Flutes and Horns?

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Can anyone recommend some good woodwind (flutes) and horns (trumpets) VSTs?

Hopefully which sound good but don't quite break the bank?

I just ordered a TEC MIDI breath controller the other day, hope it ships out soon, really looking forwards to trying it out -- and rather jumped the gun on the instruments. I was going to get some of Sonivox's, as I really like their 88 piano that came with my Keystation and they were having a sale, and then my computer wouldn't start up again. Well what was the last thing I installed? Their trial software along with it's iLok protection. Figure it likely was the latter that forced me to do an OS rollback. It was a pain in the neck anyway, I had to change from Ableton Lite to Reaper to even get the things to run properly.

So I'm rather soured on Sonivox because of the technical issues, and think their horns and woodwinds could be a bit better too in any case, looking for something else.
 
Looking at it just a little, at this point I'd probably go for it for $200! Just trying out one of the violins advertised it was impressive. Too bad it's not on sale right now.
 
I think I saw East-West Hollywood Horns Silver on sale for $100 at AudioDeluxe. East-West uses it's own sampler (Player).

Paj
8^)
 
Too bad about them, they use the same iLok software that crashed my PC with Sonivox.

I am loving this TEC breath controller though. It is a work of genius! Now if I can just find some virtual instruments to fully let the control it gives express itself.
 
You should resolve your iLok issue because you'll probable have to, eventually. Too many vendors use it and, in the long run, it ends up being more convenient and stable than other systems. SONiVOX packages have a quirk when installing them---if everything is not done in the correct sequence there can be a complication. I think that that is more a function of the SONiVOX installer, not the iLOK software. My initial reaction to the iLok software was aversion but now I actually prefer it. There is an issue from time to time with it not starting itself but this has become more stable and there are other threads in this area HomeRecording that show you how to quickly address the issue.

BTW, right now, I've seen the EastWest Hollywood Horns Silver for as low as $66 (FrontEnd Audio).

Paj
8^)
 
Thanks for the heads up on the sales. I am trying to take note of legitimate sources. I can hear why that Hollywood is popular. While I may do an OS reinstall before too much longer, to see if that helps, it takes a lot of time and work to do that and put everything back together again.

I keep looking at the different orchestral offerings out there. The GPO5 looks interesting and inexpensive, though I read a fellow saying he didn't like excessive vibrato on the strings, which couldn't be done away with, yeah that's something. Still it may be a great starter to try.

Since I have this breath controller which is like having hmm.. 4 extra mod wheels to control expressiveness.. and your hands are free. Really what I want to find is some vsts that have those kinds of expressiveness controls I can assign to it. I'm piecing through what's out there bit by bit.
 
I will give it more of a listen!

It's too bad Kontakt isn't on sale right now the more I listen the more I like the instruments people make for it. I even pestered them asking when the next one was and all I got was 'sign up for the newsletter'.
 
Right now I'm looking at the SWAM engine instruments and I am liking a lot what I see. They look like they respond a lot and so can work well with a TEC breath controller.

I saw one fellow using a LEAP Motion device as well as a breath controller with the SWAM Violin. Really impressive. Makes me want to try the LEAP and the app that links hand motions to MIDI too. Definitely high up on my list of things to do!
 
Well, an update here of sorts.

Right now I have the Claire Flute Virtuoso Instrument from 8dio on my wishlist, just watching for a sale. I have my eye on it because of the variety of articulations.

The flute I am using now is the free Alpine flute. Love the sound of it. I just play it on the keyboard for enjoyment. I'm starting to take note of what VSTs I have where I simply do that, not because I want the VST for some sound for some purpose, but what I just return to, enjoying playing, and that is what I mark down as 'truly good'.

Alpine flute truly has a great sound, the only thing I could want more from it is more articulations like a high priced flute would have.

I seem to be organizing my VST instrument library more towards small ensemble music at this point, rather than big orchestral stuff, with the exception of the new release of the First Violins of Europe I grabbed because it's on sale (50% off). It's only after I got it that I learned it's a bit of a different sound from my other instruments so harder to mesh them together, taught me I needed to keep an eye out for that. I think to do orchestral it'll be a lot easier if I stick to same brand sections recorded in the same spaces than trying to mix them together. . And Spitfire's releases are more something I am aiming for, for that purpose than Auddict, though since they got me with the First Violins they may get me for more.

Still haven't settled on a solo trumpet. Too many aimed at different styles of music than I am aiming for, bit hard to sort through. Oh and I got that LEAP Motion to go with the TEC breath controller. Really interesting to control the articulations with hand gestures. But a little hard for me to adapt to so far, takes more work than just using a mod wheel, need to keep fiddling with it and its setup and get more comfortable with it, or decide to just use modwheels/tracks instead. Breath controller is great for the SWAM violin. Fun to play, lots of control, but there's the sacrifice of sound quality using a sample modeled instrument rather than a sampled, so it's a bothersome trade off.

Can't bring myself to sink the spare change into the SWAM type flutes due to that particular unreal sound to them, despite variety of breath control ability I'd really love to try. I do think though flutes are among the instruments that suffer least from being simulated rather than sampled.

So, best solo flute so far: alpine flute. Best solo trumpet (for classicalish, mostly legato playing): unknown.
 
I nearly bit on EastWest's orchestra due to the sales so many times. :) Glad in the end I didn't though, going to hold out for Spitfire's and that'll take a lot of $$$.
 
I nearly bit on EastWest's orchestra due to the sales so many times. :) Glad in the end I didn't though, going to hold out for Spitfire's and that'll take a lot of $$$.

I picked up EW Platinum a while back. I can't really get on with the strings but the woodwind and brass really sounds great!
It's not without its issues, all the same.
 
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