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53 Strings Sample Library Long Patches Compared

Really thanks for the comparison. You did a great job. Real time saver for people who wanna buy these libraries. Most of those sounded like they came out of synths. Only few sounded natural. And they sounded really good.

Anthology Ensembles got very good not just legato but portamento. I love that.
Century Sordinos worth mentioning.
Prague Solo Strings I never even heard of those but I didn't like the tone of it.
Spitfire Solos sounded like as if sampled in a cupboard full of acoustics.
Thank god I didn't buy Albion Neo or any of those. Not one sounded good to me. Not even close to what I would expect.
I was thinking of buying Masse just because I liked the title but this clarified a lot. Thanks for that. When you're buying a library, you want everything to be at least better. Good is not enough.
I almost bought Spitfire's Studio Instruments this sale but backed out because of what have heard & this is another version of it. Totally different and yet not good.
When I heard BBC SO Core I thought you would compare the Pro too but I must say that Core sounds much better of those Spitfire libraries.
Afflatus Lush Strings? There's nothing lush to it. The Lush sounded chamber to me and the chamber sounded like octet to me. Funny. First chairs sounded like they came out of those Yamaha PSR Keyboards. Scene D' Amour just ok like very raw kinda sounding of an instrument but not good yet.
Tableau Solo Strings? Are those actually strings ? I doubt it.
The much hyped (at least to me) Metropolis ARK I is just ok not as good as Hollywood-ish but yes it has a little big waveform.
ARK II I didn't like the tone.
TIME Macro is an example of pure synth.
Do you consider ARKHIS actually a countable string library coz it's much of like sound designing (Gothic Instruments Dronar etc...)
Iconica: Sections & Players, Ensembles - Sounded chamber size and like something is pulling them off from expressing their fullness. I guess a workout can make these better.
Nucleus was really a disappointment to me. In fact Jaeger was just a little ok, compared to.
Areia: The 2 patches - Another Synth Station with a hint of naturalness.
Novo: I don't actually consider that a perfect string library
Sonuscore: The Orchestra - I don't understand why is it priced $399.
Da Capo: Is it much of the State of the Art sampling I guess? It was just ok. I mean better than many of those string libraries.
I can't believe you actually compared the Kontakt Factory Library but that's good you did so people would know they're using and how it sounds. I wouldn't say but many would use the word "CRAP". I don't know why but may be.
Kirk Hunter's Virtuoso Ensemble was shockingly better. I mean it's subtle in things. I would recommend that.
Adventure Strings were so good but just not good for these kinda things I guess you know that. That's why the title.
I like the way Trailer Strings started. The wideness it was good. It sounds like strictly for trailers.
Soaring Strings got a really good tone. I love that softness in moving and it is yes, so good for these kinda passages. Legatos were really better.
Appassionata - Not a fan of VSLs. Do you think they're actually strings?
Hollywood Strings Gold - They sounded like "This is the sound of a basic strings library". Not good, not bad but just there.
Venice Modern Strings - Sounded intimate & can get a make over, in terms of realness.

It's good you did Strings outta kontakt too.

The worst of all is the British Drama Toolkit.

The Best of all is Bernard Hermann Toolkit. I mean, I didn't wanna buy that and I still don't wanna but what was that? How big & Wide. Now that's what is like actual orchestra playing. The name justifies.

Oh another big surprise was the Epic Strings. I never thought it would sound really like that. Many of these libraries you compared didn't sound even close to it.

What you did was a right thing. Appreciated for not adding reverb. That's how it should be compared, if at all. Reverb just builds up things and in a way manipulates the listener. Just outta box that's good. Thanks a lot for the comparison. There are many other libraries you have to compare. You said you don't own many of those so how did you bring on? Another thing is if you get a chance, compare Miroslav & other VSTS too.

To be fair: the piece is not excactly something which BDT was designed for. BDT can produce very nice stuff but I would never think of it as a goto strings library ...
 
I've recently gave a listen to the articulation demo we did for Venice Modern Strings and I realized how bad it was as a showcase of our library. The Mahler demo is way more representative and I think you did a very good job with our library by enlighting the liveness (is it a word) of our library.
And I am amazed at how people got through the end of the video to actually listen to it :)

Very nice comparison!
 
To be fair: the piece is not excactly something which BDT was designed for. BDT can produce very nice stuff but Iwould never think of it as a goto strings library ...

Definitely. I say (well... Bob does) at the beginning that some libraries, the textural ones, are not suited at all for this.


Could you have Bob redo this video while you bring him insane amounts of Coffee ? ;)

Seriously? Do you think he's too slow? I've had non native English speakers tell me he's a bit too fast at times. I control the speed so feedback is welcome.


I've recently gave a listen to the articulation demo we did for Venice Modern Strings and I realized how bad it was as a showcase of our library. The Mahler demo is way more representative and I think you did a very good job with our library by enlighting the liveness (is it a word) of our library.
And I am amazed at how people got through the end of the video to actually listen to it :)

Very nice comparison!

I love VMS! One of my favorite libs ever. And as you mentioned in a comment on YouTube, I can't wait for the range extension on the basses. If you need a demo when it's out, just shout. I'd be happy to oblige 😊
 
Seriously? Do you think he's too slow? I've had non native English speakers tell me he's a bit too fast at times. I control the speed so feedback is welcome.

Haha.. No Bob's speed is perfect, I was just joking. Since Coffee will keep him alert next time he does a long video like this one. Beer might make him sleepy.
 
Listening to all these string libraries without any reverb was a strange experience, since I'm always adding reverb to any String library I use. Actually they sound less different from each other when they are dry like in your demos, the differences exist, but are not too audible to me. Maybe Reverb/Acoustics plays a big role in how these libraries really sound, Since they were not meant to be played Dry.

I think demoing all these libraries dry was a good way to listen to their bare sonic characteristics, but I doubt they are intended to be used as dry libraries, so we need to imagine them having a nice doze of reverb.
 
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Listening to all these string libraries without any reverb was a strange experience, since I'm always adding reverb to any String library I use. Actually they sound less different from each other when they are dry like in your demos, the differences exist, but are not too audible to me. Maybe Reverb/Acoustics plays a big role in how these libraries really sound, Since they were not meant to be played Dry.

I think demoing all these libraries dry was a good way to listen to their bare sonic characteristics, but I doubt they are intended to be used as dry libraries, so we need to imagine them having a nice doze of reverb.

You know what? Last time I did a strings comparison video (last year?) I got a lot of flak because I added reverb and one "couldn't really tell how a lib sounded and how wet it was out of the box" 😬

The best would always be to mockup a known piece so people have a reference and do it once unprocessed and once fully mixed. That would take me a good month for so many patches 🤣

But here's the thing: I don't do mockup or covers. The fun for me is in the writing process 😊
 
Listening to all these string libraries without any reverb was a strange experience, since I'm always adding reverb to any String library I use. Actually they sound less different from each other when they are dry like in your demos, the differences exist, but are not too audible to me. Maybe Reverb/Acoustics plays a big role in how these libraries really sound, Since they were not meant to be played Dry.

I think demoing all these libraries dry was a good way to listen to their bare sonic characteristics, but I doubt they are intended to be used as dry libraries, so we need to imagine them having a nice doze of reverb.
I agree, after awhile they all started sounding similar to each other, but I'm thinking that has something to do with the ears hearing the same tune over and over
 
I kept flipping through all the different ones to decide which ones I liked the most. I think my favorites are (in no particular order):

CSS
Adagio
Century
Spitfire Symphonic
Spitfire Studio
Bernard Herrmann
Albion Neo
Venice
Afflatus
 
Ok have been through them all now, just personal opinion obviously, went more on how they made me feel not on realism etc, first run through I shortlisted about 7, then went back and narrowed them down.

So my personal favourites would be, in no particular order :-

CS2
Albion Neo
Tundra Cons Sordino
Tundra Frozen Strings
SSS
And the smallest section of studio strings pro.

Like I said just my opinion, went on what moved me the most, but to be fair, I wouldn't particularly want to hear the piece again for a while lol.
No offence Nico & Bob x
 
I kept flipping through all the different ones to decide which ones I liked the most. I think my favorites are (in no particular order):

CSS
Adagio
Century
Spitfire Symphonic
Spitfire Studio
Bernard Herrmann
Albion Neo
Venice
Afflatus
Those were pretty much the ones I liked the most too , but I preferred Loegria to NEO. I also liked Soaring Strings and Venice from Fluffy Audio was a nice surprise.
 
Tremendous work ...

For me, I always go back to Berlin Strings. Would love for more of these tests to include them.
 
The Epic strings are actually quite great. I've scored a whole scene using the Originals only:



...and yes, some are really bad sounding (especially Prague Solo Strings: they are a masterclass in bad programming.)



Ha, misunderstanding: I own all those in the video. What I meant is that if there are some NOT on the video (like CineStrings), it's because I don't have them :)


Oh Ok that clarifies. CineStrings I heard quite a lot about those. The Best.

Another thing - The theme you composed was intentional right? Yea you said it’s original but was it intentional to make it sound like one of those Harvey Dent themes from The Dark Knight or it just came out like that? Just curious. I came to know the Dent’s themes were handled by James Newton Howard.

Yea like another poster mentioned there are quite a lot of libraries out there to compare I am sure you can.
 
Interesting. I was actually impressed with Nucleus. It had the sort of sound I was looking for. I should mention that I'm not an "orchestra" guy. I'm making more Pop/Folk/Corporate stuff.
Yea initially I was kinda impressed by the Lite version & I heard the demos and checked the walkthroughs of the Orchestral Core and I was disappointed a little and this Video cleared a lot of the air.

Pop/Folk Nice and you use Nucleus?

If you don’t mind may I suggest Auddict’s USE ? Not bombastic but much chamber-ish & with reverb you can get really great results with those. I mean you can make them sound bigger than their natural tone & color.
 
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