@SJSF said:

As for your articulation list, I couldn't agree more. Synchron has great value without them to be sure. And who knows, we may see them in SS2. But it goes without saying that most everyone would love one library to rule them all. Consistent ensemble samples, playing techniques, and template architecture would make life a lot easier. And if I could have my samples anywhere, I'd have them in VI-Pro by a long shot. I trust Synchron Player will likely live up to the same expectations. I just hope Martin developed it. Years ago I spoke with him and the guy just gets it... completely.

-Sean

You know that VSL like nearly no one else cover the muted articulations in form of mearly complete paralell articulationsets as they have done in Solostrings I+II, Chamber Strings I+II and Dimension Strings I+II.

You know that Berlin Orchestratools have no original sordinopatches at all !!! (Just to completly compare "listing") but use a very artificial sounding filter solution. And Spitfire might have one or another more or less experimental sophisticated patchname invented, but when it come to the basic bread and butter articulation (which is obviously what is all about in Synchron Strings I) there are still enough problems discussed especially when it comes to the legato scripts. I do not want to debase both Libraries which belong of course  to the better developed among Orchestra or Stringsample-libraries on the market. But I fear they still leave more than enough reason to wait for Synchronstrings in VSL Quality.

@fahl5 said:

And Spitfire might have one or another more or less experimental sophisticated patchname invented, but when it come to the basic bread and butter articulation (which is obviously what is all about in Synchron Strings I) there are still enough problems discussed especially when it comes to the legato scripts.

Believe me, I'm aware. I called Spitfire out on years of unmet promises for legato fixes on vi-control. I'm sure they hated me for it, but making a promise on sale day and ignoring customers for a few years... it was bound to happen from me or someone else. I know VSL isn't keen on talking about other libraries here. But I feel that just has to be said given the complaints about the Synchron delay. No offense folks (everyone), but you don't know the meaning of delay compared to some of the experiences some of us have been through with other companies. 😉

That said, I wouldn't dismiss other companies at bread and butter basics. The attacks and various lengths of short articulations were half of what prompted my ever looking outside VSL several years ago. The other half was never getting consistent EQ & reverb results with VSL's brass and any low or loud instruments. Where I didn't care for VSL's presets (any of them) it took me years to find a sweet spot I really love. With one resolved, getting the basics right is what I'm most careful to listen for in Synchron.

Personally, I just hope that Synchron Brass will still be like the Dimension series and be fully modular. Berlin Brass is the company to beat right now. The real question of samples these days is who sounds better and has sampled more deeply. Given the details of Synchron Strings, I'm pretty sure Orchestral Tools is about to get blown out of the water. Not that this is a war... but I like the pirate ship visual. Either way, it's well worth waiting.

Dear VSL, I check the site every day for demos... multiple times a day. You guys have turned me into a broken record. Thanks a lot! 😢

-Sean

@HSM1 said:

"...only reason I ever used anyone else was too much better legato script, short note attacks and huge detail sampled short/long articulations, etc. You didn't just take user feedback seriously."

Short note attacks, more articulations, better sound... these things were what drove me to getting some of the libraries you mentioned. I've had enough experience working in software support, UI, product magement, UX, consulting, and even some development (all of which I didn't want to have to learn) that I now have an involuntary quiet chuckle when I hear "take user feedback seriously". This "not listening" thing is a disease. It spreads.

You hit a nerve. lol

As for your articulation list, I couldn't agree more. Synchron has great value without them to be sure. And who knows, we may see them in SS2. But it goes without saying that most everyone would love one library to rule them all. Consistent ensemble samples, playing techniques, and template architecture would make life a lot easier. And if I could have my samples anywhere, I'd have them in VI-Pro by a long shot. I trust Synchron Player will likely live up to the same expectations. I just hope Martin developed it. Years ago I spoke with him and the guy just gets it... completely.

-Sean

Actually, I do use other libraries such as Berlin Strings, Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings/Symphonic Strings and only reason I ever used anyone else was too much better legato script, short note attacks and huge detail sampled short/long articulations, etc. You didn't just take user feedback seriously.

Have you made decision yet on any usefull articulations as bellow ?

Legato Slurred, Expressive
Legato Agile
Legato Fingered
Ostinato Arpeggio Legato slow/fast

Spiccatissimo
Spiccato
Spiccato Exposed
Staccato
Staccato Bold
Martele FFF
Portato Short
Portato Long
Repetitions slow/fast
Blurred Spiccato
Blurred Staccato
Blurred Portato

Flageolet Sustain
Sustain Soft
Sustain Immediate
Sustain Accented
Sustain Expressive Dyn (Short expr.)
Sustain Expressive Dyn (Long expr.)

Sul Ponticello Leg
Sul Ponticello Tremolo
Sul Ponticello Tremolo Accented
Sul Ponticello Staccato
Sul Ponticello Sustain
Sul Tasto Legato
Sul Tasto Portato Short
Sul Tasto Portato Long
Sul Tasto Sustain Immediate
Sul Tasto Sustain Soft
Sul Tasto Tremolo

I ordered my copy today. I look forward to re-recording my music!

@Another User said:

Flageolet Sustain

Sul Ponticello Leg
Sul Ponticello Tremolo
Sul Ponticello Tremolo Accented
Sul Ponticello Staccato
Sul Ponticello Sustain
Sul Tasto Legato
Sul Tasto Portato Short
Sul Tasto Portato Long
Sul Tasto Sustain Immediate
Sul Tasto Sustain Soft
Sul Tasto Tremolo

Again more important are imho still good recorded muted patches in all types of articullations which Berlin Strings dont have at all and Spitfire only in a relative limited variety. However those articulationtypes have never been omitted in any previous VSL-libraries so I will expect them to be like muted Strings part of Synchron Strings II.

@HSM1 said:

Actually, I do use other libraries such as Berlin Strings, Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings/Symphonic Strings and only reason I ever used anyone else was too much better legato script, short note attacks and huge detail sampled short/long articulations, etc. You didn't just take user feedback seriously.

Have you made decision yet on any usefull articulations as bellow ?

Legato Slurred, Expressive
Legato Agile
Legato Fingered
Ostinato Arpeggio Legato slow/fast

Why are you repeating this ever and ever again? I can't understand the problem... I wrote in my recent post that you can actually achieve all these articulations within VI (Pro). Of course you need a lot of time to set up a matrix first and in order to "imitate" the behaviour of another library, e. g. Berlin Strings, you have to understand how their articulation mapping is set up. When understood, you can make it on your own and even make it better because in VI (Pro) you can program your own behaviours/mappings (via speed, velocity, crossfading).

There are so many articulations and patches in the VSL string libraries... you have to experiment a bit, but, as I said, the only thing is you need time to set up your matrix. That's the only "problem". Other libraries are set up for you, in VSL you have the freedom to make it your own. 😊

Hi everybody,

Enjoy these first demos of Synchron Strings, made by the wonderful Guy Bacos and Christof Unterberger!

Best,
Paul

@Paul said:

Hi everybody,

Enjoy these first demos of Synchron Strings, made by the wonderful Guy Bacos and Christof Unterberger!

Best, 
Paul

Well done, very impressive! 

@Paul said:

Hi everybody,

Enjoy these first demos of Synchron Strings, made by the wonderful Guy Bacos and Christof Unterberger!

Best, 
Paul

nice demos - the longs are telling (I like them).   shorts are easier to get 'away with things' (albiet they are strong) but the longs are solid.   Looking forward to Paul's walkthroughs (particularily the longs/legatos.)

I really need to hear how (all by itself) 'controllable' the non to vibrato sound is.  For me the GREAT weakness of ANY sample string section is its inability to do this convincingly without artifacts/phasing.   For me if Sample strings sit for more than a brief moment without some change to vibrato (not just xfade between sampled layers BUT vibrato and I am personlly taken out of it.)

And of course - is the new player going to allow me to use this in the heat of a tight schedule?

More and more encouraged.   Congrats VSL on what should be a success.

@Rob Elliott said:

I really need to hear how (all by itself) 'controllable' the non to vibrato sound is.  For me the GREAT weakness of ANY sample string section is its inability to do this convincingly without artifacts/phasing.   For me if Sample strings sit for more than a brief moment without some change to vibrato (not just xfade between sampled layers BUT vibrato and I am personlly taken out of it.)

I would  understand your Point, if you were talking about Solostrings, since one Violin alone do not produce any phasing while changing the intensity of vibrato. But: Synchronstrings I are Section-Strings. It appears to me not only quite natural if you have phasing effects between multiple stringplayers playing the same note especially while they are increasing their Vibrato intensity, I even think that is exactly what we want and expect to hear to make a difference between Soloist and Section. (While  - If I understood right and can believe Embertone - It seems to be even possible nowadays to map Soloviolinsamples in a way that would allow xfade without producingadditional phasing problems.) However for Section Strings increased Phasing effects with increased vibrato seem to me not the problem but something quite natural.

I'm on the fence of getting my first VSL instrument in Synchron Strings, I'm seriously blown away at the moment!

My only problem is, that I'm pretty intimidated by the scale of this whole library with my measly 32gb of RAM. Somebody told me however, that if run from an SSD you could load the whole Syncron Percussion with only 2.5gb of RAM if the buffer is at 1526. Is something similar possible with the Strings?

Hi lucor, 

You have a few options regarding RAM optimization, but with the Synchron Strings, the preload size should only be HALF the usual Preload Size of 16384 Samples => which is 8192 Samples. This way you will get a great and reliable performance (this always also depends on your arrangement, the more you stream, the more performance you need there). Might well be that a lower setting with the Standard Library is possible, and we're also working on more optimized options there. 

With our other "stereo-only" libraries, you can lower the Preload Size to 1536 Samples (so you could load 10 times more samples using only 1/10th of the RAM you'd usually need). This will work until you overdo it with insane TUTTI chords 😉

There are also options like "Activate on MIDI Activity", which loads all presets without samples and only loads samples when the articulation is triggered once. 

Best, 
Paul

@Paul said:

Hi lucor, 

You have a few options regarding RAM optimization, but with the Synchron Strings, the preload size should only be HALF the usual Preload Size of 16384 Samples => which is 8192 Samples. This way you will get a great and reliable performance (this always also depends on your arrangement, the more you stream, the more performance you need there). Might well be that a lower setting with the Standard Library is possible, and we're also working on more optimized options there. 

With our other "stereo-only" libraries, you can lower the Preload Size to 1536 Samples (so you could load 10 times more samples using only 1/10th of the RAM you'd usually need). This will work until you overdo it with insane TUTTI chords 😉

There are also options like "Activate on MIDI Activity", which loads all presets without samples and only loads samples when the articulation is triggered once. 

Best, 
Paul

Hey Paul, thanks for the quick answer. So how much RAM would it take, for example, to load all articulations of the 1st Violins with a buffer of 8192? Have you run any tests yet?

And the "Activate on MIDI Activity" is similiar to Kontakt's purge function, I guess? If an SSD can keep up with loading all these samples in real time, that would also be an awesome way of reducing RAM usage.

Hi Paul,

will you do an introduction video (like the one for dimension strings) before the early-bird offer ends?

Best, Ben

Yea, sorry mispoke on the phasing for sections - what I should have said is 'smooth' transition / evolving from non to vibrato samples.   For me anyways, this is never 'natural' and smooth with samples - like live sessions.   Just hoping and a wishing.   😉

@Rob Elliott said:

I really need to hear how (all by itself) 'controllable' the non to vibrato sound is.  For me the GREAT weakness of ANY sample string section is its inability to do this convincingly without artifacts/phasing.   For me if Sample strings sit for more than a brief moment without some change to vibrato (not just xfade between sampled layers BUT vibrato and I am personlly taken out of it.)

I would  understand your Point, if you were talking about Solostrings, since one Violin alone do not produce any phasing while changing the intensity of vibrato. But: Synchronstrings I are Section-Strings. It appears to me not only quite natural if you have phasing effects between multiple stringplayers playing the same note especially while they are increasing their Vibrato intensity, I even think that is exactly what we want and expect to hear to make a difference between Soloist and Section. (While  - If I understood right and can believe Embertone - It seems to be even possible nowadays to map Soloviolinsamples in a way that would allow xfade without producingadditional phasing problems.) However for Section Strings increased Phasing effects with increased vibrato seem to me not the problem but something quite natural.

Second on RAM question! How much should we've got? Can we work with Synchron with 8 GB as requirements site says? Or maybe without 32 it will be far from fun?

I'd recommend to run the Synchron library off of an SSD and have adequate RAM in your machine and optimize your pre-load buffer sizes in the Directory. 

@lucor said:

My only problem is, that I'm pretty intimidated by the scale of this whole library with my measly 32gb of RAM.

Well there's a way to fix that... 😉

-Sean

Hi, 

I'll do my best to have videos available before the Early Bird Offer ends. 

Regarding RAM, with 1st violins only: If you want to load all available microphones with all available articulations, much RAM is necessary (these are the quick tests on my computer):

With a Preload size of 8192 Samples, you will need around 10 GB of RAM for the FULL Libtrary / 1st Violins.
With a Preload size of 8192 Samples, you will need around 5 GB of RAM for the FULL Libtrary / 1st Violins. 

There will be alternatives available for a more resource-friendly workflow, like a ready-made stereo-mix. 
The presets will load without any samples loaded ("disabled cells"), and you will like the option to load articulations in only when you need them ("Activate cells on MIDI Activity". 

The "Optimize" option will also be a great help for smaller setups (the the sample player learn which samples of which articulations it actually needs for the specific arrangement). 

So there are quite some helpers there, but you are right: Synchron Strings I is by no means a small library.

Best, 
Paul

@Guy Bacos said:

I'd recommend to run the Synchron library off of an SSD and have adequate RAM in your machine and optimize your pre-load buffer sizes in the Directory. 

I don't understand why we can't take advantage of SSD with Synchron Strings ?