MOTUnation.com

The metal band I play in created an awesome mockup for a new song, mainly in Garageband, and one of the parts was constructed out of loops of a gypsy-style viola (not violin). It's got some fast turns, and you can hear nice harmonics during playing. Honestly, I'm urging our band leader to just use loops for the album version (or find a violist to rerecord them), I'm never going to be able to play something that sounds that organic on a synth. However, for live performance, I'd like to get close, and I just can't find anything. I've been listening to and demoing (when I can) various viola samples, and all of the offerings out there just don't work. Most of them seem too slow (even with high-attack keyswitches), not agile enough to leap around this folk motif. It seems the higher-end, the slower and more legato the focus is. I need something gnarly and raw.

Anyone know of a good solo folk viola or 5-string violin library that has good fast response? Looked to Adagio Viola, absolutely won't work. The viola in EWQLSO is out too. Of all things, the low-end VSL viola included with Kontakt (with some keyswitches) is working the best, but I know I can do better.

Get Neocymatics Hybrid Strings. It's actually a solo string instrument, covering the entire range that solo stringed instruments can play, but it is not specifically a cello,
viola, or violin. Just play it in the range that the viola occupies. Super-fast attack, plenty of edge,
vibrato is controllable via aftertouch (pressure). Mod wheel adds "pinched/squealing" harmonic shift, exactly like a real solo string instrument behaves. It combines sampling and physical modeling.

Like you, I needed a solo string instrument that didn't have "baked-in" sampled vibrato, had
a fast attack, and plenty of edge and "rosin" in the sound. I had tried the Friedlander Violin, Adagio
Violin, East-West Gypsy, and Ircam Solo Instruments. Wasted a ton of money on all of these. Neocymatics was what I should have bought in the first place.

Go here - and be sure to watch the video demos:

http://www.neocymatics.com/index.php/pr ... 0-03-29-48

Their clarinet library is awesome as well, and covers gypsy and folk genres (Turkish etc.), so keep that in mind as you can get a bundle discount if you buy them both. You can still get the discount for one from the other later on though.

I have high hopes for this vendor. I forget where they're located, but they have a vested interest in musically accurate libraries for ethnic musics, so they put a LOT of effort into the performance side of things.