I recognize my findings in your review, and I agree about the technical points you accurately described. But I've a different conclusion:

- I gave a different recommendation in my review, because I think that buying it at the CS+Synchron Strings owner price is a good idea and I recommended it as a complement and immediate fix of Synchron Strings I (to get bigger sound, to get divisi effects, to improve legato, to improve slurs and introduce portamento etc.), that as you also say is very effective.

- I don't think the blend is affecting all the articulations, but of course it's evident in the vibrato sustain, being it likely produced blending normal vibrato in low dynamics and vibrato espressivo for high dynamics. Maybe they did similar tricks to create new artificial velocity layers... But in general the recalibrated velocities in my opinion are giving uniformity and more consistency across articulations and sections (maybe it's a subjective perception, but I had the good feeling of being forced to a lower amount of editing for sound balance of phrases).

I agree VI Chamber Strings are still great: if one buys SYNCHRONized for special price it's because he owns them (and he will still love and use them).

I would have to agree. This is probably one of the most dissapointing purchases I have made to date. I use the Chamber Strings and this package really is pretty shoddy compared to other libraries that I could have used.

Hopefully they can bring these up to par over time. As of now this is a library that will sit unused for me.

I totally disagree. The library is very good. The soft legato and soft sustain patches were not in the original library and they are fantastic. The remastered sound is a delight and honestly, if VSL hadn't told us that the library was created from the original Chamber Strings I, I would never have guessed it. They did an amazing job.

David,

I would love to know how you are using them as I am apparently doiong something very wrong. Compared to my original Chamber Strings they sound awful and I would be really excited to have not just thrown money away becuase I am using them improperly :-)

My current tests have been in Sibelius using the sound sets.

Cheers!

Andrew

Hi Andrew

For the short notes, I use the spiccato patch. I find it more realistic than the staccato patch, especially for the violins. For the soft passages, I use the soft legato patch with legato blur at 50-60. I really like this patch. It's very expressive. For the fast passages, I use the fast legato patch with marcato at 127 for the violins and a bit less for the cellos. For all the long notes, I use velocity crossfade for the dynamics. Hope it helps.

Kind regards,

David

Oh, I forgot to say that for the fast passages, I don't use legato blur.

Cheers

David

David,

Thank you! That is really a huge help honestly. I am going to try and apply some of these techniques over the weekend and re-work my settings.

Cheers!
Andrew

Hi, 

Maybe that's a misunderstanding. 

Both staccato and spiccato offer 8 repetitions with SYNCHRON-ized Chamber Strings. 

Best, 
Paul

Hi Vadim, 

Please send me the project, I will check. support@vsl.co.at

Best, 
Paul

Hi Paul,

please, find an att. files in mailbox and here

Hi Vadim, 

All repetitions have a repetition threashold, which is quite short for short articulations. If you speed up your sequence, you will hear the authentic transitions between the notes. When played slower and with gaps inbetween the notes, you will trigger "only" the 2 available starting notes. 

Best,
Paul

@Paul said:

When played slower and with gaps inbetween the notes, you will trigger "only" the 2 available starting notes. 

Best,
Paul

Hi Vadim, 

How about connecting the MIDI notes?

There is a similar restriction for VI PRO, btw. When you play staccato repetitions, connections between notes only make sense up to a certain tempo. 

Alternation (alternative versions of a single note) is a different topic.

Humanize is a good idea. Please stand by.

Dion't foget to have a great sunday!

Best,
Paul

@Another User said:

Dion't foget to have a great sunday!

You can perform the alternations at any tempo, it's just about the gaps between the notes, in a slower tempo the gaps may become to large therefor the player triggers starting notes (where two alternating variations are available). Just take care about the gaps between the notes, minimize them if necessary, and you will trigger the "performance repetitions" (8 variations).

best
Herb

@herb said:

You can perform the alternations at any tempo, it's just about the gaps between the notes, in a slower tempo the gaps may become to large therefor the player triggers starting notes (where two alternating variations are available). Just take care about the gaps between the notes, minimize them if necessary, and you will trigger the "performance repetitions" (8 variations).

best
Herb

Hi Herb!

I think it would be VERY helpful if in the manual there was some coverage of how to get Synchron how to "behave" based on the MIDI notes themselves.  I remember a past thread where I had asked if legato behavior was affected by touching vs overlap vs long overlap notes.  Or maybe a video tutorial?

Hello Stephen, 

There are not too many rules: With PERFORMANCES articulations, as they were called in Vienna Instruments collections (= authentically connected notes like legato and repetitions), it's all about playing the connected note within a certain amount of time. 

The "timer" resets after a few milliseconds (shorter times for fast articulations like staccato repetitions, longer times for slower articulations. That should help you to get an authentic start note after a certain time (imagine a trumpet player who has to start with a fresh attack instead of a connected note when the trumpet is still "activated"). 

For Legato Blur, overlaps are the key for a smoother legato when using this fader. 

That should be it. 

I'll try to fit that in with an upcoming video as well. 

Best, 
Paul