Sound samplers

#1 Hi, maybe I can shed some light on the subject by telling you what I use- though my current setup would run more than $1000. Still, you could get a decent start on things for around that price point with some careful shopping.

Sorry in advance for the length of this post, but there's a lot of ground to cover : )

Probably the best PC based sampler is GigaStudio (www.nemesysmusic.com/). It doesn't come with any sample libraries itself (other than the GigaPiano, which is a pretty nice sampled Grand Piano), but it forms the core of what can be a really versatile and powerful setup. The mid-level version of GS, GigaStudio96, is quite serviceable and will run you around $399.

You'll also need a sequencer of some sort. I personally use Cakewalk's Sonar ($479, www.cakewalk.com/). Its a very full featured program that has excellent MIDI editing capabillities (in this case, don't think of MIDI as the clunky sounds you hear in old DOS games, but rather think of it as an instruction list that tells your computer which instruments to play when notes are triggered by the sequencer). On top of that it also is a terrific audio editor and comes with plenty of cool effects.

There are other sequencers available, like Cubase or Logic, and probably some decent shareware or freeware ones if you look around (try www.hitsquad.com/smm/). I only have experience with Cakewalk though.

Once you have the sampler and sequencer, you'll need some sounds to run through them. There are a few ways you can go with this if your intent is to do orchestral music.

When I first started, I wanted an all-in-one solution so I'd have the full orchestra's worth of sounds at my disposal. The cheapest full Orchestra set I could find was Peter Sidelaczek's Advanced Orchestra set (details here). It covers all the bases, but is a bit old and compared to the top libraries today it's a bit underwhelming. Still, for an all-in-one solution there isn't much competition at its price point of around $1000. I got my copy cheaper than that, but it was two years ago when I bought it... there may have been some kind of deal / discount I bought it at. Can't recall...

If you really intend to do pro-quality music though, you're better off buying the best of class instruments in each category. Some examples are (and these are all sets I use):

Strings- Garritan Orchestral Strings is amazing, and covers any articulation you could ever want. The realism you can attain with this library is unparalleled, and it can still be had for its $999 introductory price, which is a great deal.

Brass- You really need to mix two current libraries here to get the best results. Dan Dean Solo Brass and Quantum Leap Brass compliment one another well and can generally produce terrific results. There are some other brass libraries on the not too distant horizon though that may be worth looking into as well. DDSB runs $500-600 and QLB runs $675 or so depending on where you get them.

Woodwinds- I still use my Advanced Orchestra woodwinds, which do the job pretty well. Dan Dean also makes a highly acclaimed set of solo wind samples, which you can see at the same link I gave for DDSB above. I've heard that the X-Sample woodwinds are pretty well done too, but I have no experience with them. You can get info on them at www.soundsonline.com

Percussion- Again, I use the percussion from AO, but the best specialty library out there (one I'll soon be purchasing) is Ultimate Orchestral Percussion from DS Soundware. You can find it for around $200 at www.audiomidi.com.

Some of the libraries I mentioned are available in other formats as well (like EMU or AKAI) so even if you go the hardware route, you may want to look into them.

Incidentally, if you want to hear my gear in action, drop by my portfolio site and have a listen.

In conclusion, pro gear isn't cheap... and in most cases you get what you pay for. What you buy all depends on what kind of results you expect to get.

#2 Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. :)