Best orchestral soundfont?

[tavasti]

Suggestions which is / are best free or cheap symphony orchestra soundfonts?

[tavasti]

Ok, after some search and testing, something found:

- Sonatina is quite good, but it at least all instruments with tremolo missing
- Compifont has tremolos (not convinced about quality of all)
- Agean Symphonic Orchestra does not sound like real instruments at all

[Michael Willis]

Ok, after some search and testing, something found:

- Sonatina is quite good, but it at least all instruments with tremolo missing
- Compifont has tremolos (not convinced about quality of all)
- Agean Symphonic Orchestra does not sound like real instruments at all

If you like the original SSO, you should try Peter Eastman's SSO2, which includes tremolo samples for all string sections.

You also might be interested in the following:
No Budget Orchestra
Versillian Studios Chamber Orchestra
Virtual Playing Orchestra

Here's a piece that I made with VPO: Pumpernickel and Periwinkle

If you like the sound of VPO and you're using Ardour, take a look at this Ardour template

[tavasti]

First test, maybe not complete, but demonstrates the sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig8W33z7cv

Mostly with Sonatina, something from Virtually Playing Orchestra

[tavasti]

Returning to this topic. Is there free or affordable orchestral soundfonts which have multiple velocity layers?

[Michael Willis]

multiple velocity layers?

Many of the above mentioned ones have multiple velocity layers.

[Lyberta]

Returning to this topic. Is there free or affordable orchestral soundfonts which have multiple velocity layers?

The free as in freedom one is VSCO, others are proprietary.

[d.healey]

The free as in freedom one is VSCO, others are proprietary.

Does that really matter when there are no free SFZ players that are any good?

[tavasti]

The free as in freedom one is VSCO, others are proprietary.

Does that really matter when there are no free SFZ players that are any good?

I was considering repacking some sfz to sf2. sf2 does not support round robins, but several velocity layers work ok. And one possibility is to place roundrobins to near each other on velocity, and randomize velocities a bit in daw?

For that repacking this might be usefull: https://github.com/freepats/tools

[Michael Willis]

I was considering repacking some sfz to sf2.

You might be interested in Aegean Symphonic Orchestra, somebody already did such a conversion to sf2.

[Arthurx]

Here's a piece that I made with VPO: Pumpernickel and Periwinkle

If you like the sound of VPO and you're using Ardour, take a look at this Ardour template

Hi Michael,

The sound is convincing. When I have time I will try your ardour preset.

[j_e_f_f_g]

Here's a demo of the "No Budget Orchestra".

https://soundcloud.com/j_e_f_f_g/nerd-medley

[Michael Willis]

Hi Michael,

The sound is convincing. When I have time I will try your ardour preset.

Nice. I must admit, I've learned a lot since I made that template, I have been considering overhauling it to be much more simple. Right now it has dozens of busses, but lately I found a way to give each section its own stage presence without all of the busses.

Let me know if you would be interested in an update to the template before you get started.