Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  • Re Teledex,

    At the Westlake Pro demonstration, VSL Paul when asked about other MIRPro roompacks and Synchron mentioned that Teledex was a room that matched pretty well.


  • Thanks Nicola. After listen to your great composition (congratulations) I've decided to buy Dim Strings. José Candela Castillo, Madrid. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC94qinFTAc4OSfq6--SGvXw

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    @jcandela said:

    Thanks Nicola. After listen to your great composition (congratulations) I've decided to buy Dim Strings. José Candela Castillo, Madrid. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC94qinFTAc4OSfq6--SGvXw
    HI José, Happy that you like my music, thanks a lot. Maybe Dim Strings is not the best library for epic music, but I think is the best for almost everything else, even if now I am thinking about Appassionata strings 😉 Obviously personal preference... All the best, Nicola

  • I haven't gone through all the posts, so please forgive me if I'm asking something obvious, but why do Dimension Strings cost so much more than, say, Appassionata strings?


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    @Xander S. said:

    I haven't gone through all the posts, so please forgive me if I'm asking something obvious, but why do Dimension Strings cost so much more than, say, Appassionata strings?

    HI Xander, I don't know exactly, probably you should ask to Paul Kopf 😉 But I think that they did a enormous work editing 24 single instruments instead 5 strings section and I have to say that, for me, the result is amazing 😊

  • The best one of this performance is Dimension Strings.  

    The Synchron have too much high frequency, a common problem in sampled strings.  


  • Dimension Strings FTW! I have SyS & Dimension. In my experience, DS + MIR is the king, easily. If only it had more velocity layers like SyS - it would be mind blowing!

  • Wow, thank you very much for this great comparison. Too bad there is no snippet for Appasionata Strings.

    Judging from those snippets, in my opinion Dimension Strings are still the holy grail and pinnacle of all the VSL string libraries, yet combining them with Orchestral Strings really adds alot to them which is astounishing.

    It is also quite interesting to see how well those old Orchestral Strings aged and still boldly stand against all the newer libraries, including SyS.


  • Nicola, this is a great midi rendition and an extremely useful comparison - thanks so much for sharing!

    Dimension+Orchestral is my favorite version as well. However if I had to choose any single library it would actually be Orchestral, since they have this silky texture in the high strings (around 0.25), that is just amazing.


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    @antcarrier said:

    Dimension Strings FTW! I have SyS & Dimension. In my experience, DS + MIR is the king, easily. If only it had more velocity layers like SyS - it would be mind blowing!
    I would like to try DS with more layer, but just for curiosity, because I don't miss, say, 8 layers, the transition and the dynamic are already great. I suppose, but I have to say that I don't know anything about programming, that to record 8 velocity layer the string players have to play in a very "static" way to not change too much the dynamic of the note and the natural inner musicality could suffer a little bit because of this. Again, this idea probably is the most stupid idea of the last ten years and maybe I will understand it by myself, but I would like to know if it is completely wrong. I really love the Synchron strings' sound and surely I have to improve my ability with this new library, but for now it is the most difficult to use for me. Anyway until now only with VSL libraries I have the feeling that the pp is not a mf with lowered volume and for sure Synchron is not an ecception in this case 😉

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    @theiss1979 said:

    Wow, thank you very much for this great comparison. Too bad there is no snippet for Appasionata Strings.

    Judging from those snippets, in my opinion Dimension Strings are still the holy grail and pinnacle of all the VSL string libraries, yet combining them with Orchestral Strings really adds alot to them which is astounishing.

    It is also quite interesting to see how well those old Orchestral Strings aged and still boldly stand against all the newer libraries, including SyS.

    I won't have Appassionata Strings, at least for now 😉 I agree with you, layering DS and Orch Strings the result is super!

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    @Kai said:

    Nicola, this is a great midi rendition and an extremely useful comparison - thanks so much for sharing!

    Dimension+Orchestral is my favorite version as well. However if I had to choose any single library it would actually be Orchestral, since they have this silky texture in the high strings (around 0.25), that is just amazing.

    For me DS is more focused while Orch. is more lush, different sound for different scope, the problem is that sometimes I don't know which one to choose, so I use...both 😊

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    @William said:

    The best one of this performance is Dimension Strings.  

    The Synchron have too much high frequency, a common problem in sampled strings.  

    Hi William, I like the sound of SyS and it is different from the earler VSL strings libraries, it is more brilliant and, well, modern. What would you do to make its sound rounder? I am not an expert in mixing and so on, then I would appreciate every suggestion...

  • I've been obsessed with this because I keep on going to live orchestral concerts and noticing how much darker the strings - especially violins - sound than sampled.  I have been experimenting with doing various EQs. No settings that are "out of the box" are really like the live instruments.  Recording engineers probably don't like this but I think the frequencies above 5000 hz should be almost gone, it is that extreme of a difference.

    The question is why.   It may have to do with the amplitude of those frequencies - they fall off more quickly with any distance or any absorption in the room.  A recording studio and particular microphones negate this natural effect, leading to excessively bright violins. 

    Also even cellos can sound nasal.  Another thing I have noticed between live and samples is cellos in an orchestral setting  never sound "boomy" or deep,  but almost always do with samples.  There is a setting in MIR that somewhat accounts for this - "clean low end."  But you can go even farther and add more EQ in the low range.


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    @William said:

    I've been obsessed with this because I keep on going to live orchestral concerts and noticing how much darker the strings - especially violins - sound than sampled.  I have been experimenting with doing various EQs. No settings that are "out of the box" are really like the live instruments.  Recording engineers probably don't like this but I think the frequencies above 5000 hz should be almost gone, it is that extreme of a difference.

    The question is why.   It may have to do with the amplitude of those frequencies - they fall off more quickly with any distance or any absorption in the room.  A recording studio and particular microphones negate this natural effect, leading to excessively bright violins. 

    Also even cellos can sound nasal.  Another thing I have noticed between live and samples is cellos in an orchestral setting  never sound "boomy" or deep,  but almost always do with samples.  There is a setting in MIR that somewhat accounts for this - "clean low end."  But you can go even farther and add more EQ in the low range.

    Hi William, Thanks for the answer, interesting point of you. I think that there are some differences between a live concert and a recording session, but I will try your suggestions 😉

  • Yes there are differences, but the sound of recorded orchestras always tries to emulate live.  And one usually (maybe never) hears this exaggeration in recordings - except in samples.  In fact it is so common I now expect it if something is a sample performance.  


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    Hi all,

    This was an experimental piece for string orchestra, created exclusively with the Vienna Symphonic Library strings. In this version, I used Synchron Strings exclusively, with no additional reverb, except for a bit of "Miracle".

    Metamorphosis - Synchron Version

    In this version, I layered orchestral, chamber, and solo strings, and placed them in Mir's Teldex Studio.

    Metamorphosis - Orchestral/Chamber/Solo Strings Version

    My thoughts:

    -I began this version by copying the midi data for the previous orchestral/chamber/solo strings version. In all, it took about 4 hours of tweaking to complete the Synchron version.

    -I like the sharp attacks of the Synchron strings (it's nice to be able to have that little "marcato" at the start of a legato phrase)

    -The shorts are clean, crisp, decisive

    -Increased velocity layers allows for less precise tweaking of the expression cc data

    -The workflow doesn't feel any more efficient using Synchron with the current Vienna Instruments player. Hoping that the soon-to-be-released Synchron player is more intuitive and improves workflow.

    -The piece is a little "punchy/bombastic" in terms of the overall force of the sound. I was definitely trying to create a heavy handed performance with decisive articulations so that I could compare the two versions.

    Dave

    p.s. This is a duplicate of the post in the compositions thread, as I know many people might be interested in Synchron tests but don't visit that sub-forum.


  • Syncron is the clear winner for me. I hear more detail, and the room is more convincing. Also I get a clearer visual image of the string sections; maybe that comes from using one library? Great writing - and thanks for sharing!

    Steve


    Large Vienna Library all on SSD, Protools/Carbon on M1 MacBook Pro, OSX Monterey 12.7, Steinway D, Rhodes Mk8-FX, Osmose, Moog One, Trigon 6-DT, OB-X8, Prophet 10 rev4, OB-6-DT, Kawai VPC-1
  • Thank you very much for adding Appassionata Strings. ;-)


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    @theiss1979 said:

    Thank you very much for adding Appassionata Strings. ;-)
    You welcome 😊 Which one do you prefer? I really can't decide, I like all the different sounds, now I am working also with Dim Strings Sordinos, another world obviously and another great one!