The composer's core toolkit

With such a massive array of soundtrack-aimed products out there, it can be tricky to know how to start. From expansive orchestral libraries, malleable atmosphere-carvers and thunderous impact engines, let us guide you through some of the best big-screen tailored tools around...

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With the utmost respect for those god-tier composers that scored the films of our childhoods, most of us will never get the opportunity to stand before an orchestra and, baton in hand, conduct an auditorium full of distinguished musicians. Yet, with the increasing realism and expressivity of orchestral sample libraries, we can in essence do just that, albeit from behind a screen.

While initial forays into sampling orchestras for commercial release stem as far back as the 1980s, it wasn’t really until the boom in computer-based production around the mid2000s, when companies such as Garritan, East West and VSL brought out the earliest foundational touchstones, and paved the way for today’s sample instrument landscape. These early releases sported many then-innovations that we now take for granted.

While earlier attempts at orchestral sampling were restricted by slower processing power (or locked within external hardware samplers), these newer, larger libraries allowed for greater expressivity with multiple-instrument articulations, the introduction of round robins (not repeating the same sample recording twice, aiding the perception of humanity) and the ability to help capture multiple virtual mic positions simultaneously.