@hroiwer said:

Chamber of Commerce, there are many strings, you can choose according to your personal preferences!

I don't understand what you mean here.  Can you explain in more detail please?

Have you ever had a sound on your keyboard or piano or guitar that you just go to to have fun cuz it's so beautiful? Add VSL Chamber strings to that list, regardless of what you're doing.

At the risk of breaking the love fest, if you're doing pop/rock I think you also should check out NI's 'Session Strings Pro'. For backgrounds to pop/r&b they are -outstanding-.

I just got Chambers String I & II and they are -breathtaking- for making 'classical' music....and SSP is pretty useless for that application. But for anything from disco to motown SSP is simply the shiznit.

So get Chamber Strings if you also want to do more than backgrounds. But if you just want instant rock power ballad joy... SSP should also be on yer radar.

YMMV

---JC

If you try to record Shania Twain's "Don't be Stupid" without breathing people, buy VSL. POP can be hard too. I don't think less is ever more. Only if your time is unimportant and it will be rerecorded...in which case, steal a soundfont:) 

The music that you like takes money. Think of the songs you love (pop songs for example)...I'm sure they cost a lot of money.

Maybe if you're as old as me they relied on talent and cost less...who knows...but today Shania could have written Don't Be Stupid with VSL, For sure...as an example.

There is a real tradeoff when buying libraries.  One can buy something that is "good enough" for what one is seeking to do at the moment (have done this to often, to my eventual regret).  The problem with buying good-enough-for-now is that as one grows it will cease to be good enough.  I have learned the hard way that it is better to buy libraries that give room for ample growth, libraries that are capable of doing more than just what I need this moment.

Now, if one has a strong reason to believe that the "lesser library" will fit in many projects over an extended period of time, than there is good justification for purchasing that library.

Personally, if I had the option of starting all over again (given that I now have a better idea of what I am seeking to do), there would be several libraries that I would bypass now (in favor of more VSL).

That is certainly true, but Session Strings Pro is a must-have for anyone occasionally doing Disco or R&B style strings. They are deliberately cheesy, but in a good way. VSL is NOT cheesy, so is not the ideal match. I recently replaced some of my VSL tracks with Sessions Strings Pro and it was a HUGE improvement for those particular pieces. I don't think any level of production would have taken VSL to that same place, as VSL is played professionally in a classical way, with classical articulations, intonation, and expression. Session Strings can go dark, warm, cold, or harsh. It's very versatile and easy to work with. I would NEVER use it for anything classical or Broadway. But oh does it ever evoke the 60's/70's!

As fas as VSL is concerned, as of next week I will own everything VSL makes except the Windows-only stuff. Chamber Strings remains my favourite, as I prefer more intimate orchestrations where there is more expression in each part. I rarely ever even double winds and brass, unless doing Wagnerian/Straussian stuff. I generally stick to Chamber Orchestra type instrumentation.

If I were working with a real orchestra, it might be different. Probably I am just more successful with smaller orchestrations because they are more manageable in terms of not having to do so much layering and sample-switching to keep things from getting muddy, as happens so quickly with larger groupings since that's not how real orchestras play (we would need True Divisi, which we don't have with VSL).

I look forward to the arrival of Orchestral Strings I and Appassionata Strings II so that I can finally do complete comparisons of every voicing of the string family. I do find that certain articulations draw me to one vs. the other, regardless of my intended ensemble size. In those cases, I do some doubling if I needed a larger ensemble.

I'm actually surprised just how different Chamber, Orchestral and Appassionata sound from each other, given that the conditions and in some cases the players were probably about the same. And I'm really glad that's the case, because it allows me to "fake" Divisi to a certain degree.

As a former motown sideman, I can speak to this to some degree. I was honoured to know a lot of the string/horn players on the classic records and FYI -most- of these people were Detroit Symphony members by day. They were the first to say that the arrangements and the surroundings made them -play- different.

What string guy doesn't play differently in a quartet or 4-2-1 (motown) group than in a group of 16 firsts and seconds? What singer? Does a brass quartet play the same as the same guys doing Mahler?

I just can't see the snobbery on Session Strings... it's not a cheap-o by any stretch. It's a special purpose tool done -very- meticulously. As is Chamber Strings. They do different things.

And by the same token, I can't see getting to Appassionata by simply 'doubling' Chamber Strings.

And even more broadly? The sad truth I've learned over the past 2-3 months of research is that you can't go cheap on any of this stuff... you almost gotta get everything. (Where's the crying icon?)

"Personally, if I had the option of starting all over again (given that I now have a better idea of what I am seeking to do), there would be several libraries that I would bypass now (in favor of more VSL)."

Oh yep, that's so true.

The more time goes by, the more I learn to appreciate VSL. 

If you want to compare different libraries visit slb-o.com. Follow the link to the forum > recipes. There are several pieces for strings in which VSL Chamber Strings as well as Session Pro are involved. Especially the Holberg Prelude is interesting in this context.

Since I am the one who made these mock-ups presented there I would like to make clear that these productions are the result of a personal and always subjective way of working and interpreting. Maybe I would come with quite different results if I make them again next week. It is what it is now.

Nevertheless, I would always be interested as visitor of this forum in such comparisons.

best,

Erik

@Erik said:

If you want to compare different libraries visit slb-o.com. Follow the link to the forum > recipes. There are several pieces for strings in which VSL Chamber Strings as well as Session Pro are involved. Especially the Holberg Prelude is interesting in this context.