Cheez
Moderator
Those who are into orchestral mockups will know that there's no such thing as having enough string libraries. Each library has it's own strengths and weaknesses that result in us layering different libraries at times. Now, more and more string samples are appearing (esp this year and probably 2010). With so many libraries popping up, I thought it's time to review what's been happening in the area of strings.
First, let's lay some foundation. Some important factors to a good library include:
1. Realism. This is always the main point of any sample library. But to achieve realism is not easy. There are few problems inherent to string samples that need to be overcome:
3. Mic positions. Adding reverb sometimes just doesn't cut it. The delay tail is extremely important in a large hall. What's not there will never be there even with good reverb. Most libraries now have recordings with mics in different positions (from close to far).
There are a number of current great libraries out there that covers all/most of these aspects (EWQLSO, Sonivox, Kirk Hunter, VSL etc). I won't mention the outdated libraries here as these libraries superceded most of them in terms of all the factors mentioned above.
Now...drum roll....we have a new series of new libraries that came out/coming out. These include even more control and articulations that are never done before. One of the new hurdles that need to be overcome:
1. LA Scoring Strings (aka LASS). http://www.audiobro.com/html/lass.html
Not cheap. They recommend 2 PCs to run it well. The string "air sound" is simply beautiful in this library.
2. Cinematic Strings. http://www.cinematicstrings.com/
No auto-divisi, but it boast to be able to control samples easily and so eliminates the use of multiple midi tracks for one string line.
3. Kirk Hunter TVEC II. http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/
Still waiting. Update from TVEC I programming. Divisi is added + new samples.
4. Coming out 2010 - Hollywood Strings by East West. http://www.soundsonline.com/content/us/hollywood-strings.php
New articulations galore (including bow change legato, richochet etc). Also not cheap.
5. Much anticipated and waiting...Garritan Orchestral Strings 2 (aka GOS2). Since GOS1 was taken out, people have been waiting for Garritan to release v2. Both the Stradivari and Gofriller were also taken out in anticipation of GOS2.
And of course, the tools are only a quarter of the battle to realistic mockups. Good arrangements and sequencing skills are more important...
First, let's lay some foundation. Some important factors to a good library include:
1. Realism. This is always the main point of any sample library. But to achieve realism is not easy. There are few problems inherent to string samples that need to be overcome:
- One articulation plays all. In the old days (and in most synths), it's still one string patch playing all articulations. This has changed tremendously. We have now almost all articulations (pizzicato, marcato, detache, legato, staccato, tremelo, trills, spiccato etc). There's also something called "true legato" of which the interval between 2 notes when played legato is actually sampled.
- "Machine-gun-effect". When play a note repeatedly, it sounds like a machine gun because the note triggered is the exact same note sampled. Solved by round robin - multiple samples of 1 note is sampled (usually one note sampled 4 times played at different times); when a note is triggered repeatedly, the 4 different samples rotate randomly so that each time, a different version of the same note is triggered.
- "Sucking effect". Because most string samples start with a slow increase in volume and decays the same way, when notes are played in a phrase, the tail-end of a note (release) and the beginning of the following note create a kind of "sucking effect" - very unnatural string playing. Almost all hardware synths has this problem. In samples, the best way to overcome this is via modelling (first achieved by Garritan in his Stradivari violin and Gofriller Cello). Clever programming (eg scripting within Kontakt) can also fix that.
3. Mic positions. Adding reverb sometimes just doesn't cut it. The delay tail is extremely important in a large hall. What's not there will never be there even with good reverb. Most libraries now have recordings with mics in different positions (from close to far).
There are a number of current great libraries out there that covers all/most of these aspects (EWQLSO, Sonivox, Kirk Hunter, VSL etc). I won't mention the outdated libraries here as these libraries superceded most of them in terms of all the factors mentioned above.
Now...drum roll....we have a new series of new libraries that came out/coming out. These include even more control and articulations that are never done before. One of the new hurdles that need to be overcome:
- Divisi playing. E.g. 1st violin need to play divisi (ie 2 notes). In a real orchestra, half of the 1st violins will play one note while the other half plays the other note. When there's no divisi, all the players play in unison. In sampling, it's not easily achieved automatically. If you are using a sample of 16 1st violins, for example, playing divisi of 2 means you get 32 1st violins suddenly. Playing divisi of 3 means 48 players - you get the idea. What we do currently is to use different samples with different number of playes - which also mean multiple midi tracks. New libraries try to overcome this by sampling different number of players per stand then trigger divisi automatically depending on how many notes are played at the same time.
1. LA Scoring Strings (aka LASS). http://www.audiobro.com/html/lass.html
Not cheap. They recommend 2 PCs to run it well. The string "air sound" is simply beautiful in this library.
2. Cinematic Strings. http://www.cinematicstrings.com/
No auto-divisi, but it boast to be able to control samples easily and so eliminates the use of multiple midi tracks for one string line.
3. Kirk Hunter TVEC II. http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/
Still waiting. Update from TVEC I programming. Divisi is added + new samples.
4. Coming out 2010 - Hollywood Strings by East West. http://www.soundsonline.com/content/us/hollywood-strings.php
New articulations galore (including bow change legato, richochet etc). Also not cheap.
5. Much anticipated and waiting...Garritan Orchestral Strings 2 (aka GOS2). Since GOS1 was taken out, people have been waiting for Garritan to release v2. Both the Stradivari and Gofriller were also taken out in anticipation of GOS2.
And of course, the tools are only a quarter of the battle to realistic mockups. Good arrangements and sequencing skills are more important...
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