Better Instrumental quality sounds

[Rainer Fox]

I am using midi tracks of orchestral music and would like to get better quality instrumentation.   Violins and woodwinds sound very computer like .  I am looking for more realistic orchestra sounds.   What do I need to do ?   

 

[scook]

Establish a budget

Demo the plug-ins

Buy what you like within your budget

Enjoy

Repeat

[bitflipper]

"Establish a budget" - then double it.

Unfortunately quality orchestral instruments are $$. There are some here who've spent thousands. Come to think of it, that includes me.

Look for libraries that feature lots of articulations, a major factor when it comes to realism. Vienna Symphonic (VSL), Cinesamples and Spitfire are some of the top-tier vendors. Ready yourself for sticker shock.

However, lately I've been getting a lot of use out of an inexpensive library called Amadeus Symphonic Library. Despite its relatively low price, it sounds pretty OK and offers a complete orchestra with both solo and ensemble versions of each section.

[scook]

21 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

"Establish a budget" - then double it.

This happens naturally after a couple of iterations.

Also, that budget may need to account for storage, big streaming libraries like high end storage solutions too. 

[Steve_B]

Scook and bitflipper are spot on (as ever) with their comments.  However, just a thought ....

So the OP doesnt actually specify what they are currently using to play back the orchestral midi files. If its the Microsoft GS Wavetable or TTS1 then you can definitely improve on those sounds without necessarily spending large sums of money. There are cheap/free options that may be good enough and definitely worth a try. I really like the free BBC SO Discover from Spitfire. https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover 

Steve

 

[sjoens]

Some Dimension Pro instruments, esp. Garritan Pocket Orchestra, aren't 1/2 bad either.

[rfssongs]

External modules.

Also some of this may have to do with how you are creating the sequences.  Are you writing them on a staff or step inputting, are you hard quantizing ?

* Maybe you can use a CAL program to loosen it up. I believe there is one available.

* Or quantize to a strength percentage if you are recording midi from a keyboard & you quantize.  I use 91% I have seen some who say 85%. There are some who won't quantize at all. 

* There is also a groove quantize, I don't know much about that - have not used it in a very long time. (Decades - I think)

* You could change the swing percentage a little in the quantize dialog.

* You could use a vary velocity CAL if you have all similar velocities in your track.

In any case unless you are recording live instruments it's just not going to sound like live instruments. 

Midi is great it allows you to do many things, but it does tend towards stiff.

[mettelus]

My first question back to the OP would be, "What are you using now?"  As mentioned above, there are actually a lot of free (or even cheap) options that may be a quantum leap over what you are using now.

Second question would be, "How many songs are we talking about here?" If this is something you will be doing going forward, it is well worth getting acquainted with better libraries and planning/budgeting accordingly; but if not, the free/cheap alternatives may be sufficient. Even then, you may need to get acquainted with the free/cheap ones to know their pros and cons before upgrading further so you know the gaps you need to fill.

[rfssongs]

Another thought:

Adjust the Attack & Release times a bit to vary your sound over the course of the song.

[bitflipper]

Years ago we held a contest on the old forum where we gave everyone the same MIDI file (Star Trek theme) to orchestrate. That was fun, although the forum did not support polls back then and voting was done via gmail, and there was some ballot-stuffing going on. Maybe somebody with better googling skills than me can find that old thread.

Because I was conducting the contest, I couldn't participate. But I did one using only the TTS-1. It didn't turn out too bad. Several contributors used low-budget libraries,  and none of them were awful. Goes to show there's a whole lot more to convincing orchestration than just the quality of the instruments used.

[rfssongs]

50 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Years ago we held a contest on the old forum where we gave everyone the same MIDI file (Star Trek theme) to orchestrate. That was fun, although the forum did not support polls back then and voting was done via gmail, and there was some ballot-stuffing going on. Maybe somebody with better googling skills than me can find that old thread.

Because I was conducting the contest, I couldn't participate. But I did one using only the TTS-1. It didn't turn out too bad. Several contributors used low-budget libraries,  and none of them were awful. Goes to show there's a whole lot more to convincing orchestration than just the quality of the instruments used.

I would have to say that some great sounds can be had with just the sound sources that come with cakewalk. One thought is to selectively double the tracks to thicken & vary the sound. You can edit the volume envelope on one or both of the doubled tracks for variations.

[mettelus]

A good FX chain will also help a lot of lackluster samples. I have become a huge fan of MCharacter early on in those chains on the dryest sound possible (FX chain after that tweak). If upsampling isn't available in the player, Melda has it built in. I have started to shy away from wet sample sets because it limits the ability to tweak them. 

Not sure if the OP is coming back though...

[JnTuneTech]

9 hours ago, mettelus said:

A good FX chain will also help a lot of lackluster samples. I have become a huge fan of MCharacter early on in those chains on the dryest sound possible (FX chain after that tweak). If upsampling isn't available in the player, Melda has it built in. I have started to shy away from wet sample sets because it limits the ability to tweak them. 

Not sure if the OP is coming back though...

I tend to agree (on several points..) - mainly that treatment, including a good FX chain can be the part that gives life to samples, but is best when adjustable. -Simple things like SI Drums - you can't change the flat samples, noisy ones are noisy already, so that's tough. -Even with TTS-1 - if you forget that the default for patches is to have reverb send at 40 (and that reverb is rather "canny" to me), then without adjusting things, you will think it all sounds cheesy.  -Start with drier sounds, add FX, play with stereo in the mix, and many basic sample sets will work better than you might think.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

Depends ......

For free - you can't beat Spitfire's BBC SO Discover as mentioned already https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover

Also Project Sam who make the Symphobia series do a Kontakt Player ( also free ) instrument called The Free Orchestra https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra

Then I would go and grab whatever else you need from Spitfire Labs https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/?sortBy=prod_products_labs_latest&page=5

All of this is no good unless you can orchestrate properly and can make best use of articulations and CC controllers for expression. Otherwise it will just be a nicer sounding robotic performance.  Being able to mix and master this stuff is also part of the recipe

To learn how to use these libraries better I'd recommend watching something like Cinematic Composing on Youtube. 

https://www.youtube.com/@CinematicComposing

[Starship Krupa]

The free Orchestools instruments are pretty good. They allow plenty of sound shaping and have FX built in.

But what everyone else has said about learning how to use orchestral instruments is key. Even a freeware instrument can sound pretty good if you use it well, and the priciest sample library will sound robotic if you don't use it well.