There's a longer version of the tutorial up now with two long Thomas J pieces that bookend the demo.  they are both magnificent.  

 Did you notice this ? Maybe it could be a good thing if you absolutely need an Hollywood sound ? http://vsl.co.at/en/211/497/1686/311/181.htm

I hope I'll be able to use my MIR soon ! [H]

@Lee Blaske said:

It's a somewhat aggressive, harsh and strident sound. Nice for competing with sound effects in an adventure movie score

I agree. So I think it is only a matter of style and taste of the composer really.

PSY-Clone:

A / B comparison between  Apass Celli followed by HS Celli (courtesy of Psy-Clone). I beg to differ about the strident / harsh thing being discussed here.

http://10.0.16.246:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?ws-session=4093710770

SvK

@svonkampen said:

PSY-Clone:

A / B comparison between  Apass Celli followed by HS Celli (courtesy of Psy-Clone). I beg to differ about the strident / harsh thing being discussed here.

http://10.0.16.246:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?ws-session=4093710770

SvK

huh? is that directed to me?

Oh i see you brought along the quacking ducks  😊

Link doesnt work tho.

Hollywood strings is...Hollywood...I think LASS is still better.

VSL is in first instance classical, but you can adjust the sound to your liking

that's what I think...

@fritzflotow said:

plus I forgot to mention:

The "con sordino"-switch sounded to me like a certain eq setting applied, not like actual samples recorded. Also it is mentioned, that divisis are recorded in the same session as the full sections. So It seems to be not a real smaller section, like combining chamber strings and orchestral strings (or combining desks in lass), but rather like more alternate microphone positions. It's difficult though to predict anything with the amount of information given ...

Yes, the sordino is done with impulse responses instead of actual recordings.  I have to admit I'm skeptical about that and the divisis as well.

@mike connelly said:

I doubt this will get answer, but I'll ask anyway.  With the newer libraries doing legato (among other things) with more reverberant samples, is VSL still planning to record samples as dry as possible, or are you guys considering doing recordings in a more reverberant space?  It seems to me that it can be hard to get a good sound with totally dry samples, and even a little bit of room in the mics can make a big difference.

If the rumored choir library is recorded as dry as the VSL instruments, that will be interesting to hear.

Unless they offer these reverbant samples as seperate libraries, I hope they keep them as dry as possible.  Aside from some minor personal preferences, I kind of like the collections just the way they are.  I like dry samples.   The ability to create one's own sonic environments is one of VSL's strongest attributes. 

I totally agree

@svonkampen said:

PSY-Clone: A / B comparison between Apass Celli followed by HS Celli (courtesy of Psy-Clone). I beg to differ about the strident / harsh thing being discussed here. http://10.0.16.246:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?ws-session=4093710770 SvK

What is the correct link please?

I would be interested to hear the comparison.

I pre-ordered HS Gold because I have LASS, Appassionata St., Vienna SE + and a bunch of the VSL download instruments.  Generally, I find VSL to be very real and the player the best of any VI out there.  I'm not just saying this on this forum- I say it everywhere.  I do find I have to tweak releases on the instruments but it's no biggie.  And, Vienna Ensemble Pro has made life amazingly great.  However, I do hear some sonorities in the expanded HS demo that I personally haven't been able to achieve using my existing libraries.  There is an attractive quality to sitting down and playing really expressive strings with little programming.  I'm a musician first and foremost and like to work on music ideas rather than futzing around with making something sound sonically great.  

There is enought to compare in the meantime on eotte.blogspot.com. Most "string comparisons" have been made in 2011 so far, so just find your way somewhere there.

If you want a specific test just let me know.

@aron said:

In my opinon the most important thing missing from vienna is no active control over the vibrato.Somthing that hollywood strings has.any comments on the effectiveness of this from hw strings users would be appreciated because i have yet to hear a demo where this is demonstrated.I really hope vienna has this as a high priorty because it would make the strings far more expressive

There is active control over vibrato. It is called crossfade.  There are many variations of vibrato within the VSL strings already.

You want an artificial control that morphs senza vibrato with vibrato digitally?  Perhaps that is done on some phony sounding things or sample modeling of various kinds.  However, the VSL approach has been "pristine" in that it tries to present the authentic sound of original recordings unaltered by digital fakery.  This makes it not quite as mindless to use as some other libraries, but infinitely more valuable in lasting musical quality, because you are using actual recordings of musicians, not digital effects which any moron can do nowadays. 

On this question of changing from vibrato to non vibrato, there are already patches that are no vibrato, progressive vibrato, espressivo vibrato vs. normal vibrato, etc.  So simply by layering  those, you can do a crossfade to change the sound. 

However, you will notice that the levels of vibrato in Appassionata strings for one example are already very appropriate for the dynamics.  In other words, rarely would you hear heavy vibrato with pp.  And it is normal to have more on louder dynamics - for more expressive vibrato.  This is exactly what happens in the layered samples, accessed either by velocity or crossfading that works perfectly with the ensemble. 

This question, of needing artificially morphed vibrato levels, is of very little practical significance to me in doing the most complex arrangements, especially when one hears the natural sounding vibrato of the Appassionata strings which I have tended to default to these days. 

 You can do non vibrato/vibrato crossfades in all Collections, apart from Orchestral Strings. Actually that's not quite true. You can crossfade from non-vibrato to vibrato, but the patches that have vibrato are rather anemic in nature, and not really up to the task, IMO.

What you can't do in any of the Collections is non vibrato/vibrato/molto vibrato crossfades, and this is a shame.

DG

At that point you should consider hiring an orchestra ;) 

Until date, I think VSL still offers the sample libraries with the highest realism and musical behaviour, especially when used in VI PRO.

It really responds to orchestration skills in real life. 

Cheers,

Bart

@bartdelissen said:

At that point you should consider hiring an orchestra ;) 

Until date, I think VSL still offers the sample libraries with the highest realism and musical behaviour, especially when used in VI PRO.

It really responds to orchestration skills in real life. 

Cheers,

Bart

 Or record your own library. [;)]

Seriously, the only Collection that you couldn't do what I want is the Orchestral strings, because the patches don't exist, but the reason you can't do it with the others, is that you can only set up a 2 patch xFade in VI Pro, and you would need a 3 patch xFade to do what I want.

DG

Recording your own library would be very common 5 years ago. But it's not that neccesary anymore. If you really want to go to the next step, just hire the musicians you need. You could still make it a hybrid production if you like. 

Can't you work around the doulbe crossfade on two tracks then? soft-middle on one track middle-expressive on a second one? Limitations stimulate creativity ;)

Bart