If you’ve never heard of The Berlin Free Orchestra, it’s a GREAT sample library produced by the wizards over at Orchestral Tools.
If you’re looking for your first serious orchestral sample library and you don’t want to break the bank, this is an absolute must get. I mean it’s FREE!!! And, it sounds fantastic too.
Below is a video to see/hear it in action…
The thing I love about this library is that it is the entire orchestra. You don’t get all the articulations, but you get solo instruments and ensembles that include sustains, legatos, and spiccatto/staccato for many instruments – as well as a few with pizzicato and tremolo.
I would suggest getting this library and Spitfire’s BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover (also free) as well as ProjectSAM’s The Free Orchestra 1 & 2.
With these three libraries, you virtually can score anything you need for the main orchestra. This won’t cover your Hybrid scoring needs, but Heavyocity has some great free libraries that can get you started with synths and more.
Another developer I should mention is Keep Forrest and their free libraries Ferrum and Devastator – those will get you Hybrid synths, risers, downers, basses, impacts and massive drums.
In closing, I hope this was helpful to you and if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out or leave them below!
Wishing you great success in your scoring journey.