Best solution for 23 solo string instruments piece

[Jason P]

Greetings. I'm quite new to VSL and I've been playing with my newly purchased Solo String Bundle. I've been absolutely fascinated with Strauss's Metamorphosen and decided to try to write my own piece which I did. Though not nearly as good as Strauss's magnificent work it was a lot of fun and very challenging to write. The arrangement involves: 5 First Violins, 5 Second Violins, 5 Violas, 5 cellos and 3 DB. Strauss married the beauty of the string quartet with the string chamber orchestra. For a virtual orchestra this presents quite a challenge. It really didn't work well with the Play EWQL Solo Strings won't gel into a section even though I tried to vary their stereo location. Using a lot of cutting and pasting I have a passable recording when the EWQL solo are combined with the chamber versions also included with the Play Symphonic Orchestra. However, I now going eventually completely migrate to the VSL. What would be the best solution for my own much more modest arrangement for 23 solo strings? For VSL should I 1) purchase the Dimension Strings 2) purchase VI Pro and use humanize for each solo instrument 3) combine my new Solo String Bundle with the VSL Chamber Strings. Now I haven't quite tried to see what the result would be with 23 solo VSL strings.

[William]

You should definitely get the Dimension strings. They are made for this kind of music.  For separate solo string instruments Dimension is better than any other library.  And possibly, if you can, add to it Solo strings.    If  you add Solo you get something like a great concertmaster soloist to lead the Dimension strings.  You can also use the 2nd Solo violin which is already transposed for non-phasing doubling.   One thing to keep in mind is if you create a transposed/pitch-shifted group, the Dimension violins become 16 players divided between 8 1st and 8 2nds.  I've done this (on the Vertigo demo here) and it works very well for creating more players with no phasing problems.

[Jason P]

Thanks. Will do and I'll have another listen to the Vertigo demo.

[MassMover]

Do't forget that the Dimension Strings at the moment only consist of the Violins and Cellos. If you buy now, you'll get the rest for free when it will be released, but this will still take some months. 

So you'd get the best solution for what you're up to, but you cannot start right now. 

[Jason P]

Thanks for the info. I've been familiarizing myself with this fantastic library over the last month. I thought I'll give it a try for my 23 solo string piece since it was written as a memorial for 9/11 and the anniversary is nearly here. Though my modest work not at all as skillful or as intricate as Strauss' Metamorphosen I really enjoyed the challenge writing the piece and then getting it to work with the VSL solo strings. Using the MIRx Konserthaus Grosser Saal and positioning each instrument more or less individually was critical. Only the 3rd and 4th chairs of the violin, viola and cellos section share an area on the stage. I humanized each instrument with more so to the back of the sections. The reverb mix was kept at the default of 50%. This is a testament to the superb quality of this library. Here's a link to have a listen: https://soundcloud.com/jasonlpachman/transcendence/s-VmV1X Comments and critiques certainly welcomed!

[strytten]

I agree dimension is great choice, as is solo. But don't under estimate the chamber strings. That is a beautifully recorded set, and gives you more flexibility to add a few dimension strings here and there. Also, chamber performances are more like what players would play in s section. Sometimes solo never fully blends with a larger section, in my humble opinion.