Orchestral Sounds?

[lesmizzell]

What are the majority of you doing for orchestral sounds? Or, are any of you even using orchestral sounds?

I doing a good bit of theatrical pit-band work, and am thinking about converting some of the Dan Dean stuff Akai winds and brass.

Strings are remaining a problem for me though. I don't like large massed string ensembles. I prefer smaller groups where you can almost hear the individual players - 6 violins, 4 violias, 2 celli and a bass are almost ideal for what I want. Ideas as to where to look or successful conversions anybody else has tried?

After I try some of the Dean stuff, if it works to my satisfaction after tweaking, I'd be willing to post my programs for others (minus the samples, you'll have to acquire a legal license of your own).

[guydenruyter]

In my experience you can get good results by combining a typical 'string' sound with one or two individual instruments. Make those instruments play slightly differently, play with expression, aftertouch etc.

In my opinion, playing style plays a far greater role in making something sound naturally than having a huge sample. I have once made a recording using a clarinet sound from my good old Roland JV1080, I guess the sample was only a few 100Kbyte, but the patch was so well programmed that some pro-musicians thought it was a real clarinet.

[lesmizzell]

In my opinion, playing style plays a far greater role in making something sound naturally than having a huge sample.

Which is exactly why I'm so picky about my string sounds - I've played both strings and winds in an orchestra before. On the computer, I've been most happy with a combination of Synful and VRSound Strings for Kontact. Synful is pretty amazing for winds and brass as well.

I plan on using a Yamaha WX5 to play wind sounds from the Fusion.

I just haven't found a magic combination for strings yet.