Best Software for Strings

[LewToons]

What's up Newgrounds Musicians!

I have always had such huge respect for the musicians here, in both their talent and their knowledge of hardware and software -

so i come to you with this - - Due to getting my recent job, i have come into a bit of money and am looking into buying a more professional piece of software to produce music (vs garage band haha)

so what is best if i am really looking into creating a lot of music with (ideally) great sounding strings?
Something like hear in the intros of these songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHIJfpVMHv0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4WF__TSCUo&feature=related

ATM - i am looking between Logic and Protools - ANY and ALL information or insight would be really really appreciated from you guys - - i can troll the internet for hours looking at reviews but i'd much rather hear input from newgrounds right here in the site!

[Step]

Depends on your budget. You should be looking for VST's if you want to find specific sounds though, not DAW's like ProTools or whatever. Anyway, I'll post all the string samples I know of...

Considering you said you've got your hands on quite a bit of money, I'll start off with top-range stuff. East/West Hollywood Strings or LA Scoring Strings are very high in quality. You really don't get much better than that which isn't an actual orchestra.

East/West Symphonic Orchestra, which I use (just listen to one of my tracks like Sanctuary to hear what the strings sound like - NO SELF ADVERTISEMENT INTENDED), is much cheaper and contains strings. Only problem is that it's not specialised - it contains instruments from the whole orchestra and not just strings.

That said it's leagues cheaper than the first two I mentioned and has a lot of awesome string sounds. There are staccato strings, legato strings, spiccato, trills, tremolo, marcato, you name it, and these articulations are all scattered in solo and layered versions of violins, violas, cellos and double basses.

A little further down in quality but still decent is Edirol Orchestral and Garritan Personal Orchestra. These are even cheaper and naturally don't sound as good but they're pretty popular and sound great for their price.

If you have Kontakt (which isn't free), Cinematic Strings Monster Staccatos is a free sample library full of just staccato strings similar to the strings in the example you posted. I use it too and the sounds are pretty awesome (check out my Spy Theme (Loop) submission to hear them), even though they don't give you as much freedom as you've got in East/West or Symphobia or something.

Now for the totally free stuff. Soundfonts, courtesy of blackattackbitch. For free soundfonts, the quality really isn't that bad. Give them a shot!

Hope I helped.

[loansindi]

At 4/18/12 04:24 PM, Supersteph54 wrote: A little further down in quality but still decent is Edirol Orchestral and Garritan Personal Orchestra. These are even cheaper and naturally don't sound as good but they're pretty popular and sound great for their price.

I like the strings in Garritan, and I think it's a great place to start for someone with no experience sequencing orchestral music.

[TerraNation]

Best softwere depends what music style ur planing to make,
Best is find good sampels and work them out.

Softwere ido use for instrumentals strings so one i could recommend or try before buy is
Symphobia 2 has very nice orchestral feelings prolly one of the best ihave but its very expensiv to buy..
Sylenth1 VSTi alot of options to make strings how you want it but there is loads of toruitals how to make strings.
Common people use is Nexus but remeber this has only finished presents and most used vsti.
Massive its like sylenth1 you can creat your own pad layering

ewql symphonic orchestra is also something but require alot of pc space and money :)
but i used them to make uplifting trance music creat something with nice atmosphere.

if none of these actully anything for you then idont know what could help you then try sampel and build layer after layers.

[LewToons]

I only wish i knew what VSTs or DAWs were haha - - are they like plugins to existing software? - - if so - -what is the software that you actually "create"/ "edit" the music in?

sorry i'm a noob with this shit

[Back-From-Purgatory]

At 4/18/12 07:33 PM, RedHarvest wrote: I only wish i knew what VSTs or DAWs were haha - - are they like plugins to existing software? - - if so - -what is the software that you actually "create"/ "edit" the music in?

sorry i'm a noob with this shit

VST = Virtual Studio Technology... It's more or less a universal format for Virtual Instruments such as Massive, Toxic Biohazard, East West Symphonic... Basically, VSTs are the instruments and effects that you "plug in" to a DAW.

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation, such as Fruity Loops Studio, Ableton, Reason, Logic, Reaper, LMMS, etc. etc... These are where you actually create the music, using the VSTs you have downloaded/purchased within the DAW.

[Usernamemyarse]

At 4/18/12 03:48 PM, RedHarvest wrote: ATM - i am looking between Logic and Protools - ANY and ALL information or insight would be really really appreciated from you guys - - i can troll the internet for hours looking at reviews but i'd much rather hear input from newgrounds right here in the site!

Neither Logic or Protools have any good strings built in, so the things your looking for are Plug-ins.
As a logic user, I suggest buying Logic Pro, its fairly cheap and quite straight-to-the-point, it wont take long to have the basics down, Protools has a learning curve equal to a brick wall.

And whit the money you save on Logic can go to buying some higher-end plugins, im not much of a symphonic producer, but im pretty sure Native-Instruments "Komplete" bundle will give you what you want including a lot of other things like synths and drums, the bundle is also fairly cheap.

But if you feel like spending some extra dollars, I suggest looking into "Komplete Ultimate" (Like "Komplete", only more!), IK Multimedias "Philharmonik" or if you have a lot of hardrive-space, anything from East/West (Symphonic orchestras, choirs, guitars, cinematic drums e.t.c. e.t.c.).

[LewToons]

At 4/18/12 08:13 PM, Usernamemyarse wrote:

At 4/18/12 03:48 PM, RedHarvest wrote: ATM - i am looking between Logic and Protools - ANY and ALL information or insight would be really really appreciated from you guys - - i can troll the internet for hours looking at reviews but i'd much rather hear input from newgrounds right here in the site!

Neither Logic or Protools have any good strings built in, so the things your looking for are Plug-ins.
As a logic user, I suggest buying Logic Pro, its fairly cheap and quite straight-to-the-point, it wont take long to have the basics down, Protools has a learning curve equal to a brick wall.

And whit the money you save on Logic can go to buying some higher-end plugins, im not much of a symphonic producer, but im pretty sure Native-Instruments "Komplete" bundle will give you what you want including a lot of other things like synths and drums, the bundle is also fairly cheap.

But if you feel like spending some extra dollars, I suggest looking into "Komplete Ultimate" (Like "Komplete", only more!), IK Multimedias "Philharmonik" or if you have a lot of hardrive-space, anything from East/West (Symphonic orchestras, choirs, guitars, cinematic drums e.t.c. e.t.c.).

^^Awesome man - this is really helpful - thank you!the learning curve is actually important to me cuz i know garageband so well & i know that it has a lot of similarities with logic -

@backfrompurgatory - - thanks as well! - - everything is actually making more sense - i guess i need both of those in the end! - thanks man

[Zero123Music]

LA Scoring strings is the best string VST I've heard, costs quite a bit though. I think it works in kontakt though which is pretty cool.

I highly recommend project sam symphobia (1 not 2) because they have great string ensembles, brass, woodwind and a range of orchestral effects. Not as good for solo instruments though - ps, loved echo force :)