I am always wondering if I can become a student forever. I love to study and search for many different pieces of information that related to music. I can sit there, read and watch videos all the time. Â
There are lots of benefits of being a music student. One of them is having discounts on a variety of things that are valuable for themselves as music students such as music notation software, music sample libraries, etc.Â
I have compiled most of the deals that are good for music students or teachers. Please listen to the demo and find out which suits your writing more. I will include the link down below as well.Â
Table of Contents
Cinesamples
“Founded in Los Angeles in 2007, Cinesamples has grown to become an industry leader in the development of top virtual instruments and sample libraries. They are passionate about the sampling process, and you can hear our products in many films, tv shows, and video games.”
Cinesamples has a variety of products such as strings, winds, brass, percussion, keyboards, choir, orchestra, and sound design. Cinesamples produced a lot of artist series VSTs that you can use.Â
In Cinesamples, the orchestra version mainly has two versions, PRO and CORE Versions. The differences are that CORE covers mainly the essentials of the orchestral section, where the PRO version is the expansion to the CORE version. Both versions will cover most of your needs in a particular instrument family.Â
The CineSymphony libraries are recorded at the MGM Scoring Stage at Sony Pictures Studio in Los Angeles by master engineer Dennis Sands.
Orchestral Tools
The libraries are mainly recorded in the Teldex Scoring Stage in Berlin. They also collaborated with several artists and schools, such as Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL), Tommee Profitt and Berklee College of Music.Â
Spitfire Audio
“Spitfire Audio works with the world’s best composers, producers, engineers and studios to create detailed, sophisticated and realistic recordings of instruments. Their virtual instruments and sample libraries enable you to perform and compose within your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), offering you thousands of sounds at your fingertips for endless inspiration.”
They offer a big range of sample libraries, such as strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, guitars, keys, and synths. They also offer FREE sample libraries, such as LABS.Â
The libraries are recorded in different places such as Maida Vale Studios (BBCSO), Air Studios in London (Albion One), Studio One at Abbey Road (Abbey Road One: Orchestral Foundations), etc.Â
The ensemble also ranges from the quartet to the full orchestra (109 players).Â
LABS free sample libraries:
Soundiron
“Soundiron is a premium developer of virtual instruments and sample libraries for songwriters, composers and sound designers. We are a team of committed creators, programmers, engineers, artists, composers, instrumentalists, writers, videographers, customer support gurus, beta testers and developers passionate about building beautiful-sounding instrument plugins that are inspiring to play.Â
A vast catalog of deep-sampled instrument libraries is the result of years of musical, sound design and recording experience. Our mission is to create world-class virtual instruments for all musicians and composers, from beginners to professionals with a commitment to industry-leading value, affordable pricing and accessibility.”
Cinematic Studio Series
“Cinematic Studio Series is a brand new collection of professional orchestral sample libraries for Kontakt Player. The series was recorded with incredible care, consistency and attention to detail in a world-class scoring stage. The result is a breathtakingly realistic, expressive and emotive series of instruments that can inspire and amaze. With elegant design and an emphasis on usability, the Cinematic Studio Series brings you that true Hollywood sound at a very affordable price.”
At the moment, they are only offered only strings, brass, woodwinds and piano sample libraries.Â
Heavyocity
“Inspiring the Future of Cinematic Sound
– Heavyocity is a collective of pro composers and sound designers with a mission to create world-class virtual instruments for today’s modern composer and sound designer. The philosophy of our music software company is simple: Provide cutting-edge, inspiring instruments and sounds that supercharge creativity, formatting them in ways that enhance productivity. “
FabFilter
It’s an audio plug-in with superb sound quality and innovative interfaces. It helps to make your audio/music sounds better. The plug-ins that they offered such as reverb, compressor, equalizer, limiter, etc. It is used in the mixing and mastering stages.
Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL)
“The Vienna Symphonic Library is research-driven music software and sample library developer based in Vienna, Austria. Vienna’s finest musicians invest their life-blood into recording samples that incorporate their passion for music and their instrument mastery. Music creation shouldn’t be limited by technology or influenced by the computer know-how of the user. Technology should enhance the flow of musical ideas and simplify the realization.
The libraries that are labeled in “SYNCHRON” were recorded at Synchron Stage Vienna.Â
Aaron Venture (AV)
Aaron Venture developed Infinite Brass, Infinite Woodwinds, Infinite Strings (2021), and Infinite Percussion (TBA). Infinite Series is a collection of next-generation realistic virtual orchestral instruments for Native Instruments Kontakt, offering unparalleled expression and playability, multiple mic positions, flexible instrument positioning for variable and custom section sizes, and extremely low resource requirements.Â
Sample Hero
Sample Hero was founded by Dan Brown JR in the winter of 2016 and went online 1st October 2017. They committed to continually creating Insanely Simple, yet Incredibly Musical virtual instruments, sample packs & MIDI packs for you.
| Sample Libraries | Discount |
| 1. Cinesamples | 50% |
| 2. Orchestral Tools | 40% |
| 3. Spitfire Audio | 30% |
| 4. Soundiron | 33% |
| 5. Cinematic Studio Series | 25% |
| 6. Heavyocity | 20% |
| 7. FabFilter | 50% |
| 8. Sample Hero | 25% |
| 9. VSL | 25% |
| 10. Aaron Venture Infinite Series | 30% |
| Notation Program | Discount |
| 1. MuseScore 2 | Free |
| 2. Dorico | âĴ339.00 |
| 3. Finale | $350 |
| 4. Sibelius | $299 |
| DAW | Discount |
| 1. Logic Pro | $199 |
| 2.Cubase/Nuendo | From âĴ66.99 / âĴ479.99 |
| 3. Digital Performer | N/A |
| 4. Ableton | 40% |
| 5. FL Studio | N/A |
| 6. Studio One | N/A |
| 7. ProTools | From $9.99 |
| 8. Reapers | N/A |
*Please prepare along with your Student ID when you approach them and ask for an educational discount*! Enjoy writing! =)Â
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