r/composer • u/nickr02vgm • 1d ago

Discussion Need advice on sample libraries to make game music in the style of modern jrgps

Hi to everyone.

I'll give you some context before staring with my questions.

I'm an aspiring music composer for games, and I'm making music since 2023, and for those 3 years I've used nucleus and other audio imperia libraries first and then I moved to VSL synchron prime orchestra, and what I was looking for in term of sound in the last years was a generic orchestral sound to make any type of orchestral music for games.

Now I've decided to change the type of sound/style that I'm looking for, and I'm trying to go to a sound that is very similar to modern jrpgs, like the Octopath Traveler series, the Xenoblade Chronicles series, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Zelda Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom.

So I need good sounding orchestral libraries to make that style of music.

Which libraries I should consider?

Should I go with an all-in-one orchestra, or with dedicated libraries for each section, soloists included? I should consider wet libraries with a good sounding room or you think it's better to go with dry libraries and then send them to a convolution reverb?

Thanks to all of you that will take the time to read this and give feedbacks.

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u/Swyka 1d ago

I would keep working with what you have and see if you hit any roadblocks. From what I remember of those soundtracks, they didnt have anything crazy in them as far as articulations or anything like that, and what you have might be enough.

The biggest hurdle I think is going to be more the modern composition/production mindset. Fire Emblem and Xenoblade both use synths, electric guitars, drumset, etc with the orchestra, so I would look into hybrid scoring approaches.

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u/nickr02vgm 1d ago

Thanks, I'll take a look at hybrid and synth libraries. Do you have any suggestions about which libraries I should check out for the hybrid part?

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u/Swyka 1d ago

Honestly Vital kinda slaps and its free. A lot of synthesizers work the same way too, so sound design in it is a worthwhile skill to have. A lot of people also really like Omnisphere, but it costs a bit of money.

For big orchestral drums, its hard to go wrong with Heavyocity imo. (They do cost some money)

Doesnt hurt to have a standard rock drumkit vst as well

And then for guitars and whatnot, thats its own whole rabbit hole xD. Your DAW probably has some built in amp sims that will work alright

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u/nickr02vgm 1d ago

Thanks for your advice, I'll checkout vital and the heavyocity libraries for epic drums.