Which string library is the best? Help!

[cbergm7210]

I hate to throw cold water on the OP's budget to be limited to LASS Lite, because the real life of LASS comes alive in the first chair and divisi sections. Without programming the separate mod wheel and humanization / delay settings, really the library is just another string library. When you go to splitting out those sections and randomizing the dynamics of the sections, man oh man, that's when it comes to life, blowing everything else out of the water.

I also own and use Symphobia and East West Platinum, which I frequently layer all three together and get a great sound from.

So, I just say...buy 'em all.

[Shooshie]

Thanks a lot for this great and informative response....the breath controller is the MIDI solutions one?
Thanks

The breath controller is the headset by Yamaha, but it only produces a voltage. The MIDI Solutions box converts it to MIDI. If your keyboard has a BC port in the back, you don't need the box.

Shoosh

[hrw]

LASS. No doubt for me. i also have Hollywood Strings and unfortunately i found it a completely unreasonable resources hog.

[danworks]

I mainly use Synful (http://www.synful.com), coupled with a blend of very old (Roland) and new (VSL) strings library, respectively on MachFive and K4. Very lite on CPU, I just love it and I never had a complaint …

[mhschmieder]

It's so aggravating that the vi-control breath controller still isn't out! For breath-controlled ensembles (vs. solo playing), it would be a must, and more expressive and ergonomic than the Yamaha BC3a (which I owned many years ago but sold due to frustration).

I owned the EWI USB briefly a year or two ago, and just couldn't get the hang of it. There are those who say it is more expressive than the WX5, but I found it way more limiting, even taking advantage of its unique settings and re-mapping its controllers etc. Maybe the full-blown version (not the USB version) is better.

The WX5 is amazing, and underrated. Most try it out of the box without changing any of the default settings and give up immediately. But thankfully there are some on-line resources at some wind controller web page that I no longer remember (I have some printouts in a stack but am not going to search for them right now -- Shooshie may have it memorized by heart anyway, and it is traversable from Matt Traum's Patchman Music website anyway).

In the end though, it's what you're used to and comfortable with that counts. If you never played recorder, sax, flute, or clarinet, the WX5 might be too intimidating. In that case, a breath controller is a good option vs. just depending on expression pedals, ribbon controllers, and the like. Shooshie has done a great job in the past of detailing why the mouth-to-controller connection is closer than a hand-to-controller connection in emulating bowing and other natural instrument articulations.

[Shooshie]

The truth is that I don't know what it's like to pick up a WX-5 for the first time and try to learn it. I don't know what it's like to have to learn the Yamaha BC-3 headset, either. Yes, I do both, but I almost can't remember when I didn't play some sort of wind instrument, so learning these was really just an extension of what I've always done. My first was a cow horn, then a harmonica. I played piano, but it was the saxophone that made me want to become a musician, and I got to be very, very good at the sax. So when I picked up a WX-7 years ago (and later the WX-5), I already knew how to play all the woodwinds. This was just another double. The fingerings are not all sax fingerings, though, so there was a learning curve to master the new fingerings, and an even bigger learning curve to master pitch, vibrato, programming, range, and making MIDI sounds and samples work with a BC/Expression instrument. I'm still not a master on the WX-5 like I am on the sax, but I notice my skill improving all the time. That said, it would be hard to fathom the amount of work I've put into these instruments. I mean, a musician's work simply is never finished.

So, if you try a WX-5 or a BC3 because of me, I can only hope that it works for you. I think the BC3 is the best compromise. You don't have to learn any fingerings, just blow while you play it on the keyboard. That's probably the best approach for non-woodwind players. One thing is for certain: if you DO work at it, expressive strings are just the beginning. You'll get bassoons, oboes, flutes, saxes, clarinets that sound like the real thing. (well, close) Just understand that I always assume people are willing to put in some time to learn these things. Nothing comes easy in this business. It's all hard. That's why not everyone does what we do.

Shooshie

[danworks]

I use BC3 with Wallander and it give amazing results, but for string I'm on mod wheel and custom consoles sending ccs, each for every different device-cc I use for strings.

BC for strings … hmm, never tried but I could have oxygen problem

[mhschmieder]

Well, I first became aware of the benefits of breath control on string bowing (especially detache), when Phil Clendennin posted some solo string patches for the Yamaha VL70m and the PLG-150VL plug-in equivalent, some years back.

From that point, I was sold. And I can hardly wait for the revised versions of the Grofriller Cello and Stradivari Violin to be released by Sample Modeling (Mr. Polich now has my originals, as they wouldn't run on my old computer and I figured by the time I had a new computer the Sample Modeling folks would have the new versions ready -- and this was ALMOST the case, but they are indeed exspected to be released this year). I am sure they will be BC/WC-friendly.

[Shooshie]

… I can hardly wait for the revised versions of the Grofriller Cello and Stradivari Violin to be released by Sample Modeling (Mr. Polich now has my originals, as they wouldn't run on my old computer and I figured by the time I had a new computer the Sample Modeling folks would have the new versions ready -- and this was ALMOST the case, but they are indeed exspected to be released this year). I am sure they will be BC/WC-friendly.

Wow, that IS good news. Those instruments were great fun to play, but I hope they will fix the breath-control problem. That problem is the portamento. Portamentos were done by overlapping notes. You can't do that on a BC instrument, but apparently at some dynamic levels and velocity levels it will interpret a note change as a portamento anyway. There's no sure-fire way to make it happen when you want it, and no sure-fire way to prevent it from happening when you don't want it. I got pretty good at making portamentos happen on cue, but sometimes they would slip in when I just wanted a legato. Other than that, these instruments are so realistic that it's almost scary.

I wonder if we get an upgrade price for owning the Garritan versions of these? I still pull them out and play them now and then, though they don't really blend with any of my string libraries. They're pretty much for solo playing. In any case, I look forward to having them again. I need to write them and make them aware of the BC portamento problem. These are excellent instruments for anyone who wants real violin/cello solos, and I look forward to their re-release.

[edit: if anyone would like to hear one of these in action, here's the Gofriller cello, performing Saint-Saen's "The Swan," live in real time on a WX-5.]

Shoosh

[mhschmieder]

Yes, in fact, it was the portamento problem that convinced me that I would need version two (from Sample Modeling), as a wind player. I hope they fix that this time around!

I think the horn and tuba are coming first. Then maybe soprano sax (VERY impressive so far, and it uses their new sound engine vs. Kontakt), but they do stuff in parallel as there are at least two people involved and they have different specialties.

[melenko]

Why don't you try one of the best for me (my wife is also pro-viola/player in a SO), like http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/audiodemos.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It isn't that expansive, for a lot of real and no hollywood-made sounds. Like mhschmieder I hate that MacDo sound.

[Rubens]

melenko

Posts: 246
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:01 am

"Why don't you try one of the best for me (my wife is also pro-viola/player in a SO), like http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/audiodemos.html
It isn't that expansive, for a lot of real and no hollywood-made sounds. Like mhschmieder I hate that MacDo sound."

I will love to get a comparison between that and VSL strings...

[FMiguelez]

melenko

Posts: 246
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:01 am

"Why don't you try one of the best for me (my wife is also pro-viola/player in a SO), like http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/audiodemos.html
It isn't that expansive, for a lot of real and no hollywood-made sounds. Like mhschmieder I hate that MacDo sound."

I will love to get a comparison between that and VSL strings...

You are resurrecting an old thread. I'm afraid Melenko is no longer with us...

[Rubens]

Well, thank you FMiguelez, anyway... any news about that matter? I am asking because in the time of the thread Lass 2 wasn't yet released I think... and nobody except Melenko wrote about that Kirk Hunter library... VSL still rules?

[FMiguelez]

...VSL still rules?

It rocks and rolls. It's simply amazing.
I have the full collection. Between Appasionata, chamber, solo, and regular strings, you get everything you need. I must say that I'm quite biased, though. But I think it's as good as it gets.

Obviously, you need to program lots of MIDI CCs to make the strings sing and to make them as real as possible.

So if you ask me, I think it's the best orchestral library money can buy