Owner of many VSL libraries, including Dimension Strings complete.  I purchased that in the Pre-production as well.  I haven't used any VSL strings for probably a year or more now, almost exclusively using Spitfire, so this is intriguing.  My questions are the same as anyone else's:  

• What's in the standard versus the full library?  Am I really going to shell out another 350 clams for it without knowing what the contents are?  
• And what is this new Synchron player going to be like?  How much more will that cost me?

Anyway, don't get me wrong, not being negative, just need a lot more information before purchasing.  But overall I love VSL products.  I use Mir Pro and Ensemble Pro and woodwinds every day.  Have just found Spitfire strings to be so much warmer and more expressive, and easy to work with.

Best!

Michael

“I always was very happy to have a good variety of different short articulations the announced Sample content now lists 4 types of large notes but only one type of short notes.”

“- presently we have up to 5 standard note lengths: staccato, short detache, medium detache, long portato and sustained. In the new library there is apparently only: short, long portato and long. How do they relate?”

I'm only guessing here, but Synchron may be able to vary short sounds dynamically, depeding on how they're played -- or at least switch from short to long as the MIDI note and CC's dictate. Consider this from the announcement:

"New algorithms require a minimum of manual articulation switching."

New samples and platforms are exciting, but anything that relieves deep, datailed, endless keyswitching would be genuinely ground-breaking. 

@plowman said:

New samples and platforms are exciting, but anything that relieves deep, datailed, endless keyswitching would be genuinely ground-breaking. 

this sounds nice, but how could an algorithm “know” if you want to play a staccato or a short detache (not to mention more fancy stuff like spiccato, harsh, …)? The information how the attack phase should be played and how long the note should sustain is simply not available at the moment a mere note-on message is received and at which the algorithm would have to pick an articulation. The algorithm could only use the previously played notes to “guess a likely articulation”, but this would strongly restrict our freedom and is definitely not something I would want (or it should at least be possible to disable such a feature). Because with a given algorithm one might either be able to play Haydn or Stravinsky, but hardly both 😉.  

They mention continuous controllers, which could surely be very useful if implemented properly (in particular if they would "morph" different articulations), but this is just another form of manual articulation selection ... and it would be nice to know what exactly they do.

In more or less "worse case" it might be, that those algorithm tends to decide at least some details of articulation selection "automatically" depending to keyvelocity and speed like some embertone or Spitfire patches seem to do. If this makes it more difficult to conciously decide every detail of articulationselection I would regret it.

But....

If we are lucky than they have just streamlined the articulation selection to the musical decisions and reduced the complexity we currently have especially with the very rich samplecontent of VSL-Libraries to handle every variety of articulation type.

What ever "Micro-articulation-switching" will mean, It will be a huge step forward as far it  makes it easier to change certain aspect (Accent, Length, Vibrato, etc.) of an articulation, without setting up the selection control of all possible varieties with seperate keyswitches or CC-data to trigger different matrixfield for everything what might be used as we did it until now. If ever we keep at least the possibility to completly decide each detail of ariculation decision, this could make things very much more comforable. 

At least the Velocitylayer X-Fade seem to be improved as far as I understand in both the soundquality as well as in they way the user could handle it.

I am quite curious to know every further usability improvement to come with the synchron player.

Is the new player is still analysing a midi flow ?

The main problem of the Midi flow is that it does not say :" Play C, velocity XX for YY tick"

It says "Play C velocity XX" an deending of the note length, I will send an "end C"

As ever, exciting news. But it would be very helpful before purchase if VSL could provide some information about what Synchron Strings can do which something like the Dimension Strings can't. I'm not thinking so much about the number of articulations, but more what the basic sounds will do. And especially in the context of being triggered by Sibelius, assuming there will be a soundset.

Hi everybody!

Thanks for all your questions, comments (and speculations 😝)!

It’s great to see that a lot of your wishful thinking are actually very thoughtful wishes 💡

We will add more information in time.

Until then: Enjoy the excitement and anticipation! We certainly do!

Best, 
Paul

Thanks, Paul!

I only wanted to know what “in time” does mean? Do we get more information before the early bird offer ends?That would be great.

Hi,

"In time" means when we are ready to provide more information. We will definitely share more information before the early bird offer ends. 

Best, 
Paul

These strings are simply amazing! Question, since ambience is already recorded with those strings, I assume they don't need to be placed in a MIR Pro venue such as Syncron Stage?

No you don't need MIR. Like the Synchron Percussion. They are recorded with reverb.

If you want to use some of the other dry-recored samples with the synchron series, just use the dry instruments in MIR in combination with roompack 6 (Synchron Stage).

Ah great! It's awesome I don't have to worry about placing them in MIR... Can't wait for the new player!

"...how long the note should sustain is simply not available at the moment a mere note-on message is received and at which the algorithm would have to pick an articulation."

Are you suggesting that VSL developers can't break the time-space continuum, i.e., tell the future? :-)  I too was going to discuss the impossibilities, but A. I have a lot of faith in VSL to do something outside of my imagination, B. they might aim for a "second pass" algorithm (as Kai described), and C. it was bedtime. But you are correct, of course, that note-on and velocity only, played live, has too little information to pick sample length and playing style. 

Bring on the speculation. I haven't seen a tease campaign this much fun since the advent of Vienna Instruments. 

By the way, for you folks in the States, you're getting a further discount (over 15%) if you buy in dollars (Ilio, et al) than online (in Euros). That is another kindness VSL extends, often unnoticed. It makes the math a whole lot simpler. Also, if you buy in Euros from the States, your credit card may ding you with a currency conversion fee.

There's a speed bump, though, with Ilio: they can take a day or so to confirm the purchase and send the codes. 

Great Paul, but we need an strings-only demo! 

A couple of questions for VSL:

Is the new Synchron Player only for Synchron libraries, or will it be able to be used with the older libraries as well?

I'm really interested in the articulation switching, especially when played live. Could you post a video of someone playing a string section in real time showing how how different articulations are triggered or switched to? Also, seeing a video of how articulations are triggerd in Sibelius would be very helpful.

Thanks!

Michael

Hi,

I went ahead, and purchased VSL Synchron Strings (Full Version) .  

I used some VSL Vouchers I was holding on to quite a while back, which came in very handy !  

Looking forward to more info. updates, and some really well crafted audio demos, and if possible some video tutorial demos of the new Synchron Player in action playing the new Synchron Strings I. 

I'm super confident that Synchron Stirngs I sound amazing !  

Thank You Very Much VSL, and Congratulations for making the move to your Synchron Stage based Libraries. I'm super excited, and delighted with these new developemnts, and would love to see the Brass, Woodwinds, then more Strings, ..etc. Released as time goes by. 

Cheers,

Muziksculp 

There are some things that I would miss without MIR. Especially the PreEQs ("Silk" blends normal Strings so well with Mutet Strings). Please add the MIR PreEQ to the Synchron-Player if possible.

Thanks.

I've never been more excited about a library. Never.

For years I only ever used VSL. Now I do use others, but VSL is always my favorite. BUT... the only reason I ever used anyone else was softer staccato attacks, more RR's for some articulations, and brilliant rooms. You guys didn't just take user feedback seriously, you took it to a whole freaking new level. Am I surprized? No. Am I freaking out with giddishly awesome joy? Possibly. It's so... beautiful. 😢🎉😃

Can't wait to hear the demos!

-Sean