# Audio Imperia - "Solo - Lyrical and Expressive Soloists"



## chrisav

Features 13 soloists, brand new recordings. Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, Cor Anglais, Flute, French Horn, Descant Horn, Trumpet, Soprano Angelic and Soprano Operatic. 

Just announced, saw it on their instagram story, nothing on their website yet. 

Who's ready for more top notch legatos? After the quality of Jaeger, Areia and Nucleus this is looking like a verified NO-BRAINER™ so far. Price pending.


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## doctoremmet

chrisav said:


> like a verified NO-BRAINER™


Let’s have @José Herring be the judge of that shall we?


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## davidson

Is it likely these were taken from their existing lineup?


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## mybadmemory

VERY interesting! Love the solos in nucleus.


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## Jackdaw

I'll wait and see considering that Areia violin legato is still wobbly...


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## Mikro93

Oh lord.

Come with hopes not expectations hopes not expectations hopes not expectations hopes not expectations hopes not expectations hopes not expectations

IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME


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## Leo

I have a dream about
lyrical and expressive soloist, 
but rarely I found it, 
this is what I need every time...


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## chrisav

davidson said:


> Is it likely these were taken from their existing lineup?


All new recordings!


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## filipjonathan

chrisav said:


> Who's ready for more top notch legatos?


I don't recall Areia having top-notch legato...


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## Aceituna

chrisav said:


> Features 13 soloists, brand new recordings. Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, Cor Anglais, Flute, French Horn, Descant Horn, Trumpet, Soprano Angelic and Soprano Operatic.
> 
> Just announced, saw it on their instagram story, nothing on their website yet.
> 
> Who's ready for more top notch legatos? After the quality of Jaeger, Areia and Nucleus this is looking like a verified NO-BRAINER™ so far. Price pending.


Interesting....
Watching....


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## GGaca

chrisav said:


> After the quality of Jaeger, Areia and Nucleus this is looking like a verified NO-BRAINER™ so far.


Indeed


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## IdealSequenceG

Their library has my favorite type of close mic sound. Therefore, it is highly anticipated.


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## Trash Panda

Shut up and take my money!


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## Drundfunk

filipjonathan said:


> I don't recall Areia having top-notch legato...


I'm still waiting for that update. Did that ever happen?


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## ennbr

Last update I recall was around xmas or beginning of January


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## audioimperia

Drundfunk said:


> I'm still waiting for that update. Did that ever happen?


An update for Areia, and all of our legato instruments is planned and coming soon. We've vastly improved our legato framework. But first, a couple of exciting new products!


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## Trash Panda

audioimperia said:


> An update for Areia, and all of our legato instruments is planned and coming soon. We've vastly improved our legato framework. But first, a couple of exciting new products!


Will adding measured tremolo to Areia violas and basses still be coming?


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## dcoscina

I'm a huge fan of the Nucleus solo instruments. The oboe has become my go-to for any mock-up where I need finished quality expression. Love the horn from that library too. These new recordings sound promising.


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## Aceituna

audioimperia said:


> An update for Areia, and all of our legato instruments is planned and coming soon. We've vastly improved our legato framework. But first, a couple of exciting new products!


+1 Good job


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## chapbot

I will purchase this immediately, sight unseen (or unheard!) Nucleus solo instruments are spectacular, I just don't use them as often as I want since there are only sustains and legato.


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## Nimrod7




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## Jackdaw

So was the release date mentioned somewhere?


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## muziksculp

Nice to know Areia, and Jaeger Strings will get an improved legato update. I'm guessing no portamento feature is added via the new update. or .. ?

Does 'soon' mean this month ?


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## AndyP

I hope the Soloist have more articulations than in Nucleus. And more mic positions like in Jaeger and Areia would be a dream. Then the AI Orchestra series is almost complete. If AI doesn't make any serious mistakes, I'm in.


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## audioimperia

AndyP said:


> I hope the Soloist have more articulations than in Nucleus. And more mic positions like in Jaeger and Areia would be a dream. Then the AI Orchestra series is almost complete. If AI doesn't make any serious mistakes, I'm in.


Yes to more articulations and yes to more mic positions like Jaeger/Areia/Talos/Cerberus.  



muziksculp said:


> Nice to know Areia, and Jaeger Strings will get an improved legato update. I'm guessing no portamento feature is added via the new update. or .. ?
> 
> Does 'soon' mean this month ?


Aiming for end of April for the release, stay tuned for more on that. Still polishing things and then encoding by NI takes a bit of time.


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## BasariStudios

chrisav said:


> Who's ready for more top notch legatos?


Huh? Have you read any of the Threads complaining that
their Legato sucks in the Strings? Which i own Jaeger and
think so too because i can never ever use it because of that?


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## klawire

BasariStudios said:


> Huh? Have you read any of the Threads complaining that
> their Legato sucks in the Strings? Which i own Jaeger and
> think so too because i can never ever use it because of that?


It depends on what you want from the legatos. Personally I love the Jaeger and Areia legatos for their character, and they're my go to strings because of that as it fits most of the music that I want to make. It's true that they're not exactly the smoothest legatos in the market, but whether that's a bad thing or a really good thing is subjective.

Looking forward to the solo instruments!


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## BasariStudios

klawire said:


> It depends on what you want from the legatos. Personally I love the Jaeger and Areia legatos for their character,


Well i did not talk from an opinion point. Working or not working
its just a simple fact. The Legato Problem with Jaeger and Aeria
is actually a known problem. I don't know what is there to love
in a non working Legato.


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## audioimperia

BasariStudios said:


> Well i did not talk from an opinion point. Working or not working
> its just a simple fact. The Legato Problem with Jaeger and Aeria
> is actually a known problem. I don't know what is there to love
> in a non working Legato.


Hey BasariStudios! Our legato engine is constantly evolving so feel free to send us any insights of what’s not working on your end at [email protected], we’ll be more than happy to assist you.


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## BasariStudios

audioimperia said:


> Hey BasariStudios! Our legato engine is constantly evolving so feel free to send us any insights of what’s not working on your end at [email protected], we’ll be more than happy to assist you.


Thank You Sir, will do so.


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## LamaRose

Very interesting, if not seemingly overambitious(?), library... hard to fathom so many playable soloists at one throw.


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## chrisav

BasariStudios said:


> Huh? Have you read any of the Threads complaining that
> their Legato sucks in the Strings? Which i own Jaeger and
> think so too because i can never ever use it because of that?


Oh I absolutely have, but on the flip side I've seen lots of great impressions on the legatos and I'm personally enjoying them despite the little "bumps" in volume which will apparently be fixed in a patch pretty soon! Also the legato patches on their brass and winds instruments have been very good from what I've heard and used myself.


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## Jackdaw

chrisav said:


> despite the little "bumps" in volume which will apparently be fixed in a patch pretty soon!


I want to stay positive too and some solo legatos in nucleus are just great. But the legato problem in violins of Jaeger, which were then inherited to Areia (they share the same samples), have been around for years and mentioned around for all that time. They are still not fixed which makes me not to believe they are going to be fixed anytime soon.
I will most probably buy this new thing too, but that doesn't make me blind to the fact that I cannot use Areia/Jaeger for sensible string "block chords" (using all sections, not ensemble) as the legato wobble is quite hearable.


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## Mikro93

I'm very surprised, I had no idea there were issues with legato bumps in the violin section of Jaeger, and I've used it quite extensively during the past few weeks. I have libraries where the bumps are an issue, but I'm happy with the smoothness of Jaeger, and you can hear it everywhere in my latest track. I'll read some threads!


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## BasariStudios

chrisav said:


> Oh I absolutely have, but on the flip side I've seen lots of great impressions on the legatos and I'm personally enjoying them despite the little "bumps" in volume which will apparently be fixed in a patch pretty soon! Also the legato patches on their brass and winds instruments have been very good from what I've heard and used myself.


Well i love their Brass and Percussion.


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## GGaca

Jackdaw said:


> They are still not fixed which makes me not to believe they are going to be fixed anytime soon.





audioimperia said:


> An update for Areia, and all of our legato instruments is planned and coming soon. We've vastly improved our legato framework.


I believe


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## audioimperia

Jackdaw said:


> They are still not fixed which makes me not to believe they are going to be fixed anytime soon.


Please believe!

We take updates to our existing products *very *seriously. Each one of our products has a place in our heart, and we constantly polish them based on our customers feedback. We have a cycle for updates and new releases, so rest assured that the updates are coming soon.

The issue of legato was extensively researched for Solo, and we will be applying these new methodologies to all of our existing legato instruments.


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## AndyP

audioimperia said:


> Please believe!
> 
> We take updates to our existing products *very *seriously. Each one of our products has a place in our heart, and we constantly polish them based on our customers feedback. We have a cycle for updates and new releases, so rest assured that the updates are coming soon.
> 
> The issue of legato was extensively researched for Solo, and we will be applying these new methodologies to all of our existing legato instruments.


That sounds very promising! Looking forward to it!


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## Jackdaw

audioimperia said:


> Please believe!
> 
> We take updates to our existing products *very *seriously. Each one of our products has a place in our heart


Now you made me feel bad for what I have said :D
Thumbs up for your endeavors, I really appreciate your way of communication.


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## Nimrod7

audioimperia said:


> Please believe!


Thank you so much @audioimperia 
Not every developer takes feedback seriously, and not everyone is willing to take steps to improve their products. 

Your efforts are much appreciated. I'm looking forward on what the future holds!


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## Mr Sakitumi

This sounds pretty exciting!
I already have Jaeger, Cerebrus, Talos, Trailer Guitars II & Legacy from last years super NI/AI sale bundle.
I look forward to hearing this new, upcoming offering from @audioimperia


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## LynxUK

Will be keeping an eye out on this, to see what extra it brings to the table. 

As a side note - IMO, for what you get in Nucleus its probably the best bang for buck orchestral library there is. Way up there as a reccomendation for anybody looking for their first orchestral library.


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## Ricgus3

Enligsh horn new recordnings?? Does this mean..... @audioimperia standalone woodwinds library coming?!? (Speculation only)


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## JDK88

I don't like this trend of announcing a new product without an audio demo.


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## SupremeFist

Maybe this will turn out to be the one solo strings library to rule them all! 

...or maybe not.


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## muziksculp

SupremeFist said:


> Maybe this will turn out to be the one solo strings library to rule them all!


Yes, don't we just wish that's the case, but the truth is, there is no such a thing, and I doubt there will ever be. 

So.. Just keep buying more strings libraries, it is the only real option


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## bbrylow

BasariStudios said:


> Well i did not talk from an opinion point. Working or not working
> its just a simple fact. The Legato Problem with Jaeger and Aeria
> is actually a known problem. I don't know what is there to love
> in a non working Legato.


I have never had a problem with legato in either library. I’m not even sure what you might be talking about


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## BasariStudios

bbrylow said:


> I have never had a problem with legato in either library. I’m not even sure what you might be talking about


I am sorry, maybe you are not using it, don't know how
to use it or you just use it in a different context. As you
can see even the Devs know there is a problem and they
are onto it fixing it...as well as many or most of us.


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## BasariStudios

audioimperia said:


> The issue of legato was extensively researched for Solo, and we will be applying these new methodologies to all of our existing legato instruments.


I wish and hope you are doing the same for Jaeger Strings.


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## audioimperia

BasariStudios said:


> I wish and hope you are doing the same for Jaeger Strings.


Of course!, every legato instrument in the catalog will get the treatment


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## BasariStudios

audioimperia said:


> Of course!, every legato instrument in the catalog will get the treatment


Thank You!


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## AndyP

SupremeFist said:


> Maybe this will turn out to be the one solo strings library to rule them all!
> 
> ...or maybe not.


You will probably be right ... or maybe not.


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## dcoscina

I really love the Nucleus solos. I put this together a while back when it first came out.


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## bbrylow

BasariStudios said:


> I am sorry, maybe you are not using it, don't know how
> to use it or you just use it in a different context. As you
> can see even the Devs know there is a problem and they
> are onto it fixing it...as well as many or most of us.


I am well acquainted with the developer and well aware of how to use the products. Possibly I am using it in a different way but even with the developer is planning on fixing is not that much of a major impediment for most of us


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## StefVR

So what time is soon then? Cant wait!


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## Rob Elliott

Measured expectations as 'expressive soloist' it the toughest thing to get right - IMHO. High marks for wading in the deep end of the pool. Hopeful.


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## dcoscina

StefVR said:


> So what time is soon then? Cant wait!


I'm also really looking forward to this. If the Nucleus solos were any indication, this will be a must-have.


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## Trash Panda

Rob Elliott said:


> Measured expectations as 'expressive soloist' it the toughest thing to get right - IMHO. High marks for wading in the deep end of the pool. Hopeful.


Have you used the Nucleus soloists? They’re pretty darn expressive.


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## Rob Elliott

Trash Panda said:


> Have you used the Nucleus Nsoloists? They’re pretty darn expressive.


Nothing I have heard has made me want to pull the trigger (to date) - hence my 'hopeful' comment on the announcement.


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## ClefferNotes

VERY excited by this. I absolutely adore all the @audioimperia orchestral libraries I own! Nucleus Oboe in particular is worth the price of entry alone...wonderful!! And the room you guys record the samples in, is probably the best sounding drier space I have ever heard in a sample library, it responds with reverb beautifully. Keep up the amazing work guys! <3


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## audioimperia

We're in the late beta stage with the library. Made a couple of quick tech demos, more to come.




Just for fun, did some "covers". These are private links and won't stay up once the product goes live for obvious reasons. Probably just gonna keep them up for a day or two.


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## Evans

Thanks for posting these! I'm a sucker for "Far Horizons," and I've not even played the game it's from!


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## audioimperia

Evans said:


> Thanks for posting these! I'm a sucker for "Far Horizons," and I've not even played the game it's from!


Haha, same! And the original score is in 442, this is in 440. In case you're gonna A/B them.


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## mybadmemory

Sounds great! What articulations will these new instruments come with?

All of the examples are quite slow, and the solo instruments in nucleus sound great while playing slow but are not really intended for faster melodies as far as I understand. Will these new solos include legatos suitable for faster playing as well?


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## Mikro93

audioimperia said:


> We're in the late beta stage with the library. Made a couple of quick tech demos, more to come.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just for fun, did some "covers". These are private links and won't stay up once the product goes live for obvious reasons. Probably just gonna keep them up for a day or two.



Oh lord. I was not expecting that voice!
Top notch lyrical legato: check!


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## ClefferNotes

audioimperia said:


> We're in the late beta stage with the library. Made a couple of quick tech demos, more to come.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just for fun, did some "covers". These are private links and won't stay up once the product goes live for obvious reasons. Probably just gonna keep them up for a day or two.



Throwing my wallet at the screen but nothings happening! :D


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## FireGS

audioimperia said:


> We're in the late beta stage with the library. Made a couple of quick tech demos, more to come.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just for fun, did some "covers". These are private links and won't stay up once the product goes live for obvious reasons. Probably just gonna keep them up for a day or two.




Hoo boy, I have a lot of questions!

In the clarinet demo, it sounded as if the more fortissimo its played, the more there is audible air noise (which is both great and realistic). Is this added breath noise controllable, by chance, or is it baked in? (I don't care either way, it sounds great).

The horn demo(s) sounded as if there were actually retriggered, repeated notes. Is that something that will be possible? Across the selection of instruments?

Is there going to be any type of shorts along with this product? Or perhaps a way to trigger a shorter release for more marcato/detache notes?


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## audioimperia

FireGS said:


> Hoo boy, I have a lot of questions!
> 
> In the clarinet demo, it sounded as if the more fortissimo its played, the more there is audible air noise (which is both great and realistic). Is this added breath noise controllable, by chance, or is it baked in? (I don't care either way, it sounds great).
> 
> The horn demo(s) sounded as if there were actually retriggered, repeated notes. Is that something that will be possible? Across the selection of instruments?
> 
> Is there going to be any type of shorts along with this product? Or perhaps a way to trigger a shorter release for more marcato/detache notes?


The breath noise is "baked in", as in, we didn't remove the breath noise from the performances to retain that realism from the performances.

Each of the 13 instruments comes with two types of legatos. In the case of brass and woodwinds those are re-tongued and fingered legatos, in case of strings those are bowed and slurred. Really provides a lot of variety.

Each instrument also comes with short notes and sustain articulations and, where applicable, with further additional articulations like tremolo and trill.

It's a pretty big library with the 2x spot mics, 3x room mics, and the 2x mix mic (classic/modern) positions. About 85+ GB compressed (and of course Kontakt Player, NKS enabled). :D


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## artinro

audioimperia said:


> The breath noise is "baked in", as in, we didn't remove the breath noise from the performances to retain that realism from the performances.
> 
> Each of the 13 instruments comes with two types of legatos. In the case of brass and woodwinds those are re-tongued and fingered legatos, in case of strings those are bowed and slurred. Really provides a lot of variety.
> 
> Each instrument also comes with short notes and sustain articulations and, where applicable, with further additional articulations like tremolo and trill.
> 
> It's a pretty big library with the 2x spot mics, 3x room mics, and the 2x mix mic (classic/modern) positions. About 85+ GB compressed (and of course Kontakt Player, NKS enabled). :D


Sounds great @audioimperia . I think what @FireGS was asking is if there's also "same note" legato? One of the horn demos definitely sounded like this was the case. Look forward to hearing more. How about some Trumpet?


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## audioimperia

artinro said:


> Sounds great @audioimperia . I think what @FireGS was asking is if there's also "same note" legato? One of the horn demos definitely sounded like this was the case. Look forward to hearing more. How about some Trumpet?


Ah, my bad. I have baby-brain (just added a little girl to the family, she's six weeks old). That is a yes to the same note legato question. 

We'll keep adding tech demos for the other instruments, absolutely!


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## Drundfunk

Sounds great! Any hints about the price?


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## audioimperia

Drundfunk said:


> Sounds great! Any hints about the price?











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Kidding haha. Will be priced at $299


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## artinro

audioimperia said:


> Ah, my bad. I have baby-brain (just added a little girl to the family, she's six weeks old). That is a yes to the same note legato question.
> 
> We'll keep adding tech demos for the other instruments, absolutely!


Ah, great. Thanks for the info. Look forward to hearing more soon.

Congratulations on your new daughter; health and happiness!


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## FireGS

audioimperia said:


> The breath noise is "baked in", as in, we didn't remove the breath noise from the performances to retain that realism from the performances.
> 
> Each of the 13 instruments comes with two types of legatos. In the case of brass and woodwinds those are re-tongued and fingered legatos, in case of strings those are bowed and slurred. Really provides a lot of variety.
> 
> Each instrument also comes with short notes and sustain articulations and, where applicable, with further additional articulations like tremolo and trill.
> 
> It's a pretty big library with the 2x spot mics, 3x room mics, and the 2x mix mic (classic/modern) positions. About 85+ GB compressed (and of course Kontakt Player, NKS enabled). :D



Well then! Honestly wasn't expecting an answer, at least not yet. I can't complain about any of these answers, or info.



audioimperia said:


> Kidding haha. Will be priced at $299



Nor this.


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## mybadmemory

This sounds very interesting! Would LOVE some demos of faster playing as well! Not just with stacatissimo but with both types of legatos!


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## AndyP

audioimperia said:


> Ah, my bad. I have baby-brain (just added a little girl to the family, she's six weeks old). That is a yes to the same note legato question.
> 
> We'll keep adding tech demos for the other instruments, absolutely!


Congratulations on the new member of the family!

I'm very excited about the library, especially the solo strings (thrills and variable shorts would be great). The first demos sound very promising.


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## MontdeFeuilles

So excited!! Sounds really great!! 

How many dynamic layers/dynamic range are the instrument recorded with?


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## audioimperia

Hey,

The legato performances were recorded with one dynamic layer. We asked each player (each of them was handpicked) for a specific performance that consists of slight crescendo-diminuendos with progressive vibrato. We found these performances really speak for themselves when writing lyrical passages. Having controllable dynamics/vibrato with these just doesn’t result in the most natural/real sound when they are put in front of the mix. The less crossfades you do, the better it'll sound, this is why we recorded long-form legato as well.

The rest of the articulations have 3 dynamic layers on Strings and Brass, and 2 dynamic layers on Woodwinds. (Dynamic range of woodwinds is a bit more constrained).


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## audioimperia

mybadmemory said:


> This sounds very interesting! Would LOVE some demos of faster playing as well! Not just with stacatissimo but with both types of legatos!


The instruments are capable of fast playing but please mind that they weren't recorded with that purpose in mind. If you want fast, to get the most realistic results, you must ask the players to play actual fast performances. There must be a coherence in what you record and what you're gonna play in the virtual instrument at the end.

Good news is that we did record some innovative fast/virtuoso material for Violin and Cello, which is on editing stages for research purposes.


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## MPortmann

audioimperia said:


> The instruments are capable of fast playing but please mind that they weren't recorded with that purpose in mind. If you want fast, to get the most realistic results, you must ask the players to play actual fast performances. There must be a coherence in what you record and what you're gonna play in the virtual instrument at the end.
> 
> Good news is that we did record some innovative fast/virtuoso material for Violin and Cello, which is on editing stages for research purposes.


If the research pans out, This would be an awesome potential future add on to the library (having fast playing legatos articulations). Demos sounds great! 
)


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## zimm83

Do you know the release date of this library ? Thanks.


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## mybadmemory

audioimperia said:


> The instruments are capable of fast playing but please mind that they weren't recorded with that purpose in mind. If you want fast, to get the most realistic results, you must ask the players to play actual fast performances. There must be a coherence in what you record and what you're gonna play in the virtual instrument at the end.
> 
> Good news is that we did record some innovative fast/virtuoso material for Violin and Cello, which is on editing stages for research purposes.


Looking forward to hear what comes out of those research tests later! I find that many libraries and especially solo instrument libraries are recorded and intended primarily for slower playing, and that it’s much harder to find ones suitable for fast agile melodies. A gap in the market that would be awesome to se more progress on!


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## audioimperia

zimm83 said:


> Do you know the release date of this library ? Thanks.


Aiming for mid to late April


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## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> Aiming for mid to late April


Same for the release of the updates for current libraries ?


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## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> Same for the release of the updates for current libraries ?


Those will be different. We'll keep you guys posted on the release dates for the updates.


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## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> Those will be different. We'll keep you guys posted on the release dates for the updates.


OK. So does that mean later than April ? 

Thanks.


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## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> OK. So does that mean later than April ?
> 
> Thanks.


We just don't have concrete dates yet


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## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> We just don't have concrete dates yet


OK. Thanks for the feedback. 

I was thinking they might be out next month as well, but now I know that's not the case. 

Please let us know when you are close to releasing the updates. 

OH.. and Congratulations on your new born  

All The Best,
Muziksculp


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## Trash Panda

audioimperia said:


> Ah, my bad. I have baby-brain (just added a little girl to the family, she's six weeks old). That is a yes to the same note legato question.
> 
> We'll keep adding tech demos for the other instruments, absolutely!


Congratulations! I’d like to say the baby brain gets better, but it just seems to take different forms as they get older.


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## Lionel Schmitt

Absolutely fantastic!!

Sounds like Simon picked and evolved up where he left with Ivy Audio and the amazing solo vocal and trombone legato.

Are the dynamic changes in the samples themselves or CC1? Crossfading generally doesn't work well on solo instruments so it makes more sense to have dynamics in the samples. In this case it sounds very natural one way or another.


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## audioimperia

DarkestShadow said:


> Absolutely fantastic!!
> 
> Sounds like Simon picked and evolved up where he left with Ivy Audio and the amazing solo vocal and trombone legato.
> 
> Are the dynamic changes in the samples themselves or CC1? Crossfading generally doesn't work well on solo instruments so it makes more sense to have dynamics in the samples. In this case it sounds very natural one way or another.



 Simon did help for a while but he left about half a year or so ago, before the soloists.

Cheers,
Jan


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## Lionel Schmitt

audioimperia said:


> This is all Tomas and always has been  Simon did help for a while but he left about half a year or so ago, before the soloists.
> 
> Cheers,
> Jan


Well, great to hear that there are more people that can nail legato then!
It's a very rare event! :D


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## MontdeFeuilles

audioimperia said:


> Hey,
> 
> The legato performances were recorded with one dynamic layer. We asked each player (each of them was handpicked) for a specific performance that consists of slight crescendo-diminuendos with progressive vibrato. We found these performances really speak for themselves when writing lyrical passages. Having controllable dynamics/vibrato with these just doesn’t result in the most natural/real sound when they are put in front of the mix. The less crossfades you do, the better it'll sound, this is why we recorded long-form legato as well.
> 
> The rest of the articulations have 3 dynamic layers on Strings and Brass, and 2 dynamic layers on Woodwinds. (Dynamic range of woodwinds is a bit more constrained).





audioimperia said:


> Hey,
> 
> The legato performances were recorded with one dynamic layer. We asked each player (each of them was handpicked) for a specific performance that consists of slight crescendo-diminuendos with progressive vibrato. We found these performances really speak for themselves when writing lyrical passages. Having controllable dynamics/vibrato with these just doesn’t result in the most natural/real sound when they are put in front of the mix. The less crossfades you do, the better it'll sound, this is why we recorded long-form legato as well.
> 
> The rest of the articulations have 3 dynamic layers on Strings and Brass, and 2 dynamic layers on Woodwinds. (Dynamic range of woodwinds is a bit more constrained).


Thanks for the reply!


----------



## Daniel James

Incredible! Can't wait!

-DJ


----------



## william81723

I would like to hear the demo of flute’s sound.


----------



## rottoy

audioimperia said:


> We're in the late beta stage with the library. Made a couple of quick tech demos, more to come.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just for fun, did some "covers". These are private links and won't stay up once the product goes live for obvious reasons. Probably just gonna keep them up for a day or two.



Completely nailed the tone of the woodwinds, as well as the legato.
Awaiting this release with bated breath.


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

What a gorgeous sound.


----------



## mybadmemory

Any new teasers or demos coming before release? @audioimperia 😍


----------



## ennbr

mybadmemory said:


> Any new teasers or demos coming before release? @audioimperia 😍


Checkout page 4 they have several demos there


----------



## mybadmemory

ennbr said:


> Checkout page 4 they have several demos there


I know, and they said they had “more to come” so I was just being impatient.


----------



## BDReflet

Will SOLO be all newly sampled instruments specific to this library or will these instruments also be included in some of the other existing library updates? Kind of like the Merethe Soltvedt vocals in Jaeger? Are any of these instruments pulled from the larger libraries?


----------



## Mikro93

chrisav said:


> All new recordings!


Quoting from page 1  Audioimperia liked this post.


----------



## BDReflet

Mikro93 said:


> Quoting from page 1  Audioimperia liked this post.


Awesome!


----------



## pistacchio

rottoy said:


> Completely nailed the tone of the woodwinds, as well as the legato.
> Awaiting this release with bated breath.


Sounds astonishing indeed. Solo patches are so often the missing piece even i large libraries


----------



## audioimperia

Next round of demos  And our good friend Arn from Evenant is working on a piece that has faster passages.


----------



## BDReflet

Wow! The horns and flute sound very convincing in this demo. They all sound really good!


----------



## dcoscina

The Descant Horn is my new fave. Really nice range. Super smooth.


----------



## JGRaynaud

dcoscina said:


> The Descant Horn is my new fave. Really nice range. Super smooth.


Same here, I love using it. It has the tone and quality of sound of Harry Gregson Williams recordings in Abbey Road. It's extremely close of the solo horn of Narnia 2 for example :


----------



## Yogevs

Any chance for a loyalty discount for existing customers who already owns Nucleus+Areia?


----------



## mybadmemory

audioimperia said:


> Next round of demos  And our good friend Arn from Evenant is working on a piece that has faster passages.



Sounds lovely! Looking forward to hearing some faster agile playing!


----------



## chrisav

audioimperia said:


> One Million GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY
> 
> 
> Explore and share the best One Million GIFs and most popular animated GIFs here on GIPHY. Find Funny GIFs, Cute GIFs, Reaction GIFs and more.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> giphy.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kidding haha. Will be priced at $299


Is this the intro price or the standard one? 👀


----------



## audioimperia

chrisav said:


> Is this the intro price or the standard one? 👀


$299 is the full price. Intro will be lower


----------



## Trash Panda

audioimperia said:


> $299 is the full price. Intro will be lower


Any crossgrades for customers who have Nucleus/Jaeger/Talos/everything?


----------



## audioimperia

Trash Panda said:


> Any crossgrades for customers who have Nucleus/Jaeger/Talos/everything?


No additional crossgrade discounts to keep it simple and because there is no content overlap at all. We kept the MSRP price lower because of that so that it's a real good deal even when there's no sale.


----------



## Eptesicus

These are sounding really great. Particular impressed with the soprano and descant horn.

I hope the intro price knocks my socks off so i cant resist!


----------



## artinro

audioimperia said:


> No additional crossgrade discounts to keep it simple and because there is no content overlap at all. We kept the MSRP price lower because of that so that it's a real good deal even when there's no sale.


Sounding great @audioimperia! Is there an estimate as to when these will be available?


----------



## ennbr

I'm ready to get in line to place an order hope it's releases soon my April budget is going to purchase Solo's for sure.


----------



## AndyP

I am totally curious about the list of articulations, especially for the strings and woodwinds.
It would be great if this info is available before April 18.


----------



## Evans

artinro said:


> Sounding great @audioimperia! Is there an estimate as to when these will be available?


This is the last word from it



audioimperia said:


> We just don't have concrete dates yet


https://vi-control.net/community/th...l-and-expressive-soloists.107179/post-4791989


----------



## audioimperia

mybadmemory said:


> Sounds great! What articulations will these new instruments come with?
> 
> All of the examples are quite slow, and the solo instruments in nucleus sound great while playing slow but are not really intended for faster melodies as far as I understand. Will these new solos include legatos suitable for faster playing as well?


Check out this amazing demo by Evenant's very own Arn Andersson. Really showcases a variety of instruments and what you can accomplish with them in a single track. Warm chords and soft swells, playful pizzicatos and runs, darker legato themes, and wondrous textures.


----------



## muziksculp

@audioimperia ,

These Solo Instruments sound awesome ^^^

Are you offering multi-mics for these solo instruments, or are they just close mic'd ? 

Can't wait to see you release them. Hopefully soon.


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> @audioimperia ,
> 
> These Solo Instruments sound awesome ^^^
> 
> Are you offering multi-mics for these solo instruments, or are they just close mic'd ?
> 
> Can't wait to see you release them. Hopefully soon.


Yup :D Multi Mics: 2x Spot Mics, 3x Room Mics, 2x Mix Mics


----------



## Evans

Hmm...

I would like to purchase this today. Thanks in advance!


----------



## muziksculp

Evans said:


> Hmm...
> 
> I would like to purchase this today. Thanks in advance!


Same here. 

@audioimperia ,

Can you release it today, so we can order. (Thanks)


----------



## Evans

But seriously, it's probably going to be an easy purchase decision.

I moved to a two-PC VEPro setup late last year, but hit a fast-paced period during which I had a commitment that kept me from wrapping up the completion of my new, VEPro-powered template.

As such, Nucleus and Jaeger were left behind for a while, ghosts on an SSD. I started pulling them back in a week ago just to tinker around, and remembered how much of an *absolute joy* they are (they're relatively new acquisitions for me and have not been used under professional requirements).


----------



## chapbot

audioimperia said:


> Yup :D Multi Mics: 2x Spot Mics, 3x Room Mics, 2x Mix Mics


Back in 2019 I wrote Audio Imperia an email wishing for a library with solo instruments and more articulations. My wish has come true and I will get this within 10 minutes of it being released LOL! So happy you're doing spot mics!


----------



## muziksculp

I hear more of the Woodwinds, and Brass in the demos, but not much the solo strings. 

Maybe more Solo Strings demos can be posted before the release. 

Thanks.


----------



## AndyP

muziksculp said:


> I hear more of the Woodwinds, and Brass in the demos, but not much the solo strings.
> 
> Maybe more Solo Strings demos can be posted before the release.
> 
> Thanks.


That's why I'm currently holding off on purchasing anything else.
If AI Solo offers the articulations I want and they also sound good, it can also happen that I only buy AI Solos and throw everything else to the wind.
First and foremost, I'm interested in the solo strings, but the rest also sounds damn good.
Current state of the purchase probability:
- AI 99%
- others < 50%


----------



## Trash Panda

muziksculp said:


> I hear more of the Woodwinds, and Brass in the demos, but not much the solo strings.
> 
> Maybe more Solo Strings demos can be posted before the release.
> 
> Thanks.


Solo strings are pretty prominent at 2:10 in the most recent demo by Arn.


----------



## muziksculp

Trash Panda said:


> Solo strings are pretty prominent at 2:10 in the most recent demo by Arn.


Yes, I heard that. But, it's just too short to evaluate the solo strings, and I wasn't impressed either.

The woodwinds, and brass sound much better based on Arn's demo.


----------



## mybadmemory

audioimperia said:


> Check out this amazing demo by Evenant's very own Arn Andersson. Really showcases a variety of instruments and what you can accomplish with them in a single track. Warm chords and soft swells, playful pizzicatos and runs, darker legato themes, and wondrous textures.



It does sound absolutely wonderful! But still mostly slower passages. Is the library primarily intended for the delicate stuff, or will we get to hear some fast agile playing too?


----------



## audioimperia

mybadmemory said:


> It does sound absolutely wonderful! But still mostly slower passages. Is the library primarily intended for the delicate stuff, or will we get to hear some fast agile playing too?


Well this library focuses on lyrical legatos. We do have second volume planned that is entirely focused on faster, virtuoso style playing.


----------



## mybadmemory

audioimperia said:


> Well this library focuses on lyrical legatos. We do have second volume planned that is entirely focused on faster, virtuoso style playing.


Interesting! Will that add more agile articulations to the same set of instruments? Or be a completely new set of instruments altogether?


----------



## audioimperia

mybadmemory said:


> Interesting! Will that add more agile articulations to the same set of instruments? Or be a completely new set of instruments altogether?


Haven’t fully decided yet to be honest. But definitely all focused on agile articulations.


----------



## Drundfunk

audioimperia said:


> Haven’t fully decided yet to be honest. But definitely all focused on agile articulations.


Adding this as a free update for existing users would be such a pro-move. Just saying xD


----------



## Evans

Drundfunk said:


> Adding this as a free update for existing users would be such a pro-move. Just saying xD


Nah. I'm willing to pay for it. Today is good for me.


----------



## audioimperia

Drundfunk said:


> Adding this as a free update for existing users would be such a pro-move. Just saying xD


Hear you.  But it’s simply too costly to record, edit, program, encode, etc a full separate library and then offer that as a free content update to a full existing library.


----------



## chapbot

@audioimperia please hurry as I'm stalling on completing a project until I get my hands on these wonderful solo instruments ♥️😆


----------



## chrisav

audioimperia said:


> Haven’t fully decided yet to be honest. But definitely all focused on agile articulations.


Hoping for something close to parity between the two, would be amazing!


----------



## Batrawi

hmmm... these demos sound AWESOME! Haven't got anything from AI yet since their libraries are more geared towards the epic stuff which isn't my thing. But with how their engine/scripting seems to be rock solid as well as how much attention they give to Legtos 😋 this may very likely be the first library that drags me into their world... In fact, seeing that AI covered most of the epic side, and now that they're going for the other softer/soloists side, I don't see why I shouldn't dream of them doing a mid-sized orchestral line (especially strings section) one day which I bet most of us here would consider a very welcome addition in AI's catalogue - no? That said, @audioimperia is this something that you might consider, even if in the very very far future?🙂


----------



## Drundfunk

audioimperia said:


> Hear you.  But it’s simply too costly to record, edit, program, encode, etc a full separate library and then offer that as a free content update to a full existing library.


I kinda misunderstood something hence my (arguably) funny lighhearted comment. As I understood it you had recorded this volume 2 already in the same session. So since this is not the case I'm simply looking forward to volume 2 in case volume 1 convinces me .


----------



## audioimperia

SOLO Strings:


----------



## AndyP

audioimperia said:


> SOLO Strings:



Nice. Measured Tremolos?


----------



## JGRaynaud

AndyP said:


> Nice. Measured Tremolos?


Nope. It's spiccatos only here.


----------



## AndyP

JGRaynaud said:


> Nope. It's spiccatos only here.


Thank you for the information.


----------



## Mikro93

Do we have information about the RAM footprint? And size on the hard drive?


----------



## makimakimusic

Mikro93 said:


> Do we have information about the RAM footprint? And size on the hard drive?


85 Go of compressed samples (i remember reading it somewhere on the previous pages)


----------



## reutunes

Getting excited by this release!


----------



## Mikro93

makimakimusic said:


> 85 Go of compressed samples (i remember reading it somewhere on the previous pages)



Thanks!


----------



## zimm83

Enormous. 85 g for 13 instruments ???? Man...


----------



## makimakimusic

zimm83 said:


> Enormous. 85 g for 13 instruments ???? Man...


I think that's because of the different microphones. 2x Spot Mics, 3x Room Mics plus the usual Classic and Modern mixes.

There's also two types of legato for each of the 13 instruments. Add the shorts and sustains patches. I'm not that surprised with the size.


----------



## Trash Panda

@audioimperia is forcing me to practice an uncomfortable amount of financial restraint with this.

Going to have to pass on some mighty fine sales to make sure there’s funds for this when they announce a release date.


----------



## oooooooooooooooooh

Excellent demo for the solo strings, I'm getting more and more interested every time I hear something.


----------



## zedmaster

Very nice demos. Arn's pizzicato sound so great!


----------



## FireGS

@audioimperia Any potential demos showing how *dry* this library can be?


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

FireGS said:


> @audioimperia Any potential demos showing how *dry* this library can be?


The wetter the better, that’s all I can say.
Okay not always really, but that sounded cool in my head.


----------



## LamaRose

The woodwinds and descant horn are outstanding in the demos... just wondering how much additional programming was involved... a brief walkthrough of the patches would be most welcomed.


----------



## JGRaynaud

LamaRose said:


> The woodwinds and descant horn are outstanding in the demos... just wondering how much additional programming was involved... a brief walkthrough of the patches would be most welcomed.


In my demo I just used the modwheel overall, and I think there was one volume automation at one point, because I wanted a fade out even more subtle. But yeah it's basically just modwheel, playing with the microphones (and the panning of the microphones to fake the seating I want) to have the sound, and depth I wanted. Then a send reverb.


----------



## Batrawi

LamaRose said:


> just wondering how much additional programming was involved



No programing at all as I understand from the recording concept


audioimperia said:


> The legato performances were recorded with one dynamic layer. We asked each player (each of them was handpicked) for a specific performance that consists of slight crescendo-diminuendos with progressive vibrato. We found these performances really speak for themselves when writing lyrical passages


----------



## artinro

All sounding very good! @audioimperia, how’s the release looking as we approach end of April? Looking forward to what sounds like a great library.


----------



## Aceituna

Tic, tac, tic, tac, .....


----------



## Tom Hawk

This is going to be a good one


----------



## Mr Sakitumi

Tom Hawk said:


> This is going to be a good one


Any idea of the release date yet? Been loving all the demos!


----------



## Tom Hawk

Mr Sakitumi said:


> Any idea of the release date yet? Been loving all the demos!


No official release date has been announced, the only rough date is what @audioimperia mentioned in a previous comment in this thread!


----------



## FireGS




----------



## Trash Panda

Mid to late April can’t get here fast enough.


----------



## Batrawi

FireGS said:


>



strange how it starts with ohhs but then morphs into aah (as I hear it)


----------



## FireGS

Batrawi said:


> strange how it starts with ohhs but then morphs into aah (as I hear it)


I think thats because to get that volume at that register, you have to move a lot of air, and the mouth would have to widen from a puckered "ooo/h" shape to a more "ahh" shape. But I really know nothing, just a musing.


----------



## artinro

I think it’s also two different patches (angelic and operatic).


----------



## filipjonathan

FireGS said:


>



Ah...this makes me want to compose for Horizon Zero Dawn!! So beautiful!!


----------



## FireGS

artinro said:


> I think it’s also two different patches (angelic and operatic).


I think he means in the operatic part. the higher up the pitch, the more it sounds like "ahh" than "ooh".


----------



## Trash Panda

Batrawi said:


> strange how it starts with ohhs but then morphs into aah (as I hear it)


Same thing happens with the Jaeger vocals.


----------



## BDReflet

Trash Panda said:


> Mid to late April can’t get here fast enough.


Agree 100%


----------



## audioimperia

Hey guys! Yeah, for the ooh vowels, the higher you go in pitch, the less distinguishable to an aah vowel it will sound. 
It’s very impractical for singers to do high pitched closed vowels.


----------



## audioimperia

FireGS said:


> I think thats because to get that volume at that register, you have to move a lot of air, and the mouth would have to widen from a puckered "ooo/h" shape to a more "ahh" shape. But I really know nothing, just a musing.


I couldn't have said it better myself. 🙏


----------



## AMBi

FireGS said:


>



Remembering how blown away I was when I first heard the legato in Jaeger, and this is having the same effect....wow


----------



## Mr Sakitumi

@audioimperia Are there going to be any ensemble patches for the solo strings, winds and horns? And will there be any of your signature sound design additions?


----------



## artinro

I think they may have mistakenly identified the English Horn example? That definitely sounds re-tongued to me. English Horn and Bassoon sound great.


----------



## BDReflet

Sounds fantastic! Can't wait for this release. Counting down the days and hoping its very soon!


----------



## Werty

Superb, I can't wait for it.


----------



## chapbot

@audioimperia any update on the release? I just paid off my credit card and it is ready to be refilled at your website 😆


----------



## LamaRose

chapbot said:


> @audioimperia any update on the release? I just paid off my credit card and it is ready to be refilled at your website 😆


get pasta, rice, and canned tuna instead...


----------



## audioimperia

chapbot said:


> @audioimperia any update on the release? I just paid off my credit card and it is ready to be refilled at your website 😆


Should just be a couple of days now. Just waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access.


----------



## Trash Panda

audioimperia said:


> Should just be a couple of days now. Just waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access.


A couple of days to release or knowing the release date?


----------



## audioimperia

Trash Panda said:


> A couple of days to release or knowing the release date?


Rofl 🤪 both


----------



## artinro

audioimperia said:


> Should just be a couple of days now. Just waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access.


@audioimperia, the most recent demo with the bassoon, flute and English Horn, is the English horn re-tongued there or was the video labeled correctly? Looking forward to it.


----------



## chapbot

audioimperia said:


> Should just be a couple of days now. Just waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access.


Thank you for your quick reply! I am so excited about this release and love your recording techniques. This library will be perfect for a project I'm working on.


----------



## Trash Panda

audioimperia said:


> Rofl 🤪 both


That is great news. How many American dollars will I be giving you in a few days?


----------



## Evans

Trash Panda said:


> That is great news. How many American dollars will I be giving you in a few days?


Prior post from the official account was as follows:


> $299 is the full price. Intro will be lower


----------



## Trash Panda

Evans said:


> Prior post from the official account was as follows:


Yes. I plan to buy in the intro period.


----------



## LamaRose

I just overstocked on rice, pasta, tuna, Ketel One, etc... still a little short on massively inspiring solo instruments. Any suggestions?


----------



## Iosonopie

audioimperia said:


> Should just be a couple of days now. Just waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access.


News?


----------



## audioimperia

Iosonopie said:


> News?


still waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access


----------



## ennbr

audioimperia said:


> still waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access


Does NI hold back on new products to not conflict with other releases or does it just take that long to get a new product online and ready for sale/download


----------



## FinGael




----------



## chapbot

audioimperia said:


> still waiting on confirmation that it’s ready inside Native Access


I just had a vision... NI confirms at 5:00 p.m. their time, 8:00 p.m. my time, by 9:00 p.m. it is available for purchase and I spend the entire evening and all night playing with it ♥️🤣♥️


----------



## paulmatthew

ennbr said:


> Does NI hold back on new products to not conflict with other releases or does it just take that long to get a new product online and ready for sale/download


Doubt it. Native Instruments says it can take up to 2 weeks once product is in their hands and encoding takes place for native access.


----------



## FireGS

chapbot said:


> I just had a vision... NI confirms at 5:00 p.m. their time, 8:00 p.m. my time, by 9:00 p.m. it is available for purchase and I spend the entire evening and all night playing with it ♥️🤣♥️


So that didn't happen. :'(


----------



## audioimperia

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the Native Access integration won't be ready until next week. Thanks in advance for your patience guys!


----------



## emasters

audioimperia said:


> Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the Native Access integration won't be ready until next week. Thanks in advance for your patience guys!


Certainly anxious to take this for a spin -- really appreciate your transparency about the release status. Clearly beyond AI's direct control at this point. It's ready when it's ready....


----------



## chapbot

FireGS said:


> So that didn't happen. :'(


😭


----------



## LamaRose

@audioimperia I recall the mention of 85gb for the library... can you please verify the compressed/download size? I'm scouting a new SSD. Thanks!


----------



## makimakimusic

All the impatience here reminds me of the CSW case ^^


----------



## Christopher Rocky

As someone who is late to the party in this thread. What a whirlwind of emotion from page one to page eleven. I'm so happy I jumped in now as I don't think I could have contained any patience like you all have for weeks after only just hearing those demo's! Well done comrades


----------



## Werty

Christopher Rocky said:


> As someone who is late to the party in this thread. What a whirlwind of emotion from page one to page eleven. I'm so happy I jumped in now as I don't think I could have contained any patience like you all have for weeks after only just hearing those demo's! Well done comrades


good software gets the attention it deserves!


----------



## FireGS

audioimperia said:


> Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the Native Access integration won't be ready until next week. Thanks in advance for your patience guys!


I'll take over for @muziksculp. It's TECHNICALLY next week here in Europe. :D


----------



## audioimperia

LamaRose said:


> @audioimperia I recall the mention of 85gb for the library... can you please verify the compressed/download size? I'm scouting a new SSD. Thanks!


Yeah, it's about 90GB compressed


----------



## Antonio Eggert

Any news from NI?


----------



## FireGS

Hey there @audioimperia - perhaps I missed it somewhere, but is there any demo of the Trumpet?


----------



## AMBi

i lie awake each night thinking about u


----------



## easyrider

When ? @audioimperia


----------



## FireGS

easyrider said:


> When ? @audioimperia


This...


----------



## FireGS

New prediction; next week.


----------



## audioimperia

Antonio Eggert said:


> Any news from NI?


As soon as we have an update we'll let you guys know!!!


----------



## RMS_Music

audioimperia said:


> As soon as we have an update we'll let you guys know!!!


Thank You! I CAN'T WAIT!


----------



## Iosonopie

13 hour ago...


----------



## gst98

@audioimperia did the 'AI' that I saw in someone's story stand for you guys?


----------



## Drundfunk

audioimperia said:


> As soon as we have an update we'll let you guys know!!!







(I'm from Europe tho)


----------



## RMS_Music

Iosonopie said:


> 13 hour ago...


Thank you for this! Oh man I LOVE Audio Imperia Products and I have been so pumped and looking forward to this Library. Been saving up for it the moment it was announced. 

My wallet is ready *Nods* 

*Throws money at the screen* 

*Nothing Happens* 

*Throws MORE money at the screen*


----------



## audioimperia

So it looks like it won't happen this week. Early next week, all fingers crossed!


----------



## Toecutter

Iosonopie said:


> 13 hour ago...


I read 13 hours to go and almost had a heart attack... 

@audioimperia will you sell individual instruments?


----------



## audioimperia

Toecutter said:


> I read 13 hours to go and almost had a heart attack...
> 
> @audioimperia will you sell individual instruments?


Individual instruments?


----------



## FireGS

audioimperia said:


> Individual instruments?


A la Orchestral Tools, where single instruments are purchasable.


----------



## Toecutter

audioimperia said:


> Individual instruments?


Yes, a la carte, not just the bundle.


----------



## audioimperia

FireGS said:


> A la Orchestral Tools, where single instruments are purchasable.


Well, the library is built for the Kontakt Player and designed as an all-in-one soloists solution. If we did separate releases for each of them we'd have to charge a premium because each of them would have to get encoded as separate products with individual encoding and serial fees from NI and that would defeat the purpose of having an all-in-one solution that's offered at a really competitive MSRP.


----------



## ashX

Toecutter said:


> I read 13 hours to go and almost had a heart attack...
> 
> @audioimperia will you sell individual instruments?


Tbh I dont see any problem selling them as individual IF they are not official Kontakt player libraries. It doesnt even require programming and coding since you can just remove samples from the folder and nki files and have everything else untouched.
But ofc for official libraries they need to pay a ton to Native Instruments and it's impossible.


----------



## audioimperia

ashX said:


> Tbh I dont see any problem selling them as individual IF they are not official Kontakt player libraries. It doesnt even require programming and coding since you can just remove samples from the folder and nki files and have everything else untouched.
> But ofc for official libraries they need to pay a ton to Native Instruments and it's impossible.


All of our orchestral products are Kontakt Player and there are no plans to going back to offering products made for the full version of Kontakt.


----------



## FireGS

Is it weird that I keep refreshing @audioimperia 's Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram, this post, commercial announcements, their website, and their website's sitemap.xml looking for updates? No?


----------



## Toecutter

audioimperia said:


> Well, the library is built for the Kontakt Player and designed as an all-in-one soloists solution. If we did separate releases for each of them we'd have to charge a premium because each of them would have to get encoded as separate products with individual encoding and serial fees from NI and that would defeat the purpose of having an all-in-one solution that's offered at a really competitive MSRP.


Sounds reasonable, thanks for the explanation! Any information about pricing?


----------



## Trash Panda

Toecutter said:


> Sounds reasonable, thanks for the explanation! Any information about pricing?


$299 regular price. They have not yet shared the Intro price.


----------



## RMS_Music

audioimperia said:


> So it looks like it won't happen this week. Early next week, all fingers crossed!


Good Thing I took a week of Vacation off work next week....

Looking forward to seeing an articulation list for everything


----------



## Mike Fox

Had me at hello with “soprano angelic”. I’m so sold on this!


----------



## Evans




----------



## FireGS

Whoa! Nice! Didn't expect to hear this library used in that style.


----------



## Drundfunk

Evans said:


>



So why does this guy have the library and we don't? I smell a conspiracy! In fact, I know a conspiracy when I see one. Something ain't right. This is nothing like the simulations.


----------



## ennbr

Ok some progress they added SOLO as Coming Soon on the main AI page no link but something


----------



## FireGS

ennbr said:


> Ok some progress they added SOLO as Coming Soon on the main AI page no link but something


the hype is real


----------



## audioimperia

We're live :D


----------



## FinGael

audioimperia said:


> We're live :D


Oh my. OH MY. $199 intro - nice! Walkthrough, here I come...


----------



## Antonio Eggert

WHOOOOOOOOO


----------



## Getsumen

Wow 200$ for 13 legato instruments is pretty impressive. I've always been pretty impressed with the vocals audioimperia has done so it's looking pretty nice for that alone. (Jaeger vocal is like the same price for this lol) Look forward to hearing some people's thoughts on the lib.


----------



## Trash Panda

__





Solo (Lyrical and Expressive Soloists for Kontakt Player)


Solo puts a vast collection of all-new recorded lyrical and expressive orchestral Soloists under one single roof: Violin, Viola, Cello, Trumpet, French Horn, Descant Horn, Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, English Horn, Bassoon, Soprano Angelic, and Soprano Operatic. Solo is an incredibly comprehensive...




www.audioimperia.com





I think I broke the sound barrier whipping out my wallet. Downloading now!


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

Yeeee let's go buddies


----------



## zedmaster

Congrats on the release!!


----------



## Toecutter

So... $199 intro... not kidding my wallet is opening by itself... I'm freaking out... is this one of those supernatural phenomena mentioned here? https://vi-control.net/community/threads/has-anyone-experienced-the-supernatural.109430/


----------



## Toecutter




----------



## ALittleNightMusic

Nice they recorded multiple types of legato (frequent feedback about Areia and Nucleus). Nice engine improvement as well to allow for velocity-based switching between the two. The solo violin sounds a bit fiddle-like though. Looking forward to some comparisons to other solo libraries from early adopters. Seems they have gone with the Berlin Soloists approach of a single dynamic layer.


----------



## Mr Sakitumi

Congrats @audioimperia ! And all these instruments at such a great intro price $199!


----------



## Drundfunk

I won't even watch the walkthrough. I'll just buy it.


----------



## AMBi

Got the email and it made my day, sweet intro price too!


----------



## Bman70

What's the cross grade $ for a Nucleus owner?


----------



## audioimperia

Bman70 said:


> What's the cross grade $ for a Nucleus owner?


Since there's no content overlap there are no crossgrade discounts  That's one of the reasons why we're doing a $199 intro special, just makes it easier.


----------



## Banquet

This seems like amazing value! Watching the walkthrough now - but I just bought Tallinn and the new Slate and Ash instrument is coming out any day... and I'm running out of SSD space... argh... somebody stop me!


----------



## Manaberry

@audioimperia You guys used spot mics. Thank you!


----------



## chapbot

Got email, passed out, revived 5 min. later, bought and am downloading.


----------



## Soundbed

chrisav said:


> Features 13 soloists, brand new recordings. Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, Cor Anglais, Flute, French Horn, Descant Horn, Trumpet, Soprano Angelic and Soprano Operatic.
> 
> Just announced, saw it on their instagram story, nothing on their website yet.
> 
> Who's ready for more top notch legatos? After the quality of Jaeger, Areia and Nucleus this is looking like a verified NO-BRAINER™ so far. Price pending.


No. Brain. Take. My. Money. $199


----------



## DarkShinryu

Bought as soon as I saw it. And thanks for the expression maps!


----------



## ansthenia

Hmm...looks interesting. Might have to get this! I was wondering about the fingered legato though, does it ha...oh wait nvm I just bought it.


----------



## brupibo

I never bought a plugin so fast, before. I was really looking forward to this. Nucleus and Areia made me trust in @audioimperia quality. 

My current project will benefit a lot from this library! Can't wait to get home and download it!


----------



## AndyP

How long will the intro price last?


----------



## RAdkins

Will this library sound good with the following libraries? I am still a newbie.

Cinesamples Cinesymphony lite
Project Sam Orchestra Essentials 1&2
thanks,
ryan


----------



## audioimperia

AndyP said:


> How long will the intro price last?


Until June 11th


----------



## Toecutter

Alright, finished watching the walkthrough. Initial impressions: woodwinds and vocals are worth the price tag alone. Articulations are very limited (ww and vocals) but for $15 each instrument, I can't complain! Brass unfortunately has that metallic room tone (you can hear in the shorts and end of phrases) that I don't particularly like, transitions sound a bit synthy to my ears, mainly retongued, so it's the one group I'll be using the least (walkthrough impression ofc, it could be improved with mics and programming?) I got that covered in other libs anyway. I like the inclusion of a descant horn and it's my favorite of the bunch. Strings are really good for the price, killer tone (better than CSSSS and Solos of the Sea imo) and very useful if you don't have collections like 8Dio solo strings, Spitfire solo, Cinestrings solo.

Ridiculous intro price for what you get... no brainer even if you already have other specialized libraries. The emotional aspect captured here is very unique and kudos to Audio Imperia for bringing such quality instruments to the masses


----------



## emasters

audioimperia said:


> We're live :D


Downloading now - thanks for the generous intro discount.


----------



## tritonely

Audio Imperia, can I delete mic position and only save the mixes to reduce ssd-gb size? Delete those files and batch resave, something like that? Do you know how many GB every articulation and every instrument is, but only the modern mix saved?


----------



## Marsen

First of all, congrats to this launch.

I like you´re approach on single-dynamic legatos. 
Saw the walkthrough and loved, what I heared.
I especially find the viola and descent horn impressive.
I appreciate your walkthrough with a lot to hear and less talk, and I love Spot mic2 from what I´ve catched.

@Mike T "Im not buying anything for a while" You feel stable?


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

RAdkins said:


> Will this library sound good with the following libraries? I am still a newbie.
> 
> Cinesamples Cinesymphony lite
> Project Sam Orchestra Essentials 1&2
> thanks,
> ryan


With Cinesamples, absolutely! The clarity and roundness in the tone really matches in my opinion. I don't have the PS orchestral stuff, but I think it's wetter in general.


----------



## Marsen

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> With Cinesamples, absolutely! The clarity and roundness in the tone really matches in my opinion. I don't have the PS orchestral stuff, but I think it's wetter in general.





RAdkins said:


> Will this library sound good with the following libraries? I am still a newbie.
> 
> Cinesamples Cinesymphony lite
> Project Sam Orchestra Essentials 1&2


Not sure whether the essentials have the mic opts as the symphobias, but the close mics there are quiet usable to mix. So with close mics, yes.


----------



## ennbr

Native Instruments needs to get there $hit together I pointed the download to a drive with 480GB free space should be ok but for whatever reason the installer is checking free space on my boot drive not the selected drive and stopping the install.

For now my workaround is to install SOLO to my other computer and I'll copy it over to my Samples drive on the laptop when the installation completes on the other system.


----------



## muziksculp

@audioimperia ,

*Congratulations *on the release of your *SOLO* Library 

I have been a little bit off the VI-C grid while all the exciting release action was taking place.

Looking forward to read, and listen to user feedback, and most likely add this library once I have the time to evaluate it. I'm sure I will like it enough to buy it.

Cheers,
Muziksculp


----------



## Bman70

OK I'll patiently wait until the first remorse posts start trickling in Lol


----------



## Evans

I do love Audio Imperia's Nucleus and Jaeger releases. A major pet peeve, however, is that the Samples folder lumps instruments together like Nucleus_0.nkx, Nucleus_1.nkx, Nucleus_2.nkx, and so on, rather than chunking it out by instrument.

Is that the case here?

Despite these being new recordings, there are redundancies with Nucleus. I imagine that Nucleus's current structure is probably here to stay, which means I can't easily remove the redundant content from Nucleus. Still, it would be nice to generally know if Audio Imperia has abandoned this practice, when some other developers allow for not only instrument-by-instrument control, but also in mic positions.

Some other very good developers do the same (Strezov, Cinematic Studio), but some others certainly split them up in useful ways even for Kontakt libraries (Spitfire Audio, Audio Ollie, Performance Samples, Orchestral Tools).


----------



## ansthenia

ennbr said:


> Native Instruments needs to get there $hit together I pointed the download to a drive with 480GB free space should be ok but for whatever reason the installer is checking free space on my boot drive not the selected drive and stopping the install.
> 
> For now my workaround is to install SOLO to my other computer and I'll copy it over to my Samples drive on the laptop when the installation completes on the other system.


Yep, that how installing from Native Access works and it sucks; for some reason you also need the space on your boot drive, regardless of where you selected to install the library.


----------



## chapbot

Just downloaded and noodled around. First impressions:

I love dry libraries and this one gets really dry with the close mics.

I'm a little surprised that I don't like the solo trumpet that much.

I'm a little surprised at how much I like the solo strings. I thought they would be the weakest part of the library after hearing the initial demos. After playing them with the close mics they sound quite good and I'm looking forward to experimenting with them as first chairs.

The descant horn is fabulous.

Woodwinds are also excellent and every now and then I hear realism peeking out that is startling.

I really couldn't be happier as I bought Nucleus for the sole purpose of getting the solo instruments then emailed Audio Imperia asking them to consider additional articulations and close mics. My wish came true today!


----------



## FireGS

Instant buy.


----------



## FireGS

Evans said:


> I do love Audio Imperia's Nucleus and Jaeger releases. A major pet peeve, however, is that the Samples folder lumps instruments together like Nucleus_0.nkx, Nucleus_1.nkx, Nucleus_2.nkx, and so on, rather than chunking it out by instrument.
> 
> Is that the case here?
> 
> Despite these being new recordings, there are redundancies with Nucleus. I imagine that Nucleus's current structure is probably here to stay, which means I can't easily remove the redundant content from Nucleus. Still, it would be nice to generally know if Audio Imperia has abandoned this practice, when some other developers allow for not only instrument-by-instrument control, but also in mic positions.
> 
> Some other very good developers do the same (Strezov, Cinematic Studio), but some others certainly split them up in useful ways even for Kontakt libraries (Spitfire Audio, Audio Ollie, Performance Samples, Orchestral Tools).


It's how NI delivers encoded files for Kontakt player. Spitfire, AO, PS, OT, I don't think they're for the Kontakt Player.


----------



## muziksculp

Did it get approved by the *Legato Police* ?


----------



## Evans

FireGS said:


> It's how NI delivers encoded files for Kontakt player. Spitfire, AO, PS, OT, I don't think they're for the Kontakt Player.


Tundra, just as one example, runs on Player and splits its NKX files differently (it's quasi-lumped together, with six NKX files for High Strings, two for Low Brass, and so on). Audiobro's Modern Scoring Strings is another Player library, but in its case splits samples across mic positions.


----------



## FireGS

Evans said:


> Tundra, just as one example, runs on Player and splits its NKX files differently (it's quasi-lumped together, with six NKX files for High Strings, two for Low Brass, and so on). Audiobro's Modern Scoring Strings is another Player library, but in its case splits samples across mic positions.


Wrong, I am......go, I must.


----------



## Toecutter

Can we give a round of applause to Audio Imperia for the extended intro period? 30 days $199 

It's not like almost everyone didn't buy this in the first 5 minutes but it's the principle that matters...


----------



## CT

Marsen said:


> @Mike T "Im not buying anything for a while" You feel stable?


Thank you for checking in. Not anything I need right now, but sounds great!


----------



## Toecutter

Mike T said:


> Thank you for checking in. Not anything I need right now, but sounds great!


I'm proud! 30 day no sample challenge  #failyouwill


----------



## CT

I think I usually go about six months on average, anyone want to make it interesting?


----------



## Mikro93

Mike T said:


> I think I usually go about six months on average, anyone want to make it interesting?


Yes! How do we make it interesting?


----------



## CT

Mikro93 said:


> Yes! How do we make it interesting?


We will bet on it. Then when I don't buy anything for a while, you will give me money and I will buy something with it.


----------



## FireGS

@audioimperia Found a bug - Angelic voice legato Aah, if you play the lowest G# and then legato transition to lowest G and hold the G, the singer pulses back and forth between G and G#.


----------



## AndyP

If someone already had an example of the solo strings, so as chamber strings or first chairs with areia, that would be very helpful.
The tremolos and thrills sound extremely good.


----------



## Marsen

FireGS said:


> @audioimperia Found a bug - Angelic voice legato Aah, if you play the lowest G# and then legato transition to lowest G and hold the G, the singer pulses back and forth between G and G#.


It's called trill


----------



## RogiervG

@audioimperia 
Is there a reason this library is recorded with a different group of musicians and location?
Nucleus, Jaeger and Areia e.g. are recorded with Capellen music production in Czech Republic
Solo with Budapest Scoring in Hungary
I hope room differences won't affect the blend of these libraries.


----------



## muddyblue

83,67 GB  searching for spaces...


----------



## Levon

@audioimperia does SOLO supersede the solo instruments in Nucleus? Or are they designed to complement Nucleus?


----------



## zedmaster

Bought a new SSD for it. No regrets! :D


----------



## mixedmoods

Just a quick question for someone that purchased SOLO already:
Are the string longs (Sustains, Legatos, ...) looped or are they 1–2 bowed arks?
And if they are looped how does it sound? I often find Solo String libraries difficult to use for slow, lyrical passages as the rebowing or looping sounds super artificial ...


----------



## AndyP

RogiervG said:


> @audioimperia
> Is there a reason this library is recorded with a different group of musicians and location?
> Nucleus, Jaeger and Areia e.g. are recorded with Capellen music production in Czech Republic
> Solo with Budapest Scoring in Hungary
> I hope room differences won't affect the blend of these libraries.


The missing mic positions in Nucleus come to mind, especially with the Woodwinds. Nucleus only offers the two mic mixes, while Solo offers them all.


----------



## Yogevs

@audioimperia any plans on offering loyalty prices for owners of existing products (Nucleus, Areia, etc...)?


----------



## yiph2

No


audioimperia said:


> Since there's no content overlap there are no crossgrade discounts  That's one of the reasons why we're doing a $199 intro special, just makes it easier.


----------



## Yogevs

yiph2 said:


> No


Makes sense. That's an amazing price for what we get actually. I'll look at the walkthrough (and hopefully @Daniel James will do a first look or something) and will probably get it.


----------



## filipjonathan

Yogevs said:


> Makes sense. That's an amazing price for what we get actually. I'll look at the walkthrough (and hopefully @Daniel James will do a first look or something) and will probably get it.


Lol! I think all developers should get Daniel to do a "first look" so their libraries sell better 😂


----------



## yiph2

filipjonathan said:


> Lol! I think all developers should get Daniel to do a "first look" so their libraries sell better 😂


Unless you're called Spitfire Audio


----------



## Yogevs

filipjonathan said:


> Lol! I think all developers should get Daniel to do a "first look" so their libraries sell better 😂


Not "ALL" developers


----------



## davidson

Sounds good. Regarding the single dynamics, it'd have been fantastic to have the option of choosing between a couple of different single dynamic presets, say a p and an mf. Maybe an ff if you're feeling spicy.


----------



## John57

How vibrato is handled?


----------



## Evans

John57 said:


> How vibrato is handled?


They address that in the first minute of the posted video (and in the product description on the web site):



Short version: it's baked into the performances.

Web site quote:


> This unique dynamic layer contains all the musicality and emotion you will ever need. *The recipe: slight crescendo-diminuendos, some progressive vibrato, and voilà. It just works.*


----------



## ism

This sounds great, but yikes:

“This unique dynamic layer contains all the musicality and emotion you will ever need.”

All the musicality I will *ever* need?


----------



## RogiervG

ism said:


> This sounds great, but yikes:
> 
> “This unique dynamic layer contains all the musicality and emotion you will ever need.”
> 
> All the musicality I will *ever* need?


Welcome to the world of marketing, where the keyword is hyperbole


----------



## Evans

ism said:


> All the musicality I will *ever* need?


I'm deleting all libraries except for AI Solo and John Williams can kiss his next paycheck buh bye.

EDIT: Anyone want to help me out by emailing all other developers that they should stop production on new content? I'll take developers that start with W-Z.


----------



## RogiervG

Evans said:


> I'm deleting all libraries except for AI Solo and John Williams can kiss his next paycheck buh bye.
> 
> EDIT: Anyone want to help me out by emailing all other developers that they should stop production on new content? I'll take developers that start with W-Z.


But Spitfire Audio claims the same kind of things... "ultimate" "best" "all you need" "the most comprehensive" etc... :D


----------



## Evans

RogiervG said:


> But Spitfire Audio claims the same kind of things... "ultimate" "best" "all you need" etc... :D


Most do. Doesn't mean that each one shouldn't still be open to lighthearted jabs when they use silly marketing speak. It's just meme level with Spitfire.


----------



## Cuelist

I haven’t seen the documentation for Solo, but does this library have the same latency properties as Areia? Do you recommend recording using the “Tight” toggle button, then setting the sample start to -125ms? I realize this is not a categorical rule, but this was the advice given in the Areia manual.


----------



## Snarf

Sounds great!

"This unique dynamic layer contains all the musicality and emotion you will ever need. *The recipe: slight crescendo-diminuendos, some progressive vibrato, and voilà. It just works."*

Do these slight cresc-dims loop if you hold a note for a longer amount of time, or will it stay looping at the 'dimmed' level? I watched the walkthrough but didn't find a definitive answer to this question.
Would love to know! @audioimperia


----------



## audioimperia

Snarf said:


> Sounds great!
> 
> "This unique dynamic layer contains all the musicality and emotion you will ever need. *The recipe: slight crescendo-diminuendos, some progressive vibrato, and voilà. It just works."*
> 
> Do these slight cresc-dims loop if you hold a note for a longer amount of time, or will it stay looping at the 'dimmed' level? I watched the walkthrough but didn't find a definitive answer to this question.
> Would love to know! @audioimperia


Yes, the looping is cresc-dim, not dimmed. Because how dynamic the phrases were, looping was actually QUITE tricky, but we're really happy on how seamless it ended up being.


----------



## audioimperia

Cuelist said:


> I haven’t seen the documentation for Solo, but does this library have the same latency properties as Areia? Do you recommend recording using the “Tight” toggle button, then setting the sample start to -125ms? I realize this is not a categorical rule, but this was the advice given in the Areia manual.


Same Sample Start methodology, yes, it's consistent to all of our previous libraries and will be for future libraries.


----------



## paulwr

SOLVED, should have checked spam..... Made the purchase about 30 minutes ago. Received a couple of emails... order confirm and invoice, but no download link or instructions yet. Nothing showing yet on Native Access either. Wondering if I missed something or just need to wait awhile for the download or instructions email?


----------



## Antonio Eggert

paulwr said:


> Made the purchase about 30 minutes ago. Received a couple of emails... order confirm and invoice, but no download link or instructions yet. Nothing showing yet on Native Access either. Wondering if I missed something or just need to wait awhile for the download or instructions email?


You should've gotten an email with the serial number which you have to enter in Native Access


----------



## Snarf

audioimperia said:


> Yes, the looping is cresc-dim, not dimmed. Because how dynamic the phrases were, looping was actually QUITE tricky, but we're really happy on how seamless it ended up being.


Thank you for the response! Very interesting!


----------



## muziksculp

Hi,

which of the included Solo Instruments in SOLO do you think are exceptionally good sounding, impressive, and very expressive to play ? 

It would be interesting to read your feedback on this detail. 

Thanks,
Muziksculp


----------



## Drundfunk

I like how they didn't even bother to open a commercial announcement thread .


----------



## PianoWithSam

Hey wonderful people.

Would this library work well with BBC SO Core? I sometimes struggle to get exactly the right sound with Core, particularly with the solo instruments, perhaps due to the single mic position. I've taken a look at the video walkthrough for SOLO and the listened to the demo's and it sounds fabulous. 

I'm also looking for some strings to record some more Romantic stuff (piano trio mockups etc..). Whilst I do own Joshua Bell Violin & Bohemian Cello, these do not always sound 'realistic' within this context, though very expressive and real as instruments. The instruments within SOLO do sound great and appear to be what I'm looking for. Seems I've answered my own question, haha.

Would require me to purchase a 1TB SSD though. Whoops.

Any advice / help from anyone appreciated!


----------



## Drundfunk

PianoWithSam said:


> Would require me to purchase a 1TB SSD though. Whoops.
> 
> Any advice / help from anyone appreciated!


Yes, buy a 4TB SSD. You need to think long-term. Can't comment on the BBC thing since I don't have it.


----------



## audioimperia

Drundfunk said:


> I like how they didn't even bother to open a commercial announcement thread .


----------



## Drundfunk

audioimperia said:


>



I'm confused


----------



## audioimperia

Drundfunk said:


> I'm confused


You said we didn't bother with doing a post in the commercial announcement section  Would it help? Hihi


----------



## chrisav

audioimperia said:


>



Not sure who's the boss in this scenario... the Legato Police™, maybe?


----------



## muziksculp

chrisav said:


> Not sure who's the boss in this scenario... the Legato Police™, maybe?


Have they been inspecting this library, would like to hear from them


----------



## Drundfunk

audioimperia said:


> You said we didn't bother with doing a post in the commercial announcement section  Would it help? Hihi


Wouldn't help me at least, since I just got home and put the library in the cart  Edit: And I hit the buy button


----------



## SupremeFist

AndyP said:


> If someone already had an example of the solo strings, so as chamber strings or first chairs with areia, that would be very helpful.
> The tremolos and thrills sound extremely good.


Yep, I'd be really interested in hearing just the strings doing something quartet-ish.


----------



## Trash Panda

It finally finished downloading for me after several Native Access failures. If someone can link to a MuseScore or throw up a MIDI file you’d like to hear, I’ll run it through.


----------



## ism

SupremeFist said:


> Yep, I'd be really interested in hearing just the strings doing something quartet-ish.


I’d be curious about this also. But in general baked in dynamics and vibrato just aren’t going to give you anything approaching quartet-like textures. It just not the musicality or expressiveness this was designed for.


----------



## audioimperia

ism said:


> I’d be curious about this also. But in general baked in dynamics and vibrato just aren’t going to give you anything approaching quartet-like textures. It just not the musicality or expressiveness this was designed for.


Beautifully said. 

Put these soloists in the front of your mix!


----------



## FireGS

ism said:


> I’d be curious about this also. But in general baked in dynamics and vibrato just aren’t going to give you anything approaching quartet-like textures. It just not the musicality or expressiveness this was designed for.


This. Take a listen to this wonderful modern string quartet I've been working with lately, I just don't think samples will ever get to this point.


----------



## ism

audioimperia said:


> Beautifully said.


The upside of course, is that we’ll be anxiously waiting for an AI string quartet library ... and given how much I love the Ember cello, I’m already excited by the though of such a library  

Seriously traditional AI sound design meets this precision orchestral sample of these new library pushing into more lyrical territory and ... please tell me you’re working on a string quartet?


----------



## ism

Yes, a string quartet library that can exactly this! 



FireGS said:


> This. Take a listen to this wonderful modern string quartet I've been working with lately, I just don't think samples will ever get to this point.


----------



## muziksculp

FireGS said:


> I just don't think samples will ever get to this point.


Audio Modeling *SWAM* Using No Samples is trying very hard, but I think they still need to work further on improving the timbre of their solo strings.


----------



## FireGS

muziksculp said:


> Audio Modeling *SWAM* Using No Samples is trying very hard, but I think they still need to work further on improving the timbre of their solo strings.


I'd argue that it's not even close. I know they're trying, but holy damn its obvious if you listen to a real quartet and then listen to SWAM or Sample Modeling.


----------



## audioimperia

Never say never 

Though this level of expression and authenticity is almost impossible to replicate with samples. There are just too many variables involved. At that point it's easier and cheaper to just hire real players, which are always a pleasure to work with.

Still, never say never...


----------



## muziksculp

FireGS said:


> I'd argue that it's not even close. I know they're trying, but holy damn its obvious if you listen to a real quartet and then listen to SWAM or Sample Modeling.


I agree, none of the tools we have today are close to a real string quartet, performance.

This is almost impossible, a quartet has four string players, interacting together, each with their own timing, style, instrument, and all the details each player is contributing, vibrato, bowing technique, dynamics, ..etc. all interacting to each other's playing as they play a piece.

How the hell would one do that using a DAW, and some samples, or PM based instruments, simply put, that's not possible, they will always sound inferior to the real thing


----------



## Mike Fox

Seriously love the way Audio Imperia mingles with VI members. It’s like hanging out with some composer friends you’ve always known.


----------



## audioimperia

Mike Fox said:


> Seriously love the way Audio Imperia mingles with VI members. It’s like hanging out with some composer friends you’ve always known.


Cheers!!!


----------



## Soundbed

I've owned it now for a couple days but haven't liberated 360GB on any boot drives!


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

Soundbed said:


> I've owned it now for a couple days but haven't liberated 360GB on any boot drives!


Noooo


----------



## Lionel Schmitt

Insanely incredible 

Any chance of an option to move the sample start *of the sustains* (especially on strings) around?
Based on the examples I'd want the vibrato to kick in much earlier most of the time on the strings.
I'm not a Kontakt programmer but maybe if it can be done with the legato and other articulations it can also be done with the sustains of the legato patches... (?). That would be super useful since it's gonna be an amazing sort-off-vibrato control, at least for every new note.


----------



## ansthenia

Soundbed said:


> I've owned it now for a couple days but haven't liberated 360GB on any boot drives!


Damn! I don't understand why Native Access works like this, no other installation software i've ever used requires as much free space as Native Access requires. And no other software required so much free space on the boot drive that you're not even installing to.


----------



## Evans

Wait, so, how much space on the boot drive is required to install AI Solo?


----------



## ism

Native access is crazy this way. As a work round you can create a temporary boot drive on an external disk, or you can ask NI for direct download link.


----------



## Dr.Quest

Evans said:


>



Beautiful piece!


----------



## ansthenia

Evans said:


> Wait, so, how much space on the boot drive is required to install AI Solo?


If you set your download and install location to be onto an external drive, you will still be required to have 135GB of free space on your boot drive for it to be possible to download this library.


----------



## ism

Yep, Native Access is crazy.


----------



## ennbr

Soundbed said:


> I've owned it now for a couple days but haven't liberated 360GB on any boot drives!


Your not alone I ran into the same problem ended up doing the install on another computer and moving the directory after the install finished. As previously commented even if you point the Download drive to an empty drive they still try and get the Free Space from your boot drive. I tried to use a free 500GB SSD as the download location and it still failed.

Maybe Native Instruments should hire some real software engineers clearly they haven't


----------



## Evans

ansthenia said:


> If you set your download and install location to be onto an external drive, you will still be required to have 135GB of free space on your boot drive for it to be possible to download this library.


Woof, thanks. That's not possible for me on either of my PCs.

EDIT: Whoops, I do have the space. Forgot to clean up the CSW manual install files a while back.


----------



## TCMQL1

Man I long for the day that sample start feature is as common in VIs as keyswitches are. Almost makes you wonder why wonky and inconsistent sample start times is something we ever had to deal with at all lol.


----------



## paulwr

Soundbed said:


> I've owned it now for a couple days but haven't liberated 360GB on any boot drives!


Native Access would not let me choose my own download location as well, I had to start from the system drive, too. If you can just take something off temporarily, it will do its thing, then erase the initial downloaded file from the system drive. At least that is what they say happens, and it did happen on my PC Windows 10 machine.


----------



## Soundbed

ansthenia said:


> If you set your download and install location to be onto an external drive, you will still be required to have 135GB of free space on your boot drive for it to be possible to download this library.


Was not possible for me. I tried to do that but it did not allow me. I needed the full 360GB available on boot drives. Tried two computers with two different MacOS versions.



ennbr said:


> even if you point the Download drive to an empty drive they still try and get the Free Space from your boot drive. I tried to use a free 500GB SSD as the download location and it still failed.


Yes I had 1TB free on an external drive, but it wanted 360GB on boot drive.



paulwr said:


> Native Access would not let me choose my own download location as well, I had to start from the system drive, too.


yep 



ism said:


> As a work round you can create a temporary boot drive on an external disk


hunh... did not consider that... seems like about the same amount of work as moving stuff around temporarily...



ism said:


> or you can ask NI for direct download link.


really? interesting... maybe i'll try that next time...


----------



## David Kudell

Is it just me or are the Viola slurred samples missing on the Legato combined patch?


----------



## AMBi

David Kudell said:


> Is it just me or are the Viola slurred samples missing on the Legato combined patch?


Played with it and things are okay on my end


----------



## Banquet

As this uses one dynamic layer, how are the dynamics handled? I notice there's a dynamics knob - is that volume and filter, or do you use expression to control softer and louder passages?


----------



## mybadmemory

How come a 90gb library installed to an external SSD still requires 360gb free on the boot drive to install? 😱


----------



## Banquet

mybadmemory said:


> How come a 90gb library installed to an external SSD still requires 360gb free on the boot drive to install? 😱


It's ridiculous isn't it? I remember having a similar problem on my old laptop after I bought Noire. I had 50gb left on SSD. Noire needed 20gb, so no problem I naively thought. I actually needed nearly 100gb to install it in the end I think. I had no spare space anywhere at the time, so ended up deleting a bunch of libraries and having to re-download them. I remember contacting NI support about my issues with Noire and they couldn't seem to care less.... the even more annoying thing was, the message about how much space was required changed every time, and each time I deleted something, the space needed went up, and no one at NI seemed to know how much I would actually need. I felt like I was taking a hatchet to my HD with no idea when it would end. I'm in no hurry to go through that again...


----------



## Sovereign

muziksculp said:


> Did it get approved by the *Legato Police* ?


Since you asked.  I have no intention as of yet of buying this as I have plenty of solo instruments already. I did however listen to the demos and walkthroughs and generally the legatos range from okay to very good I'd say. I like the woodwinds and brass the most. Not so fond of the string instruments though, in terms of tone. I also do not agree with the philosophy that solo instruments need only be one dynamic. That said, introduction price ain't bad at all.


----------



## Bighill

Nice woodwinds. The strings would also be nice, if it wasn´t for that dreadful "slurred legato", that sounds like portamento from hell. Why do so many developers misunderstand this aticulation? 99% of the time, string players just press down their finger, (or lift it up) to new location. Sliding into that location is regarded as unprofessional. There might be a little bit of it in large intervals, mut it is minimized as much as possible. I was looking forward to this library, but unfortunately, the strings will just not see any use.


----------



## GGaca

paulwr said:


> Native Access would not let me choose my own download location as well, I had to start from the system drive, too. If you can just take something off temporarily, it will do its thing, then erase the initial downloaded file from the system drive. At least that is what they say happens, and it did happen on my PC Windows 10 machine.


Because temporary files from download are located in temp folder - You can change its location in Windows' settings by changing Temp folder directory - but it's for all temp files (from web browser etc)


----------



## JohannesR

Bighill said:


> if it wasn´t for that dreadful "slurred legato", that sounds like portamento from hell


Gotta love some twang! 

I'm really liking this library. I do think one can have too many string libraries, but I don't think one can have too many soloist libraries. This is a great addition to my arsenal of solo instrumentalists at a very fair price!


----------



## Bighill

JohannesR said:


> Gotta love some twang!
> 
> I'm really liking this library. I do think one can have too many string libraries, but I don't think one can have too many soloist libraries. This is a great addition to my arsenal of solo instrumentalists at a very fair price!


Nothing worse than misplaced twang I have a ton of solo string libraries, and most of them are way too twangy in their legato interpretations. But I find it worse in SOLO, because it seemed like the concept of bow and slurred legato were under control. The fingered legato woods are fine. They should have done the strings the same way. And then maybe thrown in those "beautiful lyrical transitions" as an extra for the specially interested.


----------



## holywilly

Bighill said:


> Nice woodwinds. The strings would also be nice, if it wasn´t for that dreadful "slurred legato", that sounds like portamento from hell. Why do so many developers misunderstand this aticulation? 99% of the time, string players just press down their finger, (or lift it up) to new location. Sliding into that location is regarded as unprofessional. There might be a little bit of it in large intervals, mut it is minimized as much as possible. I was looking forward to this library, but unfortunately, the strings will just not see any use.


Exactly! Slur and Portamento don’t mean expressiveness at all.


----------



## makimakimusic

David Kudell said:


> Is it just me or are the Viola slurred samples missing on the Legato combined patch?


Yeah, there is an issue when you switch from modern to classic mix. Half of the samples are loading up and you can't play the slurred anymore.


----------



## Go To 11

PianoWithSam said:


> Hey wonderful people.
> 
> Would this library work well with BBC SO Core? I sometimes struggle to get exactly the right sound with Core, particularly with the solo instruments, perhaps due to the single mic position. I've taken a look at the video walkthrough for SOLO and the listened to the demo's and it sounds fabulous.
> 
> I'm also looking for some strings to record some more Romantic stuff (piano trio mockups etc..). Whilst I do own Joshua Bell Violin & Bohemian Cello, these do not always sound 'realistic' within this context, though very expressive and real as instruments. The instruments within SOLO do sound great and appear to be what I'm looking for. Seems I've answered my own question, haha.
> 
> Would require me to purchase a 1TB SSD though. Whoops.
> 
> Any advice / help from anyone appreciated!


My use case too!


----------



## Evans

Banquet said:


> It's ridiculous isn't it? I remember having a similar problem on my old laptop after I bought Noire. I had 50gb left on SSD. Noire needed 20gb, so no problem I naively thought. I actually needed nearly 100gb to install it in the end I think. I had no spare space anywhere at the time, so ended up deleting a bunch of libraries and having to re-download them. I remember contacting NI support about my issues with Noire and they couldn't seem to care less.... the even more annoying thing was, the message about how much space was required changed every time, and each time I deleted something, the space needed went up, and no one at NI seemed to know how much I would actually need. I felt like I was taking a hatchet to my HD with no idea when it would end. I'm in no hurry to go through that again...


Thanks for the information here. Looks like I should avoid any libraries that are downloadable only through NI. I had no idea!


----------



## PianoWithSam

Go To 11 said:


> My use case too!


Have you purchased SOLO?


----------



## easyrider

Sounds great 🤓


----------



## Kabraxis

paulwr said:


> Native Access would not let me choose my own download location as well, I had to start from the system drive, too. If you can just take something off temporarily, it will do its thing, then erase the initial downloaded file from the system drive. At least that is what they say happens, and it did happen on my PC Windows 10 machine.


Honestly I didn't get this. In Native Access options, top option is selecting your "download directory". It should be set before downloading anything but, it works? How it is not letting to change it?


----------



## audioimperia

Bighill said:


> Nothing worse than misplaced twang I have a ton of solo string libraries, and most of them are way too twangy in their legato interpretations. But I find it worse in SOLO, because it seemed like the concept of bow and slurred legato were under control. The fingered legato woods are fine. They should have done the strings the same way. And then maybe thrown in those "beautiful lyrical transitions" as an extra for the specially interested.


Hey! Thanks so much for all the feedback guys.

So the slurred legato was never intended to be played alone all the time, because it would be extremely unnatural to do so in real life. We think that using it along the rebowed legato for specific accents works best 

Regarding the Native Access issue, it's on our radar, we'll definitely keep you posted, so sorry for the inconveniences.


----------



## Soundbed

Played with it a little, last night.

First impression for legato was that it’s going to work best if I “write for the library.” (People have various opinions on this — what I mean is that I will likely come to think of this as a library to do what it does, and if I want that I’ll pull it up, but I won’t expect it to handle all my tasks.)

The vibrato seemed generally looped with a few strong pulses then a weaker pulse, which I’d expect to use to help close out a phrase or take a breath.

I got the impression Solo is going to work well in certain tempo clusters due to the vibrato as well. Happy to be proven wrong; I was not playing to a click and found myself feeling like I needed to sculpt my phrases around the recordings.

So I agree it would be nice to be able to control vibrato (or the vibrato timing within the phrase) a bit more, somehow. Because I envision myself trying to close phrases just as a new strong “pulse” started. I might be missing something. Maybe there is a control I did not notice?

For the slurred strings legato, I’m guessing they will come in handy to simulate position shifts (we’ve discussed in other strings writing threads). Otherwise probably plan to use the fingered transitions, most of the time.

Agree the strings tone isn’t something I fell in love with for the violin and viola but the cello seemed nice and if these were my only solo strings I could make due for a while. 

Some disliked the trumpet? I didn’t mind it especially in the lower part of the range. 

Really happy about the Descant horn. (I’ll probably get the Cinesamples someday as well though.)

Fast legato passages overall ... while responsive, I don’t see myself writing virtuosic fast passages: maybe a couple decorations and a few faster transitions at a time, but avoiding a string of 32nd notes 

Great vocalist tone and flexibility imho, as expected. Sort of reminds me of what Musical Sampling has been doing recently with simple wordless vocal instruments ~$30 that can be used in a variety of contexts.


----------



## paulwr

GGaca said:


> Because temporary files from download are located in temp folder - You can change its location in Windows' settings by changing Temp folder directory - but it's for all temp files (from web browser etc)


I had the room for it, so just let it work as-is. It erased the download file when done.


----------



## Trash Panda

@audioimperia was there a reason the second violin button and niente options were left out? Can work around their absence for sure, but they are (among many others) very nice QOL features.

Edit: also just noticed the wrench is disabled, so no tweaking things behind the scenes.


----------



## paulwr

Kabraxis said:


> Honestly I didn't get this. In Native Access options, top option is selecting your "download directory". It should be set before downloading anything but, it works? How it is not letting to change it?


Well, the only positive thing I can imagine about this process is that your content location does not need double the space during installation. I would prefer NI didn't make to process more complicated than it needs to be.


----------



## Bighill

audioimperia said:


> Hey! Thanks so much for all the feedback guys.
> 
> So the slurred legato was never intended to be played alone all the time, because it would be extremely unnatural to do so in real life. We think that using it along the rebowed legato for specific accents works best
> 
> Regarding the Native Access issue, it's on our radar, we'll definitely keep you posted, so sorry for the inconveniences.


That´s understood, a bow is only so long, but to saw back and forth all the time does not always make a realistic string instrument performance. Actually, "bow change legato", a term invented by sample developers, is called non-legato in the real world. Study any score, and you will find a combination of slurred and non slurred notes all the time. To only have the so called bow change legato available makes for a disjointed performance. Much like the cinestrings solo. Curious how the players were instructed. Play molto portamento for all the slurred notes?


----------



## audioimperia

Bighill said:


> That´s understood, a bow is only so long, but to saw back and forth all the time does not always make a realistic string instrument performance. Actually, "bow change legato", a term invented by sample developers, is called non-legato in the real world. Study any score, and you will find a combination of slurred and non slurred notes all the time. To only have the so called bow change legato available makes for a disjointed performance. Much like the cinestrings solo. Curious how the players were instructed. Play molto portamento for all the slurred notes?


Good point! "Legato" nowadays is pretty much known as a performance technology more than an actual way to play an instrument. We understand the difference, yes, but the term is so well known that it's gonna be impossible to undo it.

The players were asked to play a specific phrase, and we gave specific indications where to force either bow change or slur, which is the asset we grabbed for building the library.


----------



## Bighill

audioimperia said:


> Good point! "Legato" nowadays is pretty much known as a performance technology more than an actual way to play an instrument. We understand the difference, yes, but the term is so well known that it's gonna be impossible to undo it.
> 
> The players were asked to play a specific phrase, and we gave specific indications where to force either bow change or slur, which is the asset we grabbed for building the library.


Thanks. I actully like most of this library, but that´s also the reason for my frustration. Especially when I see how successfully the woodwinds were done. A "fingered legato" for the strings would have been wonderful.


----------



## rrichard63

Soundbed said:


> I've owned it now for a couple days but haven't liberated 360GB on any boot drives!


Have you tried moving the download location to another drive? It's on your boot drive by default but can be changed. See









How to Change the Install Locations in Native Access


Important: This article shows how to change the install locations in Native Access for future installations. If you want to move an already installed NI product to a different location, please read...




support.native-instruments.com





EDIT: but see also #362 above, which says that Native Access also uses the operating system's temp folder, in addition to the download location set in Preferences. I didn't know that.


----------



## muziksculp

Sovereign said:


> Since you asked.  I have no intention as of yet of buying this as I have plenty of solo instruments already. I did however listen to the demos and walkthroughs and generally the legatos range from okay to very good I'd say. I like the woodwinds and brass the most. Not so fond of the string instruments though, in terms of tone. I also do not agree with the philosophy that solo instruments need only be one dynamic. That said, introduction price ain't bad at all.



Hi @Sovereign , (Chief of VI-C Legato-Police force).

Thanks for the feedback. I think developers should send you a free library to get your official Legato-Police seal of approval when they have Legato articulations included in their libraries. 

I agree with your opinion, I like the woodwinds, and brass, not too much the strings. I also have not purchased this library, given I'm still not sure I need it, since I have other libraries that cover this. So, if SOLO offers an edge, or improvements to my current solo instruments then the price is quite attractive, but so far, I'm not sure I need it. I will wait to hear more demos, comments, and feedback from those who purchased it to better evaluate it.

Cheers,
Muziksculp


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

muziksculp said:


> Hi @Sovereign , (Chief of VI-C Legato-Police force).
> 
> Thanks for the feedback. I think developers should send you a free library to get your official Legato-Police seal of approval when they have Legato articulations included in their libraries.
> 
> I agree with your opinion, I like the woodwinds, and brass, not too much the strings. I also have not purchased this library, given I'm still not sure I need it, since I have other libraries that cover this. So, it has if SOLO offers an edge, or improvements to my current solo instruments then the price is quite attractive, but so far, I'm not sure I need it. I will wait to hear more demos, comments, and feedback from those who purchased it to better evaluate it.
> 
> Cheers,
> Muziksculp


After playing with it for a couple days, these are my impressions:

- When I close my eyes, the string rebow legato sounds excellent. I can really hear the player dragging the bow back and forth, and the raw tone of the instrument really comes through. An intermediate, quicker legato would have been nice, but the slurred legato works as advertised, and seems like it's to be used sparingly. 
- For me, the brass lacks a bit of the high end definition that would really allow the sound to resonate and soar in the room. I compared the Cinebrass Descant horn and solo horns to their counterparts in SOLO, and I definitely like the Cinebrass tone more in this case, simply because the full roundness of the instrument is captured there. For more mellow textures though, I may opt for SOLO.
- The woodwinds are fantastic, and so fun to play. The flute especially just feels good under the fingers, and I love the way the breath comes in as the player crescendos. 
- The vocals are also smooth as butter, and are definitely meant for slower playing, as the transitions are on the slower end by default. 

This really is one of the first libraries where I can feel 100% confident putting its instruments at the forefront of the mix without feeling anxious that it'll be bumpy, unnatural, or unrealistic. I can see myself using the winds and vocals the most, although the strings and brass lend a nice alternative colour when needed.

Hope this helps! I'll be uploading my impressions video tomorrow.


----------



## ALittleNightMusic

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> After playing with it for a couple days, these are my impressions:
> 
> - When I close my eyes, the string rebow legato sounds excellent. I can really hear the player dragging the bow back and forth, and the raw tone of the instrument really comes through. An intermediate, quicker legato would have been nice, but the slurred legato works as advertised, and seems like it's to be used sparingly.
> - For me, the brass lacks a bit of the high end definition that would really allow the sound to resonate and soar in the room. I compared the Cinebrass Descant horn and solo horns to their counterparts in SOLO, and I definitely like the Cinebrass tone more in this case, simply because the full roundness of the instrument is captured there. For more mellow textures though, I may opt for SOLO.
> - The woodwinds are fantastic, and so fun to play. The flute especially just feels good under the fingers, and I love the way the breath comes in as the player crescendos.
> - The vocals are also smooth as butter, and are definitely meant for slower playing, as the transitions are on the slower end by default.
> 
> This really is one of the first libraries where I can feel 100% confident putting its instruments at the forefront of the mix without feeling anxious that it'll be bumpy, unnatural, or unrealistic. I can see myself using the winds and vocals the most, although the strings and brass lend a nice alternative colour when needed.
> 
> Hope this helps! I'll be uploading my impressions video tomorrow.


Curious to hear your thoughts, Chris, regarding these woodwinds compared to Berlin Soloists?


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

ALittleNightMusic said:


> Curious to hear your thoughts, Chris, regarding these woodwinds compared to Berlin Soloists?


I'd say that the Berlin Soloists' tone is slightly sweeter than this one, and I actually like that the sustains are not looped, and therefore end whenever the player decides. However, the legato in this library is smoother and more realistic imo, so if I'm going for a really exposed line I'd likely use this. I would use the Soloists on top of larger arrangements where it doesn't need to be as exposed.


----------



## chapbot

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> This really is one of the first libraries where I can feel 100% confident putting its instruments at the forefront of the mix without feeling anxious that it'll be bumpy, unnatural, or unrealistic.


If you are a serious composer you are nuts to not get this library at the introductory price.


----------



## Go To 11

PianoWithSam said:


> Have you purchased SOLO?


Yes, I just have!


----------



## muziksculp

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> After playing with it for a couple days, these are my impressions:
> 
> - When I close my eyes, the string rebow legato sounds excellent. I can really hear the player dragging the bow back and forth, and the raw tone of the instrument really comes through. An intermediate, quicker legato would have been nice, but the slurred legato works as advertised, and seems like it's to be used sparingly.
> - For me, the brass lacks a bit of the high end definition that would really allow the sound to resonate and soar in the room. I compared the Cinebrass Descant horn and solo horns to their counterparts in SOLO, and I definitely like the Cinebrass tone more in this case, simply because the full roundness of the instrument is captured there. For more mellow textures though, I may opt for SOLO.
> - The woodwinds are fantastic, and so fun to play. The flute especially just feels good under the fingers, and I love the way the breath comes in as the player crescendos.
> - The vocals are also smooth as butter, and are definitely meant for slower playing, as the transitions are on the slower end by default.
> 
> This really is one of the first libraries where I can feel 100% confident putting its instruments at the forefront of the mix without feeling anxious that it'll be bumpy, unnatural, or unrealistic. I can see myself using the winds and vocals the most, although the strings and brass lend a nice alternative colour when needed.
> 
> Hope this helps! I'll be uploading my impressions video tomorrow.


Hi Chris,

Thank you for the helpful feedback about SOLO. 

We need to add you to the VI-C official Legato-Police Force . You will also need to add a Legto-Police badge pic to your VI-C Avatar. 

I'm still not sure I need to buy SOLO, but I still have time before the Intro price expires. 

Cheers,
Muziksculp


----------



## Trash Panda

YOLO! Buy SOLO.


----------



## easyrider

muziksculp said:


> I'm still not sure I need to buy SOLO, but I still have time before the Intro price expires.
> 
> Cheers,
> Muziksculp


I bet you 10 bucks you buy it


----------



## tebling

chapbot said:


> If you are a serious composer you are nuts to not get this library at the introductory price.


Statements like this completely disregard the fact that serious composers are already nuts.


----------



## Soundbed

chapbot said:


> If you are a serious composer you are nuts


cheers to that! 🍻


----------



## Kabraxis

For any one who's using Reaticulate on Reaper, here's a full articulation bank for it:


----------



## PianoWithSam

Go To 11 said:


> Yes, I just have!


Please let me know how you get on with it with Core


----------



## holywilly

chapbot said:


> If you are a serious composer you are nuts to not get this library at the introductory price.


A serious composer hires live players


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

Impressions video uploaded!


----------



## gedlig

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> Impressions video uploaded!



Wrong link


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

gedlig said:


> Wrong link


Ah yes thank you!


----------



## holywilly

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> Impressions video uploaded!



Possible to create chapters for videos? The introduction is kinda long before hitting the first note. Great video!


----------



## Toecutter

holywilly said:


> Possible to create chapters for videos? The introduction is kinda long before hitting the first note. Great video!


Groundbreaking concept... and it works!


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

holywilly said:


> Possible to create chapters for videos? The introduction is kinda long before hitting the first note. Great video!


Done!


----------



## Mike Fox

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> Impressions video uploaded!



Thanks for the video, Chris!


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

Mike Fox said:


> Thanks for the video, Chris!


Cheers Mike, thanks for watching! We should catch up soon


----------



## Mike Fox

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> Cheers Mike, thanks for watching! We should catch up soon


100%!


----------



## holywilly

Toecutter said:


> Groundbreaking concept... and it works!



God bless technology.


----------



## CT

holywilly said:


> A serious composer hires live players


A serious composer is so brilliant and unappreciated that they are unable to secure live performance of their music until decades after their death.


----------



## MtB1

I've watched the walkthrough, Chris' Video as well (thanks for that) and listened to audio examples and I am very impressed by this library. 
What I am a bit curious about is if there is some playing noise included especially for the woodwinds (maybe adjustable). If I listen to real players there is always a lot of clicking, key noise and so on. I don't know of any other solo library, where this is implemented (but I don't know many other libraries). I think this could add an additional sense of realism to this library (or any other Solo library).


----------



## chapbot

holywilly said:


> A serious composer hires live players


I use both live and VSTs. And make a living at it.


----------



## SupremeFist

holywilly said:


> A serious composer hires live players


A serious composer (Zappa) becomes disgusted with live players and only uses a Fairlight.


----------



## Dirk Ehlert

If you're interested, I'll be checking out the library live now -


----------



## Kabraxis

It sounds so real that people demo'ing in Youtube with famous melodies gets copyright takedown requests. Congratulations!


----------



## PianoWithSam

Could somebody with the library be so kind to confirm the cello range? From what I've seen, it's not as extensive as one might have hoped, though it sounds great.


----------



## AMBi

PianoWithSam said:


> Could somebody with the library be so kind to confirm the cello range? From what I've seen, it's not as extensive as one might have hoped, though it sounds great.


Three octaves, C3 to C6


----------



## Batrawi

AMBi said:


> Three octaves, C3 to C6


@PianoWithSam 
BUT...... see @39:38 here:


----------



## AMBi

Batrawi said:


> @PianoWithSam
> BUT...... see @39:38 here:



Wow didn’t realize you could do that!
Every so often when playing with the cello I would come up short just a few notes so I’ll definitely be using this


----------



## muziksculp

Hi,

I listened to the instruments of Audio Imperia's new* SOLO* library, in the videos, what attracts me to this library :

1. The Timbre of the instruments is wonderful, and very natural/realistic sounding.
2. The large number of instruments it includes. Make it a good source of these instruments when you need them, all consolidated under one library, basically easy access to many solo Instruments. .
3. The clean, and easy to use GUI, and consistency of the key-switches.
4. I see this library helpful to have in many scenarios, so it can be quite flexible.
5. The intro price is quite attractive.
6. The Legato System sounds very good, smooth transitions, and the two options for the various instruments is a very nice feature. Simple, but effective.
7. imho. it would have been an even better library if there was some type of Vibrato control. to Fade in, and Fade out the Vibrato as needed, but even without that feature, the instruments are very expressive, and have that singing quality.
8. I loved the way all the short articulations sounded in all of the included instruments. Very nicely done.

Now, I have to decide if I'm buying this library, what do you think ?


----------



## muziksculp




----------



## ennbr

Does that mean you convinced yourself  I know I jumped on it about 10 seconds after seeing it was released


----------



## muziksculp

ennbr said:


> Does that mean you convinced yourself  I know I jumped on it about 10 seconds after seeing it was released


What helped me make my decision to buy it, are the videos posted by Chris, and Dirk. After watching them carefully, I couldn't see why I would not buy this library.


----------



## ennbr

muziksculp said:


> What helped me make my decision to buy it, are the videos posted by Chris, and Dirk. After watching them carefully, I couldn't see why I would not buy this library.


I watched them as well must have be me getting confirmation on my purchase 
Have to agree with Chris about the brass having a lot in the mid section but nothing I find objectionable I have to say I'm a real fan of Audio Imperia libs good value for the price


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

muziksculp said:


> What helped me make my decision to buy it, are the videos posted by Chris, and Dirk. After watching them carefully, I couldn't see why I would not buy this library.


Good choice


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

ennbr said:


> I watched them as well must have be me getting confirmation on my purchase
> Have to agree with Chris about the brass having a lot in the mid section but nothing I find objectionable I have to say I'm a real fan of Audio Imperia libs good value for the price


Enjoy!


----------



## muziksculp

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> Good choice


Hi Chris,

Thanks for your video showcasing SOLO, it was very helpful to evaluate it, and you did a great job to show many of its strong points.

So... Yes, I came to the conclusion it was a good choice to buy it. Especially with 13 soloists, great timbre, and an attractive price, this library will be very useful for me. 

Cheers,
Muzksculp


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

muziksculp said:


> Hi Chris,
> 
> Thanks for your video showcasing SOLO, it was very helpful to evaluate it, and you did a great job to show many of its strong points.
> 
> So... Yes, I came to the conclusion it was a good choice to buy it. Especially with 13 soloists, great timbre, and an attractive price, this library will be very useful for me.
> 
> Cheers,
> Muzksculp


So glad to help! Thank you for watching, and I have no doubt you’ll really enjoy using it.


----------



## Eptesicus

When does the intro price end?


----------



## davidson

Sorry if it's been asked already, but the library is only a single dynamic layer, right? So what's the difference between the dynamics and expression knobs? @audioimperia


----------



## Mr Greg G

Cello player here. Love Audio Imperia Strings and how the legato sounds and is playable. The solo violin and cello from Nucleus also sound great and even better than most solo strings dedicated libraries.

That being said, my main gripe with AI Strings is with the unique dynamic layer as mentioned by davidson. CC1 and CC11 are redundant. It would also be great to have at least 4RR per layer to avoid the shotgun effect, portamento and vibrato control. Add this and you will have one of the best strings libraries out.


----------



## ennbr

Eptesicus said:


> When does the intro price end?


AI said 30 days


----------



## ReelToLogic

audioimperia said:


> Hey! Thanks so much for all the feedback guys.





audioimperia said:


> Regarding the Native Access issue, it's on our radar, we'll definitely keep you posted, so sorry for the inconveniences.


Just wondering if you have any outlook on addressing the Native Access issue. I'm interested in this library and have over 1TB of space on my external SSD, but only 75 GB on my internal drive. It wouldn't make sense to purchase this if I can't install it.


----------



## Soundbed

Mr Pringles said:


> The solo violin and cello from Nucleus also sound great and even better than most solo strings dedicated libraries.


In case you were implying the strings are from Nucleus, I believe these are all 100% new recordings.


----------



## Yogevs

Soundbed said:


> In case you were implying the strings are from Nucleus, I believe these are all 100% new recordings.


100% according to AI.

Also, I would agree the the Solo Cello from Nucleus is amazing !


----------



## Soundbed

Submitting this to the Legato Police


----------



## Soundbed

ReelToLogic said:


> Just wondering if you have any outlook on addressing the Native Access issue. I'm interested in this library and have over 1TB of space on my external SSD, but only 75 GB on my internal drive. It wouldn't make sense to purchase this if I can't install it.


I followed the workaround to install on a different machine and then move it.


----------



## Mr Greg G

Soundbed said:


> In case you were implying the strings are from Nucleus, I believe these are all 100% new recordings.


I was implying that if the solo strings from Nucleus sound great, these new solo strings samples should sound even better.


----------



## Evans

@audioimperia I know this is more of a Native Access thing than an Audio Imperia thing, but can you please confirm that Native Access _may _require _more_ than Solo's full size on the boot drive in order to install this on a separate drive?

For example, if Solo is ~90 GB, some users claim that to install it on D: that you need 90+ (in some cases, way more) on the boot drive, let's say C:, in addition to the ~90 GB available on D:.

I've got 97 GB available on my boot drive. Even less on my second machine's boot drive. It's not feasible for me to make 150, 200, or more GB available on boot.

Thanks!


----------



## mybadmemory

Hey @audioimperia this sounds absolutely lovely! But when will you bless us with a harp? Really the only thing I find missing from your lineup (in particular Nucleus)!


----------



## audioimperia

mybadmemory said:


> Hey @audioimperia this sounds absolutely lovely! But when will you bless us with a harp? Really the only thing I find missing from your lineup (in particular Nucleus)!


Ahem.


----------



## audioimperia

Evans said:


> @audioimperia I know this is more of a Native Access thing than an Audio Imperia thing, but can you please confirm that Native Access _may _require _more_ than Solo's full size on the boot drive in order to install this on a separate drive?
> 
> For example, if Solo is ~90 GB, some users claim that to install it on D: that you need 90+ (in some cases, way more) on the boot drive, let's say C:, in addition to the ~90 GB available on D:.
> 
> I've got 97 GB available on my boot drive. Even less on my second machine's boot drive. It's not feasible for me to make 150, 200, or more GB available on boot.
> 
> Thanks!


Yes, seems that Access requires at least double the library size to extract and install. It also seems to extract and install on different volumes. We're currently discussing this with the team, we'll keep you guys posted. So sorry for the inconveniences.


----------



## Trash Panda

Trash Panda said:


> @audioimperia was there a reason the second violin button and niente options were left out? Can work around their absence for sure, but they are (among many others) very nice QOL features.
> 
> Edit: also just noticed the wrench is disabled, so no tweaking things behind the scenes.


@audioimperia just making sure you saw this.


----------



## audioimperia

Trash Panda said:


> @audioimperia just making sure you saw this.


Added to FR list! Thanks!

PS: The instruments are very very very finely tuned, going into the backend to make changes is not advised, this is why we prefer to lock it.


----------



## X-Bassist

muziksculp said:


> What helped me make my decision to buy it, are the videos posted by Chris, and Dirk. After watching them carefully, I couldn't see why I would not buy this library.


Funny how Chris compares it to Cinebrass and finds (as I do) that Cinebrass sounds better and has better dynamics, vibrato options, yet no one seems to notice. Maybe because this is new. The trumpet and Horn sound a bit synthetic to me also on some notes (yet fine on other notes). Perhaps this is just the legato cutting off the transient, which could be tweaked.

A few libraries I have that I think are better:

CineBrass
Cinewinds
CineStrings Solo
Cinematic Studio Brass
cinematic Studio Woodwinds
Cinematic Studio Solo Strings
Berlin Woodwinds Exp 1+2
Berlin Brass
Chris Heins Solo Strings

So that could be a reason not to buy it. I suppose until I’ve mastered these other libraries or something better comes out, I should just stop looking.

But I understand, a new and shiny download always seems better. 😄


----------



## Yogevs

X-Bassist said:


> Funny how Chris compares it to Cinebrass and finds (as I do) that Cinebrass sounds better and has better dynamics, vibrato options, yet no one seems to notice. Maybe because this is new. The trumpet and Horn sound a bit synthetic to me also on some notes (yet fine on other notes). Perhaps this is just the legato cutting off the transient, which could be tweaked.
> 
> A few libraries I have that I think are better:
> 
> CineBrass
> Cinewinds
> CineStrings Solo
> Cinematic Studio Brass
> cinematic Studio Woodwinds
> Cinematic Studio Solo Strings
> Berlin Woodwinds Exp 1+2
> Berlin Brass
> Chris Heins Solo Strings
> 
> So that could be a reason not to buy it. I suppose until I’ve mastered these other libraries or something better comes out, I should just stop looking.
> 
> But I understand, a new and shiny download always seems better. 😄


I mean... yeah... if you have all of these dedicated libraries you should maybe skip Solo.
But if you have none? That's quite a deal...


----------



## PianoWithSam

Batrawi said:


> @PianoWithSam
> BUT...... see @39:38 here:



Thanks so much! Do you know how far the range can be extended and are these samples any less playable than the regular range?


----------



## Getsumen

X-Bassist said:


> Funny how Chris compares it to Cinebrass and finds (as I do) that Cinebrass sounds better and has better dynamics, vibrato options, yet no one seems to notice. Maybe because this is new. The trumpet and Horn sound a bit synthetic to me also on some notes (yet fine on other notes). Perhaps this is just the legato cutting off the transient, which could be tweaked.
> 
> A few libraries I have that I think are better:
> 
> CineBrass
> Cinewinds
> CineStrings Solo
> Cinematic Studio Brass
> cinematic Studio Woodwinds
> Cinematic Studio Solo Strings
> Berlin Woodwinds Exp 1+2
> Berlin Brass
> Chris Heins Solo Strings
> 
> So that could be a reason not to buy it. I suppose until I’ve mastered these other libraries or something better comes out, I should just stop looking.
> 
> But I understand, a new and shiny download always seems better. 😄


True but solo is quite cheaper than all of them. (especially combined) 

I can't really see why you would need to buy this if you already have those libs, but if you don't the price is really solid. (Even if it does have some issues)


----------



## Soundbed

Soundbed said:


> Submitting this to the Legato Police



I noticed after playing with the slurred legato on strings a bit more that descending it sounds much more "typical" and only the ascending direction has the slide up.


----------



## muziksculp

X-Bassist said:


> Funny how Chris compares it to Cinebrass and finds (as I do) that Cinebrass sounds better and has better dynamics, vibrato options, yet no one seems to notice. Maybe because this is new. The trumpet and Horn sound a bit synthetic to me also on some notes (yet fine on other notes). Perhaps this is just the legato cutting off the transient, which could be tweaked.
> 
> A few libraries I have that I think are better:
> 
> CineBrass
> Cinewinds
> CineStrings Solo
> Cinematic Studio Brass
> cinematic Studio Woodwinds
> Cinematic Studio Solo Strings
> Berlin Woodwinds Exp 1+2
> Berlin Brass
> Chris Heins Solo Strings
> 
> So that could be a reason not to buy it. I suppose until I’ve mastered these other libraries or something better comes out, I should just stop looking.
> 
> But I understand, a new and shiny download always seems better. 😄


Having 13 solo instruments (Strings, Woodwinds, Brass, Vocal) in one library, using the same GUI, and sounding very good was very attractive to me, maybe they are not the best if I compare them to other dedicated libraries that have solo instruments.

I though about this a lot before purchasing it, especially since I also have quite more detailed, and deep libraries that offer so much more articulations for solo instruments like the ones you mentioned. Plus the wonderful Solo Brass from Sample Modeling, but the ease of use of SOLO is another very attractive feature. 

SO, even if you have the other libraries you listed, and even more, I still feel this library can be very useful to have.


----------



## Batrawi

PianoWithSam said:


> Thanks so much! Do you know how far the range can be extended and are these samples any less playable than the regular range?


haven't tried their engine TBH, but to my experience with the common/manual transposition trick in kontakt (which to my understanding is the same technique AI is using), the samples sound ok if tune-shifted up to 4 semi tones... after that things may start to sound weird


----------



## Bman70

Off topic... Does anyone else think EW Opus looks suspiciously similar to AI's interface choices? Maybe it's just me as a graphic designer. Back on topic... for me, $200 is sort of a crossover price, where a library really starts needing to compare much more favorably to other libraries to justify purchase. Personally I'd rather have a dedicated solo strings library than a "sample pack" approach of multiple instruments done less thoroughly. I find these violins to sound a bit metallic and possibly having too much open-string timbre due to whole tone sampling (open strings should never be pitch shifted since their timbre is too different. Incidentally open strings should never have vibrato). I'm passing on this but I'll keep watching demos to see if there's a must-have instrument in it.


----------



## X-Bassist

muziksculp said:


> Having 13 solo instruments (Strings, Woodwinds, Brass, Vocal) in one library, using the same GUI, and sounding very good was very attractive to me, maybe they are not the best if I compare them to other dedicated libraries that have solo instruments.
> 
> I though about this a lot before purchasing it, especially since I also have quite more detailed, and deep libraries that offer so much more articulations for solo instruments like the ones you mentioned. Plus the wonderful Solo Brass from Sample Modeling, but the ease of use of SOLO is another very attractive feature.
> 
> SO, even if you have the other libraries you listed, and even more, I still feel this library can be very useful to have.


Forgot about Sample Modeling Brass! Which I also have (solo Trumpet, Trombone, Horn, Tuba). They sound great. Wow, I better start using these things! (I do have them all in my templete).

Thanks for the point of view too. IF you have a lot of AI libraries and love the new layout, then yes, that could be an advantage. They kind of lost me back on their earlier libraries, where their interfaces were all over the place, and many times seemed like an afterthought. This new one puts it in the medium teir at least (like 8Dio) of companies trying to make a solid yet universal interface across all their libraries. Although Jeager seemed to lose something in the translation.


----------



## X-Bassist

Bman70 said:


> Off topic... Does anyone else think EW Opus looks suspiciously similar to AI's interface choices? Maybe it's just me as a graphic designer. Back on topic... for me, $200 is sort of a crossover price, where a library really starts needing to compare much more favorably to other libraries to justify purchase. Personally I'd rather have a dedicated solo strings library than a "sample pack" approach of multiple instruments done less thoroughly. I find these violins to sound a bit metallic and possibly having too much open-string timbre due to whole tone sampling (open strings should never be pitch shifted since their timbre is too different. Incidentally open strings should never have vibrato). I'm passing on this but I'll keep watching demos to see if there's a must-have instrument in it.


I think this is the Sonuscore influence (they helped make it happen). If you look at their "The Orchestra" interface, you can see how Opus is the new level of that idea. Modulator pages, mix pages, knob designs.... I think a lot of companies are using Sonuscore interface designs as a jumping off point. 8Dio and a number of other comanpies have gone (since Sonuscore's first simple combo interfaces) to simplier, uniform interfaces to allow the user some fimilararity and consistency. But at the cost of character and uniqueness.

I still like the Cinesamples interface best (maybe because I'm a mixer), it seems to combine character and uniformity without going off the rails or becoming too generic. To each his own.


----------



## AndyP

After much deliberation, I have decided not to buy SOLO, at least for now.

It's not that I don't like the library, and I love my other AI libraries, but after watching the walkthoughs I realized that I am sufficiently equipped with good solo instruments. So I made a judgment call. If you still have a need in this area, you are certainly well served with SOLO.

If AI decides to release Chamber Strings with all of Areia's articulations, it will be a different story.


----------



## Werty

In my opinion the soprano is the best of them, in fact is so good it should be sold separately. Probably I wouldn't use the other ones.


----------



## Bman70

I agree the soprano sounds vocally wonderful... one concern I have is, how often does a soloist only use the words ah and oh? Background singers or even choir, it's not as noticeable, but a solo vocal pretty much needs words. Or at least some consonants. I didn't see if there's any word building ability in the videos.


----------



## ALittleNightMusic

Seems like a good package deal for newer composers. To flip an earlier comment, I think most serious composers (or collectors 😂) would probably already have (and want) dedicated libraries for the soloists they use most. JB Violin, CH Solo Strings, Tina Guo Cello, Birth of the Trumpet, CineBrass Descant Horn, Ethera Vocals, Berlin Soloists or Claire, etc. More expensive certainly but dedicated libraries have their benefits. Not sure there would be a reason to get this in addition unless you really love the tone (or are just a collector of libraries). I don’t hear anything in the legato approach that I’d consider superior or next gen compared to existing libraries. Good deal for folks that don’t own other libraries or want to match their AI libraries. Can use it to figure out which soloists you tend to use most often in your work and then buy other dedicated libraries for those.


----------



## Bighill

ALittleNightMusic said:


> Seems like a good package deal for newer composers. To flip an earlier comment, I think most serious composers (or collectors 😂) would probably already have (and want) dedicated libraries for the soloists they use most. JB Violin, CH Solo Strings, Tina Guo Cello, Birth of the Trumpet, CineBrass Descant Horn, Ethera Vocals, Berlin Soloists or Claire, etc. More expensive certainly but dedicated libraries have their benefits. Not sure there would be a reason to get this in addition unless you really love the tone (or are just a collector of libraries). I don’t hear anything in the legato approach that I’d consider superior or next gen compared to existing libraries. Good deal for folks that don’t own other libraries or want to match their AI libraries. Can use it to figure out which soloists you tend to use most often in your work and then buy other dedicated libraries for those.


Have to admit that I bought it out of curiosity. I´m afraid it will join many other unused libraries scattered around on my disks.....


----------



## Lionel Schmitt

Bman70 said:


> I agree the soprano sounds vocally wonderful... one concern I have is, how often does a soloist only use the words ah and oh? Background singers or even choir, it's not as noticeable, but a solo vocal pretty much needs words. Or at least some consonants. I didn't see if there's any word building ability in the videos.


hm, it's extremely useful in many kinds of filmic music.
Makes much morse sense to have these ahh and ohhs only because words could be distracting.
I've very rarely heard solo vocals with words in filmic pieces, but a lot of wordless solo vocals.
I even heard the ahhh Merethe patch from Jaeger Benjamin Wallfisch's Serenity, Hostile Planet and Shazam haha. And no words or phrases at all,


----------



## LamaRose

Evans said:


> @audioimperia I know this is more of a Native Access thing than an Audio Imperia thing, but can you please confirm that Native Access _may _require _more_ than Solo's full size on the boot drive in order to install this on a separate drive?
> 
> For example, if Solo is ~90 GB, some users claim that to install it on D: that you need 90+ (in some cases, way more) on the boot drive, let's say C:, in addition to the ~90 GB available on D:.
> 
> I've got 97 GB available on my boot drive. Even less on my second machine's boot drive. It's not feasible for me to make 150, 200, or more GB available on boot.
> 
> Thanks!


The previously mentioned 359gb is what I'm getting to install on my internal drive... tried installing on an external, but still came up with 270gb required on the internal drive. Dead in the water if this can't be reduced to 200 or so.


----------



## Bman70

LamaRose said:


> The previously mentioned 359gb is what I'm getting to install on my internal drive... tried installing on an external, but still came up with 270gb required on the internal drive. Dead in the water if this can't be reduced to 200 or so.


One workaround could be: Move a hundred gigs or so from the internal to a big SSD (or even your libraries SSD). Install the library. Then move your stuff back to the computer. I did something like that on one of my laptops when it had this issue.


----------



## Evans

Bman70 said:


> Personally I'd rather have a dedicated solo strings library than a "sample pack" approach of multiple instruments done less thoroughly.


Some people like to say "Buy cheap, and you buy multiple times."


----------



## rrichard63

Bman70 said:


> One workaround could be: Move a hundred gigs or so from the internal to a big SSD (or even your libraries SSD). Install the library. Then move your stuff back to the computer. I did something like that on one of my laptops when it had this issue.


I've also done this a couple of times. But it should not be necessary. This is a problem with Native Access that Native Instruments needs to fix. In my opinion, developers (including but not limited to Audio Imperia) have a lot more clout with Native Instruments than end users do.


----------



## Mike Fox

X-Bassist said:


> Funny how Chris compares it to Cinebrass and finds (as I do) that Cinebrass sounds better and has better dynamics, vibrato options, yet no one seems to notice. Maybe because this is new. The trumpet and Horn sound a bit synthetic to me also on some notes (yet fine on other notes). Perhaps this is just the legato cutting off the transient, which could be tweaked.
> 
> A few libraries I have that I think are better:
> 
> CineBrass
> Cinewinds
> CineStrings Solo
> Cinematic Studio Brass
> cinematic Studio Woodwinds
> Cinematic Studio Solo Strings
> Berlin Woodwinds Exp 1+2
> Berlin Brass
> Chris Heins Solo Strings
> 
> So that could be a reason not to buy it. I suppose until I’ve mastered these other libraries or something better comes out, I should just stop looking.
> 
> But I understand, a new and shiny download always seems better. 😄


While it is tough to beat the tone of Cinebrass (my favorite tone, actually) the playability and GUI of AI’s libs are light years ahead of anything Cinesamples has ever done.


----------



## Mike Fox

Yogevs said:


> I mean... yeah... if you have all of these dedicated libraries you should maybe skip Solo.
> But if you have none? That's quite a deal...


This.


----------



## mybadmemory

audioimperia said:


> Ahem.


Let the harp rumors begin! 😬


----------



## Daniel James

Will be doing a stream with this one, was meant to today, but I worked myself ill again so hoping I can do it tomorrow instead. Anyways this is a track I wrote using SOLO, which I will be breaking down on the stream then hopefully finishing the cue off live.

As always I use more verb than most like, but its an aesthetic choice of mine, so if you don't like that sound, its probably more me than the library 😂



It really is a great library, fun and inspiring to play.

-DJ


----------



## Bman70

Daniel James said:


> Will be doing a stream with this one, was meant to today, but I worked myself ill again so hoping I can do it tomorrow instead. Anyways this is a track I wrote using SOLO, which I will be breaking down on the stream then hopefully finishing the cue off live.
> 
> As always I use more verb than most like, but its an aesthetic choice of mine, so if you don't like that sound, its probably more me than the library 😂
> 
> 
> 
> It really is a great library, fun and inspiring to play.
> 
> -DJ



Sounds like there's more in there besides Solo? (Piano for one.)


----------



## Daniel James

Bman70 said:


> Sounds like there's more in there besides Solo? (Piano for one.)


Yeah its obviously in context. SOLO is the...solo instruments 😂 (Not the piano tho)

-DJ


----------



## Bman70

Daniel James said:


> Yeah its obviously in context. SOLO is the...solo instruments 😂 (Not the piano tho)
> 
> -DJ


I've often played background "pads" on my "solo" violin . But that's mostly because I don't own a background violin.


----------



## Antonio Eggert

Daniel James said:


> Yeah its obviously in context. SOLO is the...solo instruments 😂 (Not the piano tho)
> 
> -DJ


Nice piano you have there ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


----------



## Daniel James

Antonio Eggert said:


> Nice piano you have there ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


ffs


----------



## Drundfunk

Daniel James said:


> Yeah its obviously in context. SOLO is the...solo instruments 😂 (Not the piano tho)
> 
> -DJ


Which piano are you using?............Kidding!


----------



## Bman70

It's obviously a solo piano not a rhythm piano, it's playing a solo duh


----------



## ennbr

Bman70 said:


> It's obviously a solo piano not a rhythm piano, it's playing a solo duh


the piano thing is a standing joke going on everyone keeps asking Daniel what piano he's using


----------



## Evans

Pretty sure that's GigaPiano in case anyone's curious.


----------



## Trash Panda

Daniel James said:


> Will be doing a stream with this one, was meant to today, but I worked myself ill again so hoping I can do it tomorrow instead. Anyways this is a track I wrote using SOLO, which I will be breaking down on the stream then hopefully finishing the cue off live.
> 
> As always I use more verb than most like, but its an aesthetic choice of mine, so if you don't like that sound, its probably more me than the library 😂
> 
> 
> 
> It really is a great library, fun and inspiring to play.
> 
> -DJ



Bruh, that is one dope ass piano beat. You mind if I use that and file a copyright claim?


----------



## AndreBoulard

Daniel James said:


> Will be doing a stream with this one, was meant to today, but I worked myself ill again so hoping I can do it tomorrow instead. Anyways this is a track I wrote using SOLO, which I will be breaking down on the stream then hopefully finishing the cue off live.
> 
> As always I use more verb than most like, but its an aesthetic choice of mine, so if you don't like that sound, its probably more me than the library 😂
> 
> 
> 
> It really is a great library, fun and inspiring to play.
> 
> -DJ



ori style music! very inspiring


----------



## Bman70

ennbr said:


> the piano thing is a standing joke going on everyone keeps asking Daniel what piano he's using


Cool. But I'm wondering if those are Solo's pads we're hearing or something else. The pads sound great IMO, based on each solo instrument.


----------



## Daniel James

Bman70 said:


> Cool. But I'm wondering if those are Solo's pads we're hearing or something else. The pads sound great IMO, based on each solo instrument.


The pad is a pad. The Solo instruments are solo instruments. Its not an official demo, I can use all the things 😂 Maybe join the stream tomorrow when I break it down. Then you can see for yourself.

-DJ


----------



## Trash Panda

Daniel James said:


> The pad is a pad. The Solo instruments are solo instruments. Its not an official demo, I can use all the things 😂 Maybe join the stream tomorrow when I break it down. Then you can see for yourself.
> 
> -DJ


Does that include showing which piano you’re using?


----------



## mybadmemory

Could anyone (@audioimperia) confirm a few things about the native access download / install issue?

1. Is the issue there on both mac and PC?
2. Does downloading directly to an external drive still need space on your boot drive?
3. How much space is needed (worst case) on the different drives to download and install?

I have just above 360GB free on my external sample drive which might be enough for the install in the worst case scenario reported here, but that's still if the files are downloaded directly to the external drive. If all of that space is needed on the boot drive i won't be able to purchase this library i'm afraid.


----------



## ansthenia

mybadmemory said:


> Could anyone (@audioimperia) confirm a few things about the native access download / install issue?
> 
> 1. Is the issue there on both mac and PC?
> 2. Does downloading directly to an external drive still need space on your boot drive?
> 3. How much space is needed (worst case) on the different drives to download and install?
> 
> I have just above 360GB free on my external sample drive which might be enough for the install in the worst case scenario reported here, but that's still if the files are downloaded directly to the external drive. If all of that space is needed on the boot drive i won't be able to purchase this library i'm afraid.


1: Yes
2: Yes
3: You need a minimum of 135GB on your boot drive to download and install this library from native access, there is no getting around this. Regardless of what external drive you set your download and install location to be in native access preferences, it will still need to download 135GB of data to your boot drive during the process and this can't be changed. If you have this space available on your boot drive then you're good to go; 360GB is enough on the external, just make sure to this drive as your location in preferences.


----------



## Andrajas

Daniel James said:


> Will be doing a stream with this one, was meant to today, but I worked myself ill again so hoping I can do it tomorrow instead. Anyways this is a track I wrote using SOLO, which I will be breaking down on the stream then hopefully finishing the cue off live.
> 
> As always I use more verb than most like, but its an aesthetic choice of mine, so if you don't like that sound, its probably more me than the library 😂
> 
> 
> 
> It really is a great library, fun and inspiring to play.
> 
> -DJ



what stands out for me in this piece is the piano. It ls like a bonus patch in this library?


----------



## Kony

mybadmemory said:


> Could anyone (@audioimperia) confirm a few things about the native access download / install issue?
> 
> 1. Is the issue there on both mac and PC?
> 2. Does downloading directly to an external drive still need space on your boot drive?
> 3. How much space is needed (worst case) on the different drives to download and install?
> 
> I have just above 360GB free on my external sample drive which might be enough for the install in the worst case scenario reported here, but that's still if the files are downloaded directly to the external drive. If all of that space is needed on the boot drive i won't be able to purchase this library i'm afraid.


I'm currently downloading it - I repointed the download drive location. If you go to the top right corner of NA - select preferences - change download drive there. I only have 90Gb on my boot drive btw - and I'm on PC so I can't comment about NA on macs.


----------



## Tom Hawk

Evans said:


>



I had a lot of fun working on this track!



Drundfunk said:


> So why does this guy have the library and we don't? I smell a conspiracy! In fact, I know a conspiracy when I see one. Something ain't right. This is nothing like the simulations.


Haha, it's got nothing to do with the fact that this guy was a BETA tester for the library 




FireGS said:


> Whoa! Nice! Didn't expect to hear this library used in that style.


Yeah the goal was to see how this library would work in the context of a track in this genre. I'm happy with how it turned out 




chapbot said:


> Got email, passed out, revived 5 min. later, bought and am downloading.


This literally made me laugh out loud haha, great comment.




Dr.Quest said:


> Beautiful piece!


Thank you!


----------



## MrHassanSan

ansthenia said:


> 1: Yes
> 2: Yes
> 3: You need a minimum of 135GB on your boot drive to download and install this library from native access, there is no getting around this. Regardless of what external drive you set your download and install location to be in native access preferences, it will still need to download 135GB of data to your boot drive during the process and this can't be changed. If you have this space available on your boot drive then you're good to go; 360GB is enough on the external, just make sure to this drive as your location in preferences.


What if it's an internal drive that's *not* the boot drive? I have multiple internal drives that could handle the library comfortably, but my OS drive doesn't have the space.


----------



## muziksculp

Hi,

So, one can choose to download SOLO using Continuata, or Native Access ?


----------



## LamaRose

Bman70 said:


> One workaround could be: Move a hundred gigs or so from the internal to a big SSD (or even your libraries SSD).





ansthenia said:


> 1: Yes
> 2: Yes
> 3: You need a minimum of 135GB on your boot drive to download and install this library from native access, there is no getting around this. Regardless of what external drive you set your download and install location to be in native access preferences, it will still need to download 135GB of data to your boot drive during the process and this can't be changed. If you have this space available on your boot drive then you're good to go; 360GB is enough on the external, just make sure to this drive as your location in preferences.


Are you using a PC or Mac? Using a Mac + external drive, I'm getting 270gb needed on the internal drive... I could easily handle the 135gb... this is some weird, WTF issue.


----------



## LamaRose

muziksculp said:


> Hi,
> 
> So, one can choose to download SOLO using Continuata, or Native Access ?


I requested direct download links from NI, per AI's suggestion. NI tossed me back to AI... no word from AI, but I'm guessing _no_ on the Continuata. 

Maybe I should have asked, "who's on first?"


----------



## muziksculp

LamaRose said:


> I requested direct download links from NI, per AI's suggestion. NI tossed me back to AI... no word from AI, but I'm guessing _no_ on the Continuata.
> 
> Maybe I should have asked, "who's on first?"


You mean I can't use Continuata to download SOLO ?


----------



## mybadmemory

LamaRose said:


> Are you using a PC or Mac? Using a Mac + external drive, I'm getting 270gb needed on the internal drive... I could easily handle the 135gb... this is some weird, WTF issue.


And do you have both download location and content location set to the external drive?


----------



## muziksculp

OK, only possible to use Native Access to download SOLO, Continuata won't work. 

I had to free more space from the drive I planned to download it on, to begin the download. 

Downloading SOLO now.


----------



## tebling

Is the manual / documentation still coming? It wasn't in my download, and isn't on the manuals page at audioimperia.com.


----------



## audioimperia

tebling said:


> Is the manual / documentation still coming? It wasn't in my download, and isn't on the manuals page at audioimperia.com.


Yeah, updating that tomorrow.


----------



## tebling

Since I recently did a mockup from the film "Cast Away" that featured the oboe, I thought I'd do a quick switch over to Solo. No EQ, straight out of the box using default settings. Here's the result:




For reference, here's my original mockup that used an instrument with controllable vibrato:


----------



## ansthenia

LamaRose said:


> Are you using a PC or Mac? Using a Mac + external drive, I'm getting 270gb needed on the internal drive... I could easily handle the 135gb... this is some weird, WTF issue.


Mac. That's odd.


----------



## JohnBMears

tebling said:


> Since I recently did a mockup from the film "Cast Away" that featured the oboe, I thought I'd do a quick switch over to Solo. No EQ, straight out of the box using default settings. Here's the result:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The biggest problem I had with it is that C4 (which is the root of the phrases) seems to have a much slower attack than the surrounding notes.
> 
> For reference, here's my original mockup that used an instrument with controllable vibrato:



What are these strings? Good job!


----------



## tebling

JohnBMears said:


> What are these strings? Good job!


Thanks! CSS + Con Moto.


----------



## LamaRose

mybadmemory said:


> And do you have both download location and content location set to the external drive?


Thanks... I actually figured this out this morning and it took 8 hours to download. Now I have another issue... the "Solo Installer Mac.pkg" is corrupted and will not open. The solo.iso seems complete as it totaled around 89gb. 

Anyone willing to email me their Mac installer would be appreciated. Just PM for my address. Thanks.


----------



## zouzou

Bighill said:


> Have to admit that I bought it out of curiosity. I´m afraid it will join many other unused libraries scattered around on my disks.....


I'm afraid that too ... I already have so many libs.
I am still hesitant (one day yes, another day no).
I have very few Audio Imperia libs, but I agree that they are very good quality and easy to use.
The interest is often to build a complete set of instruments from the same company (ensembles, solos, choirs, fx ...) with the same recording method in the same room, in order to maintain sound and technical coherence.
Even if the question may be asked differently with solo instruments, my question is: should I start building a new set of Audio Imperia instruments, with the risk mentioned by Bighill "it will join many other unused libraries scattered around on my disks ... "
Also, the difficulties mentioned with NA are not very encouraging ...
I still have until the end of May to decide ...
Anyway, congratulations to Audio Imperia for this great product!


----------



## RogiervG

tebling said:


> Since I recently did a mockup from the film "Cast Away" that featured the oboe, I thought I'd do a quick switch over to Solo. No EQ, straight out of the box using default settings. Here's the result:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The biggest problem I had with it is that C4 (which is the root of the phrases) seems to have a much slower attack than the surrounding notes.
> 
> For reference, here's my original mockup that used an instrument with controllable vibrato:



Oboe sounds a bit weird in the intro of the first example, like it has no legato at all (sustains)
Is this the SOLO library legato Oboe? Or sustained oboe?
The second example, the second part of the intro (starting at 0:12) has noticable legato transitions.


----------



## zedmaster

RogiervG said:


> Oboe sounds a bit weird in the intro of the first example, like it has no legato at all (sustains)
> Is this the SOLO library legato Oboe? Or sustained oboe?
> The second example, the second part of the intro (starting at 0:12) has noticable legato transitions.


I replayed the first notes for you with legato (some notes retongued, some refingered). No processing, modern mix (to mimick the sound of the previous example).


----------



## tebling

RogiervG said:


> Oboe sounds a bit weird in the intro of the first example, like it has no legato at all (sustains)
> Is this the SOLO library legato Oboe? Or sustained oboe?
> The second example, the second part of the intro (starting at 0:12) has noticable legato transitions.


I went back and reloaded the track after restarting Cubase and suddenly those legato issues (including the slow attack on C4) went away. Not sure what happened. I've edited my post with this new version:


----------



## Daniel James

Hey lads, I uploaded my avin a look at SOLO video to Youtube for those who missed it live and want to see someone just playing with it for 2 hours 😂



-DJ


----------



## Evans

Skipping around on this video for about ten minutes earlier, it appears to be a very good showcase of this library in practical use. And I'm really mad about it, because it would totally be a hobbyist-only purchase that I don't need.

But my kid doesn't need that new Xbox either, right?


----------



## Bighill

RogiervG said:


> Oboe sounds a bit weird in the intro of the first example, like it has no legato at all (sustains)
> Is this the SOLO library legato Oboe? Or sustained oboe?
> The second example, the second part of the intro (starting at 0:12) has noticable legato transitions.


In the real world, retongued means non-legato. Same for rebowed "legato" strings.


----------



## davidson

Sorry if it's been asked already, but the library is only a single dynamic layer, right? So what's the difference between the dynamics and expression knobs? @audioimperia


----------



## FireGS

tebling said:


> I went back and reloaded the track after restarting Cubase and suddenly those legato issues (including the slow attack on C4) went away. Not sure what happened. I've edited my post with this new version:



Two things killing this for me - I dont really think a solo oboe (even when mic'd as a soloist) would have the same perceived loudness as a string section. And those repetitions don't sound right, but I'm sure that's a library limitation.


----------



## tebling

FireGS said:


> Two things killing this for me - I dont really think a solo oboe (even when mic'd as a soloist) would have the same perceived loudness as a string section. And those repetitions don't sound right, but I'm sure that's a library limitation.


Re: loudness, I agree the oboe is a bit hot but not egregiously so. Have a listen to the source - the oboe sits on top of the strings when they play together.


----------



## audioimperia

davidson said:


> Sorry if it's been asked already, but the library is only a single dynamic layer, right? So what's the difference between the dynamics and expression knobs? @audioimperia


We like treating Dynamics and Expression as two completely different things: When it's just one dynamic layer, Dynamics can modulate volume, filters, or other types of spectral processing for emulating lower dynamics (Solo). When it's multiple dynamic layers, Dynamics does crossfading between them. Expression on the other hand will always be a smoothed out -inf dB to 0 dB volume controller intended for automation.


----------



## tebling

FireGS said:


> And those repetitions don't sound right, but I'm sure that's a library limitation.


Great point. On a hunch, I went in and added sustain CC on the repetitions and that seemed to cure the problem. This is why I asked about documentation


----------



## FireGS

tebling said:


> Re: loudness, I agree the oboe is a bit hot but not egregiously so. Have a listen to the source - the oboe sits on top of the strings when they play together.



Unfortunately, I was right without looking at a meter, but I double checked. The oboe is significantly quieter than the strings, and the combination is louder yet, because they're playing louder. (and more instruments playing louder tends to = louder)






All's I'm saying is that the gain of your solo part should not match the gain of a louder section with more instruments.


----------



## Al Maurice

FireGS said:


> Unfortunately, I was right without looking at a meter, but I double checked. The oboe is significantly quieter than the strings, and the combination is louder yet, because they're playing louder. (and more instruments playing louder tends to = louder)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> All's I'm saying is that the gain of your solo part should not match the loudness of a louder section.


If this track is purely from Solo, then you'd expect the oboe to stand out against the other solo instruments. Although on the other hand if there are other ensemble sections then perhaps this will not be the case. Context as usual is key.


----------



## FireGS

Al Maurice said:


> If this track is purely from Solo, then you'd expect the oboe to stand out against the other solo instruments. Although on the other hand if there are other ensemble sections then perhaps this will not be the case. Context as usual is key.


Yeah no for sure, but it's a real pet peeve of mine when something played at a quiet(er) dynamic is boosted unrealistically louder just to be louder in a mix - it's not the way the original was played and recorded, and I'm a firm believer in trying to match real-world levels.


----------



## tebling

FireGS said:


> Yeah no for sure, but it's a real pet peeve of mine when something played at a quiet(er) dynamic is boosted unrealistically louder just to be louder in a mix - it's not the way the original was played and recorded, and I'm a firm believer in trying to match real-world levels.


Point taken. It makes perfect sense and I appreciate the feedback. I've already made the adjustments, but we're getting off topic so I won't re-upload.


----------



## jaketanner

Daniel James said:


> Hey lads, I uploaded my avin a look at SOLO video to Youtube for those who missed it live and want to see someone just playing with it for 2 hours 😂
> 
> 
> 
> -DJ



Winds and brass sound great. Can’t get past the string sound…didn’t like it on any of their other products either. But the other instruments sound nice. Might be worth it for the brass alone.


----------



## muziksculp

Does anyone know which String Ensemble Library/s Daniel James used in his YT SOLO video ?

Thanks.

EDIT : OK, I finally saw which strings he is using in the video  , they are CSS Full Ensemble Strings.


----------



## chapbot

How do you play a repetition? Is it automatic or do you need a keyswitch or sustain pedal?


----------



## tebling

Looks like the manual is available now.


----------



## tebling

chapbot said:


> How do you play a repetition? Is it automatic or do you need a keyswitch or sustain pedal?


The manual doesn't mention it, but sustain CC worked for me.


----------



## muziksculp

tebling said:


> Looks like the manual is available now.


Thanks for the heads up on the manual.  

This is the Pyramid Manual, not the SOLO library user manual. I'm guessing they are still not done with the SOLO manual.


----------



## Banquet

I'm really on the fence about this one. DJ gives it a great play through and recommendation. From what I've heard I think the instruments mostly sound lovely but occasionally a bit flat and synth like. They do seem incredibly playable and the legatos sound really good (to my untrained ear!). I love the idea of really lyrical instruments like these - particularly the woodwinds.

So I'm really tempted, but I do have Spitfire Solo Strings, JB violin, Emotional Cello and Viola... I have BBC SO Core for brass and woodwinds and I regard the brass since the new update as generally pretty good with a nice tone and the Woodwinds are very nice. I also have Studio Strings Woodwinds and CSB for more choice in Brass. I'm not sure if SOLO would genuinely add some real capabilities to my available sounds. I think the intro price is great but I'm a bit hesitant about the HD requirements as I have about 400gb left and don't want to have to buy another drive for some time, so I'm trying to only buy libraries that I'm really going to use as bread and butter instruments. 

I had kind of decided not to buy for the time being but DJ's excellent video has put me back into being really tempted again... ah well, still have a week or two to decide until intro pricing ends.


----------



## JoeWatkin

I really wanted to like this library but its just not doing it for me.... probably a good thing as I'd be doubling up on most of these instruments.


----------



## zimm83

Waiting for SOLO light....


----------



## Marco_D

FireGS said:


> Yeah no for sure, but it's a real pet peeve of mine when something played at a quiet(er) dynamic is boosted unrealistically louder just to be louder in a mix - it's not the way the original was played and recorded, and I'm a firm believer in trying to match real-world levels.


The real world also includes the existence of studio multitrack recording, where you can adjust levels anyway you want. It's only unrealistic if your philosophy, when using orchestral samples, is to reproduce exactly the sound of a traditionally recorded orchestra. But a lot of modern orchestral music is not recorded in a single session or even in a single environment.


----------



## FireGS

Marco_D said:


> It's only unrealistic if your philosophy, when using orchestral samples, is to reproduce exactly the sound of a traditionally recorded orchestra.


When people do mockups of existing music, I don't see any other reason to do it - besides working on their craft and trying to emulate a real recording as much as possible.



Marco_D said:


> But a lot of modern orchestral music is not recorded in a single session or even in a single environment.


And even still, those mix engineers don't make ridiculous choices in the mix. They're trying to make it sound as natural as possible (unless it's going for an effect, which this example is/was not).


----------



## GGaca

mybadmemory said:


> Let the harp rumors begin! 😬


~6 months ago someone said he is missing harp in AI's libraries (Audio Imperia's facebook post comment) and Audio Imperia respond: "Got Nucleus? There is an update in the works that might be to your liking".


----------



## mybadmemory

GGaca said:


> ~6 months ago someone said he is missing harp in AI's libraries (Audio Imperia's facebook post comment) and Audio Imperia respond: "Got Nucleus? There is an update in the works that might be to your liking".


Wo! Can't wait!!


----------



## Marco_D

FireGS said:


> When people do mockups of existing music, I don't see any other reason to do it - besides working on their craft and trying to emulate a real recording as much as possible.


I don't know, people do things for different reasons. Maybe one wants to do a mockup to experiment with a different balance in the mix?



FireGS said:


> And even still, those mix engineers don't make ridiculous choices in the mix. They're trying to make it sound as natural as possible (unless it's going for an effect, which this example is/was not).


But again, there's nothing inherently ridiculous or unrealistic with having a pp clarinet sounding louder than FFF trombones in a mix. True, it's not what you would hear in a traditional performance setting, but ridiculous? It's like saying that Magritte's Castle of the Pyrenees is a ridiculous painting because in reality castles don't float in the air.

In general, the language you use implies that the traditional orchestra is "realistic" and "natural", whereas what doesn't sound like a traditional orchestra is unnatural, if not "ridiculous". But obviously the orchestra is not 'natural' and is not any more 'real' than a multitrack mix recording, it's just the result of a series of historical, partly arbitrary, processes. In another timeline the orchestra might have been completely different. What is not arbitrary and actually *is* natural, are the core principles of human perception, so you want to stick to basic principles like balance, blend, consistency and separation of different planes of listening, whether it's a mix of electronic music or a traditional orchestral arrangement. 

Case in point, the mockup you criticized, to me sounds like a perfectly adequate balance of background vs. foreground in a typical homophonic texture (accompaniment vs. melody). It might not reflect the arbitrary reality of what a modern day oboe would sound against a string section in a concert hall, but it does reflect fundamental principles of perception, which to me is more important.


----------



## FireGS

I'm not sure how many times I've read on this forum, "how can I make this sound unrealistic", but I have heard quite the opposite more often. Sure, creatives can do whatever they want! Just don't be upset when the work is critiqued because it doesn't sound realistic. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



Marco_D said:


> But again, there's nothing inherently ridiculous or unrealistic with having a pp clarinet sounding louder than FFF trombones in a mix.


I'm not going to argue against this.. because to do so would also be ridiculous.


----------



## LamaRose

Has anyone successfully downloaded this on an M1 Mac? I've successfully downloaded the iso 2X - they match in size - but the installation fails. No problem using older NI player libraries.


----------



## zouzou

Banquet said:


> I had kind of decided not to buy for the time being but DJ's excellent video has put me back into being really tempted again... ah well, still have a week or two to decide until intro pricing ends.


The same...!


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> Thanks for the heads up on the manual.
> 
> This is the Pyramid Manual, not the SOLO library user manual. I'm guessing they are still not done with the SOLO manual.


There's no specific SOLO manual, but we've updated the Pyramid engine manual with the new SOLO features.


----------



## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> There's no specific SOLO manual, but we've updated the Pyramid engine manual with the new SOLO features.


OK. That's good enough. 

SOLO is such a wonderful, and useful library. Loving it. 

Thanks. 

Any news on the Areia update ?


----------



## audioimperia

zimm83 said:


> Waiting for SOLO light....


There are currently no plans to do a Lite Edition of Solo.


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> OK. That's good enough.
> 
> SOLO is such a wonderful, and useful library. Loving it.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Any news on the Areia update ?


Balancing a tight schedule. Since it's both a content and an engine update we're trying to figure out when to do them this year. At the Kontakt level, we're still just two guys (just added a third, but still in training) so between updates and new releases to keep our doors open ... it's quite the challenge. The other balancing act has been scheduling ensemble sessions and doing recording sessions in a responsible manner during these unprecedented times. Either way, we're definitely gonna keep you updated on how we're progressing. We might just do two updates, engine update first and then later in the year do the content update.


----------



## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> Balancing a tight schedule. Since it's both a content and an engine update we're trying to figure out when to do them this year. At the Kontakt level, we're still just two guys (just added a third, but still in training) so between updates and new releases to keep our doors open ... it's quite the challenge. The other balancing act has been scheduling ensemble sessions and doing recording sessions in a responsible manner during these unprecedented times. Either way, we're definitely gonna keep you updated on how we're progressing. We might just do two updates, engine update first and then later in the year do the content update.


Awesome ! 

Thanks for the feedback, I totally understand. 

I wish you all the best, and good luck with all of your upcoming projects.


----------



## chapbot

Here are some thoughts as to how I'm using the library which might help people deciding to purchase or not.

Currently I am happy with my libraries. I have my favorite flute, trumpet, clarinet etc. They sound great when they're all playing together, blasting over a mix. However, if I have a more exposed piece of music and I need a good solo I'm not finding my current libraries as convincing as I'd like. Sure, they sound great but they're not up to solo snuff.

That's where I am using AI Solo, so I guess the name aptly fits the library - that's just how I'm using it - for that expressive solo line.

I also tried replacing all my favorite instruments in a recent track with AI Solo but it just didn't work. For me they're niche: they add that extra little icing whenever I need an exposed solo but it's not working in a big mix with a bunch of instruments. I remember them talking about doing a fast library and now I understand why.


----------



## ALittleNightMusic

chapbot said:


> Currently I am happy with my libraries. I have my favorite flute, trumpet, clarinet etc. They sound great when they're all playing together, blasting over a mix. However, if I have a more exposed piece of music and I need a good solo I'm not finding my current libraries as convincing as I'd like. Sure, they sound great but they're not up to solo snuff.


Which were your current libraries before SOLO that you were happy with?


----------



## M0rdechai

Solo II

The brand new addition to the amazing collection of Solo instruments by Audio Imperia.
Featuring:

- Irish Wistle
- Irish Flute
- Uilleann Pipes
- Hardanger Fiddle
- Duduk
- Xindi Flute
- Xiao Flute
- Erhu
- Ocarina
- Pan Flute
- Quena Flute
- Angelic Boy voice



(pleaseplease?)


----------



## Grilled Cheese

Solo looks and sounds wonderful. Putting my hand up early to request additional instruments in future:

Alto flute.
Bass flute/oboe/clarinet.

Looove deeper woodwinds.


----------



## audioimperia

M0rdechai said:


> Solo II
> 
> The brand new addition to the amazing collection of Solo instruments by Audio Imperia.
> Featuring:
> 
> - Irish Wistle
> - Irish Flute
> - Uilleann Pipes
> - Hardanger Fiddle
> - Duduk
> - Xindi Flute
> - Xiao Flute
> - Erhu
> - Ocarina
> - Pan Flute
> - Quena Flute
> - Angelic Boy voice
> 
> 
> 
> (pleaseplease?)


Very nice!


----------



## ReelToLogic

audioimperia said:


> Yes, seems that Access requires at least double the library size to extract and install. It also seems to extract and install on different volumes. We're currently discussing this with the team, we'll keep you guys posted. So sorry for the inconveniences.


Audioimperia, do you think this will be resolved before your intro pricing ends? I may have a way to put together a second machine and do the transfer thing, but I'd rather not go to all that trouble if you think this issue will be corrected. I haven't purchased any other Kontakt libraries that require a bunch of space on my internal drive. Thanks.


----------



## zedmaster

I just wanted to mention that you can use Lukas Ruschitzka's s1toolbox.com to convert the Expression Maps provided by Audio Imperia on the Solo product page to S1 Sound variations within seconds 

Thanks for preparing those Expression Maps @audioimperia !

Would love to see a solo double bass.


----------



## Toecutter

chrispire said:


> Solo looks and sounds wonderful. Putting my hand up early to request additional instruments in future:
> 
> Alto flute.
> Bass flute/oboe/clarinet.
> 
> Looove deeper woodwinds.


+1 would like to have a solo tenor horn too... I can't think of any sample library with a tenor horn? I know that the Orchestra 2 has a tenorhorn ensemble but they are very different instruments (yep, spelled almost the same but closer to a wagner tuba in form and similar to what we would think of as an euphonium).


----------



## muziksculp

zedmaster said:


> I just wanted to mention that you can use Lukas Ruschitzka's s1toolbox.com to convert the Expression Maps provided by Audio Imperia on the Solo product page to S1 Sound variations within seconds


Wow. I didn't know about this. Thanks for posting about it. 

I'm a Studio One Pro 5 users, so this would be very helpful for me. But I also think Sample Library developers should also make Sound Variation versions for S1 users.


----------



## audioimperia

ReelToLogic said:


> Audioimperia, do you think this will be resolved before your intro pricing ends? I may have a way to put together a second machine and do the transfer thing, but I'd rather not go to all that trouble if you think this issue will be corrected. I haven't purchased any other Kontakt libraries that require a bunch of space on my internal drive. Thanks.


We're currently talking to NI regarding Access, we'll keep you guys posted.


----------



## Trash Panda

zedmaster said:


> I just wanted to mention that you can use Lukas Ruschitzka's s1toolbox.com to convert the Expression Maps provided by Audio Imperia on the Solo product page to S1 Sound variations within seconds
> 
> Thanks for preparing those Expression Maps @audioimperia !
> 
> Would love to see a solo double bass.


*!*


----------



## Tom Hawk

chapbot said:


> Here are some thoughts as to how I'm using the library which might help people deciding to purchase or not.
> 
> Currently I am happy with my libraries. I have my favorite flute, trumpet, clarinet etc. They sound great when they're all playing together, blasting over a mix. However, if I have a more exposed piece of music and I need a good solo I'm not finding my current libraries as convincing as I'd like. Sure, they sound great but they're not up to solo snuff.
> 
> That's where I am using AI Solo, so I guess the name aptly fits the library - that's just how I'm using it - for that expressive solo line.
> 
> I also tried replacing all my favorite instruments in a recent track with AI Solo but it just didn't work. For me they're niche: they add that extra little icing whenever I need an exposed solo but it's not working in a big mix with a bunch of instruments. I remember them talking about doing a fast library and now I understand why.


Hey chapbot - have you tried using the mic positions to get SOLO to sit better in your track with your other sample libraries?

I found that to be the best way for me to blend SOLO with other libraries, and turning off the internal Kontakt reverb & using a better sounding external reverb -- I found that Blackhole works really nicely on the solo woodwinds & vocals (maybe not that reverb for a traditional orchestral track though).

With you having other soloists already I guess this library maybe doesn't provide you with as much value as it would to someone who has no other soloists in their arsenal


----------



## doctoremmet

Black Hole? Really? Not typically one for orchestral tails, I’d say...


----------



## Tom Hawk

doctoremmet said:


> Black Hole? Really?


Yep! Well, it depends on the genre you're writing for. If you're writing something that is very orchestral in nature then perhaps not.

But in the context of a hybrid orchestral track it works really well. I believe @Daniel James uses Black Hole on a lot of solo instruments in his music (including other libraries, not just SOLO).

I used Black Hole a lot in my demo track (hybrid orchestral style) on some of the soloists alongside the lovely VSS3 reverb:


----------



## doctoremmet

Tom Hawk said:


> Yep! Well, it depends on the genre you're writing for. If you're writing something that is very orchestral in nature then perhaps not. But in the context of a hybrid orchestral track it works really well. I believe @Daniel James uses Black Hole on a lot of his solo instruments in his music (including other libraries, not just SOLO).
> 
> 
> I used Black Hole a lot in my demo track on some of the soloists alongside the lovely VSS3 reverb:



Cool! I guess I have learned something. Thanks! ❤️


----------



## Tom Hawk

doctoremmet said:


> Cool! I guess I have learned something. Thanks! ❤️


No worries!


----------



## Daniel James

Tom Hawk said:


> Yep! Well, it depends on the genre you're writing for. If you're writing something that is very orchestral in nature then perhaps not.
> 
> But in the context of a hybrid orchestral track it works really well. I believe @Daniel James uses Black Hole on a lot of solo instruments in his music (including other libraries, not just SOLO).
> 
> I used Black Hole a lot in my demo track (hybrid orchestral style) on some of the soloists alongside the lovely VSS3 reverb:



If I could put blackhole in my PepsiMax I would.

-DJ


----------



## Toecutter

Daniel James said:


> If I could put blackhole in my PepsiMax I would.
> 
> -DJ


#sadpepsi


----------



## Daniel James

PepsiMax is like home. Mexican Coke is like a nice exotic holiday once in a while. I would say Coke still needs more Blackhole than PepsiMax tho. Thats got a nice tail as is....What the fuck am I talking about 😂

-DJ


----------



## Toecutter

Daniel James said:


> PepsiMax is like home. Mexican Coke is like a nice exotic holiday once in a while. I would say Coke still needs more Blackhole than PepsiMax tho. Thats got a nice tail as is....What the fuck am I talking about 😂
> 
> -DJ


Such a rare sight  PepsiCo should have made you an official ambassador by now!


----------



## Trash Panda

Daniel James said:


> PepsiMax is like home. Mexican Coke is like a nice exotic holiday once in a while. I would say Coke still needs more Blackhole than PepsiMax tho. Thats got a nice tail as is....What the fuck am I talking about 😂
> 
> -DJ


If you had to choose a virtual piano to set your Pepsi Max on while you play with SOLO, on which one would it rest?

Would it be a man of refined gentleness?


----------



## Evans

Can we get back on topic and start talking about Native Access again?


----------



## Toecutter

Evans said:


> Can we get back on topic and start talking about Native Access again?


Audio Imperia can't say I didn't try to cause a distraction here. #Pepsigate


----------



## LamaRose

audioimperia said:


> We're currently talking to NI regarding Access, we'll keep you guys posted.


You need to press them, at least in the interim, into offering direct downloads upfront instead of screwing with NA. Also, there are issues with M1 chips... took me a freakin' week - of my own efforts - to figure this shite out. Who do I send the check to?


----------



## Mike Fox

Daniel James said:


> PepsiMax is like home. Mexican Coke is like a nice exotic holiday once in a while. I would say Coke still needs more Blackhole than PepsiMax tho. Thats got a nice tail as is....What the fuck am I talking about 😂
> 
> -DJ


Dude, it’s all about Crystal Pepsi! Just kidding. That shit tasted like piss.

For real though, what’s the difference between Pepsi and Pepsi Max?


----------



## chrisav

Mike Fox said:


> Dude, it’s all about Crystal Pepsi! Just kidding. That shit tasted like piss.
> 
> For real though, what’s the difference between Pepsi and Pepsi Max?


Pepsi Max is sugar-free and actually tastes great (unlike other sugar-free colas)


----------



## Mike Fox

chrisav said:


> Pepsi Max is sugar-free and actually tastes great (unlike other sugar-free colas)


Ah! Aspartame?


----------



## Trash Panda

Mike Fox said:


> Dude, it’s all about Crystal Pepsi! Just kidding. That shit tasted like piss.
> 
> For real though, what’s the difference between Pepsi and Pepsi Max?


Man I loved putting Crystal Pepsi into a glass and offer someone a Sprite/7-Up. Wish we had smart phones back then to film reactions.


----------



## FinGael

chrisav said:


> Pepsi Max is sugar-free and actually tastes great (unlike other sugar-free colas)


I have a pretty sensitive body (though no known food allergies) and I get an awful reaction from hell from aspartame. I have accidentally several times bought items that contain it as a sweetener, and have not been aware of the product having it, and the reaction has every time been the same. A *very nasty* headache & foggy brain, problems with eyesight, vomiting all over the place and having strong shivers.

Ain't gonna touch that thing with a pole.


----------



## chapbot

Tom Hawk said:


> Hey chapbot - have you tried using the mic positions to get SOLO to sit better in your track with your other sample libraries?
> 
> I found that to be the best way for me to blend SOLO with other libraries, and turning off the internal Kontakt reverb & using a better sounding external reverb -- I found that Blackhole works really nicely on the solo woodwinds & vocals (maybe not that reverb for a traditional orchestral track though).


Mics aren't my issue here, it's the "assertiveness" of the samples. SOLO is more lyrical and emotional, my main libraries are more forceful and can sail over the mix.



> With you having other soloists already I guess this library maybe doesn't provide you with as much value as it would to someone who has no other soloists in their arsenal


Correct. I'm seeing it as an "icing on the cake" library. My other libraries do just fine, but to just push my track up a notch, I'm using SOLO in a solo, exposed part of the music where the realism of the library can shine through. I wouldn't recommend SOLO as your first instrumental, bread and butter library. However, if they do create a fast legato version, the two would be a fantastic combo to indeed be your first.


----------



## Evans

I figured I'd jump on this, assuming I could easily clear out the space needed. Haha, I was wrong.

I have 205 GB free on my boot drive, and 145 GB free on my SSD. Native Access first told me that this was fine, and started downloading the library.

I step away for dinner and later come back to this message:






That "251 GB required" is *way *over what it initially told me when it first started letting me download the library, and is almost 2.8x the size of the installed library.

EDIT: I got the library downloaded. It was frustrating, but I'm glad I picked it up. Still, 2.78888x the space of the installed library was what it asked for on my SSD, in *addition* to the space it needed on my boot drive. Wowza.


----------



## zouzou

Daniel James said:


> Hey lads, I uploaded my avin a look at SOLO video to Youtube for those who missed it live and want to see someone just playing with it for 2 hours 😂



From 1:32:00 to 1:40:00, reminds me of Klaus Schulze! (_"Heart"_ in "Live" album)
I like this!


----------



## Laptoprabbit

chrisav said:


> Pepsi Max is sugar-free and actually tastes great (unlike other sugar-free colas)


Recently had the unfortunate experience of Pepsi Zero Sugar (Pepsi Min?). Blecchh.

Regarding the library, the only thing holding me back is the boot drive space. Sounds great


----------



## Banquet

Does anyone who has Solo also have OT soloists and have an opinion on which is best for playablilty, lyrical ness and ability to use with a minimal accompaniment?


----------



## audioimperia

So, we've been discussing the issue of the required available space for the download with NI over the past couple of days. They are indeed aware of the situation and have been very supportive in terms of finding solutions.

If you run into this issue with Native Access when you try to download SOLO, you can reach out to the NI customer/tech support and request a time-limited direct download link to the ISO file for the product. With a direct download link you will be able to download the installer directly on a secondary drive even if there is not enough free space on the system drive. And running the ISO directly from the external drive and installing onto the external drive also bypasses the disk requirement on the system drive.


----------



## Stephonix

audioimperia said:


> So, we've been discussing the issue of the required available space for the download with NI over the past couple of days. They are indeed aware of the situation and have been very supportive in terms of finding solutions.
> 
> If you run into this issue with Native Access when you try to download SOLO, you can reach out to the NI customer/tech support and request a time-limited direct download link to the ISO file for the product. With a direct download link you will be able to download the installer directly on a secondary drive even if there is not enough free space on the system drive. And running the ISO directly from the external drive and installing onto the external drive also bypasses the disk requirement on the system drive.


Great thanks. Now I’m ready to jump.


----------



## Mike Fox

Stephonix said:


> Great thanks. Now I’m ready to jump.


----------



## AndreBoulard

M0rdechai said:


> Solo II
> 
> The brand new addition to the amazing collection of Solo instruments by Audio Imperia.
> Featuring:
> 
> - Irish Wistle
> - Irish Flute
> - Uilleann Pipes
> - Hardanger Fiddle
> - Duduk
> - Xindi Flute
> - Xiao Flute
> - Erhu
> - Ocarina
> - Pan Flute
> - Quena Flute
> - Angelic Boy voice
> 
> 
> 
> (pleaseplease?)


omg yes and this would insane since AI is so amazing at legatos. this would be mind blowing


----------



## LamaRose

Solo is now available for download via Continuata, per a recent email from AI. As for the library itself...

Solo is aptly named. The instruments sound best with little to no accompaniment. That's not to say that they cannot/should not be mixed in arrangements... but to me, these were born to stand alone straight out of the box. 

If less is more, then less is everything with Solo. Somber, moody, reflective... any scene of this ilk would be well served with a mere handful of notes from the woods or brass... each instrument is pure magic to my ears. 

The vocalists are special as well. I detect a bit of pitchiness here and there, but it adds intimacy and fragility to the voices, and I suspect such perfection was negated in lieu of the performances. More gold to my ears.

The strings... well, let's say they were/are a missed opportunity. They sound/feel like "samples" and don't have the magic. I would love to see AI revisit them with more of that fragile Olafur Arnald/Max Richter vibe... maybe focus on chordal long sustains... even a single ensemble patch.

There's a lot of banter on the forums lately regarding instruments/libraries that inspire... Solo is chock-full of inspiration of the intimate, immediate kind. This is a one-of-kind peice of kit that I highly recommend for enthusiasts and working composers alike.


----------



## zedmaster

LamaRose said:


> I detect a bit of pitchiness here and there, but it adds intimacy and fragility to the voices, and I suspect such perfection was negated in lieu of the performances. More gold to my ears.


I noticed the same (positively!)


----------



## ReelToLogic

LamaRose said:


> Solo is now available for download via Continuata, per a recent email from AI. As for the library itself...


Thanks for this information! I purchased SOLO a couple of days ago, but did not receive such an email from AI. I just tried entering my Serial # into Continuata, but I get a message saying that SOLO is already installed. It's not, but I did register it in Native Access so that Native Instruments would know I had purchased it when I asked them for a download link right after I purchased it (as suggested by AI earlier in this thread). It shows up in the "Not Installed" tab in Native Access. 

I wonder if I need to "un-register" SOLO in Native Access in order for the Continuata approach to work? It's not clear how to un-register a library in Native Access (anyone know how to do that?). 

Sure would be nice if Audio Imperia would chime in with some more specific instructions... @audioimperia


----------



## rrichard63

ReelToLogic said:


> t's not clear how to un-register a library in Native Access (anyone know how to do that?).


MacOS:









How to remove a library from Native Access (Mac OS)


If you would like to remove a product from Native Access on your machine, you will need to do so by deleting the relevant plist file. Removing The Library 1) First, identify the library that you ...




spitfireaudio.zendesk.com





Windows:









How to remove a library from Native Access (Windows)


If you would like to remove a product from Native Access on your machine, you will need to do so by deleting the relevant registry folder. Removing The Library 1) First, identify the library that...




spitfireaudio.zendesk.com





On Windows there's also a little app that edits the registry for you, but I can't find it right now.


----------



## ReelToLogic

rrichard63 said:


> MacOS:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> How to remove a library from Native Access (Mac OS)
> 
> 
> If you would like to remove a product from Native Access on your machine, you will need to do so by deleting the relevant plist file. Removing The Library 1) First, identify the library that you ...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> spitfireaudio.zendesk.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Windows:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> How to remove a library from Native Access (Windows)
> 
> 
> If you would like to remove a product from Native Access on your machine, you will need to do so by deleting the relevant registry folder. Removing The Library 1) First, identify the library that...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> spitfireaudio.zendesk.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Windows there's also a little app that edits the registry for you, but I can't find it right now.


Thanks for this. I looked extensively, but SOLO is not in the list. All my other Kontakt libraries are listed - perhaps SOLO is not because it is not yet installed (just "registered" in Native Access). I think I'll have to be patient, and see what NI or AI suggest.


----------



## rrichard63

ReelToLogic said:


> I looked extensively, but SOLO is not in the list.



In your previous post you said:



ReelToLogic said:


> It shows up in the "Not Installed" tab in Native Access.


Do you mean that it has disappeared from Native Access? Or do you mean that you can't find in the Windows registry or Mac preferences folder? (And, are you on Windows or Mac?)


----------



## ReelToLogic

rrichard63 said:


> In your previous post you said:
> 
> 
> Do you mean that it has disappeared from Native Access? Or do you mean that you can't find in the Windows registry or Mac preferences folder? (And, are you on Windows or Mac?)


It was not in the list of Mac Preferences, but it was still in Native Access. I finally decided that it would be less work (and less waiting) to just power up a very old Mac MINI I have and use that to download/install SOLO to my SSD. I just did that and it installed onto the SSD just fine.

Now my issue is that my Mac is running KONTAKT 6.4.2, and when I tried to load SOLO it said that my version of KONTACT was too old and I need to update to the latest version. I can't go beyond 6.4.2 because I'm still on Sierra _(SEE EDIT BELOW)_. My system is rock-solid and stable so I'm hesitant to upgrade to Mojave and want keep it "as is" until i update my entire system to Apple silicon. Audio Imperia's website does state that is needs KONTAKT 6.5.2, but I had not noticed that before I purchased - that's on me, but it is surprising and unusual that a library won't run on 6.4.2. Oh well, I guess I'll either have to wait to use SOLO until I replace my Mac, or risk upgrading my current system.

Thanks anyway for the help.

_EDIT:__ I took the "risk" and updated my Mac to Mojave. All seems to be working fine thus far. I downloaded the latest version of Kontakt and can now use SOLO. All is well...._


----------



## audioimperia

ReelToLogic said:


> Thanks for this information! I purchased SOLO a couple of days ago, but did not receive such an email from AI. I just tried entering my Serial # into Continuata, but I get a message saying that SOLO is already installed. It's not, but I did register it in Native Access so that Native Instruments would know I had purchased it when I asked them for a download link right after I purchased it (as suggested by AI earlier in this thread). It shows up in the "Not Installed" tab in Native Access.
> 
> I wonder if I need to "un-register" SOLO in Native Access in order for the Continuata approach to work? It's not clear how to un-register a library in Native Access (anyone know how to do that?).
> 
> Sure would be nice if Audio Imperia would chime in with some more specific instructions... @audioimperia





LamaRose said:


> Solo is now available for download via Continuata, per a recent email from AI.


Hey guys. The Continuata download is an emergency solution if the download via Native Access or the direct links from Native Instruments don't work. If you indeed are in that situation please do reach out to us at [email protected].


----------



## rrichard63

ReelToLogic said:


> It was not in the list of Mac Preferences, but it was still in Native Access. I finally decided that it would be less work (and less waiting) to just power up a very old Mac MINI I have and use that to download/install SOLO to my SSD. I just did that and it installed onto the SSD just fine.
> 
> Now my issue is that my Mac is running KONTAKT 6.4.2, and when I tried to load SOLO it said that my version of KONTACT was too old and I need to update to the latest version. I can't go beyond 6.4.2 because I'm still on Sierra. My system is rock-solid and stable so I'm hesitant to upgrade to Mojave and want keep it "as is" until i update my entire system to Apple silicon. Audio Imperia's website does state that is needs KONTAKT 6.5.2, but I had not noticed that before I purchased - that's on me, but it is surprising and unusual that a library won't run on 6.4.2. Oh well, I guess I'll either have to wait to use SOLO until I replace my Mac, or risk upgrading my current system.
> 
> Thanks anyway for the help.


Technically you're right, and not noticing the requirement for Kontakt 6.5.2 is on you. But after all you've been through, this must be very disappointing. I used to be envious of Mac users every time I had to do battle with Windows. But now that I've learned about Apple's program of planned obsolescence, I'm glad I stayed with Microsoft. The devil you know ...


----------



## LamaRose

ReelToLogic said:


> I can't go beyond 6.4.2 because I'm still on Sierra.


What about High Sierra?


----------



## ALittleNightMusic

Curious why we haven't seen more comparisons of this library to existing solo libraries (OT Soloists, etc)? Any SOLO owners care to chime in on their thoughts vs. other solo libraries they have?


----------



## Evans

ALittleNightMusic said:


> Curious why we haven't seen more comparisons of this library to existing solo libraries (OT Soloists, etc)? Any SOLO owners care to chime in on their thoughts vs. other solo libraries they have?


Be the change that you want to see.


----------



## ALittleNightMusic

Evans said:


> Be the change that you want to see.


I don't own SOLO, but own other solo libraries already, hence wanting to see some comparisons.


----------



## Trash Panda

Throw up a MIDI file you want to hear and I can run it through SOLO and a few other libraries when I get home.


----------



## Grilled Cheese

30 minutes in...a few pros and cons.

Pros - really lovely tone all round, great interface and usability.

Cons. Not happy with the way legato is handled in many instruments, which is a shame because it was the magnificent legato in previous AI libraries that pre-sold me on Solo. (Vocals By Merethe Soltvedt was my first AI purchase and a bit of a game changer for me). 

For example, with the Violin and Viola, rebowed legato is executed very well, but does sound very "fiddle like" if overused. So if you try to use slurred legato you get some note transitions with portamento and others with fingered legato. There doesn't seem to be any control over this. Attached is an audio sample of a simple scale with the viola. Notes going down the scale sound like fingered legato (which is desirable to me) but all the notes going up the scale...eeek! That literally kills the instrument's usability for me.

*Wishlist 1*: The ability to just use fingered legato on all string instruments. Fingered, portamento and bow change legatos all have their place - I just want to be able to choose when they are used. 

I am happy with the sampling technique of using 1 velocity layer and baking in some vibrato and dynamic variation. However, as someone else mentioned earlier, playing legato and then holding a note results in an unnatural looped sustain. When you loop a crescendo-decrescendo over and over it sounds silly and immediately destroys the illusion that a real instrument is being played.

*Wishlist 2*: The ability to turn off the looping of sustained notes. Just let notes crescendo and decrescendo to their natural conclusion. Two examples of libraries that execute this very well are Project Sam's Lumina solo instruments and Orchestral Tools solo winds. One velocity, baked in expression, natural note conclusions.

If these two Wishlist requests could be fulfilled, this will become a go-to library for me.


----------



## Bighill

chrispire said:


> 30 minutes in...a few pros and cons.
> 
> Pros - really lovely tone all round, great interface and usability.
> 
> Cons. Not happy with the way legato is handled in many instruments, which is a shame because it was the magnificent legato in previous AI libraries that pre-sold me on Solo. (Vocals By Merethe Soltvedt was my first AI purchase and a bit of a game changer for me).
> 
> For example, with the Violin and Viola, rebowed legato is executed very well, but does sound very "fiddle like" if overused. So if you try to use slurred legato you get some note transitions with portamento and others with fingered legato. There doesn't seem to be any control over this. Attached is an audio sample of a simple scale with the viola. Notes going down the scale sound like fingered legato (which is desirable to me) but all the notes going up the scale...eeek! That literally kills the instrument's usability for me.
> 
> *Wishlist 1*: The ability to just use fingered legato on all string instruments. Fingered, portamento and bow change legatos all have their place - I just want to be able to choose when they are used.
> 
> I am happy with the sampling technique of using 1 velocity layer and baking in some vibrato and dynamic variation. However, as someone else mentioned earlier, playing legato and then holding a note results in an unnatural looped sustain. When you loop a crescendo-decrescendo over and over it sounds silly and immediately destroys the illusion that a real instrument is being played.
> 
> *Wishlist 2*: The ability to turn off the looping of sustained notes. Just let notes crescendo and decrescendo to their natural conclusion. Two examples of libraries that execute this very well are Project Sam's Lumina solo instruments and Orchestral Tools solo winds. One velocity, baked in expression, natural note conclusions.
> 
> If these two Wishlist requests could be fulfilled, this will become a go-to library for me.


I feel exactly the same. In the current shape of this library, the strings are just unusable.


----------



## zouzou

LamaRose said:


> The vocalists are special as well. I detect a bit of pitchiness here and there, but it adds intimacy and fragility to the voices, and I suspect such perfection was negated in lieu of the performances. More gold to my ears.
> 
> 
> zedmaster said:
> 
> 
> 
> I noticed the same (positively!)
Click to expand...

Me too, as well for some violin attacks, but not so serious as in a famous "Cello Legato", so I agree that these imperfections bring a natural "fragility" to these solos.


----------



## zouzou

Daniel James said:


> Hey lads, I uploaded my avin a look at SOLO video to Youtube for those who missed it live and want to see someone just playing with it for 2 hours 😂
> 
> 
> 
> -DJ



After much hesitation, Daniel James' video finally convinced me!  
Purchased!


----------



## Yogevs

Bighill said:


> I feel exactly the same. In the current shape of this library, the strings are just unusable.


"unusable" seems like such a harsh statement


----------



## Bighill

Yogevs said:


> "unusable" seems like such a harsh statement


To me, they are. Harsh or not.


----------



## mixedmoods

chrispire said:


> ... playing legato and then holding a note results in an unnatural looped sustain. When you loop a crescendo-decrescendo over and over it sounds silly and immediately destroys the illusion that a real instrument is being played.
> 
> *Wishlist 2*: The ability to turn off the looping of sustained notes. Just let notes crescendo and decrescendo to their natural conclusion. Two examples of libraries that execute this very well are Project Sam's Lumina solo instruments and Orchestral Tools solo winds. One velocity, baked in expression, natural note conclusions.


I agree – this is also for me the biggest downside of this Library.
Especially for a Library with a focus on lyrical (and probably slower) passages, the quality of the String Sustains / Longs is a bit disappointing as the looping sounds really fake. I would be good to have the ability to play fully bowed articulations or just the possibility to switch of the looping as mentioned.
For example also 8DIO did a really good job with their additional 1 and 2 bowed arks (Deep Solo Strings).


----------



## william81723

chrispire said:


> 30 minutes in...a few pros and cons.
> 
> Pros - really lovely tone all round, great interface and usability.
> 
> Cons. Not happy with the way legato is handled in many instruments, which is a shame because it was the magnificent legato in previous AI libraries that pre-sold me on Solo. (Vocals By Merethe Soltvedt was my first AI purchase and a bit of a game changer for me).
> 
> For example, with the Violin and Viola, rebowed legato is executed very well, but does sound very "fiddle like" if overused. So if you try to use slurred legato you get some note transitions with portamento and others with fingered legato. There doesn't seem to be any control over this. Attached is an audio sample of a simple scale with the viola. Notes going down the scale sound like fingered legato (which is desirable to me) but all the notes going up the scale...eeek! That literally kills the instrument's usability for me.
> 
> *Wishlist 1*: The ability to just use fingered legato on all string instruments. Fingered, portamento and bow change legatos all have their place - I just want to be able to choose when they are used.
> 
> I am happy with the sampling technique of using 1 velocity layer and baking in some vibrato and dynamic variation. However, as someone else mentioned earlier, playing legato and then holding a note results in an unnatural looped sustain. When you loop a crescendo-decrescendo over and over it sounds silly and immediately destroys the illusion that a real instrument is being played.
> 
> *Wishlist 2*: The ability to turn off the looping of sustained notes. Just let notes crescendo and decrescendo to their natural conclusion. Two examples of libraries that execute this very well are Project Sam's Lumina solo instruments and Orchestral Tools solo winds. One velocity, baked in expression, natural note conclusions.
> 
> If these two Wishlist requests could be fulfilled, this will become a go-to library for me.


I second all you said. +1


----------



## Pyro861

audioimperia said:


> So, we've been discussing the issue of the required available space for the download with NI over the past couple of days. They are indeed aware of the situation and have been very supportive in terms of finding solutions.
> 
> If you run into this issue with Native Access when you try to download SOLO, you can reach out to the NI customer/tech support and request a time-limited direct download link to the ISO file for the product. With a direct download link you will be able to download the installer directly on a secondary drive even if there is not enough free space on the system drive. And running the ISO directly from the external drive and installing onto the external drive also bypasses the disk requirement on the system drive.


It's a bit weird then... I ran into the same problem and that's the answer i've got from NI's customer service:

''The installation process of a Native Instruments product requires temporarily extra space on your system drive, even if you want to install the product on an external hard drive.
Please contact Audio Imperia directly as we do not have the direct installers for their product: [email protected]

Once you have received the direct link from them, don’t hesitate to contact us if you encounter any issue with the installation.''


----------



## Grilled Cheese

Yogevs said:


> "unusable" seems like such a harsh statement.


The strings are still technically usable, but I won’t use them in their current condition. A couple of updates could change that though, so I’m hopeful that they will be forthcoming.


----------



## Snoobydoobydoo

Its not unusable if its your only Solo Library :D
I like it a lot, the perfect addition to Nucleus or Jäger for me.

But..i had to delete my 80GB Ivory folder to get enough space for the installation,
woof....but its back now and running, downloaded and installed much faster than i had expected.


----------



## ka00

chrispire said:


> *Wishlist 2*: The ability to turn off the looping of sustained notes. Just let notes crescendo and decrescendo to their natural conclusion.



This option would be a welcome addition.


----------



## Soundbed

chrispire said:


> So if you try to use slurred legato you get some note transitions with portamento and others with fingered legato.





Bighill said:


> I feel exactly the same. In the current shape of this library, the strings are just unusable.


Workaround: on rising intervals, switch to the bowed transitions.

As mentioned descending intervals sound like “fingered”.

It’s an interesting choice to make rising intervals behave differently than descending intervals.


----------



## Bighill

Soundbed said:


> Workaround: on rising intervals, switch to the bowed transitions.
> 
> As mentioned descending intervals sound like “fingered”.
> 
> It’s an interesting choice to make rising intervals behave differently than descending intervals.


Different behaiour of ascending and descending notes is indeed an interesting choice. Do you seriously think this "workaround" is going to work? "Bow change legato" is a contradiction i terms. When string players change the bow direction it´s called non-legato. And that´s the way this script sounds.


----------



## Soundbed

Bighill said:


> Different behaiour of ascending and descending notes is indeed an interesting choice. Do you seriously think this "workaround" is going to work? "Bow change legato" is a contradiction i terms. When string players change the bow direction it´s called non-legato. And that´s the way this script sounds.


Your rigid definition seems a little peculiar. Plenty of (real, living, breathing) string players can connect notes on bow direction changes. Otherwise legato would mean “in one bow” or something.

As for the sampled transitions in Solo, slurred on descending intervals and bowed on ascending intervals is the only option right now to avoid that fiddle-like scoop. So, it works as well as it works. I’m not making a judgement on it. I’m only offering suggestions for how to approach the tool.

Edit: here's all "legato rebow" first, then, alternating "legato slurred" only on the descending intervals, "legato rebow" on the ascending intervals:

View attachment Solo Legato Rebowed then Alternating Slurred.mp3


Edit 2: Just for kicks here's CSSS with "fastest" Advanced legato. Interestingly the fingers come down on the fretboard pretty "hard" and quickly, making the rising intervals stand out a bit as well, but for a different reason:

View attachment CSSS Fast Advanced Legato.mp3


----------



## ALittleNightMusic

Soundbed said:


> Your rigid definition seems a little peculiar. Plenty of (real, living, breathing) string players can connect notes on bow direction changes. Otherwise legato would mean “in one bow” or something.
> 
> As for the sampled transitions in Solo, slurred on descending intervals and bowed on ascending intervals is the only option right now to avoid that fiddle-like scoop. So, it works as well as it works. I’m not making a judgement on it. I’m only offering suggestions for how to approach the tool.
> 
> Edit: here's all "legato rebow" first, then, alternating "legato slurred" only on the descending intervals, "legato rebow" on the ascending intervals:
> 
> View attachment Solo Legato Rebowed then Alternating Slurred.mp3
> 
> 
> Edit 2: Just for kicks here's CSSS with "fastest" Advanced legato. Interestingly the fingers come down on the fretboard pretty "hard" and quickly, making the rising intervals stand out a bit as well, but for a different reason:
> 
> View attachment CSSS Fast Advanced Legato.mp3


Thanks for sharing a CSSS comparison - quite a bit more vibrato there!


----------



## Bighill

Soundbed said:


> Your rigid definition seems a little peculiar. Plenty of string players can connect notes on bow direction changes. Otherwise legato would mean “in one bow” or something.
> 
> As for the samples transitions in Solo, slurred on descending intervals and bowed on ascending intervals is the only option right now to avoid that fiddle-like scoop. So, it works as well as it works. I’m not making a judgement on it I’m only offering suggestions for how to approach the tool.


Of course notes can be smoothly connected on bow change, but it still has a different sound than notes taken under one bow. The many string players I have worked with here in europe use the term legato for notes placed under a slur, literally "in one bow", as you say. So, a successful sampled string instrument will need well executed bow change "legato" and fingered legato. (You can´t place that many notes in one bow, although a lot of virtual instrument users do.) The only instrument of the many in my collection that does this really well is the Josua Bell violin.


----------



## Soundbed

Bighill said:


> Of course notes can be smoothly connected on bow change, but it still has a different sound than notes taken under one bow. The many string players I have worked with here in europe use the term legato for notes placed under a slur, literally "in one bow", as you say. So, a successful sampled string instrument will need well executed bow change "legato" and fingered legato. (You can´t place that many notes in one bow, although a lot of virtual instrument users do.) The only instrument of the many in my collection that does this really well is the Josua Bell violin.


Glad we agree.

Initially you said "Bow change legato" is a contradiction in terms.

I thought that seemed like an overly rigid definition of legato.

Then you agreed a successful sampled string instrument will need well executed bow change "legato".

Solo has a fairly well executed bow change legato, imho. They label it Legato Rebowed.

It's not a super subtle, super connected, overly smooth affair, but neither is fingered legato in many real world cases. Fingered legato can sound very abrupt, quick and nearly instantaneous.

I was suggesting is that Solo's "Legato Rebowed" can be used in place of slurred legato when the strings have ascending intervals, to avoid the scooping port type sound.

We also agree the Josh Bell is pretty awesome.

As for notation, legato doesn't require a slur of course (I'm sure you agree).

I really don't want to disagree today.


----------



## Bighill

Soundbed said:


> Glad we agree.
> 
> Initially you said "Bow change legato" is a contradiction in terms.
> 
> I thought that seemed like an overly rigid definition of legato.
> 
> Then you agreed a successful sampled string instrument will need well executed bow change "legato".
> 
> Solo has a fairly well executed bow change legato, imho. They label it Legato Rebowed.
> 
> It's not a super subtle, super connected, overly smooth affair, but neither is fingered legato in many real world cases. Fingered legato can sound very abrupt, quick and nearly instantaneous.
> 
> I was suggesting is that Solo's "Legato Rebowed" can be used in place of slurred legato when the strings have ascending intervals, to avoid the scooping port type sound.
> 
> We also agree the Josh Bell is pretty awesome.
> 
> As for notation, legato doesn't require a slur of course (I'm sure you agree).
> 
> I really don't want to disagree today.


The "bow change legato" in Solo is nice and realistic. I still won´t call it a smooth legato, as there is an audible break when the new note sets in. Maybe this is just semantics. But try to ask string players

Instantaneousness is the main virtue of slurred legato. That´s what makes it so smooth. You have an unbroken stream of energy from the bow, the left hand finger just comes down on a new pitch, with no restart or loss of energy. The wind instruments in "Solo" execute this difference (fingered and retounged) very well. 

I think bow changed and slurred notes sound so different that the one can not substitute for the other. (On the other hand, you work with what you have.) I started working with this in the late eighties, so I remember the times of far less sophisticated tools


----------



## Soundbed

Bighill said:


> The "bow change legato" in Solo is nice and realistic. I still won´t call it a smooth legato, as there is an audible break when the new note sets in. Maybe this is just semantics. But try to ask string players
> 
> Instantaneousness is the main virtue of slurred legato. That´s what makes it so smooth. You have an unbroken stream of energy from the bow, the left hand finger just comes down on a new pitch, with no restart or loss of energy. The wind instruments in "Solo" execute this difference (fingered and retounged) very well.
> 
> I think bow changed and slurred notes sound so different that the one can not substitute for the other. (On the other hand, you work with what you have.) I started working with this in the late eighties, so I remember the times of far less sophisticated tools


yep my first dedicated hardware sampler was the Akai S900, and I was sampling in the mid 80's as well.


----------



## Bighill

Soundbed said:


> yep my first dedicated hardware sampler was the Akai S900, and I was sampling in the mid 80's as well.


Cool. Mine was a Casio FZ something. Switched it for an Akai s1000. Those 2meg cards cost an arm and a leg.... And the sports bag full of floppy disks.....


----------



## Soundbed

Bighill said:


> Cool. Mine was a Casio FZ something. Switched it for an Akai s1000. Those 2meg cards cost an arm and a leg.... And the sports bag full of floppy disks.....


oh the floppy disks. and one or three of them had that [email protected] Seinfeld slap bass


----------



## LamaRose

The vibrato is a tad strong, and a bit too consistent, but the sustains should work well for chordal stuff utilizing the spot mics.


----------



## Grilled Cheese

Soundbed said:


> Your rigid definition seems a little peculiar. Plenty of (real, living, breathing) string players can connect notes on bow direction changes. Otherwise legato would mean “in one bow” or something.
> 
> As for the sampled transitions in Solo, slurred on descending intervals and bowed on ascending intervals is the only option right now to avoid that fiddle-like scoop. So, it works as well as it works. I’m not making a judgement on it. I’m only offering suggestions for how to approach the tool.
> 
> Edit: here's all "legato rebow" first, then, alternating "legato slurred" only on the descending intervals, "legato rebow" on the ascending intervals:
> 
> View attachment Solo Legato Rebowed then Alternating Slurred.mp3
> 
> 
> Edit 2: Just for kicks here's CSSS with "fastest" Advanced legato. Interestingly the fingers come down on the fretboard pretty "hard" and quickly, making the rising intervals stand out a bit as well, but for a different reason:
> 
> View attachment CSSS Fast Advanced Legato.mp3


Thanks for your input. Your demo doesn’t sound too bad at all and I have used the method you described in circumstances where it was possible to apply it. But so far, in practice, the issue has been insurmountable far too often. I’ve given up on AI Solo strings for now.

I think that all three forms of legato on offer are good, and I like the way AI implemented the velocity adjustable auto key switching. Very neat and intuitive. The only issue is not being able to control when portamento happens and when fingered legato happens. I use portamento pretty rarely.


----------



## zedmaster

I finally finished my review for this lovely instrument. Hope it helps!


----------



## Trash Panda

@audioimperia finally had a chance to dive into this library and it’s been quite enjoyable to use.

One quick question on the slurs for strings - were slurs exclusively recorded as fingered slurs on a move down in pitch and portomento for slurs moving up or is there a way to trigger fingered slur versus portomento?

I can can use rebow for upward moves when port doesn’t sound appropriate, but curious if I’m missing something or if this is a stylistic decision.


----------



## AMBi

Got this the first day it came out and I've been loving it a lot but there's one quirk that that I notice more and more as time went on and I don't think I've seen anyone mention it

Slightly hard to explain but I've noticed when using legato on certain instruments, the first note played is much quieter than any subsequent notes within the line 
It's especially noticeable with the Angelic Soprano's lower range and violin
It can remedied with the mod wheel a bit so its not the biggest deal just something I noticed


----------



## mybadmemory

AMBi said:


> Got this the first day it came out and I've been loving it a lot but there's one quirk that that I notice more and more as time went on and I don't think I've seen anyone mention it
> 
> Slightly hard to explain but I've noticed when using legato on certain instruments, the first note played is much quieter than any subsequent notes within the line
> It's especially noticeable with the Angelic Soprano's lower range and violin
> It can remedied with the mod wheel a bit so its not the biggest deal just something I noticed


The same is true with Nucleus. Legato transitions are louder and have faster attack, and sustains are quieter with a much slower attack. The first note in a legato phrase is a sustain I guess.


----------



## AMBi

mybadmemory said:


> The same is true with Nucleus. Legato transitions are louder and have faster attack, and sustains are quieter with a much slower attack. The first note in a legato phrase is a sustain I guess.


Ah okay that makes sense! Some just seem to be quieter than others it seems. 
It's not as noticeable with the brass, woodwinds (except for the flute), and Jaeger vocals.


----------



## Mr Greg G

Completed last week a mockup of Gran Hotel Opening Credits (A Spanish TV Show) using mainly Audio Imperia Aeria and Solo for the Strings and Native Instruments Noire for the Piano. These 2 libraries represent 95% of what has been used. There are other libraries here and there like CH Contrabass and Tina Guo to give more consistency because Solo lacks a legato Cb and the cello (and viola) is not that expressive. Hence Guo. I set all sample starts to 0 so everything would be tighter. There are still some small tightness issues but I can live with them. My main gripe is with the lack of expression (vibrato) from the Solo Strings. You can clearly hear it in the Solo Viola part at 00:29

I switch back and forth from the original track with real Strings to my Cubase project. I didn't really try to match EQ or anything, I just toned down the highs by 5dbs and lows by 2 or 3 but that's about it.

Too bad these libraries only have 1 dynamic layer, no heavy vibrato control, no portamento and so on because they are promising. The legatos in Areia sound really good. The solo strings "legatos" in Solo are just ok because they are just rebows, not real legatos... and I couldn't even rebow the same note so I had to bounce the Solo viola part and juggle with volume automations + crossfades.


----------



## Trash Panda

Nice work! Very cool to hear them side-by-side like that.

I am a little confused about these comments though.


Mr Pringles said:


> Too bad these libraries only have 1 dynamic layer, no heavy vibrato control, no portamento and so on because they are promising. The legatos in Areia sound really good. The solo strings "legatos" in Solo are just ok because they are just rebows, not real legatos... and I couldn't even rebow the same note so I had to bounce the Solo viola part and juggle with volume automations + crossfades.


Were you only using the rebow legato for the strings? They should have two versions - rebow and slur legato. So far, I've seen the slurred legato down to be a finger change and the slurred legato up to be portamento. Curious if there is a control to determine which of the two can be used or if it's baked in for fingered slur down, portamento up. Hopefully @audioimperia will chime in on that soon.

For rebowing the same note, have you tried using the sustain pedal (CC64)? Seems to do well enough, but maybe I'm just a nitwit. Below is an example of a piece I've been using Solo on. Super rough at this stage, but should demonstrate the slurred legato and rebowing the same note. 

View attachment Legend of Zelda Intro.mp3


----------



## Mr Greg G

Trash Panda said:


> Were you only using the rebow legato for the strings? They should have two versions - rebow and slur legato. So far, I've seen the slurred legato down to be a finger change and the slurred legato up to be portamento. Curious if there is a control to determine which of the two can be used or if it's baked in for fingered slur down, portamento up. Hopefully @audioimperia will chime in on that soon.
> 
> For rebowing the same note, have you tried using the sustain pedal (CC64)? Seems to do well enough, but maybe I'm just a nitwit. Below is an example of a piece I've been using Solo on. Super rough at this stage, but should demonstrate the slurred legato and rebowing the same note.
> 
> View attachment Legend of Zelda Intro.mp3


Haha Zelda Theme spotted! Sounds good 

Yes I was mainly using the rebow leg because the slurred legs are too ... "slurred". As a cello player, I know no string player plays like this. It sounds odd, as if the player couldn't find the right pitch right away like a beginner.

I actually have tried to use the Sustain pedal to rebow the same note but there's no attack this way. That's why I had to bounce this part, trim the slow fade in note and use crossfrades + automations.

Listen how expressive is the real viola at 00:30 . Then listen to my mockup: the viola is dull, totally inexpressive. I couldn't find a viola with such a vibrato in all my libraries. Only Guo can be expressive like that but that's a cello.


----------



## AlexSonicsMusic

Bighill said:


> Of course notes can be smoothly connected on bow change, but it still has a different sound than notes taken under one bow. The many string players I have worked with here in europe use the term legato for notes placed under a slur, literally "in one bow", as you say. So, a successful sampled string instrument will need well executed bow change "legato" and fingered legato. (You can´t place that many notes in one bow, although a lot of virtual instrument users do.) The only instrument of the many in my collection that does this really well is the Josua Bell violin.


You're right, Bighill: We refer to smoothly connected notes, played with a bow change as détaché, which is our default mode. Bow change legato is a term that is only used by sample developers and NOT understood by string players.

I made a video about this showcasing this on the cello. Maybe that helps get the terminology clear for the next rehearsal. It IS confusing sometimes that differnt terms are used in the two worlds.

I hope this helps (at the very least to settle the argument)  Love and peace

2:08 I'm talking about détaché and how we can connect it smoothly


----------



## Bighill

AlexSonicsMusic said:


> You're right, Bighill: We refer to smoothly connected notes, played with a bow change as détaché, which is our default mode. Bow change legato is a term that is only used by sample developers and NOT understood by string players.
> 
> I made a video about this showcasing this on the cello. Maybe that helps get the terminology clear for the next rehearsal. It IS confusing sometimes that differnt terms are used in the two worlds.
> 
> I hope this helps (at the very least to settle the argument)  Love and peace
> 
> 2:08 I'm talking about détaché and how we can connect it smoothly



Sample library developers (and your customers,) take note. This is gold.


----------



## Trash Panda

Mr Pringles said:


> Listen how expressive is the real viola at 00:30 . Then listen to my mockup: the viola is dull, totally inexpressive. I couldn't find a viola with such a vibrato in all my libraries. Only Guo can be expressive like that but that's a cello.


Poor big-knuckled brutes get no respect in the sampling world. :(


----------



## Soundbed

Mr Pringles said:


> Completed last week a mockup of Gran Hotel Opening Credits (A Spanish TV Show) using mainly Audio Imperia Aeria and Solo for the Strings and Native Instruments Noire for the Piano. These 2 libraries represent 95% of what has been used. There are other libraries here and there like CH Contrabass and Tina Guo to give more consistency because Solo lacks a legato Cb and the cello (and viola) is not that expressive. Hence Guo. I set all sample starts to 0 so everything would be tighter. There are still some small tightness issues but I can live with them. My main gripe is with the lack of expression (vibrato) from the Solo Strings. You can clearly hear it in the Solo Viola part at 00:29
> 
> I switch back and forth from the original track with real Strings to my Cubase project. I didn't really try to match EQ or anything, I just toned down the highs by 5dbs and lows by 2 or 3 but that's about it.
> 
> Too bad these libraries only have 1 dynamic layer, no heavy vibrato control, no portamento and so on because they are promising. The legatos in Areia sound really good. The solo strings "legatos" in Solo are just ok because they are just rebows, not real legatos... and I couldn't even rebow the same note so I had to bounce the Solo viola part and juggle with volume automations + crossfades.



Fantastic video!!


----------



## Mr Greg G

Soundbed said:


> Fantastic video!!


Gracias !


----------



## paulmatthew

Can someone confirm a possible bug for me before I contact support? The slurred legato does not trigger and cuts out when it goes from rebowed to slurred. ***This will only happen with the single patch combined for the violin and viola when I switch to a single mic only.*** This behavior does not happen to the cello or any of the other instruments I've tested so far.


----------



## Soundbed

paulmatthew said:


> Can someone confirm a possible bug for me before I contact support? The slurred legato does not trigger and cuts out when it goes from rebowed to slurred. ***This will only happen with the single patch combined for the violin and viola when I switch to a single mic only.*** This behavior does not happen to the cello or any of the other instruments I've tested so far.


Sounds like something I was experiencing yes.

iirc I switched to classic mix, which might be effectively 1 mic


----------



## brupibo

paulmatthew said:


> Can someone confirm a possible bug for me before I contact support? The slurred legato does not trigger and cuts out when it goes from rebowed to slurred. ***This will only happen with the single patch combined for the violin and viola when I switch to a single mic only.*** This behavior does not happen to the cello or any of the other instruments I've tested so far.


It happened to me too, but only using separated keyswitches for both. When I use velocity switch, it doesn't happens.


----------



## paulmatthew

Soundbed said:


> Sounds like something I was experiencing yes.
> 
> iirc I switched to classic mix, which might be effectively 1 mic





brupibo said:


> It happened to me too, but only using separated keyswitches for both. When I use velocity switch, it doesn't happens.


Thank you for checking. I will submit my findings in detail to support later today. It's not that big of a problem since I can use it in the combined patches instead.


----------



## FireGS

Anyone know if there's a way to layer a staccatissimo layer with the legato? I have some staccatissimo parts going into legato, and would really love that harder attack.


----------



## Trash Panda

FireGS said:


> Anyone know if there's a way to layer a staccatissimo layer with the legato? I have some staccatissimo parts going into legato, and would really love that harder attack.


Go to the single articulations folder, load up your preferred legato patch. Then double click the stacatissimo patch and set it to the same MIDI channel as the legato patch.


----------



## FireGS

Trash Panda said:


> Go to the single articulations folder, load up your preferred legato patch. Then double click the stacatissimo patch and set it to the same MIDI channel as the legato patch.


My lord I'm silly. I didn't even realize there were single patches. I've always loaded the multi. 

/thread


----------



## ennbr

FireGS said:


> Anyone know if there's a way to layer a staccatissimo layer with the legato? I have some staccatissimo parts going into legato, and would really love that harder attack.


Another option is to use the MultiInstrument feature that Studio One has you can load multiple players and instruments on a single track with this option. This is how I get around the limitations of the Spitfire player not allowing stacked instruments

A Side benefit of using MultiInstruments is any VST instrument can be combined to make some unique sounds no need to put them on separate tracks


----------



## Tom Hawk

Tom Hawk said:


> Yep! Well, it depends on the genre you're writing for. If you're writing something that is very orchestral in nature then perhaps not.
> 
> But in the context of a hybrid orchestral track it works really well. I believe @Daniel James uses Black Hole on a lot of solo instruments in his music (including other libraries, not just SOLO).
> 
> I used Black Hole a lot in my demo track (hybrid orchestral style) on some of the soloists alongside the lovely VSS3 reverb:



I thought some of you might find this video I've just released useful, to see how I used the instruments in SOLO to write my demo track "Guiding Light".

The video show these instruments can be used in a hybrid orchestral context, some tips on how I've mixed the library using EQ, delays and reverbs, as well as looking at some composition tips.

Hope some of you find this useful


----------



## mafgar

Purchased this yesterday and I'm on attempt 4 of trying to install. Native Access is a real piece of trash. One time it told me I needed 400gb to install, tried downloading to a different drive, tried mounting the ISO native access installed (installer was corrupted). Considering requesting a refund after a few more attempts. Looks like a neat library though lol


----------



## audioimperia

mafgar said:


> Purchased this yesterday and I'm on attempt 4 of trying to install. Native Access is a real piece of trash. One time it told me I needed 400gb to install, tried downloading to a different drive, tried mounting the ISO native access installed (installer was corrupted). Considering requesting a refund after a few more attempts. Looks like a neat library though lol


If you haven’t already, shoot us an email and we’ll hook you up


----------



## mafgar

audioimperia said:


> If you haven’t already, shoot us an email and we’ll hook you up


hell yeah that'd be great, I was gonna complain to NI, not y'all cause I know it's not your fault. I emailed y'all this morning but kind of figured everyone was out for the weekend  [email protected] is the email I contacted.


----------



## audioimperia

Sent you an email  


mafgar said:


> hell yeah that'd be great, I was gonna complain to NI, not y'all cause I know it's not your fault. I emailed y'all this morning but kind of figured everyone was out for the weekend  [email protected] is the email I contacted.


----------



## mybadmemory

GGaca said:


> ~6 months ago someone said he is missing harp in AI's libraries (Audio Imperia's facebook post comment) and Audio Imperia respond: "Got Nucleus? There is an update in the works that might be to your liking".


Any new clues on this one? 😬


----------



## audioimperia

mybadmemory said:


> Any new clues on this one? 😬


It’s coming pretty soon. It’s at NI for encoding.


----------



## mybadmemory

audioimperia said:


> It’s coming pretty soon. It’s at NI for encoding.


Fantastic! Can’t wait! ❤️


----------



## Bman70

Nothing breeds loyalty like getting updates to stuff you already own.  I like the interface so much in Nucleus, I wish I could port my other string tones from different libraries in there. Or Nucleus could become the ultimate modular orchestra and keep adding new string tones, rooms, and variations.


----------



## mybadmemory

Bman70 said:


> Nothing breeds loyalty like getting updates to stuff you already own.  I like the interface so much in Nucleus, I wish I could port my other string tones from different libraries in there. Or Nucleus could become the ultimate modular orchestra and keep adding new string tones, rooms, and variations.


Agreed. The UX of Pyramid is fantastic. ☺️


----------



## muziksculp

Does this include an update for Areia , SOLO , and Jaeger ? 

I don't have Nucleus.


----------



## jcrosby

audioimperia said:


> It’s coming pretty soon. It’s at NI for encoding.


Very cool. One thing I've seen quite a few mentions about, and do agree with... Talos is a bit limited for its price point... It'd be great if you guys would consider updating it with a few other instruments with the same articulations... At the very least some trombones would be pretty sweet...

Either way, thanks as well for keeping your products up to date regardless of the paragraph above!


----------



## muziksculp

Hi,

Audio Imperia mentioned they will be releasing an update very soon, it's currently at NI for encloding,

So, Which AI libraries is the next Audio Imperia Update for ? SOLO or SOLO and other Audio Imperia Libraries (i.e. Areia, Jaeger, Nucleus, ..?) I'm unclear on this detail.

Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Thanks.


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> Hi,
> 
> Audio Imperia mentioned they will be releasing an update very soon, it's currently at NI for encloding,
> 
> So, Which AI libraries is the next Audio Imperia Update for ? SOLO or SOLO and other Audio Imperia Libraries (i.e. Areia, Jaeger, Nucleus, ..?) I'm unclear on this detail.
> 
> Any feedback on this would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks.


Next up would be a Trailer Guitars 2 bug fix update. After that, probably gonna focus on updates for Areia and Talos.


----------



## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> Next up would be a Trailer Guitars 2 bug fix update. After that, probably gonna focus on updates for Areia and Talos.


Is the Update that is currently at NI for Trailer Guitars 2 ? or are you saying the next update after that one will be for Trailer Guitars 2 ? A bit confused. 

I just wanted to know which library is going to be updated by the Update that is currently at NI ? 

Thanks.


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> Is the Update that is currently at NI for Trailer Guitars 2 ? or are you saying the next update after that one will be for Trailer Guitars 2 ? A bit confused.
> 
> I just wanted to know which library is going to be updated by the Update that is currently at NI ?
> 
> Thanks.


The one that is currently at NI is the Nucleus update


----------



## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> The one that is currently at NI is the Nucleus update


OK. Thanks.


----------



## zwhita

muziksculp said:


> Nice to know Areia, and Jaeger Strings will get an improved legato update. I'm guessing no portamento feature is added via the new update. or .. ?
> 
> Does 'soon' mean this month ?


Still waiting on this one. About to give up hope and replace their strings with Soaring/Adventure Strings. The violins ensemble legato in Jaeger is particularly atrocious.


----------



## Laurin Lenschow

zwhita said:


> The violins ensemble legato in Jaeger is particularly atrocious.


I don't think it is _that _bad...
I am looking forward to the update as well, but I have used the legato strings from Jaeger in a recent project and was quite happy with the result. This is an excerpt from the track:




The strings in this excerpt are 100% from Jaeger and I do think they work quite well - for this particular track at least.


----------



## NekujaK

I find Jaeger's legatos to be okay at mf-f, but they're a little "bumpy" at lower dynamics. The Legato Smoothing knob can help with this.

It's definitely not as bad as it was in the first versions of Jaeger.


----------



## LamaRose

WTF does Jaeger have to do with Solo? Jägermeister I might understand...


----------



## zwhita

Sorry to hijack the thread. If I ride the modwheel upwards from medium to high dynamic during the legato transition, then it's fine. I shouldn't have to do this, and it won't work for the lowest dynamic. Maybe that's why Jaeger is billed as "Epic".


----------



## Snoobydoobydoo

audioimperia said:


> The one that is currently at NI is the Nucleus update


Ouch NI takes its time. Still wiggling my bottoms in the seat.


----------



## audioimperia

Snoobydoobydoo said:


> Ouch NI takes its time. Still wiggling my bottoms in the seat.


Funny you should say that. update is going live later today


----------



## M0rdechai

He must be a payed actor!


----------



## TomaeusD

M0rdechai said:


> He must be a payed actor!


Can you imagine the auditions? 🙈


----------



## mybadmemory

audioimperia said:


> Funny you should say that. update is going live later today


Is there a change log available ? :D


----------



## Ricgus3

audioimperia said:


> Funny you should say that. update is going live later today


Have been waiting fo this!!


----------



## muziksculp

Hi @audioimperia ,

I just got the Nucleus 1.2 update email, although I don't own Nucleus. 

Which of the Audio Imperia libraries will be updated next ? 

I have Areia, and Jaeger, and Solo. Any updates for them coming soon ? 

Thanks.


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> Hi @audioimperia ,
> 
> I just got the Nucleus 1.2 update email, although I don't own Nucleus.
> 
> Which of the Audio Imperia libraries will be updated next ?
> 
> I have Areia, and Jaeger, and Solo. Any updates for them coming soon ?
> 
> Thanks.


Areia update is in the works as well yeah. We'll update the other libraries with the new legato features as soon as we can get to them.


----------



## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> Areia update is in the works as well yeah. We'll update the other libraries with the new legato features as soon as we can get to them.


Thanks. 

Can we expect Areia Update this year ?


----------



## Casiquire

TomaeusD said:


> Can you imagine the auditions? 🙈


WIGGLE MORE!


----------



## Jackdaw

I still use my original versions of all those whatever they already have updated past version 1.0 (I have Nucleus, Jaeger and Areia). Audioimperia's update instructions tell you to delete files and fool around with native access, write down your product keys etc. I'm just too afraid of making previous projects non-working to update anything from them. It's 2021 and you have to manually delete files, write down your product numbers etc?

This annoys me especially now that Nucleus seems to have new content. And fixing the wobbly legato would be nice to have...


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Can we expect Areia Update this year ?


Not going to be this year. We just finished the recording sessions and we're focused on finishing Chorus 



Jackdaw said:


> I still use my original versions of all those whatever they already have updated past version 1.0 (I have Nucleus, Jaeger and Areia). Audioimperia's update instructions tell you to delete files and fool around with native access, write down your product keys etc. I'm just too afraid of making previous projects non-working to update anything from them. It's 2021 and you have to manually delete files, write down your product numbers etc?
> 
> This annoys me especially now that Nucleus seems to have new content. And fixing the wobbly legato would be nice to have...


Feel free to email us and we can walk you through it step by step so that you can feel safe updating the library.  Unfortunately, NI wasn't able to offer the update any other way because the update is bigger than 2GB in size which is the current limit for the "Update Available" feature in Native Access.


----------



## AMBi

audioimperia said:


> Not going to be this year. We just finished the recording sessions and we're focused on
> 
> 
> Feel free to email us and we can walk you through it step by step so that you can feel safe updating the library.  Unfortunately, NI wasn't able to offer the update any other way because the update is bigger than 2GB in size which is the current limit for the "Update Available" feature in Native Access.


Noticed this on Instagram and wow you guys seem to have your hands full!




Looking forward to any future releases since you guys have only put out amazing stuff so far


----------



## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> Not going to be this year. We just finished the recording sessions and we're focused on


OK. 

Recording sessions for Areia ? Meaning more new content for Areia we can expect with the update next year ? 

Thanks.


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> OK.
> 
> Recording sessions for Areia ? Meaning more new content for Areia we can expect with the update next year ?
> 
> Thanks.


Yup, adding more content as well as all of the engine updates.


----------



## Trash Panda

Any chance of a Nucleus Pro at some point? I assume you have all the individual microphone files that sim up to the mixes.


----------



## muziksculp

audioimperia said:


> Yup, adding more content as well as all of the engine updates.


Awesome  

Looking forward to the updates next year. 

Thanks


----------



## Yogevs

OMG!


----------



## audioimperia

Trash Panda said:


> Any chance of a Nucleus Pro at some point? I assume you have all the individual microphone files that sim up to the mixes.


Hmmm ... not sure to be honest. Interesting suggestion though, definitely worth considering.


----------



## Jackdaw

audioimperia said:


> Feel free to email us and we can walk you through it step by step so that you can feel safe updating the library.  Unfortunately, NI wasn't able to offer the update any other way because the update is bigger than 2GB in size which is the current limit for the "Update Available" feature in Native Access.


Oh, I wasn't aware of these restrictions!

By the way, does this mean downloading the whole library again? When these updates stack up (in addition to Nucleus, like said I have other AI stuff also), it's gonna be some serious downloading in that case.


----------



## audioimperia

Jackdaw said:


> Oh, I wasn't aware of these restrictions!
> 
> By the way, does this mean downloading the whole library again? When these updates stack up (in addition to Nucleus, like said I have other AI stuff also), it's gonna be some serious downloading in that case.


It does indeed require a full new download since NI had to build a new installer for it in Native Access given the size of the added new content.


----------



## muziksculp

I don't own Nucleus, Is there a video showing the update ?


----------



## audioimperia

muziksculp said:


> I don't own Nucleus, but I'm curious to know what the update added/improved. Is there a video showing the update ?





v1.2
ADDED Brand new recorded instruments: Harp, Bassoon, Clarinet, and Atonal Percussion (Cymbal & Triangle).
ADDED Re-tuned and re-balanced Legato samples for soloists.
ADDED Pyramid updated to v1.1.
ADDED Completely reworked legato script.
ADDED Legato can now be triggered without overlapping notes.
ADDED Now it’s possible to trigger legato intervals larger than an octave.
ADDED Controller knobs now darken if they are not being used for the currently selected articulation.
ADDED Harp Pedals script for Harp.
ADDED Label highlighting when playing instruments or articulations.
ADDED Hover help text for UI elements.
ADDED Support for Vienna Ensemble Pro.
ADDED Filter dynamics modulators for brass.
FIXED Range of pads.
FIXED Vibrato on 2Clrnts + 2Bssns 8va.


----------



## muziksculp

Any videos showing the newly improved legato scripts, i.e. for strings ? 

Thanks.


----------



## GGaca

Harp <3


----------



## Olympum

audioimperia said:


> ADDED Support for Vienna Ensemble Pro.



Could you expand more on what the support for VEPro brings?

Thanks.


----------



## gedlig

audioimperia said:


> Yup, adding more content as well as all of the engine updates.


I'll take this opportunity to ask:
1. Are there plans to update the separate Jaeger hangar 4 to the new UI?
2. Is Chorus planned as this year's release or next year's?
3. Is the new recorded content for Areia possibly an actual 2nd violins section?

sorry for the bombardment


----------



## Ricgus3

What does that picture from Instagram say? Can’t read it as it is low res (probably intentional). Boy soloists?? Soy Soloists??

Updated nucleus and really love the solo woodwinds! Some harsh overtones on the clarinet are coming In but I guess I can just eq it or use the classic mix for a mellower sound! But the sound really nice! Love the harp addition and triangle!

The legatos are less bumpy! Now I got sad comparing it to Areia as Areia now is not as useful as nucleus is, with Areia having big bumps in the legato if you play a interval and let it play out . Nucelus barely has this now, might just use nucleus legato and Areias other articulation in the meantime while waiting for a Areia update.

Will check out the brass transitions again as those were my biggest concern before, the harsh forte layer entering to early for me.

Amazing work and additions @audioimperia ! Keep up the great work  can’t wait to see what you have in store for us later on!

Edit: The Brass Horn 6 has a much better curve now when moving between the dynamic layers! alot smoother!


----------



## Snoobydoobydoo

Take care with your old projects before installing, its not downwards compatible. Kontakt will output errors with Pyramid Version and missing samples if you load projects with the previous version.


----------



## axb312

@audioimperia Would love a full featured Woodwind library from you guys. Beautiful tone on what I've heard there so far...


----------



## easyrider

Is there upgrade pricing if you own Jeager or anything ?


----------



## muziksculp

easyrider said:


> Is there upgrade pricing if you own Jeager or anything ?


I got Nucleus as a crossgrade at a very attractive price ($199).

I just emailed them requesting the crossgrade pricing, given I owned Solo, Areia, and Jaeger libraries. They will email you a discounted crossgreade priced upgrade that you can go forward and purchase.

I think you will qualify for a crossgrade price if you own Jaeger.


----------



## Jackdaw

audioimperia said:


> Feel free to email us and we can walk you through it step by step so that you can feel safe updating the library.


I updated... aaaaand my old projects won't load any more and require fixing and remembering instrument choices & settings. Exactly what I was afraid of. Not a happy camper.


----------



## audioimperia

Jackdaw said:


> I updated... aaaaand my old projects won't load any more and require fixing and remembering instrument choises&settings. Exactly what I was afraid of. Not a happy camper.


Really sorry about this. We actually discussed this internally today and we'll make sure that when we push out the next round of updates, this won't be an issue any longer. Hopefully, the free new content can make up for the inconvenience


----------



## GGaca

I don't have Nucleus in 'available updates' tab in Native Access :(


----------



## Getsumen

GGaca said:


> I don't have Nucleus in 'available updates' tab in Native Access :(


I don't have Nuclues but I read some of the threads anyway.

From what I saw the update was too big to fit into the Native Access update system so you need to do a few things manually. I believe they emailed instructions? They also posted some on a few threads around here


----------



## GGaca

I followed the intructions - still 1.1.0 - repair button :(


----------



## easyrider

GGaca said:


> I followed the intructions - still 1.1.0 - repair button :(


Windows or Mac?

im on windows and the instructions worked fine.


----------



## GGaca

Windows - I deleted the files in Common Files and I have no Service Center folder in Program Files/Native Instruments.


----------



## easyrider

GGaca said:


> Windows - I deleted the files in Common Files and I have no Service Center folder in Program Files/Native Instruments.


Why?

The instructions were:

Step 1) Quit Native Access & delete Nucleus from your SSD/HD drive.
Step 2) You will need to open the Registry Editor, this can be done by typing _regedit_ into the Start Menu search bar and pressing enter. 
Step 3) Look for “HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Native Instruments”in the dropdown on the left.
Step 4) Delete the Nucleus folder there. 
Step 5) Now search for “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Native Instruments” in the same dropdown and delete the Nucleus folder. 
Step 6) You can now open Native Access, add your Nucleus serial number and go to the “Not Installed” tab. From there, reinstall Nucleus which should be listed as v1.2.


----------



## GGaca

easyrider said:


> Why?


I found that in email:





EDIT:
Your instructions worked - thanks!


----------



## easyrider

GGaca said:


> I found that in email:


That email was sent on the 10th November it’s out of date.

Audio Imperia updated the instructions

Post in thread 'Out Now: Nucleus - The Orchestral Core (MusicTech Excellence Award 10/10)'
https://vi-control.net/community/th...ech-excellence-award-10-10.84366/post-4961179


----------



## gives19

audioimperia said:


> v1.2
> ADDED Brand new recorded instruments: Harp, Bassoon, Clarinet, and Atonal Percussion (Cymbal & Triangle).
> ADDED Re-tuned and re-balanced Legato samples for soloists.
> ADDED Pyramid updated to v1.1.
> ADDED Completely reworked legato script.
> ADDED Legato can now be triggered without overlapping notes.
> ADDED Now it’s possible to trigger legato intervals larger than an octave.
> ADDED Controller knobs now darken if they are not being used for the currently selected articulation.
> ADDED Harp Pedals script for Harp.
> ADDED Label highlighting when playing instruments or articulations.
> ADDED Hover help text for UI elements.
> ADDED Support for Vienna Ensemble Pro.
> ADDED Filter dynamics modulators for brass.
> FIXED Range of pads.
> FIXED Vibrato on 2Clrnts + 2Bssns 8va.



Great.. I bought my first library called SOLO from you a few months ago. I wanted to ask questions about your libraries and emailed several times and never got any communication from your company ever. I was sort of shocked.I think I may have called but to be honest, it was months ago, so I just don't remember. Sort of felt like well, I guess it's not important. I do a lot of actual projects as well Oh well. Still like the library, but had questions about the the rest, which was basically what the differences would be in the lite versions vs the full versions and upgrading etc. At least that is what I remember. Bought library June 10th btw. I just checked.


----------



## NekujaK

gives19 said:


> Great.. I bought my first library called SOLO from you a few months ago. I wanted to ask questions about your libraries and emailed several times and never got any communication from your company ever. I was sort of shocked.I think I may have called but to be honest, it was months ago, so I just don't remember. Sort of felt like well, I guess it's not important. I do a lot of actual projects as well Oh well. Still like the library, but had questions about the the rest, which was basically what the differences would be in the lite versions vs the full versions and upgrading etc. At least that is what I remember. Bought library June 10th btw. I just checked.


Getting an email response from Audio Imperia is a total hit-and-miss proposition in my experience. I've gotten responses the same day and I've also written at least 2 emails over the past couple of years that they've never responded to.

I like AI and their products, but I wish their interactions with customers were more consistent and reliable.


----------



## Yogevs

muziksculp said:


> I got Nucleus as a crossgrade at a very attractive price ($199).
> 
> I just emailed them requesting the crossgrade pricing, given I owned Solo, Areia, and Jaeger libraries. They will email you a discounted crossgreade priced upgrade that you can go forward and purchase.
> 
> I think you will qualify for a crossgrade price if you own Jaeger.


Will this work the other way around? If I own Nucleus and Areia will I get an upgrade price for Solo?


----------



## Trash Panda

Yogevs said:


> Will this work the other way around? If I own Nucleus and Areia will I get an upgrade price for Solo?


The crossgrade pricing only applies to the Nucleus/Jaeger/Areia products because they share samples. Solo only had intro pricing. It might go back to intro price for Black Friday though.


----------



## chrisav

Ay idea what the crossgrade pricing for Areia is if I already own Jaeger? 🤔


----------



## gives19

NekujaK said:


> Getting an email response from Audio Imperia is a total hit-and-miss proposition in my experience. I've gotten responses the same day and I've also written at least 2 emails over the past couple of years that they've never responded to.
> 
> I like AI and their products, but I wish their interactions with customers were more consistent and reliable.


The thing is, there are many libraries and if you are going to compete in this market, you have to have great customer support. A good example is Spitfire Audio. Whether you like their libraries or not, the point is that they do their due diligence! Always have had someone get back to me real fast, considering their workload there with all of their libraries. Their are many companies that at least try to do their job in that regard. Even an automated response would be welcome. Their website is really outdated, which is a bad sign as well and hard to navigate.


----------



## Trash Panda

chrisav said:


> Ay idea what the crossgrade pricing for Areia is if I already own Jaeger? 🤔


$100 off whatever the current price is. Last Black Friday, I believe that was also good against the sale price.


----------



## audioimperia

gives19 said:


> The thing is, there are many libraries and if you are going to compete in this market, you have to have great customer support. A good example is Spitfire Audio. Whether you like their libraries or not, the point is that they do their due diligence! Always have had someone get back to me real fast, considering their workload there with all of their libraries. Their are many companies that at least try to do their job in that regard. Even an automated response would be welcome. Their website is really outdated, which is a bad sign as well and hard to navigate.


If we miss an email, please feel free to reach out to us via FB or Instagram. Compared to SF with over 100 people on staff we're a very small team (we're 4) and most times it is just one person doing all of the tech support and customer emails. We reply to all messages and if we missed your message, please don't hesitate to reach out again and we will absolutely help you!

And we have a new website coming early next year :D


----------



## gives19

audioimperia said:


> If we miss an email, please feel free to reach out to us via FB or Instagram. Compared to SF with over 100 people on staff we're a very small team (we're 4) and most times it is just one person doing all of the tech support and customer emails. We reply to all messages and if we missed your message, please don't hesitate to reach out again and we will absolutely help you!
> 
> And we have a new website coming early next year :D


Emails actually.. I'm good.. I appreciate the reach out, but I am fine now. Enjoying SOLO. The rest I will deal with next year. I am too busy with series composing work and Atmos mixing to really worry aobut sounds now.


----------



## IdealSequenceG

Audio Imperia SOLO - Solo French Horn Test


----------



## easyrider

@audioimperia - I need solo back at the intro price sharpish….


----------



## audioimperia

easyrider said:


> @audioimperia - I need solo back at the intro price sharpish….


it's back :D


----------



## GGaca

i waited for this Black Friday deal so much... <3


----------



## Evans

I have Nucleus, Jaeger, and Solo. Is there a means to acquire this boy soloists library outside of these two bundles?


----------



## FireGS

Wowwie.


----------



## Sunny Schramm

will the boys be added to the full solo-library or are they exclusive for bundle-buyers?


----------



## Jonathan Daglish

Sunny Schramm said:


> will the boys be added to the full solo-library?


It's a separate Kontakt Player product - you don't need Solo to use the Solo Boys.


----------



## audioimperia

Evans said:


> I have Nucleus, Jaeger, and Solo. Is there a means to acquire this boy soloists library outside of these two bundles?


Sending it to loyal customers for free as we speak  So you probably are on that list from the looks of that list.


----------



## Evans

Well, fine. But it's probably also time for me to finally buy Talos. So THERE.


----------



## Trash Panda

Evans said:


> I have Nucleus, Jaeger, and Solo. Is there a means to acquire this boy soloists library outside of these two bundles?


I got an email with a serial number. It's currently downloading.


----------



## Sunny Schramm

audioimperia said:


> Sending it to loyal customers for free  So you probably are on that list from the looks of that list.


but - what counts as loyal? I only got cerberus in my AI-Account but also own the big bundle with Jaeger, Talos, etc. from NKS-Partner-Sale at Native Instruments - will that be recognized?


----------



## audioimperia

Sunny Schramm said:


> but - what counts as loyal? I only got cerberus is my AI-Account but also own the big bundle with Jaeger, Talos, etc. from NKS-Partner-Sale at Native Instruments - will that be recognized?


Email us, we got you.


----------



## easyrider

audioimperia said:


> Sending it to loyal customers for free  So you probably are on that list from the looks of that list.


I have

Areia
Jaeger
Nucleus
Cerberus
Legacy (a combined version of the, now discontinued, libraries Dark Dimensions, Event Horizon, Scenes from the Multiverse, and Terraform)
Talos (a combined version of the, now discontinued, libraries Talos 1 and Talos 2)
Trailer Guitars 2
But I bought these direct from NI….They are not in my account on your website. So you won’t know I have them. Can I send you the order from NI to prove I have them to get Boys solo free?


----------



## audioimperia

easyrider said:


> I have
> 
> Areia
> Jaeger
> Nucleus
> Cerberus
> Legacy (a combined version of the, now discontinued, libraries Dark Dimensions, Event Horizon, Scenes from the Multiverse, and Terraform)
> Talos (a combined version of the, now discontinued, libraries Talos 1 and Talos 2)
> Trailer Guitars 2
> But I bought these direct from NI….They are not in my account on your website. So you won’t know I have them. Can I send you the order from NI to prove I have them to get Boys solo free?


Yup! Send us an email at [email protected]


----------



## easyrider

audioimperia said:


> Yup! Send us an email at [email protected]


Already have! 👍


----------



## Mr Sakitumi

audioimperia said:


> Yup! Send us an email at [email protected]


I have the same from NI, going to do the same! That’s super cool @audioimperia


----------



## muziksculp

@audioimperia ,

Got your email. Thank You so much for the Free Boy Soloists library. 

Cheers,
Muziksculp


----------



## chrisav

Oh wow! Just sent an email 😄


----------



## Marsen

audioimperia said:


> Email us, we got you.


Same here, I just emailed you (having the big NI Audio Imperia Bundle), but in my account, it says-empty.


----------



## aelwyn

Just bought the Cinematic Composing Tools Bundle (that's a great deal). Got emails with all the serial numbers, but no mention of the Boy Soloist library. Is that sent separately?


----------



## Evans

aelwyn said:


> Just bought the Cinematic Composing Tools Bundle (that's a great deal). Got emails with all the serial numbers, but no mention of the Boy Soloist library. Is that sent separately?


It says on the homepage that it will be sent within 24 hours.


----------



## aelwyn

Evans said:


> It says on the homepage that it will be sent within 24 hours.


You're right, my bad. YOU EXPECT ME TO READ *FOUR* LINES OF TEXT?!?! Insanity.


----------



## Evans

aelwyn said:


> You're right, my bad. YOU EXPECT ME TO READ *FOUR* LINES OF TEXT?!?! Insanity.


What if it was just one long line with no breaks?

My brain does tend to trail off after I finish the


----------



## Chungus

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but does anyone have any thoughts on how the angelic vocals compare to Hangar 4?


----------



## Trash Panda

Chungus said:


> Forgive me if this has been asked before, but does anyone have any thoughts on how the angelic vocals compare to Hangar 4?


Different singer, different sound.


----------



## DarkShinryu

Thanks for the freebie! High quality stuff.


----------



## Braveheart

Evans said:


> I have Nucleus, Jaeger, and Solo. Is there a means to acquire this boy soloists library outside of these two bundles?


Is that a bundle worth getting if I’m already well covered in hybrid stuff (Heavyocity Damage 2, Novo, Forzo, Vento, Metropolis Ark 1 and 3, 8dio Century Strings and Brass bundles, Eastwest Hollywood Orchestra, Albion 1, etc.)? Anything specific that still make this bundle worth getting?


----------



## Pyro861

OMG! I was going to finally buy Nucleus today (I already have Solo from AI)

Can I get the new soloist if I buy Nucleus or is the offer strickly tied to the new bundles?

Will the new soloist boy be sold separately eventually?


----------



## ennbr

Thanks AI for the present woke up late to an email with the codes thanks again


----------



## Trash Panda

Braveheart said:


> Is that a bundle worth getting if I’m already well covered in hybrid stuff (Heavyocity Damage 2, Novo, Forzo, Vento, Metropolis Ark 1 and 3, 8dio Century Strings and Brass bundles, Eastwest Hollywood Orchestra, Albion 1, etc.)? Anything specific that still make this bundle worth getting?


It's going to cover a lot of the same ground on the orchestral side. It's a drier sound than Metropolis Ark or the Novo/Forzo/Vento bundle, more consistent than 8dio, less deeply sampled than HWO and more powerful than Albion.

I still find AI to be one of the easiest to use libraries out there for getting great, fast results with epic/aggressive orchestral, symphonic metal or hybrid applications. I always come home to these libraries even if I go on dates with others.


----------



## audioimperia

Pyro861 said:


> OMG! I was going to finally buy Nucleus today (I already have Solo from AI)
> 
> Can I get the new soloist if I buy Nucleus or is the offer strickly tied to the new bundles?
> 
> Will the new soloist boy be sold separately eventually?


Offer is tied to the bundles and won't be available after Black Friday sale is concluded


----------



## Pyro861

audioimperia said:


> Offer is tied to the bundles and won't be available after Black Friday sale is concluded


Thanks for answering quickly, even if it's not the answer I was hoping for.


----------



## gedlig

Could I get half a boy for owning Solo, Cerberus and Hangar 4?


----------



## audioimperia

gedlig said:


> Could I get half a boy for owning Solo, Cerberus and Hangar 4?


Email us and we can check


----------



## Casiquire

audioimperia said:


> Offer is tied to the bundles and won't be available after Black Friday sale is concluded


This seems strange to me, you got studio time and two young singers and then spent hours of time editing it all just to make patches that will only be available to buy for a couple weeks?!


----------



## audioimperia

Casiquire said:


> This seems strange to me, you got studio time and two young singers and then spent hours of time editing it all just to make patches that will only be available to buy for a couple weeks?!


Strange? It's a Black Friday special


----------



## Drundfunk

What a nice surprise to wake up to. Thank you very much!


----------



## Limeopolis

audioimperia said:


> Sending it to loyal customers for free as we speak  So you probably are on that list from the looks of that list.


I own Nucleus and Solo but I accidentally purchased them on separate accounts  even if that qualifies is it possible to get them? :D


----------



## Nimrod7

Pyro861 said:


> OMG! I was going to finally buy Nucleus today (I already have Solo from AI)


Go for it, I love it, brought it a few days back. The timpani and the new harp sounds outstanding.


----------



## audioimperia

Limeopolis said:


> I own Nucleus and Solo but I accidentally purchased them on separate accounts  even if that qualifies is it possible to get them? :D


Email us


----------



## Limeopolis

audioimperia said:


> Email us


Thanks! Just sent off an email.


----------



## Marsen

Casiquire said:


> This seems strange to me, you got studio time and two young singers and then spent hours of time editing it all just to make patches that will only be available to buy for a couple weeks?!


I think, it makes perfectly sense.
I guess, it's a treats for their upcoming bigger choir library.


----------



## easyrider

Thanks @audioimperia for Solo Boys for free you rock!


----------



## Marsen

audioimperia said:


> Strange? It's a Black Friday special


Thanks @audioimperia , such a nice little surprise.


----------



## Trash Panda

Casiquire said:


> This seems strange to me, you got studio time and two young singers and then spent hours of time editing it all just to make patches that will only be available to buy for a couple weeks?!


The page says it's a free addition to their SOLO library, so maybe they're planning to roll it into that after the Black Friday giveaway period is over?

https://www.audioimperia.com/collections/orchestral/products/solo-boy-soloists-made-for-for-kontakt-player


----------



## Casiquire

Trash Panda said:


> The page says it's a free addition to their SOLO library, so maybe they're planning to roll it into that after the Black Friday giveaway period is over?
> 
> https://www.audioimperia.com/collections/orchestral/products/solo-boy-soloists-made-for-for-kontakt-player


The responses in this thread seem to indicate they're gone for good after this BF


----------



## Pyro861

A new ''free'' SOLO library that current SOLO owners can't possibly acquire unless they also have/buy Jeager, Talos, Cerebrus and/or other random libraries included in a bundle... I don't know guys.

Oh but it's a Black Friday deal, put a smile on your face


----------



## audioimperia

Pyro861 said:


> A new ''free'' SOLO library that current SOLO owners can't possibly acquire unless they also have/buy Jeager, Talos, Cerebrus and/or other random libraries included in a bundle... I don't know guys.
> 
> Oh but it's a Black Friday deal, put a smile on your face


Solo and Boy Soloists are not related products aside from both being part of our Soloists series. Solo is not just one library but a series of products focused on Soloists  Hence why we called the Boy Soloists an addition to the Solo series, not an add-on to Solo. Hope that clarifies that.


----------



## shropshirelad

I just emailed to let you know I have Jaeger/Talos/Cerberus/ Vocals/ Trailer Guitars & Nucleus Lite. 

Apparently this is not loyal enough to qualify for the freebie, and I should buy more libraries. Really disappointing!


----------



## emasters

Thanks Audio Imperia for the email with the free Boy Soloist library download. Very much appreciated!


----------



## Nimrod7

shropshirelad said:


> I just emailed to let you know I have Jaeger/Talos/Cerberus/ Vocals/ Trailer Guitars & Nucleus Lite.
> 
> Apparently this is not loyal enough to qualify for the freebie, and I should buy more libraries. Really disappointing!


Automated systems are some times failing. You have seen that they are super responsive.
Give them a chance to reply to your email, and a little bit of gratitude for an unexpected gift is not harmful.


----------



## shropshirelad

Nimrod7 said:


> Automated systems are some times failing. You have seen that they are super responsive.
> Give them a chance to reply to your email, and a little bit of gratitude for an unexpected gift is not harmful.


I've emailed them and received a response saying that I don't qualify. At this point I have nothing to be grateful for. If that changes, my gratitude will know no bounds.


----------



## audioimperia

shropshirelad said:


> I've emailed them and received a response saying that I don't qualify. At this point I have nothing to be grateful for. If that changes, my gratitude will know no bounds.





shropshirelad said:


> I just emailed to let you know I have Jaeger/Talos/Cerberus/ Vocals/ Trailer Guitars & Nucleus Lite.
> 
> Apparently this is not loyal enough to qualify for the freebie, and I should buy more libraries. Really disappointing!


Absolutely understand the frustration but we had to set a threshold. We tried to keep it really reasonable at $600 spent with us. So everybody who has spent more than $600 with us in the past got sent the free Boy Soloists today, this includes customers who managed to get past the threshold with a combined value of the NI LTO bundle (at $399) and purchases that they made in our store. And if you make a purchase during this Black Friday with us and you get past that threshold you would of course get the Boy Soloists as well. It's a balancing act and we tried to make it really fair.


----------



## Evans

Trash Panda said:


> I still find AI to be one of the easiest to use libraries out there


Yes, this snippet is pretty much my response. Any one of them is one of the "just get something out there with no fuss" libraries like AROOF. It just works.


----------



## shropshirelad

audioimperia said:


> Absolutely understand the frustration but we had to set a threshold. We tried to keep it really reasonable at $600 spent with us. So everybody who has spent more than $600 with us in the past got sent the free Boy Soloists today, this includes customers who managed to get past the threshold with a combined value of the NI LTO bundle (at $399) and purchases that they made in our store. And if you make a purchase during this Black Friday with us and you get past that threshold you would of course get the Boy Soloists as well. It's a balancing act and we tried to make it really fair.


Thanks for the explanation - just worked out that my current spend runs at $563, so I was close!

BTW The bundle that I purchased from NI cost £359, so around $485 at today's rates - wish I had got it for $399!


----------



## audioimperia

shropshirelad said:


> Thanks for the explanation - just worked out that my current spend runs at $563, so I was close!
> 
> BTW The bundle that I purchased from NI cost £359, so around $485 at today's rates - wish I had got it for $399!


You're super close then. If I can make a recommendation: Get Photosynthesis 2, I use that one ALL the time. A really useful tool and you are close enough to the threshold. If you're within $3-5 of the threshold we'll hook you up. Not gonna be penny pinching :D


----------



## shropshirelad

audioimperia said:


> You're super close then. If I can make a recommendation: Get Photosynthesis 2, I use that one ALL the time. A really useful tool and you are close enough to the threshold. If you're within $3-5 of the threshold we'll hook you up. Not gonna be penny pinching :D


Thanks for your help. I've got a singing teenager in the house anyway, although his days as a treble are sadly behind him now.


----------



## Grizzlymv

audioimperia said:


> You're super close then. If I can make a recommendation: Get Photosynthesis 2, I use that one ALL the time. A really useful tool and you are close enough to the threshold. If you're within $3-5 of the threshold we'll hook you up. Not gonna be penny pinching :D


I second that choice! actually any of the first 3 are featured prominently in my template and constantly being used.


----------



## Flyo

Pyro861 said:


> A new ''free'' SOLO library that current SOLO owners can't possibly acquire unless they also have/buy Jeager, Talos, Cerebrus and/or other random libraries included in a bundle... I don't know guys.
> 
> Oh but it's a Black Friday deal, put a smile on your face


Exactly my thought to, if this was available for free add on to Solo package I will buy Solo it in this BF


----------



## audioimperia

Flyo said:


> Exactly my thought to, if this was available for free add on to Solo package I will buy Solo it in this BF


Gonna repost our reply 

Solo and Boy Soloists are not related products aside from both being part of our Soloists series. Solo is not just one library but a series of products focused on Soloists  Hence why we called the Boy Soloists an addition to the Solo series, not an add-on to Solo. Hope that clarifies that.


----------



## Yogevs

audioimperia said:


> Sending it to loyal customers for free as we speak  So you probably are on that list from the looks of that list.


I have Nucleus, Areia and I'm planning to get SOLO during the BF sale. Would I be eligible for the Boy Soloist library?


----------



## Getsumen

Yogevs said:


> I have Nucleus, Areia and I'm planning to get SOLO during the BF sale. Would I be eligible for the Boy Soloist library?


From an earlier post by AI in this thread.

"So everybody who has spent more than $600 with us in the past got sent the free Boy Soloists today, this includes customers who managed to get past the threshold with a combined value of the NI LTO bundle (at $399) and purchases that they made in our store. And if you make a purchase during this Black Friday with us and you get past that threshold you would of course get the Boy Soloists as well."


----------



## audioimperia

Yogevs said:


> I have Nucleus, Areia and I'm planning to get SOLO during the BF sale. Would I be eligible for the Boy Soloist library?


Checked your account, yes you would be


----------



## Yogevs

audioimperia said:


> Checked your account, yes you would be


Nucleus was $379 and Areia was $199 because of the loyalty discount. Do you count Areia as $199 or $399 without the discount? I mean, just wondering, would I be entitled without SOLO even (planning to get it either way )


----------



## audioimperia

Yogevs said:


> Nucleus was $379 and Areia was $199 because of the loyalty discount. Do you count Areia as $199 or $399 without the discount? I mean, just wondering, would I be entitled without SOLO even (planning to get it either way )


It's what was spent, not the MSRP price of a product


----------



## Yogevs

audioimperia said:


> It's what was spent, not the MSRP price of a product


Makes sense. So I'll only be eligible only after buying SOLO (without it I'm at $579 - not quite there yet ).

Another question - I made a mistake similar to someone else on this thread and bought the two libraries under two different emails/accounts. I remember about a year ago I asked to merge the accounts and was told it's not possible now and maybe will be in the future.
Is it possible already ?


----------



## audioimperia

Yogevs said:


> Makes sense. So I'll only be eligible only after buying SOLO (without it I'm at $579 - not quite there yet ).
> 
> Another question - I made a mistake similar to someone else on this thread and bought the two libraries under two different emails/accounts. I remember about a year ago I asked to merge the accounts and was told it's not possible now and maybe will be in the future.
> Is it possible already ?


Will be in the future, yes. The new website is coming next year.


----------



## shropshirelad

@audioimperia Further to my previous post, here's my son singing underneath a motorway 4 years ago. I should have sampled him! 

View attachment VID_20170101_160405914.mp4


----------



## Pyro861

I took the plunge, got Nucleus and HangarIV and... unlocked the boys!

Thank you very much audio imperia! I really love your sound. It's time for a jam session with Merethe and the boys!


----------



## Peter Satera

audioimperia said:


> Absolutely understand the frustration but we had to set a threshold. We tried to keep it really reasonable at $600 spent with us. So everybody who has spent more than $600 with us in the past got sent the free Boy Soloists today, this includes customers who managed to get past the threshold with a combined value of the NI LTO bundle (at $399) and purchases that they made in our store. And if you make a purchase during this Black Friday with us and you get past that threshold you would of course get the Boy Soloists as well. It's a balancing act and we tried to make it really fair.


Does this include sales made over at VSTBuzz?

I have:
- Shredders Vol 1, Scenes from the Multiverse Vol1, Traveler Aurus, Trailer Guitars (bought on VSTBuzz sale for $99, and reads $0 on my account),
- Photosynthesis vol1/2/3/4 (all on sale for $80),
- Cerberus (sale for $149.50),
- Talos Low Brass, Talos Horns (bought $249+$99 for Low T'Horns - $348 total)
- I own Jaeger which I was lucky to win in a competition ( <3 ) .

Without Jaeger, it brings it to $676 spent, but if VST buzz is not taken into account NI/AI websites it's $577.

Peter


----------



## audioimperia

Peter Satera said:


> Does this include sales made over at VSTBuzz?
> 
> I have:
> - Shredders Vol 1, Scenes from the Multiverse Vol1, Traveler Aurus, Trailer Guitars (bought on VSTBuzz sale for $99, and reads $0 on my account),
> - Photosynthesis vol1/2/3/4 (all on sale for $80),
> - Cerberus (sale for $149.50),
> - Talos Low Brass, Talos Horns (bought $249+$99 for Low T'Horns - $348 total)
> - I own Jaeger which I was lucky to win in a competition ( <3 ) .
> 
> Without Jaeger, it brings it to $676 spent, but if VST buzz is not taken into account NI/AI websites it's $577.
> 
> Peter


Yup, would definitely be counted


----------



## Peter Satera

audioimperia said:


> Yup, would definitely be counted


I'll throw you an email.


----------



## Yogevs

audioimperia said:


> Will be in the future, yes. The new website is coming next year.


SOLO bought, email sent


----------



## Chungus

Trash Panda said:


> Different singer, different sound.


I got that much.  But I more meant, how do they handle? Does one have quirks the other does not? Is one better at handling certain passages than the other? That sort of thing.

Merethe is more than half the price than the whole of Solo, so I'm wondering if it can do more to match that price tag.


----------



## audioimperia

Chungus said:


> I got that much.  But I more meant, how do they handle? Does one have quirks the other does not? Is one better at handling certain passages than the other? That sort of thing.
> 
> Merethe is more than half the price than the whole of Solo, so I'm wondering if it can do more to match that price tag.


Really depends on your needs. Hangar 4 (Merethe) contains one vocalist, Solo contains two vocalists plus 11 other soloists. So if you're looking specifically for a library that *sounds like Merethe* get Hangar 4, if you're looking for a library with multiple soloists that cover the entire orchestral range plus vocalists get Solo. :D


----------



## Trash Panda

Chungus said:


> I got that much.  But I more meant, how do they handle? Does one have quirks the other does not? Is one better at handling certain passages than the other? That sort of thing.
> 
> Merethe is more than half the price than the whole of Solo, so I'm wondering if it can do more to match that price tag.


They handle about the same. Audio Imperia is very consistent across their libraries in that department. The major difference is the tone/timbre.


----------



## Nando Florestan

I am testing Solo. I generally like what I hear. It is a good choice for sweet lines and does not work at all for violent lines. But...

1. The french horn range stops at C5, thus missing its top major third. Also it has vibrato, which makes it sound weird, especially if the vibrato happens on every note. I would say there's vibrato in the entire range except from F4 to C5. I guess I will not be using this patch... On the other hand, the descant horn has none of these problems and is very usable as long as you don't need it loud and brassy.

2. The oboe is very nice, but what is this windy crackling in the first second of the A4 or Bb4? Is that only in my copy? Is it really supposed to be there?

3. In the solo strings, the "Legato Slurred" articulation is misnamed. It should be "portamento", and it would have been a much better choice to record actual slurred legato (without glides) -- it would have made a much more useful library, since portamento is rarely played. What an unfortunate choice.


----------



## Trash Panda

You can extend the range of any instrument under the advanced tab. Just click on the velocity curve button to find the options. 

The legato slur on strings appears to be fingered legato on smaller intervals and portamento on larger intervals. 

@audioimperia Ideally this would be separated into two different articulations for future string releases/updates. 🙂


----------



## Nando Florestan

Trash Panda said:


> You can extend the range of any instrument under the advanced tab. Just click on the velocity curve button


If you're replying to me, well, I was talking about pitch range, not dynamic range...


----------



## mybadmemory

Nando Florestan said:


> If you're replying to me, well, I was talking about pitch range, not dynamic range...


So was he! You can extend the pitch range of all products running in pyramid as you wish!


----------



## Trash Panda

Nando Florestan said:


> If you're replying to me, well, I was talking about pitch range, not dynamic range...


So was I, but Dynamic Range can be tweaked too.


----------



## LamaRose

audioimperia said:


> Solo and Boy Soloists are not related products aside from both being part of our Soloists series. Solo is not just one library but a series of products focused on Soloists  Hence why we called the Boy Soloists an addition to the Solo series, not an add-on to Solo. Hope that clarifies that.





Casiquire said:


> This seems strange to me, you got studio time and two young singers and then spent hours of time editing it all just to make patches that will only be available to buy for a couple weeks?!


"Strange" is not the first word I would use to explain this. 

After purchasing Solo I was under the impression that it would be expanded, and male singers were expressively mentioned if memory serves me right. 

Now, I don't mind shelling out a little peltage for said add-on(s)... but to not offer them for sale separately is disingenuous at best... akin to chopping down a copse of pine to build a cabin, only to burn it down after sleeping in it for a single night.


----------



## AndreasHe

Solo is reduced now to 199 USD.

As I have Nucleus, Areia, Talos, Cerberus, Jaeger, Boys (free ship) - I do not see much left in Solo OR AM I WRONG? My first thought is; for me it is not enough to spend 199. Looks like overlapping to my existing libs with 80-90%. Means a crossgrade should maybe not more than 60 USD (?)

But please correct / teach me if I don't see something here.


----------



## Yogevs

AndreasHe said:


> Solo is reduced now to 199 USD.
> 
> As I have Nucleus, Areia, Talos, Cerberus, Jaeger, Boys (free ship) - I do not see much left in Solo OR AM I WRONG? My first thought is; for me it is not enough to spend 199. Looks like overlapping to my existing libs with 80-90%. Means a crossgrade should maybe not more than 60 USD (?)
> 
> But please correct / teach me if I don't see something here.


I have only Nucleus. I spent the $199 for SOLO and got the Solo Boy library. Good deal I think


----------



## audioimperia

AndreasHe said:


> Solo is reduced now to 199 USD.
> 
> As I have Nucleus, Areia, Talos, Cerberus, Jaeger, Boys (free ship) - I do not see much left in Solo OR AM I WRONG? My first thought is; for me it is not enough to spend 199. Looks like overlapping to my existing libs with 80-90%. Means a crossgrade should maybe not more than 60 USD (?)
> 
> But please correct / teach me if I don't see something here.


There is no content overlap between Solo and any of the other libraries in our catalog. It's all-new recorded material. We offer crossgrades when there are content overlaps so since there is no content overlap here, there are no further crossgrade discounts for Solo


----------



## brupibo

AndreasHe said:


> Solo is reduced now to 199 USD.
> 
> As I have Nucleus, Areia, Talos, Cerberus, Jaeger, Boys (free ship) - I do not see much left in Solo OR AM I WRONG? My first thought is; for me it is not enough to spend 199. Looks like overlapping to my existing libs with 80-90%. Means a crossgrade should maybe not more than 60 USD (?)
> 
> But please correct / teach me if I don't see something here.


Solo is a whole different thing. They are different from the solo found in Nucleus. Though they fit orchestral context, they also shine in non orchestral arrangements, where you need a more exposed solo instrument.

Imho, they're not very versatile, though, but at what they are meant to do, they are very good. It definitely isn't overlapping with what you have, but it is a very specific library, if it worths for you depends on what you compose.


----------



## AndreasHe

Ok, you convinced me 

Here I compared "Solo Flute" from Solo vs. Nucleus:



My conclusion is:
- Solo is a different instrument
- Solo is a litlebit more versatile.


The variety comes also from the new feature which switches between 2 playmodes during playing automatically. Here: Legato fingered / retounged.






It does not make a big difference but introduces a bit more humanity.

I am not sure if its worth the money but as it is a very good instrument, it is for sure not a bad investment. Like so often with AI instruments, I had doubts before and after buying I am enjoying it.


----------



## Ricgus3

AndreasHe said:


> Ok, you convinced me
> 
> Here I compared "Solo Flute" from Solo vs. Nucleus:
> 
> 
> 
> My conclusion is:
> - Solo is a different instrument
> - Solo is a litlebit more versatile.
> 
> 
> The variety comes also from the new feature which switches between 2 playmodes during playing automatically. Here: Legato fingered / retounged.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It does not make a big difference but introduces a bit more humanity.
> 
> I am not sure if its worth the money but as it is a very good instrument, it is for sure not a bad investment. Like so often with AI instruments, I had doubts before and after buying I am enjoying it.



Would you mind doing this with with solo violins from Solo and Nucleus as well?  I have a heard time taming the solo violin in nucleus and would like to see how it handles in Solo


----------



## AndreasHe

Ricgus3 said:


> Would you mind doing this with with solo violins from Solo and Nucleus as well?  I have a heard time taming the solo violin in nucleus and would like to see how it handles in Solo




Also attached NI Cremonia Violin. Also nice. But there I did not used any articulations, which is possible but requires manual interaction.


----------



## Ricgus3

AndreasHe said:


> Also attached NI Cremonia Violin. Also nice. But there I did not used any articulations, which is possible but requires manual interaction.



Is this also with the new Nuckeus update? Thanks for your time put into this! Very nice to have the comparison! The mic/mix is better in Solo as you hear more of the timbre


----------



## AndreasHe

Ricgus3 said:


> Is this also with the new Nuckeus update? Thanks for your time put into this! Very nice to have the comparison! The mic/mix is better in Solo as you hear more of the timbre


Yes, with new Nucleus. You are welcome.


----------



## muziksculp

The Cremona Violin's vibrato sounds horrible. I liked the SOLO violin best.


----------



## Ricgus3

muziksculp said:


> The Cremona Violin's vibrato sounds horrible. I liked the SOLO violin best.


Agree!


----------



## daviddln

Hello. I know the Boy Soloists library was a free gift for a bundle offer last year, but is it possible to purchase the library? I missed that offer and the demos sound really good. I can't find any info on how to get the library. Thanks.


----------



## chapbot

muziksculp said:


> The Cremona Violin's vibrato sounds horrible. I liked the SOLO violin best.


The vibrato in all the Cremona strings make me want to cut my wrists


----------



## gedlig

daviddln said:


> Hello. I know the Boy Soloists library was a free gift for a bundle offer last year, but is it possible to purchase the library? I missed that offer and the demos sound really good. I can't find any info on how to get the library. Thanks.


Unfortunately no. They did a Spitfire and made it exclusive to the black friday bundles or if you spent a certain amount on their products until the sale or during it. No way to get it separately.


----------



## daviddln

gedlig said:


> Unfortunately no. They did a Spitfire and made it exclusive to the black friday bundles or if you spent a certain amount on their products until the sale or during it. No way to get it separately.


Oh, I see. Thanks for your reply. I hope the offer will come back next BF.


----------



## the_pro

A whooping 90GB but no glissando/portamento? How is this even expressive?


----------



## Trash Panda

the_pro said:


> A whooping 90GB but no glissando/portamento? How is this even expressive?


Calm down. The strings all have portamento under the legato slur articulation.


----------



## Evans

Thank goodness, because I cannot express myself without portamento.


----------



## curry36

Any instruments in Solo that you like more than from other separate products?

Maybe for specific styles?

I like instant playable and well sounding instruments. There are good ones over here and there.. Lumina Oboe, Joshua Bell Violin, Embertone Recorders, Cinesamples Descant Horn, Berlin Woodwind Solists, Tina Guo 1, .. etc.

I wonder if and which instruments in Solo would be as such?


----------



## IdealSequenceG

Audio Imperia SOLO - Solo Trumpet Test


----------



## Geomir

More so than combining it with Nucleus Core, I have come to the conclusion that AI Solo is the best library companion to EWHO Opus. The weakest points of EWHO are the legatos of the solo woodwinds, the solo violin and the solo cello (there is no solo viola at all). Everything else mostly rocks!

AI Solo is a modern library, recorded relatively dry with multiple mic options, exactly like EWHO, and offers everything that EWHO Opus is missing: all those wonderful soloists, making it possible to write music with exposed expressive / lyrical solo passages. I seriously can't think of another library that can mask so precisely all the main weaknesses of EWHO Opus. It's like AI designed it with that in mind! 

I think that the combination of EWHO Opus (when on sale for around $300) and AI Solo (when on sale for $150) is the reply to all those threads "_What orchestral library should I buy to be able to do as many things as possible, spending less than $500_"? Soft emotional style, old Hollywood style, modern epic style, aggressive intense style, lyrical and expressive style, all of these things can be done with the combination of these 2 gems, without spending a fortune.

With that said, if at the end of the month I get my monthly salary before the NI sale expires, I am pulling the trigger for AI Solo (for $150) and complete the best way possible my EWHO Opus.


----------



## Nadav

Geomir said:


> More so than combining it with Nucleus Core, I have come to the conclusion that AI Solo is the best library companion to EWHO Opus. The weakest points of EWHO are the legatos of the solo woodwinds, the solo violin and the solo cello (there is no solo viola at all). Everything else mostly rocks!
> 
> AI Solo is a modern library, recorded relatively dry with multiple mic options, exactly like EWHO, and offers everything that EWHO Opus is missing: all those wonderful soloists, making it possible to write music with exposed expressive / lyrical solo passages. I seriously can't think of another library that can mask so precisely all the main weaknesses of EWHO Opus. It's like AI designed it with that in mind!
> 
> I think that the combination of EWHO Opus (when on sale for around $300) and AI Solo (when on sale for $150) is the reply to all those threads "_What orchestral library should I buy to be able to do as many things as possible, spending less than $500_"? Soft emotional style, old Hollywood style, modern epic style, aggressive intense style, lyrical and expressive style, all of these things can be done with the combination of these 2 gems, without spending a fortune.
> 
> With that said, if at the end of the month I get my monthly salary before the NI sale expires, I am pulling the trigger for AI Solo (for $150) and complete the best way possible my EWHO Opus.


The problem with blending AI libraries with every other library is the delay compensation. AI specifies the sample start delay so you know how to compensate for it in the DAW but other libraries don't so you don't know how to compensate for them in relation to AI, so blending them can be time consuming sometimes. I would have used only AI libraries if it was possible.


----------



## Xabierus Music

Geomir said:


> More so than combining it with Nucleus Core, I have come to the conclusion that AI Solo is the best library companion to EWHO Opus. The weakest points of EWHO are the legatos of the solo woodwinds, the solo violin and the solo cello (there is no solo viola at all). Everything else mostly rocks!
> 
> AI Solo is a modern library, recorded relatively dry with multiple mic options, exactly like EWHO, and offers everything that EWHO Opus is missing: all those wonderful soloists, making it possible to write music with exposed expressive / lyrical solo passages. I seriously can't think of another library that can mask so precisely all the main weaknesses of EWHO Opus. It's like AI designed it with that in mind!
> 
> I think that the combination of EWHO Opus (when on sale for around $300) and AI Solo (when on sale for $150) is the reply to all those threads "_What orchestral library should I buy to be able to do as many things as possible, spending less than $500_"? Soft emotional style, old Hollywood style, modern epic style, aggressive intense style, lyrical and expressive style, all of these things can be done with the combination of these 2 gems, without spending a fortune.
> 
> With that said, if at the end of the month I get my monthly salary before the NI sale expires, I am pulling the trigger for AI Solo (for $150) and complete the best way possible my EWHO Opus.


I totally agree with you, im also waiting some days to get them at half the price, i believe they both will complement well each other


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## IdealSequenceG

Audio Imperia SOLO - Solo Violin Test


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## muziksculp

My issue with many of the SOLO instruments is the baked-in Vibrato, and no way to control it, fade it in, or out.


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## Mr Greg G

Or the total lack of vibrato as you can see in my attempt to mockup this piece: compared to the real track it sounds like a crepe falling from the ceiling.


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## muziksculp

Mr Greg G said:


> Or the total lack of vibrato as you can see in my attempt to mockup this piece: compared to the real track it sounds like a crepe falling from the ceiling.



Very well done. Lovely theme. I did watch that Spanish series a while back. It was quite entertaining. 

Now, regarding the 'total lack of vibrato' are you referring to the solo cello ? or .. ? Does SOLO have any of the instruments with no-vibrato ? 

Thanks.


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## Mr Greg G

muziksculp said:


> Very well done. Lovely theme. I did watch that Spanish series a while back. It was quite entertaining.
> 
> Now, regarding the 'total lack of vibrato' are you referring to the solo cello ? or .. ? Does SOLO have any of the instruments with no-vibrato ?
> 
> Thanks.


Thanks, yes it was a very entertaining show indeed!
I was referring to the lack of vibrato for the solo viola, when you listen to the transition at around 0:30 from the original performance to my mockup, it sounds completely flat and dull.


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## muziksculp

Mr Greg G said:


> Thanks, yes it was a very entertaining show indeed!
> I was referring to the lack of vibrato for the solo viola, when you listen to the transition at around 0:30 from the original performance to my mockup, it sounds completely flat and dull.


Oh.. I see. Thanks for the feedback. 

One of the things I find irritating with solo sampled instruments is the Vibrato. Especially when there is no user controls for it, and it is baked in, so it ends up sounding like robotic vibrato. 

This is just one of the reasons I prefer Physical Modeling, or a Hybrid of sampled and modeling based solo instruments i.e. Audio Modeling SWAM, Sample Modeling instruments, but they don't have Woodwinds. I'm hoping they will develop Woodwinds, since they have Strings, and Brass. Also Acoustic Samples have released their Brass, and Sax Solo Modeled Instruments, I hope they develop Woodwind, and String Solo Instruments next.


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## Mr Greg G

I agree but when the vibrato is well played like in the 1st Tina Guo library, even though it is baked into the recording and is not controllable, it sounds more alive than what you hear at 30s in my mockup!


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## FinGael

Bought this from the recent NI sale, and downloaded it a couple of days ago. When the library was released, I immediately had a strong intuitive feeling that this would be a great thing to add to my toolkit, but for some reason I did not buy it then. The feeling has not left me, so I decided to get it now.

First impressions are positive. I like the overall sound and playability. I already had Nucleus (especially love the solo flute and oboe in it) and had watched videos of Solo (thank you Cory Pelizzari, Mike Fox, Daniel James and others!), so it was somewhat clear to me what to expect.

Some have said that they find the strings to be somewhat underwhelming, when compared to other instruments in the library. I have not tested the library that thoroughly, including the different mic setups yet, but here's something I noticed...

If you like to play in your lines and do not use a wind/breath controller, or a controller with several sliders, I find it useful with this library to link the expression knob to the mod wheel (with midi learn) - so you can control both dynamics and expression with the mod wheel.

With a library like this, where there is a lot of performance, some dynamic arcs and the vibrato baked in the notes, less mod wheel action is often needed. Linking the expression to it can make it sound much more alive - and feeling less like a library with one dynamic layer. Using this method I've been able to make the sounds more lively, and the baked-in vibrato to be less noticeable. My experience so far is that the added volume changes can make a big difference, when used consciously and carefully.


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