In a natural progression... most folks start with the basics and them move up the ladder one step at a time as they discover the need for something better.

My progress was along this line, and followed it very closely in this order.

TTS basic synth..learned how midi worked and made music with it.

SFZ sound font player: Sounded better than some, but not all, of the TTS patches

Garritan Personal Orchestra: a nice step up in quality over the GM libraries and fonts.

Miroslav Philharmonic: similar in quality to GPO but had different tonal qualities

Kontakt (actually the Komplete Kollection package): Step up to the big leagues in quality and versatility. Nice quality sounds, and huge libraries and after market products.

East West Silver << this was a free full function limited version. It contained some really nice string sections, but it was limited and simply intended to give you a taste of the full, very expensive, but extremely nice sounding E/W offerings.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.