Should you subscribe to MuseSounds Pro or buy the libraries?
MuseSounds Pro gives you 34 of the paid MuseSounds libraries for a monthly or yearly fee. Buying a library, or one of the MuseSounds bundles, means paying once and keeping it. Which costs less depends on how many libraries you want and how long you will use them.
This guide gives the short answer first and plays one score on a free and a Pro string library. Then it lists what each bundle contains, how much of it is already in Pro, and when a subscription costs less than buying.
MuseSounds Pro, bundles and single libraries
The short answer
Count the libraries you would actually use, then think about how long you will use them.
- One or two libraries. Buy them. Most single libraries cost as much as a few months of Pro, and they keep working after that. Cantai is the exception. Buying it costs more than a year of Pro, but it also has its own monthly plan, which costs less than Pro.
- A full orchestra from one maker. Buy that maker’s bundle. The Vienna Orchestral and Spitfire Symphony Orchestra bundles each cost less than a year of Pro.
- Libraries from several makers, or a sound for one project. Subscribe to MuseSounds Pro. A month or a year gives you all 34 Pro libraries, including Cantai, Nucleus and the Cine orchestra from Cinesamples.
- The Berlin series, Tapspace, or a Cinesamples soloist, piano or harp. Buy them. They aren’t in Pro.
If you haven’t tried the free MuseSounds yet, start there. They cost nothing, and they may be all you need.
Pro, a bundle or one library
MuseSounds Pro costs CHF 16 a month or CHF 158 a year, and there is no free trial. A bundle or a single library is paid for once. Cantai and the Vienna Super Bundle can also be had on their own monthly plans, and their product cards show both prices. All three install through MuseHub and play only in MuseScore Studio.
| MuseSounds Pro | A bundle | A single library | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | A monthly or yearly subscription | Once | Once |
| What you get | 34 libraries from 11 makers | 2 to 10 libraries from one maker | One library |
| After you stop paying | Pro libraries stop working at the end of the billing period | Keep working | Keeps working |
| Berlin, Tapspace, eight Cinesamples libraries | Not included | Berlin and Tapspace bundles | Every library is sold on its own |
The biggest difference is what happens when you stop paying. A library you buy, on its own or in a bundle, keeps working. If you cancel Pro, its libraries stop working at the end of the billing period. Your scores stay as they are, and any library you bought separately keeps working. The longer you write with the same libraries, the more buying them saves, and the tables further down show where the two costs cross.
For the full list of Pro libraries by partner, see what MuseSounds Pro includes.
Hear a free and a Pro string library
Chamber Strings from Spitfire Audio is one of the libraries this choice is about. It is in MuseSounds Pro, and it is also sold on its own. To hear what it adds over the free Muse Strings, we took the first eight bars of Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Then we played them in MuseScore Studio three times, changing only the sounds:
- MS Basic, the soundfont that comes with MuseScore Studio.
- Muse Strings, the free string library from Muse Group.
- Chamber Strings from Spitfire Audio, in MuseSounds Pro and sold on its own.
The tempo, the mixer, the reverb and the export settings stayed the same each time, all at their defaults.
Look at the score before you listen. The Canon is written for three violins over a bass line, and those four parts are what you see and hear here. The bass plays alone for the first two bars, a pattern of eight notes that repeats under the whole piece. In bar 3 the first violin enters with a slow line in long notes that mostly steps downward. Two bars later the second violin starts the same line while the first moves on, and in bar 7 the third violin joins. Each violin plays exactly what the one before it played, two bars later. The first violin’s opening notes are long and exposed, so you hear the string sound itself before anything covers it. Try to imagine how the texture should build, then press play.
1. MS Basic
First, the soundfont MuseScore Studio uses until you install anything else. It has only a few recordings per instrument. Listen to the first violin’s long notes in bars 3 and 4, and notice whether each note changes at all while it is held. Then pay attention to bars 7 and 8, where three violins play together over the bass, and notice whether you can still follow each line.
MS Basic sounds good on these bars. It is also a little louder than the other two renders, so allow for that when you compare them.
MS Basic
2. Muse Strings
Now the free Muse Strings, which Muse Group recorded as full sections and as solo players. This is what the free set gives you for strings. Listen to the same long notes again and notice how each one begins and ends. As the second and third violins enter, pay attention to whether each new line stands apart from the ones already playing.
Muse Strings sounds good here as well. Compare it with the Pro render below before you decide whether you need to pay for strings at all.
Muse Strings
3. Chamber Strings
Finally, Chamber Strings. Spitfire Audio recorded it with a small section of 16 players at The Hall at AIR Studios in London, as a smaller counterpart to its full Symphony Strings. Fewer players share each part. Listen for how much the sound changes between the quieter and the louder moments, and notice how much of the hall you hear around the notes.
Chamber Strings sounds good as well, with a bit more contrast between quiet and loud than the other two.
Chamber Strings
Only the library changed between the three renders. A finished mock-up isn’t made that way. Arrangers adapt their writing to the library they use, so a real Chamber Strings version might be phrased or balanced differently. On eight bars of exposed strings the gap between the three is small. If the Muse Strings render already does what you need, you don’t have to pay for strings at all. What are MuseSounds? runs the same test on an orchestral excerpt by Dvořák, where the libraries differ more.
The eight MuseSounds bundles
MuseHub sells eight MuseSounds bundles, each from one maker. One is free, and each of the other seven costs less than its libraries bought one by one. The figures in this section and the next are US store prices in US dollars, with each library at its regular price and each bundle at its bundle price. The product cards show the price in your country.
| Bundle | Libraries in it | Bundle price | Bought one by one | Already in Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MuseSounds Core | Muse Strings, Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, Choir, Harp, Keys, Guitars Vol. 1 and Handbells, plus MuseScore Studio and MuseFX | Free | Free | Free for everyone |
| Vienna Super Bundle | Vienna Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion, Piano, Harp, Celesta, Marimba and Vibraphone, plus Free Vienna Bass Trombones | $199.99 | $334.91 | All nine paid libraries |
| Vienna Orchestral Bundle | Vienna Strings, Brass, Woodwinds and Percussion | $149.99 | $249.96 | All four |
| Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Bundle | Symphony Strings, Brass, Woodwind and Percussion | $149.99 | $199.96 | All four |
| Audio Imperia Bundle | Nucleus, Solo, Chorus, Cerberus and Klavier | $189.99 | $229.95 | Two of five, Nucleus and Solo |
| Audio Ollie Bundle | LA Modern Percussion and Scoring Synths | $69.99 | $84.98 | Both |
| Berlin Series Orchestral Bundle | Berlin Strings, Brass, Woodwinds and Percussion | $149.99 | $199.96 | None |
| Tapspace Drumline and Percussion Bundle | Virtual Drumline and Virtual Percussion | $79.99 | $89.98 | None |
MuseSounds Core gathers nine of the free Muse libraries with MuseScore Studio and MuseFX, Muse Group’s free effects plugins. Three more free libraries sit outside it. They are Muse Drumline, Muse Music Box and Free Vienna Bass Trombones, which also comes in the Vienna Super Bundle.
For a Pro subscriber, four of the paid bundles add nothing while the subscription runs. They are both Vienna bundles, the Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Bundle and the Audio Ollie Bundle. Buying one of them is the alternative to Pro, and it makes sense when one maker’s orchestra is all you need. Vienna Symphonic Library on MuseHub goes through each Vienna library.
The Audio Imperia Bundle overlaps Pro only in part. Nucleus and Solo are in Pro, and Chorus, Cerberus and Klavier aren’t. A Pro subscriber who wants those three can buy them individually for $109.97, which is less than the bundle.
The Berlin and Tapspace bundles don’t overlap Pro at all. With a subscription or without one, they are the cheaper way to own those sets.
The eight MuseSounds bundles
When Pro costs less, and when buying does
Pro costs $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year. The yearly plan costs about as much as ten months of the monthly one, so the monthly plan is cheaper only if you expect to stop within ten months.
The first table compares one purchase with the monthly plan. If you would stay subscribed for longer than the number in the last column, buying costs less.
| You buy | Price | Months of monthly Pro that cost the same |
|---|---|---|
| Chamber Strings (Spitfire Audio) | $49.99 | 2.5 |
| Vienna Strings | $69.99 | 3.5 |
| Nucleus (Audio Imperia) | $79.99 | 4 |
| Vienna Orchestral Bundle or Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Bundle | $149.99 | 7.5 |
| Vienna Super Bundle | $199.99 | 10 |
| Cantai | $299.99 | 15 |
The second table compares the yearly plan with buying what you would want over the same years, at these prices.
| What you want | Buy once | Years of yearly Pro that cost the same |
|---|---|---|
| Chamber Strings | $49.99 | A quarter of a year |
| Vienna Orchestral Bundle | $149.99 | Three quarters of a year |
| Vienna Super Bundle | $199.99 | One year |
| Cantai | $299.99 | A year and a half |
| Vienna Orchestral Bundle and Cantai | $449.98 | Two and a quarter years |
| Vienna Orchestral and Spitfire Symphony Orchestra bundles, and Cantai | $599.97 | Three years |
| All 34 Pro libraries, as three bundles and 19 single libraries | $1,444.78 | A little over seven years |
Take the Vienna Orchestral Bundle. It costs three quarters of a year of Pro, so if the four Vienna sections are all you want, buying the bundle is cheaper in the first year and in every year after. Cantai is the opposite case. On its own it costs a year and a half of Pro, so a subscription is cheaper for the first year, and buying wins only if you use it into a second year. Add the Vienna Orchestral Bundle to Cantai, and buying both costs two and a quarter years of Pro. Then the yearly plan is cheaper for the first two years, and buying is cheaper from the third year on.
The last row is the whole Pro list bought as cheaply as possible, using the Vienna Super, Spitfire Symphony Orchestra and Audio Ollie bundles. It costs a little over seven years of Pro. If you want most of the list, Pro costs less for a long time. If you want four or five of its libraries, buying them usually wins within a year or two.
Libraries you can only buy
Twenty-six of the sixty paid libraries aren’t in MuseSounds Pro. If the sound you want is one of them, you buy it whether or not you subscribe.
| Partner | Not in Pro | Bundle |
|---|---|---|
| Orchestral Tools | All eight: Berlin Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion, Harps, Pianos, Soloists and First Chairs | Berlin Series Orchestral Bundle, for the first four |
| Cinesamples | Eight of thirteen: CineStrings Solo, CinePiano, CineHarps, Tina Guo Acoustic Cello, Taylor Davis Violin, Randy’s Prepared Piano, Viola Da Gamba, and Dulcimer and Zither | None |
| Tapspace | Both: Virtual Drumline and Virtual Percussion | Tapspace Drumline and Percussion Bundle |
| Spitfire Audio | Five of eleven: Felt Piano, Harpsichord, Rare Flutes, Spitfire Harp and Vintage Keys | None |
| Audio Imperia | Three of five: Chorus, Cerberus and Klavier | Audio Imperia Bundle, with Nucleus and Solo |
A composer who writes with the Berlin series pays for those libraries either way. Pro makes sense on top only if they also want libraries from the Pro list, such as Cantai or the Vienna sections. Otherwise they need no subscription at all. Cinesamples is split. The four Cine orchestra sections and VOXOS Epic Choirs are in Pro, and MuseSounds Pro welcomes Cinesamples shows how subscribers install them. The other eight Cinesamples libraries are bought one by one, since Cinesamples has no MuseSounds bundle. Orchestral Tools’ Berlin series on MuseHub covers the eight Berlin libraries one by one.
Who picks what
| If you | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Are starting out, or write mostly for piano | The free MuseSounds, starting with Muse Keys and Muse Strings | Muse Keys is the most downloaded MuseSounds library, and piano is what MuseScore Studio is used for most |
| Write for one instrument or one section | That library | You pay once, and it keeps working |
| Write orchestral scores in one maker’s sound | The Vienna Orchestral Bundle or the Spitfire Symphony Orchestra Bundle | One purchase covers the four orchestral sections, and you keep them |
| Need a sound for one project, such as a choir piece with sung lyrics | MuseSounds Pro, monthly, for the length of the project | Cantai, Nucleus and the other Pro libraries are in it, and you cancel when the project ends |
| Want to try many makers and styles | MuseSounds Pro, yearly | Buying the same range costs several years of Pro |
| Write film and trailer music in the Cinesamples sound | MuseSounds Pro | CineStrings, CineBrass, CineWinds, CinePerc and VOXOS Epic Choirs are in it |
| Write with the Berlin series, or a Cinesamples soloist, piano or harp | Those libraries, or the Berlin bundle for the four orchestral sections | They aren’t in Pro |
| Arrange for marching band | Muse Drumline, which is free, then the Tapspace bundle | Neither Tapspace library is in Pro |
| Use Linux | The free MuseSounds, installed with MuseSounds Manager | MuseHub runs on Windows and macOS, and MuseSounds Manager installs only the free libraries |
Whichever you choose, you can mix sources in one score. The Mixer assigns a library per instrument, so a bought library, a Pro library and a free one can play side by side.
FAQ
Next steps
Install the free MuseSounds first and play one of your own scores with them. For everything the subscription includes, read What is MuseSounds Pro?. For how the libraries work and what the free set covers, see What are MuseSounds?. To compare two partners in depth, read about Vienna Symphonic Library and the Orchestral Tools Berlin series. You can browse every library and bundle in MuseSounds on MuseHub, or download MuseHub free.
