LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

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buzzsmith
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LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by buzzsmith »

Getting ready to pull the trigger for LASS 2.5.

This is a copy of a message that I sent to numerous contemporaries...

Audiobro LASS 2.5 999.00
Cinematic Strings 2 499.00

EW / QL Hollywood... 599.00
(I have heard that some are having issues with the Play engine and slow loading.)

Anyway my needs are:

* Authentic, beautifully recorded
* I'm mainly doing light orchestral and show tunes. It'd be nice to also have a 12 string section a la LA or Nashville option but I know that one size
doesn't fit all needs.

* I don't really need, at least for now, the full blown movie score type sound.
* Different mic position choices (close, tree, hall, etc.)
* Not particularly interested in full ensemble patches with no control over the individual sections. (Like the old days or with Albion.) I'd rather do the
4+ parts myself.

* Very smooth legato, but with some "bite" on fast 16th note runs, for
instance, when needed.

Last chance for comments and opinions!

Thanks!

Buzzy


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williemyers
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Re: LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by williemyers »

Buzz, I'm going to weigh in here as a (paid-up) owner/user of; LASS, CinematicStrings2, Albion I, Albion II, SymphonicSphere, VSL....and those are just the strings! (I passed on EW Hollywood strings as I wasn't/aren't a fan of PLAY)
Following VSL, LASS was my next big string purchase. I talked extensively by phone with Sebastian (one of the developers) prior to purchasing, read Craig Anderton's review, etc. Thought it was a (rather expensive) no-brainer. But loved the concept of a divisi string orch.

First day I had it loaded up, I was hearing what seemed to me to be an inordinate amount of "white noise" behind the samples. Contacted AudioBro right away to see if I'd messed up the install, but all was "as it should be".

Wrote a post (with samples included) about it on VI-Control, only to find that there was a bit of a war raging over (a.) "the natural sound of sampling" v. (b.) "a more cleaned-up sound". Call it rosin noise or bow noise or whatever, but LASS has plenty of it!

Then I heard a great mock-up of Barber's Adagio on AudioBro's board (without loads of noise) and wrote the creator about it, looking for specifics. He offered that he had gotten the sound he had, only after a fair bit of e.q.-ing & tweaking on all sections of LASS.
hmmm...

If you go on to VI-Control and do a search on "the sound of LASS", you'll find a pretty lengthy thread of folks commenting. Some love it, some hate it, most fall in the middle, but most all acknowledge that you won't get a great sound out of LASS without dedicating time to tweak.
And then AudioBro introduced the ARC, which *does* handle a lot of the e.q. and reverb for you, *if* you like the presets.

There are *loads* of other nice features that LASS offers that other libraries can't match. But I keep going back to the comment by that composer who did the Barber, "You can get a great sound from LASS, but you *have* to plan on the time needed to tweak it"...

Sadly, for me even with the 2.5 update, it's become a rather expensive (and non-returnable/non-resaleable) boat anchor.
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buzzsmith
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Re: LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by buzzsmith »

Thanks, Willie.

There just doesn't seem to be a consensus!

Buzzy
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groove
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Re: LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by groove »

Hi Buzz,

I own VSL Full, Chamber Strings, Session Strings Pro and LASS 2 complete (including the Sordinos Legato). I skip Cinematic Strings 'cause VSL covers my need for large orchestra sound, although if I did not already have Vienna, it would be in my shopping list.

Of the bunch, LASS has my vote for sound and expressiveness and general ease of use, VSL and Chamber for the sheer amount of articulations and the fantastic Vienna Ensemble plugin. Session String Pro is use when time is really a concern - a TV cue that needs string pad add-on quickly - or for file opening compatibility with a fellow composer who use it as her primarely string gear.
williemyers wrote: Then I heard a great mock-up of Barber's Adagio on AudioBro's board (without loads of noise) and wrote the creator about it, looking for specifics. He offered that he had gotten the sound he had, only after a fair bit of e.q.-ing & tweaking on all sections of LASS.
hmmm...
I have my share of strings recordings - first one in 1990 ouch!! - and honestly the sound of LASS is the closest I've heard to the real thing ; real strings are noisy and in real life you have to reach the eq's, even if you are doing classical stuff, and especially when dealing with sampled strings. Most of the sound of strings comes from the room it's played in. The Spitfire, 8Dio, EastWest and to some extend Cinematic Strings sound come from the room they were played in. The sound is extremely pleasant and has a "That's the sound of film music" in it. In opposite LASS has a fair amount of the raw and dry sound and just small touch of the room. For VSL it is mostly dry, almost lifeless. The better the room, the better the sound, like in the real world. The dryer the sound, the more options to tailor it but also the more work for you. That's why Cinematic Strings is so successfull, it is easy of use and sounds wonderfull, if you like the sound of the room.

LASS gets the most use in my set-up as I almost never write for large ensemble. What I like about LASS are the divisi, the ability to tailor the sections the way I want in a fairly logical way i.e. 4-3-3 or 4-4-3-3-2 or 8-4-6-3-2. You get the idea.

I used LASS for mockup purpose on the last feature I did this summer, the orchestration of which is for 16 strings players; when the concertmaster and contractor heard the mockups he was blown away. At one point he said" This is LASS isn't it? If you ever need to make some cues bigger, just keep them, we'll play on top con sordino. Those are the only samples I can say that."

The EQ settings and the stage and color options provided by LASS are very good sounding and can be a nice starting point. My chain for "Pop" sound is LASS - UAD Ocean Way Studio in Remix mode - UAD Neve 1073 EQ - Ampex ATR. For TV cues LASS - with stage and color to taste - EQ - LA2A - Altiverb in reverb mode (the Teldec Room is simply beautifull and heck it's the one you get when opening the plugin!) For film LASS outputs to stems, EQs and verb are done in the re-recording room.

Based on your requirements, I would say LASS. Hope that helps.
---------
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buzzsmith
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Re: LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by buzzsmith »

Thank you so much, Groove.

I have been contacting as many pros as I can, including 2 busy LA composers (one was the composer for "Burn Notice" until about a year ago), and LASS keeps coming out on top.

So, LASS it is.

Buzzy


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buzzsmith
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Re: LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by buzzsmith »

And, Willie. Sure appreciate your input and the reference to the VI forum.

I read a lot this morning before my session.

Buzzy


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williemyers
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Re: LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by williemyers »

buzzsmith wrote:And, Willie. Sure appreciate your input and the reference to the VI forum. I read a lot this morning before my session. Buzzy
Not at all, glad to chip in.

It's really awkward to be critical of a library that's so widely revered in the industry. There are *loads* of highly respected composers using LASS on a daily basis and loving the results. Even the ones who've commented that it can take a lot of work to get a great sounds from LASS, usually wind up praising the results.

At the end of the day, it may come down to how much time you're able to invest in it. As I said above, it's got a handfull of wonderful & unique features but a fairly steep learning curve that comes with those features. In my particular situ - - doing orchestrations for advertising projects (with *ridiculous* deadlines!) - - I just never could find or allocate the time needed to make LASS work.

But, really hope it will work for you! Great luck with it, you're in very good company...
DP 9.52(OS 10.13.6), PTools 11.3.3, Sibelius 2021.12,
MacPro 5,1 mid-2010, 2 x 2.93Ghz 12 core, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 64 Gig RAM, 4 x >120G SSDs, 2 x 25" LCDs
couple o' hardware synths, loadza legal libraries
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https://vimeo.com/71580152

"I always wanted to be a composer - and I am..."
"I never wanted to be a recording engineer - and I'm not..."

~me
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buzzsmith
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Re: LASS Purchase imminent! Any naysayers?!

Post by buzzsmith »

Downloaded last night and installed and authorized this morning.

Yes, I'll be watching a lot of tutorial videos as time permits around projects. I'll also pop the manuals on my iPad.

I'm guessing that it will be a couple of weeks before I actually really use it on an actual project, even though I will be experimenting as I learn the GUI and application.

Buzzy
Early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1>5,1 3.33 GHz Hex Core Intel Xeon OS X 10.8.5 SSD (32 gigs RAM)
DP 9.51 PCI-424e / original 2408, 2408mkII, 24I/O, MTP-AV

Yamaha C7 Conservatory Grand
Hammond B-3 / Leslie 145
Focal Twin6 Be(s)

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