AVA Instinct, Cinematic Trailers Designed, Epic Sound Effects Quantum, Scenes From The Multiverse Vol.1, Juggernaut, Jaeger, Evolution Atlantica, AizerX Classic Trailers Toolkit, AizerX Trailer SFX Tools
- REVERB: ValhallaRoom, ValhallaShimmer
- MIXING & MASTERING: iZotope Ozone 9 Advanced, iZotope Neutron, FabFilter Pro-Q3, FL Studio Plugins
- DAW: FL Studio 20
--------------------
💻 HARDWARE & PC SPECS:
- Desktop PC: 3.7 GHz Intel Core i7 8700k / 32GB DDR4 RAM / 2TB Samsung Evo860 M.2 SSD
- Laptop PC: Asus ROG GLW752 (2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ / 16GB DDR4 RAM / 1TB Samsung Evo860 M.2 SSD)
- Audio Interface: M-Audio M-Track Plus
- MIDI Keyboard: M-Audio Keystation 49 MkIII

[AlexMoukala]

I also want to stress this was a comparison with a VERY simple track.
PS. Obviously this only applies if you aim to do music professionally in a field that does not accept lack of realism (which means most of them).
There's some fields though, such as indie game soundtracks, where soundfonts would match the aestethic of games and are thus not a problem.

[PPedroFernandes]

Why you shouldn't use 500 dollars libraries. I don't have 500 dollars.
Although, I do understand your point perfectly

[DiegoJPinto]

But maybe I want my music to sound like Age of Empires II.

[Niowiad]

00:55 conducting the orchestra with a mouse pointer like a boss

[RahShanProductionsMTU]

The free one sounds like runescape music lol

[DarkVayu]

Pretty simple for me: if you want to be a professional music composer, invest.
If you are doing things for fun, or for learning purposes, well, sonatina it's a good option.

[freddyspaghetti]

I personally use versillian chamber orchestra 2, (the free sfz version) and with velocity, key-switches and timing taken into account, i'd say it could be one of the most realistic sounding orchestras out there, with everything from organ, glockenspiel and nearly every drum and percussion instrument you'd find in an orchestra.
So not the most epic sounding, but the most realistic.

[neutrinosky]

I used to use free libraries such as fl keys as piano, but now I can’t stand the sound, it sounds like playing plastic instead of playing the piano

[KaugestadOlsen]

I’ve tried making some orchestral tracks over the years just for fun, and only ever used the Logic Pro stock plugins. It took hours upon hours to make it sound even close to decent, but I learned a lot about how to get closer to the sound I wanted by utilizing what I had available to it’s fullest potential (relative to the degree of skill I had), and it forced me to pay very close attention to how I arranged my tracks.

After coming across your videos recently, I pulled the trigger on Metropolis Ark 1-4 on a massive sale, and after a few hours of learning how to use it, it really feels like pay to win. But I also feel like what I learned from using free libraries for so long plays a big part in how easily I can use the instruments and articulations to get the sound I want, and identify the problem when something sounds off.

To get to the point, those “hours you’re giving away for free” are hours well spent if you use them wisely, because you’ll learn a lot of valuable lessons. And when you finally move over to more professional libraries, it will give your music (and motivation) new life.

[artetconscience]

Sonatina seems to be a little outdated now. Aside from the freebies you mentioned (unfortunately they all require a full version of Kontakt except for the labs ones) there are better free alternatives to Sonatina, such as VSCO2 (CE) and Virtual Playing Orchestra which are much more complete in terms of possibilities (keyswitches, articulations, dynamics for VPO, etc.). Indeed they can't compete with the sound of premium studio recorded libraries like Metropolis Ark or Albion but I think they may be enough for specific use of instruments (eg if you have a generalist but limited library) or for sketching.

[VivekTheMesmerizer]

Alex u r the best man and I don't want any other tutor. U r at the top man, keep teaching us. Thanks for your services Sir!! ❤️😊👌🙏

[ArturoAlbero]

I loved that you used the beer = money analogy. I used it all the time whenever I try to justify an investment (you know, this Virtual Instrument/game is just three beers or two saturday night).

For most of those freebies you need full Kontakt, which is not free... That's why Spitfire LABS uses its own plugin, to be completely free.

And, well, you could also apply this topic to classical background composers who used all their life Sibelius/Finale/Dorico-like programs and expect people to listen to their music as they do... Oh, I can relate a LOT of this. I wish in my music school they have taugh us how to use properly DAWs and virtual instruments, not Notation editors (which are great, but far easier to master an less useful to actually do music). And it is related with the free instruments, as the problem is the same: Sound Quality.

You can't expect people to imagine your music as it would sound in an ideal world. You have to deliver quality. And this requires a lot of skill and training time!

Thanks Alex, great video!

[notchillustgrhymecity]

I kno this is 4 years old but still on point today thanks King BlessUp

[Chonasmusic]

This is super interesting even though I am not even producing orchestral music 👍🏽 I really enjoy seeing how people make their music and I always try to take notes for myself 👀

[charliecalzbeats]

Man this video hit so many key points. I like how you are keeping it real about the craft. From all the YouTube tutorials I’ve seen, no one has kept it this real! Man I sat back and re-evaluated my entire career. Appreciate you bro! 🙏🏾 (also, I’m a hip hop/lofi producer)

[masterstacker]

Alex, you are a treasure. A wealth of Orchestral plug-in info here. Not yet ready to buy but I did pick up Layers (free) from orchestraltools as a starter. I just found out about and downloaded Labs (free) yesterday from spitfireaudio. There is also BBC Symphony Orchestra which you can also get for free from spitfire if you fill out a questionnaire, which I did.

[earthlightsmusic]

Looks like your point concerns what is software enough for Professional work. Not being Megan Randa Composer For Media, I'm not ready for an investment in EW libraries, just dabbling with Spitfire BBCSO Discover. But I know there'll come a day when I'll want Spitfire's serious libraries, so your point is well taken. I'm just taking my old stuff and advancing it past the Roland MT-32 synth box that was so state of the art back in the 1990s, for now. Gotta start somehow.

[dnfnssgu]

Edirol has not been the industry standard for a long long time, but there have been plenty of soundtracks that used it well and are still quite cherished. Reject the modernity, fake sounding instruments are not terrible just because they sound fake

[ChrisKadaver]

I prefer simply yet genial music. With VST like edirol you can compose pretty good arrangements for smaller enables. At least good enough for me back in the days. But maybe not as a "end of the line"-production. But that's not exactly what it's for, so I guess you're right on that one. Still I think it's really usable for what I'm using it for.

[romualdphillip]

I'm currently using those free and edirol are a couple of those. Its very time consuming. I did learn a few tricks over the 8 months since I start goin into orchestral music at the start of this year. However it's very frustrating sometimes to do alot of things on them just to get them sound alittle better than they originally are. I do plan to purchase a good library in the near future. But at the moment I can't afford one yet. Oh and Alex what do you think of Audio Imperia's Nucleus?