Best Orchestra libraries COMPARED | Realtime playing! | Massive Playthrough #orchestrallibrary

#orchestrallibraries #orchestralibrariescomparison
In this video, I play LIVE REALTIME and compare my favourite top full-orchestra libraries.

The libraries :

Chapters:
00:00 - Start
04:08 - Violins
06:48 - A little bit about the orchestras
12:32 - Layering the violins
12:59 - Violas
16:55 - Cellos
21:32 - Basses
23:03 - Flutes
26:38 - Clarinets
28:56 - Bass Clarinets
29:54 - English Horn
30:51 - Oboes
32:59 - Bassoons
34:26 - Contrabassoons
35:50 - Harp
36:57 - Timpani
38:53 - Glockenspiel
39:56 - Celestas
41:18 - Trumpets
44:37 - Trombones
47:02 - French Horns
53:42 - My thoughts

🥁Modern 80’s Kit for Yamaha Montage/MODX here:

Favorite gear I use (Affiliate links- feel free to use them to support the channel at no cost to you :) ):

My favourite TRACKBALL mouse for audio:

My favourite wireless trackball mouse:

My keyboard for Mac and PC (super quiet too):

My LED pixel panel:

Studio RGB Bulbs:

[DarkSideofSynth]

Shall we stop for a moment, and appreciate and applaud Dom's brilliant playing skills? Without which, we would not be able to hear how libraries react to real playing instead of programming. Bravo!

[ViennaSymphonicLibrary]

Thank you for your kind words and great presentation of our product, Dom! 💙

[Torulv]

04:27 Steinberg
05:12 Eastwest Hollywood
05:45 Spitfire BBC
06:18 VSL
11:40 Steinberg
11:48 Eastwest Hollywood
11:56 Spitfire BBC
12:04 VSL

[TakahashiJones]

Would love to see a guide to orchestrating in Cubase, creating/setting up expression maps, basic dos and don'ts.

[OrlandoAponte]

Thank you for making a video like this. Anyone with great skill can make all of these orchestral sample libraries sound incredible, especially in a fully produced mix that caters to the strength of the samples, but this gives you the truest "out of the box" impression you can get.

[BigMTBrain]

Wow! If you're new to orchestral composition and orchestral libraries, like me, and thought orchestral libraries were all quite similar, what an eye-opener! Multiple libraries is definitely the way to go, if you want and can afford the added versatility and coverage in sound. Thank you so much for producing this fabulous educational video. Your feel and passion shines.

[twtobin]

Thanks, excellent comparison... I heard things I did not realize before between these libraries. I have BBCSO and agree with many commenters that it does not have enough FF, but is beautifully round sounding and I like that it is in a bit drier/smaller hall so I can add ambience as needed (I am using EW Spaces II). I have some VSL, but not the full Synchron, just Big Bang and some individual instruments.. In this comparison I found VSL rather thin and edgy sounding compared to the others in many ways, but some instruments are great. Always wondered about EW Opus and though it sounds great for some things, some instruments do not sound as good as I expected. I also have some 8Dio, so if BBCSO brass isn't brash enough, I can use Century Brass, or Legion 66 Trombones and Tubas, which are all VERY big sounding. Really like your style of reviewing.. subscribed!

[TheSaboteurLT]

dude the quality of this video is insane, the music keeps your attention in the background too, and the way you speak is just so good at keeping peoples attention too.

[Markrspooner]

Would love to know your thoughts on modelled libraries like Sample Modeling, Infinite Series by Arron Ventures and SWAM by Audio Modeling. These type of libraries try to give you more of that feel of playing the instrument rather than samples and keyswitches. They also work very well with Divisimate where you can have Midi routed to various instruments at the same time.

[mtgstudios]

I've been trying to get back in to making my own music due to taking a large motivation hit.

I always tended to like Orchestral music and wanted to make high quality songs because there really is a huge difference between a quality sound and a sound that doesn't have the right feel.

Before I would end up giving up because no matter what I tried the sounds wouldn't end up being adequate for me.

These sounds were perfect though. So, may try to get one of them and see if I end up being able to get back into it and maybe even try to see if I can revive a dead passion of mine.

Thanks for posting this video dom. I'd come up on a difficult time and have been struggling to keep hope alive for the future due to unfortunate circumstances. So this gives me something to have some drive for. Thanks for that.

[Notmehimorthem]

Hey Dom, thanks for the videos, big fan here. I have been playing around with EW Hollywood Opus's Orchestrator. I am finding it an astoundingly good learning tool. Here is a bit of a run down:
It's an "orchestration engine" . In a basic way one can press a few keys, and it can play back a whole arrangement. Before people switch off and call it a "cheat", I want to point out that many master orchestrators studied the scores of others. There is no shame here. The outputted score is not only very analysable, but its also very customisable.
One can start with the presets - these are all composed full orchestra (or part orchestra if you wish) ensembles playing in a certain style. I can hear they are based on famous masters and hollywood style arrangements. You can, if you wish, simply play in a few simple notes or chords and the whole orchestra will follow (use a bit of mod is better) giving you a fast impressive arrangement. But there is MUCH more.
In the original orchestrator using Cubase or any sequencer, if you looked at your MIDI recording, you only saw the notes you played on your keyboard - on a single instrument track. Not very educational! In it's latest incarnation EW have added a powerful hand icon. This is how it works. After you have played a passage (using single notes and simple chords) you can simple drag the hand across to Cubase, then the exploded score is put into Cubase, one MIDI track for each instrument all labelled correctly. You know have the whole score viewable in CUbase. You can of course select all the tracks and see the notation.
One adjustment is required before playback. For each MIDI track, one has to select your target Opus instance as the MIDI output, in Cubase's Inspector. After this, go back to the orchestrator and hit the bypass button next to the hand (bottom RHS) and this mutes the original instrument track. Now only the expanded MIDI tracks will sound.

This is an incredible learning tool, it's much better than simply importing a MIDI score, its soooo flexible, one can change anything. It's also a great way to learn how modern composers orchestrate. It will give you orchestration chops. It's not just MIDI too, the presets have tweaks like keyswitch articulation lanes, mod lanes etc. Such a great way to learn!
Even THIS is not all! Not only are there over five hundred customisable presets, but there is the ability, in a key edfitor, in the app, to change notes (you could also do this in Cubase if you have dragged the MIDI over),
You can even make your own preset from scatch. Here is an overview of this process. In the Orchestrator instruments are arranged in score order. You can Select your instruments, then allocate a range for it to operate in (for example a Cello might copy a bass in lower range an octave above, or it may carry a melody in it's high range). For each instruments you do this. Then in the key editor in the Orchestrator you put in the desired notes of your melodies. You can save this as a user preset and it will play back just like the provided orchestrator presets.
This is very useful for creating your own ostinatos for example. I could imagine a custom preset being used to signify a particular character entering a stage for example.


I know you have an interest in orchestration. I find this so stunningly good. I hope you could do a comprehensive video of this feature. Check it out :)

[cats-and-robots]

I feel like I've watched and listened to so many of these orchestral comparison vids and STILL can't decide! Thanks Dom

[buzzdx]

it's really nice to see how much you enjoy playing these =)

[composingtips]

Even though I have a bazillion libs, I still use Iconica quite a bit. Unfortunately, there's a bug in the basses: they don't answer to CC11.

[AliAlZayer]

Iconica for most of demo I heard gave me live feeling . I start to love it more after this video thanks Dom

[yuulian]

Your staccatos/spicattos playing skill is giving me goosebumps. Great work

[Shane-music]

Picking an orchestral library has got to be the hardest thing I've done my whole life! They all sound so good!!


...I haven't had a very hard life.

[PoiticayNcorrect]

When I first started earlier this year, EW Hollywood Opus Diamond was recommended by Sweetwater so I went with that, along with Hollywood Choirs. Then Spitfire had their Summer Sale and I went completely overboard because the prices were simply too good to pass up. BBCSO, all the Abbey Road One's, all 6 Albion's, HZ Percussion, HZ Strings, Hammers, Eric Whitacre Choirs as well as some of their smaller libraries. After that sale had ended, I added Damage 2, Nucleus, as well as a few other libraries. Of them all, I tend to use the Abbey Road's and BBCSO the most.

[shockdog]

All libraries are Amazing! Fantastic video.

[JordanpUK]

To my ears, BBC and Hollywood are the best sounding. Awesome video!