hey what's up this is Alex today I want
to clear one huge misconception about >
}one question of I'm often asked by you
know my students during private lessons
or by people on my youtube channel which
goes something like hey Alex I would
love to compose music like yours but do
I need to spend like do I need to have
thousands of orchestral libraries do I
need to spend thousands of dollars on
you know gear and Orchestra libraries to
do that and the actual answer is that no
you don't need to have you know lots of
libraries and you don't need to spend
thousands of dollars to write decent
orchestral music you can even do it by
only using one library which is what I
need here to write this rack which is an
example of you know what I want to say
today I only use Berlin Orchestra
inspire it's not as impressive as my
other tracks because of reasons I'm
going to mention later but here it is
here is what it sounds like and only
so this one was a Final Fantasy 14
mock-up and I've wrote it with billion
orchestras bar alone just to see if I
can do that
back and ride isn't sounding or custom
music by only using one library enacted
I only use iZotope ozone on the master
now I wanted to make this video because
it's like beginners fall into a huge
trap which is before they start they
asked you know composers they admire hey
which libraries do you use and they
either buy or they get those libraries
by other means and you know when they do
that they have like a huge collection on
libraries but they have zero skills
because they are beginners so even with
those libraries their music sounds like
crap and they don't understand why the
reason why is of course skill like when
you write music you like the result that
you get like your sound your songs are a
result of the multiplication between
your level of skill and technique and
etc and the quality of your libraries
which means if your skill is zero
doesn't matter if you have the whole
eight die or catalog and hold the
libraries that if you have all of those
and you'll see this is zero you're still
gonna get zero as a result when you
compose music that's not good on the
other hand if you're a super skilled and
you only use cheap libraries you go for
you got for free because you don't want
to invest in your libraries and the
quality of libraries is then zero that
means that your skill multiply with
those libraries is still good results
zero what do I mean by that
you need both you need skills and you
need good libraries of course if you
have average skills and you have great
libraries that's gonna help because you
get a you know higher number with that
multiplication and you know better
libraries always have they help you
making things sound better on the go and
stuff like that without having to pick
them but you know only limiting yourself
to only one library is good because for
example say like I have Berlin Orchestra
inspired you know and say I have this
part here
and I want the strings to sound better
you know I'm not pleased with how the
strings sound one thing that people tend
to do when this problem occurs not
prominently this is yeah let's find a
better string library and if they have
made the mistake of pirating the library
which is a mistake believe me and maybe
I'm gonna be a Kevin under a video about
that but if they made the mistake of
pirating all the libraries they have a
huge list of libraries they can choose
so if they have the strings and they
don't sound good they're just gonna pick
another library you know they just
change and that's it because they can do
that or people maybe spend the money and
they buy lots of libraries so they can
change and doesn't like they don't need
to apply production techniques to make
the strings better but say you're a wise
person and you think alright I bought
this I put my savings into this so I'm
gonna learn how to use it to the best of
its potential so you find that the
strings aren't don't have enough buy it
as much as you want to what you do you
go on Google YouTube whatever and you
search how to you know make strings more
aggressive how to get more bite into the
strings and you fight tutorials like the
ones on my channel or you find courses
or you find articles and you might
discover maybe tricks like hey you can
use OTT which is a free compressor and
you put it on your strings and with
these parameters and you're gonna
increase the buy you try it and this is
what it sounds like
we were bite than this
and suddenly you have your bite and you
try it say for example you're pleased
with the result now you will have
discovered about OTT and compression and
you now discover the new technique which
is increasing your production skills
which means you can you know extend the
level of this library further thanks to
your knowledge and you will now be able
to solve this problem in order like you
know if it presents itself again in
order you know circumstances you're
gonna know hey I can use compression so
instead of taking the shortcut to change
library you learn something new or free
on YouTube you know so you're invested
on your skills instead of investing in
your libraries now you might ask
yourself all right Alex this is all nice
and well but why the hell do you have
multiple Orchestra libraries then the
reason why I buy multiple libraries is
this so say for example we have this
part where you have the string
so that's the main melody they are
playing right but it kind of blends in
with the rest because in building
Orchestra inspire what you have is you
know the full orchestra as you know at
their instrument so you have strings
brass woodwinds and percussion and piano
and harp this is the type of library I
recommend you to get and I mentioned
this in the video the best type of
library to get as a beginner but you
know if you want to variety people to
get started with caster musica ideally
you might want to get a library that has
all the main orchestra instruments into
it so you don't need anything else and
that's why I recommend Berlin Orchestra
inspired there's also I'll be on one
there is Metro free Sark one there are
many libraries like this one but
building on can inspire is the one I
picked this example now the issue with
this library say I only had this one I
only had 13 Orchestra inspire the
problem with it is that it has
limitation and the biggest limitation of
it is that it's only based in ensembles
which are pretty prepared and stuff like
that I don't have like for example you
know patch for no first violinist and a
patch for second melodies and a patch
for cellos and one for bases I have ice
rinks low strings batteries one and shoe
you know stuff like that and ensembles
so I cannot split the instrument
independently from each other and this
is one of the limitations of parents for
inspire which means that all of my
strings are gonna be ensembles so in
here we have that melody in the original
track which is from the proposal Final
Fantasy 14 that melody really stands out
in this part because it's played by solo
shadows and stone openings which have a
way different sounds promise on boots so
if I want this track like these melodies
you send out it makes sense to use those
you know soloist instruments instead of
ensembles because if I only use
ensembles I have also used it that using
them for Harmonia stuff like that and
even if I doubled that melody which I
did I doubled that melody
on different octaves it's still played
on ensembles which have the same type of
sound so it blends in with the rest and
it doesn't really stand out that's why
the original composers used sort of
shadows in solo violins and Berlin
Orchestra inspired doesn't have sort of
shadows so no violence and no matter
what tutorial and got a search online
I'm never gonna find a way to take an
ensemble a visual ensemble and
convert it into something that sounds
like a sovereign or so shallow you're
not doing it so then it makes sense to
go on google and search best solo cello
library for this price and I may be fine
you know go solo shadow from sinner
samples then I go there and I buy it
because I know that library is gonna
break one boundary that right now I
cannot cross with you know any types of
music production knowledge or any lab
but you know with the library I have so
that's when I buy new libraries when
what I currently own is either slowing
me down
a lot or when it simply cannot do what I
want to do so in this case building
records transpire cannot give me a
solution to sound so I buy a subchannel
library that's why I have Inigo so
shallow or maybe I you know this whole
song maybe I want to I don't know that
perhaps to be more powerful
I can I can just do that by adding OTT
but the thing is that when you you know
tweak sounds like this you add
compression you add aggressively do too
bright on the sound up and stuff that
you cannot twist the nature of the sound
while sometimes that Bambi might provide
a good result other times you might want
something that sounds more naturally
more powerful you know so in this case
having metropolis Arc one on the brass
would be amazing because that library in
the way it was recording natural
recorded naturally is way more powerful
than anything else I tried so you know
that's also the reason why is metropolis
art but for example metropolis art is
great for epic and loud stuff unless it
has like lots of articulations or that
kind of stuff and the natural sound of
it is amazing but I also use cinematic
strings you along with it
why because metropolis arc one is
recorded in such a way that it cannot
like it cannot go quiet so if I want to
write dynamic passages very you know
calm and dynamic Springs I cannot do
that with metropolis arc and I tried it
doesn't sound good because it's always
powerful so it makes sense for me to go
made sense for me if you go on google
and search for you know strange library
and I found cinematic strings to the
week before cinematic pseudo strings was
released
that's my bad luck but
I bought cinematic strings - and those
that string library first it has you
know split patches I've interpreted art
one dozen it has low and high strings -
cinematic students - has no buy rails
and cellos and basses and all you know
split so I can now write for split
strings and it has that dynamic those
dynamics that make it possible for me to
write quiet and dynamic passages so I
use it along with metropolis art one
because I needed something for those
dynamic passages but when it comes to
powerful strings I still use the
metropolis art so I use metropolis art
force potatoes and stuff tattoos and
stuff like that and market oohs and
cinematic strings - I use it for what
the tropics are is not good at which is
like dynamic passages on the other hand
see know what this means - it's not good
at you know powerful staccato so in that
case I use my chakras are sorta right
you know each library is taking care of
something that the other library cannot
so when is a good time to buy a new
library when you feel like you've hit a
roadblock and your current libraries
cannot you know give you the result
you're looking for even if you studied
more music production that's a good time
to buy in your library or simply when
you want I don't know try something new
if you want to you like you use your
libraries for months and you're getting
stifled by using the same sounds make
sense to get a new one but you don't
have to do the thing where you go and
you buy a list of insane libraries and
you've been yeah I have the whole entire
catalog now so I'm gonna become the next
time saver because I have the tools slow
you know Hans Zimmer has lots of
knowledge he has lots of libraries too
but he has lots of knowledge and you
need book so that's what I wanted to say
with this video and I made this video
because first I want to release a video
of week now and I didn't have anything
else to talk about this week so that's
why I've made this one but especially
because I see this mistake so many times
over in beginners and they don't
understand the reason why they don't
understand that investing in skills is
important so I really really like advise
you just go and instead of thinking hey
how can I
get more Orchestra libraries because
that's a question I see on my youtube
channel oh you have lots of orchestra
bears how did you get them and that's
like I got these orchestra briefs in
like five years ago it was spread
throughout five years and every single
one was a purchase with an intention
behind it it wasn't like hey this guy
has this library so I need to have it to
know this guy has knowledge that's what
you need to acquire the knowledge how
the hell do you acquire the knowledge of
that guy you search for courses like the
ones I mentioned every time on this
channel or just search for you to
tutorials like the ones I dedicated this
old channel about and discover new
things new ways of doing things and now
you have a bit of the knowledge that
that guy has so when you will find
yourself composing again you will notice
you've write better music another way to
learn a lot which has helped me in the
past so much is writing more cups and
with markups I mean things like this
like take another composers track
rewrite it entirely by ear as it is or
try to write it as it is and I I had
other friends on top of it like I do in
this case I just rewrote the track as it
was but my way of doing it Ping's is
like taking a track analyzing it
rewriting it by ear and then adding lots
of stuff to it so I did that for my
remix of the landing I did did that with
my carpet remix which is like the
original track is like a swing track and
I made it like a Western Orchestra so
you know the idea behind it though is
always analyzing other composers work
because when you do that
it really leaves you to discover lots of
things about orchestrating and arranging
and that knowledge is what makes a great
composer so that's pretty much why I
said beginning the beginning of this
video that piracy can be a mistake can
backlash on you because it imposes upon
you the mentality of oh yeah I have so
many libraries I'm just gonna go through
all the presets and find the one that
tries for me instead of you know
focusing on your skills to the point
that you can make each preset right for
you you know so you know I'm not only
talking from a moral standpoint or not
I'm not here to like imposes morals upon
you about piracy and whatnot but from a
logical standpoint it hurts you and it
hurts you know the sample of real
developers as well but it hurts the
growth or
music the most so it makes more sense to
only buy libraries and to buy a few and
really invest your you know time in to
make new library sounds good
sound good because it saves you money
first and it makes you better as a
composer second which are two huge
bonuses right so if you want to learn
more about how to make your libraries
shine there are lots of tutorials on
this channel which I published
throughout the course of this year that
can help you a lot if you haven't
checked them out and if you check them
out I'm sure there are many you master
please you might have missed so go back
and check out the tutorials on this
channel and also if you want to analyze
my tracks like you want to get access to
the multi tracks and the the meatiest
you import them in your day w and see
how they are done you can get those
files on my patreon page and the link is
the description of this video and in
there I upload the stamps and
multi-tracks in the media for the tracks
I publish on YouTube so you go there if
you make a pledge you are gonna help me
make this channel you know sustainable
to run and you're gonna get rewards back
and yeah that's it for this video if you
have questions if you just tell me in
the comments because I know this is such
a controversial topic you might have
questions and do share this video with a
friend who might need to be
disillusioned by this whole cure and
libraries thing because I see lots of
people with insane gear and insane
libraries and who are also unable to use
those so that's not very good it's like
having a Ferrari park into your garage
because you don't know how to use it you
know it's useless like that
so do you encourage your friends to work
on their skills and not on getting your
libraries right so that's it for this
video I'll see you in the next one next
week bye