@Simon Ravn said:

Unfortunately I think only VSL can improve SyS - and that will require huge amounts of new recordings. Let's face it, it's not gonna happen.

I certainly wouldn't settle for that.

When I am commissioned for a project and the client thinks it needs rework --whatever the reason, we talk about it and I usually get back to said project, according to what was discussed. Sometimes I feel the client is wrong because they don't know much about music. But they pay me, I deliver.

I don't think VSL has ever released a product that raised so many eyebrows. Those who voiced their concerns here and elsewhere spent money, sometimes long before the product was released. Lots of them have already had the chance to use a few other strings libraries, and thus usually provide VSL with informed, knowledgeable feedback. Sadly, what they have been getting in return so far is silence, and in my view an opportunity to raise more eyebrows (Synchronized Chamber Strings). 

The competition aside, everyone wants Synchron Strings to be a great product, which at this point I think it is not. Almost all of their other libraries are, and the rest of the Synchron line certainly is. So yes, I hope VSL do consider recording new material that fixes the library's shortcomings, because any other approach will sound like a slap in their customers' faces.

I'm back to work!

When you can't write music and your mockups of existing works of actual musicians sound like Orchestron, I guess puffing up on forums and harassing strangers is all you got left.

@JimmyHellfire said:

When you can't write music and your mockups of existing works of actual musicians sound like Orchestron, I guess puffing up on forums and harassing strangers is all you got left.

Ok its always courageous if you talk so frankly and public about your own problems as musician you presumably want to be.

But honestly in this thread I would be much more interested, to hear your opinion about my suggestions how to improve the Synchron Strings. If you are at least able to do that.

 First, indulge a little further "off-topic" discussion:  Fahl5 actually banned my IP address from his website! lol  Seriously.  If anyone doubted the authenticity of William's "analysis" of Fahl's character, read the following:  Malignant Narcissism:  Kernberg described malignant narcissism as a syndrome characterized by a narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial features, paranoid traits, and egosyntonic aggression. Other symptoms may include an absence of conscience, a psychological need for power, and a sense of importance (grandiosity).  Incidentally, Mr. Fahl's command of technology is as apt as his command of midi programming:  It took me all of two seconds to use a proxy server to visit his site after "being banned."  Of course, there's no reason to visit unless I want to hear, as has already been noted by others, midi renditions of beautiful music made sterile, unfeeling, and devoid of any musicality.

Now to keep it "subject-based":

Everything about Synchron Strings, positive and negative, has been stated ad nauseum on this and other forums for months.  Demos have been made, listeners have made judgments on the success or failure of said demos.  The common criticisms revolve around the quality of legato transitions and the overly synthetic sound.  VSL has not commented, and when you ask "how to improve Synchron Strings", they are the only people capable of improving them...not you, not me, nor any other user.  They know what people think, and if they believe they can improve the library, they will do so.  I suspect though, they will do it silently, behind the scenes.  They clearly are averse to any public acknowledgement of the criticism.  It's possible that they are sincerely loving the way the project turned out, and would be mercilessly bashed for expressing their satisfaction in light of the mob-like hostility.  It's also possible that they agree with the criticism, but believe that as soon as they acknowledge that, people will all be demanding refunds, credits, or other concessions.  So, I propose the discussion on improving synchron strings ends, as nothing further can develop without the VSL team taking action.

Cheers!

Dave

OMG Acclarion you do have obviously utterly no fear to disgrace yourself.

I am tired of all this discussions, as VSL remain silent with even not a single word.

I really love to see an upgrade version such as Synchron Strings 1 v2.0, and I wish VSL can fix problems in its current version.

If it needs extra time, money and work, I think it can be done simultaneously during the process of making Synchron Strings 2. During this process, VSL can gather players together and it will be some overtime work, but I believe it's worth it, to save the VSL brands and Synchron Product Line. Otherwise, the whole product line is crippled.

Well, if nothing further can be done to improve and upgrade Synchron String I, then I guess I am ended up here.

For strings, I will just choose other companies and other products.

On our Chinese forum, as far as I know, customers from China who expressed their opinion on Synchron Strings I are completely negative. No one here in China would recommend others to purchase Synchron Strings 1.

VSL, please face the problem, and fix it.That's all.

Yamaha CFX and Sychron String FX 1 are good, I bought them and I am going to use them when it is needed. These are good sides of the Synchron Product Line, good libraries and good job. But, Synchron Strings I, sad, frustrated, and I may only use Shorts articulations.

Multiply the cost of pre-order euro price by 8, we from China paid like 6000 RMB yuan to purchase SS1, it is equal to a month or two months salary for a common Chinese,  you can imagine how frustrated of these people feel. No chance to resell Synchron Strings 1, and no one is going to buy from them, as all negative comments spread, it's hard or impossible to find a buyer. Please, you guys can think about this and think it over.

I will not say anything more in this thread. Over.

This is so hilarious, I won't post it, but you would not believe the ridiculous pm judge fahl5 sent me. 

Don't bother fahl5, I'm not reading your nonesense pm anymore, I have music to work on.

@JimmyHellfire said:

When you can't write music and your mockups of existing works of actual musicians sound like Orchestron, I guess puffing up on forums and harassing strangers is all you got left.

Ok its always courageous if you talk so frankly and public about your own problems as musician you presumably want to be.

*rolls eyes*

Wow, I mean, wow. This thread is... wow! I was reading it and laughing out loud, quite literaly. But then I noticed, that there is nothing funny in here:

- few talented / not talented people with valid / not valid opinions about flawed product,

- few people with valid / not valid opinions about opinions of the first few,

- one person who thinks everything is not valid until comes from that person.

Reading this thread is like trip to mental hospital. Seriously fucked up. I see no reason why anyone from VSL should join this discussion. And apparently every Synchron Strings thread turns into this kind of cock fight. 

And on the other side VSL is patching high end, 250GB library with bandaid called Synchronized Strings. For me this is basically saying - well, our humongous library is lacking (thin sound that needs to be layered, no divisi, no portamento, fewer velocity layers of chamber strings are as good as 8 of SyS).

I don't know how SyS sales, but looking it online brings only negativity. If it doesn't hurt sales cool for VSL (similarweb shows that traffic volumes are actually awesome). They are the winners here. If it does hurt sales - guys, start talking. Because if I were potential cumstomer and ended up here. Oooh boy.

Piotr, you're probably right ... I would encourage VSL to delete this whole mess we all happily engaged in.

It actually has nothing to do with music anymore. 

On a totally irrelevant note I wanted to say hello to Simon Raven and how much I have liked his music when I had the chance to hear it various places on the internet.  Really great demos but also memorable purely as music. 

O.K., sorry to interrupt the hostility and insults.  I'll get out of the way.   

@William said:

It actually has nothing to do with music anymore. 

On a totally irrelevant note I wanted to say hello to Simon Raven and how much I have liked his music when I had the chance to hear it various places on the internet.  Really great demos but also memorable purely as music. 

 

O.K., sorry to interrupt the hostility and insults.  I'll get out of the way.   

Thanks, William 😊

@William said:

On a totally irrelevant note I wanted to say hello to Simon Raven and how much I have liked his music when I had the chance to hear it various places on the internet.  Really great demos but also memorable purely as music. 

 

+1

I first heard Simon Ravn's music around 2002, when I was just learning about sampling technology, and was quite in awe of the realism and quality of his music productions. It was a surprise seeing his name here I went back and listened to some of his recent music....Here are a couple of nice pieces:

http://simonravn.com/media/Milo-TheInventor.mp3

http://simonravn.com/media/BB-HomeAlone.mp3

Sorry, completely off topic.

Ok and now we finally all know "how to improve Synchron Strings":

1) bashing VSL for their Product

2) bashing those who dont want to bash the product but prefer to argue,

3) bashsing the whole thread

And everybody feels good than .....until he wake up again and everything stars again

Great 'discussion' and really great very "professional" intelligent and open minded community !👍 Wow!

Lets continue like that tomorrow ... ad infinitum😛

@fahl5 said:

Ok and now we finally all know "how to improve Synchron Strings":

1) bashing VSL for their Product

A side from all the ego trip posts, not a single person in this thread has bashed VSL products, you have a wild imagination fahl5, everybody here have all brought constructive criticism and appreciation to synchron because they believe in VSL and their dedication to improving their products, and I do mean everybody. People like William has been great supporters from day 1 and is still the greatest supporter of VSL, and many others as well in this thread, so cool it down with your preaching. 

Conctructive criticism does not mean bashing. Lean the difference.

Hi GuyI am impressed about your ability to really use nearly every posting you contribute here for another aggression,. or did you seriously believe that insinuateing "egotrips" of other members is what makes you to the nice guy??? Sorry its more or less another prove for the opposite.But let us stay with your courageous statement about the constructicve character of everybodies contribution:

@Veola said:

I just cannot understand how people can say there is nothing wrong with this lib? Don't you compare to other libs or listen to recordings? Don't you want something new, improved or groundbreaking from a new lib?

Is that how sounds everybodies "constructive criticism and appreciation to synchron because they believe in VSL "

If you really dont expect anything more than that from a constructive discussion, OK than now I have "learned" what kind of discussion you think are "constructiv"

To be honest when it comes to you I did not found neither any attempt to describe any possible problem of Synchron Strings nor any attempt to discuss any arguments brought by others about any problems or possible improvements.

Just take a look on what many of your postings here has as their very personal major topic that you criticise and than ask yourself what kind of "trip" would you call that.

Wow, Steffen, you really don't have any worklife do you. Way too much time on your hands obviously. You really should get a job. Or maybe go back and stare proudly at your degree diploma and render some more useless classical pieces. Your presence here is just getting more and more embarrassing.

What VSL should do to "improve" SyS is frankly re-record 80% of it. But they could do it at 40-50% of the time spent on the original and get a much better library.

They should:

- Record fewer dynamic layers. Half as many would do, the proof is in SyS that all those layers don't pay off.

- Record fewer different vibrato types. Non-vib and "espressivo" would be enough. Nobody likes the standard vibrato in the library it seems. Also, you don't need to do as many non-vib dynamic layers as you do vibrato. 3 nonvib, 4-5 vib would be plenty enough.

- Record less precise staccatos. And do both staccatos and spiccatos for better flexibility.

- Rehearse a little music with the musicians before recording the samples. And tell them to carry that into the samples as good as they can and not care about being too perfect, but more being musical. A little coaching should help on the sound, get more life into the samples.

- Then there is the sound. That is a tough one. The room sounds like it does I guess. But there are quite some ugly resonance going on. Don't remember exactly where but typically you get problems in the lower mid-mid end from 500-1200hz. Violins generally have some harsh stuff going on at 1500+3500hz but that's managable with EQ so I wouldn't focus on that. I would see if the room needs treatment to handle the lower frequencies.

That could be a "Synchron Strings - reworked". Still a huge undertaking but would take less than 50% of the time of the original library to do. That is the only way SyS will have a chance to become a great string library; doing re-recordings. Sorry, no way around it. And that probably won't happen - not for the next 5 years+. They might decide to go back and record another string library, but I am sure they won't spend so many resources to re-do and fix SyS 1.

@Simon Ravn said:

Wow, Steffen, you really don't have any worklife do you. Way too much time on your hands obviously. You really should get a job. Or maybe go back and stare proudly at your degree diploma and render some more useless classical pieces. Your presence here is just getting more and more embarrassing.

Bravo another splendid example of "constructive criticism and appreciation to synchron" this is so full of topic related pure facts and so free of ugly and aggressive personal insinuations, that I understand, that you are the one who really can help to make this world a better place. Wow!

@Simon Ravn said:

Wow, Steffen, you really don't have any worklife do you. Way too much time on your hands obviously. You really should get a job. Or maybe go back and stare proudly at your degree diploma and render some more useless classical pieces. Your presence here is just getting more and more embarrassing.

Bravo another splendid example of "constructive criticism and appreciation to synchron" this is so full of topic related pure facts and so free of ugly and aggressive personal insinuations, that I understand, that you are the one who really can help to make this world a better place. Wow!

I actually added to the post just after posting. But of course you are hovering over this like a hawk. But there you have it: My constructive criticism.

Ok I understand top summarize your constructive suggestions "how to improve Synchroin Strings" you say

@Another User said:

I actually added to the post just after posting. But of course you are hovering over this like a hawk. But there you have it: My constructive criticism.

Still one question: You kept your completely offtopic and aggressive personal insinuation against me for exactly what constructive reason?