# Chamber Strings



## constaneum (Apr 27, 2018)

I've listened to a few sample libraries and it seems SF's Chamber Strings (not the professional edition) is the best sounding Chamber Strings library in the market. The sound of the strings really hit me spot on, followed by the smart programming scripts, especially the performance legato patches. What are your comments / reviews based on your experiences with the library? Is it the best out there?


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## ricz (Apr 27, 2018)

I highly recommend the 'search' function in this forum if you aren't familiar. There are many existing threads that might help you make a decision.


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## constaneum (Apr 27, 2018)

thanks


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## NYC Composer (Apr 27, 2018)

I don’t know if they’re the best, but I suspect so. SCS is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. The legatos are very good and the shorts are exceptional. The ensemble patch alone is incredible.

I won’t be upgrading to Pro though. I don’t need the extra mics.


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## tmhuud (Apr 27, 2018)

The trousers are good too.



NYC Composer said:


> The legatos are very good and the shirts are exceptional. The ensemble patch alone is incredible.


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## fretti (Apr 27, 2018)

Depends. Have you compared different libraries, different articulation sets, listened to demos, read reviews etc.?
I have SCS and am very happy with it. But 699€ can be quite hefty in comparison (I got them with an EDU discount for 489€ wich was for me a fair amount for what you get).
But there are many other libraries for chamber strings, addressing different needs, different specs, different "sizes", different prices

http://lightandsoundsamples.com/chamberstrings.html
https://www.vsl.co.at/de/Strings_Complete/Chamber_Strings_Bundle
https://8dio.com/instrument/bundle-9-all-adagio-strings/ (wich offers solo, chamber, and ensemble) just to name a few others


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## NYC Composer (Apr 27, 2018)

tmhuud said:


> The trousers are good too.


Ha! I caught it about the time you caught me


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## muk (Apr 28, 2018)

Contrary to anybody else I am not a big fan of the Spitfire Chamber Strings' sound. Granted, the shorts sound marvelous. But in the longs I always hear a nasal and slightly edgy tone that I am not really into. That's exactly why I don't own SCS. I prefer the tone of the Light & Sound Chamber Strings, which is open and clear. Lovely library. It doesn't have too many articulations though, which can be limiting at times. For playability and expressivity I can't get past VSL Dimension Strings. They react instantly to cc1 movement in a way that feels very natural to me. But you really have to work on the sound with them.


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## constaneum (Apr 28, 2018)

Too bad they didn't have sales for SCS when pro edition was released.


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## Michael Antrum (Apr 28, 2018)

For some reason, I never bought any Spitfire libraries (with the exception of the original Albion) until the Black Friday deals last year, at which point I bought the whole Spitfire orchestra and one or two others. 

Spitfire chamber strings has quickly became my favourite string library - and I now use it as my ‘goto’.

The new Pro version upgrade for £99 is currently still downloading, but the demos I have seen look tremendous. I hope they offer the same deal for some of the other library expansions too. It’s unlikely I would have paid the original price for them, unless I had a real need. At this price they are the same cost of a couple of good boozy lunches out with my wife, and far less fattening.

The thing about Spitfire is that whilst you may consider them to be expensive, when they have a sale, its often a good one !


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## Batrawi (Apr 28, 2018)

I have it. The only thing that keeps me away from using it is the vibrato. Too much for my ears and I wish it was less intense.
Adding to that it has a nasal tone to it as muk mentioned above which is actually normal for low number of players. Yet I think air lyndhurst accentuates this nasality - so it's not the best hall if you're after a warm sounding chamber strings IMO.


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## Shad0wLandsUK (Apr 28, 2018)

fretti said:


> Depends. Have you compared different libraries, different articulation sets, listened to demos, read reviews etc.?
> I have SCS and am very happy with it. But 699€ can be quite hefty in comparison (I got them with an EDU discount for 489€ wich was for me a fair amount for what you get).
> But there are many other libraries for chamber strings, addressing different needs, different specs, different "sizes", different prices
> 
> ...


Surely Century Strings makes more sense for this comparison, since they are Chamber size. Adagio is Full size.
I am about to find out what Century are like though (well the Sordinos anyway), as my internet is not the best.
https://8dio.com/instrument/century-strings-bundle/


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## Vik (Apr 28, 2018)

muk said:


> Contrary to anybody else I am not a big fan of the Spitfire Chamber Strings' sound. Granted, the shorts sound marvelous. But in the longs I always hear a nasal and slightly edgy tone that I am not really into. That's exactly why I don't own SCS. I prefer the tone of the Light & Sound Chamber Strings, which is open and clear.


I have spent some time comparing the two, but only using the 3 mic sets that come with SCS (will upgrade to the expanded version soon) - versus the 7 mic sets that come with LSCS. I also tried to use Logic's Match EQ to make it sound like LSCS, and that process made SCS sound more warm/open.

LSCS gives more more bang for the buck, but SCS offers a lot more articulations (see image). The ensemble presets are also more useful in SCS, not only are there more of them, but they use a lot less polyphony. LS is also a drier lib: there's no really ambient mic set as with SCS; LSCS is recorded in a smaller place. There are of course pros and cons with a library having been recorded rather wet - or rather dry.

LS has no separate vibrato control, no release parameter, and no portamento. But LS has some useful functions called Range and Split. And using the pedal will trigger the full end of the sample, including the tail (+ a surprisingly long pre-tail portion of the sample).
SCS, on the other hand, lets you set unique mic position levels for each of the articulations. But LS allows you to define which articulations you want to have available by selecting them from a menu, like in Berlin Strings' multi presets. This will become very useful if LS gets more artics. SCS does a lot of articulations, but unfortunately - doesn't have that function. Maybe that will come if/when Spitfire ports SCS over to their own player.

Another difference is the tuning: if you play eg an A5 in the each of the two V1s, the pitch in SCS is higher. Maybe this has to do with one of them possibly being adjusted to a tempered/stretched piano tuning.

I like both libraries, and they both have something the other doesn't have. Re SCS sounding nasal/edgy, Muk... I agree that this to some degree can be true at the highest dynamic levels and especially if the close mics are used, but by tweaking dynamics settings, mic positions and maybe some EQ a lot of this can be addressed - even more so with the extra mic sets I guess. Most people seem to like SCS, so I don't think this is a big problem for a lot of people, but LS has something very natural/warm/open about it's sound, which at least isn't as pronounced using the three included mic sets in SCS.

As mentioned earlier, I'll post a review of LSCS later. At the moment I'm trying to figure out why I often get stuck/hanging notes when using this library - I just contacted L&S about it. 
The main disadvantage of LSCS for me is that there's only one short articulation, so one needs to use the Speed function to adjust that sample to one's liking: this uses *a lot* of CPU power. That, and the much higher number of articulations in SCS - along with the relatively small amount of chamber string libraries to choose from out there - could be a main reason for people to pay the extra it costs to get SCS.


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## muk (Apr 28, 2018)

@Vik would you mind making a simple short sound comparison between SCS and Light and Sound CS if you have the time? It wouldn't have to be complicated, just a simple legato line played by SCS violins out of the box, and then the same line with L&S CS. I think that would help a lot to clarify what I mean with the nasal sound of SCS longs.


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## prodigalson (Apr 28, 2018)

The Close Ribbon mic goes a long way to tame any harshness or nasal sound.


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## robgb (Apr 28, 2018)

muk said:


> But in the longs I always hear a nasal and slightly edgy tone that I am not really into


Use a narrow EQ band, search for the nasal quality you don't like and dial it down. If you have access (via wrench/spanner) to the instrument, you can do it right there in the Group FX section. Or you could save money and buy something less expensive and more pleasing to your ear...


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## ism (Apr 28, 2018)

I have only LSCS, which I love, which is fantastic value for $150, and which has enough of its own distinct sound and innovation (dynamic arcs, bleed mics etc) to be worth having entirely in its own right and in addition to SCS.

But it has weaknesses also - I don't love the violas when exposed, for instance. Although the celli are amazing.

But on the whole it just makes me want SCS even more, in that it has only increases my love of all the sheer scope and textures of the chamber strings. They're really not the same.


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## fretti (Apr 28, 2018)

Shad0wLandsUK said:


> Surely Century Strings makes more sense for this comparison, since they are Chamber size. Adagio is Full size.
> I am about to find out what Century are like though (well the Sordinos anyway), as my internet is not the best.
> https://8dio.com/instrument/century-strings-bundle/


They say they offer all ensemble, chamber and solo...don't have them though so I can't say how the chamber patches actually compare to SCS and others...


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## robgb (Apr 28, 2018)

I bought Kirk Hunter's Diamond orchestra when it was on sale for $100 awhile back. The library has its problems, especially with the woodwinds (which are horrible), but hidden within it is a nice little chamber strings library the sounds great after a few small tweaks to EQ, etc. As a result, I haven't felt the need to buy another library, although the LS library is tempting at its current price. I'm just not sure there's enough of a difference in sound to make it worthwhile for me. Multiple microphone positions don't impress me much.


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## sostenuto (Apr 28, 2018)

robgb said:


> I bought Kirk Hunter's Diamond orchestra when it was on sale for $100 awhile back. The library has its problems, especially with the woodwinds (which are horrible), but hidden within it is a nice little chamber strings library the sounds great after a few small tweaks to EQ, etc. As a result, I haven't felt the need to buy another library, although the LS library is tempting at its current price. I'm just not sure there's enough of a difference in sound to make it worthwhile for me. Multiple microphone positions don't impress me much.



THX! Was looking hard at LSCS but would really like KH_Diamond to work for now ……….. 
Just to be sure ….. are these the items you refer to ??


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## ism (Apr 28, 2018)

robgb said:


> I bought Kirk Hunter's Diamond orchestra when it was on sale for $100 awhile back. The library has its problems, especially with the woodwinds (which are horrible), but hidden within it is a nice little chamber strings library the sounds great after a few small tweaks to EQ, etc. As a result, I haven't felt the need to buy another library, although the LS library is tempting at its current price. I'm just not sure there's enough of a difference in sound to make it worthwhile for me. Multiple microphone positions don't impress me much.





An interesting thing about LSCS in particular is that the that 7 mic positions really do add something to the sound. Partly this is because the library is so dry to begin with that you're not using the mic to add craft the reverb and you really can craft the presents and the stereo image.

I can a bit sceptical of libraries which lots of mics with seem a bit superfluous, but LCSC is different. The bleed mics and a couple of other really do make a difference in shaping the sound, combined the with the different way to add stereo image. I usually start with the close mics, which are extremely detailed in a way that you're only going to get with a bone dry library, and then sculpt the sound from there.

If you're just writing straight forward, classical music the maybe it doesn't matter that much. But if you're really trying to craft a the feel of a piece in a more filmic way, then the additional mics of LSCS are a real selling point for me. 

And again, I think that its something about the intimate nature of the chamber strings, perhaps more than anyother type of vi, that makes the level of detail important. I doubt that I would care about extra mics so much with a larger string section (Caveat is I don't have any spitfire additional mics, so can't really compare with SCS / SCS pro) .


On a similar note, it's this ability to craft intimate chamber string sounds that sets LSCS and SCS apart from anything else I know of - including the Adagio 'chamber' sections. The Adagio small sections are better understood as divisi sections for the main symphonic sections. They sound ok, and do have a bit more detail than the full sections. But there's something fundamental to the notion of 'chamber' strings that LSCS and SCS capture that Adagio, and even Century strings simply don't. Which suggests to be that capturing the chamber strings sounds - whether in a AIR or in a dry studio - is a much more complex engineering problem than simply reducing the number of players. It probably has something to do with the nuances of the performance also, but precisely what I couldn't tell you.

I'm still not sure I've completely grasped what exactly it is I've come to love about the chamber strings sound in particular, much less that I've completely grasped all the performance and engineering nuances around it. But if there's anything that does this a fraction as well as LSCS ad SCS, then I'd really love to hear about it.


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## robgb (Apr 28, 2018)

sostenuto said:


> THX! Was looking hard at LSCS but would really like KH_Diamond to work for now ………..
> Just to be sure ….. are these the items you refer to ??


Yes, but I think I've using the TVec 3 versions. I'm not sure. I revamped much of the library, giving it my own GUI (because Kirk's GUI is not particularly pretty). I know he has various versions of his chamber strings in there from the Emerald and Ruby libraries, so I may have mixed and matched as well, finding the ones I liked best. I also separated them all out into individual articulations.


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## Vik (Apr 29, 2018)

muk said:


> @Vik would you mind making a simple short sound comparison between SCS and Light and Sound CS if you have the time? It wouldn't have to be complicated, just a simple legato line played by SCS violins out of the box, and then the same line with L&S CS. I think that would help a lot to clarify what I mean with the nasal sound of SCS longs.


Sure, I could do that, but I guess it would be more fair (since LSCS comes with 7 mic positions) to do it when I have the full mic pack from Spitfire.

Meanwhile... have you seen this?

6 and 7 are SCS and LSCS (no external processing, but not totally out-of-the-box either).


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## muk (Apr 29, 2018)

Thanks Vik. It's audible clearly from the examples you posted (though i remembered it as even more pronounced). SCS sounds coloured and slightly veiled - what I called nasal - in comparison to Light & Sound, which sounds open and natural to me (though way too close and in your face in the short clip above). Of course you can do subtle adjustments to the tone with an eq. But there is only so much you can do before the changes become audible in a nasty way. SCS will never sound as open as the Light & Sound Chamber Strings, which sound much more classical to me. Which is why I never bought SCS, despite it offering much more in terms of articulations.


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## Vik (Apr 29, 2018)

Here are two other examples I just made - based on factory settings, but I added some close mic to SCS since LSCS comes with a default with close mics.

Note that they react differently to CC1, which in this example means that LSCS is louder in the high notes at the end. So to make this fair, one should adjust the monitoring volume when listening. (The files are normalised individually, but as you can hear, that doesn't mean that they'll end up equally loud throughout the clip.)


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## muk (Apr 29, 2018)

Awesome, thanks a lot @Vik.


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## Michael Antrum (Apr 29, 2018)

I didn’t discover Light & Sound samples until after I had purchased SCS, but what I have seen/heard and read about it, it seems to be a great little library. I have enough pianos to last until the end of days, otherwise I would also have looked at their new release too.

The nasal tone you speak of sounds like small sections normally do, at least to my ears. But that’s the great thing about everyone not liking the same thing. Variety is the spice of life and all that. Wouldn’t everything be boring if we all liked this same things ?

Meanwhile, my expansion has downloaded and I’ve had a bit of a play for a few hours, and while some settings give only the most subtle differences, others give a whole new ‘feel’ to the library, and for £ 99, that’s pretty terrific in my book.

I thought I was done buying samples for a while - I spend most of my time on the composing aspect rather than the ‘sound engineering’ aspect, and that time is normally spent with a piano patch, and pen and paper. When you do things this way, you can easily end up with music that does not ‘play to the strengths’, as it were, of your sample libraries. These extra mics and mixes I think will help somewhat with that.

If Spitfire do any more of theses £ 99.99 expansions, I think I’ll be all over them.


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## N.Caffrey (Apr 29, 2018)

mikeybabes said:


> I didn’t discover Light & Sound samples until after I had purchased SCS, but what I have seen/heard and read about it, it seems to be a great little library. I have enough pianos to last until the end of days, otherwise I would also have looked at their new release too.
> 
> The nasal tone you speak of sounds like small sections normally do, at least to my ears. But that’s the great thing about everyone not liking the same thing. Variety is the spice of life and all that. Wouldn’t everything be boring if we all liked this same things ?
> 
> ...


Apart from the gallery, which other presets give this new feel to the library?


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## sinkd (Apr 29, 2018)

robgb said:


> Use a narrow EQ band, search for the nasal quality you don't like and dial it down. If you have access (via wrench/spanner) to the instrument, you can do it right there in the Group FX section. Or you could save money and buy something less expensive and more pleasing to your ear...


Muk does not own the library. [EDIT: Sorry, I see that you did understand this.]


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## robgb (Apr 29, 2018)

Vik said:


> Here are two other examples I just made - based on factory settings, but I added some close mic to SCS since LSCS comes with a default with close mics.
> 
> Note that they react differently to CC1, which in this example means that LSCS is louder in the high notes at the end. So to make this fair, one should adjust the monitoring volume when listening. (The files are normalised individually, but as you can hear, that doesn't mean that they'll end up equally loud throughout the clip.)


I like the bite to LSCS. I also like the dryness, which gives you more options in mixing. Based on this example I'd probably go with LSCS.


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## Oliver (Apr 29, 2018)

+1 for LSCS...love it!


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## robgb (Apr 29, 2018)

Just for shits and giggles, here's Kirk Hunter's Chamber Violins (I'm not sure which edition, since I pulled them from Diamond). This is the sustain patch set to velocity maracato. Pardon me if there's too much high end. My ears are shot:

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/kh-chamber-violins-test-mp3.13196/][/AUDIOPLUS]


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## sostenuto (Apr 29, 2018)

robgb said:


> Just for shits and giggles, here's Kirk Hunter's Chamber Strings (I'm not sure which edition, since I pulled them from Diamond). This is the sustain patch set to velocity maracato. Pardon me if there's too much high end. My ears are shot:
> 
> [AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/kh-chamber-violins-test-mp3.13196/][/AUDIOPLUS]



THX for this.  My high-freq rolloff is getting fairly dismal (age) … but still enjoying. Since I have KH_Diamond, I wonder about picking up LSCS. Do you note enough improvement to still justify the cool promo price? 

(OT) _ _other current attraction is SF_ Solo Strings (before they remove it). Even with its critics, it seems the specific Players, and tone makes it a desirable lib to have. _


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## robgb (Apr 29, 2018)

sostenuto said:


> Since I have KH_Diamond, I wonder about picking up LSCS. Do you note enough improvement to still justify the cool promo price?


There's a certain richness to the LSCS strings that's nice, but, for me at least, $150 is $150, and I'm not sure that added bit of richness is enough for me to justify buying yet another string library. That said, I'm a victim of GAS, and LSCS is still tempting.


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## damcry (Apr 29, 2018)

Tempting .... for sure


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## Vik (Apr 29, 2018)

muk said:


> Awesome, thanks a lot @Vik.


You're welcome, Muk. Don't forget that out-of-the-box comparisons aren't always fair, because many of us want to use different settings/mic sets than the factory defaults anyway. So - a more fair comparison would be between the best possible results we could get from each of the libraries, and that would include access to all mic positions in both libraries.


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## tack (Apr 29, 2018)

Over on The Sound Board, @muk posted an Elgar snippet using LSCS where I tweaked his MIDI and rendered it with SCS. So it would be a relevant comparison for this thread.

I don't want to link to muk's version here without his permission (you can check the TSB thread), but here's the SCS version which is lightly processed.


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## Dominik (Apr 30, 2018)

I am not as enthusiastic about SCS. I bought them for a special promotion price but couldn´t use them much in my recent compositions. For me they often sound thin and even with close mics a little too far away. I prefer a dry in your face sound with a nice round room tail. 
But I don´t see many alternatives. There would be VSL Dimension Strings and Adagio which I own, too. But they have other problems.


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## muk (Apr 30, 2018)

Thanks for posting this @tack! I completely forgot about the TSB-thread. Here is the version with Light & Sound Chamber Strings. Lightly processed as well, as they are dry and upfront out of the box:

https://app.box.com/s/qtftviws7bd4mypt8tjuyagjzfmzl6ab

I think this thread nicely establishes the tonal differences between SCS and LS Chamber Strings.

@Dominik Light & Sound Chamber Strings (not too many articulations, especially not short ones), VSL Chamber Strings, and LASS (most fully featured of the bunch) come to mind.


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## constaneum (Apr 30, 2018)

For SCS, i can seem to hear some out of tune notes. hmmm...kinda reminds me of Adagio where as LSCS seems rather clean throughout.


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## Saxer (Apr 30, 2018)

Here's (again, sorry) my to go chamber set: 15 Audiomodeling solo strings doubled with Dimension Strings and a bit of SCS room mics.
It's an additional string part to a song I can't load up (I didn't produce it), so it's not a complete composition here. But it's just to compare the string sounds.


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## muk (Apr 30, 2018)

Truly fantastic work, as always @Saxer! The musicality is simply outstanding. Your setup seems to be extremely playable. The sound is dry and intimate, must be ideal for pop studio strings.


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## Oliver (Apr 30, 2018)

great @Saxer !


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## Scamper (Apr 30, 2018)

muk said:


> Thanks for posting this @tack! I completely forgot about the TSB-thread. Here is the version with Light & Sound Chamber Strings. Lightly processed as well, as they are dry and upfront out of the box:
> 
> https://app.box.com/s/qtftviws7bd4mypt8tjuyagjzfmzl6ab


Do you have some more proper mockups with just LSCS? I like this more than the official demos, especially those with context. While SCS is still my favorite, this is good stuff.


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## RandomComposer (Apr 30, 2018)

Just wanted to chime in here - I was stressing over how I was going to afford SCS (I really needed some strong chamber strings), but I saw the LSCS sale and decided to go for that instead, after reading all the glowing reviews.

And I was certainly not disappointed! I'm absolutely in love with the sound of it, to the point that I can see myself using LSCS as my main strings in most of my orchestral works (in place of EW HW strings that I was using as main strings).
Ridiculously good value for money.

My only gripe is the lack of different samples for stac. and spic. - but honestly it's quite a small thing considering how little I paid for the whole library.


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## muk (May 1, 2018)

Scamper said:


> Do you have some more proper mockups with just LSCS?



Well thank you @Scamper. I'll check if I have more, but it'll take a bit as I am on the road currently.


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## muk (May 2, 2018)

Found another one, just a short snippet from Peter Gabriel's book of love:

https://app.box.com/s/zyetk7b9b2umjyz93ux4tyqzb6k0u80j

The idea was to match the sound as closely as possible to the original recording. Here is a link to the thread, where a version with SCS can be found too:

https://vi-control.net/community/th...ter-gabriel-book-of-love-strings.61403/page-3


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## Zoot_Rollo (Oct 5, 2018)

+1 for LSCS.


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## nolotrippen (Apr 23, 2020)

robgb said:


> Yes, but I think I've using the TVec 3 versions. I'm not sure. I revamped much of the library, giving it my own GUI (because Kirk's GUI is not particularly pretty). I know he has various versions of his chamber strings in there from the Emerald and Ruby libraries, so I may have mixed and matched as well, finding the ones I liked best. I also separated them all out into individual articulations.


Say, you want to share that GUI?


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## robgb (Apr 23, 2020)

nolotrippen said:


> Say, you want to share that GUI?


It's nothing special. I simply gave it a new face that was more pleasant for me to look at. I'm not sure who designs Kirk's libraries but most of them are not pretty.


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## korgscrew2000 (Apr 23, 2020)

I bought sable years ago. I still use it to layer over thicker string libraries. I love it. Gives the bigger libraries some bite when layered.


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## Michael Stibor (Apr 24, 2020)

I'm torn between SCS and LSCS. SCS seems like it might be fore me, but it's very pricey and I haven't heard any examples where SCS is used as actual chamber strings. They always sound very 'big' to me.

LSCS appeal is definitely its price. But none of the examples in their demos have really sold me. But judging by their reputation here, I'm open to the idea that I might be wrong.

Would love to hear user demos of each/either!


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## Hisham (Oct 26, 2020)

Batrawi said:


> I have it. The only thing that keeps me away from using it is the vibrato. Too much for my ears and I wish it was less intense.
> Adding to that it has a nasal tone to it as muk mentioned above which is actually normal for low number of players. Yet I think air lyndhurst accentuates this nasality - so it's not the best hall if you're after a warm sounding chamber strings IMO.


sorry for the irrelivant comment but... SAMIR GHANEM? you rock dude! :D


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## drjee (Nov 20, 2022)

Hi, I am sorry for reviving this rather old thread. But I am myself searching for better (more advanced) chamber string options. I also have KH Diamond. I must say the sound demo posted here did little justice to this library (which I so far used for my chamber needs). With a little bit of eq and put in the right room (via convolution) it does not sound bad at all. It also features two sets of chamber strings and I much prefer the Studio Strings over the Chamber Strings (which were used in the example of robgb). Here you may listen a short improvisation of the Studio Violins of KH Diamond (do not judge the playing but the sound). Note: I did not use any keyswitches (but used the vel markato switch which might give the impression of unsmooth legato but is good für improvisation without the need to use kleyswitches). However, I extended the scripting with the Unisono-Portamento script by NI which imo gives acceptable legato results. I slightly eq-ed the highs and used HOFA IQ Reverb with several IRs to add space.


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