Continuing my series on Orchestral Sample Libraries, let’s move onto the family that is most likely to divide opinion – The strings. This selection will doubtless be controversial, and 10 composers will give you 10 different lists. But this is mine!
Spitfire Chamber Strings
Spitfire Symphonic Strings
Spitfire Tundra (Albion V) Strings
Cinematic Studio Strings (CSS)
Cinematic Studio Solo Strings (CSSS)
Audiobro LA Scoring Strings (LASS)
EastWest Hollywood Strings Gold
As each library has a signature sound, and particular strengths and weaknesses, I tend to blend libraries to create a unique sound, rather than relying on one. I will, however, reveal my desert island choice at the end. This is somewhat harder for strings, and I can't promise to choose just one!
The biggest trade-offs are between the achievable sound, the workflow to achieve it, how hard it pushes my computer and how much I enjoy working with it.
I should also say that I’ve not included solo string libraries like Embertone Joshua Bell Violin (amongst others) as I’ve concentrated on ensemble libraries of both big and small.
If you haven’t read my article How To Choose Orchestral Sample Libraries - An Introduction, then use might want to bookmark this page, go and read my introduction and then come back to this page.
Here’s an example of a small mockup to show some of the different sounds of my a selection of my chosen libraries and how they compare to the stock EXS sounds in Logic.
Thanks to my assistant Mark Fabian for creating these audio examples for me.
Spitfire Chamber Strings
Spitfire Chamber Strings is one of the best string libraries I own. It’s an intimate sound (16 players all told) but it is capable of being layered either on top of other patches within its library or with others to give a larger, lusher sound. It’s a Kontakt library (Works fine either in full or player versions) and so it’s quick to understand the basic routing.
When creating a template with it, it can be used in one of three basic ways:
Load up the Core Techniques patch of each instrument in the string family (eg Violin 1 core techniques). Choose articulations by Key switch (or if you’re feeling brave, change to one of the other options that Spitfire offer – with Cc changing.. but I find this overly complex).
Load Instruments articulation-at-a-time as individual patches
Have a performance legato patch as a separate track.
The sounds are fantastically played, and beautifully recorded in one of the finest halls in the world (Air Studios Lyndhurst Hall). There are easy-to-change mic choices, either in “Easy Mix” mode or in Advanced mode where you can choose specific mic settings.
The main reason this library is in my “hall-of-strings-fame” is the Performance Legato patches.
These are playable legato string patches with beautifully recorded (and extremely cleverly scripted) transitions from note to note. Famously the note transitions are the thing that exposes samples from real recordings. Many libraries are sluggish to respond when playing fast passages but the Performance Legato patches respond really quickly and even allow passages with short notes and long notes to be played just in one patch. It’s as close to a one-patch-solution as you can get.
PROS:
Extremely detailed articulation options
Very flexible to play particularly the performance legato patches
Recorded in Air Studios so it sounds beautiful!
Mic Choices allow for really specific spatial placement
Great product support and tutorials as ever with Spitfire
CONS:
Easy to get bewildered by the choice
Alternatives to regular Key Switching seem overly complicated
Spitfire Symphonic Strings
This is Spitfire’s Flagship product. Without completely repeating what I’ve said above, it works almost identically to the Chamber Strings library – the only difference being the number of players in each part of the ensemble. It’s perfect for lusher large ensemble sounds and the portamento (slide) transitions which you get when playing a gentle velocity are glorious.
There are 16 1st Violins, 14 2nd Violins, 12 Violas, 10 Cellos & 8 Basses and 175 articulations to choose from! And each section is recorded in its correct place for an orchestra – so without panning anything it all “sits” together.
It works seamlessly in conjunction with the chamber ensemble should you wish to layer things (which I often do) and as mentioned above, the performance legatos are stunning!
The close mics are not perhaps as dry as some libraries, so it has less relevance for some pop styles (but they have this covered, both with the Chamber Strings and with some of the smaller ensemble libraries like Spitfire Solo Strings.
PROS:
Part of an extremely well thought out family of products. Seamlessly use them all together as needed.
Once you know the methodology for one of the libraries, you know them all pretty much
Lush large ensemble recordings are made for the Air Lyndhurst Hall acoustic.
Even ensemble patches are quickly playable and completely usable.
CONS:
See Chamber Strings (It has the same issues)
Very Expensive!
Spitfire Tundra (Albion V) Strings
This is part of the Albion Series from Spitfire (which is intended to be able to be used right out of the box). For more on the Albion Family, keep reading the series as we’ll look at Albion One later on.
In a break from tradition, instead of splitting things into instrumental families, this library is split into Highs and Lows as well as Main patches and “soft and wild” patches.
The whole point of this library is to offer some delicate hushed human-sounding performances with slight imprecision (as normal recordings would have). There are lots of choices of quiet, hushed choices (including my favourite “Air And Ice” patch) which are immediately Cinematic out of the box.
This is specifically useful for those specific genres mentioned, but also it layers beautifully with either of the above-mentioned Spitfire libraries when a blend of lush and delicate airy sounds is needed.
I don’t use this library all the time, but sometimes it’s the only choice (for the right project).
PROS:
Fantastic for that Scandi-Noir soundscape sound. Try saying that quickly….
Beautiful quiet, reflective sounds – fantastically played even at extremely quiet dynamics
CONS:
None really for the style it’s intended for.
Cinematic Studio Strings (CSS)
Cinematic Studio Strings is a Kontakt library consisting of 10 1st violins, seven 2nd violins, seven violas, six cellos and five basses.
Sometimes simple is good….
At first glance, there’s a limited amount of choice with CSS. But looks can be very deceiving. One of the greatest barriers to creativity is an instrument that is too complicated to figure out - and this is instantly playable, which makes it a wonderfully creative tool.
But it also has the sound quality to back up the positive GUI experience.
Despite having a big knob saying REVERB on the front, just using the Mix perspective from the mic-position choices gives a wonderfully rich full sound, which I rarely stray away from.
Another positive is the quality of the individual families as opposed to the ensemble patches. They blend seamlessly and are so quick to access, I find myself turning to them regularly.
I particularly love the Marcato articulations, which respond well to my playing style. The only negative I’m finding is that there is an issue when crossfading (via CC) from non-vibrato to vibrato. But the developers say they are aware and will be fixing this.
CSS gets fairly constant use from me within projects needing lusher strings.
PROS:
Simple easy to understand GUI
Less is more – not too many articulations but pretty much 95% of what I need.
Beautiful rich expressive lush sound, well recorded in a great hall in Sydney!
CONS:
The inbuilt latency means I have to add a negative delay (make everything earlier) to all clips or regions.
Cinematic Studio Solo Strings (CSSS)
CSSS is another Kontakt-based library from the Anglo Australian team that brought us CSS.
If I were doing a fully detailed review of each product I could take you through the many nuances of this carefully curated library and its dual uses as either a small ensemble product in its own right (layer the full ensemble patches on top of each other and you have a larger library sound worth of mention) or as a first chair addition to CSS. However, in this brief roundup, I should concentrate on how I use this library and that’s almost entirely in conjunction with CSS as first chair instruments to go with the corresponding main CSS patches.
They blend so beautifully together that it's a joy to use, and so I use it (with the option of increasing or decreasing the sound of the section size by turning up more or less of the larger library vs the first chair accordingly.
I do know composers that use this library as a de facto quartet/quintet library but the lack of ability to crossfade adequately from no vibrato to vibrato renders it less useful for these situations in my opinion. It’s possible to get something akin to real by clever use of the CC2 function, but it still leaves me a bit frustrated were I to use it for this.
That said, it's still an often used, extremely important part of my arsenal.
PROS:
Blends perfectly with CSS when you need more a more detailed section sound
Simple, straightforward GUI
Detailed articulation choices without clutter
CONS:
No crossfading vibrato
No Portamento volume configuration
Audiobro LA Scoring Strings (LASS)
LA Scoring Strings is another Kontakt library. I've owned it since the first week that version one came out and since then the program has changed hugely.
It was always powerful, but now it can lay claim to being a one-stop-shop for the string arranger looking for super-realism.
It would take a full article of its own to go through all the features in any useful detail, but here’s a couple of my favourite highlights:
First and foremost it sounds glorious. But dig deeper and there are many other reasons this is a go-to library for serious string arrangers.
Beautiful, easy to use legato scripting (which has a polyphonic option should the need arise)
A.R.T rhythmic patterns for short note rhythmic scripting (it's a bit like a built-in sequencer) is very usable and also easy to turn on and off with a sustain pedal.
The built-in methods to allow stage placement and colour (ARC) is very clever but quite complex and I confess to finding it too complicated to get to grips with! (Might be my issue though?)
PROS:
Fantastically detailed
Includes a built-in first chair library
Auto arranger function for realistic divisi (see below for explanation)
The A.R.T system for rhythmic patterns of short notes is no toy!
CONS:
Not for the faint-hearted - Watch out for the learning curve!
You need some power to run this properly
Doesn’t have separately recorded 2nd Violins
EastWest Hollywood Strings Gold
As with all of the Hollywood Orchestral series, this library runs in the proprietary EastWest “Play” engine. This is the budget version of the enormous Diamond Bundle of Strings.
The gold version is 16-bit and gives you one mic position, but its inclusion in my list is precisely because it's a good budget option. Just like the other Hollywood libraries, it is included in the EastWest Composer Cloud bundle (costing £20 per month in the UK). This makes it a useful addition to composers who are moving beyond the one-stop-shop single orchestral plugin but can't afford to drop hundreds of pounds on some of the more expensive libraries shown above.
There are multitudes of choices in this library - but it's not for the technophobe. If you’re prepared to do some full-on programming, you can choose the finger position on a specific string of each instrument (allowing for a more romantic texture when choosing notes played high on the neck)
Even though it is only 16bit for the gold version, and only has one mic position, it mixes fantastically with other libraries when a huge lush string sound is the order of the day.
PROS:
Hugely usable, expressive set of orchestral strings
Fits beautifully with the other EastWest Orchestral libraries (all recorded at EastWest Studio 1)
The ability to change finger position (to get a more romantic Hollywood sound)
Quite a dry acoustic (which suits me)
Huge choice of short samples (which allows for realistic action-sequence programming)
CONS:
You need a meaty computer to run this properly
Sometimes I just want something quick and easier to play. It’s always in-depth and a little over-the-top
My Strings Desert Island Choice
My Desert Island choice? Well... it's pretty much impossible to choose one single library as I don’t use them like that really, but I'll narrow it down to two:
Spitfire Chamber Strings and LA Scoring strings are simply indispensable to me in almost every case (although I seem to use CSS almost every day for something or other….). I guess it's a 3-way tie?
What Is Next?
Next in the series, we’ll take a look at the Percussion.