Reply To: What are the BEST/WORST sample library & plugin purchases you’ve made & why?

[fretman]

What an interesting topic! I made a spreadsheet of all the sample libraries I have so I can quickly search for the type of instrument I’m looking for and then see what my options are. Right now I’m up to 1120 VI’s but I’m sure there’s more since I sometimes don’t split bundles up into their components. It also allows me to color-code them as I discover their worthiness. For context, I write realistic acoustic/Americana music. So, the sounds have to be pretty much spot on. These are what I marked good or bad:

Best (in no order)

• Amplesound (so far everything I’ve used sounds great. Perhaps a little cleaner and “hi-fi” compared to OrangeTree).
• Orangetree (very responsive designer. CC control is very deep allowing for realistic playability. I still wish they’d unlock their mandolin tremolo from DAW tempo since it’s often too slow).
• Skybox Audio (very responsive keyboards – 16 velocity layers and round-robins. Sounds very nice and is an unbelievable value.)
• Loops de la Crème (for specialty instruments. I love their creative MW use. My favorites are Guiro, Jews Harp and Cymbal Swells)
• Ilya Efimov (responsive designer, these just work well. I’m looking forward to their new updates)
• Chris Hein Chromatic Harmonica (this will do everything I’ve needed from a blues harmonica)
• Sonuscore (haven’t tried everything but what I’ve used sounds great)
• Eduardo Tarilonte Accordian collection (sounds great. Love the French Musette)
• Indiginus (sounds great but I often need to CC the key signature to make it do things it wasn’t otherwise designed to do)
• Redroom Audio (now part of Impact Soundworks – the best bodhran I’ve found since it models both hands)
• Cinematique (only tried a small subset of their instruments but what I’ve used so far sound very good)

Bad (in no order):

• Boulder sounds (unusual instruments but sounds are amateurish with too much rough phasey weirdness)
• Rigid Audio (sounds artificial)
• 8DIO Misfits (rougher than I thought they would be, maybe suitable comedic music)
• Spitfire Audio (I hate to put this in the “bad” category but it has more red marks than green in my database, although all of it is in their accessory instruments. I haven’t used their orchestral stuff yet. This is due to things like restricted range or being useful only for sound design.)

Studio One, Windows, RME UFX, Yamaha MSP7

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