Slightly OT, but I feel to say that I have been enjoying Soundiorn’s Emotional Piano of late. Very beautiful and usable samples.
I bought the hq Instruments from dsk music and sound versy good ! For 25 $ Donation you 446 high quality instrument in sf2, kontakt, reason, wav
You can look at preview right there : http://www.dskmusic.com/high-quality-instruments/
Thx. Anyone wrapped 'em in .xnri created the config files for rolling .xrni’s from them (licence restriction) yet? If not, I’ll have a bash at one or two (when suitably tuited ).
You can use fluidsynth to load the .SF2 files in renoise. Though it’s more cpu intensive than native samples, but supports all(most?) features of the SF2 format like filtering per velocity layer etc etc…
The demos sound really nice! How much disk space is the entire collection?
oh , that’s awesome. i feel it, bro. just hire an orchestra and a conductor, then. if they suck, just keep hiring until you get good ones! that’s what i do. 
Its pretty small actually it is 1Gb in sf2 format ! I suggest you the best sf2 player out there
A free vst called Phenome
Here is the link : http://www.prodyon-virtual-gear.com/crbst_12.html
…liiiiinux?
nm, fluidsynth works perfectly for me =)
That might not give the results you’re looking for. I worked with the piano samples (and others) and some are so noisy, that they can’t be used.
Did anyone contact MIS to kindly ask for permission to pack them in xrni format?
IK Multimedia is having a 50% off holiday sale through January 6th, so you can buy Miroslav Philharmonik for $75 and have the ENTIRE CZECHOSLOVAKIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA in a multi-timbral sample workstation.
If you would like some specific genre of classic library, you could try Chinee Kong’s libraries.
The reason why i mention this is because the instruments are really nicely expressed with great emotional character and it doesn’t take too much trouble to use these expressions.
The new Qin_RV engine is also compatible with Renoise.
Another thing is that the support is really great and you get quick answers by mail in person from them. (I had to request another unlock key within three months because for some reason Windows 7 altered something in the challenge code and i have asked quite a few times new unlock codes from them)
The whole orchestra packs costs about 700 bucks, but these come in two editions:fully paid or monthly contribution.
You can also get instruments individually or instrument section packs for a fraction of the price.
http://www.chineekong.com/main.htm
An examplesong (done in Renoise! MaTouqin for the expressional solo cello/violin, GuZheng for the transition to the bigger part, a few wind instruments are used from it as well.)
The spitfire series is a pretty safe bet. Albion like others have mentioned is a great tool that integrates with Kontakt, and their sectional packages are top notch too.
Am not that up to date with the various libraries these days, but I used to use the Vitous library loaded on Akai racks triggered via OctaMed running on an antique Amiga 4000 (recorded into ProTools) for film and TV work until about 2006. I then switched to Renoise on a mac and have the same library STILL via the VST instrument. However, I only use it for sketching work now and have real players come and do the necessary parts when I need to, which isn’t that often these days due to differing demands from clients…
With any of these libraries there is always the risk of your compositions becoming too mechanical, you can’t compare the dynamics of a real player with what you get from a library and a sequencer. With small budget productions we used to use a soloist or two to layer over the sequenced parts, and when the budget allowed we’d mix in various sizes of ensemble into the sequenced comps.
Strings are by far the hardest thing to get right produciton-wise.
If you have ‘infinte’ money, use score-writing software such as Sibelius (sib library is ok for playback not recording), and hire an orchestra… this assumes you can actually read/write conventional notation.
Not sure any of that is much help… 
For “simple” purposes I suggest the free Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra. It’s an Orchestra Sample Library in sfz format and sounds pretty good.
Garritan yes - finally. Everytime I hear someone on KVR recommend it (which is way too often) I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
A few instruments like the harp are usable and on par with an above average general midi soundset. But in general, the only way you can get the thing to sound decent is to compose in a way that hides just how weak the raw sounds are. What a piece of crap…