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Most of us don’t have the budget of The Beatles - we can’t afford to hire an entire orchestra. Heck, many of us can’t even afford to pay one or two string players. That’s why a kick-butt plugin can be a DIY musician’s savior. Stringed instruments are the most difficult for software developers to replicate.
There are so many different variables to factor in when a violin player gently glides their bow over the strings of the instrument. This leaves no option but to tediously record instrument samples with complex multi-microphone rigs. Even after the software developers have the samples, there is still the challenge of programming a plugin that will intelligently play their samples. Unfortunately, putting in this much effort into a plugin gives the developers no incentive to release it for free. The best sounding orchestral plugins tend to cost money. However, that’s not stopping us from also mentioning some interesting free plugins as well!
Whether you are a hobbyist or a professional producer, this article will help you find the plugin of your dreams. Use the table of contents below to navigate to the section most suitable for you. Imagine having more than 500 orchestral instruments at your disposal. Fortunately, you don’t have to imagine it, because the Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 plugin provides that. It also includes specific articulations for specific instruments as well as different playing techniques. You can choose from different performance spaces, reverb sounds, and basically customize the sound of the instruments. Garritan has vastly improved the realism and authenticity of the instruments, allowing you to record an orchestra that listeners might think is an actual orchestra.
Additionally, you can’t build it one instrument at a time instead of using a predetermined, fixed-size, typical section. Best of all, it’s an affordable package. The quality-cost balance is perfectly suited for any decent bedroom producer, yet it can also be a supplemental plugin for the music producers in high-end studios. Film Score Companion has five main components to it: brass, strings, woodwinds, Big Bang Cinematic Percussion, and the grand piano, Eighty Eight Ensemble.
Brass - not only do you get the brass ensembles, you have a selection of solo instruments at your disposal. This section includes trumpets, trombones, bass trombones, French horns, and tuba, all with different techniques and methods. Strings - this component is great for composing and using as a background orchestra. Thanks to the individual instruments, you can build custom sections piece by piece. Again, you have the option to use different techniques with first violins, second violins, violas, contrabasses, and cellos.
Woodwinds - you also have a wide selection of woodwinds, which are actually the closest instrument to the human voice in frequency and tone. So they can be a nice compliment to a vocalist. Eighty Eight Ensemble 2 - this component is a beautiful recreation of a Steinway 9-foot CD 327 grand piano, packed into a great piece of software. You’ll get the real grand piano sound (in 1,500 samples) that you’d expect in your home recordings.
What more could you want? Big Bang Cinematic Production - no matter what you need - from big drums to supplemental rhythm - the BBCP has you covered. If you want real strings played by real people, the Miroslav Philharmonik 2 plugin is the one to check out. You can choose from legatos to pizzicatos to spicattos to staccatos and all the other “os”. Because just having a good recording of a stringed instrument isn’t enough - it’s all about making the corresponding samples sound real and stay true to that instrument. One reason this plugin works, for both beginners and experts, is that the legendary jazz bassist Miroslav Vitous had a hand in it. IK Multimedia partnered with Vitous to record over 58 GB of sounds including more than 2,700 sampled instruments.
With his vision, the instruments can stand alone or blend in with an entire orchestra. Plus, you get some of the best post-production options, like five EQs, four dynamic processors, nine modulation effects, nine reverb and delay options, and more. You may not have heard of Keith O. Johnson, but you should become familiar with him. He’s an 11-time Grammy nominated recording engineer and has recorded audio for the Symphonic Orchestra plugin by EastWest.
This piece of software has won many awards, including Sound On Sound's Reader's Choice Award, three times! The recording of these samples is unique in that Johnson used three mic positions on each instrument: close, stage, and hall. This means you can choose which mic position you want in your recording, giving you more control and customization and less need for post-production reverb. Basically, you can get the true sound of a professional orchestra on your computer and in your songs.
The whole point of Instant Orchestra is to make arranging an orchestra super easy, sans sequencing and annoying setups. This allows anyone to orchestrate quickly and beautifully. It only takes a minute to get the ideas in your head into audible music.
You can mix and match ensembles, including all of the same instrument or a combo of strings, horns, and woodwinds, for example. The emphasis is in getting the instruments to flow together in perfect unison.
Plus, you get plenty of effects for post-production, like glissandi, rips, and harmonics, among many others. This plugin also provides playing techniques to make everything sound that much more authentic. You can even find samples based on the mood you need, giving you a great starting-off point for your arrangements.
Recorded in the Futura Productions studios, the Orchestral Companion Strings plugin provides beautiful sounds from members of the Boston Pops and the Boston Ballet Orchestras. They used both spot and ambient mic-ing on these musicians and their instruments. Under the direction of SONiVOX’s Jennifer Hruska, every sample session was recorded by Emmy award-winning recording engineers Antonio Oliart and John Bono (who also won an RIAA award). They positioned the musicians in the same way they would for an actual performance, even taking into consideration when certain musicians were absent and treating the room accordingly. So no matter what your level of producership is, you can easily play these virtual instruments and make them sound like they’re in the room. If you need top-notch orchestral sounds that are ready at the touch of a button, Session Strings might be a good choice for you.
They recorded their samples at one of the best studios in Germany, using instruments from the 18th and 19th century played by some of the top musicians from the best orchestras in Europe. With this plugin, there’s no need to spend hours upon hours tweaking little parts of your arrangements. It’s super easy to get up and running. The sounds of these instruments don’t require post-production - they’re at a pro-level right from the gate. But if you do want to tweak the sounds in post-production, you have EQ and reverb available. Plus, you have the Animator feature, which takes your orchestra and “funkifies” it.
You can use it to riff on chords, adding rhythmic staccatos, spiccatos, or pizzicatos. 8Dio’s Century Strings is a realistic orchestral plugin crafted by multiple-award-winning producers Colin O’Malley and Troels Folmann. There are three main volumes in this plugin: Traditional Ensemble Strings, Sordino (Muted) Ensemble Strings, and a bundle with both of them together. The Traditional Ensemble Strings volume has five main ensembles:. First violins with six players. Second violins with four players. Violas with five players.
Cellos with four players. Basses with four players They each have matching articulations, meaning you can blend them together with ease.
The Sordino Strings Ensemble is the same but with muted instruments. It, too, blends well within itself and with the instruments in the Traditional Ensemble.
Some say CAGE is the most comprehensive orchestral plugin. The Custom Aleatoric Group Effects (CAGE) was put together by Folmann and O’Malley, the same award-winning producers who produced the Century Strings Bundle from 8Dio. The woodwinds volume includes nine microphone positions for a wide range of sound options.
Under the umbrella of those nine positions, there are two main groups: Ensemble and Divisi. So you’ve got options, to say the least. The woodwinds sections also have over 380 effects, making it almost impossible to not find the effect you need. EastWest is on the list yet again, this time with their brass plugin. It’s one of the most powerful and realistic on the market. Its quantity matches its quality - it has 10 times the amount of content than the next guy. It’s easy to play and uses just one MIDI channel.
This top-notch performance is thanks to producers Doug Rogers, Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen as well as award-winning sound engineer Shawn Murphy. They recorded these samples in one of the best studios for brass recording - EastWest Studio 1.
Using five mic positions, the brass sound they’ve capture is meant to perfectly meld with Hollywood Strings. Hey, developer of VSCO 2 CE here- not affiliated in any way with the camera app as you suggest. ‘VSCO’ stands for Versilian Studios Chamber Orchestra and is only used because writing that out over and over is a lot of work, just like GPO or EWQLSO are popular abbreviations for other orchestral libraries. The company name is Versilian Studios, rather than Versil Studios. Just a semantics side-note- VSCO 2 CE is really just a set of.wav files (and some basic SFZ’s). Folks like Bigcat and Paul Battersby have made their own versions in VST/AU, Kontakt, SFZ, xrni, and other formats. Some use the VSCO designation, others using completely different names (e.g.
Sketching Chamber Orchestra); that’s why Bigcat also has a VSCO 2 VST/AU set like the Percussion you linked as the last entry.
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In our guide we talked about why mixing dynamic sounds is a tough egg to crack. Vocals are super dynamic so they’re trickier to mix. But you don’t have to pull your hair out every time you hit the mixing board to get the perfect vocal. There’s a dizzying amount of plugins out there. That’s why we did the digging so you don’t have to. Here’s 9 plugins that will help you get your vocals and beats fitting together like peas and carrots. Vladg and Tokyo Dawn Proximity Ever recorded an entire vocal only to realize you had the mic in the wrong spot? The and lets you change the mic placement AFTER you record.
Pretty useful and pretty cool. 8. Acon Digital Multiply Chorus Vocals need some color. That’s where a chorus plugin comes in. Acon Digital’s will thicken up your sound. It’s a whole bunch of tiny delays (we’re talking milliseconds) that fill out your vocals to liven them up a bit. 7. Melda MAutoPitch Auto-Tune are pretty strange. But there’s no denying that it’s an invaluable tool for producers dealing with vocals.
Auto-tune is the vocal mixer’s secret weapon. Is one of the best auto-tune plugins around.
It fixes pitch, corrects sour notes, and even gives you that iconic T-pain/Cher effect if you want it. This one comes in a free plugin bundle with all sorts of fun mixing toys. 6. Voxengo OldSkoolVerb Reverb for vocals is essential. Reverb takes your vocals out of the room you recorded them in, and allows you to make your own sound space. Has got you covered no matter what your needs are.
From huge halls to a tiny closet, it gives you all the options to create the perfect sonic space in your mix. popuptrigger id=”9936″ tag=”signup-button” /popuptrigger 5. Klanghelm DC1A The is a nifty little character compressor by Klanghelm. It uses sophisticated compression settings and an easy 2 knob setup that has you covered “from smooth levelling to heavy pumping.” Be sure to check out their absolutely. 4. Alex Hilton A1 Trigger Gate If you’re wondering how far you can push your vocal track this plugin will do a great job letting you know. Using a step-style sequencer the packs in a boat load of cool effects. It’s good for all sorts of stuff. So grab it and start experimenting.
Glitch Machines Hysteresis Just like any other part of a mix, vocals are a great place to experiment. The effects on definitely deliver a whole bundle of experimentation. This delay plugin creates “robotic artifacts and abstract music malfunctions.” Count me in. 2. Acustica Ochre EQ All good mixing needs a keen sense of EQ early on. Vocals are no exception. That’s why the from Acustica is so useful. It’s perfect for sculpting out the best vocals you can.
1. Fine Cut Bodies La Petite Excite Exciter plugins add subtle harmonics to your vocal track for some extra sonic-excitement in the high range. The free from Fine Cut Bodies (you just have to signup to get it) is a great plug to try out.
Throw it on your vocal and enhance it to your liking with some subtle harmonic distortion. Go make that perfect vocal Vocals are tricky to mix. But with these handy plugin tools it doesn’t have to be so tough.
Grab ’em all, hit the studio and get cracking on that perfect vocal track. And don’t forget to let us know your favourite plugins for mixing vocals. We wanna know all your tips and tricks too.:) Get all of the LANDR-approved free VST plugin collection:. popuptrigger id=”9936″ tag=”signup-button” /popuptrigger.