# Which 8dio strings library to aim for?



## Ducky (Nov 10, 2015)

Hi,

I've been looking to get myself some good orchestral strings instruments. At the moment I have the EWQL Hollywood Strings Silver. While it is pretty good, I find the violins a bit overly "sweet", lacking in depth and honestly quite buggy (I have never got the legato patches to work properly).

I really love the sound of 8dio strings libraries and they seem to be the best sounding that I can tell from listening to examples. However, there are a few different violins options on their website and although the descriptions of each are pretty good, I want to make sure I know exactly what I'm getting (it ain't cheap after all).

The Adagio Violins seems to be the obvious option. They seem to be the most all-round option for strings. Does anyone know if they are only good for legato sections or can you write faster passages with them too?

From what I can tell, the Agitato series are for particular articulations and more specific passages or styles. And then there is Adagietto as well..

The obvious option seems to be get the Adagio Violins as a good starting point, but I downloaded the "Agitato Grandiose Legato" free trial pack.. and from what I can tell it is just a few good sounding legato patches.

So which one is the best for me to get? Is the Agitato series a replacement for Adagio Violins? Why is it cheaper in that case? I could get all Agitato instruments (violin, viola, cello) in a bundle for the same price that Adagio Violins cost _alone_.

I will be waiting to see if they have any black friday deals before buying something.

The tech demos don't give me much hints on this because they all sound as good as each other..

Thanks!


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## Johnny (Nov 10, 2015)

Well in my experience,

The Adagio series is fantastic! Superior production value, rich, warm, full of depth and colour, expressive, hyper-realistic in sound quality and programming- an exquisite representation of true, "modern" orchestral strings! (IMO) The Adagio Series will cover most all aspects of your daily expressional needs: slow to moderate and flowing legato (gorgeously scripted), short notes, trills, beautiful sustains and absolutely unmatched dynamic bowings; however, if you are looking to write faster, highly dynamic and even "more" expressive legato lines? Especially if you are looking to write with a little more Mancini up in your tool box? Agitato is the icing for your cake. I don't own Agitato myself, but I've heard nothing but "world-class" reviews from all of my colleagues in regards to Agitato's ease of use and authentic "out of the box" playability. Agitato (IMO from seeing others use it) is a "must" have for faster, John Williams style/soaring legato orchestral writing! This library is yet to be matched for its natural expressiveness, soaring legato, world-class programming- and thus far is definitely up there as one of my favorite sounding collection of expressive string samples.

All of the above being said,
If you are looking for the happy middle ground? If you are looking just to get your feet wet into the 8Dio string collection? I highly recommend giving Adagietto a run for its money. This library is a very unique and specialized collection of basically "the best" of the Adagio Series all in one library. 8Dio spent an ungodly amount of hours sifting through their entire Adagio sample collection; hand selecting the absolute "most" expressive string samples of the entire Adagio series; and then re-scripting them all into a highly comprehensive, flexible and intuitive/user friendly package. Adagietto really the best of both worlds IMO. Clean and cut-throat to the point: Full Ensemble string patches with basses, violas and violins all spread out perfectly to the mercy of your creative fingertips; and only the articulations that a man really needs for survival in modern orchestral string writing- desert Island material for sure!

The beauty is that 8Dio has split all of these unique and highly expressive string libraries into multiple functioning sub-genres depending on your artistic need. As one might argue that why make one Hobbit movie when you could sell three? But honestly, I paid $1499.99 for EW Hollywood Strings on its initial launch date and I don't regret a thing!! End of story. HW Strings is the pinnacle of string libraries in my opinion ("IF" you are looking for that "one string library to rule them all"), but man.... Spending 1/3 of the price that I originally paid for HW Strings just to have some extra unique and expressive additions to spice up your soup? It's a no brain'er to purchase 8Dio Strings to further enhance and colour your compositions- they are beautiful additions to your sample family : )

Hope I could help : )
Best of luck and happy composing!
Johnny


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## mickeyl (Nov 11, 2015)

Although marketed as an expansion, to my ears, the Agitato series (especially the sordinos) sound _better_ (for whatever that means, I can't exactly specify it though) than the Adagio series. Adagietto still has the best price/performance ratio, of course.


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## vicontrolu (Nov 11, 2015)

Agitato


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## Ducky (Nov 11, 2015)

Thanks all. I'm leaning towards getting the Agitato bundle. Although what I didn't mention before is that I also love the solo violin sound you get from Adagio violin, and it doesn't seem to be available in Adagietto or Agitato sadly.

I also realised that Agitato Sordino is not included in the Agitato bundle I was looking at which is a shame.



Johnny said:


> HW Strings is the pinnacle of string libraries in my opinion



Do you think HW Strings is a better sounding library than 8dio Adagio? When I listen to both and compare, I feel like 8dio is incredibly realistic sounding to the point of being uncanny, but when I listen to HW Strings while they sound amazing, I can still tell that it isn't quite like hearing a real orchestra.

Problem is, it's difficult to know from just listening to the example pieces whether the person making the examples were just better or worse at production, or if the sample library is actually better or worse.

At the moment I could upgrade my HS silver to diamond shipped on an external drive for $324.. Even though I prefer the sound of 8dio, this would probably be getting a lot more for my money than trying to purchase all the 8dio packages to get the same amount of content. I wonder if diamond is a vast improvement over silver?

As I say though, I've not had good experiences with Play and I avoid using the violin legato patches because they bug out completely (other strings can be weird too, but not as bad as violins. Hollywood Brass funnily enough always works perfectly).

Maybe I should see about getting that fixed before making a decision.


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## wpc982 (Nov 11, 2015)

Adagietto is very bad, imo ... a clumsy all-in-one. Adagio is better, but don't buy it for the solo instruments; I have both. I don't have the Agitato, but reading the description it seems you'd be very limited as to the most often used string articulations; simple sustain and simple detache.


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## Johnny (Nov 11, 2015)

Do you think HW Strings is a better sounding library than 8dio Adagio?

Well, I see the two libraries as completely different women- both strikingly beautiful in each their own way of course! 8Dio strings have an unexplainable and instant gratification quality (which is very attractive indeed!); 8Dio strings always sound great on their own as well as within a hybrid orchestral mix; the color and tone have a emotional mood that you cannot put a price on! But as an ensemble set of Hollywood orchestral strings? For myself, they just don't deliver the cohesion that I want to hear for that Hollywood orchestral string sound. The wide recording technique used to capture Adagio, (although unmatched for tone and clarity) is a little challenging for me to achieve the cohesiveness that I would like to hear, when placing each of the string ensemble sections into their correct orchestral chair. For this matter, I use a product called Virtual Sound Stage to achieve the orchestral results that I would like to hear in regards to Adagio's seating plan; however, by using Virtual Sound Stage, I am "very subtly" inviting an undetectable amount phase variance and affecting the tone and depth of these beautiful Adagio samples. To me, by using such plugins, it just feels like I am robbing Adagio of its natural and authentic beauty in which Troels and Colin worked so diligently to try and achieve. Anyhow, my only critic on Adagio Strings for classic, Hollywood orchestral writing is: sometimes I will hear a legato transition come from the left ear, when the basses are naturally sitting towards the right ear; sometimes the hall sound from one section, grows and bleeds into the hall sound from the next section- building a very minor (just for the record, I am only critiquing overtly meticulous details for all of you audiophiles out there) low-level mud in which I will often decide to Q out later. This can be avoided however, by using "one" patch/ensemble section at one given time; select the close microphones only and the results will speak for themselves. So to summarize, in regards to 8Dio strings, they're absolutely exquisite for what they do best! For me, it is just the stereo imaging of Adagio that I find doesn't work when I am writing classic Hollywood orchestral cues. That being said, Adagio sounds excellent and works incredible for trailer music and hybrid-orchestral film scoring! But for classical orchestral strings to me, the ensemble sections sometimes rub on eachother's toes while attempting to sit in their respective orchestra chair.

That is why I personally use HW Strings as my go to for that cohesive, classic orchestral and Hollywood sound- it just works! (HW Strings being the pinnacle of string libraries for me at least.) Sound quality and articulation wise, HW Strings has everything in the kitchen sink and more- I need not worry because they've recorded it all!

If you have the time? I know that I have posted this video on a previous thread, but I just feel that this is the most honest representation of each string library without pulling any wool over your ears. This way, "you yourself" will be able to hear and judge each library's strengths and weaknesses, and see which library works for you and your compositional needs? In my experience, I have always found that it is completely O.K. to like one string library for one purpose, and another string library for something completely different? That is why I suggest if you have the expendable income? Why not try out a few of them?!?! You'll use each and every one of them at some point down the road- I have no regrets : )
Best,
Johnny


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## jononotbono (Nov 11, 2015)

I bought Adagio Strings as my first String Library. I love it. It is overwhelming at first. Adagio is amazing for slow String parts. A clue may lie in the name haha! Once I needed to be able to play faster parts, I actually bought Agitato. It's amazing and complements Adagio perfectly. The Divisi Patches are great. The Solo Patches, they are limited but hey, that's why you mix and match other libraries or have a real player/s right? I haven't tried Adagietto and don't feel I need to own it as of this time. It's amazing when you buy one string library how you suddenly realise the benefits of owning various one's for different reasons and uses. Something to bear in mind is that If you only get Agitato, it doesn't have Basses. I say get Adagio, then get Agitato. They are splendiferous.


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## Zhao Shen (Nov 11, 2015)

Agitato is newer. I'd go for either Agitato or Adagietto.


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## synthetic (Nov 11, 2015)

I have every 8dio string library except for the V8P series. (And 8W is the next library I'm buying.) Adagio is the one I use most, and obviously the one with the most variety of articulations, but it's a softer sound than Agitato.

You might want to get one of the Agitatos first just to see if you like their keyswitching system, it's not for everyone. But if you have the time to assign keyswitches to the ends of phrases there's no beating the 8dio stuff. Play a phrase with the Xfade articulation then switch to one of the others for the last note. So much more realistic than the usual looped mod wheel taper at the end of a note.

The Adagio "Perdition" sordinos are much sweeter than Agitato Sordino IMO. But it's all great stuff. My only wish is that there were distant mics for some of them, the room mics are still not far enough back. But that's what my friends Lexicon and Bricasti are for.


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## Ian Dorsch (Nov 12, 2015)

I really love the 8Dio strings - I have all the libs except Adagietto, and Adagio + Agitato are my main strings now - but it's worth noting that those feelings are far from universal around here.

The libraries are expensive, Adagio Violins in particular is still a little technically rough around the edges, there's no 2nd violin section (it's simulated with convolution), and it takes a fair amount of work to learn the library and how to best adapt your writing to its strengths and weaknesses. Adagio also becomes much more generally useful if you have the excellent Agitato Grandiose Legatos - Adagio's legatos are often beautiful and expressive, but difficult to convincingly adapt to faster passages.

All that said, for the way I write, I don't think there's a better set of string libraries, and I haven't ever regretted buying into Adagio and Agitato. But definitely do your research.


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## vicontrolu (Nov 12, 2015)

Same here. They sound bright, close and sometimes even synthy but when i try other string sounds they are always missing something.


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## Tatu (Nov 13, 2015)

I love Adagio. I bought some of the Agitato strings last year during Black Friday sales and was encouraged to go further and expand to Adagio during that very same sale, and continued buying it block by block until I had all of it this summer. Still learning it.

Has it quirks, but it also has a lot of something that none of the competitors have.


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## Ducky (Nov 15, 2015)

Thanks so much everyone for your insight and help.

Thanks johnny particularly for your in depth reply. That video is really helpful. Interestingly I felt like Berlin Strings was best represented in that comparison. I had barely heard of them but I'm looking into them more now, they sound very realistic to me.



Johnny said:


> The wide recording technique used to capture Adagio, (although unmatched for tone and clarity) is a little challenging for me to achieve the cohesiveness that I would like to hear, when placing each of the string ensemble sections into their correct orchestral chair.



After listening to that comparison I can see where you are coming from. The recording of Adagio is very wide sounding compared to the others. Funnily enough I've had some panning difficulty with HS, sometimes I end up with a mix where the violins end up too far pushed over to the sides if there is a lot more going on in the track (converting them to mono makes it too narrow however). I wonder if I'll have this problem in Adagio.

Adagio didn't sound too great in its transitions during that comparison, but I wonder if with a bit more work on the MIDI and with the use of other Adagio patches it could have been made to sound more like Berlin strings does i.e. it needs a bit more work to get it sounding really realistic. It would be great if there was a try-pack for Adagio too so I could find out for myself..

It also shows how, to me that HS although very sweet is a bit weak sounding compared to the other libraries.

LASS I wasn't too keen on at all.

Anyway, from the looks of it Adagio gets you a bit more content than the Agitato bundle (basses, sordino, lots of articulations). I think I'm going to wait and see if any deals come up in the next month and make my decision based on that. I do have some money to splash out on this, so I don't mind paying out a bit for all of Adagio and maybe getting Agitato later on (or even looking at another library to complement Adagio).

Tatu: your track sounds really great, thanks for the extra listening material.


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## Johnny (Nov 15, 2015)

Ducky said:


> Thanks so much everyone for your insight and help.
> 
> Thanks johnny particularly for your in depth reply. That video is really helpful. Interestingly I felt like Berlin Strings was best represented in that comparison.



No problem : )
Yes, Berlin Strings in many ways is right up there and even beyond- a very versatile wide dynamic library!
There will always be an 8Dio Black Friday Sale or some sort of 40-50% everything day, I'm sure the strings will still be there ; p Yes, you will find that with Adagio for sure, it's a great sounding library but has its quirks like every library. Adagio is always a challenge for me to layer the sections in a way that avoids the widely-recorded "mash" if you will- especially without making them sound too thin thereafter. (after manually seating everything respectively I mean.)
Best of luck!


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## Tatu (Nov 16, 2015)

I often narrow Adagio's individual sections down to around 85-90%, then pan them to their "correct" positions before applying a reverb to the whole. On that small sketch I actually placed them very much differently from the usual, because I've been trying to find some "new" seating's for them (and with Adagio you can do that). And I often replace Adagio's basses with those from Mural and/or Albion.

Like Johnny said; Black Friday. It's just around the corner and there might just be that 30% - 40% off of them. And you don't have to get it all at once. I'd recommend getting either Cellos or Violins first, then Violas and Basses last.


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## Ducky (Nov 16, 2015)

Well I finally got that email from EWQL telling me about the HO Diamond bundle 80% off deal.. I thought that deal had ended already (I signed up for a trial to CC yesterday and then got the email, not sure why I didn't get it before, maybe I unsubscribed from them some time ago and forgot).

A new contender appears.. Whether or not I prefer other string libraries over HS, in terms of sheer value this might just win me over, because I love HB (I have silver) and was thinking about getting a WW library sometime + perc and harp would be nice.


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## LamaRose (Nov 22, 2015)

I somehow overlooked the Agitato series whilst surveying current string offerings. All of the demos sound really detailed and organic... really alive. I'm sure the baked-in vibratos play a big part in that sound. 

I noticed Colin had two active busses enabled for his walkthroughs, at least for the violins. I'm wondering how much processing he was using? Reverb on one buss, eq on the other? Can someone chime in and provide some feedback regarding what I'm hearing on the walkthrough(s) versus outta-the box? Unfortunately, I do not have full Kontakt at present and cannot find out for myself via their free download version. Thanks!


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## Tatu (Nov 22, 2015)

LamaRose said:


> I do not have full Kontakt at present and cannot find out for myself via their free download version


Are you sure? I think you can still try it, kontakt just won't work for longer than 20 or 30 minutes (Demo Mode).


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## LamaRose (Nov 22, 2015)

Tatu said:


> Are you sure? I think you can still try it, kontakt just won't work for longer than 20 or 30 minutes (Demo Mode).



Thanks, I had no idea that was possible! I'll give it a try.


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## mickeyl (Nov 22, 2015)

LamaRose said:


> I somehow overlooked the Agitato series whilst surveying current string offerings. All of the demos sound really detailed and organic... really alive. I'm sure the baked-in vibratos play a big part in that sound.
> 
> I noticed Colin had two active busses enabled for his walkthroughs, at least for the violins. I'm wondering how much processing he was using? Reverb on one buss, eq on the other? Can someone chime in and provide some feedback regarding what I'm hearing on the walkthrough(s) versus outta-the box? Unfortunately, I do not have full Kontakt at present and cannot find out for myself via their free download version. Thanks!



I fully agree, I love the great sound of the Agitatos. Unfortunately they don't seem to be very open about what plugins they use for these fantastic sounding demos... Perhaps if we keep on asking on every video.


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## LamaRose (Nov 22, 2015)

Bingo! Thanks, Tatu, for the tip. I can tell by the close mics just how beautifully recorded the samples are. Now if NI would just have a 50%-off sale this weekend, lol.


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## LamaRose (Nov 22, 2015)

mickeyl said:


> I fully agree, I love the great sound of the Agitatos. Unfortunately they don't seem to be very open about what plugins they use for these fantastic sounding demos... Perhaps if we keep on asking on every video.



I agree. If a walkthrough is utilizing additional processing, it should be stated and have an A/B comparison (kudos to Alex from Cinematic Strings in this regard). But these samples sound really good, and on their own should not require much processing at all. Of course, fitting into other libraries... I can see where the baked-in vibratos/dynamics could prove challenging... that's what separates the pros from novices like myself. 

Do you own the full library?


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## airflamesred (Nov 22, 2015)

wpc982 said:


> Adagietto is very bad, imo ... a clumsy all-in-one.


I think that's a little unfair. The legatos are nothing to write home about but if you orchestrate the individual patches it's got a lot of body and character. As I understand Adagietto is Adagio lite?


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## mickeyl (Nov 22, 2015)

LamaRose said:


> I agree. If a walkthrough is utilizing additional processing, it should be stated and have an A/B comparison (kudos to Alex from Cinematic Strings in this regard). But these samples sound really good, and on their own should not require much processing at all. Of course, fitting into other libraries... I can see where the baked-in vibratos/dynamics could prove challenging... that's what separates the pros from novices like myself.
> 
> Do you own the full library?



Only 50%. I bought the Grandioso Legato some months ago and just yesterday snapped the Sordinos, which are amazing. I don't need to render fast lines atm., so will hold off buying the others for later (besides... I'm broke now since I also grabbed the Lacrimosa choir).


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## GhostXb (Nov 22, 2015)

I think it also depends on what kind of styles of music you like to create. I absolutely love the agitato series. I prefer to make music dramatic by writing fast polyphonic melodies as opposed to using heavy rhythms and spiccatos. While I do use those as well, I like to mix things up.

As far as value goes, if I had to choose between Adagietto + Agitato, or the entire Adagio collection, I would choose Adagietto + Agitato. Adagio in general is more versatile, but the stylistic possibilities of agitato is more down my aisle. So I think you should consider what kind of music and stylistic choices you might make, and not solely on value.


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## synthetic (Nov 23, 2015)

They've showed their plug-ins in some YouTube demos. Troels is usually using Space Designer or something stock like that. No secret plug-ins, just very talented musicians.


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## LamaRose (Nov 25, 2015)

Mickeyl, regarding Agitato Sordinos, can you adjust the velocity range for the legato transitions? According to the walkthrough, anything below 40 triggers the slur/portamentos, and I assume this is the same for the Grandiose library legatos. I downloaded the demo for the Grandiose violins and I kept triggering the portamentos due to my light playing style. It just doesn't work for me unless I can lower that slur range. Great sounding library, otherwise. Thanks!


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## mickeyl (Nov 26, 2015)

LamaRose said:


> Mickeyl, regarding Agitato Sordinos, can you adjust the velocity range for the legato transitions? According to the walkthrough, anything below 40 triggers the slur/portamentos, and I assume this is the same for the Grandiose library legatos. I downloaded the demo for the Grandiose violins and I kept triggering the portamentos due to my light playing style. It just doesn't work for me unless I can lower that slur range. Great sounding library, otherwise. Thanks!


I'm afraid not with the front panel. I'm sure you can do it from the rear panel (will check later tonight whether it's unlocked or not), but that requires perhaps some KSP insights.


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