# Synchron Woodwinds review - is it good?



## secondtiersound (Dec 9, 2021)

Hello all! I am one of those weird people that despite my experience in this field, have worked very little with vsl. But after my review of the VEP 7, I also tried their newer library Synchron Woodwinds, and I...

Well, check out my review here:


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## muziksculp (Dec 10, 2021)

@secondtiersound ,

The character of all these woodwinds can be drastically different when you use the various mic options, and the included Mixer Presets that VSL includes. So, I noticed you judged the sound of some of the instruments like the flute, and oboe based without checking all the other options to change the character.

You can also time stretch the dynamic patches, so you are not restricted to 1, 2, 4, seconds, but have much more control, and customization. 

Thanks for the review.


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## secondtiersound (Dec 10, 2021)

Thank you for your tips, I'll take a look.

And, I actually do show that you can have various times of the articulations, and I'm well aware of this.
My problems, or rather nitpicking, is the sound of the sample, round robins, and dynamic curve, which won't be improved with mic positions and or mixes, although perhaps somewhat masked. And I find the timbre setting more interesting in this regard, but it is ultimately a sample and dynamic layer issue.

Synchron is ahead of many other sample libraries in many regards here, and I really applaud that, it is quite fantastic, but i still think that in certain cases the depth of the samples is missing a bit (obviously a preference thing).

I know there is an update coming and perhaps that will change things. I have talked to vsl about it.

Still, this is a very good library worth considering, absolutely.

Cheers!


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## JonS (Dec 11, 2021)

I got Synchron Woodwinds, its very good, the whole Synchron Series is very good.


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## welltempered (Dec 13, 2021)

Very nicely done review @secondtiersound - I particularly liked the way you separated the initial discussion of the articulations from your assessment of the tone of the various instruments.

I was musing about your first nitpick - that the volume is not always consistent between articulations. I agree this is the case, but am not sure it can be made to be completely consistent, especially with the large number of artics that VSL provides. Wouldn’t it mean that for any given level of Vel XF (or velocity), the volume level would have to be more or less the same in each articulation? I’m relatively new to the world of sampling, but that would seem to imply an unrealistic constraint that the dynamic range (between the softest and loudest) would need to be the same for each artic. And an additional constraint is that I believe VSL typically provides their instruments at “natural volumes”. 

So I just figured you need to do some tweaking of Vel XF (or velocity) and Expression CC11 to get the artics to flow naturally from one to the other in terms of volume. (And from my short time with this library, it’s been quite easy to construct a pleasing line that switches between several artics - especially with judicious use of the legato espressivo patch.) It doesn’t actually take that much time to do the volume tweaking between artics, but of course if it’s possible for VSL to make the volume of the artics more consistent, that would make the process more efficient. Is this part of what you discussed with VSL?

Also curious whether this volume variation between artics exists in libraries by other leading sample developers.


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## secondtiersound (Dec 13, 2021)

No, it isn't possible to be exact, that is true, but a solution would be to have more dynamic layers with the shorts. I should be able to play softer. Every library is different, but in general i find there are more dynamic layers in the velocity sensitive articulations, and in synchron i would have to use the expression instead. It works, but it adds an extra step that is a little annoying. Not a ton, but a little.

Again, nitpicking. 😊
Thanks for your input and kind words.


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## pinki (Dec 15, 2021)

@secondtiersound 

Can I be very nit-picking of your review please? 

The instruments you demo in the main section of your review are too quiet- your voice dominates.
And then in the intro and summary the Bolero underscore is very annoying!

Hopefully useful feedback. (and IMHO etc)...


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## secondtiersound (Dec 15, 2021)

You can, but I might not take your advice 

Cheers!


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## pinki (Dec 16, 2021)

Well in that case I can listen to your review and discount it's content!


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## Francisco Cuadrado (Dec 24, 2021)

secondtiersound said:


> Thank you for your tips, I'll take a look.
> 
> And, I actually do show that you can have various times of the articulations, and I'm well aware of this.
> My problems, or rather nitpicking, is the sound of the sample, round robins, and dynamic curve, which won't be improved with mic positions and or mixes, although perhaps somewhat masked. And I find the timbre setting more interesting in this regard, but it is ultimately a sample and dynamic layer issue.
> ...


Hi secondtiersound:
First, thanks for your review. Very interesting testing and approach. The thing is that I've watched different Synchron Woodwinds reviews and certainly I noticed that the sound of the instruments in your review was a bit different from what I've heard in others. It may be related to the mics combination, the mix presets, or even the use of the CC controllers. Is it possible? Have you compared the sound from different reviews? Call me a geek in this sense, but this is something I usually do!

Cheers!


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## secondtiersound (Dec 26, 2021)

Francisco Cuadrado said:


> Hi secondtiersound:
> First, thanks for your review. Very interesting testing and approach. The thing is that I've watched different Synchron Woodwinds reviews and certainly I noticed that the sound of the instruments in your review was a bit different from what I've heard in others. It may be related to the mics combination, the mix presets, or even the use of the CC controllers. Is it possible? Have you compared the sound from different reviews? Call me a geek in this sense, but this is something I usually do!
> 
> Cheers!


Who knows? I tried the different mic positions quite a bit. I forgot what I ended up with, but I usually play around until I find a good sound. I did not change anything else, or mix it differently. 
But this still doesn't change the sample itself, which is what I am talking about. I also think Syncrhon heavily relies on using all the articulations well, in order to get a good sound. This is important, but I didn't do that as I was just playing on the fly. (in general, shorts always sounds good in a sample library, but you really hear the quality on the longs and the legatos, so I tend to play with that more)

For example, I think that the synchron woodwinds are much better done, on a technical level, than let's say EastWest Woodwinds. BUT, there is something about the sound, the feeling, the depth of the samples in EastWest that "in some cases" surpass the quality of Synchron. I don't know what it is. Perhaps the performance of the musician being recorded?

My experience is that ALL woodwinds libraries have the most severe phasing problems of all instruments. And no one has been able to fix it, when it comes to samples. Synchron is one of the better in this regard though, but what is happening is that you now and then get weird artefacts and sound issues, which does affect the sound in subtle ways. This is random.

Synchron has great options for ending notes, which can be really difficult to get right in most libraries, and does affect sound to a great deal. And my experience is that Synchron woodwinds dynamic layers are not as in depth as others, meaning it is harder to have a smooth ending. This is a personal preference, but I find other libraries easier to handle. In Synchron I would have to work the expression more in order to do this "ending" well, or use more articulations. Fine, but I think a better library can do this well with one control. Two is for more depth, as always, but shouldn't be necessary, in my mind.

Lastly, I find that the Synchron woodwinds do not all follow the same dynamic curve and quality, and this perplexes me. They should be more cohesive. This, is one of the reasons I am very impressed by some of the sounds of the library, and not so much by others in the same library. I find the quality un-even. But, I think this is still all personal preference.

And, having said all that, SYnchron woodwinds is my new favorite woodwinds library, no doubt. And the timbre control is really cool.

Thanks for asking. I don't know if I answered the question really, but that is what I came up with. I'll see if I'll have time to watch other reviews 
Cheers!


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## secondtiersound (Dec 26, 2021)

Actually, I am not certain, but I think I actually ended up with the most dry sound on the synchron player, because I wanted to hear all the detail, and then I added my own reverb.
I am not certain, but I recall I played with this quite a bit, and preferred it that way. More detail, and better sound, and I found the presets in Synchron muddled the sound too much.

Otherwise I think Syncrhon is quite impressive in this regard. The harp presets are fantastic for example.


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