# Thoughts on Venice Modern Strings?



## markleake (Jun 6, 2019)

I know it's just been released, so maybe not many opinions yet, but I'm wondering what people's thoughts are?

https://fluffyaudio.com/shop/venice-modern-strings/

To me it sounds quite similar to CSS (a good thing), but without the dark tone.

From the walk-throughs it seems to favour a softer gentler style, is less "middle-of-the-road" studio sounding than CSS is, and has lots of useful and very nice sounding articulations. I wonder if it would be a good companion for CSS and Spitfire string libraries?


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## chocobitz825 (Jun 6, 2019)

markleake said:


> I know it's just been released, so maybe not many opinions yet, but I'm wondering what people's thoughts are?
> 
> https://fluffyaudio.com/shop/venice-modern-strings/
> 
> ...



I’m really on the fence. I wrote off FluffyAudio for awhile because I didn’t spend enough time to appreciate their engine with their solo woodwinds and strings. I have afflatus so I’m not sure if I really need another library like this, but one benefit is their morph control option. I think this could actually work as alternative to some of spitfires similar texture libraries and the polyphonic legato seems like competition for afflatus. It obviously lacks some things, but it sounds great. I’m not sure about the release/legato sound right now, but no way to know but to take the dive and see where it works.

I have a feeling I’ll end up giving into temptation and getting it soon...

My poor wallet


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## markleake (Jun 6, 2019)

I have their Clarinet and Dominus. The clarinet is wonderful; Dominus I haven't used enough yet, but it's good so far. So I'm not too concerned about Fluffy Audio skimping on the quality.

I really liked their Kontakt interfaces in the past - very flexible, but still simple if all you want to do is straight forward key-switching. The interface for VMS looks quite good too, and pretty.

I haven't seen/heard the morph feature you mention. Any reference to look at for this? Not sure if the polyphonic legato is too much of a useful feature. Sometimes these work well and are useful for sketching, other times not. Will have to wait and see.

Afflatus is too rich for me. It does sound good, but I already have plenty of string libraries and can't justify the price. VMS is more appealing to me given the price, especially if it does softer styles well, as that range is something I make a lot of use of in my current string libraries.


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## chocobitz825 (Jun 6, 2019)

markleake said:


> I have their Clarinet and Dominus. The clarinet is wonderful; Dominus I haven't used enough yet, but it's good so far. So I'm not too concerned about Fluffy Audio skimping on the quality.
> 
> I really liked their Kontakt interfaces in the past - very flexible, but still simple if all you want to do is straight forward key-switching. The interface for VMS looks quite good too, and pretty.
> 
> ...



Shown in the video here from 5:00 in.

Morph Control


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## markleake (Jun 6, 2019)

LOL. I watched that and was distracted by my cat, so didn't realise THAT was the morphing engine. 

Thanks.

Edit: It does automation too. Cool.


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## GingerMaestro (Jun 6, 2019)

I bought it this afternoon, have been excited about this library for sometime and whilst I’ve only just had an hour to noodle around, it is living upto expectations. On all the demos I’ve heard of CSS I’ve not been able to get on board with the timbre. I generally like a warm rich full darker sound when I work with a “live” string section, however CSS just doesn’t quite work for me. (BTW I have CSB which I really like) VMS I think for me is the perfect alternative. Similar features to CSS but with a different rounder color for my taste. I also own SStS which on a quick comparison just now, sounds thinner, not as warm or rich, despite similar section sizes. This is all of course subject to personal taste, preference and ultimately what type of music you will be using it for, but my initial exploration is incredibly positive. For $349 I think it’s a steal. More Anon as I start to write with it.


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## constaneum (Jun 6, 2019)

i'm still curious with the detailed walkthrough of all the articulations as well as showcasing the sound with different mic perspective. 

by the way, can it do fast legato lines (like CSS' Marcato patch ??)


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## markleake (Jun 6, 2019)

Yes, not all the articulations were shown yet. And nothing about the mic positions either.


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## whiskers (Jun 8, 2019)

I have SCS, and SStS...would love to hear how it compares to SCS and CSS


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## Henu (Jun 8, 2019)

^ My first impression was actually that it sounds like a missing link between SCS and CSS.


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## whiskers (Jun 8, 2019)

Henu said:


> ^ My first impression was actually that it sounds like a missing link between SCS and CSS.


would love to hear more thoughts when you've had time to dig into it. I neither own this nor CSS, but someone mentioned CSS has a 'darker' tone, while this has a bit less so of one.

Also i think the section is larger than SCS, yes?


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## GingerMaestro (Jun 8, 2019)

It certainly is lusher and bigger than SCS, which I don't have. It has a rounder tone than SStS which I do own.

SCS=4.3.3.3.3
SstS =8.6.6.6.4
Berlin = 8.6.5.5.4
Venice VMS = 8.6.5.5.3
CSS = 10.7.7.6.5

Of course it's not the size but what you do with it that is important. I love the sound of VMS, it's gorgeous !


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## paoling (Jun 8, 2019)

Hello Guys! Next week we'll release a video showing more of the stuff which makes Venice Modern Strings unique. Section sizes are 86553. About this library being between SCS and CSS is partly true. To me, the beauty of this library relies on its sound more than anything. Moreover we tried to extend the functionality of the different articulations to get the most out of them. But I also feel that people is still wondering why this library is so special, so we'll try to address all these concerns and doubts in this upcoming video. For now, thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot for us.


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## markleake (Jun 8, 2019)

@paoling. The library sounds great to me. And fitting in between CSS and SCS in terms of section size and sound I think is a very good spot to be. I'm wondering why there isn't more noise about the library here, it really does sound very good. Personally, I have too many string libraries already, but this still has me very interested. 

I'm keen to hear the library in a more cinematic and dramatic/adventure contexts where it is pushed with the dynamics a bit, both shorts and longs, some soaring legato violin lines against the brass section, etc. Just to see how flexible the library is. Plus some melodic leading cello line examples would be good.


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## Zoot_Rollo (Jun 8, 2019)

impressive.


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## Ashermusic (Jun 8, 2019)

I just got it. I _swore_ I would not review another strings library but because Paolo always gets the tone right, I changed my mind. And darned if he hasn’t done it again! It sounds gorgeous. Looking forward to learning how best to use it.


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## artomatic (Jun 8, 2019)

This string library surprised me! Came out of nowhere.
Was hesitant to listen to the demos because I already own most of the major string libraries and didn't have a need to buy another.
However, I fell in love with VMS' sound. Not too harsh, wonderfully warm and full of life.
Excited to use this on my next project.
Kudos to @paoling and the Fluffy crew!


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## Saxer (Jun 9, 2019)

constaneum said:


> by the way, can it do fast legato lines (like CSS' Marcato patch ??)


I'd be interested in that too. And also if there are 'fast' sustains with immediate note start. I have much too many string libraries unused because they fade in on every sustained note which is nice for slow pads but sounds like pumping in mid tempo or melodic passages. I like to sculpt the envelope via CC by myself.


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## Batrawi (Jun 9, 2019)

I was really interested & hooked by the sound when the teaser came out at first. But then when those couple of walkthrough videos came out, I honestly began to lose interest and even started to have some doubts about the library! Frankly I did not like those legato lines nor the shorts at all as they sounded too Midi & robotic to me. Now I don't own the library so I definetly could be (hope to be) wrong while these could just be some poorly massaged/programmed midi lines in those demos. But then I say is that really a possibility if these are official demos made by those who know the library best?!
Anyhow, still keeping an eye/hoping for more musical/naked demos to come that can prove me wrong...


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## Henu (Jun 9, 2019)

Saxer said:


> I have much too many string libraries unused because they fade in on every sustained note...



A thousand times this.


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## JohannesR (Jun 9, 2019)

The tone of the long notes is just gorgeous, so this library has my attention. Not at all convinced by the legato transitions nor the shorts, though. Keeping my eyes and ears open!


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## Ashermusic (Jun 9, 2019)

Henu said:


> A thousand times this.



Uh, guys, you do realize that with most sustained bowing, when a player drags a bow across the strings the sound is not immediate?


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## Henu (Jun 9, 2019)

And next you're going to tell me that those FFFFF horns in trailers are impossible to play 8 bars in a row? Nonsense!!!!

Nah, in all seriousness, try to play any moderate tempo (and upwardws) string section (not only one line) having attached notes with Spitfire Symphonic Strings sustain patch and you'll notice quite fast what I'm meaning. :(


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## zimm83 (Jun 9, 2019)

Waiting for a real walkthrough on youtube. More detailed , more focused on polylegato.


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## paoling (Jun 9, 2019)

I believe that a string library should be able to do whatever the user wants to make. But in the end we use libraries for the things that they do at their best. Super fast stuff with Venice may sound less appealing than, for example, legato phrasing and emotional phrasing. This may be a truth for many of our libraries. Derived from my concept of the music I like, I tend to be more in love with the expressive "emotional" side of the spectrum, than trailer/action stuff. What amazed me the first time I got in contact with sample libraries years ago, is the ability to create something emotional and living with just a creative mind and a computer. As much as I am amazed by the trailer of the next Lion King movie. Seems like a BBC documentary, but it's made with some computers.

Most developers talk about "living" "open" libraries and then they end in a closet and rarely touched anymore. In this case, Venice is our library, the one we'll use to make the demos for upcoming products. That's why we are implementing a system where we keep a copy of the library shared among me and my colleagues and when we are working with it we may rapidly implement little changes here and there, fixes, new features. After a while, when the number of changes has been significant, we'll easily package this into an update for our users.
For eexample the polylegato is present in this library, but I find it a bit silly, you often need a precise control over each line of a legato passage. But it is a nicer sounding alternative to the typical sustain.

I'd like to talk freely and honestly about this library and how it compares with other libraries. But I feel that's not elegant for me to do direct comparisons (even if in some areas I may give a point to my colleagues).


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## Ashermusic (Jun 10, 2019)

paoling said:


> I believe that a string library should be able to do whatever the user wants to make. But in the end we use libraries for the things that they do at their best. Super fast stuff with Venice may sound less appealing than, for example, legato phrasing and emotional phrasing. This may be a truth for many of our libraries. Derived from my concept of the music I like, I tend to be more in love with the expressive "emotional" side of the spectrum, than trailer/action stuff. .



Me too.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jun 10, 2019)

Batrawi said:


> I was really interested & hooked by the sound when the teaser came out at first. But then when those couple of walkthrough videos came out, I honestly began to lose interest and even started to have some doubts about the library! Frankly I did not like those legato lines nor the shorts at all as they sounded too Midi & robotic to me. Now I don't own the library so I definetly could be (hope to be) wrong while these could just be some poorly massaged/programmed midi lines in those demos. But then I say is that really a possibility if these are official demos made by those who know the library best?!
> Anyhow, still keeping an eye/hoping for more musical/naked demos to come that can prove me wrong...



I agree with everything you mentioned. Hopefully we'll hear some user reviews soon.


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## Manuel Stumpf (Jun 10, 2019)

Here is a little comparison of the tone of some libraries.
It is much too early to do a full review, this is not meant to be one.
I hope one can hear the difference in tone/timbre of Venice Modern Strings in comparison to the others quite good.

I know I know: This small snippet you hear, is a mediocre composition at its best . I took all efforts to create parallel fifths and octaves whereever I could . I even sucessfully managed to let the Celli line cross the Violas . It only uses a tiny fraction of articulations/mic positions of what's available.
I apologize: every inconsistency in timing the only one to blame for are my playing skills .
I hope it is still interesting for you 

I have slightly adjusted velocities, note positions/lengths, dynamic CC to accomodate for the different libraries. And adjusted the overall volume to be roughly equal.
Otherwise no reverb or external processing (except for the two mentioned below).

You hear a small snippet consisting of: Violins 1 Legato, Violins 2 Legato, Violas Sustain, Celli Legato + Staccato, Basses Staccato.

The following are the 7 runs you can hear in correct order:
1: Venice Modern Strings (Close + Far Mics, this is how it loads per default).
2: Venice Modern Strings (Spot + Close + Far Mics, added Spot Mic gives more presence/edge)
3: Venice Modern Strings (Spot + Mid Mic, kind of more intimate setting)
4: Spitfire Chamber Strings "SCS" (Mics as loads up per default)
5: Cinematic Studio Strings "CSS" (also as loads up per default)
6: Adagietto with a little bit of Valhalla Room Reverb and panned to my liking
7: Century Strings with a little bit of Valhalla Room Reverb and panned to my liking

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/s1001_v000_3xvenicemodernstrings_scs_css_adg_cty-mp3.20622/][/AUDIOPLUS]


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## constaneum (Jun 10, 2019)

Venice sounds a bit like Century. quite beautifully sampled. Century has quite a nice sound as well but just their scripting turns me off from getting it (based on experience with Adagio series)


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## axb312 (Jun 13, 2019)

Do the shorts in the Articulation Walkthrough sound weird to anyone else?


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jun 14, 2019)

axb312 said:


> Do the shorts in the Articulation Walkthrough sound weird to anyone else?



Yep, to me they don't sound realistic.


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## axb312 (Jun 15, 2019)

Ashermusic said:


> I just got it. I _swore_ I would not review another strings library but because Paolo always gets the tone right, I changed my mind. And darned if he hasn’t done it again! It sounds gorgeous. Looking forward to learning how best to use it.



Looking forward to the review...


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## paoling (Jun 19, 2019)

Hello guys. 

We are in a sampling session at the moment. But I wanted to chime in to say a few things:
1) The staccatissimo articulation in Venice is designed, we have cut small snippets from a measured tremolo, to create a snappier staccato. The reason the "quick" stuff doesn't sound right to some of you may be because they are usually done with a spiccato. On the other end the staccatissimo it's quite useful to create quick repetitions on the same notes. I also like how they perform when playing runs. We are obviously looking to fix and improve the fast behaviour of Venice in the future. As usual we strive to put our most efforts in expressive and lyrical playing and I think that it's where Venice shines the most. Sure we could have done a 200 $ library with only the legato patch, but we actually think that Venice, if not now, in a short future, can be a complete solution for any kind of string sound (of that specific size). The thing that I cared the most, the sound, is something we are proud of and that alone is something refreshing from the current offerings. Manuel example, to me shows it pretty well. I hear untuned notes, some lowpassed sound or the obvious addition of an external reverb in some of the examples, not in Venice. Maybe this is a slightly misreprentation of some nice libraries like CSS, but there's an overall idea of how these libraries sounds like. I liked the adagietto example, sounds nice.

So the future is long for Venice (as I hope it will be for the actual city, despite the threat of climate change and the tourism) 

Also! The offer ends in 24h, just to say


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## axb312 (Jun 19, 2019)

paoling said:


> Hello guys.
> 
> We are in a sampling session at the moment. But I wanted to chime in to say a few things:
> 1) The staccatissimo articulation in Venice is designed, we have cut small snippets from a measured tremolo, to create a snappier staccato. The reason the "quick" stuff doesn't sound right to some of you may be because they are usually done with a spiccato. On the other end the staccatissimo it's quite useful to create quick repetitions on the same notes. I also like how they perform when playing runs. We are obviously looking to fix and improve the fast behaviour of Venice in the future. As usual we strive to put our most efforts in expressive and lyrical playing and I think that it's where Venice shines the most. Sure we could have done a 200 $ library with only the legato patch, but we actually think that Venice, if not now, in a short future, can be a complete solution for any kind of string sound (of that specific size). The thing that I cared the most, the sound, is something we are proud of and that alone is something refreshing from the current offerings. Manuel example, to me shows it pretty well. I hear untuned notes, some lowpassed sound or the obvious addition of an external reverb in some of the examples, not in Venice. Maybe this is a slightly misreprentation of some nice libraries like CSS, but there's an overall idea of how these libraries sounds like. I liked the adagietto example, sounds nice.
> ...



Thank you. Will wait for the short future and hopefully some more review before making a purchase decision.


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## zimm83 (Jun 19, 2019)

axb312 said:


> Looking forward to the review...


Would be cool to have a real review....Haven't found a detailed walkthrough on youtube......why ????? Would like to hear polylegato in action but in realtime.......


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## Ashermusic (Jun 19, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Would be cool to have a real review....Haven't found a detailed walkthrough on youtube......why ????? Would like to hear polylegato in action but in realtime.......



I will do a brief one tomorrow.


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## zimm83 (Jun 19, 2019)

Ashermusic said:


> I will do a brief one tomorrow.


Thanks !!!


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## constaneum (Jun 19, 2019)

Ashermusic said:


> Me too.



A demo on the normal and fast legato passages as well please. Pretty please....


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## Ashermusic (Jun 19, 2019)

constaneum said:


> A demo on the normal and fast legato passages as well please. Pretty please....


Ok


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## Ashermusic (Jun 20, 2019)

As promised, with apologies for whatever Soundcloud may or may not be doing 



Sorry Constanteum, I just realized I didn't do fast legato passages, just legato, polyphonic legato, staccato and pizzicato.


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## Paul T McGraw (Jun 20, 2019)

Manuel Stumpf said:


> Here is a little comparison of the tone of some libraries.
> It is much too early to do a full review, this is not meant to be one.
> I hope one can hear the difference in tone/timbre of Venice Modern Strings in comparison to the others quite good.
> 
> ...



Thank you, this is very helpful.


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## Manuel Stumpf (Jun 20, 2019)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Thank you, this is very helpful.



Glad that you like it.
That the Cello counter line is somewhat lagging behind in some of the snippets was my fault . Should have corrected it a little bit.
I wonder if it would be of interest if I'd come up with something a little bit longer more refined also showing some shorts.


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## zimm83 (Jun 20, 2019)

Ashermusic said:


> As promised, with apologies for whatever Soundcloud may or may not be doing
> 
> 
> 
> Sorry Constanteum, I just realized I didn't do fast legato passages, just legato, polyphonic legato, staccato and pizzicato.



Thanks very much. Like the legato and the polylegato very much. More and more libraries offer polylegato. That's great. Thanks !!!


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## Ashermusic (Jun 20, 2019)

zimm83 said:


> Thanks very much. Like the legato and the polylegato very much. More and more libraries offer polylegato. That's great. Thanks !!!



Glad you find it helpful. It's a terrific library.


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## constaneum (Jun 20, 2019)

The strings' timbre sounds nice


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## Ashermusic (Jun 20, 2019)

constaneum said:


> The strings' timbre sounds nice




Paolo _always_ gets the timbre right.


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## paoling (Jun 20, 2019)

Lovely demo audio Jay. I feel that you have been doing something that we hadn't be able to do, properly.


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## Ashermusic (Jun 20, 2019)

paoling said:


> Lovely demo audio Jay. I feel that you have been doing something that we hadn't be able to do, properly.



Whhaaattt? Definitely not a demo, just me improvising the “Summer Of ‘42” theme with your lovely strings.

Happy to do a proper demo later if you want.


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## constaneum (Jun 20, 2019)

Ashermusic said:


> Paolo _always_ gets the timbre right.



What's the mic you use in the demo ?


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## paoling (Jun 20, 2019)

By the way, here's there is a nice overview of the library done by a third party reviewer (Mike from Professional Composers):


Not sure if the staccatos with the spot mics are the best thing about the library but it's nice to see our library in the hands of others. 
(also about the vibrato it is proportional to the dynamics and the Molto Vibrato has actually an effect on the stronger dynamics).


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## constaneum (Jun 20, 2019)

paoling said:


> By the way, here's there is a nice overview of the library done by a third party reviewer (Mike from Professional Composers):
> 
> 
> Not sure if the staccatos with the spot mics are the best thing about the library but it's nice to see our library in the hands of others.
> (also about the vibrato it is proportional to the dynamics and the Molto Vibrato has actually an effect on the stronger dynamics).




too bad that still doesnt cover all the articulations which i believe the rest of the potential customers are curious to find out. We'll still hold up and wait for a thorough walkthrough of the library with all aspects covered. =)


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## Ashermusic (Jun 20, 2019)

constaneum said:


> What's the mic you use in the demo ?



The default, close and far.


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## constaneum (Jun 20, 2019)

Ashermusic said:


> The default, close and far.



close and far....that's good enough....with extra spot mic, it'll be awesome.


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## constaneum (Jun 26, 2019)

until today, seems like there's no in depth review of this gem ?


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## GingerMaestro (Jun 26, 2019)

I see there have been a few requests for more information on how VMS handles Short notes and runs. Here's something that I have been noodling around with just now. 1st time is Violin 1 Staccato 2nd time Staccatissimo. Tightness turned up to maximum & using Spot and Close Mics. No additional Reverb. Might do some more if there is any interest and this is not to offensive ! Really enjoying playing around with this library.


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## constaneum (Jun 26, 2019)

GingerMaestro said:


> I see there have been a few requests for more information on how VMS handles Short notes and runs. Here's something that I have been noodling around with just now. 1st time is Violin 1 Staccato 2nd time Staccatissimo. Tightness turned up to maximum & using Spot and Close Mics. No additional Reverb. Might do some more if there is any interest and this is not to offensive ! Really enjoying playing around with this library.




not bad but i really like to hear a full review of the library. really like the sound of the strings....i think Spot Mic add lots of details to the sound. ehhe


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## constaneum (Jun 26, 2019)

GingerMaestro said:


> I see there have been a few requests for more information on how VMS handles Short notes and runs. Here's something that I have been noodling around with just now. 1st time is Violin 1 Staccato 2nd time Staccatissimo. Tightness turned up to maximum & using Spot and Close Mics. No additional Reverb. Might do some more if there is any interest and this is not to offensive ! Really enjoying playing around with this library.




by the way, any example of fast runs?


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## SoNowWhat? (Jun 27, 2019)

This is sounding really good to my ears Paolo. Loving all of the demos/tests users have posted so far.


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## GingerMaestro (Jun 27, 2019)

When constructing runs "artificially" what patches do folks usually use from string libraries ? A legato/sustain patch with a staccatto/staccatisimo overlay ?


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## axb312 (Jun 27, 2019)

GingerMaestro said:


> When constructing runs "artificially" what patches do folks usually use from string libraries ? A legato/sustain patch with a staccatto/staccatisimo overlay ?


Typically trills and Spiccato layered from what I've seen so far.


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## constaneum (Jun 27, 2019)

SoNowWhat? said:


> This is sounding really good to my ears Paolo. Loving all of the demos/tests users have posted so far.



Can the fast legato patch do that ?


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## SoNowWhat? (Jun 27, 2019)

constaneum said:


> Can the fast legato patch do that ?


Think you might have quoted the wrong post.


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## constaneum (Jun 27, 2019)

SoNowWhat? said:


> Think you might have quoted the wrong post.



Opsy


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## constaneum (Jun 27, 2019)

GingerMaestro said:


> When constructing runs "artificially" what patches do folks usually use from string libraries ? A legato/sustain patch with a staccatto/staccatisimo overlay ?



Can the fast legato do that ?


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## GingerMaestro (Jun 28, 2019)

Here's a couple of Simple Runs. Yet to use them in a composition. Bearing in mind my limited programming experience & skill, I think they are fairly convincing. I'm sure others could do better, however I still have a lot to learn !


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## constaneum (Jun 28, 2019)

GingerMaestro said:


> Here's a couple of Simple Runs. Yet to use them in a composition. Bearing in mind my limited programming experience & skill, I think they are fairly convincing. I'm sure others could do better, however I still have a lot to learn !




Is this done with the fast legato patch?


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## GingerMaestro (Jun 28, 2019)

There isn't a specific "Fast Legato" Patch. It's the 1st Violin Legato Patch with the "Legato Transition Speed" control turned up to Fast (ish). I also layered in a tiny bit of Staccatissimo.


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## Ashermusic (Jul 8, 2019)

My review has been posted.
https://www.macprovideo.com/article/audio-software/review-venice-modern-strings?afid=HT1U3aQxk1


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## constaneum (Jul 24, 2019)

reviving this post.....this release surprises me....it's really quiet. not much talk about this. even no detailed walkthrough videos by software reviewers. hmm.....no love for this gem ?


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## ProfoundSilence (Jul 24, 2019)

What is more interesting, a nifty string library made humble developer - or a bunch of stuff taped to a piano with the hip marketing of a flying death machine?

I've heard great things about light and sound chamber strings as well - but it just doesn't have the insane levels of marketing. I'm not in need of a string library(or really any library) but I'll definitely be waiting to see how dominus 2 ends up.


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## cqd (Nov 20, 2019)

Hey folks..
So any thoughts on this library now?..
I don't really need it, but I like Fluffy audio...

Any thoughts?


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## Oliver (Nov 20, 2019)

i am also tempted...any thoughts from you guys would be great!


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## José Herring (Nov 20, 2019)

chocobitz825 said:


> Shown in the video here from 5:00 in.
> 
> Morph Control



I've been trying to get this Mahler 5 mvt working with my string libraries for a while. Never found one that could quite do it. This one doesn't sound half bad. Not fully there but better than most libraries I have.

I'm looking forward to getting this library now.


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## constaneum (Nov 20, 2019)

this is one product which I hardly heard much from users. not really any detailed product review available online.


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## harmaes (Nov 20, 2019)

The reduced price now is interesting. How does this compare to SCS of BBC SO?


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## star.keys (Nov 21, 2019)

paoling said:


> To me, the beauty of this library relies on its sound more than anything.



I will tell you how your competitor will say that wearing a marketer’s hat: “If I wear a composer’s hat, I can honestly say that this is the most incredible sounding library under my hands so far. The tone is to die. Anything other than that is simply and objective comparison with other libraries and I’m sure young composers will find it extremely intuitive to use” 😀


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## cqd (Nov 21, 2019)

Yeah, really, it's primarily down to Paoling's almost anti-marketing that I'm wanting to buy this..I have Dominus pro, the solo woodwinds and the trio Broz.. just picked up the simple violin last night..if I get anything this black Friday it will probably be these..

*Edit..Oh yeah, I've the piano too .


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## filipjonathan (Nov 21, 2019)

I don't know what you guys heard in this, but the legato in their articulation video is terrible. Sure, portamento slides sound really nice but normal legato note transitions sound so synthish and yall out here praising it like its the best string library ever.


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## Vladimir Bulaev (Nov 21, 2019)

GingerMaestro said:


> Here's a couple of Simple Runs. Yet to use them in a composition. Bearing in mind my limited programming experience & skill, I think they are fairly convincing. I'm sure others could do better, however I still have a lot to learn !



This is terrible. Venice Modern String is not designed for this, just like Spitfire BBCSO. For fast runs, the Spitfire Chamber Strings library is unrivaled. With all due respect to the Cinematic Studio Strings, for this they are also less convincing than SCS.

As for Venice Modern Strings in general. Popular love as a CSS, he apparently still does not receive. And this is not due to the lack of powerful marketing. It seems to me.



trajev said:


> I don't know what you guys heard in this, but the legato in their articulation video is terrible. Sure, portamento slides sound really nice but normal legato note transitions sound so synthish and yall out here praising it like its the best string library ever.


I also feel something strange about the legato transitions. For me there is something not natural, not convincing. Although the tone of the strings themselves is beautiful and I like it. This is definitely not the best string library. Today for me, the standard of legato transitions is the Performance Samples and CSS/CSSS. The reference for fast runs is SCS.


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## paoling (Nov 21, 2019)

Hello guys! Thank you for the nice and honest comments.

A couple of things: I love the legato in Venice Modern Strings. It just sounds natural to me, simply because it's not emphasized like in a lot of libraries. There are no bumps and it sounds, to me, as it should be. That said I'm not at all convinced in how we presented it in our tech videos. In the overview video (where you can hear it solo) there's no context regarding the level of the instrument: with no other instrument as reference, it tends to sound harsh, because the lowest dynamics tends to sound too loud when pushed at a too high volume. 

Regarding the Tech video, instead, we presented the legato on every instrument performing a little "solo" with every section. This also doesn't appeal to me, since this is a quite bizarre way to work with ensemble strings (to me). It may work for a solo string library, but a string section would always be weird used in that way.

So I believe that the most fair representation on how Venice sounds is by listening to the Mahler demo, Antongiulio's demo or "mainstream" piece's like Riccardo Barba's Shoshin.
These pieces represent a bit more how Venice sounds when used in context and how the legato perform on a real, well written, music pieces.

Also, I tested a lot of the libraries mentioned here when working on Venice, obviously. While I praise CSS as the best of the bunch (by a wide margin, to me, than all the others), Venice is often praised to have a more natural and beautiful sound. This may due to the fact that CSS needs a reverb, while Venice works also just with no reverb added. In the end they both have a different sound and CSS has a very useful and wider selection of short notes. 

Regarding marketing. I agree: we have something to learn. The highest level of "good" marketing, to me, is doing a video like our Teaser for Venice Modern Strings, where we actually spent a few days in the city capturing nice footage to make a nice music video out of it.

We try to learn in terms of marketing from other developers, but we just apply the things that we like on our way to communicate. If there's something that we don't really like or we find silly, we ignore that technique altogether.


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## pipedr (Nov 21, 2019)

How does this library approach legato? Fluffy's other libraries use some kind of audio level-matching algorithm to make the note transitions smoother, I believe, which seems like a neat idea.


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## cqd (Nov 21, 2019)

@paoling, re marketing..tbh I think other's may have something to learn from your good selves..no bluster..honest appraisal of a library's positive and negative aspects.. this is a welcome attitude.. elegant, as I think you said in some post somewhere..


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## GingerMaestro (Nov 21, 2019)

For whatever it's worth I'm a big fan of this library. Great sound on it's on, particularly with the spot/close mics. Also layers well with CSS to brighten up that dark sound. The shorts are a little bit synthy, but I've used the pizzicatos quite a lot which are really nice. It's a pretty good deal at the current price if you are in the market for this kind of thing..


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## pipedr (Nov 21, 2019)

GingerMaestro said:


> For whatever it's worth I'm a big fan of this library. Great sound on it's on, particularly with the spot/close mics. Also layers well with CSS to brighten up that dark sound. The shorts are a little bit synthy, but I've used the pizzicatos quite a lot which are really nice. It's a pretty good deal at the current price if you are in the market for this kind of thing..



It would be great to hear more examples of the library. Would you like to run the violins through Saxer's seven legato test? (Also, if you have Spitfire Studio Strings, I haven't heard it through the test before, either).






The vi-c blinded violins shootout - stage 1 completed.


Hi All, With thanks to everyone who contributed to this effort, the blinded results can now be downloaded. As explained in the other thread, we decided to forego the 'competition' part, so whilst you will be able to review these, blinded as promised, there is no voting planned. If someone...




vi-control.net


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## paoling (Nov 21, 2019)

pipedr said:


> How does this library approach legato? Fluffy's other libraries use some kind of audio level-matching algorithm to make the note transitions smoother, I believe, which seems like a neat idea.


This happens with the Trio Broz series and our Woodwinds. We called it DCE (Dynamic Control Engine). At the time I felt it was a revolutionary feature but for example, Simple Violin doesn't have it and also Rinascimento neither. Their Legato is still beautiful, so I realized that we could save a few cpu cycles by ditching it altogether. 
So we don't have it in Dominus and also in Venice.
This is in part due to the fact that since Simple Violin we have sampled everything in the same hall with a good amount of natural reverb. Woodwinds and Broz strings were instead sampled in a very dry room. Dry samples are more versatile, but they may sound a bit dull. Often the player is less excited to play in a completely dead place.

What I realized through this time is that the more you are able to avoid messing up with the original volumes of the samples, the better. Especially for wet samples. So samples matching may seems a great idea on paper, but the more the user listens to the sounds played at their original level the better impression he has on the sound of the library. That's why many developers including us hate normalization on samples. Unless you don't come up with the perfect formula to perfectly rebuild the lost dynamic information (as it possible for example with a piano library), the result are hardly satisfying.


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## Oxytoxine (Nov 24, 2019)

Cross-post from the deals forum, probably belongs here

==========================

Hello guys!

I recently bought Venice Strings and really love the sound of this library! Congratulations on the beautiful sampling 

However, I have a serious cpu overload issue – even at large buffer sizes (256, 512) there are extremely many cpu spikes - the audio distorts so badly that the patch is not playable. It is enough to just play some simple chords to overload the cpu.

I have a 2018 6-core i7 macbook pro, thunderbolt audio interface, and it is the same behaviour in Logic, Reaper and Cubase. Multicore support in Kontakt is turned off.

This does not happen to me on the same system with most of the other libraries (spitfire, OT, CS2, Chris Hein, etc.) – they all play fine even at much lower buffer settings.

The only comparable experience I had was with 8dio strings, which were unusable due to these issues (I’ve read some users referring to them as badly scripted*).

The same did also happen with Light & Sound Chamber Strings, but turning off Time Machine in Kontakt remedied the issue completely.

However, I can not find such a button in the interface of Venice Strings.

So my question is: what am I doing wrong? Are other users experiencing the same? Are there some settings that can remedy this? Or is this simply such a beast of a library that a uber powerful computer is required to tame it? As the Venice Strings sound fantastic, I would really like to be able to use them.

So I would be very grateful for some insights. Thank you very much for your input! 



*P.S. I do not mean to imply that Venice Strings are badly scripted or so and hope that the developers do not take offense! I am rather sure that I am doing something wrong (I am still new to all this sample based orchestration music thing and have almost no clue about the technical / scripting aspects)


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## Manuel Stumpf (Nov 24, 2019)

Oxytoxine said:


> However, I have a serious cpu overload issue – even at large buffer sizes (256, 512) there are extremely many cpu spikes - the audio distorts so badly that the patch is not playable. It is enough to just play some simple chords to overload the cpu.


On which patch/articulation do you experience this?
If you play chords on the ensemble patch make sure to increase the voice count in Kontakt from 512 up to for example 2048. Venice Modern Strings has a very high usage of voices in Kontakt. It easily drops voices otherwise.


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## paoling (Nov 24, 2019)

Hello. We are aware of this issue and it may happen with the sustain and polylegato patches. We'll have some improvements soon, for sure. Let's see if this fixes: click on the little gear on the top left part of the GUI and select LOW as engine quality. You would not hear any difference possibly, but it will be quite lighter on the CPU. I'll update soon with a few newer patches here.


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## Manuel Stumpf (Nov 24, 2019)

@paoling:
The website lists a Staccatissimo articulation for Ensembles.
However for me this instrument patch is not existing?
Is this only for me or is this one indeed not there?


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## Oxytoxine (Nov 24, 2019)

Manuel Stumpf said:


> On which patch/articulation do you experience this?
> If you play chords on the ensemble patch make sure to increase the voice count in Kontakt from 512 up to for example 2048. Venice Modern Strings has a very high usage of voices in Kontakt. It easily drops voices otherwise.



Basically on all the long / sustain and especially the (poly-) legato patches.

Thank you very much for the hint with the voice count! Will try as soon as I am home.


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## Oxytoxine (Nov 24, 2019)

paoling said:


> Hello. We are aware of this issue and it may happen with the sustain and polylegato patches. We'll have some improvements soon, for sure. Let's see if this fixes: click on the little gear on the top left part of the GUI and select LOW as engine quality. You would not hear any difference possibly, but it will be quite lighter on the CPU. I'll update soon with a few newer patches here.



Thank you for your response - I really appreciate your help, and it is great to hear that there will be an update! Will try the LOW quality setting and report back. Thumbs up for such a prompt response and direct involvement with your customers, even on a sunday


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## alchemist (Jan 15, 2020)

Manuel Stumpf said:


> @paoling:
> The website lists a Staccatissimo articulation for Ensembles.
> However for me this instrument patch is not existing?
> Is this only for me or is this one indeed not there?


No not just you, there is no staccatissimo for ensemble on my end either.


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