Best Sound libraries for CHAMBER (solo) instruments

[Kento]

Hi,
I know there has been a lot of discussion here about the best orchestral sound libraries, (garritan, eastwest, etc) but I was wondering out of these, which had the best sound libraries for solo instruments, such as in a string quartet? Thanks

[Ray Kemp]

Round and round we go!

Answer, failing having real players:
the virtual instruments YOU! can manipulate, caress even into some sort of expression that putting the notes in the right places in the bar will NEVER! achieve.

No matter how much you spend on vsti's. They still need to be played.

[Roger Noren]

As I use Garritan GPO I know it has pretty good solo strings that can be used for quartets. Disadvantage is the vibrato that is within the samples and cannot be controlled, but nice chamber sound with three quite different violin characters.

What I have heard from EWQLSO in terms of user demos is not suitable for chamber music, sounds to aggressive and processed to "stand out". Much better for film music.

Vienna is said to be very good with lots of articulations, but much more expensive and I don't know any user that posts demos. (I'm new in this forum so hopefully there are somehere.

Miroslav could also be an option, worth checking out. Sounds similiar to Garritan, but seems to have some automated functions that perhaps can make programming easier. Cost a little bit more, I think.

[Ray Kemp]

Roger,

IMO
If you were comparing Vienna Instruments with EWQL I wouldn't mind but to put GPO up as being pretty good is just plain ridiculous. GPO instruments are generally horrible unless in the hands of a really top rate manipulator of vsti's.
There are few who would even bother.

GPO is entry level and that is exactly where Mr Garritan makes his money. I've listened to the first track on your page and I certainly would say, it would benefit greatly by being recorded using EWQL Gold.

[James Semple]

For realistic sounding string quartet work I would suggest either

VSL Solo Strings
LA Scoring Strings

for the most part.

Ideally I would use live players.

[Roger Noren]

Ray,

What I am referring to was chamber music, not film scores. But thanks for listening! I know, for that type of music EWQL would have been much better. I did that more of an experiment to see if it was possible to do those kind of stuff with GPO, and well...

I still believe that you get a lot of fun for 150$ with the new GPO version. If money doesn't count, then obviously there are much better stuff available.

[Ray Kemp]

Sorry, I don't get the film score thing. Has there never been a film score featuring chamber music?
For that matter, have there never been film scores using any and every kind of music known to man?

There are recordings of music featured here in the forum from most genre and the only appreciable difference is the quality of the recording depending the tools and musical production skill available.

[Ray Kemp]

For your first two choices, I would say, only if one's ears can appreciate the difference.

[Kento]

Hmm, I think there still are general conventional trends with film music, like the Neoromantic-like music, often lacking in melody, that's used in American Hollywood film scores when the music is written by a composer designated for the film. I haven't really seen films that truly use Breakcore (or at least a version not watered down, like Venetian Snares' style) extensively, for example. I'm a little skeptical about this claim to film music diversity, especially when it comes to more commercial films.

[Niek Lucassen]

Of course nothing beats the real deal, but I'd probably go for the Vienna solo strings.