Well, this is a fun thread.

I also have all the VSL string libraries and I love the Chamber Strings. Yes, they are strident. Sometimes too strident for some things.

However they mix well with each of the other libraries. I don’t know if I’ve ever done a piece without them somewhere in the mix.

Also, I would like them in a lighter sound as suggested by SvK – as I like the size of the ensemble.

It would be great to have a VSL legato strings ensemble that had very little or no vibrato. The overall VSL vibrato style does seem to be quite intense even when it is not wide or fast – no matter the size of the ensemble. Correct me if I’m wrong but the only major non-vibrato articulations are sustains – which limit the attack types available for use. 

Most overlooked library – Orchestral Strings. It has all the great articulations that are missing in the other libraries. Just like all the new VSL instruments, only the original Orchestral Cube-type instruments have all the great articulations. I tend to not use the Orchestral legatos very much (because indeed VSL has learned a great deal about sampling since they originally recorded it) but generally add many of the more under-represented articulations that Orch has in abundance.

I really miss recorded trills in all the sordini libraries.

Still you can’t beat VSL…yet. So it is in their best interest to continue to provide innovative strings libraries.  I'm sure that they know this and I would only presume they are under way to create these. 

I don't want to take this tread off-topic again, but I have to reply to this:

@svonkampen said:

[...] Also this forum should not serve as a "love fest". [...]

SvK, you know _very_ well that we are fine with any kind of constructive critique here - especially given the fact that this is our own, company-driven forum. The only occasions where we chime in are cases of obvious flames and blatant misinformation. But as much as you are invited to publish _your_ opinions, you have to be aware that everybody else has the same right to do so (including us VSLers ourselves) ... I can't see a "love fest" happening in this thread (apart from the fact that we love all our customers, of course 😉 ...) As I wrote before: Believe it or not, there are many people who are very fond of the Chamber Strings, and they say so just because of that, and not to do us (or themselves) a favour.

Kind regards,

@Jack Weaver said:

Well, this is a fun thread.

I also have all the VSL string libraries and I love the Chamber Strings. Yes, they are strident. Sometimes too strident for some things.

However they mix well with each of the other libraries. I don’t know if I’ve ever done a piece without them somewhere in the mix.

Also, I would like them in a lighter sound as suggested by SvK – as I like the size of the ensemble.

It would be great to have a VSL legato strings ensemble that had very little or no vibrato. The overall VSL vibrato style does seem to be quite intense even when it is not wide or fast – no matter the size of the ensemble. Correct me if I’m wrong but the only major non-vibrato articulations are sustains – which limit the attack types available for use. 

Most overlooked library – Orchestral Strings. It has all the great articulations that are missing in the other libraries. Just like all the new VSL instruments, only the original Orchestral Cube-type instruments have all the great articulations. I tend to not use the Orchestral legatos very much (because indeed VSL has learned a great deal about sampling since they originally recorded it) but generally add many of the more under-represented articulations that Orch has in abundance.

I really miss recorded trills in all the sordini libraries.

Still you can’t beat VSL…yet. So it is in their best interest to continue to provide innovative strings libraries.  I'm sure that they know this and I would only presume they are under way to create these. 

Thank you for this response.  As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  The chamber string are great for certain things.  They are not inherently terrible as has been suggested by svonkampen, but they are also not ONLY the result of smaller numbers.  They ARE much more strident than the appassionata, but one could easily find commercial string quartet and chamber string orchestra recordings that have a very velvety sound and not in-your-face at all.   There are many factors, not just the number of players. And, it was not Eq'd, processed, or tweaked to get it so smooth, but rather it was played and captured with those goals and aesthetics in mind.

Ideally, the library would be more modular, with different articualations that address issues of strident vs smooth, different mic distances, etc.  All of this, without comitting to the idea that a smaller group is automatically much more strident/dry/intimate etc.  After all, a string quartet playing the Barber Adagio in the Schubert Saal in Vienna, being listened to from the middle of the hall has a lot more in common with a "smooth" velvety sound than with an in your face "intimate" sound.  This can be achieved with the current selections, but it takes tweaking that is essentially trying to overcome some of the inherent character captured by the recording approach of the current selections.

I agree, still, VSL's approach is about as versatile and wide reaching as it gets...currently.  Therefore, this not a love-fest, but also not complaing.  Just looking forward to more developments, some which will hopefully not be just EQ and reverb since some things can only be captured, not tweaked.

O

Absolutely. This is something you can rely on. Although we _do_ process or samples as carefully as possible (to get rid of hiss, low-frequency rumble and so on), we have never processed our samples to "get a sound" (with the obvious exception of the Processed Percussion-set). What you hear is mostly as pure as technology allows for.

Reverb, or say: room, OTOH, is a different animal. I'm sure that sampled instruments have to played in the proper location, much like their analogue counterparts. Your hint at the Schubertsaal is a good one. It's exactly what we aim for with the Vienna MIR (... which encompasses a multi-sample of the Schubertsaal, too ;-) ...). We think that the "velvet" you're longing for will be in there.

Kind regards,