Well my samples actually do use FX's such as reverb. But perhaps the default reverb amount isn't enough.

I don't feel that it is, and perhaps that's some of how you and I don't seem to be connecting about the feedback I'm giving you. I realize that your sample library may have reverb attached to the samples but that's rarely good enough. I'm talking about a 3rd party (or native to your DAW of choice) reverb. If you can, select a close mic setting for all of your samples then work on creating your own space with a reverb plugin. I often use Space Designer (a Logic bundled reverb plugin) in combination with Valhalla's Room reverb. It works pretty well! And try having the reverb increase (via automation) at the end of phrases for key or solo instruments. Not talking about a lot but that can help give the ending of a phrase more body while keeping the rest of it more clear.

A lot of people don't understand that you can only do so much; with an outdated library. People seem to expect an ultra-realistic sound, from a dated library.

I can't speak for a lot of people but I can speak for me and I was looking and hoping to hear a bit more production. I don't expect an ultra-realistic sound from a dated library. I just expect a well produced song. :) One of my main points was even when producing chip tune music, which is very low fidelity, you can make it sound awesome by adding in many of the production techniques that have been mentioned.

I will eventually upgrade to the East West Hollywood Orchestra library. But money doesn't grow on trees and until I save up for that; there's not much I can do about the samples sounding "unconvincing".

Again, see my point above. There IS more than you can do to make your music have more impact. Will it sound like a real orchestra? Probably not! But that could be okay, especially if it's produced well enough. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, so I'll leave it at that. You do write good music, it just needs a bit more production and attention to detail. Do a lot of A/B comparisons of your music with other music you respect and admire. And I don't just mean listening to the notes and musical ideas. Listen to the production value! Best of luck to you!

I agree with you that there is more I can do. But no matter how much time I put into automation, people are still going to say "the samples sound unrealistic".

Even if I realistically sequence the samples; I'll get told that some aspect of the sample sounds unrealistic. And there's nothing I can do about that.

But I do agree that I could add reverb, timing changes and the like. But the samples can't fool anyone into thinking it's a real orchestra.

I've had songs where I spend hours adjusting the attacks, releases and articulations of samples just to get told "the samples sound unrealistic".

I think the best thing for me to do is to try to go for a video game sound and not a live orchestra sound.

YoungProdigy, I listened to your music and I think you can make it sound better with the same samples!

You need to focus more on the realism of the orchestration. In a lot of your tracks your orchestra sounds unbalanced, and a lot of the things you write will not even sound good with a real orchestra. That's why you often get "the samples sound unrealistic".

The first thing you need to do is to balance your template, and the way you do it is by performing a real score (a score that you actually own, where you can read all the dynamics and articulations) in your DAW and then by balancing all the tracks in order to make the ensemble sound like the real recording of that score. That way writing unbalanced things in your template will be almost impossible and this will teach you how to orchestrate.

Try to perform all the parts yourself, do not quantize anything, and if you can, don't even use a click track. This will help with the realism.

Another tip I can give you is to transcribe transcribe and transcribe! Listen, try to reproduce what your favorite composers do and then get yourself the score, look at it and compare it with your work. You will learn tons of things!

After that just create a little bit more space in your template with reverb, and use EQ and compression when you need to.

Here's a mock up of the Galaxy Quest Theme (Written by David Newman) I did a while ago using only samples from Kontakt 5 and a free sample library called the Total Composure Orchestra. You will hear that even bad samples can sound okay when you apply those techniques :

https://soundcloud.com/claude-ruelle/galaxy-quest-mockup

Today I use better sample for sure, but it's only 20% of what will make your music sound better. The other 80% reside on what I told you above.

Hope you are getting my point. You write some pretty good music, and you're only a few steps away from getting it to sound amazing!

Happy composing! :)

Claude.

YoungProdigy - I've was reminded of you this morning while I listened to the Chrono Cross OST. Many of the in-game tracks (but not the cut-scenes where they tended to blend live and virtual instruments together) really showcase how even fake sounding virtual instruments can have much more impact with a great arrangement and some careful production. It came out in 1999 so the sample set Mitsuda was working with was quite limited when compared to today's sample libraries. Plus I also think this soundtrack benefits because the composer chose to mix in synth and orchestral instruments together (instead of aiming for purely 100% orchestral tracks).

(For example Arni Village at 5:09 is particularly nice and is sub-par samples by today's standards.)

Take a listen to this soundtrack, if you haven't already, study the arrangements and see how your own music compares. Best of luck!

Thanks,

Nate