Do I really need to rob a bank ?

[NickGeorge]

So I've been looking for some new orchestral VST's to add some new flavour to my projects. I've been research different features like articulations, size of ensembles, recording positions blah blah blah ...

But do I really need a +$500 orchestra bank if I just need something to complement my electro/house/garage/grime productions ? I'm thinking these may be more suited if I'm working on a 20 minute film score.

I think I'm mainly looking for some good quality brass and string ensembles and solo instruments which aren't too wet or adjustable with room mics as I like to play with my own reverbs ... do you have any recommendations ?

[normen]

Please, please don't take this personal (I don't know any of your music) but I think it always makes more sense to invest in composition and arrangement skills first. No matter how "nice" the demos of these instruments sound, they were done by professionals who can get similar results out of way simpler sample instruments. People got great music out of 80s sampler instruments which all fall way below what you get with the Reason FSB already. If you really have "that song" you want to sell or something and the samples don't cut it you can always give it to somebody to render it with a different sample set (vienna etc.). The promise of "oh, this synth/sample set/guitar will make my music better" never gets fulfilled really.

Again, I am not implying that your skills are your problem, I just want to answer your question of "do I really have to spend that money?" with a sincere "NO, you don't"

[selig]

You haven't mentioned your feelings on the Orkester ReFill that comes with Reason. Have you explored it and found it lacking for your work? Because if not, it's free and it's already on your hard drive.

I've used many of the Orkester sounds to build convincing arrangements. It's certainly lacking in some ways, but in ways I only found after a year or so of exploring and pushing the existing sounds. I now supplement it with Miroslov and Euphonic Strings, fwiw. 

[eusti]

Please, please don't take this personal (I don't know any of your music) but I think it always makes more sense to invest in composition and arrangement skills first. No matter how "nice" the demos of these instruments sound, they were done by professionals who can get similar results out of way simpler sample instruments. People got great music out of 80s sampler instruments which all fall way below what you get with the Reason FSB already. If you really have "that song" you want to sell or something and the samples don't cut it you can always give it to somebody to render it with a different sample set (vienna etc.). The promise of "oh, this synth/sample set/guitar will make my music better" never gets fulfilled really.

Again, I am not implying that your skills are your problem, I just want to answer your question of "do I really have to spend that money?" with a sincere "NO, you don't"

I agree with working on composition skills first... If they are up to snuff things are much easier... I remember when I thought I needed a better synth than my first one... A used Poly 800... Until I saw a friend play with it... Not saying that you don't have any skills by the way... But usually with orchestration it totally helps to know exactly how it would be done with real instruments... What do the different parts usually play, etc...

D.