@nicola74 said:

Hi Everyone,

now that SyS is almost complete, I tried to make a comparison between Orchestral Strings, Dimension Strings and Synchron Strings.
I used a short part of a piece that I wrote sometimes ago, using only the strings part, no woodwinds or brass and so on.
For every instruments I used breath controller and mostly legato patches, here and there portato.
For SyS I used Leg-Soft-LyV Full Velocities Room-Mix and a little bit of Miracle; for Orch. Str. and Dim. Str. I used Mir Pro and Teldex as venue (2nd Vlns on the right).
There is no EQ or Comp at all, just the original sound.
The sequence in the file audio is:
1- Orch. Str.
2- Dim. Str.
3- SyS
4- Orch. and Dim. together
I didn't tweak the midi files so much, it is mostly on the fly, I added some articulations after the recording and corrected some errors, that's it.
I really would like to know what you think about the sound of these libraries.

Thanks for posting this awesome demonstration. The string writing is great as previously said.

The most remarkable thing to me is how similar they all sound. Especially since you did nothing with EQ or compression. Also remarkable since you used Teldex for Orch. Strings and Dim. Strings, yet the room sounds match very closely. I am amazed that there is not more difference in room sound.

Since I hear more similarities than differences, I could not possibly pick a favorite.

@nicola74 said:

Hi Everyone,now that SyS is almost complete, I tried to make a comparison between Orchestral Strings, Dimension Strings and Synchron Strings.I used a short part of a piece that I wrote sometimes ago, using only the strings part, no woodwinds or brass and so on.For every instruments I used breath controller and mostly legato patches, here and there portato.For SyS I used Leg-Soft-LyV Full Velocities Room-Mix and a little bit of Miracle; for Orch. Str. and Dim. Str. I used Mir Pro and Teldex as venue (2nd Vlns on the right).There is no EQ or Comp at all, just the original sound.The sequence in the file audio is:1- Orch. Str.2- Dim. Str.3- SyS4- Orch. and Dim. togetherI didn't tweak the midi files so much, it is mostly on the fly, I added some articulations after the recording and corrected some errors, that's it. I really would like to know what you think about the sound of these libraries.

great writing, great test!

I loved especially the Orchestral Strings version!

The Synchron version is the only one that doesn't convince me 100%. There are some bumps in the dynamic here and there, while the other libraries sound so smooth and natural.

@FabioA said:

great writing, great test!I loved especially the Orchestral Strings version!The Synchron version is the only one that doesn't convince me 100%. There are some bumps in the dynamic here and there, while the other libraries sound so smooth and natural.

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.

@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

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?

@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?

The best one of this performance is Dimension Strings.  

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

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.

@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!

@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.

@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.

@William said:

The best one of this performance is Dimension Strings.  

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

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.

@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.

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.