I am looking to purchase a professional quality Orchestra VST that will allow me to use my keyboard for specific chord arrangements I like along with the tools of the product itself. I almost purchased Native Instruments Emotive Strings but this forum suggested it was not worth $299. I researching there are so many options I would rather make a judgement from my peers who use the same DAW as I do.  Thanks in advance for your help

Honestly, Kirk Hunter has a few libraries that are worth looking into. You may need to listen to the demos to see which fits your style/desire for strings.

Professional sounding is in the ear of the beholder, and to some degree dependent on the person using the library. I've heard absolute hack jobs that used the most respected libraries, and I've heard mockups that used only Garritan Personal Orchestra that sounded great.

That said, I think GPO is limiting. It is a great place to start because of those limitations, and if this is your first virtual orchestra purchase you should consider it.
 
Kirk Hunter's libraries are a major step up, but the sound of his samples is not for everyone. It is very close, almost aggressive. I still use his Concert Strings 2 and Concert Brass 2 libraries - they cover a very wide range of section sizes, and most of the articulations you'd want. I have not yet checked out CS3, but I will. I also use the winds from his Diamond collection, and his SpotLight Strings. Be forewarned, his libraries require a great deal of work at mix time to make them sound their best.
 
If you are looking for something more "out of the box" I'd suggest listening to demos from Cinesamples, 8Dio, Spitfire, Project Sam, SoundIron, Audiobro, Orchestral Tools, and others. They all sound different, they all approach articulation control differently, but they all sound wonderful!

My current template uses the Agitato and Adagietto strings from 8dio, and the core winds and brass from Cinesamples. I also make heavy use of Orchestral Essentials from Project Sam.
 
Which brings up an interesting division - sample libraries can be instrument based or ensemble based, with shades in between! Orchestral Essentials is similar to the Albion range from Spitfire - it is recordings of entire ensembles in situ. Can't beat if for the sound, but it makes arranging a little more challenging. The Adagietto strings were sampled by section, no soloists (you have to spring for Adagio to get that<G>!). But at least you have Violin, Viola, Cello and Bass as separate sections. The Orchestral Essentials Sustained Strings, in contrast, is the entire strings section mapped across the keyboard.

The other thing to consider is whether or not true legato is important. A lot of work goes into sampling the transitions, and it drives the cost way up. It also requires a great deal more care in sequencing.
 
I am not a big fan of the NI phrase based libraries (such as Emotive Strings and Action Strings) - nothing specifically wrong with them, I just don't find it easy to work with them. I do have the original Session Horns and Session Strings libraries, and they can be really useful in some settings.
 
Lastly, budget. Good libraries are not inexpensive. You probably need to be prepared to spend several hundred dollars or more to build up a good orchestra if you don't start with something like GPO.
 
That's the five cent tour, post back if it created more questions than it answered.

wst3
Professional sounding is in the ear of the beholder, and to some degree dependent on the person using the library. I've heard absolute hack jobs that used the most respected libraries, and I've heard mockups that used only Garritan Personal Orchestra that sounded great.

That said, I think GPO is limiting. It is a great place to start because of those limitations, and if this is your first virtual orchestra purchase you should consider it.
 
Kirk Hunter's libraries are a major step up, but the sound of his samples is not for everyone. It is very close, almost aggressive. I still use his Concert Strings 2 and Concert Brass 2 libraries - they cover a very wide range of section sizes, and most of the articulations you'd want. I have not yet checked out CS3, but I will. I also use the winds from his Diamond collection, and his SpotLight Strings. Be forewarned, his libraries require a great deal of work at mix time to make them sound their best.
 
If you are looking for something more "out of the box" I'd suggest listening to demos from Cinesamples, 8Dio, Spitfire, Project Sam, SoundIron, Audiobro, Orchestral Tools, and others. They all sound different, they all approach articulation control differently, but they all sound wonderful!

My current template uses the Agitato and Adagietto strings from 8dio, and the core winds and brass from Cinesamples. I also make heavy use of Orchestral Essentials from Project Sam.
 
Which brings up an interesting division - sample libraries can be instrument based or ensemble based, with shades in between! Orchestral Essentials is similar to the Albion range from Spitfire - it is recordings of entire ensembles in situ. Can't beat if for the sound, but it makes arranging a little more challenging. The Adagietto strings were sampled by section, no soloists (you have to spring for Adagio to get that<G>!). But at least you have Violin, Viola, Cello and Bass as separate sections. The Orchestral Essentials Sustained Strings, in contrast, is the entire strings section mapped across the keyboard.

The other thing to consider is whether or not true legato is important. A lot of work goes into sampling the transitions, and it drives the cost way up. It also requires a great deal more care in sequencing.
 
I am not a big fan of the NI phrase based libraries (such as Emotive Strings and Action Strings) - nothing specifically wrong with them, I just don't find it easy to work with them. I do have the original Session Horns and Session Strings libraries, and they can be really useful in some settings.
 
Lastly, budget. Good libraries are not inexpensive. You probably need to be prepared to spend several hundred dollars or more to build up a good orchestra if you don't start with something like GPO.
 
That's the five cent tour, post back if it created more questions than it answered.

I am overwhelmed with information, so much research but I think what is important to me is being able to chord with my keyboard and have the software play and be recorded in Sonar. Every Demo sounds great I will look into GPO. I like Hollywood Strings and a Cintematic Strings 2 both sounded nice. I don't want to waste my investment so researching I go

Spitfire Albion

Yeah . . . +1, Spitfire Audio, Albion Collection, best I've heard in a demo anyways . . .  kinda' pricey, how many here can afford this ?

I recommend 8Dio Adagio series as they are the clearest recordings I've ever heard. They do take some getting used to as the legato patches are 'true legato', so you'll have to do some adjusting in the piano roll view and definitely some work with the various CC data available to get the sound you want. However, the final sound is worth it.

If by "will allow me to use my keyboard for specific chord arrangements" you mean that you want to be able to play a chord and have the instrument play back all the notes in your chord on the string instruments within that range, then you'll want to get 8Dio Adagietto. There's a patch that allows you to map the strings from double basses to violins across the keyboard, and you can play it like you would a pad. It's not as detailed in terms of articulation, but you'll be able to get down your parts quickly. Great for quick mockups that you can later improve by using the individual sections in Adagio. 

For solo woodwinds I also recommend 8Dio's Claire series. Again, pristine recordings with multiple microphone positions that can be shut off or blended together. There are no 'wind section' recordings though, so you'll have to record each part separately. This is good because it affords you better control of the individual wind instruments' parts and doesn't force your whole wind section to play the same thing. The bad thing is that you'll have to handle the blending of the separate wind instruments in the mixing stage which can be a challenge. 

For brass and percussion I recommend Cinesamples. I own Cinebrass Core and Pro, as well as Cineperc Core and Pro. These are awesome sounding libraries and their mapping of articulations to the keyboard/sustain pedal become really intuitive and user-friendly once you learn how to use them. 

If you want a nice harp, the harp that comes in the Kontakt 5 factory library is actually really nice sounding. I'm sure there are better harps out there, but definitely give this one a spin since you already have Kontakt. You might find it as good as I do.

There are too many piano libraries out there for me to really recommend just one. The Giant is really nice, but I think that Pianoteq 5 is the best on the market. 

Choosing a path with orchestral libraries is probably the hardest thing. Most of the top libraries do the same things (in a little different ways though) so you might want to check out screencasts and tutorials on how each of them work. I know I have my favorites, my palette consist mainly of Spitfire Albions, 8Dio strings for details, Strezov Sampling and Vienna Symphonic Library for brass, Sonokinetic Da Capo for woodwind ensembles and again Strezov Sampling for Percussion. But those are the ones that suit my taste of workflow.
 
Soundwise the top libraries each stand up to each other and fall short of a real orchestra.

Something else to consider is whether or not you would find Divisi handy or not. Not all libraries offer that option and depending on the complexity of your arrangements it can really make the difference between realistic and not.

+1 for Kirk Hunter Strings.....they beheld my ears and sounded professional.