Hey there Staccatosaurus,
I’m glad I didn’t unsettle you with my somewhat harsh critic. Getting sampled instruments to behave right can be quite an art of itself (that I haven’t mastered ether) and depending on the provider it needs multiple Midi-CC commands like CC-1 for Dynamics CC-11 for Expression (Volume) and other CC for vibrato or Filtering. Also depending on the sample provider the usable range of the CC-Command can vary. Spitfire for example uses a pretty broad range for CC-1 so you are recommended to use CC-11 in tandem, while VSL feels more cramped for CC-1 where CC-11 isn’t necessary.
In my experience Spitfire always has some jank in their products ether audio balancing or GUI or whatever. However they always have a quite intimate and close sound.
VSL can be very detailed and pretty sounding. However they often lack that intimacy and sound somewhat cold and distand to me.
Depending on if you want to dabble in microphones VSL special edition can be a great choice. However their Sound is somewhat fixed in stone since you cant change the miking.
If you can live with a bit of jank and a bad GUI I can also recommend the cheaper Spitfire stuff. However the sound is always a mixed bag, depending on what you want to do.
As for recommendations. Id say the best way is having first hand experience. It can be somewhat fun trying to play the real thing and try to understand it’s working. How they really sound and what a player needs to think of. For example the flute having its dynamic range linked with the sound they are playing (needing to blow harder (overblow) to get the higher notes).
For Mixing it is pretty hard to recommend anything specifically. Most tutorials on YouTube seem to be very broad or unspecific. Or don’t really show how the sausage is made. “Virtual Orchestration” seems to be a competent but broader source of cool information. But sometimes you can also get lucky, like Olafur Arnalds breaking down his Sessions or having some tutorials on specific instruments or terms in mixing.
TLDR:
It’s hard and tedious, but oh so wonderful the same time. I hope the wall of text didn't scare you.