Spitfire Solo Strings

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Hi all... I'm looking at a couple of solo strings libraries, and Spitfire is one of the main candidates. Looks like there's only violin, viola, and cello, but no bass. Fine for traditional work, but sometimes it is nice to have a solo bass, and they're hard to find in other libraries...

Anyone have experience with this particular library?

Thanks in advance!

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Not exactly an answer to your question but in an effort to help, and yes, I have experience with Spitfire although not the solo libraries:

Here is another option in case you overlooked them and they have a solo bass library:
http://8dio.com/instrument-category/strings/

I own many of the available string libraries, Cinematic Strings, Albion, LASS full, all Sonokinetic Orchestral libraries, etc, etc. (and I do not own many of the available libraries considering the wide range of libraries out there, but working on it :hihi: )

Each of these hold a special place in my works. Each has a niche. Each will NOT do everything there is to do or sound like another brand. They are all different even though they are strings (or other orchestral instruments).

IMHO afford as many as you can and enjoy each for what it does.

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan
My DAW System:
W7, i5, x64, 8Gb Ram, Edirol FA-101

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The Spitfire solos are nice, but getting a bit dated in terms of some scripting out there these days. Spitfire's own Electric Cello is pretty darn cool and very playable but not your traditional solo string sound. Solo strings that I definitely recommend are Embertone's Friedlander Violin and Blakus Cello. They are probably the most advanced currently and they are working on the other two string solos too. Cinesamples recently released the Tina Guo Cello library which is more focused on phrases and effects but also just got a legato added. The downside is that the vibrato is built-in so it sounds incredible but you can't change the speed/intensity of it like with the ember tone vibrato (which admittedly doesn't sound as real but not bad). The legato in that Cinesample cello is excellent though.

If you have time you might want to consider waiting until Cinesamples releases their Cinestrings pro which will have detailed solo strings, no doubt including non-vibrato to vibrato.

On the other hand the Spitifre solos might do it for you if you like the sound and I would bet money that they are working on a solo strings redux to incorporate more samples and improved performance capabilities like legato and vibrato.

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Thanks for the replies!

The Spitfire Redux makes sense, actually... They were a bit vague and wouldn't answer any questions about upcoming releases, but with the implication that something was brewing... Looks like they're pushing their scripting harder with some of the new releases, so hopefully that will apply to their earlier libraries as well.

I'll look a little more into Cinesamples libraries. Their brass was on my radar for a bit, but wasn't as high up on the priority list as a couple of other things.

Definitely excited about the Embertone libraries, but holding off until they complete the set...

I'll end up getting the Vienna solo libraries for the sheer detail you can achieve, but I feel a lot of their stuff is somewhat sterile and getting a little dated sounding in some cases... Kind of a must-have, but I want to have something a bit more "human" in the mix as well.

Thanks again!

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What I think is the most 'human' sounding thing I know of is the Neocymatics Hybrid Strings.
http://neocymatics.com/index.php/78-new ... id-strings

(Blakus cello, def. not 'the most advanced currently'.)

I'm singularly unimpressed by Spitfire, the articulations they avail us of is seriously LITE. Don't know the electric cello though. But for a straight approach with nothing really happening with special scripting, it's so basic. If you want basic get VSL Solo Strings Standard library and you're still getting more articulation and, for me a far more present sound.

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NB: the lingo used is a bit different for certain things. Slurred v. Bowed more or less = perf. legato v. détaché.
The galling thing for me is no marcato and no Sfz. 275 euros vs 399USD. VSL is more bang for the buck objectively.

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As far as strings go, I'm open to different approaches and while I think VSL, having a more present sound and being pretty much free of 'room' will be my first call for writing, and owing to the workflow I'm used to (articulation! not to even mention the VI Pro interface), I also like a wide palette. Also I can't afford such as Dimension Strings or some others.

So I've checked out two things 'around town' at studios. One is Cinestrings, the other Spitfire Sable Vol 2, for 2nd vlns/vlas/bassi. Behind the idea of some back to front and here I mean placement in a room.

Cinestrings I worked w. for hours... and I hate their ways. Personally I don't find that a whole great lot of Round Robin is really bringing 'realism' in any very useful way.
So each playback was so markedly different in terms of ATTACK, and then there is a lot of tweak factor in release characteristic. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the celli and bassi to sound like in attack and release. I wasted a day behind it, calling in a favor I regret a little having done.
I ended up using some old EWQL SO Silver which wasn't go great out of the box either and committing a ballpark thing to audio and creating my attack and release - I got really really close to my idea - editing audio.
I also find this emphasis on CC1 dynamics so very Garritan Personal Orchestra, ie., kind of lame. I'm used to 'dynamic samples', ie., 'pfp 4 seconds' etc... CC1 dynamics for me are fakesville more typically than not. I feel the same about VSL 'velocity crossfade'. In a wash of <hollywood strings pad>, it's fine, but that isn't where I live usually.
So that's definitely not going to be a purchase.

Sable V2... I actually read the VI threads. Kinda strange, not going to get into it, but I noticed the one proponent of Spitfire Mural stating he had a VE Pro instance of just Mural and set the master bus in VE Pro to +4dB to match his 'other libraries'. Yes. I found this, and the HZ01 libraries to be really quiet next to other things in the template I took with me. It's odd to me as their marketing heralds a huge sound.

The fact I was going to have to crank it up is not in itself an absolute deal-breaker, but the lack of articulation in this thing is just truly surprising to me. So I look around and check out their other libs. That seems to be pretty much true of their libraries. So it could be completely satisfying to someone other than me, but I think for the money it's a small kind of library. You're paying for the room mic'ing approach. My experience with that is very meh, my take on [HZ Perc.] having three producers mixes of all of this fancy mic'ing is... I'm nonplussed, in both current meanings of the term, I'm taken aback that this is supposed to be all that and the result doesn't make any great impression on me.

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Hi all,

I just got pointed at this thread and thought I'd share a couple of demos with you,

HZ03 just out: This is made using Hans' mixes -- mostly his 'close' perspective and some of his 'room' blended in.

http://spitfire-webassets.s3.amazonaws. ... ess_PT.mp3

and a few of Sable: this is only using Volume 1 (Violin 1 and Celli):
http://spitfire-webassets.s3.amazonaws. ... onDusk.mp3

this is using Vols 1 and 2 (V1, V2, Va, VC, CB "essential arts"):
http://spitfire-webassets.s3.amazonaws. ... own_RH.mp3

and here's a demo using Volume 3 which contains the 'fast playing legato and run' arts:
http://spitfire-webassets.s3.amazonaws. ... emo_AB.mp3

One reason that side by side sometimes our stuff isn't as loud out of the box as other libraries is that we don't believe in normalising the samples, as we think this destroys the relative dynamics of the instrument across its range.

All the best!

Paul

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I'd recommend the Embertone solo strings. I just received an email that the Fischer Viola is just about ready for release. The Freidlander violin and Blakus Cello are out for some time already. No bass yet but I think they are doing that after the viola. These are quite nice and even have an ensemble feature so you can use it for many parts, either together at once or divisi.

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For solo bass you could look at MODWHEEL's The Lowdown library
Demo/soundtrack work: https://soundcloud.com/antaln
My post/prog rock band: http://www.sylvium.com

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What is the "Fischer Viola" please?

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Echoes in the Attic wrote:I'd recommend the Embertone solo strings....
In Freidlander, which CC do you use for portamento speed?

P. 5 of the manual says, "Portamento speed is controlled by CC 80 by default...."

P. 8 says, "When selected, The CC# (default = CC5) controls porta speed."

P. 9 says, "If 'Dyn CC' is selected, portamento speed will be controlled by CC 80."

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