Ableton Orchestral Instrument Collection

For years I've had an interest in making what I call "Orchestral Music" using samplers or sample based synths. When I saw this video recently, on the Ableton web site, it became an obsession!!!



I haven't managed to get my hands on this product yet. To be honest I had been similarly impressed with the Vienna Symphonic Library. Especially since I heard that most of the incidental music for the first season of the new Doctor Who series was done with the VSL using Apple's Logic. I had no idea and had assumed that they used a real orchestra!

It's astounding how far they've come with this sampling technology and both Ableton's and VSL's products look seriously amazing. However I think I've decided to go with the Orchestral Instrument Collection (oic).

It's not because I'm an "Ableton Boy"... it's got to do with work flow. Since I don't have the opportunity to work on my music full time I really have to be organised. The major appeal of Live is that I can sit down and start working straight away. Make a few MIDI tracks, drag in a few instruments, and I'm composing. Similarly if I'm in sound design mode I can make up a new instrument rack and drop in some virtual instruments, samples, effects and I'm on the way. My music time is limited and this makes effective use of that time. Back when I had a full synth rig I could spend up to an hour configuring the synths and then saving the setup data so I could continue working the next day. No wonder things went so slowly. The oic integrates directly into what they call the "Ableton Work Flow". Essentially the oic is just another bunch of instruments and that really appeals.

For now I shall have to be content to drool but I'm really looking forward to the day when I can start trying to compose in this "orchestral mode". It's going to be a real challenge but I'm sure the results will make it worth while.