bigcatt
Have I already spouted off on this thread? If these are good enough for your purposes is open for debate, but lots of free VSTi stuff including pianos. Note turn the volume down on the pianos if they distort, my bad I should have normalized them lower.
 
http://bcvsts.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-gm-soundset.html
Newer version of the VSCO2 Chamber orchestra
http://bigcatinstruments.blogspot.com/2017/02/vsco2-rompler.html
 

I'll look at those, bigcatt! I've tried quite a few freeware VST's like this - a lot of them are quite good, and SoundFont stuff is usually pretty decent before wanting something more realistic. BUt
I've found that generally all the free libraries do REALLY badly with winds instruments, and the strings only barely meet my expectations when people rave about 'em and rate them highly. To each, his own, I guess!
 
Having used Kontakt, Halion Sonic, and now Xpand, I don't think the freeware stuff will ever do it for me again - at least not when it comes to organic instruments. 

I tend to agree. I definitely consider what I do to be 'intro' instruments.
 
For pianos you might try googling the free Piano in 162 and the Estate Grand LE both are available for sfz. Sorry I know I'm getting away from an all in one instrument. I just really like pianos. And they are quite good.
 
Oh and this guy does really nice bass sfzs as he is a pro bass player.
http://www.karoryfer.com/karoryfer-samples
 
 

dcumpian
Omnisphere.

That's the best answer, by a mile...
I own so much stuff I'd have to triple my sig to begin to fit it all in... if I had to choose letting 90 percent of it go or losing Omnisphere, I wouldn't blink... It's O all the way.  I might go so far as say I wouldn't trade it for all the rest!
 
Expansion is endless with the best guru's making amazing new sounds/samples... at a reasonable cost vs the high cost of each Kontakt library I own...
 
Omnisphere is one of a kind, beyond anything else, and all else pales in comparison... spend some time googling pluginguru omnisphere2 vids or just go to skippy's site.
 
And you can add to the platform with Keyscape {not for me personally but widely heralded as the greatest collection of keys ever assembled}

I have Omnisphere v1 and love it but it's way more complex than just an "entry level rompler" - and it favors the esoteric over the "bread and butter" sounds.
 
I'd highly recommend Xpand for a measly $1, or even twenty times that. It has a ton of usable sounds, and they are nicely categorized. Sounds great, less filling. Put some fun effects and delays and warbly things on top of the sounds, and you are off and running.
 
cheers,
-Tom

I hear what you guys are saying by "bread and butter" sounds, but honestly, I end up using Omni in every track, and I rarely can't find what I'm looking for. Granted, for full orchestra, I'm going to reach for Play or Kontakt, but there are quite a few brass and string patches in Omni that sound great, and you can create your own patches from the included sources or add your own. Those Xpand! sounds remind me of older SoundCanvas type stuff.
 
Dan

Do you already have Kontakt? I don't know your time frame, but some years on the summer sale you can upgrade from free Drum'ica to full Kontakt for $125. Now the factory library isn't brilliant but for that price you get a ton of 'OK' stuff. Plus Kontakt has a ton of freebies, I personally think the Alpine project instruments are very nice for orchestral type instruments. I've done a couple church pipe organs for Kontakt that I do think rise above just OK. There are gaps, but I think with Kontakt and freebies and keeping an eye out for sales you can assemble a pretty solid sound for a couple hundred bucks. Sales are your big friend as for instance I picked up the old but nice Kirk Hunter Diamond Orchestra for a little over a hundred. While not everyone's taste it is a pro level 75 gig orchestra.

Here's another cool deal for just $1.
 
SONiVOX Orchestral Companion Strings
https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/virtual-instruments/sonivox-orchestral-companion-strings
 
The SONiVOX design team has produced over 90 outstanding string programs, each one meticulously crafted to deliver as accurate and convincing an experience as possible. Your productions deserve nothing less.
There is a comprehensive collection of full orchestral string ensembles, which are fantastic for background string parts or quickly sketching out an orchestral score. But we also offer you also a full array of individual string sections so you can really customize and polish your final creation by building things up section by section. The key is flexibility—you can compose and create on as detailed a level as you'd like. All sections are fully represented, including 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos and contra basses. Up and down bow bowing, sustain, staccato, and spiccato notes, plus instrument pizzicato and tremolo articulations provide the depth of content needed for convincing ensemble string parts and tracks.
 

abacab
Here's another cool deal for just $1.
 
SONiVOX Orchestral Companion Strings
https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/virtual-instruments/sonivox-orchestral-companion-strings
 All sections are fully represented, including 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos and contra basses. Up and down bow bowing, sustain, staccato, and spiccato notes, plus instrument pizzicato and tremolo articulations provide the depth of content needed for convincing ensemble string parts and tracks.
 

Couldn't help it - at that cost, I bought two licenses for my two machines.
 
Up and down bowing is SUPER important to me with strings synths. It's taking a minute to download, so I'll go ahead and ask- and I didn't look crazy-hard into it before purchasing (but like I said, no loss whatsoever at $1), but are you able to, for example, route one MIDI channel to one set of instruments? (I probably said it wrong as I don't have SONAR in front of me right now, but I mean like in Xpand where you have four separate MIDI channels, each of which can have it's own separate instrument and MIDI track)?
 
The last thing that would've made Xpand!2 a KILLER piece of software was if each of the four channels could further be individually routed out to other audio tracks/busses for processing without the whole thing having only one output. Still amazing software!!
 
Yikes! Hopefully my bank acct doesn't start looking a bit thin from all these $1 deals. Gotta save a little for the expensive stuff too! 

davdud101

abacab
Here's another cool deal for just $1.
 
SONiVOX Orchestral Companion Strings
https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/virtual-instruments/sonivox-orchestral-companion-strings
 All sections are fully represented, including 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos and contra basses. Up and down bow bowing, sustain, staccato, and spiccato notes, plus instrument pizzicato and tremolo articulations provide the depth of content needed for convincing ensemble string parts and tracks.
 

Couldn't help it - at that cost, I bought two licenses for my two machines.
 
Up and down bowing is SUPER important to me with strings synths. It's taking a minute to download, so I'll go ahead and ask- and I didn't look crazy-hard into it before purchasing (but like I said, no loss whatsoever at $1), but are you able to, for example, route one MIDI channel to one set of instruments? (I probably said it wrong as I don't have SONAR in front of me right now, but I mean like in Xpand where you have four separate MIDI channels, each of which can have it's own separate instrument and MIDI track)?
 
The last thing that would've made Xpand!2 a KILLER piece of software was if each of the four channels could further be individually routed out to other audio tracks/busses for processing without the whole thing having only one output. Still amazing software!!
 
Yikes! Hopefully my bank acct doesn't start looking a bit thin from all these $1 deals. Gotta save a little for the expensive stuff too! 

Just to let know, you should get two activations with each license.  Perfect for a desktop and laptop combo.
 
The SONiVOX instruments are not multi-timbral, so you would need to insert multiple instances into your project, one for each MIDI channel/sound.  But is is light enough so that should not be an issue unless you are running an old computer.
 
For Xpand!2, say for example if you insert 4 instances of the VST and group related instruments into the 4 Xpand!2 VSTs, you have 16 total channels of MIDI and four audio ports.  So you can manage and process the audio out from each group of 4 sounds separately in the DAW.  For example, this may be most useful for processing the percussion separate from the other instruments, by placing the percussion in one instance of the VST.
 
Yup, big bang for the buck!!! 

Vastman

dcumpian
Omnisphere.

That's the best answer, by a mile...
I own so much stuff I'd have to triple my sig to begin to fit it all in... if I had to choose letting 90 percent of it go or losing Omnisphere, I wouldn't blink... It's O all the way.  I might go so far as say I wouldn't trade it for all the rest!

I have seen Omnisphere recommended enough times that I will add it to my "buy" list.
How does one go about getting a good deal on it and what kind of price is considered a good deal?
Perhaps they do a Black Friday deal? (I can wait for a good deal).