I concur with Plowman, there appears to be a small error in one of the factory presets.

In the factory preset: "01 1st Violins-14 Pro XF sus"; tree path: "Long notes/XFades/Flautando X pp/Pianissimo", the mapping of "Release" dimension keyswitches "Normal release" on F7 and "Soft release" on G7 coincides with Flautando voiced notes F7 and G7. The consequence is that Flautando note F7 or G7 will speak audibly if the dimension keyswitch F7 or G7 is operated while the "Dynamic XFade" dimension control is set to give Flautando a proportion of the mix.

Obviously the user can work around this either by moving the "Normal release" and "Soft release" keyswitches out of the way of Flautando notes F7 and G7, or else by restricting the highest-note keyboard mapping of Flautando voices to E7.

No biggie. I'm sure it'll be fixed in a future library update. :D

Thanks for the confirmation, Macker. Yes, restricting the range of the Flautando is the better solution, as it preserves the F7/G7 template found elsewhere. 

Hello plowman and Macker!
The little mistake in the 1st violins preset (flautando XF pianissimo range) will be fixed with a library update.
Best regards,
Andi

Cheers Andi 👍😊

I can also report what sounds like overlapping layers in the Tutti full range preset

> Long notes reg vib from C1 to E

Keep up the great work!

I wonder if there will be Cubase/Nuendo expression maps for the Synchron Strings Pro anytime soon. Or was I looking in the wrong place and they're already there?

Hi

I bought the library today and I really love it. I have one question though. For the Cellos legato patch (regular vibrato), the notes from C1 to D#1 sound very harsh compared to the other ones. It sounds like the tone is different. I don't have this problem with the molto vibrato legato patch or the one from Synchron Strings I. Has anyone noticed that too? Thanks! Great library!

Best, David

I know what you mean, but it's within the acceptable tollerance for me. Some extra dramam in the low register there ':D

But while we are bug reporting: The low velocity levels of 2nd Violins "Long notes" > "Regular vib." are very loud compared to the molto and senza vibrato. They are about equaly loud to the high velocity levels. Can someone confirm?

Hello 9u10m and Sandrew!

I tried to reproduce your findings.

>> I can also report what sounds like overlapping layers in the Tutti full range preset. > Long notes reg vib from C1 to E

=> I can't reproduce that. In the octave from C1 to B1 there are no keyswitches at all in the "11 Tutti full range" presets. In this range only the double basses play. From C2 to D7 there are always two sections overlapping.

>> I wonder if there will be Cubase/Nuendo expression maps for the Synchron Strings Pro anytime soon. Or was I looking in the wrong place and they're already there?

=> So far there are no Cubase Expression Maps for Synchron Strings Pro, but they are on our to-do-list.

>> The low velocity levels of 2nd Violins "Long notes" > "Regular vib." are very loud compared to the molto and senza vibrato. They are about equaly loud to the high velocity levels. Can someone confirm?

=> I can't reproduce this here.

Best regards,
Andi

@daviddln said:

For the Cellos legato patch (regular vibrato), the notes from C1 to D#1 sound very harsh compared to the other ones. It sounds like the tone is different. 

Sorry, I meant the notes from C2 to D#2 (the lowest notes of the Cellos section). Here is an audio example with regular vibrato (with the harsh notes) and molto vibrato.

Best, David

I just purchased the Syncrhon Strings Pro Standard collection and want to share that these are the most playable strings patches to date for me personally. The agile and bold short articulations play cleanly, accurately and musically.  As those of you with classical piano technique, usually we have to play down to the samples responsiveness to get the best sound from the samples.  Not with these shorts.  PLay away like you are playing a fast piano passage and the strings keep up with no hesitation.  Really nice.

The long articulations are especially nice in that they include a soft release option. This allows for larger voicings to be played without the samples building up with the dreaded end of sample build up sound.

I like the polyphonic legatos using the complete sections loaded.  They are to be played carefully as I am sure a lot of programming is going on here.  But it is possible to get a fantastic legato across many voices being played in one pass.  This seems to be a breakthrough moment for this library and string libraries in general.

Add to all of this the value of VSL's pricing for this Standard collection intro pricing and I feel they have the best strings to value package here.  I am perfectly fine with the Standard collection with basic mic positions.  Thought I'm sure the extra mic positions would be useful for certain mixing uses.

Hi Paul,

I believe a repackage would be much less confusing, especially for people who use "One track per instrument, with all the articulations" instead of using different tracks with different libraries.

Alternatively, and probably quicker and easier for you to do, is to at least provide us with presets that merge both libraries, so that for example I could load up my Violins 1 track, with one instance of the Synchron Player, and in that find all the articulations from SS1 Violins 1 and SSPro Violins 1.  

I hope you can pass this along as a feature request.

Best

-m

@Paul said:

Hi Kai, 

Thanks for your post. 

No plans to repackage Synchron Strings I so far, but we will be listening to the reactions of our users.
We also don't want to make this more confusing. 

Best, 
Paul

A question for the people who already bought the new library. One much debated topic of the first SYS release was "natural legato", or rather its absence, depending on how you look at it. Can anyone please tell if it's the same in SYS Pro, or different ? For me personally this would be an important part of the buying decision. Maybe for the others, too.

I'm listening to the demos; couldn't so far find one that could make the answer obvious. Also, apologies if I missed the question already answered elsewhere.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Crusoe,

To begin with: I could work well with Synchron Strings 1, also with the legato. It was just a little bit of work to overlap a little the notes. So I don't know if I am the right person to tell you about the legato of Synchron Strings Pro.
But okay: my 5 cents.

Yesterday I started working with "SSP" and Dorico. I'm just working on a piece for String orchestra. When I coupled the SSP to the music I had to adjust of course a lot, because it responds a little different from SS1. Today I went on working. Here a few of my experiences until this moment.

1. In SS1 I started always with some equing (how do you write that in English?). Here nothing. No extra reverb. I choose my microphones and off I went. (A very subjective experience of mine here: sometimes the sound is in a way just as breakable as in real life with a string orchestra, but you can build with it beautiful melodies, chords, accents, etc.)

2. The senza vibrato samples are great, because the sound is the same as the vibrato patches (without the vibrato of course), so you can very good xfade them, from senza vibrato, to regular or molto vibrato. In the past I discovered, that the senza vibrato patches were often a little brighter. I looks like that vibrato has an influence on the stroke. Of course. But it looks like now that the influence of vibrato is implemented in the non vibrato tones. Really, they are crafsmen and craftswomen.

3. In Dorico I had adjusted much tones of the piece with a little overlapping for a decent legato. Now I had to reduce or even delete most overlappings. And I have to say: I like this legato very much. I think (but I can't say of course), that you will enjoy this legato patches too.

4. Portamento. Until now I was not always a fan of Portamento, because it was often not totally the real thing (but sometimes it sounded nice in my ears). This portamento is very natural, of course the time stretch feature is a great help here. Unfortunately I encountered a bug with the violas, but that I report that to VSL. I'm sure they will fix that.

So I hope, this helps a little. I can't give you an audio example at this moment, because I have not finished yet my piece. But there are examples on the internet.

Kind regards.

Thanks MMKA for the detailed response. All I really care is the final result in the end, however it is achieved. Between real legato of VI libraries and emulated one of SYS, I'm in favor of real legato, personally. Apparently, things have changed given what you say about overlapping notes.

The observation about better crossfading is valuable, too. It was a similar experience for me with SYS. I simply had to avoid XF.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi,

Q.  What does the 'Marcato'  labeled Fader in the Performance area do  ? 

I couldn't find any info about it. 

Thanks,

Muziksculp 

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@Paul said:

Hi Muziksculp,

You can control the marcato amount in the tremolo / marcato articulation with that controller. 

Best, 
Paul

Hi Paul,

OK. Got it. 

Thanks,

Muziksculp 

This is an informal review from a string player's perspective and I hope it is appropriate posted here.

To check-in my bias, I want to say that I did not buy Synchron Strings, and never owned Dimension Strings (the latter only limited by budget, but not for lack of interest). I am a budget conscious musician/scientist and could only afford the Special Editions w.MIRx plugins to give them life over the years.

To see a "flagship" string product come from VSL where I can get each section with a full range of articulations and multiple mic positions for $310ish was too good of a deal to miss. I wanted to see if what made VSL string instruments special was not lost in Synchron format. For comparison, I have played with many string products available in cloud program to rent for a month or playing with a fellow musician's rig that has 6? string libraries for N.I. Kontakt. 

I have played violin/piano since I was 10 years old, marching band percussion in HS with 80% of the playing time between 10 and 19 years old. I was lucky to play in the Interlochen Youth Symphony, and have had the pleasure to guest conduct a few  university symphonies while in late high school. My first music "library" was adding 1 MB to my Sound Blaster to play a GM soundfont.

What made the VSL library (with VSL Instrument Pro) a superior product to the other libraries was the ability to take a Solo Violin Legato patch with Polyphonic legato with Velocity controlled dynamic layers set to very sensitive (115?) and then add a MIRx plug-in, select solo position and play Bach Sonatas or long solo passages of Mendelssohn (section 22+ of the Andante playing live [technique tangent -> ] with right hand and left hand alternating the 32nd notes so the double stops that land with the melody progressions are played with the same hand. The added humanization because when both notes are played with the same hand (usually right) they will land off-beat together vs. playing the moving 32nds all with left hand and then adding a right hand taking the melody only) . 

My complaint with other libraries is the patch changes are usually harsh, and hard to find an interface where I can take a single patch to hold so much weight for articulations with careful playing.  For me, this is what made VSL library much more an Instrument than a collection of patches.  A legato switch on a cello section should handle enough expression that I can hit a hard stop, and control the legato patch to create a reasonable detache w/ deliberate separations and programming interval timing to the seamlessly have lush legato sounds. This libraries "Legato Agile" is one more step in this ease for keyboard notes played that are represented with correct patch variations. 

With my little time with VSL Synchron Strings Pro, I have played Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations "Nimrod" at my preferred tempo like Bernstein . It is an excellent piece to highlight how a string player will have to provide a tremendous range of expression and self control with dynamics over 6 minutes with the Bernstein recording (And, he could bring it out of the musicians. The long, full up and down bows give a lot of control over the sound. I loved the VSL flautando, so I wanted to hear if the library could be played to control tone changes while staying from ppp to pp, subtle differences in phrasing that builds up.  I am very pleased with the library! 

The legato flautando can hold interest with its subtle dynamis and mimicking the alternative up and down bow phrasing from high to low in the large intervals played very well with gentle velocity XF to make seamless transitions. This also worked to legato pianissimo to Expressive p to regular vib and finally molto vibrato was very satisfying. It don't think it is necessary to have all of the transitions (but no complaints), but having them available adds much more of  dynamics that you can hear the difference in musician's technique and not just amplified. 

The Portamento built in Stretch Control is a game changer. I probably used VIPro to create 3 variations of speed and one hardly noticeable slide because it would give me a different sound than the legato patch. In  most libraries the portamento is almost gimmicky and only works if you are creating a version of Wizard of Oz's Over the Rainbow. With the frequency we shift positions into a note it is great to see a solutions to product that sound. I still have more to play with it, but so far it is great.

Combining this library with Big Bang orchestra (Free Edition) can create an epic sound that makes the most basic chord progressions impress family and friends.

In conclusion, I am not a professional film score composer, so I want a library that can play like an "instrument" and is it responsive and playable. This library can be played like a string instrument with a basic MIDI keyboard controller, and it is more than just a collection of wav files that are best put in with a robotic mechanical precision, but retains the same responsive instrument legato patches (and added more) that I have come to love with VSL. 

How do the "sus" patch set differ from the non-sus patches?

Thanks.