Having access to an entire orchestra certainly comes in handy but sometimes you just need a viola, a flugelhorn and a triangle -- I'm looking at you, Ellsworth Snyder -- and "hiring" and entire symphonic sample collection just isn't cost effective.

That's why Vienna Symphonic Library has started offering individual instrument downloads from their website, starting at €60 per instrument. The individual downloads enable aspiring composer-producers to build their virtual orchestra poco a poco. This helps you get to know each of your instruments one at a time -- what are their hopes, their dreams, their deepest fears? What are their dietary restrictions? You're building a team here, dammit! You've got to know each member like FAMILY!

As if the symphonic draft pick of 2008 wasn't heated enough, now there's an addition 47 brass and woodwind instrument downloads to choose from. Double-Bass though it was a shoe-in for a first-round pick, but that upstart Sousaphone's got old D.B. shaking on its end-pin.

The individual downloads feature slightly more articulation samples than the Vienna Special Editions, but fewer than the Vienna Instruments DVD Collections. Each of the single instruments supports the formats VST (OS X, Win XP/Vista), RTAS (OS X), AU (OS X), and also works stand-alone.