# SPITFIRE - Spitfire Solo Strings NEW Virtuoso Violin Total Performance Patch



## Spitfire Team

​​


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## Daniel

Finally, Sordinos


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## Geoff Grace

Could "soon" perhaps be this Thursday around 9:00 am PST?

Best,

Geoff


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## Ben H

Improved forum ads?


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## LinusW

Spitfire Solo Strings reborn with the new player?


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## robgb

A less annoying marketing plan?


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## Vischebaste

Is it a dolphin in a bathtub?


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## ok_tan

robgb said:


> A less annoying marketing plan?



this


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## Rodney Money

Has Spitfire ever done a strings library before?


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## rottoy

Rodney Money said:


> Has Spitfire ever done a strings library before?


I believe they used to have a "no strings attached" policy.


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## jamwerks

Only 1 violin? So not a "first chairs" library? Recorded centered? We'll see...


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## Musicam

I need the choooooir!


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## PeterKorcek

3 certain things in life - death, taxes and monthly "something new coming" from Firespit studios :-D


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## Mornats

Seems I'm the only one who's looking forward to an update of a library that I own and like


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## dogdad

Mornats said:


> Seems I'm the only one who's looking forward to an update of a library that I own and like



I’m also looking forward to this library! Can’t wait to see what they’ve done!


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## Puzzlefactory

Mornats said:


> Seems I'm the only one who's looking forward to an update of a library that I own and like



I’m looking forward to it. 

Don’t have solo string library yet so looking forward to what they have to offer. 

Also as someone who receives about 3 marketing emails a day each from heavyocity, izotope and native instruments (and others), I really don’t find Spitfire’s marketing that intrusive at all.


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## kimarnesen

Spitfire's marketing is great and so will this "update" be.


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## Geoff Grace

Puzzlefactory said:


> I’m looking forward to it.
> 
> Don’t have solo string library yet so looking forward to what they have to offer.
> 
> Also as someone who receives about 3 marketing emails a day each from heavyocity, izotope and native instruments (and others), I really don’t find Spitfire’s marketing that intrusive at all.


I've received over 20 marketing email messages in the last 24 hours (not counting spam), just one of which was from Spitfire. I'm fine with it; but I realize for others here, YMMV.

Looking forward to tomorrow's announcement.

Best,

Geoff


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## JT

I'm also looking forward to this announcement. IMO the solo strings have always been the weak link in their string arsenal. As far as the ads, the blinking is a little annoying, but just scroll down and it's gone. I don't pay attention to any ads here. I've never clicked on one. I get all my info from reading other's experiences and listening to demos.


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## Mike Connelly

Geoff Grace said:


> I've received over 20 marketing email messages in the last 24 hours (not counting spam), just one of which was from Spitfire.


How many of those other 19 were announcing a product and how many were announcing an announcement?


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## Puzzlefactory

Mostly they’re,

“you know that sale we told you about yesterday and the day before and the day before that, well there’s only one week to go so you better get your skates on. Don’t worry though we’ll Remind you 3 times a day for the next week and then extend the sale just in case you miss the deadline”.


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## Wally Garten

Puzzlefactory said:


> Mostly they’re,
> 
> “you know that sale we told you about yesterday and the day before and the day before that, well there’s only one week to go so you better get your skates on. Don’t worry though we’ll Remind you 3 times a day for the next week and then extend the sale just in case you miss the deadline”.



^^ Accurate.


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## Mornats

Mike Connelly said:


> How many of those other 19 were announcing a product and how many were announcing an announcement?



Except this one was announcing the release of the new solo strings and not announcing the announcement of the release of the solo strings.


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## Mike Connelly

Mornats said:


> Except this one was announcing the release of the new solo strings and not announcing the announcement of the release of the solo strings.


So where's the announcement? I see a tease but no details or pricing. Did I miss something?


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## Puzzlefactory

The announcement is that it’s getting released on Thursday.

There’s no rule that announcements have to include all the details of the product before the release date.

It’s still an announcement about a product release.

NOT an announcement about an announcement.


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## lucianogiacomozzi

I’ve unsubscribed to these e-mails. I’d rather just look on their site at what they’ve released...


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## Fab

so pumped


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## Parsifal666

The Gustav Mahler Orchestral Toolkit.


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## aaronventure

Parsifal666 said:


> The Gustav Mahler Orchestral Toolkit.


 
Deep-sampled hammer with 12 dynamic layers and 10xRR?

Who am I kidding, you only need one dynamic layer.


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## Fab

aaronventure said:


> Deep-sampled hammer with 12 dynamic layers and 10xRR?
> 
> Who am I kidding, you only need one dynamic layer.



hammers at the edge of silence, super sultasto tapping


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## sostenuto

Parsifal666 said:


> The Gustav Mahler Orchestral Toolkit.



I'm OK with this …… as long as there's a video 'pickup' with Gustav, and lots of pricey wine !


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## DavidY

Parsifal666 said:


> The Gustav Mahler Orchestral Toolkit.


Semi-serious newbie question - are there sample libraries which offer the sound of "off-stage brass"/ "off-stage percussion" as one might hear in Mahler symphonies? (Or can you just mimic it with effects?)


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## aaronventure

DavidY said:


> Semi-serious newbie question - are there sample libraries which offer the sound of "off-stage brass"/ "off-stage percussion" as one might hear in Mahler symphonies? (Or can you just mimic it with effects?)


Don't know about samples but you can do it via effects with any library. 

Just drop a hall/stage IR on it and make it 100%wet with reduced early reflections.


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## nulautre

There is so much salt in this thread I’m going make margaritas...


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## paulmatthew

nulautre said:


> There is so much salt in this thread I’m going make margaritas...


No kidding. It's more like this ....


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## N.Caffrey

on soundcloud there are tracks available already https://soundcloud.com/spitfireaudio


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## Spitfire Team




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## N.Caffrey

Sounds good! Surprised there's no legato patch for virtuoso violin.. I wonder why, given they mention John Williams’ score for _Schindler’s List _n the description.


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## rottoy

Spitfire Team said:


> ..


Is there a separate video that cover the legato patches?


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## Pablocrespo

yes, leaving legato out of virtuoso style is weird, will see how it performs


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## Mike Connelly

Puzzlefactory said:


> The announcement is that it’s getting released on Thursday..



Oops.



> NOT an announcement about an announcement.



Oops.

--------

This sounds like a great library and I'm excited to crossgrade ($189USD). But for a product that's over a month from release I'd rather see them skip the pre-hype and just make the announcement today with all the details.


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## christianhenson

This is v1.0 release everything we know is working well and sounding gorgeous, more is recorded but we’ve learned the hard way not to over promise and under deliver but we know this is going to be a stalwart for many years to come so there’s all sorts of plans... it is my fave lib to date... as an ensemble it’s insane as added focus to SCS or SSS it’s the nuts... and the progressive... oh the progressive... I think I’m in love


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## Puzzlefactory

Mike Connelly said:


> Oops.
> 
> 
> 
> Oops.
> 
> --------
> 
> This sounds like a great library and I'm excited to crossgrade ($189USD). But for a product that's over a month from release I'd rather see them skip the pre-hype and just make the announcement today with all the details.



Yeah looks like I was wrong. It was an announcement about an announcement.


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## Wunderhorn

Watched the walkthrough. Everything sounds/looks great, however regarding the legatos I am missing portamento and glissandi. Please let us know that this is being handled otherwise it would look weirdly incomplete to me.


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## Virtuoso

The progressives and flautandos sound fantastic - looking forward to hearing a demo of the legatos. I'm kind of wishing it had the scripting wizardry of Embertone's Joshua Bell violin though - that level of playability and connection, coupled with Spitfire's depth of articulations and the Air ambience would be unbeatable!


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## Pablocrespo

christianhenson said:


> This is v1.0 release everything we know is working well and sounding gorgeous, more is recorded but we’ve learned the hard way not to over promise and under deliver but we know this is going to be a stalwart for many years to come so there’s all sorts of plans... it is my fave lib to date... as an ensemble it’s insane as added focus to SCS or SSS it’s the nuts... and the progressive... oh the progressive... I think I’m in love




Christian are there plans to add legato to the virtuoso violin? also, will legato have vibrato continuous control?
thanks


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## Francis Bourre

The walkthrough sounds gorgeous. Great to see Spitfire coming back to Kontakt.


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## Mike Connelly

As well as the other two violins, I hope eventually the bass has some legato options even if it isn't as deep as the other instruments.


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## JT

I'm glad to see that there was a discount applied for original solo string owners, putting the new solo strings in my cart for $189.


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## christianhenson

As far as I know v1.0 is going to be port, finger and bow for each...listed (so Vn, va, vc) I’ve asked the team to update the website...

Now how about some positives so our team don’t all go and hang themselves!!??

Trying to make nice stuff for you guys and VI-C has not been a nice place to be for the last few days! Paul hasn’t looked at it for three months which is sad cos this is where we were born.

Long pre order and promo period is at request of many of you so it hits all paydays financial plans and so that we can release as much info and vids as possible... lots to come I did a contextual thing with SCS and Jake and I did a big mixing vid too... we all been working hard!

And it is an effing cracker...

C x


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## madfloyd

It sounds very good. I notice they are back to using Kontakt...


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## kimarnesen

Exciting!

Is the crossgrade offer the same also when the pre-order deal is over, or will the crossgrade price increase accordingly?


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## madfloyd

Haven't even got through the walkthough but I'm loving what I hear. Wallet is coming out. Congrats, Spitfire - great job!


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## christianhenson

Deal will run the length, see above re legs. 9 in total for release / v1.0.


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## Francis Bourre

christianhenson said:


> As far as I know v1.0 is going to be port, finger and bow for each...listed (so Vn, va, vc) I’ve asked the team to update the website...
> 
> Now how about some positives so our team don’t all go and hang themselves!!??
> 
> Trying to make nice stuff for you guys and VI-C has not been a nice place to be for the last few days! Paul hasn’t looked at it for three months which is sad cos this is where we were born.
> 
> Long pre order and promo period is at request of many of you so it hits all paydays financial plans and so that we can release as much info and vids as possible... lots to come I did a contextual thing with SCS and Jake and I did a big mixing vid too... we all been working hard!
> 
> And it is an effing cracker...
> 
> C x


Can't wait, keep up the great work! Love from Luxembourg.


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## Mike Connelly

christianhenson said:


> Now how about some positives


Sounds excellent. I have the original solo strings and always liked them, for me the crossgrade is a no brainer.


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## ism

Trying to get my had around what exactly this library is. The sound is spectacular, so perfectly what I've been looking for ... and the textures of the three different violins ... well I'm not sure I fully understand what this means , but I can't wait to start playing with it.


What I can't figure out is if it's a texture library on the lines of the Alternative solo strings, which the FAQ seems like it might be implying, or a performance library like the old solo strings.

But the sound!

Update: Christian's reply came in while typing that ... and with a good legato this has me incredibly excited.


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## muziksculp

Hi,

The new Spitfire Audio Solo Strings sound awesome. I'm surely pre-ordering them.

I would appreciate it if Spirfire Audio will post more demos at faster tempi, and more Baroque style writing, or some action cue style ostinati, fast bowing, ..etc. (No need for the fancy, quiet articulations), just the basic shorts, longs, and legatos would do the job.

Thanks,
Muziksculp


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## Michel Simons

The crossgrade now looks quite good and the promo pricing runs until two weeks after the release, so more than enough time to make a decision. First Paul's walkthrough though.


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## christianhenson

Yeah there’s loads of vids and more demos coming and feedback about what you want here will be listened to!


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## Vik

christianhenson said:


> feedback about what you want here will be listened to


Thanks for asking! I'd like to hear layered con sord/flautando/sul tasto longs (if any), to emulate ensemble patches - which AFAIK isn't in there. In other words: several/different instruments playing flautando etc at the same time (polyphonically).
Edit: Thanks for including the progressives!


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## jononotbono

Really stoked about this. I have a few solo string libraries but having one recorded in Air Lyndhurst to blend with my other SA libraries would be amazing. Obviously getting a live soloist to play on my music, especially for exposed parts is what I would choose every time over a sample library (from any dev) as Solo Strings just seem to be insanely hard to sample but when that deadline is due in the morning, and I have no time or budget to hire someone, I could do with all the help I can get! Haha!


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## Puzzlefactory

Does look nice. 

Shame it’s not out till July, was hoping to pick one up as birthday present to myself on the 18th...

Maybe I’ll finally get LCO instead.


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## stonzthro

Cross-grade + pre-order makes it a VERY good deal - thanks SF team!


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## stonzthro

Puzzlefactory said:


> Does look nice.
> 
> Shame it’s not out till July, was hoping to pick one up as birthday present to myself on the 18th...
> 
> Maybe I’ll finally get LCO instead.


LCO is also fantastic!


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## kimarnesen

stonzthro said:


> Cross-grade + pre-order makes it a VERY good deal - thanks SF team!



Is the crossgrade discounted too, so it will increase as soon as the pre-order price does?


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## muziksculp

Hi,

The timbre of these Solo Strings is very beautiful, natural, warm and realistic to my ears. 

Great Engineering work to capture these instruments with all the detail, and richness by Spitfire Audio. Bravo ! 

Also watching the Walkthrough video by Paul, it shows that Playability is very good, and I also like the Vibrato control it offers. The various mics do a great job to customize the sound to taste. 

I'm guessing these Solo Strings can also function as First Chairs with the other SA Strings (Chamber, and Symphonic), and even blend nicely with other developers strings. 

Cheers
Muziksculp


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## Creston

I really love the tone and intimate sound of it. But the release of the samples sound bad. Seems like the notes just stop dead? In the original Solo Strings, you could go in and change the release under the hood, I guess you can't do that with these. As with most SF libraries, I wish the release slider allowed me to add longer releases.


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## muziksculp

Critz said:


> How could not be realistic? It is a damn recording...the problem is always how samples react when you actually play them in sequence..



Are you serious ? I have heard so many solo string libraries that sound like crap. Nothing realistic about their timbre. So, the Engineering, Recording Phase of the project (Mics, Pres, Acoustics, skills, know-how, experience, ..etc. ) make a HUGE difference to the results.


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## Stevie

There's no legato video, yet, or did I overlook that part in the walkthru?


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## ism

christianhenson said:


> Now how about some positives so our team don’t all go and hang themselves!!??



Well, for what it's worth - there are moments throughout the demos that I'd rate as easily among the most sublimely beautiful moments I've ever hear coming from a sample library. My breath (quite literally) caught I clicked play on the first sound cloud demo.


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## rottoy

Stevie said:


> There's no legato video, yet, or did I overlook that part in the walkthru?


It's coming.


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## kimarnesen

I like everything but really want to hear more with the longs, and eventually the legatos before I buy anything.

A wish: Can we hear more of the highest range of the cello? I often use the cello in its highest range, even if cellists hates me for it.


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## madfloyd

christianhenson said:


> Yeah there’s loads of vids and more demos coming and feedback about what you want here will be listened to!



I always enjoy a video with Homay...


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## madfloyd

I just realized I have to wait until July. Sadness...


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## muziksculp

Purchased !


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## Michel Simons

Maybe it's the red wine or the spicy nuts, but after watching Paul's walkthrough I am almost as exciting as he is. Most of the articulations sound pretty good to me. Then again, what do I know. Wondering how big the library is going to be (and starting to regret not going for bigger hard drives when buying a new music making machine at the end of last year). Now listening to Black Sabbath's Cross Purposes in the hope that it will cure me from wanting to buy another string library.


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## Geoff Grace

christianhenson said:


> Long pre order and promo period is at request of many of you so it hits all paydays financial plans


Yes, this coincides with BMI's June 15, 2018 royalty payment. I greatly appreciate this accommodation. Thanks @christianhenson and @Spitfire Team!

Here's hoping for a hefty check from my PRO...

Best,

Geoff


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## JPComposer

christianhenson said:


> And it is an effing cracker...



Been saving for this. The walkthroughs sound great.



rottoy said:


> It's coming.



That's what she said.



michelsimons said:


> Now listening to Black Sabbath's Cross Purposes in the hope that it will cure me from wanting to buy another string library.



Careful you don't end up buying an SG instead.


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## Critz

Will legatos be shown before the end of the introduction offer?


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## rottoy

michelsimons said:


> Maybe it's the red wine or the spicy nuts.


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## neugens

I admit I am very disappointed. When the fire sale went out the emails said there would be a new version coming out. It was mentioned on the FAQ that there would be a cross grade, and so discussion over vi-control and their Facebook page. But then, bam, no crossgrade. I appreciate that I may have misunderstood the ton of marketing materials that Spitfire sends me mostly on a daily base, and of course the old FAQ is gone and I can’t prove anything, but at the very least a more honest and straight campaign would have been nicer. At the end of the day we talk about very little money, is not necessary to obfuscated. I do t want to be the one that ruins the party, is a very nice sounding library, you go ahead and enjoy, but I’ll pass this round. Christian always speaks about building a community and all that stuff, but for that to work you need to be transparent, that wasn’t the case today.


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## Will Wilson

neugens said:


> I admit I am very disappointed. When the fire sale went out the emails said there would be a new version coming out. It was mentioned on the FAQ that there would be a cross grade, and so discussion over vi-control and their Facebook page. But then, bam, no crossgrade. I appreciate that I may have misunderstood the ton of marketing materials that Spitfire sends me mostly on a daily base, and of course the old FAQ is gone and I can’t prove anything, but at the very least a more honest and straight campaign would have been nicer. At the end of the day we talk about very little money, is not necessary to obfuscated. I do t want to be the one that ruins the party, is a very nice sounding library, you go ahead and enjoy, but I’ll pass this round. Christian always speaks about building a community and all that stuff, but for that to work you need to be transparent, that wasn’t the case today.



It was mentioned on here that the crossgrade would only be for people who bought the original solo strings BEFORE the firesale .


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## jamwerks

Wow, gonna be hard not buying this, especially to go with SCS & SSS. What's the official VI control abbreviation going to be by the way, since SSS is already taken?

Lots of good things to be said. Foremost maybe the long pizz's for the DB. Worth the price of the library just for that. I've said it before, but too bad imo that you don't do the natural harmonics, especially for DB & Cello. People who know how to orchestrate often take advantage of those, and too bad you don't do them. Plus those are things I prefer to leave as samples (not record during the string sessions). Could you imagine a guitar library that didn't record the 5th & 6th string harmonics, 12th fret?

Other than that is just sounds lovely. Great work chaps!


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## N.Caffrey

Will Wilson said:


> It was mentioned on here that the crossgrade would only be for people who bought the original solo strings BEFORE the firesale .



Yep, more than once!


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## muziksculp

From their Solo Strings webpage. 
Quote : 

"_Crossgrading available to original Spitfire Solo Strings customers._"


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## muziksculp

Oh my, I can't believe I'm reading so much negativity regarding such a great sounding new Solo Strings library by SA.


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## fretti

neugens said:


> I admit I am very disappointed. When the fire sale went out the emails said there would be a new version coming out. It was mentioned on the FAQ that there would be a cross grade, and so discussion over vi-control and their Facebook page. But then, bam, no crossgrade.


Yeah, crossgrade if you bought it before the fire sale afaik.


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## neugens

muziksculp said:


> From their Solo Strings webpage.
> Quote :
> 
> "_Crossgrading available to original Spitfire Solo Strings customers._"



Was that on their web page, right? That doesn’t say “original Spitfire Solo Strings customers, but only if you bought at some random date in the past”. I do remember it, perhaps they changed the wording then, I don’t know, they may also have said on this forum at some point, but that’s not their website. It doesn’t matter, just feeling disappointed by cheap marketing, not first time, won’t be the last time either.


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## Critz

muziksculp said:


> Oh my, I can't believe I'm reading so much negativity regarding such a great sounding new Solo Strings library by SA.


Well, and you would read much more negativity if it wasn't for the moderation


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## benuzzell

No negativity from me Christian, Paul and team! Great job, loving what I hear so far. Have been on the fence about this whole composing lark for a while now, and been going between cutting back or sacking it in all together, but this library feels like it'll bring me straight back with lots of musical ideas already forming. Can't wait to hear what you've done with the legatos, and great work sampling that upper range of the cello, been missing that for a while. Will fit in with my SSS and SCS perfectly. 

Edit: having read other posts and gone back and re-read the product information on the SA site, I will echo what others have said and just say that I find it strange that the virtuoso violin doesn't have any legato listed. That would be a strange omission. But...early days, I guess. No point speculating until SA give us some more info  can't wait.


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## GtrString

OMG, this sounds great! Sets a new standard for solo string libs..


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## DavidY

neugens said:


> Was that on their web page, right?


I don't think it was, at least initially, as I asked this question on the thread for the firesale on the old version, so it looks like I couldn't find it on there. 


I said:


> SpitfireSupport said:
> 
> 
> 
> To confirm, a loyalty discount will be available *only* to customers who purchased the library prior to the firesale.
> 
> Luke
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for the useful info.
> Are you planning to put this info (and perhaps some other FAQs) on the Spitfire Audio web page for Solo Strings, for the benefit of people who aren't on here?
Click to expand...


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## Mike Greene

Critz said:


> Well, and you would read much more negativity if it wasn't for the moderation


As I've said before, Spitfire (and VSL) never ask us to moderate their threads. Their philosophy is that people should have an open forum to say what they believe, positive or negative. Personally, I have a lot of respect for that attitude. For that reason, we as moderators do not generally step in on their threads.

However, Critz has a tendency to stir s*** just for the sake of stirring s***. That leads to drama and I think most of us have had more than our fill of drama lately, so given that this has happened before in VSL threads, and given that today I took time out of my day to write two separate messages (after I had to delete three of his earlier posts which IMO went beyond civil discussion) plus one email to Critz to further explain things, and he then responds with a smartass public remark here, I'm banning him.


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## neugens

DavidY said:


> I don't think it was, at least initially, as I asked this question on the thread for the firesale on the old version, so it looks like I couldn't find it on there.



Thanks. As I said it doesn’t really matter, the difference could be how much, 30 euros? The cheap marketing upsets me though, especially from Spitfire as I always took it in high regards.


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## lucianogiacomozzi

I’m happy it’s Kontakt. Sounds pretty good, but I’m holding off.


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## Heledir

Likes:

Detailed sound; shorts sound great and rich; harmonics and flautandos sound really nice. 
Consistent articulations; no articulations missing on say the viola (poor violas have suffered enough).
Full quartet/quintet.
I might actually be able to afford it.
Dislikes -- or perhaps 'uncertainties' are a better word for it:

I'm going to have to hear some legatos; if I want to write for solo strings, legatos are going to be of paramount importance.
Guys... _GUYS?!_ *Where are m'outriggers?!*


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## Grizzlymv

muziksculp said:


> From their Solo Strings webpage.
> Quote :
> 
> "_Crossgrading available to original Spitfire Solo Strings customers._"


from their FAQ page:
*IS THERE A CROSSGRADE PATH FOR ORIGINAL SOLO STRINGS OWNERS?*
Yes! As a thank you for your loyalty, owners who purchased the original Spitfire Solo Strings before the firesale began on 15th March 2018 will receive a special discount.

and as someone else said, they've been very clear about it on the forums here in the threads regarding the sale of the old Solo strings.


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## CT

These sound awesome! I do want to hear more of the legatos, though, and I'd rather have the bass get a proper legato before the other violins get theirs.

I'd also love to see more solo string libraries (and full section libraries, why the hell not) offering more than just normal bowing legatos; harmonics, sul tasto, and con sordino, for instance, would be luxurious to have in true legato form. I know Embertone's JB had a bit of that going on.


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## Grégory Betton

@christianhenson, can you give us a rough estimation of the library's total size (in Gb)? I can't find it among the specs. Congrats on your release; can't wait to see the legatos in action.


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## vewilya

christianhenson said:


> As far as I know v1.0 is going to be port, finger and bow for each...listed (so Vn, va, vc) I’ve asked the team to update the website...
> 
> Now how about some positives so our team don’t all go and hang themselves!!??
> 
> Trying to make nice stuff for you guys and VI-C has not been a nice place to be for the last few days! Paul hasn’t looked at it for three months which is sad cos this is where we were born.
> 
> Long pre order and promo period is at request of many of you so it hits all paydays financial plans and so that we can release as much info and vids as possible... lots to come I did a contextual thing with SCS and Jake and I did a big mixing vid too... we all been working hard!
> 
> And it is an effing cracker...
> 
> C x



Sounds just absolutely gorgeous to my ears. Been listening to the walkthrough on my drive home. I will crossgrade for sure. Been using the old Solo Strings a LOT as well. Especially on my last film score I did. But this new library could very well be my definitive Solo Strings lib! Your stuff just sounds amazing. I can still remember vividly when I first listened to some demos of Albion I and II back in 2015 I think. It just resonated very strongly with me. And it's been that way ever since! But while checking out your 2 labs releases and also while listening to the new walkthrough today I just said to myself that you guys and girls are getting better and better!!! 

Just tell me when the thing is baked and I'll have my wallet at the ready. Love your tools, tips and tricks! But the breakup of my marriage is on you guys! @divorceware!
Take care and thanks a lot for your inspiring stuff. I genuinely think that we've been spoiled over the years!

U


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## Killiard

Sounds amazing! 
The original solo strings still have a place in my template. Despite their age and limitations I usually end up using them over all the other solo libraries I’ve bought since. Can’t wait to try these out!


----------



## Mike Connelly

Will Wilson said:


> It was mentioned on here that the crossgrade would only be for people who bought the original solo strings BEFORE the firesale .



I think the problem is that not all customers read this site and if that info was available on the spitfire site it wasn't obvious or easy to find. No question there are people who didn't know that and bought expecting a crossgrade option.



muziksculp said:


> From their Solo Strings webpage.
> Quote :
> 
> "_Crossgrading available to original Spitfire Solo Strings customers._"



That's on their page now, was that info posted during the old solo strings sale?


----------



## DavidY

neugens said:


> Thanks. As I said it doesn’t really matter, the difference could be how much, 30 euros? The cheap marketing upsets me though, especially from Spitfire as I always took it in high regards.


Although I thought the website could have said more about crossgrades I thought the *marketing* was along the lines of "last chance to buy one of our old favourite products before we replace it". 
I don't remember that future crossgrades were mentioned on the website; I only remember seeing it in the posts on here which clarified the situation. 

People may have assumed something about crossgrades when the firesale started but I don't remember seeing crossgrades mentioned in any marketing.

I could be wrong though.


----------



## neugens

DavidY said:


> Although I thought the website could have said more about crossgrades I thought the *marketing* was along the lines of "last chance to buy one of our old favourite products before we replace it".
> I don't remember that future crossgrades were mentioned on the website; I only remember seeing it in the posts on here which clarified the situation.
> 
> People may have assumed something about crossgrades when the firesale started but I don't remember seeing crossgrades mentioned in any marketing.
> 
> I could be wrong though.



Yes, all is possible. I do remember clearly that somebody asked this on their facebook page and somebody else posted about the cross grade option link on their website. I don't remember it being specific about before the firesale, and of course, I may have misread that, considering how (needlessy) obfuscated all this information is. However, this is when I bought the strings, as I though that they didn't sound particularly beautiful but since they're going to update them anyway, I can just go ahead and buy them now. Pretty much like they did with the Alternative Strings btw, so that wasn't a first. Just a little bit more honest and transparent communication would have saved this very silly situation, which is again more about the principle than the money, it honestly makes me feel like a second class customer.


----------



## dogdad

Sounds wonderful! I was hoping that they'd be released today, as I start my vacation today (my time to work on music  but July 12th will be here before I know it. Really excited to write with this library! Congrats and Appreciation Spitfire!


----------



## thesteelydane

Damn you Spitfire, this sounds so good it can’t possibly be good for my livelihood! That’s a compliment wrapped in anxiety, and yes, I will definitely be getting this! Your original solo strings was my very first sample library, so luckily I qualify for the cross grade.

Looking forward to hearing the legato, but so far happy to see that it includes bow change.


----------



## Geoff Grace

neugens said:


> Just a little bit more honest and transparent communication would have saved this very silly situation, which is again more about the principle than the money, it honestly makes me feel like a second class customer.


I have sympathy for your disappointment, but isn't communication a two-way street? If you had sent Spitfire an email asking what their crossgrade policy was regarding the Firesale library before you purchased, it seems likely they would have answered honestly as they did here.

I realize my response sounds like a defense of Spitfire, and to a degree, it is; but I'm also offering it as a way of avoiding this problem in the future. You can't control Spitfire's actions—or anyone else's—but you can control yours. If you decide to be more proactive next time, perhaps it will empower you. Asking may give you more correct information than assuming.

Best,

Geoff


----------



## neugens

Geoff Grace said:


> I have sympathy for your disappointment, but isn't communication a two-way street? If you had sent Spitfire an email asking what their crossgrade policy was regarding the Firesale library before you purchased, it seems likely they would have answered honestly as they did here.
> 
> I realize my response sounds like a defense of Spitfire, and to a degree, it is; but I'm also offering it as a way of avoiding this problem in the future. You can't control Spitfire's actions—or anyone else's—but you can control yours. If you decide to be more proactive next time, perhaps it will empower you. Asking may give you more correct information than assuming.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Geoff



You are certainly right, however as has been noted elsewhere in this thread my assumption wasn’t driven by careless thinking and there is also a matter of trust involved. Of course, next time I’ll be more careful, although I don’t plan to invest more money in Spitfire anytime soon at this point.


----------



## korruptkey

neugens said:


> You are certainly right, however as has been noted elsewhere in this thread my assumption wasn’t driven by careless thinking and there is also a matter of trust involved. Of course, next time I’ll be more careful, although I don’t plan to invest more money in Spitfire anytime soon at this point.



I stayed away from the fire sale knowing this fact... but I can't help but feel like Spitfire would've come out on top even more had they decided to give a different tiered discount to those who bought during the fire sale. I probably would've been suckered into the fire sale had that been the case and ultimately cross-grading.


----------



## Geoff Grace

korruptkey said:


> I stayed away from the fire sale knowing this fact... but I can't help but feel like Spitfire would've come out on top even more had they decided to give a different tiered discount to those who bought during the fire sale. I probably would've been suckered into the fire sale had that been the case and ultimately cross-grading.


I posted in favor of a tiered discount at the time, thinking that to be a fair solution.

Nonetheless, as has already been mentioned, the difference turns out to be $30 extra for those who bought at Firesale price and didn't get a crossgrade discount. That's well within the normal price fluctuation range for a product with a $399 list price. As a consumer, I realize I sometimes pay more than others and sometimes less for the same items. If I couldn't live with that situation, I'd be a bundle of nerves.

In other words, I find this Spitfire policy acceptable. YMMV.

Best,

Geoff


----------



## muziksculp

When will this library be available for download ? and any info. on the disc space required ?

Are we only waiting for the legatos to be completed before it will be available for download ? or are there other articulations that need to be added besides the Legatos ?


----------



## dogdad

Any word on the file size?


----------



## Brian Nowak

Obviously the tone on the articulations present in the demos is pretty darn good, though a few of the long sustains do sound a bit... suspect... a touch unnatural at louder dynamics, perhaps.

@christianhenson I think we would all be more at ease were we to hear some material that sounds more like a soloistic phrase from the various instruments. Outside specific film scoring situations (or maybe an Arvo Part or Morton Feldman score), it's pretty rare to just hear some longs or shorts or accompaniment pizzicato when we're talking about solo strings. We're accustomed to hearing how the lines and transitions from different techniques flow. And yes, legato technique is a big part of that jam.

I realize now, after reading some of your statements in this thread, that this product is very much still in development. I can only hope that within the next month we are able to see some more phrase-related programming in demos. As it stands this fall I'll be picking up Symphony Complete and chamber strings, and I would cherish having a wonderful sounding and innovative soloist section of strings to match up here. Cheers!


----------



## lp59burst

jamwerks said:


> <snip>What's the official VI control abbreviation going to be by the way, since SSS is already taken?</snip>
> 
> Other than that is just sounds lovely. Great work chaps!


SsS... because the middle "s" is "so low"...


----------



## christianhenson

ooh i like SsS


----------



## Puzzlefactory

What’s the difference between “noise staccatissimo” and a regular staccatissimo?


----------



## Will Wilson

Puzzlefactory said:


> What’s the difference between “noise staccatissimo” and a regular staccatissimo?



I feel like there should be a punchline?


----------



## rocking.xmas.man

wow. that's nice. the crossgrade / upgrade pricing is good I think 
I like those mandolin pizzis and brushed shorts. very cool.
I'm looking forward to hear more of those solo strings. the in action videos are always great to get a feeling how our libraries are layed out and what they are supposed to be used like.


----------



## procreative

Just some questions/observations (just my opinion and not intended to cause a war!):

1. Are there plans to add Legato to the Virtuoso violin as its seems odd that of all the ones to have it the 1st Chairs is the only Violin to have Legato?

2. Its a shame all the Long articulations do not have Legato options (I am thinking Con Sordino, Sul Pont and Flautando like in SCS) as these are intended to be played "Solo" and the Con Sordino in the walkthrough sounds noticeably cut off between notes.

A certain other developer has the option to add Legato transitions to any articulation.

3. Splitting the 1st Chair (which I assume equals less emotive) and Virtuoso seems clunky, would it not have been better to sample one player playing differing vibratos eg NV, VB, HV, MV?

Tone as always is very nice, just feel the above is missing.


----------



## Begfred

Really excited about this library, with the crossgrade price it's a no brainer for me.

The only things I wish this library had is open strings pizz (like in Ravel quartet in F).
Nobody ever record it, except VSL Dimension strings. I love to use open strings as an fx in some context.
Long open strings can be useful too.
I know the recording is already done but if for any reason the musicians are coming back in studio...It's only four notes

Should be a great library anyway.


----------



## BradHoyt

So I copied and pasted this from the SSS articulations list for those who are wondering about legato....

*LEGATO PATCHES*
*VIOLIN (1ST DESK) - LEGATO*

*Portamento*
*Fingered*
*Bowed*
*VIOLA - LEGATO

Portamento
Fingered
Bowed
CELLO - LEGATO

Portamento
Fingered
Bowed
*


----------



## procreative

BradHoyt said:


> So I copied and pasted this from the SSS articulations list for those who are wondering about legato....
> 
> *LEGATO PATCHES*
> *VIOLIN (1ST DESK) - LEGATO*
> 
> *Portamento*
> *Fingered*
> *Bowed*
> *VIOLA - LEGATO*
> 
> 
> 
> *
> 
> Portamento
> 
> Fingered
> 
> Bowed
> *
> *CELLO - LEGATO*
> 
> 
> 
> *
> 
> Portamento
> 
> Fingered
> 
> Bowed
> *



I dont see Bowed listed, at least not on the product page?


----------



## BradHoyt

procreative said:


> I dont see Bowed listed, at least not on the product page?


Interesting... I just refreshed my window, and Bowed is gone. Sounds like they are being cautious about the initial release and will add the Bowed legato option in an update at some point after the release.


----------



## windyweekend

Would be interesting to hear of this side by side Sacconi. Bought that last year but have struggled with fitting it into the SSO mixes for obvious reasons. great players, but the Wigmore Hall chamber sound never sat well with me. Sure this will sound lush over the top. More Air + Air = Airsomeness...


----------



## Daniel James

Not gunna lie, this actually sounds pretty fucking awesome. Tone is great (expect nothing less at AIR) and seems pretty responsive.

@Spitfire Team any chance you guys might one day work in an envelope for the vibrato? so you can set it to fade it in after a few seconds rather than having to do it manually? That could be pretty cool, that way you can play lines in and focus more on the dynamics and notes.

-DJ


----------



## ism

Daniel James said:


> Not gunna lie, this actually sounds pretty fucking awesome. Tone is great (expect nothing less at AIR) and seems pretty responsive.
> 
> @Spitfire Team any chance you guys might one day work in an envelope for the vibrato? so you can set it to fade it in after a few seconds rather than having to do it manually? That could be pretty cool, that way you can play lines in and focus more on the dynamics and notes.
> 
> -DJ



I've been thinking about something long those lines too. 

To a fist approximation, it would be easy enough to do this via a script in logic. You would set an asdr that would adjust the vibrato cc relative to the start of the note. (The limitation is that if would only apply the vibrato cc across the entire midi channel track, and not on individual notes on the same channel) 

Is that the sort of think you're thinking of?


----------



## AllanH

The progressive long articulation is really a good idea. That will certainly help me with certain types of sustained crescendos. It sounds much better (from the playthrough, at least) than the longs with Vib CC'ed in.


----------



## desert

christianhenson said:


> Trying to make nice stuff for you guys and VI-C has not been a nice place to be for the last few days! Paul hasn’t looked at it for three months which is sad cos this is where we were born.



It’s pretty funny that Spitfire are still naive to the reason why they get negative responses on VI-C 

Anyway - SsS sounds good.


----------



## mobileavatar

AllanH said:


> The progressive long articulation is really a good idea. That will certainly help me with certain types of sustained crescendos. It sounds much better (from the playthrough, at least) than the longs with Vib CC'ed in.



I agree, if Spitfire could include what Daniel described, an "envelop" to determine when the vib kicks in, that will be perfect! In the video, they are a bit deceiving because the tempi were very similar. What if we need it for much faster/slower tempo, we should be able to adjust...


----------



## aaronventure

Daniel James said:


> @Spitfire Team any chance you guys might one day work in an envelope for the vibrato? so you can set it to fade it in after a few seconds rather than having to do it manually? That could be pretty cool, that way you can play lines in and focus more on the dynamics and notes.
> 
> -DJ



Can't you do it in Cubase? In Reaper you'd do it by adding another instrument on your MIDI track (like a hi hat or something insignificant) and use it as a sidechain signal to modulate any parameter you want (in this case CC21) through Parameter Modulation. I'll make a video later today or tomorrow.


----------



## Old Timer

Sounds fantastic to me. I can't imagine how many woman- and man-hours a product like this takes to develop! Hours and hours and hours! And then more hours.

Hours and hours of recording time, hours and hours of cutting and labelling samples, hours and hours of building the samples into the Kontakt interface, hours and hours of balancing levels, tuning etc etc, and hours and hours of god knows what else they need to do to produce an instrument of this quality. 

We live in an amazing era for home recordists and would-be media composers.


----------



## mobileavatar

@Spitfire Team
Congrats on the new library. The shorts sound amazing, very volumetric!
The inclusion of progressive vibrato gives additional realism to the sound, but I wonder whether the samples can be scripted in such a way that users can control the timing of when the vibrato kicks in.


----------



## Old Timer

mobileavatar said:


> @Spitfire Team
> Congrats on the new library. The shorts sound amazing, very volumetric!
> The inclusion of progressive vibrato gives additional realism to the sound, but I wonder whether the samples can be scripted in such a way that users can control the timing of when the vibrato kicks in.



That's would be very cool. I imagine it would need some clever looping of the pre-vibrato portion of the sample and some scripting to fade in the vibrato portion with a CC controller message. Might sound good or might sound a little unnatural.

The beauty of the progressive vibrato is that it is actually played, so sounds v. smooth. Sometimes, with sample libraries, I think we just have to work our compositions round what is recorded for the best results - bend to the sample, rather than trying to get the sample to bend to us.


----------



## Vik

Old Timer said:


> That's would be very cool. I imagine it would need some clever looping of the pre-vibrato portion of the sample and some scripting to fade in the vibrato portion with a CC controller message. Might sound good or might sound a little unnatural.


This sounds like something nobody has done yet but which easily would become the next big thing once somebody has done it first.


----------



## Old Timer

Vik said:


> This sounds like something nobody has done yet but which easily would become the next big thing once somebody has done it first.



Maybe. I'd be surprised if it hasn't been done before. But you could be right.


----------



## mikeh-375

Old Timer said:


> Sometimes, with sample libraries, I think we just have to work our compositions round what is recorded for the best results - bend to the sample, rather than getting the sample to bend to us.



Too true OT. Let the manuscript be the king though if you can. Epic trailer track or Symphony?....a modern composer dilemma....
+1 for the vibrato option above.


----------



## mobileavatar

Old Timer said:


> ...I imagine it would need some clever looping of the pre-vibrato portion of the sample and some scripting to fade in the vibrato portion with a CC controller message. Might sound good or might sound a little unnatural.
> 
> ...we just have to work our compositions round what is recorded for the best results - bend to the sample, rather than getting the sample to bend to us.



I agree. We should work with our available tools.

But maybe such control would be feasible if it is only one direction - to make the vibrato come in earlier (rather than delaying it further). Then, at least, the progressive vib can work naturally with pieces of faster tempi. Even if latency timing is of small variation, the vib will sound even more "humanized" (?)


----------



## nulautre

aaronventure said:


> Can't you do it in Cubase? In Reaper you'd do it by adding another instrument on your MIDI track (like a hi hat or something insignificant) and use it as a sidechain signal to modulate any parameter you want (in this case CC21) through Parameter Modulation. I'll make a video later today or tomorrow.


I'd be interested to see this in action.


----------



## scottu

procreative said:


> Just some questions/observations (just my opinion and not intended to cause a war!):
> 
> 1. Are there plans to add Legato to the Virtuoso violin as its seems odd that of all the ones to have it the 1st Chairs is the only Violin to have Legato?
> 
> 2. Its a shame all the Long articulations do not have Legato options (I am thinking Con Sordino, Sul Pont and Flautando like in SCS) as these are intended to be played "Solo" and the Con Sordino in the walkthrough sounds noticeably cut off between notes.
> 
> A certain other developer has the option to add Legato transitions to any articulation.
> 
> 3. Splitting the 1st Chair (which I assume equals less emotive) and Virtuoso seems clunky, would it not have been better to sample one player playing differing vibratos eg NV, VB, HV, MV?
> 
> Tone as always is very nice, just feel the above is missing.



This is a lot of my feeling about the library. 

I also think this was maybe not Paul's best demo video. Playing lots of chords to demo a solo library was odd. Idiomatic double/triple stops is one thing, but who's really wondering what kind of chorale sound they can get out of a solo library?

I'm also missing a legato bass. Admittedly the use cases are few, but ye gods, a legato melody on a bowed bass can be a thing of glory!


----------



## aaronventure

Daniel James said:


> Not gunna lie, this actually sounds pretty fucking awesome. Tone is great (expect nothing less at AIR) and seems pretty responsive.
> 
> @Spitfire Team any chance you guys might one day work in an envelope for the vibrato? so you can set it to fade it in after a few seconds rather than having to do it manually? That could be pretty cool, that way you can play lines in and focus more on the dynamics and notes.
> 
> -DJ





nulautre said:


> I'd be interested to see this in action.


I've created a new thread for the video: 
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/midi-envelopes-in-reaper.72384/


----------



## kimarnesen

scottu said:


> This is a lot of my feeling about the library.
> 
> I also think this was maybe not Paul's best demo video. Playing lots of chords to demo a solo library was odd. Idiomatic double/triple stops is one thing, but who's really wondering what kind of chorale sound they can get out of a solo library?



I would love to have double and triple stops in this library. Don’t think any string library has that yet? Playing chords on a sustain patch is not gonna work.


----------



## GtrString

I am soo looking forward to comparisons between the new Spitfire Solo Strings, Cinematic Solo Strings, Cinesamples Solo Strings and maybe Lass First Chair ect...

Options are suddenly becoming good with solo strings libraries!


----------



## kimarnesen

Can @Spitfire Team let us know if the crossgrade price will increase as well after the pre-order offer, or will it stay the same?


----------



## mobileavatar

@Spitfire Team
I wonder why the team has not spoken up since the change of specification re: the legatos (from 3 types down to 2).
Edit: Legato types are now back to 3!! (as of 11 Jun 2018)

Actually many of us would like to know the reason behind the change.
Hope Spitfire understands we are investing in your vision, not just your libraries.


----------



## Mike Connelly

mobileavatar said:


> @Spitfire Team
> I wonder why the team has not spoken up since the change of specification re: the legatos (from 3 types down to 2).



I'm seeing three legatos of each right now, even after refreshing the page. Did they add it back again?



scottu said:


> I'm also missing a legato bass.



It doesn't seem like an unreasonable thing to ask for since Chamber Strings has legato for bass.

One other question, when you preorder do they charge your credit card right away or when the product ships?


----------



## mobileavatar

Mike Connelly said:


> I'm seeing three legatos of each right now, even after refreshing the page. Did they add it back again?



You're right! They added it back!! Anyhow it's good news, regardless what happened.


----------



## Wunderhorn

And now while we are at it let's add the legato to flautandos, sordinos, tremolos...


----------



## paularthur

Those demos sound great!


----------



## Musicam

All the demos are different styles and I love it. Specially the master piece of Mr. Henson. This library will come with updates sure, like legato etc. I believe it. Solo Strings is a great tool for first chairs, Symphonic and Chamber Strings, also like a solo.


----------



## Old Timer

GtrString said:


> I am soo looking forward to comparisons between the new Spitfire Solo Strings, Cinematic Solo Strings, Cinesamples Solo Strings and maybe Lass First Chair ect...
> 
> Options are suddenly becoming good with solo strings libraries!



I'm not sure LASS First Chair would come anywhere near close to SsS- I have LASS FC and like it but it is pretty basic I'd say compared to Spitfire's new library.


----------



## Spitfire Team

​


----------



## colony nofi

Two lovely little libs in his "beta" folder to look forward too... Eric Whitaker + OACE....
Nice trick though... reminds me of the "olden days" on a SSL G sending eventide delays back into reverbs back into delays back into reverbs and cascading pitches forming beautiful sounds with the most unlikely of sound inputs.....


----------



## muziksculp

What library is OACE ? Isn't that Olafur Arnalds Chamber Evo.


----------



## colony nofi

Oh good catch. I was scratching my head. Then its just Whitaker then.....


----------



## muziksculp

colony nofi said:


> Oh good catch. I was scratching my head. Then its just Whitaker then.....



Hehe.. You made me scratch my head for minute too, thinking OACE is a new library


----------



## JPComposer

It would be nice if there was an all in one 'ensemble' patch included for quick sketching.


----------



## aaronventure

JPComposer said:


> It would be nice if there was an all in one 'ensemble' patch included for quick sketching.



You can always load all 4 patches again (doesn't use extra RAM), route them to the same MIDI channel and play that way.


----------



## mobileavatar

@Spitfire Team 

Would there be new audio demos planned before the release of library, i.e. before 12 July?
I need to plan my purchase, as there is another product (by another dev) with intro price till 11 July.


----------



## N.Caffrey

mobileavatar said:


> @Spitfire Team
> 
> Would there be new audio demos planned before the release of library, i.e. before 12 July?
> I need to plan my purchase, as there is another product (by another dev) with intro price till 11 July.


There was a new demo by Oliver some time ago, but they removed it after some hours.


----------



## Spitfire Team

​


----------



## Alex Niedt

I love Spitfire and buy most of their products, but I'm not convinced by this one. The shorts sound good, but none of the demos showcase convincing up-front lyrical passages, which is primarily why I would buy a solo strings library. Can't bring myself to pull the trigger on this one, even at the intro price.

I guess it doesn't help that I feel the Sacconi Strings I bought could use some improvements.


----------



## sostenuto

Alex Niedt said:


> I love Spitfire and buy most of their products, but I'm not convinced by this one. The shorts sound good, but none of the demos showcase convincing up-front lyrical passages, which is primarily why I would buy a solo strings library. Can't bring myself to pull the trigger on this one, even at the intro price.
> 
> I guess it doesn't help that I feel the Sacconi Strings I bought could use some improvements.



_Did you experience the 'recently-retired' Solo strings, or Alternative Solo Strings ??_ 
I also lean to Spitfire Audio heavily, but their 'full' Libraries are simply beyond my reach, currently.

I have no clue where to turn if this new Solo Strings is lacking in notable ways.


----------



## amorphosynthesis

Spitfire Team said:


> ​



Hate to say so but the legato violin's vibrato sounds....how should I put that? 
not right,like artificial....


----------



## Alex Niedt

sostenuto said:


> _Did you experience the 'recently-retired' Solo strings, or Alternative Solo Strings ??_


No, those demos/walkthroughs also sounded very unconvincing, to me, and the prices never hit a range where it seemed worth the risk to try them out.


----------



## N.Caffrey

Last time I loved the sound and Christian's demo. Oliver's quick look put me off a bit actually.


----------



## Adam Takacs

I am confused a bit about the legato:
Spitfire's site says, there are

VIOLIN (1ST DESK) - LEGATO

Portamento
Fingered
Bowed

VIOLA - LEGATO

Portamento
Fingered
Bowed

CELLO - LEGATO

Portamento
Fingered
Bowed

and the "quick look" video confirms this, but in Oliver's "in action" video there is 

a - Violin(Virtuoso) - Legato as well.

The three legato techniques (Portamento, Fingered, Bowed) are built into one velocity sensitive patch? 

Is it possible to play portamento at all of the possible combinations?


----------



## desert

Spitfire Team said:


> ​



Ah, damn, was going to buy this one because I loved the rustic/grit like samples. But I’m not convinced about the legatos at all :(


----------



## rottoy

Spitfire Team said:


> ​



Pity that the legato sounds like it's sampled in short intervals that crossfades from sustain to sustain, VSL style.
Would have really been a feather in their cap if they went for the "sustain to legato sustain" sampling method.


----------



## muziksculp

Hi,

I don't think Oliver did the best job showing this library. I would wait for a more thorough, and detailed walkthrough to judge it.

i.e. In the Legato Violin patch, he has the vibrato quite high up all the time while he is playing it, that doesn't happen in real violin playing, to play legato notes with constant vibrato happening on every note, this makes the legato sound very odd. All the other articulations sound very good, although he still had the vibrato way too much on some of them.

Plus, he starts the demo showing the more exotic articulations (Flautando, Harmonics, Con Sord, .. ) , instead of the more standard, and frequently used ones. A bit strange for demoing a new Solo Strings Library.


----------



## Lassi Tani

I really appreciate the demos and videos that Spitfire makes, but I'd like to see and hear more e.g. how the longs in the library can be used for fast and lyrical passages and how agile the legato articulations can be. I love the demos, but I just wish they would have more variety, like Chamber Strings and Symphonic Strings demos have. Mainly I'm not looking for exotic articulations, but the very basic ones in different, varied passages.


----------



## BachN4th

I'm guessing that the lack of legato demos is because they are still a work in progress (hopefully not because they are being difficult.) I love the majority of the stuff I hear, but it's hard not to get a small feeling of haunting deja vu with the original solo strings - missing key stuff. It is my understanding that it is difficult to implement cross-fade non-vib to vib to molto vib, and further complicated when it's a legato patch. In this demo I hear what seems to be 2 options, no vib or molto vib, like the original SSS had. I also see a missed opportunity in that we have only one violin legato (well, one set of 3 from the same player). The concept of the 1st desk, virtuoso, and progressive just BEG for them to have legato counterparts. (And it's entirely possible they have the recordings, it's just going to come later as an expansion or update - if that's the case, I sure hope they did legatos for the bass). But again, deja vu... extra content for the original SSS was hinted at, mentioned officially at one point if I recall, and continually asked for... but never offered. So I'm hesitant to buy in at this point. And I most certainly won't until the legato is fully demonstrated, and I know that is still coming, so in that regard it's not a negative at all. I also feel that for a library touted as the perfect companion for chamber or symphonic strings, there isn't much (anything?) showing that. Again, I predict it's some kind of delay with the legato programming, still tweaking it.. as I expect many people see this layering very useful for soaring legato lines.

In the text blurb for this library it says *"Think of the solo violin in John Williams’ score for *_*Schindler’s List." * _ That's a mighty tall order, but i haven't heard anything along those lines in the demos yet, so I wait with open wallet in great anticipation.


----------



## WindcryMusic

I’m really torn about this one, especially since I already own CSSS. There are things about CSSS that bug me, especially the rough transitions between vibrato and non-vibe, and maybe these solo strings will do that better? And there are a wider variety of articulations coming with this, which certainly interests me, along with the sound of Air Studios, which would presumably blend well with SCS and SSS, both of which are in my toolbox. On the other hand, I worry about how much use I’ll be able to get out of some of those articulations when there appear to be relatively limited legato options. And the demos thus far haven’t been as convincing as I’d normally expect from Spitfire.

One question that I am surprised the official web page hasn’t yet addressed is what the disk footprint of this beast is going to be. With only a few days left before the release, I’d hope Spitfire would be pretty certain of the size of the product by this late date. I have about 120GB free on my last SSD, and I’m wondering if that would be enough ... if not, and a new SSD is going to be needed, then I’ll probably have to wait since that will be a larger expense than the library itself.


----------



## Grilled Cheese

H


Spitfire Team said:


> ​


Hmmm. Not convinced yet. Looking forward to more demos.


----------



## Sid Francis

amorphosynthesis said:


> Hate to say so but the legato violin's vibrato sounds....how should I put that?
> not right,like artificial....


You were very polite here...


----------



## Paul Thomson

Hey guys -

Just a quick note - Oli was using a pre release version of the legato patches there. I'm really excited about how they are shaping up so I'm going to link a draft version of my legato walkthru here - please don't share this as the team are releasing this properly in a few days - but I thought it might be useful for you to hear the finished patches that work in the same way as the legs in the Symphonic and Chambers, switching by default on velocity, but you can change this to anything with Blake's crazy clever scripting.

Hope you find it interesting!

All the best,

Paul


----------



## Alex Niedt

Ahhhh, there we go! Beautiful, Paul. Thanks so much for sharing. That's the kind of quality I was expecting.


----------



## Jdiggity1

Paul Thomson said:


> Hey guys -
> 
> Just a quick note - Oli was using a pre release version of the legato patches there.










Alas there is still hope. Thanks for sharing the video early PT.


----------



## N.Caffrey

Loving that cello!


----------



## rottoy

Paul Thomson said:


> Hey guys -
> 
> Just a quick note - Oli was using a pre release version of the legato patches there. I'm really excited about how they are shaping up so I'm going to link a draft version of my legato walkthru here - please don't share this as the team are releasing this properly in a few days - but I thought it might be useful for you to hear the finished patches that work in the same way as the legs in the Symphonic and Chambers, switching by default on velocity, but you can change this to anything with Blake's crazy clever scripting.
> 
> Hope you find it interesting!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Paul



That sounds much better, thanks for the clarification!


----------



## synergy543

Paul Thomson said:


> I thought it might be useful for you to hear the finished patches that work in the same way as the legs in the Symphonic and Chambers, switching by default on velocity, but you can change this to anything with Blake's crazy clever scripting.
> 
> Hope you find it interesting!


Sweet! That sounds really nice. Thanks for sharing with us Paul!


----------



## Adam Takacs

I'm impressed, thank you very much, Paul!
Beautiful and expressive sounds, I love the Viola so much!

My Spitfire collection seems to be expanding


----------



## JPComposer

The legato sounds fantastic. Can't wait to get this loaded alongside OACE.


----------



## Sid Francis

Yes: even the viola outstanding...great progression of work.


----------



## J-M

Ahh...I was already sold on CH strings, but now I definitely need to wait to the release and make a quick decision. This is torture.


----------



## ism

Paul Thomson said:


> Hey guys -
> 
> Just a quick note - Oli was using a pre release version of the legato patches there. I'm really excited about how they are shaping up so I'm going to link a draft version of my legato walkthru here - please don't share this as the team are releasing this properly in a few days - but I thought it might be useful for you to hear the finished patches that work in the same way as the legs in the Symphonic and Chambers, switching by default on velocity, but you can change this to anything with Blake's crazy clever scripting.
> 
> Hope you find it interesting!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Paul




Sold! (Although I would probably have bought it just for the flautandos anyway).

It really sounds great.


----------



## WindcryMusic

Paul Thomson said:


> Hey guys -
> 
> Just a quick note - Oli was using a pre release version of the legato patches there. I'm really excited about how they are shaping up so I'm going to link a draft version of my legato walkthru here - please don't share this as the team are releasing this properly in a few days - but I thought it might be useful for you to hear the finished patches that work in the same way as the legs in the Symphonic and Chambers, switching by default on velocity, but you can change this to anything with Blake's crazy clever scripting.
> 
> Hope you find it interesting!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Paul




Thank you, Paul! This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear to push me over the edge into getting out my wallet (again).


----------



## lumcas

As much as I would love to have these beautiful strings in my template I'm gonna sit back this time and wait for the Sacconi update - looking forward to much needed cello range extension.


----------



## muziksculp

Paul's Legato video sounds wonderful. 

Now I feel much better about having pre-purchased the solo strings when they were first announced  and look forward to July 12th.


----------



## Michel Simons

Paul Thomson said:


> Hey guys -
> 
> Just a quick note - Oli was using a pre release version of the legato patches there. I'm really excited about how they are shaping up so I'm going to link a draft version of my legato walkthru here - please don't share this as the team are releasing this properly in a few days - but I thought it might be useful for you to hear the finished patches that work in the same way as the legs in the Symphonic and Chambers, switching by default on velocity, but you can change this to anything with Blake's crazy clever scripting.
> 
> Hope you find it interesting!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Paul




Damn. Just as I had already decided to let this one pass.


----------



## BachN4th

Thank you Paul, I appreciate your presence here and your timely efforts to set our minds at ease when we get a little uppity. Sounds great. I would love to hear it in context leading a section of strings. And I do hope you have another legato violin or 2 and a bass up your sleeve (careful of the endpin) to reveal at a later date.


----------



## CT

michelsimons said:


> Damn. Just as I had already decided to let this one pass.



Yeah... the last thing I need right now is more strings, solo or otherwise. I'd hoped Alternative Solo Strings would be enough to hold off my desire for these until I can afford to go all-in with Spitfire, but it's now quite tempting.


----------



## Francis Bourre

Beautiful! Order confirmation received.


----------



## Heledir

Paul Thomson said:


>




. . . I need a sigarette after that.


----------



## jononotbono

Paul Thomson said:


> Hey guys -
> 
> Just a quick note - Oli was using a pre release version of the legato patches there. I'm really excited about how they are shaping up so I'm going to link a draft version of my legato walkthru here - please don't share this as the team are releasing this properly in a few days - but I thought it might be useful for you to hear the finished patches that work in the same way as the legs in the Symphonic and Chambers, switching by default on velocity, but you can change this to anything with Blake's crazy clever scripting.
> 
> Hope you find it interesting!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Paul




Sounds wonderful.


----------



## sostenuto

OK _ I'm committed ! 
New 
*Solo Strings* is cool 'stepping-stone' to getting started with serious commitment to SFA Orchestral Libraries.​
(_slight OT_)
'LITE' versions of Symphonic Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, with later Crossgrade, would be welcome, pathways.
Has this been discussed ?

What about Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit as a next step ?

_[ Currently using (3) Albions, Orchestral SWARM, Glass and Steel, eDNA-EARTH01, Kinematik, many LABS ]
_
THX


----------



## jamwerks

Yes very impressive legato on that video! Now to really confirm the sell, how about copying a legato melody played on SSS & SCS over to a SsS instrument and showing what that adds. I would love to be convinced!


----------



## jononotbono

Yeah, love to hear it with SCS or SSS. This is definitely a purchase for me with what I’ve heard so far.


----------



## Geoff Grace

The contrast in posts before and after *Paul*'s demo is striking! 

Best,

Geoff


----------



## Sid Francis

Because Pauls video is striking .-)


----------



## thesteelydane

As (predominantly) a violist, I approve of this sampled viola. Pre-ordered!


----------



## ironbut

That "Legato" walkthrough really sold me!
Sounds pretty darn real to me.
Thanks for that Paul.


----------



## Garry

Yup, me too - Paul's video put this on my 'to buy' list. Amazing realism, beautiful sound.


----------



## ism

Suddenly, it comes into focus what kind of a library this is. 

Without amazing legatos, it's a texture library, roughly in the genre of the Alternate solo strings and perhaps, at least arguably, things like LCO or the Olafur evos - libraries that are all about textures and seldom about the kind of detailed phrases that involve legato. As a "texture library" I think I would probably have probably bought this anyway, with or without legatos. Actually, who am I kidding, they had me at "flautando" (or at least "whispered tremolo") and there's very little chance I'd have been able to resist buying even completely sans legato. I love this kind of library.

But when you add legatos of this quality - and beyond the obviously strength of the sound I'm hugely excited about how well the dynamic and vibrato layers seem to work together - it becomes a very different genre of solo string library. And I think a much more familiar genre, in "what I talk about when I talk about solo strings libraries" sense of genre. 



Geoff Grace said:


> The contrast in posts before and after *Paul*'s demo is striking!



And now the it appears that we're getting the best of both genres, I think quit naturally reframes how we can understand the library. 


Can't wait until thursday.


----------



## Sid Francis

One important question please: am I able to pan the close mic to the middle if I want to use it for exposed solo work? In earlier Spitfire products it was possible...


----------



## Adam Takacs

Sid Francis said:


> One important question please: am I able to pan the close mic to the middle if I want to use it for exposed solo work? In earlier Spitfire products it was possible...



It is most likely possible, because there is the close pan mic collapser on the GUI. 

https://d1t3zg51rvnesz.cloudfront.net/p/images/cms2/603/gui2crop.png


----------



## desert

Oli, that cheeky bastard, using the wrong patch! What a silly goose! Did no one from the team warn him he’s using the wrong patch? What a bunch of scoundrels. That legato was like hearing midi flutes from 2000s. How did this get past everyone. Naughty!


----------



## Grégory Betton

Just to let you know, having just asked SA how much the library download bundle will weight, they answered roughly 40GB.


----------



## Adam Takacs

Grégory Betton said:


> Just to let you know, having just asked SA how much the library download bundle will weight, they answered roughly 40GB.



Great info, thank you!


----------



## Scrianinoff

Oli was Not using the wrong patch, he was using a pre-release patch of a pre-release library that was still in the stage of editing. They named it “a quick look”. I interpreted that video as a quick look into a work in progress on a highly anticipated pre-release library with not yet fully baked pre-release patches. Having that in mind I was looking forward to fully baked patches and was not expecting final legato results of a decade ago as some here, on the contrary I was expecting legato in line with their latest string libs. Perhaps Spitfire should title their videos more carefully if they want to avoid such misunderstanding. However, ‘it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood’

I like the videos of Oli a lot, as do many here, especially the mini compositions using the libraries in context and exposing the lines and libraries, sometimes in brutal detail, proving the libs stand up to it. That sold me quite some libs. He cannot be faulted there and here in my mind. Keep up the good work Oli!

Besides that, his taste in cities to live in cannot be faulted either!


----------



## rottoy

ARC Samples said:


> ARC Samples new String Textures pack is available now: https://arccomposer.com/arc-string-textures/


I'm sorry to rain down on your parade, but how is this relevant to Spitfire Solo Strings?
Other than the fact that you are also advertising strings. I think your own thread will suffice to generate interest.

Congratulations on your release.


----------



## ARC Samples

rottoy said:


> I'm sorry to rain down on your parade, but how is this relevant to Spitfire Solo Strings?
> Other than the fact that you are also advertising strings. I think your own thread will suffice to generate interest.
> 
> Congratulations on your release.



New to the community and removed, thanks for the shout!


----------



## Michel Simons

Grégory Betton said:


> Just to let you know, having just asked SA how much the library download bundle will weight, they answered roughly 40GB.



Thanks. Have been looking for that myself. Wondering whether that is uncompressed or not.


----------



## Spitfire Team

Spitfire Solo Strings is available from Thursday!

See the latest trailer scored by Andy Blaney.

​


----------



## Francis Bourre

I would definitely enjoy an "In Action" with Andy Blaney.


----------



## Grégory Betton

michelsimons said:


> Thanks. Have been looking for that myself. Wondering whether that is uncompressed or not.



I asked the support guy for the download size... but we may have misunderstood each other. This is anyway just an estimation ; he assured me that the specs page will be updated asap.


----------



## procreative

Nice sounding legatos, still don't get the exclusion of Legatos from the "Virtoso" variant and hope thats a 1.0 omission rather than a design intent? Would be handy to know if its on the roadmap or not?

The portamento slides are very good and are some of the best solo strings ones I have heard as many other rivals seem to fall down on those.


----------



## JT

I love the sound of the legatos. Thank you for Paul posting this vid. But I am wondering why only the 1st desk violin has legato, not the other fiddles.


----------



## WindcryMusic

What, it still isn’t Thursday yet? My calendar’s spring must need to be wound up again. (Yeah, I’m really looking forward to this now.)


----------



## SpitfireSupport

Grégory Betton said:


> I asked the support guy for the download size... but we may have misunderstood each other. This is anyway just an estimation ; he assured me that the specs page will be updated asap.



The size of the folder on a Mac should be 42.78 GB (It will show differently on a PC because Windows reports file sizes differently). This means it will need in excess of 86GB available space during the download process.

The uncompressed size of the library is roughly 46% larger, so over 62GB - however, this is the size of the original .wav files before they are compressed into the Native Instruments .ncw format, so it's not something you'd ever "see" as an owner of the library.

Ben


----------



## Grégory Betton

Thanks a lot, Ben!


----------



## Michel Simons

SpitfireSupport said:


> The size of the folder on a Mac should be 42.78 GB (It will show differently on a PC because Windows reports file sizes differently). This means it will need in excess of 86GB available space during the download process.
> 
> The uncompressed size of the library is roughly 46% larger, so over 62GB - however, this is the size of the original .wav files before they are compressed into the Native Instruments .ncw format, so it's not something you'd ever "see" as an owner of the library.
> 
> Ben



Thanks for the info, Ben. Still in doubt whether I should go for this one. Paul's legato walkthrough has turned my definite 'no' into a 'yowza'. Thanks, Paul... I had hoped that it would be ridiculously big, which would be my new excuse not to go for it.


----------



## jamwerks

Looking forward to the complete walkthrough, and especially how the "short note release trigger" works and sounds! Does look like they've done a fantastic job. I'm a bit surprised that this came out on Kontakt and not their own player!


----------



## desert

michelsimons said:


> Thanks for the info, Ben. Still in doubt whether I should go for this one. Paul's legato walkthrough has turned my definite 'no' into a 'yowza'. Thanks, Paul... I had hoped that it would be ridiculously big, which would be my new excuse not to go for it.


I still need more videos to confirm the legato. Holding off preordering until we get a more indepth look


----------



## Michel Simons

desert said:


> I still need more videos to confirm the legato. Holding off preordering until we get a more indepth look



Agree. Also waiting for user experiences from those that have pre-ordered. Thank goodness the intro price will last until the 26th.


----------



## Geoff Grace

jamwerks said:


> I'm a bit surprised that this came out on Kontakt and not their own player!


After launching Hans Zimmer Strings they reiterated that they would still be making Kontakt libraries, and this is an example of that. Perhaps they are deciding on a case by case basis whether to release a library in Kontakt or their new player.

Best,

Geoff


----------



## JEPA

wow! finally! it sounds gorgeous!


----------



## christianhenson

For what it is worth (I often say I'm putting on my composer hat, but I am clearly and massively biassed) this is my favourite library we have made to-date. Why?

• Well its great to have a solo strings library that really works with my workflow, so for me price of entry is the 50/50 patches where the player starts senza vib and then introduces it just like EVERY player does when they're playing soloistically! (seems that isn't a word?) Bang its in a patch, performed live and real and lovely and boom instant soloistic strings in an ever increasing heartbeat.

• It has the depth of the chamber and symphonic strings so you can add detail and "front desk up" these libraries or simply take the arrangements you have made in these libs and transfer them solo strings for more intimate and emotional moments.

• Chamber strings still sound massive... OK so blue in the face, if you grab a patch from SCS you will probably be playing up to 4 players, 20 mics, one hall.... you play two notes you're playing 8,40 & two halls... so simple four part is going to be 24, 80 and four halls..... But play the ensembles patches, maybe 10/60/3 per note? 4 part = 40 players, 240 mics and 12 halls = MASSIVE! So by approaching solo strings as a super small chamber band you finally have that awesome emotional but incredibly intimate chamber sound recorded in the hall.

• The legatos are excellent and do what you want them to do for a solo strings library. This was always a given with this library but again THIS LIBRARY IS SOOOOOO MUCH MORE... just think of it as another chapter of our pro-end symphonics vs chambers, woods and brass libs. The legatos update the previous solo strings experience to a new level... but thats where this library as an update to the legacy version ends!

• 3 violins is defo better than one from really virtuosic, to front chair to *the secret sauce of this library the additional techniques by our progressive player*. So you have a deeply versatile library that isn't instantly coloured by a single leader.

• Viola.... best viola sample yet, hands down (but also IMHO).

• Leon Bosch has given us the most extraordinary selection of solo bass samples ever made, I fear for bass players round the world now that Bosch has given this encyclopaedia of totally impossible techniques to the world!

• Oh.... and have I mentioned the flautandos?

gnngngngnnngggnnngg

Much love.

C. x


----------



## desert

christianhenson said:


> For what it is worth (I often say I'm putting on my composer hat, but I am clearly and massively biassed) this is my favourite library we have made to-date. Why?
> 
> • Well its great to have a solo strings library that really works with my workflow, so for me price of entry is the 50/50 patches where the player starts senza vib and then introduces it just like EVERY player does when they're playing soloistically! (seems that isn't a word?) Bang its in a patch, performed live and real and lovely and boom instant soloistic strings in an ever increasing heartbeat.
> 
> • It has the depth of the chamber and symphonic strings so you can add detail and "front desk up" these libraries or simply take the arrangements you have made in these libs and transfer them solo strings for more intimate and emotional moments.
> 
> • Chamber strings still sound massive... OK so blue in the face, if you grab a patch from SCS you will probably be playing up to 4 players, 20 mics, one hall.... you play two notes you're playing 8,40 & two halls... so simple four part is going to be 24, 80 and four halls..... But play the ensembles patches, maybe 10/60/3 per note? 4 part = 40 players, 240 mics and 12 halls = MASSIVE! So by approaching solo strings as a super small chamber band you finally have that awesome emotional but incredibly intimate chamber sound recorded in the hall.
> 
> • The legatos are excellent and do what you want them to do for a solo strings library. This was always a given with this library but again THIS LIBRARY IS SOOOOOO MUCH MORE... just think of it as another chapter of our pro-end symphonics vs chambers, woods and brass libs. The legatos update the previous solo strings experience to a new level... but thats where this library as an update to the legacy version ends!
> 
> • 3 violins is defo better than one from really virtuosic, to front chair to *the secret sauce of this library the additional techniques by our progressive player*. So you have a deeply versatile library that isn't instantly coloured by a single leader.
> 
> • Viola.... best viola sample yet, hands down (but also IMHO).
> 
> • Leon Bosch has given us the most extraordinary selection of solo bass samples ever made, I fear for bass players round the world now that Bosch has given this encyclopaedia of totally impossible techniques to the world!
> 
> • Oh.... and have I mentioned the flautandos?
> 
> gnngngngnnngggnnngg
> 
> Much love.
> 
> C. x


Gonna need some more videos though


----------



## Pablocrespo

Nice to hear Chris, can I ask you about future plans?

Is there any chance of adding legato to that beautiful progressive vibrato patch, it would be a most logical move since. 

Also, will the virtuoso player have legato? Also, I think it would be a logical step. 

Congrats on the new library


----------



## Sid Francis

Legato for the progresive player would also be my first and foremost wish...


----------



## dogdad

I can’t wait to download this library! I’ve been wanting this update for a while now. I love the original Solo Strings and I have no doubt I’ll love this library too! 

I apologize for asking for more since it appears we’re already getting so much (and it hasn’t even been released yet!), but I too would like to add a request for legato patches for the other two Violins. Pretty please? 

Either way, I’m very much looking forward to writing with these beautiful Strings!


----------



## ism

About an hour to go ...


----------



## Spitfire Team

​ 

​


----------



## JPComposer

I'm very excited today to start downloading these.


----------



## WindcryMusic

The download is off and running. Anticipation is running wild.


----------



## ism

21% !


----------



## sostenuto

christianhenson said:


> For what it is worth ** this is my favourite library we have made to-date. Why?
> • It has the depth of the chamber and symphonic strings so you can add detail and "front desk up" these libraries or simply take the arrangements you have made in these libs and transfer them solo strings for more intimate and emotional moments.
> • *** So by approaching solo strings as a super small chamber band you finally have that awesome emotional but incredibly intimate chamber sound recorded in the hall. ***
> C. x


*^^^^^^^* !! 
GOT ME instantly with the above .... Fine overall Post, but this portion is timed perfectly; as it covers near term (modest) Chamber needs, which look to be met comfortably. 
*THX*!


----------



## rhye

After watching the legato walkthrough video I have a question, why does it sound like two instruments instead of one at times when he is using the modwheel?


----------



## DocMidi657

Hi Guys,

Playability is wonderful on the Legato Violin! Just loaded the Cello patch and having an issue. This is the solo Cello using the ALL Articulations patch ... all the Long articulation articulations are bone dry with all three different mic positions howver the shorts are working/sounding normally within the patch. Can anyone tell me if they are having the same thing or is it me?


----------



## givemenoughrope

christianhenson said:


> For what it is worth (I often say I'm putting on my composer hat, but I am clearly and massively biassed) this is my favourite library we have made to-date. Why?
> 
> • Well its great to have a solo strings library that really works with my workflow, so for me price of entry is the 50/50 patches where the player starts senza vib and then introduces it just like EVERY player does when they're playing soloistically! (seems that isn't a word?) Bang its in a patch, performed live and real and lovely and boom instant soloistic strings in an ever increasing heartbeat.
> 
> • It has the depth of the chamber and symphonic strings so you can add detail and "front desk up" these libraries or simply take the arrangements you have made in these libs and transfer them solo strings for more intimate and emotional moments.
> 
> • Chamber strings still sound massive... OK so blue in the face, if you grab a patch from SCS you will probably be playing up to 4 players, 20 mics, one hall.... you play two notes you're playing 8,40 & two halls... so simple four part is going to be 24, 80 and four halls..... But play the ensembles patches, maybe 10/60/3 per note? 4 part = 40 players, 240 mics and 12 halls = MASSIVE! So by approaching solo strings as a super small chamber band you finally have that awesome emotional but incredibly intimate chamber sound recorded in the hall.
> 
> • The legatos are excellent and do what you want them to do for a solo strings library. This was always a given with this library but again THIS LIBRARY IS SOOOOOO MUCH MORE... just think of it as another chapter of our pro-end symphonics vs chambers, woods and brass libs. The legatos update the previous solo strings experience to a new level... but thats where this library as an update to the legacy version ends!
> 
> • 3 violins is defo better than one from really virtuosic, to front chair to *the secret sauce of this library the additional techniques by our progressive player*. So you have a deeply versatile library that isn't instantly coloured by a single leader.
> 
> • Viola.... best viola sample yet, hands down (but also IMHO).
> 
> • Leon Bosch has given us the most extraordinary selection of solo bass samples ever made, I fear for bass players round the world now that Bosch has given this encyclopaedia of totally impossible techniques to the world!
> 
> • Oh.... and have I mentioned the flautandos?
> 
> gnngngngnnngggnnngg
> 
> Much love.
> 
> C. x



Totally agree on the BIGNESS of layering the halls, etc. in SCS. Still thee library for me but it will always sound bigger than 43333 of course by the nature of crossfading and individual sections. 

Eager to get my hands on the new SSS. The old one has served me well.


----------



## synergy543

Overall, its quite beautiful! Lovely tone but a few minor issues that still need to be resolved. The virtuoso violin A above middle C has no vibrato whatsoever - odd. And the vibrato is on/off - its unlikely this could change so it is what it is. I wish though there were some light vibrato options in between. This would be an extremely welcome option!


----------



## JeffvR

rhye said:


> After watching the legato walkthrough video I have a question, why does it sound like two instruments instead of one at times when he is using the modwheel?



Probably the modwheel is on the transition of 2 dynamic layers.


----------



## Alex Niedt

synergy543 said:


> And the vibrato is on/off - its unlikely this could change so it is what it is. I wish though there were some light vibrato options in between. This would be an extremely welcome option!


Same as Sacconi, then. Was hoping this wouldn't be the case.


----------



## Sid Francis

I got this in the CSSS too and can live very well with it... if you switch intelligently.


----------



## D Halgren

DocMidi657 said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> Playability is wonderful on the Legato Violin! Just loaded the Cello patch and having an issue. This is the solo Cello using the ALL Articulations patch ... all the Long articulation articulations are bone dry with all three different mic positions howver the shorts are working/sounding normally within the patch. Can anyone tell me if they are having the same thing or is it me?


Everything is fine on my end, although the long sul pont on the cello sounds a bit weird.


----------



## morphling

Anyone who can compare the Violin included here in this library with something like the Joshua Bell Violin?


----------



## thesteelydane

morphling said:


> Anyone who can compare the Violin included here in this library with something like the Joshua Bell Violin?



I know you're new, so just a heads up: a developers commercial announcement is not the right thread to ask for a comparison to a competing product. That question belongs over in sample talk.


----------



## rottoy

morphling said:


> Anyone who can compare the Violin included here in this library with something like the Joshua Bell Violin?


Desert started a feedback thread, you can ask there. 
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/sf-new-solo-strings.73252/#post-4254740


----------



## ism

morphling said:


> Anyone who can compare the Violin included here in this library with something like the Joshua Bell Violin?



I know this technically may belong in sample talk (and I'll happily move it). But I think this question is actually important to understanding what kind a library SSoS really is, so with the caveat that I've only spent a couple of course playing around with SSoS (*so* much fun), I can attempt a preliminary comparison. 

Or rather, I can argue against too simple a comparison being draw. The JB and the violin in SSoS need to be understood as different instruments rather that just having their specs compared directly. Which would be apple to oranges. 

The former is a real soloist solo instrument. The latter is ... well what are the SSoS solo-instruments exactly? First chairs? Absolutely, but that that doesn't half cover what this library is about. 



But for the moment, still playing with it ... so much fun.


----------



## thesteelydane

christianhenson said:


> • Viola.... best viola sample yet, hands down (but also IMHO).



Just finished the download, and went straight to the viola. I agree, as (predominantly) a violist, this is the best sounding sampled viola I've heard - certainly the first that sounds like I think a viola should sound. I'm hoping it will make more people see what a cool and capable instrument it is.


----------



## SimonCharlesHanna

thesteelydane said:


> Just finished the download, and went straight to the viola. I agree, as (predominantly) a violist, this is the best sounding sampled viola I've heard - certainly the first that sounds like I think a viola should sound. I'm hoping it will make more people see what a cool and capable instrument it is.


Care to share a little doodle (not yours :D)?


----------



## joepaz

Anyone else having Kontakt crash doing a batch re-save? It happens when it gets to the viola economic patch.


----------



## lp59burst

I thought we agreed this was SsS... took me a minute to figure out what SSoS was...


----------



## Christopher Drake

joepaz said:


> Anyone else having Kontakt crash doing a batch re-save? It happens when it gets to the viola economic patch.


YES!!!


----------



## Christopher Drake

Just purchased the new Solo Strings lib, and after successfully downloading and installing, I tried doing the "batch resave" to expedite patch loading.. which seems to be crashing Kontakt (v5.8.1 OSX 10.13.6) 

When I initiate the batch resave the "check for missing samples" shows "content missing- 6055 files". I select the "browse for folder" option and locate the Spitfire Solo String install location, and everything seems normal as Kontakt "locates" all of the missing files, but then crashes during the "re-saving patches" progress dialog window at about the 80/90% progress mark. 

I have re downloaded the library to see if there where corrupt files, but still have the same crash. Please note, that I can load all of the instruments (which sound absolutely excellent btw-cheers!) with no apparent missing samples. It just loads very slowly like a typical un- "batch re-saved" patch would. Am I missing something, or doing something incorrectly?


----------



## Francis Bourre

Christopher Drake said:


> Just purchased the new Solo Strings lib, and after successfully downloading and installing, I tried doing the "batch resave" to expedite patch loading.. which seems to be crashing Kontakt (v5.8.1 OSX 10.13.6)
> 
> When I initiate the batch resave the "check for missing samples" shows "content missing- 6055 files". I select the "browse for folder" option and locate the Spitfire Solo String install location, and everything seems normal as Kontakt "locates" all of the missing files, but then crashes during the "re-saving patches" progress dialog window at about the 80/90% progress mark.
> 
> I have re downloaded the library to see if there where corrupt files, but still have the same crash. Please note, that I can load all of the instruments (which sound absolutely excellent btw-cheers!) with no apparent missing samples. It just loads very slowly like a typical un- "batch re-saved" patch would. Am I missing something, or doing something incorrectly?



Got the same issues on Windows 10 with Kontakt 5.8.1


----------



## emasters

joepaz said:


> Anyone else having Kontakt crash doing a batch re-save? It happens when it gets to the viola economic patch.



There are three patches in the "_Advanced_/Other patches" folder that will cause Kontakt to crash -- either loading or doing a batch resave. Sandy at Spitfire is on it. He can repro the behavior and is working on it (messaged with him earlier today). The three NKI's to avoid are: (1) b - Violin (1st Desk) - Economic; (2) d - Viola - Economic; and (3) e - Cello - Economic. I have to say, Sandy is one impressive support rep for Spitfire and was messaging right after I ran into this earlier today. A minor issue that slipped through the cracks - just avoid those NKI's for now.


----------



## Francis Bourre

emasters said:


> There are three patches in the "_Advanced_/Other patches" folder that will cause Kontakt to crash -- either loading or doing a batch resave. Sandy at Spitfire is on it. He can repro the behavior and is working on it (messaged with him earlier today). The three NKI's to avoid are: (1) b - Violin (1st Desk) - Economic; (2) d - Viola - Economic; and (3) e - Cello - Economic. I have to say, Sandy is one impressive support rep for Spitfire and was messaging right after I ran into this earlier today. A minor issue that slipped through the cracks - just avoid those NKI's for now.


Yeah, Sandy does a really good job. He's very responsive and sorted me out few times. 
To get back to the topic, thanks for the feedback! Now, I can imagine we will get an update these days.


----------



## muziksculp

Spitfire is pretty fast fixing these types of issues, they will most likely post an update in the next few days, or hours, I will wait for the update, then download


----------



## kavinsky

rhye said:


> After watching the legato walkthrough video I have a question, why does it sound like two instruments instead of one at times when he is using the modwheel?


because you are hearing an x-fade between 2 different samples. 
same with legatos


----------



## MaxOctane

Quick test of Barber's Adagio:



Violin 1: Virtuoso progressive vibrato for first and last held note, and Vln 1st deck legato in between.
Violin 2: Vln 1st desk long
Viola: Long
Cello: Long

(edit: re-upped with more dynamics -- still no eq. Small splash of Breeze 2C reverb, 10% wet)


----------



## rottoy

MaxOctane said:


> Quick test of Barber's Adagio:
> 
> 
> 
> Violin 1: Virtuoso progressive vibrato for first and last held note, and Vln 1st deck legato in between.
> Violin 2: Vln 1st desk long
> Viola: Long
> Cello: Long



I'm sorry, that sounds like an accordion. Surely you can tweak it further to give it less of a squeezebox timbre?


----------



## N.Caffrey

0 dynamics. Have you used the mod-wheel?


----------



## MaxOctane

rottoy said:


> I'm sorry, that sounds like an accordion. Surely you can tweak it further to give it less of a squeeze box timbre?



I didn't eq it, so that's the timbre of the patches (without vibrato, which is too strong for the longs here, except the progressive-vib patch)

But, I've uploaded another pass at it with more dynamics.


----------



## Sid Francis

Still sounds like an accordion...hm....


----------



## Iskra

MaxOctane said:


> (without vibrato, which is too strong for the longs here, except the progressive-vib patch)


There's not a single real string player that plays all notes without vibrato, unless playing some renaissance music or the like. If you look to a string player playing, they're constantly changing the amount, pace and intensity of the vibrato in every note. If you use every patch non vibrato, it will sound more like an accordion (specially with samples).
Sorry to say, but I think that excerpt of Barber lacks some love in programming...


----------



## N.Caffrey

poor Spitfire..


----------



## christianhenson

If you want an easy route into programming this set of solo strings try the 50/50 patches, which is a very natural performed articulation. Also a lot of the Scandi Noir and next-wave of neo classicists (Olafur, Richter, Frahm et al) are using limited amounts of vib alongside sul tasto and flautando, so where it may not suit Barber it may work with a rendition of say Fratres by A Part. (may wanna use con sord for that though!).


----------



## amorphosynthesis

On a promotional mail I received it says
_"You still have the chance to use your *extended loyalty discount of over 50%* during the promotion period, and 37% off the RRP thereafter"_
but when I add the product to my cart (339€ inc VAT) the new price is 189€(inc VAT) which is 44%(and definetely not ...over 50%)
@SpitfireSupport 
@Spitfire Team


----------



## Adam Takacs

amorphosynthesis said:


> On a promotional mail I received it says
> _"You still have the chance to use your *extended loyalty discount of over 50%* during the promotion period, and 37% off the RRP thereafter"_
> but when I add the product to my cart (339€ inc VAT) the new price is 189€(inc VAT) which is 44%(and definetely not ...over 50%)
> @SpitfireSupport
> @Spitfire Team



the _*loyalty discount is *_more than 50% of the original price (399€)


----------



## amorphosynthesis

tadam said:


> the _*loyalty discount is *_more than 50% of the original price (399€)


oh yes *Now* I see that,they were referring to the rrp.


----------



## JeffvR

amorphosynthesis said:


> On a promotional mail I received it says
> _"You still have the chance to use your *extended loyalty discount of over 50%* during the promotion period, and 37% off the RRP thereafter"_
> but when I add the product to my cart (339€ inc VAT) the new price is 189€(inc VAT) which is 44%(and definetely not ...over 50%)
> @SpitfireSupport
> @Spitfire Team


When or how did you get a loyalty discount?


----------



## amorphosynthesis

by buying back then the original spitfire solo strings


----------



## Michel Simons

JeffvR said:


> When or how did you get a loyalty discount?



Probably by owning the original solo strings.


----------



## desert

MaxOctane said:


> Quick test of Barber's Adagio:
> 
> 
> 
> Violin 1: Virtuoso progressive vibrato for first and last held note, and Vln 1st deck legato in between.
> Violin 2: Vln 1st desk long
> Viola: Long
> Cello: Long
> 
> (edit: re-upped with more dynamics -- still no eq. Small splash of Breeze 2C reverb, 10% wet)



Oh...


----------



## Alex Fraser

I'm a fan of Homay's work, but this is something else..

Another level. Cracking.


----------



## ism

Alex Fraser said:


> I'm a fan of Homay's work, but this is something else..
> 
> Another level. Cracking.




If I hadn't already bought it, this would have instantly convinced me to buy it.


----------



## WindcryMusic

Alex Fraser said:


> I'm a fan of Homay's work, but this is something else..
> 
> Another level. Cracking.




Whoa. To be honest, much of Homay's work up until now hadn't quite reached me ... Oliver's compositions have tended to be more of a fit for my taste. But this ... whoa. This is the single best demo for any Spitfire product that I've ever heard, absolutely stunning. Bravo, Homay!

I'd already bought Solo Strings as well, but this makes me more excited than ever to dive into it this weekend. I can only hope to someday write something that approaches this, because that would be an accomplishment.


----------



## procreative

1. Is the progressive vibrato listed a standalone patch, or can the Legato also achieve this? *
2. Are there plans to add Legato transitions to the Virtuoso and Progressive Violins? **

* In my book being able to switch between immediate and progressive is vital as constant molto vibrato can start to sound unrealistic outside of emotion wrenched music a la Schindlers List type gypsy playing.

** If only one violin had to have Legato due to budget, surely it should be the Virtuoso as by its name its the one most likely to be playing lead lines?

The Legato does indeed sound good though.


----------



## N.Caffrey

procreative said:


> 1. Is the progressive vibrato listed a standalone patch, or can the Legato also achieve this? *
> 2. Are there plans to add Legato transitions to the Virtuoso and Progressive Violins? **
> 
> * In my book being able to switch between immediate and progressive is vital as constant molto vibrato can start to sound unrealistic outside of emotion wrenched music a la Schindlers List type gypsy playing.
> 
> ** If only one violin had to have Legato due to budget, surely it should be the Virtuoso as by its name its the one most likely to be playing lead lines?
> 
> The Legato does indeed sound good though.



This a thing I don't understand too. Why not having the virtuoso have a legato instead of the normal desk?


----------



## mobileavatar

ism said:


> If I hadn't already bought it, this would have instantly convinced me to buy it.


+1. It seems the use of different mic positions pos played a role. Would anyone be able to tell whether it's only SSS, or a combination of SSS and SCS in the track?


----------



## WindcryMusic

mobileavatar said:


> +1. It seems the use of different mic positions pos played a role. Would anyone be able to tell whether it's only SSS, or a combination of SSS and SCS in the track?



I would very much like to see Homay do a walkthrough of the creation of this track. Both to see the samples and processing that were used, and to get a look at the orchestration thereof.


----------



## Vik

mobileavatar said:


> Would anyone be able to tell whether it's only SSS, or a combination of SSS and SCS in the track?


Or maybe HZ Strings?


----------



## DavidY

Alex Fraser said:


> I'm a fan of Homay's work, but this is something else..
> 
> Another level. Cracking.



Oooh I do like that.  Reminds me of Vaughan Williams' works.
Although I'm not going to try to fool myself I could do anything like that, regardless of which products I might buy.


----------



## Giscard Rasquin

Couldn´t help myself to record a quick play along over the first part of the original Schindler´s list theme.
This is using only the Violin Legato Patch using close and tree mics and a tad of Valhalla room
The SsS Violin is panned hard left.
Really having fun using this library, it sounds really good to my ears.
Suppose the performance could be improved with some more detailed midi editing, but I hope I do it justice anyway

https://rcrft.co/reel/GiscardRasquin/SsSViolin


----------



## star.keys

Good depth in the tone


----------



## muziksculp

joepaz said:


> Anyone else having Kontakt crash doing a batch re-save? It happens when it gets to the viola economic patch.



Did this issue get fixed ?


----------



## heliosequence

muziksculp said:


> Did this issue get fixed ?


I just finished downloading and I'm having this issue as well.


----------



## muziksculp

heliosequence said:


> I just finished downloading and I'm having this issue as well.



hope they fix it soon. I wonder what's causing this. I never had an issue like this with any Kontakt library.


----------



## D Halgren

Can anyone confirm that the cello long sul pont is a bit wonky? Explosive noise at the beginning of some notes around F#4, some tuning issues and worble around F3, and some knock in notes around C4. I just want to make sure it's not just me. Thanks.


----------



## thesteelydane

D Halgren said:


> Can anyone confirm that the cello long sul pont is a bit wonky? Explosive noise at the beginning of some notes around F#4, some tuning issues and worble around F3, and some knock in notes around C4. I just want to make sure it's not just me. Thanks.


I checked, and that all sounds like good old molto sul pont to me - it's not exactly a stable articulation with that string length.


----------



## D Halgren

thesteelydane said:


> I checked, and that all sounds like good old molto sul pont to me - it's not exactly a stable articulation with that string length.


Well, you're the string player so I guess I can take your word for it, but I checked it against the cello long sul pont in the Alternative Solo Strings, and that is much smoother. Also, if you use the neighboring round robin function on the notes with the noise around F4, there is a noticeable difference between the notes with the noise and the neighboring notes without.

Thanks for checking it out for me though.


----------



## thesteelydane

D Halgren said:


> Well, you're the string player so I guess I can take your word for it, but I checked it against the cello long sul pont in the Alternative Solo Strings, and that is much smoother. Also, if you use the neighboring round robin function on the notes with the noise around F4, there is a noticeable difference between the notes with the noise and the neighboring notes without.
> 
> Thanks for checking it out for me though.



I guess they could have gone for a performance with less chaos, but the Spitfire ethos is not that, and this to me sounds like what would happen in a performance. Of course, if you trigger the same sample over and over, it's a problem, but then again that's always the problem with sampling.


----------



## mobileavatar

I am contemplating of getting SCS together with SsS, but given SsS only has CTA mic positions, should I get get SCS instead of SCS Pro without the additional mics? Or I will be better off with SCS Pro, as the extra mics will actually allow the two libs to have better control on the blend/contrast?


----------



## JT

mobileavatar said:


> I am contemplating of getting SCS together with SsS, but given SsS only has CTA mic positions, should I get get SCS instead of SCS Pro without the additional mics? Or I will be better off with SCS Pro, as the extra mics will actually allow the two libs to have better control on the blend/contrast?


IMO, you don't need the extra SCS mics. You can make extraordinary music with the standard mics. But you can always add them later if you want more choices.


----------



## mobileavatar

JT said:


> IMO, you don't need the extra SCS mics. You can make extraordinary music with the standard mics. But you can always add them later if you want more choices.



Thanks for the response. That's what I thought too. 

But in Homay's track, it seems the "symphonic" strings have very different mic pos or at least very different stereo field, and that has me thinking.


----------



## quantum7

Being an original Spitfire Solo Strings owner (my very first Spitfire library many moons ago) I still cannot make up my mind, and unfortunately don't have too much time left to get Spitfire's great loyalty discount, but my dilemma is that every demo I hear, although I like the sound, it's just that there is something a bit different (for a lack of a better description) in the sound compared to other solo string libs. I'm just trying to decide whether the "different" I'm hearing will be right for my typical writing styles. Decisions, decisions.....


----------



## muziksculp

quantum7 said:


> although I like the sound, it's just that there is something a bit different



Isn't that expected ? I would not expect it to sound exactly like another solo strings library, or one that I already have. Bottom line, do you like the different sound it offers ? if Yes, buy it


----------



## meradium

It’s still remarkably quiet here. What is the general sentiment of those who bite the bullet already? I have so many solo libraries flying around that I tend to have a love-and-hate relationship with. Alternative Solo Strings and the Sacconi Ensemble included. Yet the tone of these caught my ear again, especially that of the viola which tended to be particularly weak on the other libs.

Would love to hear that Schindler’s List theme naked, btw.


----------



## Francis Bourre

I was wondering why there's no long flautando articulation for viola. Any clue?


----------



## rottoy

Francis Bourre said:


> I was wondering why there's no long flautando articulation for viola. Any clue?


 I wager it's because violists don't know what "flautando" means. I jest.


----------



## Vik

rottoy said:


> I wager it's because violists don't know what "flautando" means. I jest.


Poor violists, as always.
http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/viola-jokes.html

Fantastic instrument.


----------



## enyawg

christianhenson said:


> For what it is worth (I often say I'm putting on my composer hat, but I am clearly and massively biassed) this is my favourite library we have made to-date. Why?
> 
> • Well its great to have a solo strings library that really works with my workflow, so for me price of entry is the 50/50 patches where the player starts senza vib and then introduces it just like EVERY player does when they're playing soloistically! (seems that isn't a word?) Bang its in a patch, performed live and real and lovely and boom instant soloistic strings in an ever increasing heartbeat.
> 
> • It has the depth of the chamber and symphonic strings so you can add detail and "front desk up" these libraries or simply take the arrangements you have made in these libs and transfer them solo strings for more intimate and emotional moments.
> 
> • Chamber strings still sound massive... OK so blue in the face, if you grab a patch from SCS you will probably be playing up to 4 players, 20 mics, one hall.... you play two notes you're playing 8,40 & two halls... so simple four part is going to be 24, 80 and four halls..... But play the ensembles patches, maybe 10/60/3 per note? 4 part = 40 players, 240 mics and 12 halls = MASSIVE! So by approaching solo strings as a super small chamber band you finally have that awesome emotional but incredibly intimate chamber sound recorded in the hall.
> 
> • The legatos are excellent and do what you want them to do for a solo strings library. This was always a given with this library but again THIS LIBRARY IS SOOOOOO MUCH MORE... just think of it as another chapter of our pro-end symphonics vs chambers, woods and brass libs. The legatos update the previous solo strings experience to a new level... but thats where this library as an update to the legacy version ends!
> 
> • 3 violins is defo better than one from really virtuosic, to front chair to *the secret sauce of this library the additional techniques by our progressive player*. So you have a deeply versatile library that isn't instantly coloured by a single leader.
> 
> • Viola.... best viola sample yet, hands down (but also IMHO).
> 
> • Leon Bosch has given us the most extraordinary selection of solo bass samples ever made, I fear for bass players round the world now that Bosch has given this encyclopaedia of totally impossible techniques to the world!
> 
> • Oh.... and have I mentioned the flautandos?
> 
> gnngngngnnngggnnngg
> 
> Much love.
> 
> C. x


Oh.. and have I mentioned the cellos!


----------



## esencia

emasters said:


> There are three patches in the "_Advanced_/Other patches" folder that will cause Kontakt to crash -- either loading or doing a batch resave. Sandy at Spitfire is on it. He can repro the behavior and is working on it (messaged with him earlier today). The three NKI's to avoid are: (1) b - Violin (1st Desk) - Economic; (2) d - Viola - Economic; and (3) e - Cello - Economic. I have to say, Sandy is one impressive support rep for Spitfire and was messaging right after I ran into this earlier today. A minor issue that slipped through the cracks - just avoid those NKI's for now.


same here.. Kontakt crashes with re-save


----------



## midiman

Francis Bourre said:


> I was wondering why there's no long flautando articulation for viola. Any clue?



Me Too.


----------



## midiman

quantum7 said:


> Being an original Spitfire Solo Strings owner (my very first Spitfire library many moons ago) I still cannot make up my mind, and unfortunately don't have too much time left to get Spitfire's great loyalty discount, but my dilemma is that every demo I hear, although I like the sound, it's just that there is something a bit different (for a lack of a better description) in the sound compared to other solo string libs. I'm just trying to decide whether the "different" I'm hearing will be right for my typical writing styles. Decisions, decisions.....


I was also on the fence about it like you. I got it and I am happy. I think the best part of the library is the Flautandos and additional techniques. The Legatos are good, but would not be the main reason to upgrade. Overall it sounds much better than the original, and there is a ton of material. Original was under 10GB, this one is close to 40GB... Hope this helps you decide.


----------



## meradium

They will probably shoot me for this but did anybody else notice the Virtuoso Legato patch in Oliver’s short runthrough video?

 @0:56

Will this be coming to the general public sometime later?

Was also wondering about the „performance legato“ patches If I am not mistaken Andy had always created for the other libs. It seems this one here goes back to the original „old“ approach. Also no Andy demo this time... kind of surprising given that this lib seems to be sitting so well in the orchestral context overall...?


----------



## Adam Takacs

There is a virtuoso legato patch in the "in action" video as well.




They may still be working on it and will be available in the update.


----------



## Vik

meradium said:


> Will this be coming to the general public sometime later?
> 
> Was also wondering about the „performance legato“ patches If I am not mistaken Andy had always created for the other libs. It seems this one here goes back to the original „old“ approach.


Of course they won't show a legato preset to potential customers and not release it when it's ready. Besides, it's middle of July. Some people take some time off then.


----------



## Alex Fraser

meradium said:


> Was also wondering about the „performance legato“ patches If I am not mistaken Andy had always created for the other libs. It seems this one here goes back to the original „old“ approach. Also no Andy demo this time... kind of surprising given that this lib seems to be sitting so well in the orchestral context overall...?


Andy Blaney composed one of the teaser videos on social media. Not sure where it is now..


----------



## Karma

Alex Fraser said:


> Andy Blaney composed one of the teaser videos on social media. Not sure where it is now..


----------



## Giscard Rasquin

meradium said:


> Would love to hear that Schindler’s List theme naked, btw.



Ok, will try to make some time for that as in that case I´d like to do some more editing on the recording to be completely fair with the developer as this was just a very quick play-along recording!


----------



## Alex Niedt

GuitarG said:


> Ok, will try to make some time for that as in that case I´d like to do some more editing on the recording to be completely fair with the developer as this was just a very quick play-along recording!


I think the quick play-along recording is what people want to hear. Showing how a product sounds while playing it, without a bunch of editing after the fact, may not be the most flattering, but it isn't unfair. Being that it sounds quite good within the context of the play-along track, it would be interesting to hear exactly that performance by itself.


----------



## WindcryMusic

meradium said:


> It’s still remarkably quiet here. What is the general sentiment of those who bite the bullet already?



I started setting it up as part of my template today. I’ve just gone through the three violins thus far, but I’m really, really loving the tone (cuts through much more than CSSS, but still has sweetness), and the extra articulations for the progressive violin just beg me to keep playing them rather than getting my template work done.

It was a little surprising to me that Spitfire didn’t add the rest of the progressive violin articulations to the “decorative techniques” multi-articulation patch, or even to a 3rd unique multi-articulation patch; instead, it seems they are only loadable as individual articulations. Fortunately there were (just barely) few enough to be able to create my own multi with all of the extra articulations loaded into a single Kontakt instance alongside the core and decorative palettes, and then select them by UACC.

I plan to add the rest of the SSoS* instruments this afternoon, and am expecting to encounter equal amounts of delight once I get into them as well.

* I needed to choose a unique prefix to identify the library’s tracks, and have settled on this one for my own purposes at least.


----------



## Seycara

GuitarG said:


> Couldn´t help myself to record a quick play along over the first part of the original Schindler´s list theme.
> This is using only the Violin Legato Patch using close and tree mics and a tad of Valhalla room
> The SsS Violin is panned hard left.
> Really having fun using this library, it sounds really good to my ears.
> Suppose the performance could be improved with some more detailed midi editing, but I hope I do it justice anyway
> 
> https://rcrft.co/reel/GiscardRasquin/SsSViolin



Could you do this without the backtrack? It is hard to discern what the SsS is capable of by itself because of the live solo violin.


----------



## scottu

lumcas said:


> As much as I would love to have these beautiful strings in my template I'm gonna sit back this time and wait for the Sacconi update - looking forward to much needed cello range extension.


Has an update been mentioned?


----------



## pfmusic

I don't recall any mention of a Sacconi String Quartet update?


----------



## fretti

scottu said:


> Has an update been mentioned?


Alternative Solo Strings got an update within two weeks I believe it was after initial release, without mentioning it before.
But with the minor bugs reported here, and the legato techniques that seem to be added soon, I think an update will come in the next few weeks for sure


----------



## star.keys

After playing with it for some time, I find this library suitable for use as first chairs on top of other SF strings libraries rather than a exposed soloist library. What I'm not able to quite get right is fast legato passages or runs, which are sounding blurred - such as what it would sound after removing the 'attack' from the beginning of all notes, maybe I need to learn some tricks of getting the runs right.


----------



## meradium

Here is my little doodle with it tonight. Love it so far. Sometimes a bit challenging to handle just like any other sample library out there. But with a bit of careful setting the right velocities and CCs I think it sounds quite nice and is playable.


----------



## Sid Francis

Its very nice though the omnipresent vibrato is disturbing. Try to paint a vibrato automation curve with some notes without and others with vibrato switched on after first third of note or so. Or did you try that and it didn´t work? I think it would improve things a lot.


----------



## meradium

You are probably right. No, so far I have stayed away from the vibrato dial. But compared to some other libs that I own I find its constant vib is less of a concern. A real performance of course would add much more variation. I will try. In the past I did not succeed using SFs vib control because of its „digital“ on or off nature. But looking at Paul’s demonstration it probably requires a bit of training and more modwheel treatment in the non-vib section.


----------



## amsams

Here's an example of the legatos playing simple and exposed swells. I added the progressive violin (non-legato) to double the 1st desk. There's just a touch of reverb, subtle compression, console and tape sim. Processing is barely there, just for glue.


----------



## star.keys

Is anyone able to get fast legato passages sounding right?


----------



## Giscard Rasquin

Nop


----------



## babylonwaves

WindcryMusic said:


> It was a little surprising to me that Spitfire didn’t add the rest of the progressive violin articulations to the “decorative techniques” multi-articulation patch, or even to a 3rd unique multi-articulation patch; instead, it seems they are only loadable as individual articulations.



This seems to be a new trend. For instance, the fanfare patches were removed from the a6 combined patches as well. Sure you can add individual patches and switch to with uacc but what’s the point in omitting those in the first place ....?i mean those are still a part of the library...


----------



## morphling

So what is everyones opinion on this? I'm really on the fence here after being generally disappointed with the Hans Zimmer Strings... I'm a fan of chamber strings though.


----------



## Geoff Grace

morphling said:


> So what is everyones opinion on this? I'm really on the fence here after being generally disappointed with the Hans Zimmer Strings... I'm a fan of chamber strings though.


I don't have hands on experience with either HZS or SsS, but I think they look like very different animals. HZS was about breaking new ground: new player, huge ensembles, etc. SsS is about looking at an earlier effort and asking, "How would we do it again if we knew then what we know now?" I expect the Kontakt-based SsS to be as mature of a product as a new release could be.

Best,

Geoff


----------



## muziksculp

Hi,

The crashing while performing a Batch-Resave, and when loading the economy patches, is this affecting all users, or just some system specific users ?

Is there any one Not having any of these problems ? if Yes, What Operating System you are running ? 

Thanks,
Muziksculp


----------



## jbuhler

morphling said:


> So what is everyones opinion on this? I'm really on the fence here after being generally disappointed with the Hans Zimmer Strings... I'm a fan of chamber strings though.


Just got it today and have mostly played with the cello. As mentioned by others, vibrato seems hard to control, more so than SCS or SSS. The legato on the three legato patches sounds good (again, I've spent most of the time with the cello.) These instruments may be fine when mixed into a larger ensemble as a section leader but exposed solo passages will remain tricky and I think you will have to write for the idiosyncrasies of these particular patches rather than for a generic solo violin, viola, cello, etc. until SF releases more legato patches. As expected the legato patches mix well with legatos from SCS and SSS to bring a bit more detail to sections.


----------



## jbuhler

muziksculp said:


> Hi,
> 
> The crashing while performing a Batch-Resave, and when loading the economy patches, is this affecting all users, or just some system specific users ?
> 
> Is there any one Not having any of these problems ? if Yes, What Operating System you are running ?
> 
> Thanks,
> Muziksculp


Yes, I had this same failure and crash on batch re-save and I just downloaded the library today. I haven't tried loading the economy patches since the failed batch re-save. I figured they were trashed once the batch re-save failed.


----------



## muziksculp

jbuhler said:


> Yes, I had this same failure and crash on batch re-save and I just downloaded the library today. I haven't tried loading the economy patches since the failed batch re-save. I figured they were trashed once the batch re-save failed.



I'm curious to know if there are any users not having these issues ?


----------



## Pablocrespo

I wish they could “legatizate” the progressive vibrato patches!


----------



## SoNowWhat?

Pablocrespo said:


> I wish they could “legatizate” the progressive vibrato patches!



Legatocise? Perhaps?? Or not. 
(Sounds like a musicians work-out video from the ‘80s).


Now where did I put my leg warmers?


----------



## meradium

star.keys said:


> Is anyone able to get fast legato passages sounding right?



Has anyone tried to crank the velocity level up all the way and use that for quick legato playing? I have noticed that the bow-change articulation seems to be only triggered on the 127 value. 

Unfortunately can't try it right now...


----------



## meradium

muziksculp said:


> I'm curious to know if there are any users not having these issues ?


Nope. Same here.


----------



## Killiard

meradium said:


> Has anyone tried to crank the velocity level up all the way and use that for quick legato playing? I have noticed that the bow-change articulation seems to be only triggered on the 127 value.
> 
> Unfortunately can't try it right now...


I haven’t tried it for fast legato but I did have to change all the trigger values for the different legato types.

Might just be my keyboard but I had to practically smash the keys to get the bow change art to trigger and I was accidentally triggering portamento too often. 
Easy to change by command(?)-clicking on the articulation in Kontakt.


----------



## amsams

morphling said:


> So what is everyones opinion on this? I'm really on the fence here after being generally disappointed with the Hans Zimmer Strings... I'm a fan of chamber strings though.



So far so good. Haven't had a ton of time w/ it, but a vast improvement over the original solo strings and many other attempts that i've tried to create that intimate, yet warm solo sound w/ other solo libraries. It nails that sound I think. But I haven't tried fast legato passages for instance---so they're may be some weakness there to overcome. I don't have as much of a problem w/ the vib settings. It's not perfect, but I guess I'm used to it from other spitfire libraries. Also having the batch re-save problem so there are still some bugs they'll need to fix.


----------



## WindcryMusic

Killiard said:


> I haven’t tried it for fast legato but I did have to change all the trigger values for the different legato types.
> 
> Might just be my keyboard but I had to practically smash the keys to get the bow change art to trigger and I was accidentally triggering portamento too often.
> Easy to change by command(?)-clicking on the articulation in Kontakt.



Same problem here ... too hard to trigger the bow change articulation with my Novation Impulse, no matter what velocity curve I select. I had started looking for a way to change it in Kontakt, but didn't know about command-clicking the articulation, so I'll have to try that tonight. Thanks much!


----------



## thesteelydane

WindcryMusic said:


> Same problem here ... too hard to trigger the bow change articulation with my Novation Impulse, no matter what velocity curve I select. I had started looking for a way to change it in Kontakt, but didn't know about command-clicking the articulation, so I'll have to try that tonight. Thanks much!


Its incredibly easy to do. Just remember to also adjust the values for fingered legato so they don’t overlap.


----------



## Killiard

WindcryMusic said:


> Same problem here ... too hard to trigger the bow change articulation with my Novation Impulse, no matter what velocity curve I select. I had started looking for a way to change it in Kontakt, but didn't know about command-clicking the articulation, so I'll have to try that tonight. Thanks much!



No problem. It's quite handy being able to do it. I use it to switch between spiccato and staccato articulations using a cc fader.


----------



## Spitfire Team

​

​​


----------



## ism

Spitfire Team said:


> ​
> 
> 
> 
> ​




This is enormously helpful. 

I think I would also really benefit from something along the same lines for something like Andy's demo. 

There are incredible sounds to be made with this library, but it's (quite unsurprisingly) not made in the style of plug and play libraries where you can to just copy and paste midi data from the internet and expect to have you mind blown.

So +1 to more video like this - Homay, Andy, Paul, more from Oliver ... I just don't think it would be possible to have too many.


----------



## rottoy

SoNowWhat? said:


> Legatocise? Perhaps?? Or not.
> (Sounds like a musicians work-out video from the ‘80s).
> 
> 
> Now where did I put my leg warmers?


----------



## Alex Niedt

I feel like a legato performance patch of the progressive longs would be a dream.


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## meradium

Tried to play around with the legato vibrato slider yesterday.

I am not really able to handle it properly it seems. The shift from non-vib to vib is just too abrupt. It sounds like I go from accordion to Schindler's list within a few ms, if you know what I mean.

I wished we could either somehow control the transition time or better yet move the controller freely. But if you have any of the the other string SF strings you will probably know that they all only have this on-off nature. I wonder why that is... is it because of phasing or the overlap that could make it sound like two instruments (or 40 violins for the other libraries) playing at a time while transitioning?

Then again they have a more gradual control in the regular sustain and there the "problem" doesn't seem to bother me too much...

Or is it a scripting limitation of Kontakt of any sorts?

I would be really curious to see how people like e.g. Andy combine the different patches to get the rather lovely results. I am sure there are some best practices that make all the differences in using the provided articulations to their fullest potential...


----------



## Vik

meradium said:


> It sounds like I go from accordion to Schindler's list within a few ms, if you know what I mean.


The problem with crossfading between vibrato levels is that it's easily sounding layered in the crossfade portion, especially when it comes to solo strings. Some companies make it somehow work for ensemble strings, but with the crosswitch solution (as opposed to the crossfade solution), it would IMO be better if we had at least 3 or 4 vibrato levels. The problem with that, for developers, is of course that legato/portamento transitions would have to be made for each of these degrees of vibrato as well - a lot of work. The same would be true if they would offer, say, three different variations of progressive vibrato.


----------



## Francis Bourre

meradium said:


> I would be really curious to see how people like e.g. Andy combine the different patches to get the rather lovely results. I am sure there are some best practices that make all the differences in using the provided articulations to their fullest potential...



I'd be really interested as well. Please Spitfire, teach us. Educated customers are better customers.


----------



## SpitfireSupport

Francis Bourre said:


> I'd be really interested as well. Please Spitfire, teach us. Educated customers are better customers.


This is something we'll be looking to have available on our Knowledge Base at some point in the near future, as well as template advice and other tips. 

Luke


----------



## mobileavatar

Vik said:


> The problem with that, for developers, is of course that legato/portamento transitions would have to be made for each of these degrees of vibrato as well - a lot of work. The same would be true if they would offer, say, three different variations of progressive vibrato.



Yes, or at least allow the users to control the "latency" when the vibrato kicks in. With the current version, the notion of "50/50" only works within a limited range of tempi / emotional build-up.


----------



## Will Wilson

The progressive patch is lovely, but have to agree the abrupt entrance of the vibrato is somewhat annoying. I also notice that with the legatos I'm unable to trigger the bowed legato, portamento and fingered works fine but even with velocity at 127 the bowed legato doesn't trigger.

Overall a lovely sound but a few inconsistencies that need addressing, where's the other Violin legatos?


----------



## Pablocrespo

SpitfireSupport said:


> This is something we'll be looking to have available on our Knowledge Base at some point in the near future, as well as template advice and other tips.
> 
> Luke



So, seeing that Luke hangs around here, is there a chance of knowing if a progressive vibrato legato patch is planned or have you found it to be impossible to achieve? and also what about legato in the other violins? (Oliver´s videos hinted that).

I know you like to hold your cards close to the chest but it would be great to know, to decide if I am going to take advantage of the crossgrade from the old strings. A road map beyond 1.0 would be an incentive to people on the fence.

Thanks!


----------



## B.Karloff

I wonder why Spitfire Audio is obviously leaving the bug search to its loyal customers - again! At this price I would expect it to be the lowest level of final quality check BEFORE a release (which they have been raving and bragging about for months)to verify that a simple Batch Resave won't cause any crash and that you can load the eco patches without issues. Also no definitive statement why they chose to not provide any performance legato this time. There can't be any technical reason because they provided great performance patches with other libs before. Maybe they wanted the release for the sake of the release and therefore the results are now incomplete and inconsistent. Again we are left to hope that they will come up with additional patches for a less finicky and easier handling - in a matter of months, maybe never as they did with other libs in the past despite their promises for fixes and updates. Again: why didn't you do it right in the first place, Spitfire? Frustrating!


----------



## Allen Constantine

Okay, so this is what I've found out! Hope it helps...

I'm uploading 3 jpegs with my chat from their support!


----------



## mobileavatar

AllenConstantine said:


> Okay, so this is what I've found out! Hope it helps...
> 
> I'm uploading 3 jpegs with my chat from their support!



If the vibrato control is indeed NOT continuous, Spitfire should replace the slider UI with a 3-state switch instead. Otherwise, it is quite misleading...

Also, from the conversation, does it imply if there are enough people logged the matter as an issue, Spitfire will escalate the review?


----------



## Mat

B.Karloff said:


> I wonder why Spitfire Audio is obviously leaving the bug search to its loyal customers - again! At this price I would expect it to be the lowest level of final quality check BEFORE a release (which they have been raving and bragging about for months)to verify that a simple Batch Resave won't cause any crash and that you can load the eco patches without issues.



Just a friendly comment about software QA: I work in QA, and there could be countless reasons why bugs slip into a release - _especially_ when you're dealing with something as complex as this, with thousands of samples and dozens of patches. Maybe a bug was previously fixed, but accidentally snuck back in during a last minute code change. Maybe the bug didn't occur on their test systems but is occurring for some customers (happens *all* the time). Most importantly - Spitfire has thousands of customers and only a handful of testers. Software is never bug-free, and a multitude of users will always catch stuff that testers miss. This doesn't mean the testers are lazy/bad, or that production was rushed.

The only important thing is that Spitfire is listening to immediate feedback, and is taking action to fix simple bugs that they missed. And based on their vocal interaction with us here, and their historically swift updates (bug fixes within 1-2 weeks is *fast* in the software world), I have the utmost respect for their support and QA team.

Hopefully this doesn't come across as combative - just wanted to give some insight


----------



## WindcryMusic

mobileavatar said:


> If the vibrato control is indeed NOT continuous, Spitfire should replace the slider UI with a 3-state switch instead.



Are there actually three states for the vibrato on those legato patches? I was under the impression there are only two (on and off).


----------



## Allen Constantine

mobileavatar said:


> If the vibrato control is indeed NOT continuous, Spitfire should replace the slider UI with a 3-state switch instead. Otherwise, it is quite misleading...
> 
> Also, from the conversation, does it imply if there are enough people logged the matter as an issue, Spitfire will escalate the review?



I completely understand your point of view regarding the slider UI. Also, yes, maybe if we, their customers, call it whatever you want, keep questioning them and share opinions, in the end, I think they will fix it?!?... Or not?!?


----------



## Francis Bourre

Mat said:


> Just a friendly comment about software QA: I work in QA, and there could be countless reasons why bugs slip into a release - _especially_ when you're dealing with something as complex as this, with thousands of samples and dozens of patches. Maybe a bug was previously fixed, but accidentally snuck back in during a last minute code change. Maybe the bug didn't occur on their test systems but is occurring for some customers (happens *all* the time). Most importantly - Spitfire has thousands of customers and only a handful of testers. Software is never bug-free, and a multitude of users will always catch stuff that testers miss. This doesn't mean the testers are lazy/bad, or that production was rushed.
> 
> The only important thing is that Spitfire is listening to immediate feedback, and is taking action to fix simple bugs that they missed. And based on their vocal interaction with us here, and their historically swift updates (bug fixes within 1-2 weeks is *fast* in the software world), I have the utmost respect for their support and QA team.
> 
> Hopefully this doesn't come across as combative - just wanted to give some insight



I agree, software engineering is tricky, and bugs are part of it. Bug humanum est.  Btw, automated testing on patch loading and batch resave could help a lot. Ideally, you want your QA dedicated to hunt for trickier bugs. But I can imagine Spitfire has grown fast and the dev team is still small. They need more time to adopt Continuous Integration.


----------



## B.Karloff

Francis Bourre said:


> I agree, software engineering is tricky, and bugs are part of it. Bug humanum est.  Btw, automated testing on patch loading and batch resave could help a lot. Ideally, you want your QA dedicated to hunt for trickier bugs. But I can imagine Spitfire has grown fast and the dev team is still small. They need more time to adopt Continuous Integration.


All valid points in their defense! It's nice of you to spend your money and then be a happy and patient member of the public beta testing customer crowd for the next couple of months. Please excuse my sarcasm here...Still I would say: If they are such a small team which is not able to handle their self assigned time frames they should maybe take more time to finish their products before they release them. I could and should have waited and not buying this so soon. Stupid me as I should have known better from experience. I always prefer to receive a product (be it hardware or software) where there is no reason to complain about flaws. I consider this to be a quite normal customer expectation, especially as it is impossible to return the software if you're unsatisfied. And actually it's not so much about probably easy fixes like the batch resave and patch load issues. It's more about the various inconsistencies in providing realistic legatos for the offered instruments (which has been widely addressed by many others in this thread).


----------



## B.Karloff

Mat said:


> Just a friendly comment about software QA: I work in QA, and there could be countless reasons why bugs slip into a release - _especially_ when you're dealing with something as complex as this, with thousands of samples and dozens of patches. Maybe a bug was previously fixed, but accidentally snuck back in during a last minute code change. Maybe the bug didn't occur on their test systems but is occurring for some customers (happens *all* the time). Most importantly - Spitfire has thousands of customers and only a handful of testers. Software is never bug-free, and a multitude of users will always catch stuff that testers miss. This doesn't mean the testers are lazy/bad, or that production was rushed.
> 
> The only important thing is that Spitfire is listening to immediate feedback, and is taking action to fix simple bugs that they missed. And based on their vocal interaction with us here, and their historically swift updates (bug fixes within 1-2 weeks is *fast* in the software world), I have the utmost respect for their support and QA team.
> 
> Hopefully this doesn't come across as combative - just wanted to give some insight


YES, I agree that bugs CAN happen and slip the production control in general. And listening to customers and catching the found bugs is crucial and the only thing that matters in the end. However I can refer to experience where several flaws were clearly known and acknowledged by Spitfire but did not get addressed in years. I'm referring to the Sable Ensembles. Not a single update since its release. Even worse: exactly these flaws seem to have been imported into the Chamber Strings later as other users have reported. That's why I'm suspicious now that fixes or improvements for a better handling and more realistic sounding results are on the way anytime soon. However I would be happy if they prove me wrong.


----------



## Mat

B.Karloff said:


> All valid points in their defense! It's nice of you to spend your money and then be a happy and patient member of the public beta testing customer crowd for the next couple of months. Please excuse my sarcasm here...Still I would say: If they are such a small team which is not able to handle their self assigned time frames they should maybe take more time to finish their products before they release them. I could and should have waited and not buying this so soon. Stupid me as I should have known better from experience. I always prefer to receive a product (be it hardware or software) where there is no reason to complain about flaws. I consider this to be a quite normal customer expectation, especially as it is impossible to return the software if you're unsatisfied. And actually it's not so much about probably easy fixes like the batch resave and patch load issues. It's more about the various inconsistencies in providing realistic legatos for the offered instruments (which has been widely addressed by many others in this thread).



I wasn't trying to say "They are such a small team so give them a break". They are absolutely responsible for the scope and timelines of their projects in the context of the capabilities of their team. What I meant was: Userbases will always be _significantly_ larger than QA teams, and thus will _always_ find issues that QA missed or wasn't able to address in time for the release. I also never suggested that we shouldn't point out issues with products we buy - on the contrary, I strongly believe in the necessity of publicly pointing out issues with commercial products.

However, there is a very distinct difference between constructive bug reporting, and making assumptions about a team's quality standards and motives (ie. "obviously leaving the bug search to customers"). One is productive, and encourages Spitfire to interface with this forum more. The other is anti-productive, and encourages Spitfire to avoid this forum.


----------



## B.Karloff

Mat said:


> I wasn't trying to say "They are such a small team so give them a break". They are absolutely responsible for the scope and timelines of their projects in the context of the capabilities of their team. What I meant was: Userbases will always be _significantly_ larger than QA teams, and thus will _always_ find issues that QA missed or wasn't able to address in time for the release. I also never suggested that we shouldn't point out issues with products we buy - on the contrary, I strongly believe in the necessity of publicly pointing out issues with commercial products.
> 
> However, there is a very distinct difference between constructive bug reporting, and making assumptions about a team's quality standards and motives (ie. "obviously leaving the bug search to customers"). One is productive, and encourages Spitfire to interface with this forum more. The other is anti-productive, and encourages Spitfire to avoid this forum.


I better understand your point of view now, thanks for clarifying. I'm sorry if my comment sounded like an assumption and harsh. I will admit though that maybe some portion of frustration is resonating in my comment as my experience with Spitfire was real and no pure assumption at all. I found it disappointing in the way they did not keep their official promise for improving the old Solo Strings (for example) or simply ignored flaws in another library they had released and then never updated once despite acknowledging the bugs. I think in general it is legitimate to ask for quality equivalent of the value the customer spends money for in good faith and it should be the foremost interest of a company to please their loyal customers in striving to fix things that possibly slipped their attention in the production process. Why should I be shy to ask for this and be afraid that they might turn away if I ask twice and dare to insist on my customer rights? I hope that makes my point a bit clearer. Thanks again.


----------



## morphling

That the vibrato is not working well is quite a big deal though as it’s a very important part of the sound of a solo strings library. They really should bring in more programmers and not spend the whole budget on just the recording. Disappointing and might be the dealbreaker for me here personally.


----------



## Anders Wall

morphling said:


> ...not spend the whole budget on just the recording...


Is that what they’ve done?
Who @Spitfire Team told you that?
What more do you know about how the company conducts it’s business.
Please do share.
Best,
/Anders


----------



## Sid Francis

The discussion is taking a weird turn now: none of us here has HEARD how it sounds, when the vibrato is switched in in the manner that spitfire obviously intended except in the video of Paul Thompsom where he controlled both, dynamics and vibrato , at the same time which is quite tricky to do. In the video it sounded strange but not because of abrupt vibrato changes but abrupt dynamic changes, at least for my taste. Before someone (who also knows what he is doing and can imagine the playing style of a violinist) has posted an example of the vibrato being tastefully switched the discussion is more or less based on hot air. Unfortunately I do not own the library because I don´t like the sound of the vibrato at all (a topic where I seem to stand alone since no one mentioned it) so I cannot try my luck with a short melodic line. But I did try the same workflow with CSSS and it made things much more realistic and, at least if not used in an very exposed solo line (schindlers list or so) , was totally convincing. On the other hand: this library is not called "Spitfire first chair strings" but "Spitfire solo strings" so very exposed solo lines should also be possible. At least 2 different vibrato intensities are very desirable. I myself would easily trade 2 of the 3 provided violins in for ONE which has switchable "NO vib, progressive vib, and emotional vib" that I can control and use as needed.


----------



## Alex Niedt

Sid Francis said:


> The discussion is taking a weird turn now: none of us here has HEARD how it sounds, when the vibrato is switched in in the manner that spitfire obviously intended except in the video of Paul Thompsom where he controlled both, dynamics and vibrato , at the same time which is quite tricky to do. In the video it sounded strange but not because of abrupt vibrato changes but abrupt dynamic changes, at least for my taste.


You speak as if none of us own it. I bought it recently, and definitely think one of the biggest drawbacks is the on/off nature of the vibrato in the legato patches. You get no vibrato or heavy vibrato with no in-between. You can certainly coax a nice-sounding performance out of it with good programming and editing, but it ideally shouldn't feel like a fight. Perhaps a more subtle vibrato for the "on" setting would have been a better idea for less jarring transitions, with the super strong vibrato relegated to a separate patch. 

With all of that said, I can't get enough of Spitfire's portamento transitions, and I find their velocity-sensitive legato switching highly intuitive for general play. With more control over vibrato, these patches would be perfect, and I think everyone would enthusiastically recommend this library in a heartbeat. But at the moment, it's 100% understandable if the vibrato is a deal-breaker for a lot of people when there are other libraries out there with more easily achievable realistic vibrato right out of the box.


----------



## morphling

Anders Wall said:


> Is that what they’ve done?
> Who @Spitfire Team told you that?
> What more do you know about how the company conducts it’s business.
> Please do share.
> Best,
> /Anders


Well it’s not like this is impossible to fix. It just requires a lot of work. I can only assume why it’s not working correctly is because they decided to spend their budget elsewhere. 

What do you think?


----------



## jononotbono

Alex Niedt said:


> You get no vibrato or heavy vibrato with no in-between.



Isn't this how the Performance Legatos work in SCS and SSS? I've always thought they just go from Non Vib to Vib. Which is why I have the different Legato Performances as well in my template. I'm loving the sound of this Solo Strings library. Torn between this and LCO Strings at the minute but that's another conversation altogether.


----------



## Alex Niedt

jononotbono said:


> Isn't this how the Performance Legatos work in SCS and SSS? I've always thought they just go from Non Vib to Vib. Which is why I have the different Legato Performances as well in my template. I'm loving the sound of this Solo Strings library. Torn between this and LCO Strings at the minute but that's another conversation altogether.


It's more noticeable in this library than any other Spitfire library I own (SCS, SSS, Sacconi, etc.) because of how heavy the vibrato is, which is why I said, "Perhaps a more subtle vibrato for the 'on' setting would have been a better idea for less jarring transitions, with the super strong vibrato relegated to a separate patch." Even though it's less noticeable with Sacconi, I remember emailing Spitfire about it, initially thinking it was a bug since the longs have smooth transitions. I understand it may be extremely difficult or seemingly impossible to implement properly, but that doesn't make it any less unnatural in its current state.


----------



## meradium

I hope they find the time to explain their intended usage in maybe another dedicated video.

So far this lib is by far the best I have to write a melodic solo line and that allows me to do so for an entire ensemble, and quickly. Particularly the viola which I was always desperately missing in their Sacconi library - not that it wasn’t there, but it’s tone was rather „on the edge“ and didn’t offer the rounded round of the Solo Strings one.

I guess for super detailed virtuos solistic performances one probably needs to look at one of the dedicated libs from other devs or the modelled ones. In the first case those can turn into a pretty hefty programming session as well (think VSL) to combine the myriad of offered independent articulations. In both cases I never liked the sound too much because they are missing the unique sound of the venue, the hall.

Can it be improved? For sure - just like anything else on the market today.


----------



## Anders Wall

morphling said:


> What do you think?


I haven’t seen the budget for the project nor the financial report, so I can’t really comment on that.
Best,
/Anders


----------



## morphling

Anders Wall said:


> so I can’t really comment on that.


Then if you don't really want to discuss why this library seems to be not delivering in this regard you might as well spare me from the sarcastic comments in the future.


----------



## Anders Wall

morphling said:


> Then if you don't really want to discuss why this library seems to be not delivering in this regard you might as well spare me from the sarcastic comments in the future.


No sarcasm from my end.
I’m only trying to answer you.
Best,
/Anders


----------



## morphling

Anders Wall said:


> No sarcasm from my end.
> I’m only trying to answer you.
> Best,
> /Anders


Maybe I didn't really understand your first post then. Oh well it doesn't really matter. Back to topic.


----------



## SpitfireSupport

Hi all, more to come with Solo Strings but can I please make a request? I'd like to ask that you do not post screenshots or transcriptions of chats or tickets that you share with our Customer Experience folks, this forum is for public discussion, the conversations that you have with our Customer Experience team are essentially a private conversation between you and them. Thanks! Ben


----------



## Allen Constantine

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi all, more to come with Solo Strings but can I please make a request? I'd like to ask that you do not post screenshots or transcriptions of chats or tickets that you share with our Customer Experience folks, this forum is for public discussion, the conversations that you have with our Customer Experience team are essentially a private conversation between you and them. Thanks! Ben



I agree with you on that, but, it seems like it has been the best alternative to draw your attention towards what we are facing!


----------



## morphling

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi all, more to come with Solo Strings but can I please make a request? I'd like to ask that you do not post screenshots or transcriptions of chats or tickets that you share with our Customer Experience folks, this forum is for public discussion, the conversations that you have with our Customer Experience team are essentially a private conversation between you and them. Thanks! Ben



I understand that completely as it will affect your sales but in my case I’ve already spent 1000s of dollars on your libraries and from a customers perspective I’m glad I get to read comments like _”Again we will constantly review and update scripting in all current libraries but there are no reported issues logged regarding this.” _before I made another purchase because it shows me that this is not something that is of high priority to you which makes it clear to me that the library is not going to deliver what I would need it to do any time soon.


----------



## Pablocrespo

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi all, more to come with Solo Strings but can I please make a request? I'd like to ask that you do not post screenshots or transcriptions of chats or tickets that you share with our Customer Experience folks, this forum is for public discussion, the conversations that you have with our Customer Experience team are essentially a private conversation between you and them. Thanks! Ben



Ben I get and respect what you are saying. But the problem is the lack of proper info and a clear roadmap. 
I think that it all boils down to the “*no resell policy”
*
I have spent a lot of money in libraries that are collecting digital dust. 

I understand the need to protect your interests but some more clear info would render all this discussion pointless. 

Like:
- Is there a chance that we get progressive vibrato legato?
- Will there be virtuoso and alternative violin legatos?

Don’t get me wrong. I like the tone and feel of this library and I want to upgrade but I’ve got the first solo strings years ago and I haven’t used it very much.

Thanks!


----------



## Grégory Betton

True that the "no resell policy" is somehow a no-go for certain users. Perhaps try to find a model where SA takes back a percent of the resale? Just throwing some idea here, I imagine it is not that easy


----------



## Allen Constantine

Pablocrespo said:


> Ben I get and respect what you are saying. But the problem is the lack of proper info and a clear roadmap.
> I think that it all boils down to the “*no resell policy”
> *
> I have spent a lot of money in libraries that are collecting digital dust.
> 
> I understand the need to protect your interests but some more clear info would render all this discussion pointless.
> 
> Like:
> - Is there a chance that we get progressive vibrato legato?
> - Will there be virtuoso and alternative violin legatos?
> 
> Don’t get me wrong. I like the tone and feel of this library and I want to upgrade but I’ve got the first solo strings years ago and I haven’t used it very much.
> 
> Thanks!




Well said! @Spitfire Team ?


----------



## SpitfireSupport

Pablocrespo said:


> Ben I get and respect what you are saying. But the problem is the lack of proper info and a clear roadmap.
> I think that it all boils down to the “*no resell policy”
> *
> I have spent a lot of money in libraries that are collecting digital dust.
> 
> I understand the need to protect your interests but some more clear info would render all this discussion pointless.
> 
> Like:
> - Is there a chance that we get progressive vibrato legato?
> - Will there be virtuoso and alternative violin legatos?
> 
> Don’t get me wrong. I like the tone and feel of this library and I want to upgrade but I’ve got the first solo strings years ago and I haven’t used it very much.
> 
> Thanks!



I can only tell you that we are discussing future updates to this library but I can't tell you what they are yet. All the feedback we've received in this thread will be taken into consideration but you'll of course understand that we can't implement all your suggestions.


----------



## Pablocrespo

I understand, but due to the lack of a reselling option and the lack of information about the future of the library I can´t take a gamble again, I love what I hear, but I need more info before I go for it.

If you can´t implement all of our suggestion, could you just say?:
"the progressive vibrato legato patch is impossible to achieve"

So we take that into account and make the choice?

I know this place can be harsh sometimes for you, but in these times a working composer must be very careful with his budget, I hope you don´t take this as negative criticism, but a chance to help us make an informed decision


----------



## morphling

I will probably sit out on this as well. In the case that spitfire ever address the obvious problems with this library I will be first inline to buy but my suspicion is that they’ll look to get on with the sampling for the next library instead leaving this one behind and flawed. After all delivering a new product means more sales then fixing an old one. If this does turn out to be the case I do hope though that the next library will deliver from the start but sadly I don’t really expect it to anymore after recent releases. It’s (sadly) safe to say that my trust in spitfire audio has been a bit shaken lately.


----------



## Craig Sharmat

morphling said:


> I will probably sit out on this as well. In the case that spitfire ever address the obvious problems with this library I will be first inline to buy but my suspicion is that they’ll look to get on with the sampling for the next library instead leaving this one behind and flawed. After all delivering a new product means more sales then fixing an old one. If this does turn out to be the case I do hope though that the next library will deliver from the start but sadly I don’t really expect it to anymore after recent releases. It’s (sadly) safe to say that my trust in spitfire audio has been a bit shaken lately.



Spitfire rarely leaves things flawed, if they can fix it they will, maybe some things cannot be fixed to some users liking but Spitfire's track record of updating libraries is very good.


----------



## morphling

Craig Sharmat said:


> Spitfire rarely leaves things flawed, if they can fix it they will


I sure hope you're right.


----------



## Mateo Pascual

I think a good advise is to always buy things based on what it offers at the moment of purchase and never on what it can offer in the future.

No one should expect additional content to be added in a future update in this library or any other. Don't get me wrong, it would be great if they decide to add legatos to the other violins and personally dislike the on/off vibrato in the legato articulations. But that's how they work in other Spitfire libraries, so I don't think this is going to change.

Spitfire has done great updates to some of their products in the past, so I would say it's safe to assume that they will improve things, but don't base your purchase decision on it.


----------



## B.Karloff

morphling said:


> I will probably sit out on this as well. In the case that spitfire ever address the obvious problems with this library I will be first inline to buy but my suspicion is that they’ll look to get on with the sampling for the next library instead leaving this one behind and flawed. After all delivering a new product means more sales then fixing an old one. If this does turn out to be the case I do hope though that the next library will deliver from the start but sadly I don’t really expect it to anymore after recent releases. It’s (sadly) safe to say that my trust in spitfire audio has been a bit shaken lately.


In my experience, too.


----------



## B.Karloff

Craig Sharmat said:


> Spitfire rarely leaves things flawed, if they can fix it they will, maybe some things cannot be fixed to some users liking but Spitfire's track record of updating libraries is very good.


Not in my experience.


----------



## SpitfireSupport

A quick update for you all - we’ve released a new version of Spitfire Solo Strings just now that fixes the batch resave problem, owners should see it in their Spitfire Audio App within the next 24 hours. New owners will get the latest version automatically.


----------



## Allen Constantine

At least, you guys started addressing the issues. Hopefully, you won't stop here!


----------



## JeffvR

morphling said:


> I will probably sit out on this as well. In the case that spitfire ever address the obvious problems with this library I will be first inline to buy but my suspicion is that they’ll look to get on with the sampling for the next library instead leaving this one behind and flawed. After all delivering a new product means more sales then fixing an old one. If this does turn out to be the case I do hope though that the next library will deliver from the start but sadly I don’t really expect it to anymore after recent releases. It’s (sadly) safe to say that my trust in spitfire audio has been a bit shaken lately.


Same here


----------



## Mat

"The discussion is taking a weird turn now" I think sums it up pretty well.

I'm sure I'm going to be accused of "taking Spitfire's side" - but guys, Spitfire has been vocal about listening to our feedback, and is actively fixing bugs with a fast turnaround time. I genuinely don't understand the lashing out with comments like "At least, you guys started addressing the issues". Bug fixing is typically not simple, and takes time to be done right. They told us they're working on it - give them a few days before accusing them of non-action.

Also, there is a very real reason why Spitfire support can't immediately respond by saying "Yes we're going to include X, no we're not going to include Y" in future updates, because they _don't know for sure yet_. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a working in-house version of various legatos, with the *hopes *of polishing them enough for a commercial release. However, if they told us that they are working on it, and then decide _not _to release it because it didn't meet their quality standards, then everyone on this forum would give them hell.


----------



## Allen Constantine

Mat said:


> "The discussion is taking a weird turn now" I think sums it up pretty well.
> 
> I'm sure I'm going to be accused of "taking Spitfire's side" - but guys, Spitfire has been vocal about listening to our feedback, and is actively fixing bugs with a fast turnaround time. I genuinely don't understand the lashing out with comments like "At least, you guys started addressing the issues". Bug fixing is typically not simple, and takes time to be done right. They told us they're working on it - give them a few days before accusing them of non-action.
> 
> Also, there is a very real reason why Spitfire support can't immediately respond by saying "Yes we're going to include X, no we're not going to include Y" in future updates, because they _don't know for sure yet_. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a working in-house version of various legatos, with the *hopes *of polishing them enough for a commercial release. However, if they told us that they are working on it, and then decide _not _to release it because it didn't meet their quality standards, then everyone on this forum would give them hell.



The thing is this : When you are a customer, you expect what the products states that it has to offer "Think of the solo violin in John Williams’ score for _Schindler’s List_, _Fratres_ by Arvo Pärt, John Corigliano’s _Red Violin_, or the cello carrying the _Game of Thrones_ theme." 

If you can't deliver that, well, you simply postpone the release date. Nobody upset, but you can't release a product with so many bugs! Not in these times, not when you were critiqued with many new libraries, that didn't deliver the high-praised expectations. 

I love Spitfire's products but recently, they are just releasing cool unfinished stuff!


----------



## jbuhler

I've been messing around the the legato patches today layered with the SCS performance legato patches. In that context and with just a hall reverb, I find the vibrato is reasonably controllable. CC1, 11, and 21 seem well matched for each instrument so I seem to be able to use the same midi to sit the solo string player into the section. CPU usage in Logic seems high, however, and I've had a few stutters and drop outs. I've not had this problem with SF instruments in the past.


----------



## Allen Constantine

jbuhler said:


> I've been messing around the the legato patches today layered with the SCS performance legato patches. In that context and with just a hall reverb, I find the vibrato is reasonably controllable. CC1, 11, and 21 seem well matched for each instrument so I seem to be able to use the same midi to sit the solo string player into the section. CPU usage in Logic seems high, however, and I've had a few stutters and drop outs. I've not had this problem with SF instruments in the past.



The quality of the tone is incredibly beautiful, IMHO, it's just that I still find the vibrato slider to be a bit abrupt! Other than that, there are still some minor things to tweak like some missing samples like the Bartok pizz etc. As a previous member said "
- Is there a chance that we get progressive vibrato legato?
- Will there be virtuoso and alternative violin legatos?"

But I think we should wait and see what the next updates are going to bring!


----------



## procreative

I think there are two different things being discussed here, bugs are things that don't work right or missing samples etc. Missing features are not bugs they are design flaws.

There is no doubt Spitfire do fix bugs mostly. There is also no doubt in the past Spitfire added content and resolved missing design features.

So there are some flaws in this library that makes no sense:

1. No Legato in the one Violin that is intended as the melody carrier, namely Virtuoso Violin.
2. Lack of Vibrato choices to make a Solo string instrument work naked.
3. Lack of Legato for some of the other long articulations.

If the library were called Spitfire First Chairs, the above is less relevant.

However its called Solo Strings. Whether they mix with the orchestra is not the point as Solo Strings are intended to also work as ... Solo. There are many first chair libraries already.

Personally as a Solo library would prefer it had more Legato and Vibrato options at the expense of extra variations of Violins and maybe have done away with things like Bartok, Harmonics etc.

Some of the reticence amongst people is that more recently products have launched with functionality missing features to do what the tin says and that there has been no clear roadmap as to whether this will be addressed if at all.


----------



## Allen Constantine

procreative said:


> I think there are two different things being discussed here, bugs are things that don't work right or missing samples etc. Missing features are not bugs they are design flaws.
> 
> There is no doubt Spitfire do fix bugs mostly. There is also no doubt in the past Spitfire added content and resolved missing design features.
> 
> So there are some flaws in this library that makes no sense:
> 
> 1. No Legato in the one Violin that is intended as the melody carrier, namely Virtuoso Violin.
> 2. Lack of Vibrato choices to make a Solo string instrument work naked.
> 3. Lack of Legato for some of the other long articulations.
> 
> If the library were called Spitfire First Chairs, the above is less relevant.
> 
> However its called Solo Strings. Whether they mix with the orchestra is not the point as Solo Strings are intended to also work as ... Solo. There are many first chair libraries already.
> 
> Personally as a Solo library would prefer it had more Legato and Vibrato options at the expense of extra variations of Violins and maybe have done away with things like Bartok, Harmonics etc.
> 
> Some of the reticence amongst people is that more recently products have launched with functionality missing features to do what the tin says and that there has been no clear roadmap as to whether this will be addressed if at all.




Straight to the point! +1


----------



## MA-Simon

procreative said:


> Legato and Vibrato options at the expense of extra variations of Violins and maybe have done away with things like Bartok, Harmonics etc.


You know the editing and recording time you need to do even one legato articulatinos is about 100 to 1 for things like Bartok and Harmonics. I really do appreciate these extra articulations!


----------



## B.Karloff

procreative said:


> I think there are two different things being discussed here, bugs are things that don't work right or missing samples etc. Missing features are not bugs they are design flaws.
> 
> There is no doubt Spitfire do fix bugs mostly. There is also no doubt in the past Spitfire added content and resolved missing design features.
> 
> So there are some flaws in this library that makes no sense:
> 
> 1. No Legato in the one Violin that is intended as the melody carrier, namely Virtuoso Violin.
> 2. Lack of Vibrato choices to make a Solo string instrument work naked.
> 3. Lack of Legato for some of the other long articulations.
> 
> If the library were called Spitfire First Chairs, the above is less relevant.
> 
> However its called Solo Strings. Whether they mix with the orchestra is not the point as Solo Strings are intended to also work as ... Solo. There are many first chair libraries already.
> 
> Personally as a Solo library would prefer it had more Legato and Vibrato options at the expense of extra variations of Violins and maybe have done away with things like Bartok, Harmonics etc.
> 
> Some of the reticence amongst people is that more recently products have launched with functionality missing features to do what the tin says and that there has been no clear roadmap as to whether this will be addressed if at all.


This is what I call a brilliant analysis of what's the issues here. Absolutely true. If Solo Strings is proclaimed to be a library of Solo instruments, they MUST be capable of sounding realistic in that regard. I have a funny feeling that the way Spitfire stresses the great ability of Solo Strings to blend in with the other Air Lyndhurst libraries is an attempt to hide the obviously existing flaws by masking them in the "contextual" surroundings...


----------



## Will Wilson

I have a lot of time for Spitfire and have spent A LOT of money this year building my setup with their libraries at it's heart. That being said I am very disappointed with Solo Strings....£299 I'll never see again!


----------



## B.Karloff

MA-Simon said:


> You know the editing and recording time you need to do even one legato articulatinos is about 100 to 1 for things like Bartok and Harmonics. I really do appreciate these extra articulations!


Honestly I could do without all the bells, whistles and also Bartoks if I only had a working and credible performance legato for ALL Solo Instruments at hand.


----------



## Mat

Will Wilson said:


> I have a lot of time for Spitfire and have spent A LOT of money this year building my setup with their libraries at it's heart. That being said I am very disappointed with Solo Strings....£299 I'll never see again!



It's interesting that the first half of this thread was primarily glowing praise, and the second half is mostly negatives.

Would you mind giving a bit more detail as to why you're disappointed? I'm on the verge of picking it up.


----------



## sostenuto

I would definitely like to see the previous Solo Strings restored to the Site at the last 'close-down' price ($129.). 
I oscillated wildly near the isd of previous deadline, anticipating the Replacement. 
Now this seems a double-negative and could be rectified easily.


----------



## christianhenson

Will Wilson said:


> I have a lot of time for Spitfire and have spent A LOT of money this year building my setup with their libraries at it's heart. That being said I am very disappointed with Solo Strings....£299 I'll never see again!



Sorry you've not clicked yet but please stick with it Will, its my fave lib to date, but sometimes these more pro-end babes take time to 'snap' into our workflows, especially if they're VERY different from a legacy version they're replacing. For me having the colour palette to match SCS and SSS is invaluable, a no brainer. I love the legs on this but where vibrato is concerned the progressive longs are by far my favourite instant 'fix' for a library that I'm still getting my fingers around. As HZ always says these are instruments and need to be learned.... some are easier than others, but I'm, starting to get mind blowing results here... please don't chuck your £299 in the bin WORK WITH IT!!!

Much love and thanks for your support.

C. x


----------



## babylonwaves

B.Karloff said:


> or simply ignored flaws in another library they had released and then never updated once despite acknowledging the bugs



You’re right in the sense that not every bug gets a fix. At the same time, SF has generally a good track record of fixing issue in comparison to many of their competitors.


----------



## procreative

MA-Simon said:


> You know the editing and recording time you need to do even one legato articulatinos is about 100 to 1 for things like Bartok and Harmonics. I really do appreciate these extra articulations!



I honestly don't doubt this, however one violinist recorded in more detail surely cannot be that kind of ratio vs 3 violinists?

Personally I would have paid more if it had been a Solo section on a par with SCS in terms of depth and choice of Legato articulations. But I expect (given what I remember about how they over-promised on the spec of SCS and got a bit burned delivering it) that its unlikely they would want to do promise this again.

But its not quite there as a Solo library, especially if listening to how most Soloists get used in Scoring themes where most of the time they are playing Sustained Legato lines.


----------



## Pablocrespo

Mat said:


> "The discussion is taking a weird turn now" I think sums it up pretty well.
> 
> I'm sure I'm going to be accused of "taking Spitfire's side" - but guys, Spitfire has been vocal about listening to our feedback, and is actively fixing bugs with a fast turnaround time. I genuinely don't understand the lashing out with comments like "At least, you guys started addressing the issues". Bug fixing is typically not simple, and takes time to be done right. They told us they're working on it - give them a few days before accusing them of non-action.
> 
> Also, there is a very real reason why Spitfire support can't immediately respond by saying "Yes we're going to include X, no we're not going to include Y" in future updates, because they _don't know for sure yet_. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a working in-house version of various legatos, with the *hopes *of polishing them enough for a commercial release. However, if they told us that they are working on it, and then decide _not _to release it because it didn't meet their quality standards, then everyone on this forum would give them hell.





christianhenson said:


> Sorry you've not clicked yet but please stick with it Will, its my fave lib to date, but sometimes these more pro-end babes take time to 'snap' into our workflows, especially if they're VERY different from a legacy version they're replacing. For me having the colour palette to match SCS and SSS is invaluable, a no brainer. I love the legs on this but where vibrato is concerned the progressive longs are by far my favourite instant 'fix' for a library that I'm still getting my fingers around. As HZ always says these are instruments and need to be learned.... some are easier than others, but I'm, starting to get mind blowing results here... please don't chuck your £299 in the bin WORK WITH IT!!!
> 
> Much love and thanks for your support.
> 
> C. x



Hello Christian, being on the fence with this one and haven’t clicked with the old solo strings , I asked before if you could share some info about the possibility of making a progressive vibrato legato patch. Seing how much praise you give that art, it seems like a logical move. 

Do you think it’s feasible? 

Don’t get me wrong. I like what I hear but don’t want to get burned like the old strings, which didn’t grow on me and got replaced down the road

Thanks!


----------



## ism

I'm still playing quite a lot with this library, and I really love it, although undoubtedly there's a learning curve. 

I do think that the marketing in unhelpful insofar as it appears to suggest that its a good library to play both the solo violin from Schindler's list and Part's Fratres - the former being a line that even fairly poor libraries can manage if you slather on enough vibrato, and the latter being a hyper-virtuosic style that this library was clearly never intended for (and I'm not even sure there exists any library yet that could convincingly pull it off). 

Happily, I didn't buy it to write either Schindler's list or violin concertos. 

Similarly, if you want to be able to just copy and paste generic midi data from the internet and sit back, then this might not be the library for you either. 

But this library can do things that no other library even attempts. The textures are incredible, and it can blend orchestrally like no other library I have. And witness that on another thread someone alleged that Andy's demo had to have be done with real players because it sounds too much like real performances to be a mere sample library. (I'd really love to see a walk though video for this piece incidentally). 

I do agree that another layer of milder vibrato, or progress vibrato legato, or something, would be welcome, and that there's clearly a trick to working with the non-vib to vib transitions (they sound really good in Paul's video, so a more in depth tutorial on how to work with that would be welcome also). 

And I also agree that the transition between dynamic layers can be abrupt - although I'm also finding that the upside of this is that there's a great variation in the timbre (ie the dynamic range) of the layers, and as I learn how to perform the legato instruments, it can really facilitate some amazing performances. (The downside is that it also means that you should just never copy and paste midi data from the internet into this library - this is not a 'general midi' library, which is no bad thing vis-a-vis the underlying artistic vision of the library).

Anyway, I've been mocking up a few thing that I hope to share, but I'm writing now in hopes that we can return to a constructive (although this is not to say uncritical) discussion. 

For while this isn't a library for up front violin or cello concertos, there's clearly an (at times, quite breathtaking) artistic vision behind it, clearly possibilities that no other library I know of can come close to, and clearly lots and lots amazing sounds and performances to be discovered with it. So while I understand that some people are simply looking for something else, and it's entirely valid and to discuss the strengths and limitations, I think that the last couple of pages have risked turning into a dogpile (in classic internet fashion) of simply dismissing the library as 'flawed' - which I don't think is, in general, particularly valid or helpful. 


Here is a constructive criticism however - as has been mentioned, the transition between dynamic layers are sometimes a bit abrupt. Now, I have enough solo string libraries to know that basically no one ever gets this quite right - either you have phase effects on the cross fade, or you do phase alignment or physical modelling at great detriment to the tone and/or the dynamic range. Unsurprisingly, spitfire has been uncompromising on both tone and dynamic range (a decision I wholeheartedly support), but, presumably, at the expense of a certain abruptness in the transition. I don't hear any phasing though, so that's no small thing. 

As I said above, with a bit of practice in performing the legatos these transitions in the dynamic layers can work to great effect - I especially love hovering in lowest dynamic layer, just below the edge of the middle dynamic layer and then making a dramatic transition to the middle dynamic layer (the lowest dynamic layers are in general one of my favourite things about this library, although they seem to be hardly touched in any of the demos I've seen). 

However, it might also be nice to have a patch that doesn't attempt cross fade at all (*) - ie that you get the dynamic layer that you start with, and after that the mod wheel alters only the volume. This is suitable for a different playing style, and I probably wouldn't use it all that much, but it would be a nice option to have. (And it might be easier to learn also.)


This is far from the easiest library I've every bought - a very long way from the intense and instant gratification of, say, the Olafur Chamber evo. But its one of the most exciting, and one that's repaying investment of time.

I'll just add that I don't really think the complexity here is a bad thing, or at least, with maybe a few exceptions, I don't think that it's an easily avoidable tip of complexity. The cold realities of physics dictate that solo strings are massively more technically difficult that ensemble strings, so huge technical complexity is endemic to any solo strings library (and explains why most are so terrible). But more than that, there's an attempt to open up a range of possibilities here that no other solo string library (and I have quite a few) even attempts to get at. I'm tempted to call this 'essential artistic complexity', as opposed to an 'inessential complexity' that would arise simply from poor design or execution (and I own quite a few of these libraries also). 


I also wonder if rebowing might be added relatively straightforwardly? The samples are already there, but I would *really* like to be able to trigger them via the sustain pedal. 


Anyway, I've barely scratched the surface of what this library is capable of, so I'm really hoping that vi-c can be a place constructively working though this.


Peace and Love.


(* incidentally, this is what a libraries like, for instance, the JB violin does - ie doesn't even attempt to do dynamic cross fades or phase alignment and instead just trusts that you don't overuse the mod wheel during a note. I was initially disappointed to learn that it didn't have any dynamic crossfades, but it works surprisingly well).


----------



## B.Karloff

ism said:


> I'm still playing quite a lot with this library, and I really love it, although undoubtedly there's a learning curve.
> 
> I do think that the marketing in unhelpful insofar as it appears to suggest that its a good library to play both the solo violin from Schindler's list and Part's Fratres - the former being a line that even fairly poor libraries can manage if you slather on enough vibrato, and the latter being a hyper-virtuosic style that this library was clearly never intended for (and I'm not even sure there exists any library yet that could convincingly pull it off).
> 
> Happily, I didn't buy it to write either Schindler's list or violin concertos.
> 
> Similarly, if you want to be able to just copy and paste generic midi data from the internet and sit back, then this might not be the library for you either.
> 
> But this library can do things that no other library even attempts. The textures are incredible, and it can blend orchestrally like no other library I have. And witness that on another thread someone alleged that Andy's demo had to have be done with real players because it sounds too much like real performances to be a mere sample library. (I'd really love to see a walk though video for this piece incidentally).
> 
> I do agree that another layer of milder vibrato, or progress vibrato legato, or something, would be welcome, and that there's clearly a trick to working with the non-vib to vib transitions (they sound really good in Paul's video, so a more in depth tutorial on how to work with that would be welcome also).
> 
> And I also agree that the transition between dynamic layers can be abrupt - although I'm also finding that the upside of this is that there's a great variation in the timbre (ie the dynamic range) of the layers, and as I learn how to perform the legato instruments, it can really facilitate some amazing performances. (The downside is that it also means that you should just never copy and paste midi data from the internet into this library - this is not a 'general midi' library, which is no bad thing vis-a-vis the underlying artistic vision of the library).
> 
> Anyway, I've been mocking up a few thing that I hope to share, but I'm writing now in hopes that we can return to a constructive (although this is not to say uncritical) discussion.
> 
> For while this isn't a library for up front violin or cello concertos, there's clearly an (at times, quite breathtaking) artistic vision behind it, clearly possibilities that no other library I know of can come close to, and clearly lots and lots amazing sounds and performances to be discovered with it. So while I understand that some people are simply looking for something else, and it's entirely valid and to discuss the strengths and limitations, I think that the last couple of pages have risked turning into a dogpile (in classic internet fashion) of simply dismissing the library as 'flawed' - which I don't think is, in general, particularly valid or helpful.
> 
> 
> Here is a constructive criticism however - as has been mentioned, the transition between dynamic layers are sometimes a bit abrupt. Now, I have enough solo string libraries to know that basically no one ever gets this quite right - either you have phase effects on the cross fade, or you do phase alignment or physical modelling at great detriment to the tone and/or the dynamic range. Unsurprisingly, spitfire has been uncompromising on both tone and dynamic range (a decision I wholeheartedly support), but, presumably, at the expense of a certain abruptness in the transition. I don't hear any phasing though, so that's no small thing.
> 
> As I said above, with a bit of practice in performing the legatos these transitions in the dynamic layers can work to great effect - I especially love hovering in lowest dynamic layer, just below the edge of the middle dynamic layer and then making a dramatic transition to the middle dynamic layer (the lowest dynamic layers are in general one of my favourite things about this library, although they seem to be hardly touched in any of the demos I've seen).
> 
> However, it might also be nice to have a patch that doesn't attempt cross fade at all (*) - ie that you get the dynamic layer that you start with, and after that the mod wheel alters only the volume. This is suitable for a different playing style, and I probably wouldn't use it all that much, but it would be a nice option to have. (And it might be easier to learn also.)
> 
> 
> This is far from the easiest library I've every bought - a very long way from the intense and instant gratification of, say, the Olafur Chamber evo. But its one of the most exciting, and one that's repaying investment of time.
> 
> I'll just add that I don't really think the complexity here is a bad thing, or at least, with maybe a few exceptions, I don't think that it's an easily avoidable tip of complexity. The cold realities of physics dictate that solo strings are massively more technically difficult that ensemble strings, so huge technical complexity is endemic to any solo strings library (and explains why most are so terrible). But more than that, there's an attempt to open up a range of possibilities here that no other solo string library (and I have quite a few) even attempts to get at. I'm tempted to call this 'essential artistic complexity', as opposed to an 'inessential complexity' that would arise simply from poor design or execution (and I own quite a few of these libraries also).
> 
> 
> I also wonder if rebowing might be added relatively straightforwardly? The samples are already there, but I would *really* like to be able to trigger them via the sustain pedal.
> 
> 
> Anyway, I've barely scratched the surface of what this library is capable of, so I'm really hoping that vi-c can be a place constructively working though this.
> 
> 
> Peace and Love.
> 
> 
> (* incidentally, this is what a libraries like, for instance, the JB violin does - ie doesn't even attempt to do dynamic cross fades or phase alignment and instead just trusts that you don't overuse the mod wheel during a note. I was initially disappointed to learn that it didn't have any dynamic crossfades, but it works surprisingly well).


Now here'e a constructive suggestion: Maybe Spitfire should ask Embertone how they did it so well...


----------



## star.keys

ism said:


> I do think that the marketing in unhelpful insofar as it appears to suggest that its a good library to play both the solo violin from Schindler's list and Part's Fratres -
> .



100% agree and that's my frustration with their marketing. The library is remotely nowhere to be seen as a solo library, medium to fast legato is not only a non-existing but it is totally flawed. Try to plan a simple scale down at medium speed and you will hear hollow sound between transitioning between notes, as if someone forgot to capture attack in the samples. It is unbelievable that these things cannot be heard in 5 minutes of playing. This is simply wrong marketing.


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## Will Wilson

christianhenson said:


> Sorry you've not clicked yet but please stick with it Will, its my fave lib to date, but sometimes these more pro-end babes take time to 'snap' into our workflows, especially if they're VERY different from a legacy version they're replacing. For me having the colour palette to match SCS and SSS is invaluable, a no brainer. I love the legs on this but where vibrato is concerned the progressive longs are by far my favourite instant 'fix' for a library that I'm still getting my fingers around. As HZ always says these are instruments and need to be learned.... some are easier than others, but I'm, starting to get mind blowing results here... please don't chuck your £299 in the bin WORK WITH IT!!!
> 
> Much love and thanks for your support.
> 
> C. x



Christian, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. Perhaps eventually this library will click as you say. However like most I think the marketing and naming of this library sets unrealistic expectations, as a first chair along with SCS or SSS yeah it works great. However, as a exposed solo it falls short. You're right the progressive longs are really useful, but when writing solo lines I almost have to write for the patch to get the best out of it.

The legatos seem to fall somewhat short when compared to your great performance legatos we have all been used to with your other symphonic products, I was really hoping that the Solo Strings legatos would give me the same expression and creative simplicity that your Oboe or Bassoon do in SSW or the Horn and Trumpet in SSB. 

As many have mentioned the fact that legato patches are missing for 2/3 of your violins is also really strange, personally I would have expected the virtuoso to be the first one you would have included if you were going to not do all three.

I enjoyed your contextual demo and fully agree for the little sprinklings of magic dust this library can do that really well, however it's called Spitfire Solo Strings, at the moment I think it's got a ways to go.

I'm going to keep trying, I bought it for a very specific cue I have been working on for my own personal gratification for several months now with a very exposed cello line, currently Tina Guo looks like she is staying where she is, hopefully she will get replaced!

PS - Choir?


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## B.Karloff

star.keys said:


> 100% agree and that's my frustration with their marketing. The library is remotely nowhere to be seen as a solo library, medium to fast legato is not only a non-existing but it is totally flawed. Try to plan a simple scale down at medium speed and you will hear hollow sound between transitioning between notes, as if someone forgot to capture attack in the samples. It is unbelievable that these things cannot be heard in 5 minutes of playing. This is simply wrong marketing.


Finally someone addresses a true, equally - if not more - important flaw of this library. While a nice realistic progressive vibrato is a desirable feature which adds to credibility it is only needed when playing slow with intense expression or at the end of some run, correct? However a solo violin performance is not only about slow emotional lines but also fast and furious lines and arpeggios! In regards to this major requirement I can only confirm that "Solo" Strings appear to be *complete* fail (unless I missed something substantial in operating the controllers). All articulations which I tried to utilize for this purpose immediately reveal their poor nature being a sample due to the totally not convincing transitions. In contrast to the above post I noticed a very annoying attack sound which is completely unnatural and "plasticky" sounding. Overall the sound is not pleasant more on the tinny side. Moreover I realized there is apparently only one mic position on the progressive violin (longs). Sliding from "close" to the distant mic positions will have no effect. Am I missing info here?
I wonder why everyone here in this thread has ignored these facts until now. I guess we all still like to believe we didn't get fooled by Spitfire's misleading marketing and hope our money got not invested into a wrongly labelled product being released with a high number of glitches, bugs and general shortcomings.
Again, and also addressed to the posters who seem to be very forgiving to the Spitfire team and advise us to stay calm and patient:
It is my own hard earned money that I gave to Spitfire in a trusting manner for some mislabeled product. I am now in the uncomfortable position to depend on hoping for fixes and general improvements which may happen, maybe not.
We all know from experience that Spitfire is pursuing their own agenda in a very friendly but also reserved and strict British way.
Why shouldn't we raise our voice to express our dissatisfaction at this point?
Should we be afraid of Spitfire not being amused by substantial and constructive criticism?
By the way: I just listened to demos of the Embertone Joshua Bell violin. While it's not perfect either I honestly have to say: that's what I call an overall pleasantly sounding violin SOLO performance...Maybe I should have listened to those demos two weeks ago...Sorry!


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## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Finally someone addresses a true, equally - if not more - important flaw of this library. While a nice realistic progressive vibrato is a desirable feature which adds to credibility it is only needed when playing slow with intense expression or at the end of some run, correct? However a solo violin performance is not only about slow emotional lines but also fast and furious lines and arpeggios! In regards to this major requirement I can only confirm that "Solo" Strings appear to be *complete* fail (unless I missed something substantial in operating the controllers). All articulations which I tried to utilize for this purpose immediately reveal their poor nature being a sample due to the totally not convincing transitions. In contrast to the above post I noticed a very annoying attack sound which is completely unnatural and "plasticky" sounding. Overall the sound is not pleasant more on the tinny side. Moreover I realized there is apparently only one mic position on the progressive violin (longs). Sliding from "close" to the distant mic positions will have no effect. Am I missing info here?
> I wonder why everyone here in this thread has ignored these facts until now. I guess we all still like to believe we didn't get fooled by Spitfire's misleading marketing and hope our money got not invested into a wrongly labelled product being released with a high number of glitches, bugs and general shortcomings.
> Again, and also addressed to the posters who seem to be very forgiving to the Spitfire team and advise us to stay calm and patient:
> It is my own hard earned money that I gave to Spitfire in a trusting manner for some mislabeled product. I am now in the uncomfortable position to depend on hoping for fixes and general improvements which may happen, maybe not.
> We all know from experience that Spitfire is pursuing their own agenda in a very friendly but also reserved and strict British way.
> Why shouldn't we raise our voice to express our dissatisfaction at this point?
> Should we be afraid of Spitfire not being amused by substantial and constructive criticism?
> By the way: I just listened to demos of the Embertone Joshua Bell violin. While it's not perfect either I honestly have to say: that's what I call an overall pleasantly sounding violin SOLO performance...Maybe I should have listened to those demos two weeks ago...Sorry!



Hi B.Karloff, I can't find you in our support system, perhaps you're using a different name on here. Could you make sure to contact us at spitfireaudio.com/support? I'll log the issue with the microphone positions on the progressive longs but it would be good if you could contact us and report it as well. Ben


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## Vik

Regarding fast playing: When Mural, the predecessor of SF Symphonic Strings, was released, it started with volume 1 of course. Mural 1 didn't have portamento, those came in Mural 2 and Fast Run legato didn't come until Mural 3. My blind guess is that they work the same way with the new solo strings, and that the fast run samples will be released later.


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## morphling

I really think Spitfire Audio should've learnt something from releases like the Hans Zimmer Strings which turned into a giant PR disaster for them with all the misleading marketing. They really need to stop releasing these alpha versions of libraries and start delivering what they claim these libraries are for or they are going to start loosing customers. They've had a reputation as the very best in the business when it comes to delivering high quality products in the past so whoever is in charge of this really need to take a look at themselves in the mirror and realize that this is not going to be good for the company in the longterm.


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## WindcryMusic

I was disinclined to get involved in this increasingly vitriolic discussion, and I don't intend to do so beyond this post, but I feel that I must say I suspect there is a very significant percentage of purchasers of this library who, like myself, bought it based upon the demos rather than the marketing, and who are quite happy with it in most respects. So the characterization that's recently been put forward in this thread that most buyers are upset is one that I personally doubt. No library is ever perfect, but I feel I should say that I'm finding this to be one of the more exciting and satisfying library purchases I've made in the past year. There's always room for improvement, of course, but if Spitfire does improve on some of the things mentioned in this thread over time, I'll only become more and more delighted with it.

And to be clear, I don't always give Spitfire Audio a free pass. Case in point: I chose to pass on Hans Zimmer Strings, not because of supposedly misleading marketing (which I think was more a matter of customers' assumptions), but because from the demos I don't feel that library justifies its price, because most of the mic positions seem pointless to me, and because (thus far at least) I am not a fan of their new engine.


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## morphling

WindcryMusic said:


> I was disinclined to get involved in this increasingly vitriolic discussion, and I don't intend to do so beyond this post, but I feel that I must say I suspect there is a very significant percentage of purchasers of this library who, like myself, bought it based upon the demos rather than the marketing, and who are quite happy with it in most respects. So the characterization that's recently been put forward in this thread that most buyers are upset is one that I personally doubt. No library is ever perfect, but I feel I should say that I'm finding this to be one of the more exciting and satisfying library purchases I've made in the past year. There's always room for improvement, of course, but if Spitfire does improve on some of the things mentioned in this thread over time, I'll only become more and more delighted with it.
> 
> And to be clear, I don't always give Spitfire Audio a free pass. Case in point: I chose to pass on Hans Zimmer Strings, not because of supposedly misleading marketing (which I think was more a matter of customers' assumptions), but because from the demos I don't feel that library justifies its price, because most of the mic positions seem pointless to me, and because (thus far at least) I am not a fan of their new engine.



Well as I have not used the Solo Strings library myself I can only refer to what I read here but I was one of the people who did go and buy into the marketing and preordered the Hans Zimmer Strings before release expecting it to be the next big thing. Safe to say that it was a big let down and as these things doesn't exactly come cheap (and as you can't sell them either) obviously it saddens me to see that the same thing seems to be happening here again. But it's a good thing that at least you seem to be enjoying the library for what it is even with it's apparent flaws.


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## thesteelydane

I’m with @WindcryMusic on this. I haven’t found any bugs in my workflow, and the tone is just second to none compared to anything else out there. That alone makes it worth it to me. I do hope the legato will be better able to cope with fast lines down the road, but then again, these are sample libraries, a copy of a copy of a real performance. I’m ok with that. I consider this one of the better investments I’ve made lately.

About the vibrato, if you know a bit about sampling, you will realize its simply not possible to get continuos vibrato control on a solo string instrument recorded in a wet environment. Competing products use either scripted vibrato or are recorded bone dry, and for good reasons. To me, that gorgeous sound of the hall is the whole point of this library, so again, I’m very much ok with Spitfire not being able to bend the laws of physics.


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## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi B.Karloff, I can't find you in our support system, perhaps you're using a different name on here. Could you make sure to contact us at spitfireaudio.com/support? I'll log the issue with the microphone positions on the progressive longs but it would be good if you could contact us and report it as well. Ben


Hi Ben, thank you for taking notice of the alleged problem regarding the mic positions.
Yes, I am using a nickname (like many other members do here by the way). I hope that is not too irritating for you as I'm still a legit owner of the here discussed new Solo Strings besides many other products from your company.
The reported problem should be easily duplicable by your team. As you already logged the issue officially I cannot see why it would be necessary to have me reporting it a second time officially. If I should find another bug though I will contact your team again directly like I always used to do. However thanks for your support !


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## D Halgren

B.Karloff said:


> Hi Ben, thank you for taking notice of the alleged problem regarding the mic positions.
> Yes, I am using a nickname (like many other members do here by the way). I hope that is not too irritating for you as I'm still a legit owner of the here discussed new Solo Strings besides many other products from your company.
> The reported problem should be easily duplicable by your team. As you already logged the issue officially I cannot see why it would be necessary to have me reporting it a second time officially. If I should find another bug though I will contact your team again directly like I always used to do. However thanks for your support !


You mean that's not you, Boris?


----------



## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Hi Ben, thank you for taking notice of the alleged problem regarding the mic positions.
> Yes, I am using a nickname (like many other members do here by the way). I hope that is not too irritating for you as I'm still a legit owner of the here discussed new Solo Strings besides many other products from your company.
> The reported problem should be easily duplicable by your team. As you already logged the issue officially I cannot see why it would be necessary to have me reporting it a second time officially. If I should find another bug though I will contact your team again directly like I always used to do. However thanks for your support !



No problem! I have reproduced the issue, so you're right that there's no need to create a ticket now. Do bear in mind though (and this applies to anyone on VI-Control) that just because it's been reported on a forum, it doesn't mean we're aware and looking into it - there's sometimes a "bystander effect" on forums (or in software usage generally actually) where everyone assumes that someone else reported it.

If you find an issue, do please let us know - if nothing else, when we have two or more issues of seemingly similar priority, the one with the most reports will be looked at first.

Ben


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## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> No problem! I have reproduced the issue, so you're right that there's no need to create a ticket now. Do bear in mind though (and this applies to anyone on VI-Control) that just because it's been reported on a forum, it doesn't mean we're aware and looking into it - there's sometimes a "bystander effect" on forums (or in software usage generally actually) where everyone assumes that someone else reported it.
> 
> If you find an issue, do please let us know - if nothing else, when we have two or more issues of seemingly similar priority, the one with the most reports will be looked at first.
> 
> Ben


Hi Ben, thanks a lot for looking into this and reproducing the issue! Also thanks for clarifying that the more reports are being officially received regarding one particular issue the higher the priority ranking will be for that problem to get fixed. That makes sense!


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## B.Karloff

D Halgren said:


> You mean that's not you, Boris?


Well, did you think Frankenstein's monster gave up on the Horror biz and got into film scoring instead?


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## ism

star.keys said:


> 100% agree and that's my frustration with their marketing.




In fairness, I'd add that every other marketing resources - all the videos and demos - do faithfully and helpfully reflect what the library is really about. I really think this is a brilliantly library, and while a faster legato would be nice, there's plenty of other libraries adept at writing concerto soloists, but quite a bit of what is unique and brilliant in this library is maybe hard to put your finger on concisely, but I do feel it does come across in the marketing (excepting that one unfortunate line).


ps. Have you tried lowering the velocity to make the bowed legato a little easier to play? I've found that you can get a slightly faster legato with the bowed legato. Still not fast enough for a fiery concerto to be sure, but well into what I'd call 'medium speed' legato.


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## ism

Still just playing around with this library, and here is, well, not so much a 'composition' as a 'ham-fisted noodling' as I try to get the hang of the legatos (here the Va + Vc). I though I'd share it not because I think it has any particular musical value, but because I think a very raw demo of the legato might be helpful.

The cello here is a one take improvisation, and the viola is just a bit of noodling over it, so, not exactly Elgar:




But a few thoughts:

1. The three legato types can be used to great effect. But in order to take advantage of this in a live performance I found it necessary to change the velocity thresholds (to 0-30 , 31 - 85 and 86 - 127; could just be my keyboard that last lacks sensitivity for the default values to work). And especially with the cello you can really use the 3 legato types to get just an almost physical sense of the presence of the instrument. And with the velocity ranges tweaked I've found it very playable.

2. The dynamics behave quite differently from any other library I have. In particularly it really pays to be aware of where the boundary of the p - mf layers lives. My early attempts at treating this like any other vst resulted in some truly terrible sounds. You can't just imagine the mod wheel as a continuous pp - ff spectrum, you need to think in terms of the boundaries between layers and use this in your performance.

Once you get the hang of it however, there's some really lovely dynamic effects to be drawn out - which I think comes out in the above noodling. There were a few painful moments on the learning curve I'll admit, but its become a real joy to play. 


3. I think this piece sounds just fine with the vibrato always on. For slower phrases, I have found attention to non-vib to vib transitions to become important in much the same way as attention to dynamic transitions requires a bit of care in this piece. But for a piece of this tempo and vibe, I think the vibrato sounds perfectly good as is.


4. It blends. It doesn't just mix well, but it actively plays well with others. And a solo strings library that simply plays well with others was my sine quo non in buying this library.


Which is also, incidentally, probably why you wouldn't want to use it to write a concerto. If you're writing a violin concerto, say, you want your soloist to take up all the space right at the front of the mix and constantly assert its rightful place as the prima donna dominating everything and constantly using 12 types of legato. The last thing you want is for it to play nicely with the clarinets. You want to be constantly asserting dominance over the clarinet section.

But with this library, not only does the viola play well with the cello, they both play well with the clarinets. Not the sexiest feature of a library perhaps, but I've come to understand that for what I hope to write, 90% of the time this is actually the more valuable feature.



Lost still to learn - critique welcome.


----------



## Alex Niedt

The descending cello line at 0:35 sounds unnatural and seems like a good example of the complaints in regards to even mid-speed legato lines sometimes sounding off. The always-on vibrato sounds fine throughout much of your example, but there are certainly areas where it does start to sound over-the-top and fake. With that said, for a rough "noodling", this sounds quite good, overall.


----------



## D Halgren

ism said:


> Still just playing around with this library, and here is, well, not so much a 'composition' as a 'ham-fisted noodling' as I try to get the hang of the legatos (here the Va + Vc). I though I'd share it not because I think it has any particular musical value, but because I think a very raw demo of the legato might be helpful.
> 
> The cello here is a one take improvisation, and the viola is just a bit of noodling over it, so, not exactly Elgar:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But a few thoughts:
> 
> 1. The three legato types can be used to great effect. But in order to take advantage of this in a live performance I found it necessary to change the velocity thresholds (to 0-30 , 31 - 85 and 86 - 127; could just be my keyboard that last lacks sensitivity for the default values to work). And especially with the cello you can really use the 3 legato types to get just an almost physical sense of the presence of the instrument. And with the velocity ranges tweaked I've found it very playable.
> 
> 2. The dynamics behave quite differently from any other library I have. In particularly it really pays to be aware of where the boundary of the p - mf layers lives. My early attempts at treating this like any other vst resulted in some truly terrible sounds. You can't just imagine the mod wheel as a continuous pp - ff spectrum, you need to think in terms of the boundaries between layers and use this in your performance.
> 
> Once you get the hang of it however, there's some really lovely dynamic effects to be drawn out - which I think comes out in the above noodling. There were a few painful moments on the learning curve I'll admit, but its become a real joy to play.
> 
> 
> 3. I think this piece sounds just fine with the vibrato always on. For slower phrases, I have found attention to non-vib to vib transitions to become important in much the same way as attention to dynamic transitions requires a bit of care in this piece. But for a piece of this tempo and vibe, I think the vibrato sounds perfectly good as is.
> 
> 
> 4. It blends. It doesn't just mix well, but it actively plays well with others. And a solo strings library that simply plays well with others was my sine quo non in buying this library.
> 
> 
> Which is also, incidentally, probably why you wouldn't want to use it to write a concerto. If you're writing a violin concerto, say, you want your soloist to take up all the space right at the front of the mix and constantly assert its rightful place as the prima donna dominating everything and constantly using 12 types of legato. The last thing you want is for it to play nicely with the clarinets. You want to be constantly asserting dominance over the clarinet section.
> 
> But with this library, not only does the viola play well with the cello, they both play well with the clarinets. Not the sexiest feature of a library perhaps, but I've come to understand that for what I hope to write, 90% of the time this is actually the more valuable feature.
> 
> 
> 
> Lost still to learn - critique welcome.



That sounds wonderful to me!


----------



## ism

Alex Niedt said:


> The descending cello line at 0:35 sounds unnatural and seems like a good example of the complaints in regards to even mid-speed legato lines sometimes sounding off. The always-on vibrato sounds fine throughout much of your example, but there are certainly areas where it does start to sound over-the-top and fake. With that said, for a rough "noodling", this sounds quite good, overall.




Not completely sure what you mean at 0:35 - I've switched here to a run of bow change legato transitions, so it's certainly more abrupt. There's certainly an artistic case that it would sound better with a smoother legato, in fact if this is what you mean I think you might be right. But the finger legato would handle this tempo without any trouble.


I think you might also be right about the dynamics being exaggerated in places too. Probably it was useful to exaggerate the dynamics while learning to perform, so maybe the next thing is to learn how to do it with a bit more subtlety.

Thanks!


----------



## Alex Niedt

ism said:


> Not completely sure what you mean at 0:35 - I've switched here to a run of bow change legato transitions, so it's certainly more abrupt. There's certainly an artistic case that it would sound better with a smoother legato, in fact if this is what you mean I think you might be right. But the finger legato would handle this tempo without any trouble.
> 
> 
> I think you might also be right about the dynamics being exaggerated in places too. Probably it was useful to exaggerate the dynamics while learning to perform, so maybe the next thing is to learn how to do it with a bit more subtlety.
> 
> Thanks!


I was referring to the vibrato being exaggerated, not the dynamics. With the issue around 0:35, you've certainly made the appropriate artistic choice with bowed legato in this context, but it sounds like it simply can't keep up.


----------



## star.keys

This legato issue at medium/fast speed is really annoying. Ended up deleting this library from my SSD. Life is short and precious. No time to waste on libraries that don't deliver. Learnt a lesson yet again. Will not buy anything in good faith going forward.


----------



## star.keys

christianhenson said:


> For what it is worth (I often say I'm putting on my composer hat, but I am clearly and massively biassed) this is my favourite library we have made to-date. Why?
> 
> • Well its great to have a solo strings library that really works with my workflow, so for me price of entry is the 50/50 patches where the player starts senza vib and then introduces it just like EVERY player does when they're playing soloistically! (seems that isn't a word?) Bang its in a patch, performed live and real and lovely and boom instant soloistic strings in an ever increasing heartbeat.
> 
> • It has the depth of the chamber and symphonic strings so you can add detail and "front desk up" these libraries or simply take the arrangements you have made in these libs and transfer them solo strings for more intimate and emotional moments.
> 
> • Chamber strings still sound massive... OK so blue in the face, if you grab a patch from SCS you will probably be playing up to 4 players, 20 mics, one hall.... you play two notes you're playing 8,40 & two halls... so simple four part is going to be 24, 80 and four halls..... But play the ensembles patches, maybe 10/60/3 per note? 4 part = 40 players, 240 mics and 12 halls = MASSIVE! So by approaching solo strings as a super small chamber band you finally have that awesome emotional but incredibly intimate chamber sound recorded in the hall.
> 
> • The legatos are excellent and do what you want them to do for a solo strings library. This was always a given with this library but again THIS LIBRARY IS SOOOOOO MUCH MORE... just think of it as another chapter of our pro-end symphonics vs chambers, woods and brass libs. The legatos update the previous solo strings experience to a new level... but thats where this library as an update to the legacy version ends!
> 
> • 3 violins is defo better than one from really virtuosic, to front chair to *the secret sauce of this library the additional techniques by our progressive player*. So you have a deeply versatile library that isn't instantly coloured by a single leader.
> 
> • Viola.... best viola sample yet, hands down (but also IMHO).
> 
> • Leon Bosch has given us the most extraordinary selection of solo bass samples ever made, I fear for bass players round the world now that Bosch has given this encyclopaedia of totally impossible techniques to the world!
> 
> • Oh.... and have I mentioned the flautandos?
> 
> gnngngngnnngggnnngg
> 
> Much love.
> 
> C. x



This smart post that "wears a composer hat" is what led me into buying this library. Lesson learnt - I ignored who's wearing which hat at what point in time


----------



## B.Karloff

ism said:


> Still just playing around with this library, and here is, well, not so much a 'composition' as a 'ham-fisted noodling' as I try to get the hang of the legatos (here the Va + Vc). I though I'd share it not because I think it has any particular musical value, but because I think a very raw demo of the legato might be helpful.
> 
> The cello here is a one take improvisation, and the viola is just a bit of noodling over it, so, not exactly Elgar:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But a few thoughts:
> 
> 1. The three legato types can be used to great effect. But in order to take advantage of this in a live performance I found it necessary to change the velocity thresholds (to 0-30 , 31 - 85 and 86 - 127; could just be my keyboard that last lacks sensitivity for the default values to work). And especially with the cello you can really use the 3 legato types to get just an almost physical sense of the presence of the instrument. And with the velocity ranges tweaked I've found it very playable.
> 
> 2. The dynamics behave quite differently from any other library I have. In particularly it really pays to be aware of where the boundary of the p - mf layers lives. My early attempts at treating this like any other vst resulted in some truly terrible sounds. You can't just imagine the mod wheel as a continuous pp - ff spectrum, you need to think in terms of the boundaries between layers and use this in your performance.
> 
> Once you get the hang of it however, there's some really lovely dynamic effects to be drawn out - which I think comes out in the above noodling. There were a few painful moments on the learning curve I'll admit, but its become a real joy to play.
> 
> 
> 3. I think this piece sounds just fine with the vibrato always on. For slower phrases, I have found attention to non-vib to vib transitions to become important in much the same way as attention to dynamic transitions requires a bit of care in this piece. But for a piece of this tempo and vibe, I think the vibrato sounds perfectly good as is.
> 
> 
> 4. It blends. It doesn't just mix well, but it actively plays well with others. And a solo strings library that simply plays well with others was my sine quo non in buying this library.
> 
> 
> Which is also, incidentally, probably why you wouldn't want to use it to write a concerto. If you're writing a violin concerto, say, you want your soloist to take up all the space right at the front of the mix and constantly assert its rightful place as the prima donna dominating everything and constantly using 12 types of legato. The last thing you want is for it to play nicely with the clarinets. You want to be constantly asserting dominance over the clarinet section.
> 
> But with this library, not only does the viola play well with the cello, they both play well with the clarinets. Not the sexiest feature of a library perhaps, but I've come to understand that for what I hope to write, 90% of the time this is actually the more valuable feature.
> 
> 
> 
> Lost still to learn - critique welcome.



Thank you for this demo. I think it is a nice demonstration of the partial strengths - but also significant shortcomings and limitations in terms of the usability of the long articulations of this library. I agree that just the "core tone" itself can be set to lush and beautiful if handled right - if the "dynamic" level is at a medium position in my experience and testing. Honestly I personally think that the continuous vibrato is annoyingly overused in your example, sorry. However the transitions of the long articulations in general, apart from the intentionally exaggerated separations in 0:35 are the factor which ruins the performance the most at least to my ears. There is this strange bump at the beginning of most of the notes followed by a short swell, like some kind of "pumping effect" in lack of a better description. As it noticeably repeats at more or less every note it sounds very static and fake in the course of the performance. I can only assume that this part might be implemented as Spitfire's take on the initial attack of the bow. However being surrounded by a real string quartet at my daily job I can tell you it really sounds different from this approach - a lot. These "bumps" don't usually happen in a real pro performance as - to my knowledge and experience - it is ideal to have an equal velocity throughout in the process of playing consecutive notes. This general rule applies both to fingered and bowed legato. The real player wants to create a smooth transition and glue the notes together unless they are supposed to accentuate particular notes. I have not found out yet if and how this annoying and fake sounding bump can be avoided in the louder dynamic ranges. I also found it to be present (if I remember correctly) in the Cello longs at a very low dynamic slider position. Now in that case the "bump" is completely uncalled for and makes no sense at all. Again I hope these thoughts serve as a constructive contribution in our discussion.


----------



## B.Karloff

star.keys said:


> This smart post that "wears a composer hat" is what led me into buying this library. Lesson learnt - I ignored who's wearing which hat at what point in time


Agreed, I got sold on that remark, too. I thought "well if he says these raving words from his expertise and angle as a user and composer with this excitement it MUST be great" 
However I think we would not have all this controversy going on here if they had not labeled it SOLO Strings to begin with. They mentioned misleading examples like "Schindler's List" and other naked virtuoso solo performances which apparently are simply not possible to realistically mock up with this lib. I think if they had labeled it "Contextual Solo Strings" or something like that most users would have been happy in general as it would have indicated the purpose, "applicability" AND also limitations right from the start.


----------



## Vik

They could have called it something else, but there must be around 40 solo string libraries out there, and I know many who think that very few of them, if any, generally can play back solo violin pieces in a believable way.
Solo violins are know to be difficult.

But maybe Single Violins would have a been better description. 

Also: They are meant to be used along with SSS/SCS as first chairs, therefore they need to handle fast runs the same way SCS and SSS do. If they don't do that now, it's Work In Progress.


----------



## Grilled Cheese

I find user demos to be very helpful, whether they are noodling or polished performances. I really look forward to hearing more of them, and also some comparison performances between different solo string libraries. This discussion is interesting but nothing tells the story better than musical results.


----------



## windshore

I've been working with the library since it was first available and am pretty pleased with it. It certainly does intimate chamber better than anything else I have. I ran into a few issues but SF has already promised an update soon. I'm a little concerned that fast lines are very difficult to make work. I'm still experimenting. Maybe combining articulations can work for some things.


----------



## ism

Some more noodling - actually a re-noodling on top of a section of the original noodling - but now with couple of violins, the SSW bass Clarinet and a touch of an Olafur Chamber evo. 




Again, really not a composition, more of what I think of as a colour wheel if anyone's a painter here - just mixing the raw colours to see what kind of palette we have before getting started in earnest. 

Critique welcome, as ever.


----------



## sostenuto

windshore said:


> I've been working with the library since it was first available and am pretty pleased with it. It certainly does intimate chamber better than anything else I have. I ran into a few issues but SF has already promised an update soon. I'm a little concerned that fast lines are very difficult to make work. I'm still experimenting. Maybe combining articulations can work for some things.



Well done ! This performance, and your '_intimate chambe_r' comment, have added enough impetus to make purchase comfortable. 
Was headed for very popular, current, chamber lib, but shifting to SF Solo Strings now feels like solid, longer-term move. THX


----------



## B.Karloff

windshore said:


> I've been working with the library since it was first available and am pretty pleased with it. It certainly does intimate chamber better than anything else I have. I ran into a few issues but SF has already promised an update soon. I'm a little concerned that fast lines are very difficult to make work. I'm still experimenting. Maybe combining articulations can work for some things.



A very nice chamber example! The various short articulations proove to be very usable! I can confirm this also in my own attempts. However things like the before mentioned bump/swell for example in the cello melody at 0:30 (and again at the repetition at 1:22) is the show stopper at least for me...


----------



## windshore

B.Karloff said:


> A very nice chamber example! The various short articulations proove to be very usable! I can confirm this also in my own attempts. However things like the before mentioned bump/swell for example in the cello melody at 0:30 (and again at the repetition at 1:22) is the show stopper at least for me...


Well there are several things that have made me change what i was going to write but the bump issue was not one of them. Probably the most significant is that legato (or even using a sustained patch) simply won't work even with eight notes at this kind of tempo.(160bpm) You can use a few 8ths in a row but if you have a line of 8ths or a arpeggiated pattern over a bar or two, the legato and sustained patches don't respond quickly enough and have a strange ringing quality. I've experimented with combining an a long and a staccato and other combos but nothing gets it.

Vibrato feels to be either on or off, which can still be fine but I noticed a volume change (I forget which patch.) when vibrato is engaged compared to when it's not. (I'm sure they'll address) It's also a bit tricky since the vibrato is super wide on a couple of patches so going from vibrato to sans is hard to make sound natural.

In spite of whatever shortcomings, I see this library as eminently useful & and a good investment especially knowing SF's history of improving their libs after they've been released. Certainly for those who own the other SF strings, this is a great tool for creating intimacy at a level that's really been impossible to up to this point.


----------



## GtrString

ism said:


> Some more noodling - actually a re-noodling on top of a section of the original noodling - but now with couple of violins, the SSW bass Clarinet and a touch of an Olafur Chamber evo.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Again, really not a composition, more of what I think of as a colour wheel if anyone's a painter here - just mixing the raw colours to see what kind of palette we have before getting started in earnest.
> 
> Critique welcome, as ever.




Nice test. Im aware that it requires quite a bit of work to get solo vi strings to sound natural and authentic. I seem to hear some volume drops in the legato transitions, that needs some levelling and perhaps attention in the arrangement. I wonder if the vibrato is adjustable, it sounds quite pronounced out of the box in this example?


----------



## Sid Francis

You probably did not read the 22 pages before?


----------



## Allen Constantine

Just to put this out there! Used Solo Strings in a contextual form, alongside Chamber Strings.



I believe that @christianhenson sees the endless possibilities by just going contextual?


----------



## N.Caffrey

AllenConstantine said:


> Just to put this out there! Used Solo Strings in a contextual form, alongside Chamber Strings.
> 
> 
> 
> I believe that @christianhenson sees the endless possibilities by just going contextual?




Nice one


----------



## Allen Constantine

N.Caffrey said:


> Nice one


Thanks! If we could only have a less abrupt vibrato curve and a virtuoso solo legato patch! :D


----------



## Alex Niedt

A non-contextual, legato-focused demo of Spitfire Solo Strings for the people...


----------



## playz123

Over the last number of days I’ve read many of the posts in this thread and to be honest some of them surprise me. I mean someone actually felt the library is so bad they deleted it from their hard drive? Wow! Because you see, I, on the other hand, feel this is one of the most satisfying and beautiful-sounding libraries Spitfire has ever released. So I guess, since I have a completely opposite view to some, I’ll avoid arguing with anyone about it here. Nor do I wish to spend time nitpicking one minor thing or the other. Instead, may I simply offer one small personal observation? I suggest that it should now be obvious that there are people who CAN take this library and create beautiful music with it and, like me, find inspiration and joy using it. Christian is, of course, one of those people…along with many others, and the user demos demonstrate. I suppose though I’m also someone who usually tries to focus on what a library can do…and this one can do a LOT, and if there is a minor glitch here or there, I simply learn how to work around it if possible. Amusing story: one time I wrote a line that had a note in it that wasn’t quite as perfect as it should have been, so I worked around it, changed the line slightly… and ended up preferring the workaround over the original.  So, perhaps even glitches can be beneficial on occasion?

It is also my humble opinion that Spitfire produces some of the best libraries there are, and yes, sometimes (as with all libraries) in the initial release there are one or two things that could be improved. And if they are serious enough, they usually are corrected in an update. And, in general, Spitfire’s libraries also continue to excel and advance and perform better than much of the competition. Love me or hate me for suggesting that, but that’s how I feel, and I have a LOT of libraries from a lot of developers. Anyway, I did feel I should post what I hope are a few positive comments about this release, and also take the opportunity to publicly offer a sincere “thank you” to Spitfire for another amazing release and the work they do for us. Finally, altering a line of former American president J.F. Kennedy, I suggest we also “Ask not what you library can do for you, but what you can do with your library!”  Cheers!


----------



## sostenuto

playz123 said:


> Over the last number of days I’ve read many of the posts in this thread and to be honest some of them surprise me. I mean someone actually felt the library is so bad they deleted it from their hard drive? Wow! Because you see, I, on the other hand, feel this is one of the most satisfying and beautiful-sounding libraries Spitfire has ever released.  Cheers!



I should not respond given my lower-level capabilities. Yet, I am very close to purchasing this Library, for all the reasons you state so effectively.
In the background, however, I work steadily (as pianist/organist) at studying and understanding related orchestral details. Some capable individuals have generously helped me progress, and specifically involving SOLO Strings.

Accepting all of your positive impressions and experiences, does SF_Solo Strings implement precisely, the expectations of *Solo *Strings?
I sure as heck do not know, but purchasing this product, to gain many other impressive capabilities, but NOT receive those results 'expected ' of Solo Strings, is a sincere concern. This is very much articulation-related, is it not?
I read the many Legato (and other) concerns, and am uncertain.

(edit) _OTOH …. $339. for superb content described is seems a solid purchase.
CH's (video) mention of Chamber Strings merits is one example._


----------



## ism

Alex Niedt said:


> A non-contextual, legato-focused demo of Spitfire Solo Strings for the people...





Wow, that is not only a wonderful little composition, but it really gets straight to the really visceral strengths of this library.

I'd love to study the midi of what you done there. I course I understand if you're not inclined to share it ... but if you would be inclined to share the midi (/logic) files ... ?

Regardless, a very nice piece.


----------



## ism

AllenConstantine said:


> Just to put this out there! Used Solo Strings in a contextual form, alongside Chamber Strings.
> 
> 
> 
> I believe that @christianhenson sees the endless possibilities by just going contextual?





I really like this also. It captures a different facet of the library from Alex's demo. More the ability to use the solo strings to great effect as a fine detail brush on a larger canvas. Very nice work.


----------



## playz123

sostenuto said:


> Accepting all of your positive impressions and experiences, does SF_Solo Strings implement precisely, the expectations of *Solo *Strings?
> I sure as heck do not know, but purchasing this product, to gain many other impressive capabilities, but NOT receive those results 'expected ' of Solo Strings, is a sincere concern. This is very much articulation-related, is it not?
> I read the many Legato (and other) concerns, and am uncertain.



IMHO, yes, the library certainly does meet the criteria for "solo strings", but whether it meets an individual's "expectations" is obviously a matter of opinion.  But one suggestion I have for you as you try to decide is to download the manual which is available at the Spitfire site and have a look, for example, at the Welcome page (excerpt shown below). I can also add that these strings stand very well on their own or with SCS and SSS, and with the flexibility the mics offer one can bring the soloist further towards the front if required. Re. legato, well that has been a subject for discussion, opinions vary, and it seems much centers around fast legato. Surprisingly that has not been my concern at all though and the legato has been great for what I've been doing so far. What I have to master yet is the vibrato control....but I'm getting there. Anyway hope those comments help, but certainly feel free to base any purchasing decision on comments others have offered as well, listen to the demos, watch the Spitfire videos, c/o the manual and hopefully ALL those things will help you make an informed decision. Cheers.

From the manual:
Our new solo violin can be played in three distinct modes 
and was performed by three distinctly different players: Vir-
tuoso, 1st Desk and Progressive, each containing not only 
their own range of articulations, but also a range of record-
ing locations in the hall and different styles of performance. 
Virtuoso, with a standing player, captures the sound of a 
sonata, or a featured soloist out in front of the orchestra 
performing in a ‘concerto’ style. 1st Desk was recorded on 
the front desk of the first violins, perfectly placed for adding 
individuality and definition to a string line, while still able to 
blend in with the section. 
Our “1st Desk” performer plays “out”, leading the orchestra. 
Our progressive player was recorded further away from the 
conductor, designed to fit into larger string sections, or of-
fer up solo passages in a more contemporary vernacular, 
opening the door to a modern, filmic sound of extended 
techniques including “Mandolin pizzicato” and “Tremolo 
whispers”.


----------



## sostenuto

playz123 said:


> IMHO, yes, the library certainly does meet the criteria for "solo strings", but whether it meets an individual's "expectations" is obviously a matter of opinion.  **** I can also add that these strings stand very well on their own or with SCS and SSS, and with the flexibility the mics offer one can bring the soloist further towards the front if required..**** Cheers.
> 
> From the manual:



Most helpful Reply *@ playz123* . Product Manuals have never been experienced in this context, and with this type of descriptive information. I respect and access many User Manuals, but have not taken advantage of these as a pre-sale tool ….. expecting mostly technical detail, lists of content, 'how to_Settings', etc. 
Your snippet clearly offers far more of what I need at this point.  

My aging ears are great for daily life, but definitely lacking at important higher frequencies. This reduces some key benefits of Walkthrough videos, audio demos, etc. My hardware is capable and I will follow thru with what is currently offered.

Thanks and regards


----------



## B.Karloff

playz123 said:


> IMHO, yes, the library certainly does meet the criteria for "solo strings", but whether it meets an individual's "expectations" is obviously a matter of opinion.  But one suggestion I have for you as you try to decide is to download the manual which is available at the Spitfire site and have a look, for example, at the Welcome page (excerpt shown below). I can also add that these strings stand very well on their own or with SCS and SSS, and with the flexibility the mics offer one can bring the soloist further towards the front if required. Re. legato, well that has been a subject for discussion, opinions vary, and it seems much centers around fast legato. Surprisingly that has not been my concern at all though and the legato has been great for what I've been doing so far. What I have to master yet is the vibrato control....but I'm getting there. Anyway hope those comments help, but certainly feel free to base any purchasing decision on comments others have offered as well, listen to the demos, watch the Spitfire videos, c/o the manual and hopefully ALL those things will help you make an informed decision. Cheers.
> 
> From the manual:
> Our new solo violin can be played in three distinct modes
> and was performed by three distinctly different players: Vir-
> tuoso, 1st Desk and Progressive, each containing not only
> their own range of articulations, but also a range of record-
> ing locations in the hall and different styles of performance.
> Virtuoso, with a standing player, captures the sound of a
> sonata, or a featured soloist out in front of the orchestra
> performing in a ‘concerto’ style. 1st Desk was recorded on
> the front desk of the first violins, perfectly placed for adding
> individuality and definition to a string line, while still able to
> blend in with the section.
> Our “1st Desk” performer plays “out”, leading the orchestra.
> Our progressive player was recorded further away from the
> conductor, designed to fit into larger string sections, or of-
> fer up solo passages in a more contemporary vernacular,
> opening the door to a modern, filmic sound of extended
> techniques including “Mandolin pizzicato” and “Tremolo
> whispers”.


I cannot see too many variations of opinions in this thread concerning the technical flaws of the legatos which should be designed to provide realistic transitions from note to note but actually don't. Most comments from users on this performance aspect did agree it is an issue that needs to be addressed and fixed. I do believe it is not a minor issue but significant and elementary. If you as an individual decide to downplay this issue as a simple matter of opinion you are ignoring the fact that the library in that regard is not producing any credible results in the majority of applications. Instead you choose to "work around" with what the library has to offer otherwise - still your choice! However you will exclude an elementary articulation of a real solo performance as a result. A real solo violin performance will have slow emotional lines but ALSO will consist from virtuoso passages. Consequently this is what I will expect from a Solo String library(which gets promoted as such in the marketing) as a very basic requirement. It would feel kind of awkward to me to avoid legato lines in my composition just because the library simply cannot deliver in that regard.


----------



## playz123

@ B. Karloff...I certainly respect your right to express your opinion, but also, with respect, I simply cannot agree with your harsh assessment of the legato either. And when I referred to workarounds in an earlier post, it was not directly in connection with legato, nor am I excluding or avoiding using legato. I hope that clarifies my statements. I have also read your earlier posts on this subject, and the pros and cons suggested by others as well, and my intention was to simply provide my own opinion.... with which others are free to agree or disagree. Cheers.


----------



## B.Karloff

playz123 said:


> @ B. Karloff...I certainly respect your right to express your opinion, but also, with respect, I simply cannot agree with your harsh assessment of the legato either. And when I referred to workarounds in an earlier post, it was not directly in connection with legato, nor am I excluding or avoiding using legato. I hope that clarifies my statements. I have also read your earlier posts on this subject, and the pros and cons suggested by others as well, and my intention was to simply provide my own opinion.... with which others are free to agree or disagree. Cheers.


Thank you for clarifying. Well, if you are not avoiding the legatos being able to use those with great realistic results I'd kindly like to ask you for an in depth description on HOW you do it. Simply because I have not been able to figure it out myself.


----------



## Alex Niedt

B.Karloff said:


> Thank you for clarifying. Well, if you are not avoiding the legatos being able to use those with great realistic results I'd kindly like to ask you for an in depth description on HOW you do it. Simply because I have not been able to figure it out myself.


Are you having trouble with the legatos altogether, or just on fast passages? If you have trouble with even the slower legato and find my demo (posted above) any better than what you're able to achieve, I'd be glad to describe how I work with it.



ism said:


> Wow, that is not only a wonderful little composition, but it really gets straight to the really visceral strengths of this library.
> 
> I'd love to study the midi of what you done there. I course I understand if you're not inclined to share it ... but if you would be inclined to share the midi (/logic) files ... ?
> 
> Regardless, a very nice piece.


Thank you very much! Do you have any particular things you'd like to know about how I handled the MIDI that I could simply explain here for the benefit of anyone interested?


----------



## Allen Constantine

ism said:


> I really like this also. It captures a different facet of the library from Alex's demo. More the ability to use the solo strings to great effect as a fine detail brush on a larger canvas. Very nice work.



Thank you so much for your kind comment! I think that, if you spend time with it, you can easily get the most out of it, but like I said, if they tweak the vibrato, making it more controllable and with a subtle curve, it could work quite good!


----------



## jononotbono

Alex Niedt said:


> A non-contextual, legato-focused demo of Spitfire Solo Strings for the people...




Sounds great man. Literally cannot wait till I can afford to buy this. Fancy doing a demo using it with SSS or SCS? That would be very interesting to hear!


----------



## procreative

playz123 said:


> Virtuoso, with a standing player, captures the sound of a
> sonata, or a featured soloist out in front of the orchestra performing in a ‘concerto’ style.



So the one player that is truly the soloist and leads the melody is the one without Legato?

It just doesn't make sense to me that the one player that is most likely to play more exposed lead parts is the one without ANY Legato.

A very odd production decision in my eyes...


----------



## B.Karloff

Alex Niedt said:


> Are you having trouble with the legatos altogether, or just on fast passages? If you have trouble with even the slower legato and find my demo (posted above) any better than what you're able to achieve, I'd be glad to describe how I work with it.
> 
> 
> Thank you very much! Do you have any particular things you'd like to know about how I handled the MIDI that I could simply explain here for the benefit of anyone interested?


Thanks for your offer. Maybe I don't understand the whole concept of the palettes. My main issues:1) the transitions in the longs in all the combined articulation palettes sound unnatural and tin like.(of course in the single articulation as well).
It does not matter if the tempo is slow or fast although it will get worse at faster tempos. Starting at low dynamics there is this "scratchy attack bump" in the beginning which sounds just fake to my ears. This will get more prominent and more disturbing as I increase the dynamic slider. How I can create a credible long legato line using the palette sounds of the respective violins and other instruments?
2)The (performance?) legatos are much better but it just sounds weird if I try to play a faster line no matter at which dynamic level. Also if I try a trill manually this will result in volume drop as if the engine cannot keep up with required speed. I agree that in a contextual placement this could probably all be hidden but again I would love to have a nice real SOLO performance.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]


----------



## Musicam

Help! Do you recommend me this library?  Fantastic library!


----------



## Pablocrespo

So, any more insight with this one?
I am still on the fence about upgrading, and I haven´t heard a single long legato lyrical line that shows what it can do...


----------



## Alex Niedt

Pablocrespo said:


> So, any more insight with this one?
> I am still on the fence about upgrading, and I haven´t heard a single long legato lyrical line that shows what it can do...


If my legato demo doesn't do it for you, could you post an example of exactly the type of thing you'd like to hear? Maybe someone could cook something up for you.


----------



## Pablocrespo

a long violin or cello line, your legato demo is beautiful, but I was thinking more of a Schindler´s List kind of melody.

I don´t think this library can handle something like JNH "the village" but that would be a good measure too.

Just long connected melodies playing solo.

Thanks!


----------



## Giscard Rasquin

GuitarG said:


> Couldn´t help myself to record a quick play along over the first part of the original Schindler´s list theme.
> This is using only the Violin Legato Patch using close and tree mics and a tad of Valhalla room
> The SsS Violin is panned hard left.
> Really having fun using this library, it sounds really good to my ears.
> Suppose the performance could be improved with some more detailed midi editing, but I hope I do it justice anyway
> 
> https://rcrft.co/reel/GiscardRasquin/SsSViolin




Hey Pablo,

Here’s me playing along with Schindler’s List with the SSS violin legato patch
Some people were asking for a stand-alone version, which I’ll try to upload in the next couple of days


----------



## Pablocrespo

Thanks, I have listened that and it sounds good! but I need something more exposed to make the choice before the presale ends.


----------



## Giscard Rasquin

Pablocrespo said:


> Thanks, I have listened that and it sounds good! but I need something more exposed to make the choice before the presale ends.



Got some free time in the next couple of days so should be able to upload that piece without the original recording. I’ll let you know when it’s online


----------



## Giscard Rasquin

So I´ve included now the SsS Violin legato recording on it´s own. As I mentioned before, this was a quick play along so I suppose it could benefit from some more detailed editing but I hope it´s gives an idea of how it sounds by itself. Bit of unfortunate timing at some points of the re-bowing which I tried to get rid of by playing softer but that didn´t seem to help so if somebody knows how to deal with that in a better way, I´m all ears!
Anyway, here it is:

https://rcrft.co/reel/GiscardRasquin/SsSViolin


----------



## prodigalson

B.Karloff said:


> Thanks for your offer. Maybe I don't understand the whole concept of the palettes. My main issues:1) the transitions in the longs in all the combined articulation palettes sound unnatural and tin like.(of course in the single articulation as well).
> It does not matter if the tempo is slow or fast although it will get worse at faster tempos. Starting at low dynamics there is this "scratchy attack bump" in the beginning which sounds just fake to my ears. This will get more prominent and more disturbing as I increase the dynamic slider. How I can create a credible long legato line using the palette sounds of the respective violins and other instruments?
> 2)The (performance?) legatos are much better but it just sounds weird if I try to play a faster line no matter at which dynamic level. Also if I try a trill manually this will result in volume drop as if the engine cannot keep up with required speed. I agree that in a contextual placement this could probably all be hidden but again I would love to have a nice real SOLO performance.


[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

Perhaps I'm misreading your post but are you trying to get legato transitions from the basic long articulations? You're not going to be able to get a credible long legato line (especially at fast tempos) if you're trying using articulations that don't have recorded transitions. 

With respect to the performance legatos (which ARE designed for legato lines) there is going to be a limit at which any library will fail. For example, I don't know of any solo library outside of sample modeling that can effectively perform a trill within a generic monophonic legato patch. That's why they have separately recorded trills.


----------



## procreative

prodigalson said:


> For example, I don't know of any solo library outside of sample modeling that can effectively perform a trill within a generic monophonic legato patch. That's why they have separately recorded trills.



Actually a certain other burnt wood named dev library named after a campanologist can do it.


----------



## quantum7

GuitarG said:


> Hey Pablo,
> 
> Here’s me playing along with Schindler’s List with the SSS violin legato patch
> Some people were asking for a stand-alone version, which I’ll try to upload in the next couple of days



I'm still not quite sold on the sound of SSS, as I like it with certain pieces, but others not so much. I just don't know which way to go with it, but regardless, great job on the piece.


----------



## ism

Alex Niedt said:


> Do you have any particular things you'd like to know about how I handled the MIDI that I could simply explain here for the benefit of anyone interested?



I've been thinking about this. And yes, any insight you'd care to share would be very welcome (up to and including an 15 hour scoreclub style lecture series on how to create compositions like that  )


Trying to be concrete, I'd love to hear your thoughts on managing the vibrato transitions, and what articulations you're using (sul pont?), how much you had to tweak the crossfades between the dynamic layers.

But in general, I think you've really hit a sweet spot of this library. This library has of course quite a number of sweet spots, but I think, for this particular sweet spot, you've perhaps managed to capture it more than anything else I've heard to date. 

So at risk of being a bit vague, I'd be interested if you might care to share insights on how you approached composition with regards to the inherent strengths of this library. You're mixing the longs and the legatos (to great effect). And managed to get a certain sweetness out the violin. And it all comes out as ... well more than the sum of its parts ... 

... as I said ... maybe that's a bit vague. But again, this is a library that repays investment in understanding its nuances (and conversely , is unforgiving to anyone who would just copy and paste midi data from the internet). And I think its unlikely that you've got that quality of result by just written on paper and transcribed it into Sibelius without any though to the nuances of the library .. 

.. so basically any insight you'd care to share would be very welcome. 


Although maybe we could start a new thread to focus on this kind of nuance over the more general conversation?

Thanks!


----------



## ism

Crossposting from the new BDT thread, another bit of noodling...

The point here being to see how well SsS servers at adding some fine detail to more textural/ambient background layer. The uses 4 solo violin patches here, 1 from BDT, the rest from SsS, and occasional bits of Tundra and Olafur Chamber evos.



And I think I would conclude from this experiment that a real sweet spot of SsS is the kind of delicate, but well defined foreground layer - which can really rescue a composition that ,however gorgeous it's textural soundscapes, risks descend into ambient mush. 

Add a touch of counterpoint in this layer and we're on the road the chamber music end of the neoclassic spectrum. And that is where I really expect things to get interesting.


----------



## sostenuto

'New Thread' _ Hope not, as this has been instructive and helpful. Now just past Intro price deadline. 
Even as neophyte in orchestral domain, this has been a perplexing SF product, with notable strengths, and specific 'weaknesses' for some capable Users. 
Quite surprised, and will now wait for expected updates and 2018 holiday promotions. Focus is on Solo, and permanent deletion of its predecessor.
I was so anticipating this product and now in a sort of limbo …..


----------



## windyweekend

Even with the few shortcomings some folks have mentioned and the sale deadline over, I might still take the plunge on this shortly if only for the Air-factor. Though Sacconni is beautifully sampled, I've never been able to get it to fit well on top of the other SSO libs because of the Wigmore sound (plus this price point is much better than what I paid for Sacconi - not sure why this one is so much cheaper but I'll leave that economical conundrum in Senior Thomson's head). You simply can't beat a bit of Lyndhurst.


----------



## lp59burst

sostenuto said:


> 'New Thread' _ Hope not, as this has been instructive and helpful. Now just past Intro price deadline.
> Even as neophyte in orchestral domain, this has been a perplexing SF product, with notable strengths, and specific 'weaknesses' for some capable Users.
> Quite surprised, and will now wait for expected updates and 2018 holiday promotions. Focus is on Solo, and permanent deletion of its predecessor.
> I was so anticipating this product and now in a sort of limbo …..


^^^ What he said... 

I'm all in with Spitfire products but this one just seems a bit more of a challenge to tame than my skills can muster at this time... 

we'll see what the Holiday season brings...


----------



## B.Karloff

[/QUOTE]

_"Perhaps I'm misreading your post but are you trying to get legato transitions from the basic long articulations? You're not going to be able to get a credible long legato line (especially at fast tempos) if you're trying using articulations that don't have recorded transitions.

With respect to the performance legatos (which ARE designed for legato lines) there is going to be a limit at which any library will fail. For example, I don't know of any solo library outside of sample modeling that can effectively perform a trill within a generic monophonic legato patch. That's why they have separately recorded trills."_


Sorry to reply a little delayed...I think I understand what you're saying. The longs are just longs with NO script for inserting any recorded transitions which on the other hand DO get utilized in the performance legatos.
Now my question is: what is the use of these "raw" long articulations if I cannot play consecutive long notes which have convincing transition connections?
Shouldn't then there be a performance legato for that purpose for EVERY instrument including the bass? Maybe I'm missing something again, any clarification would be appreciated.


----------



## prodigalson

B.Karloff said:


> Sorry to reply a little delayed...I think I understand what you're saying. The longs are just longs with NO script for inserting any recorded transitions which on the other hand DO get utilized in the performance legatos.
> Now my question is: what is the use of these "raw" long articulations if I cannot play consecutive long notes which have convincing transition connections?
> Shouldn't then there be a performance legato for that purpose for EVERY instrument including the bass? Maybe I'm missing something again, any clarification would be appreciated.



well there are a variety of reasons to use basic long articulations. 1) instruments with prerecorded transitions are more resource hungry so in large templates having every long articulation be "true legato" would be undesirable and unrealistic. 2) In many cases, when writing less polyphonic or intricate music a patch that is not monophonic and can be played more than one note at a time is more desirable. 3) this is arguable but many composers don't believe true legato is all it's hyped up to be. 

With regard to your second question, I believe SF simply decided true legato on the bass was less necessary than on the other instruments. With bass, basic long articulations can get you far enough.


----------



## rocking.xmas.man

you don't have to have legato transitions in order to Play legato - in many cases no Transition is better than a not convincing transition. you just have to know how to make best use of the dynamic crosfading since the attacks in lower dynamic layers are less sudden and hard. There are no Performance legatos in Spitfire solo strings. there only are legato Patches with Velocity switched Transition types. These should be used with care - you don't want the Portamento too often and in many cases the fingered legato might not match the required Speed for quicker melodies. Spitfire never did scripted legato, only true legato which they decided not to do on every Instrument for every Long articulation. If I am not mistaken 'Performance legato' Patches in the Spitfire universe mean that there is Kind-of-intelligent switching even to short articulations and timestretching legato transitions, but I'm not shure About that since I don't have any library that includes Performance legatos. In order to get a convincing expressive solo line you are supposed to switch between different articulations anyway. that's been the case since forever and that won't be changing anytime soon with the Kinds of libraries in which you can Control almost anything with midi CCs.


----------



## B.Karloff

prodigalson said:


> well there are a variety of reasons to use basic long articulations. 1) instruments with prerecorded transitions are more resource hungry so in large templates having every long articulation be "true legato" would be undesirable and unrealistic. 2) In many cases, when writing less polyphonic or intricate music a patch that is not monophonic and can be played more than one note at a time is more desirable. 3) this is arguable but many composers don't believe true legato is all it's hyped up to be.
> 
> With regard to your second question, I believe SF simply decided true legato on the bass was less necessary than on the other instruments. With bass, basic long articulations can get you far enough.


Thank you for taking the time in elaborating on my concerns. Regarding 1) I agree that this used to be a valid argument. However does this really matter these days as modern computers have a lot of processing power resources? 2) As the declared purpose of the library is literally promoted to be "Solo" Strings and also is marketed as the right tool for quartet writing I would see the main intention and application as just this: for POLYphonic writing! Therefore the capability of playing a polyphonic arrangement with realistic legato lines is crucial and should be considered the foremost task of the SOLO String library. The application of playing a homophonic patch might be an add on goodie but is kind of odd in that regard as would be certainly be no quartet instrumentation anymore. I hope you agree. Just talking in terms of realism here. 3) I don't care what other composers say if my ears tell me different. I'm a string player and part of a string section myself. The important aspects again are sound AND realism. If the core sound is right but the big throw off is the transition it will ruin the overall performance anyway. Thanks again.


----------



## prodigalson

B.Karloff said:


> Thank you for taking the time in elaborating on my concerns. Regarding 1) I agree that this used to be a valid argument. However does this really matter these days as modern computers have a lot of processing power resources? 2) As the declared purpose of the library is literally promoted to be "Solo" Strings and also is marketed as the right tool for quartet writing I would see the main intention and application as just this: for POLYphonic writing! Therefore the capability of playing a polyphonic arrangement with realistic legato lines is crucial and should be considered the foremost task of the SOLO String library. The application of playing a homophonic patch might be an add on goodie but is kind of odd in that regard as would be certainly be no quartet instrumentation anymore. I hope you agree. Just talking in terms of realism here. 3) I don't care what other composers say if my ears tell me different. I'm a string player and part of a string section myself. The important aspects again are sound AND realism. If the core sound is right but the big throw off is the transition it will ruin the overall performance anyway. Thanks again.



I think you misunderstood my post to be some kind of challenge or criticism. I wasn't trying to engage in an argument or challenge your views with respect to this specific library. I was simply trying to ascertain whether you were trying to get legato transitions from articulations that don't have them (which it seems like you were). And then simply answering your question about why someone would want an articulation that doesn't have legato transitions in the first place on a more general level, not specifically with respect to this library. 

Though I will disagree with your last post on two general points 1) yes, the question of resources is still valid even with modern day computing power, though of course this depends on the size of your template. SF are not just catering to those with i9 12-core, 128GB RAM systems. 2) IMO, using a basic long patch to improvise and sketch a quartet does not in and of itself rule out the possibility of polyphonic, idiomatic quartet writing. And it is a perfectly valid and time-tested way of composing just like many revered composers sitting down at a piano to write a string quartet. AGAIN, I'm not suggesting that you should be happy with the basic longs as a way of executing intricate, polyphonic writing in your final version. There are legato patches for that (though you may not be pleased with them). I'm just elaborating on why basic long articulations without transitions are a worthwhile addition for a commercial sample library developer catering to a diverse customer base to add to even a solo strings library.


----------



## B.Karloff

prodigalson said:


> I think you misunderstood my post to be some kind of challenge or criticism. I wasn't trying to engage in an argument or challenge your views with respect to this specific library. I was simply trying to ascertain whether you were trying to get legato transitions from articulations that don't have them (which it seems like you were). And then simply answering your question about why someone would want an articulation that doesn't have legato transitions in the first place on a more general level, not specifically with respect to this library.
> 
> Though I will disagree with your last post on two general points 1) yes, the question of resources is still valid even with modern day computing power, though of course this depends on the size of your template. SF are not just catering to those with i9 12-core, 128GB RAM systems. 2) IMO, using a basic long patch to improvise and sketch a quartet does not in and of itself rule out the possibility of polyphonic, idiomatic quartet writing. And it is a perfectly valid and time-tested way of composing just like many revered composers sitting down at a piano to write a string quartet. AGAIN, I'm not suggesting that you should be happy with the basic longs as a way of executing intricate, polyphonic writing in your final version. There are legato patches for that (though you may not be pleased with them). I'm just elaborating on why basic long articulations without transitions are a worthwhile addition for a commercial sample library developer catering to a diverse customer base to add to even a solo strings library.


Thank you for your comment. @ 1) Of course I could not claim that the question of resources doesn't matter at all in general. It's always possible to get a system into overload if you try hard enough. Of course it will depend on the project's size which raises the question of how many instances of software samplers you think you need to express a musical idea...However for an average size mock up demo project with a reasonable amount of software and realtime processing requirements today's average computer systems ARE much more capable and solid. I only have a macbook pro with 16GB of RAM and I hardly ever get to the point where the system has to handle too much. 
@2) yes, I agree that's why I actually called the longs "add on goodies" myself. However I'd rather live without these goodies options if they had spent the time working to provide a legato patch for the bass instead. By the way the actual long bass sound is absolutely poor and thin. I have made a better sounding library myself with my Zoom Handheld Recorder. Full tone and vivid! This proves a non pro recording with just a few recorded core samples stretched into zones can outdo this high profile Spitfire product? Ridiculous.
In conclusion I'd prefer the "time tested" method to work with a simple piano sound if it's about constructing the functionalities of a polyphonic arrangement - instead of having to deal with blurring and irritating longs which don't do the real instruments's sound any justice.


----------



## B.Karloff

prodigalson said:


> well there are a variety of reasons to use basic long articulations. 1) instruments with prerecorded transitions are more resource hungry so in large templates having every long articulation be "true legato" would be undesirable and unrealistic. 2) In many cases, when writing less polyphonic or intricate music a patch that is not monophonic and can be played more than one note at a time is more desirable. 3) this is arguable but many composers don't believe true legato is all it's hyped up to be.
> 
> With regard to your second question, I believe SF simply decided true legato on the bass was less necessary than on the other instruments. With bass, basic long articulations can get you far enough.


If SF decided that a realistic representation of the bass was less important for this library they should have completely stayed away from the bass department in my opinion. The bass longs sound cheap, nasal and poor. I wonder how the high profile bass player they recorded these samples with feels about this and if he feels represented well. All I can say is that these basic long articulations will not get me anywhere.


----------



## Alex Niedt

B.Karloff said:


> If SF decided that a realistic representation of the bass was less important for this library they should have completely stayed away from the bass department in my opinion. The bass longs sound cheap, nasal and poor. I wonder how the high profile bass player they recorded these samples with feels about this and if he feels represented well. All I can say is that these basic long articulations will not get me anywhere.


I make pretty quiet stuff, and I find the bass flautandos quite nice, though I did switch to them after struggling with the tone of the other longs.


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> No problem! I have reproduced the issue, so you're right that there's no need to create a ticket now. Do bear in mind though (and this applies to anyone on VI-Control) that just because it's been reported on a forum, it doesn't mean we're aware and looking into it - there's sometimes a "bystander effect" on forums (or in software usage generally actually) where everyone assumes that someone else reported it.
> 
> If you find an issue, do please let us know - if nothing else, when we have two or more issues of seemingly similar priority, the one with the most reports will be looked at first.
> 
> Ben


Hello Ben, I noticed there has been a release of an update for SOLO Strings (Version 1.0b30) available for download. Could you please list the issues which have been addressed? Please let us know.


----------



## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Hello Ben, I noticed there has been a release of an update for SOLO Strings (Version 1.0b30) available for download. Could you please list the issues which have been addressed? Please let us know.



Hi there, we don't publish a full list of the issues that are fixed but examples include - Bowed transitions now trigger at a lower velocity, Violin (progressive) missing tremolo harmonics icon replaced, Cello long sul pont had a range of notes that had a noise on the attack that has been removed.


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi there, we don't publish a full list of the issues that are fixed but examples include - Bowed transitions now trigger at a lower velocity, Violin (progressive) missing tremolo harmonics icon replaced, Cello long sul pont had a range of notes that had a noise on the attack that has been removed.


Hello Ben, thank you informing us. That is very valuable to know. From this I conclude that the missing close mic position in the "Progressive Violin long" has not been addressed yet, is that correct? Thanks again!


----------



## holywilly

I really wish Spitfire Audio provides release notes for every library update.


----------



## B.Karloff

holywilly said:


> I really wish Spitfire Audio provides release notes for every library update.


I agree that this would certainly help...


----------



## Grégory Betton

B.Karloff said:


> I agree that this would certainly help...


+1


----------



## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Hello Ben, thank you informing us. That is very valuable to know. From this I conclude that the missing close mic position in the "Progressive Violin long" has not been addressed yet, is that correct? Thanks again!



I'm checking with the production team on this one, thanks.


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> I'm checking with the production team on this one, thanks.


Awesome! Thanks for your support here!
Actually I still cannot notice any change in the close mic position after installing the update. If you check with your production team it would be great to know when they intend to fix the issue.
Thanks again!


----------



## Pablocrespo

Is it safe to do a batch resave now?


----------



## B.Karloff

Pablocrespo said:


> Is it safe to do a batch resave now?


It has been safe since the first revision of the library.


----------



## Pablocrespo

Great! thanks!


----------



## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Actually I still cannot notice any change in the close mic position after installing the update. If you check with your production team it would be great to know when they intend to fix the issue.



We released an update this morning that should fix the issue for you. If you have any trouble at all, please contact us at spitfireaudio.com/support

Ben


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> We released an update this morning that should fix the issue for you. If you have any trouble at all, please contact us at spitfireaudio.com/support
> 
> Ben


Hi Ben, thank you for letting us know here! 
I wonder about the following: on downloading the update into my originally assigned Spitfire Download folder - which is still containing the latest and complete version of Solo Strings - the only option I can see is to download the entire library of 39,83 GB.
Is that really meant that way? I assumed the update fixing that one "close mic missing" issue would be way smaller.
Or should I have just clicked "refresh libraries" (in "Account"")? 
Thanks for clarifying in advance!


----------



## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Hi Ben, thank you for letting us know here!
> I wonder about the following: on downloading the update into my originally assigned Spitfire Download folder - which is still containing the latest and complete version of Solo Strings - the only option I can see is to download the entire library of 39,83 GB.
> Is that really meant that way? I assumed the update fixing that one "close mic missing" issue would be way smaller.
> Or should I have just clicked "refresh libraries" (in "Account"")?
> Thanks for clarifying in advance!



We'd have to check your account to make sure, it's possible that the whole library got reset which means that you will download the whole thing. To resolve this and just download the update, please contact our support team at spitfireaudio.com/support


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> We'd have to check your account to make sure, it's possible that the whole library got reset which means that you will download the whole thing. To resolve this and just download the update, please contact our support team at spitfireaudio.com/support


Thanks for the info!


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> We'd have to check your account to make sure, it's possible that the whole library got reset which means that you will download the whole thing. To resolve this and just download the update, please contact our support team at spitfireaudio.com/support


I'm sorry but I have to ask just for basic clarification:
whenever I applied the "Reset Download" option in the SA Download app for a particular library it will then permanently only offer the _*complete*_ download from then on in the future? No "update only" no more unless SF support will resolve/reset this?


----------



## Pablocrespo

Wow, that new total performance virtuoso sounds great! (I usually voice my negative concerns, I know, I know)

But it is a great step forward!

Now, the elephant in the room, can we hope for a total performance cello? please please please?


----------



## Will Wilson

WOW WOW WOW


----------



## JF

The master has done it again.


----------



## Grégory Betton

Can someone explain me how he could obtain so nice results (apart from talent)? I see a lot of overlapping midi notes. Is it some secret for creating a nice legato? I bet there must be some edit, no?


----------



## Emmanuel Rousseau

Grégory Betton said:


> Can someone explain me how he could obtain so nice results (apart from talent)? I see a lot of overlapping midi notes. Is it some secret for creating a nice legato? I bet there must be some edit, no?



When I look at his MIDI, I just see someone who plays everything by hand (all the overlapping notes scream that). I'm afraid there is no secret apart from extraordinary talent !


----------



## rottoy

Will Wilson said:


> WOW WOW WOW



_Just finished writing a piece with samples, sees there's a new Andy Blaney piece up_


----------



## prodigalson

Anyone else having any CPU issues with the new total performance patch? one note and my poor CPU is instantly begging for mercy.

iMac i7 quad core
Streaming from a Samsung T5 SSD,
Logic Pro 10.4.1
512 buffer

No patch I have has brought my computer to it's knees as fast.


----------



## jononotbono

rottoy said:


> _Just finished writing a piece with samples, sees there's a new Andy Blaney piece up_



I can't wait till I have the money to get this Strings library. I also can't wait until the day where I can make 2 notes sound as good as Andy Blaney haha!


----------



## fixxer49

Pablocrespo said:


> Wow, that new total performance virtuoso sounds great! (I usually voice my negative concerns, I know, I know)
> But it is a great step forward!



agreed! very happy they've done this update. i hope they don't stop here and carry it over to the other instruments in the lib...


----------



## Francis Bourre

Such a nice step forward, thank you Spitfire for this update!


Spitfire Team said:


> ​


​


----------



## SpitfireSupport

prodigalson said:


> Anyone else having any CPU issues with the new total performance patch? one note and my poor CPU is instantly begging for mercy.
> 
> iMac i7 quad core
> Streaming from a Samsung T5 SSD,
> Logic Pro 10.4.1
> 512 buffer
> 
> No patch I have has brought my computer to it's knees as fast.


Hi there, this patch is certainly a little more CPU intensive due to the many different things happening under the hood. Have you unchecked 'Utilise TM'? That may help!

Luke


----------



## LamaRose

Nice. Also wondering if they're going to update the viola & cello.


----------



## jononotbono

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi there, this patch is certainly a little more CPU intensive due to the many different things happening under the hood. Have you unchecked 'Utilise TM'? That may help!
> 
> Luke



May I ask what Andy Blaney's Keyboard controller of choice is? Obviously these performance patches rely on different velocities when playing and his must be at least semi decent to be able to perform this stuff. I'm on the hunt for a new controller as mine is horrendous and just thought I'd ask. Thanks.


----------



## artomatic

Very well done, Andy and the Spitfire team!


----------



## prodigalson

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi there, this patch is certainly a little more CPU intensive due to the many different things happening under the hood. Have you unchecked 'Utilise TM'? That may help!
> 
> Luke



Yes! that helped a lot. thanks. am I losing any functionality within the patch by disabling TM? Is it necessary to get optimum results with this patch?


----------



## ism

As fantastic as Andy's demos is, like many of his demos, it's really hitting the harsh and fiery dynamics. 

Which is great, but my first impression of the new legato is just how sweet it is. The 1st chair legato has this wonderful, slightly impolite, textural quality, especially at low dynamics. This one, especially if you reign in the dynamics a bit and vary the vibrato a lot, plays much more sweetly and smooth. Which, in addition to the fast legato, was something I was missing in this library.


And *now* that Arvo Part reference in the marketing blurb makes sense.


I am seeing CPU at 10% for a single note, spiking at 40% for multiple notes (with two mics), so that's going to limit its usefulness. So wishlist: a non performance legato version of this.


Fabulous update!


----------



## prodigalson

Im just so impressed with this patch. Incorporating the trills performances and progressive vibrato and what Im assuming is sul tasto for the lower dynamics is just so clever and well executed. A huge step forward in programming from SFA. 

I echo a need for the same patch for Cello and Viola!!


----------



## Ned Bouhalassa

Downloaded, installed, played: WOW! This is uber cool, so immediately musical, user friendly. It takes a bit of practice though, like all good instruments, but I can already tell I will use it a lot! I really like the fake mute option as well, very useful when writing under dialogue.


----------



## dogdad

Thank you Spitfire! What a nice surprise! Just had a few min to try it out and... Beautiful! Thank you!


----------



## SpitfireSupport

jononotbono said:


> May I ask what Andy Blaney's Keyboard controller of choice is? Obviously these performance patches rely on different velocities when playing and his must be at least semi decent to be able to perform this stuff. I'm on the hunt for a new controller as mine is horrendous and just thought I'd ask. Thanks.


Hey Luke, Andy uses a Fatar/Studio Logic Numa, but mentions that any weighted keyboard would suffice.


----------



## CT

Wow, this is a hell of a reminder why I've decided to put most of my eggs in the Spitfire basket.


----------



## SpitfireSupport

prodigalson said:


> Yes! that helped a lot. thanks. am I losing any functionality within the patch by disabling TM? Is it necessary to get optimum results with this patch?


Not at all! We've updated the user manual here with some more information in regards to this patch. Page 12 is what you're looking for.

Luke


----------



## jamwerks

Sold!


----------



## jononotbono

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hey Luke, Andy uses a Fatar/Studio Logic Numa, but mentions that any weighted keyboard would suffice.



Funny, I've been eyeing up the Studio Logic Grand. Thanks and sorry to slightly derail the thread. Library sounds amazing.


----------



## procreative

Pity developers don't give some hints about potential updates during promo periods!


----------



## ism

SpitfireSupport said:


> Not at all! We've updated the user manual here with some more information in regards to this patch. Page 12 is what you're looking for.
> 
> Luke



Thanks - the new manual is very helpful.

There so much going on here though - some really brilliant scripting I have to say, especially on the vibrato. I wonder if you could clarify a few things:


1. "five different types of true legato: Portamento Legato, Fingered Legato, Bowed Legato, Runs and Arpeggios"

Q: what's the difference between runs and arpeggios? Are arpeggios different from the fast legatos (as seems to be implied)? Are these 5 legatos conceived differently from Sacconi?


2. "Molto Vibrato - Within the range 65-127, an intense vibrato is triggered which is exaggerated above 75."

Q: I'm trying to figure out what exactly is going on here (and what might be the impact of turning off time machine, since it's immensely expensive). Are there two different recordings of molto (c21 ~ 65-74) and extra-molto vibrato (75-127), or is time machine at work, or is it a script (in the style of, for instance, embertone)? Or is the idea that you can crossfade during a performance?


UPDATE: oh, here's the answer right in the manual: "1b: Utilise TM increases the vibrato rate above 75. Turn this off if your CPU is struggling. "

I was wondering how that was done, it sounded too good to be scripted.


3. "Progressive Vibrato - Within the range 33-64, the player begins the note without vibrato and progresses into vibrato. Depending on the note velocity, the player’s progression to vibrato will be slow or fast. Lower velocities, 1-9, trigger a slow progression to vibrato, and high velocities, 10-127 trigger quick progressions. "


Q: Now this is an immensely cool feature. Similar question though - is this where the time machine is being used? Or are there separate recordings of faster and slower progressive vibrato?



4. "Staccato and Spiccato

With CC21 set to 6-127 spiccatos feature as a short attack, whilst staccatos can be found at CC21, 1-5. The Velocity of these short notes then determines the nature of the note attack.

Attacks: Vel 1-9 natural attack
(CC21: 1-5) Vel 10-127 Staccato 4x RR pp, mf, & ‘noise’
(CC21: 6-127) Vel 10-127 Spiccato 8x RR pp, mf, & ‘noise’.


Q: Is there any way to alter the 1-9 velocity range of a natural attack. I think my keyboard just isn't sensitive enough to make hitting this range reliably, so this is a very major niggle.

In fact I'd go so far as to say that the added playability of the staccato comes at

Similarly for the progressive legato which is sensitive to a 1-9 velocity.

Alternately, it would be nice to just turn off the staccato feature entirely in some circumstances. Especially if this is where time machine is hitting the CPU.


Thanks!


----------



## Geoff Grace

This is worth a look too:



Well done, Andy and Spitfire!

Best,

Geoff


----------



## ChrisSiuMusic

This blew me away. Seriously.


----------



## Pablocrespo

Yes, some sugestions


ism said:


> Thanks - the new manual is very helpful.
> 
> There so much going on here though - some really brilliant scripting I have to say, especially on the vibrato. I wonder if you could clarify a few things:
> 
> 
> 1. "five different types of true legato: Portamento Legato, Fingered Legato, Bowed Legato, Runs and Arpeggios"
> 
> Q: what's the difference between runs and arpeggios? Are arpeggios different from the fast legatos (as seems to be implied)? Are these 5 legatos conceived differently from Sacconi?
> 
> 
> 2. "Molto Vibrato - Within the range 65-127, an intense vibrato is triggered which is exaggerated above 75."
> 
> Q: I'm trying to figure out what exactly is going on here (and what might be the impact of turning off time machine, since it's immensely expensive). Are there two different recordings of molto (c21 ~ 65-74) and extra-molto vibrato (75-127), or is time machine at work, or is it a script (in the style of, for instance, embertone)? Or is the idea that you can crossfade during a performance?
> 
> 
> UPDATE: oh, here's the answer right in the manual: "1b: Utilise TM increases the vibrato rate above 75. Turn this off if your CPU is struggling. "
> 
> I was wondering how that was done, it sounded too good to be scripted.
> 
> 
> 3. "Progressive Vibrato - Within the range 33-64, the player begins the note without vibrato and progresses into vibrato. Depending on the note velocity, the player’s progression to vibrato will be slow or fast. Lower velocities, 1-9, trigger a slow progression to vibrato, and high velocities, 10-127 trigger quick progressions. "
> 
> 
> Q: Now this is an immensely cool feature. Similar question though - is this where the time machine is being used? Or are there separate recordings of faster and slower progressive vibrato?
> 
> 
> 
> 4. "Staccato and Spiccato
> 
> With CC21 set to 6-127 spiccatos feature as a short attack, whilst staccatos can be found at CC21, 1-5. The Velocity of these short notes then determines the nature of the note attack.
> 
> Attacks: Vel 1-9 natural attack
> (CC21: 1-5) Vel 10-127 Staccato 4x RR pp, mf, & ‘noise’
> (CC21: 6-127) Vel 10-127 Spiccato 8x RR pp, mf, & ‘noise’.
> 
> 
> Q: Is there any way to alter the 1-9 velocity range of a natural attack. I think my keyboard just isn't sensitive enough to make hitting this range reliably, so this is a very major niggle.
> 
> In fact I'd go so far as to say that the added playability of the staccato comes at
> 
> Similarly for the progressive legato which is sensitive to a 1-9 velocity.
> 
> Alternately, it would be nice to just turn off the staccato feature entirely in some circumstances. Especially if this is where time machine is hitting the CPU.
> 
> 
> Thanks!



Yes, I wish they could make a patch that has the lower velocity limit a little higher, I cannot seem to trigger an attack without the staccato and the slow progressive vibrato with my keyboard

5 and 9 velocity limits are too low for my keyboard. I was told I cannot change this parameters, so maybe spitfire could make a crappy controller patch to download with those variables adjusted?

That said, this is gorgeous, so, when are we getting that performance cello?


----------



## Karma

ism said:


> Thanks - the new manual is very helpful.
> 
> There so much going on here though - some really brilliant scripting I have to say, especially on the vibrato. I wonder if you could clarify a few things:
> 
> 
> 1. "five different types of true legato: Portamento Legato, Fingered Legato, Bowed Legato, Runs and Arpeggios"
> 
> Q: what's the difference between runs and arpeggios? Are arpeggios different from the fast legatos (as seems to be implied)? Are these 5 legatos conceived differently from Sacconi?
> 
> 
> 2. "Molto Vibrato - Within the range 65-127, an intense vibrato is triggered which is exaggerated above 75."
> 
> Q: I'm trying to figure out what exactly is going on here (and what might be the impact of turning off time machine, since it's immensely expensive). Are there two different recordings of molto (c21 ~ 65-74) and extra-molto vibrato (75-127), or is time machine at work, or is it a script (in the style of, for instance, embertone)? Or is the idea that you can crossfade during a performance?
> 
> 
> UPDATE: oh, here's the answer right in the manual: "1b: Utilise TM increases the vibrato rate above 75. Turn this off if your CPU is struggling. "
> 
> I was wondering how that was done, it sounded too good to be scripted.
> 
> 
> 3. "Progressive Vibrato - Within the range 33-64, the player begins the note without vibrato and progresses into vibrato. Depending on the note velocity, the player’s progression to vibrato will be slow or fast. Lower velocities, 1-9, trigger a slow progression to vibrato, and high velocities, 10-127 trigger quick progressions. "
> 
> 
> Q: Now this is an immensely cool feature. Similar question though - is this where the time machine is being used? Or are there separate recordings of faster and slower progressive vibrato?
> 
> 
> 
> 4. "Staccato and Spiccato
> 
> With CC21 set to 6-127 spiccatos feature as a short attack, whilst staccatos can be found at CC21, 1-5. The Velocity of these short notes then determines the nature of the note attack.
> 
> Attacks: Vel 1-9 natural attack
> (CC21: 1-5) Vel 10-127 Staccato 4x RR pp, mf, & ‘noise’
> (CC21: 6-127) Vel 10-127 Spiccato 8x RR pp, mf, & ‘noise’.
> 
> 
> Q: Is there any way to alter the 1-9 velocity range of a natural attack. I think my keyboard just isn't sensitive enough to make hitting this range reliably, so this is a very major niggle.
> 
> In fact I'd go so far as to say that the added playability of the staccato comes at
> 
> Similarly for the progressive legato which is sensitive to a 1-9 velocity.
> 
> Alternately, it would be nice to just turn off the staccato feature entirely in some circumstances. Especially if this is where time machine is hitting the CPU.
> 
> 
> Thanks!


Sorry to reply on my personal account here, I’m on the train home and thought I’d give you a quick answer:

1. It’s my understanding that arpeggios are the larger intervals - similar to what Paul is doing in the opening of his walkthrough.

2. Looks like you got this one!

3. Time machine does trigger here I believe actually - will confirm!

4. Currently this wouldn’t be possible I’m afraid, at least for now. Perhaps you could look to set up a custom velocity curve to reach the softer levels easier?

Hope that helps!


----------



## Geoff Grace

prodigalson said:


> I echo a need for the same patch for Cello and Viola!!


Yes, I will echo that as well! (I have a feeling this delay setting will be on infinite repeat.)

The viola as it stands is already probably the best available from any library. If a Virtuoso Total Performance patch were to be created for this as well, then it would be head and shoulders above any other sampled viola out there.

And of course, a Virtuoso Total Performance patch for the cello would probably be even more useful than one for the viola.

Best,

Geoff


----------



## Rob Elliott

Initially passed on this release with the gaping hole of a useable legato instrument. This is excellent and has largely changed my mind. One question - when (if) will this same clever scripting be applied to the other instruments (or can it without additional sampling.) I am especially interested in the cello having this.


----------



## prodigalson

I'd suggest everyone read the manual regarding this patch. It can do even more than what Paul mentions in the video. 

e.g. with vibrato set to progressive vibrato, different velocities trigger different speeds of progression. 

also while playing short notes, the vibrato control can determine whether you get a spiccato or a staccato.


----------



## Alex Fraser

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hey Luke, Andy uses a Fatar/Studio Logic Numa, but mentions that any weighted keyboard would suffice.


**The Golden Harpsichord**

_Scene: The Spitfire Audio offices, just after business hours. Sandy from support is clearing up the last messages of the day._

Sandy: Hey, Paul. Someone on VI control is asking what keyboard Andy uses.

Paul: Hmmn. OK, let's ask him. Come with me. And bring your laptop.

_Paul leads Sandy to the back of the Spitfire offices, down a staircase and to the end of a long corridor. They arrive at a large, locked door._

Sandy: I don't understand...

Paul: We keep Andy down here away from prying eyes. His talent is so immense, we don't want anyone else stealing him. Chris Hein tried to steal him once..

Sandy: (Looks worried.) So that's why no-one has ever...

_Paul unlocks the door and he enters with Sandy. Inside is a huge room, so opulent it makes Hans Zimmer's room look like a student dumpster. In the center of the room is a large leather chair - almost a throne. A man is seated in the chair, studying what appears to be an ancient music manuscript. The man is wearing silk robes and has his back to the door. His face is concealed by shadows._

Paul: Andy...Sandy. Sandy...Andy. Er, Andy. The proles on VI control wanted to know what keyboard you use to write music with. Could you tell us?

_The man in the chair lazily gestures to a large object in the corner of the room. _

Sandy: (Gasps.) That looks like a..a golden harpsichord...

Paul: Yep.

Sandy: That must have cost a huge amount of money..

Paul: Well, we don't give Spitfire libraries away for free. (Winks.) The internet commoners will never believe us though. Tell them Andy uses..anything. Make it up.

_Sandy spends a moment typing on his laptop and looks up to find Paul back in the doorway, about to shut the door.
_
Sandy: Hey..what...

Paul: Yeah...I think I've said too much. You'll enjoy it down here with Andy. He's good company. At least when he's not writing music.

Sandy: Wait...

Paul: I'll send Christian down with some snacks for you on Monday. If you're well behaved. (Laughs.)

_Paul slams the door. The sound echos down the corridor, drowning out the cries of terror._


----------



## muziksculp

Thanks to Spitfire for the Solo Violin Perfomance Patch update. Great improvements ! 

Would love it if they do the same to the Solo Cello, and Viola.


----------



## Vik

Geoff Grace said:


>



The tone is good, it's great with a more detailed control of the vibrato, and the legato sounds good too. Nice move!


----------



## Rob Elliott

Someone who has this - how is the 'stark' non-vibrato legato transitions sounding (at all xfade levels). For this present score I need a 'lyrical fiddle'. Me thinks this might cover that (be great if I could save a little cash on having to hire a live player for an already limited budget.)


----------



## ka00

muziksculp said:


> Would love it if they do the same to the Solo Cello, and Viola.



Heck, I’d love to see this in SSS, SStS and SCS Pro XS Max Plus Editions!


----------



## LamaRose

Comment/question to SF: It really helps to be able to adjust velocity level triggers to better accommodate personal playing styles and keyboard velocity curves... is this something you can include in this and other libraries like BDT?


----------



## rlw

I guess this will be on my Christmas List this year. Fantastic Demo and Fantastic Legato Features. Well done Spitfire.


----------



## B.Karloff

Apart from the great improvements with the Total Performance Patch:

Has anyone noticed that moving the mic position "close to far" slider does not work at all?

Coinciding the mic mix sliders (as one can see in the advanced view) will not change when moving the "close to far" slider on the "simple" view.
Can anyone confirm this issue or is it just me?


----------



## lp59burst

On my "Wish List"... waiting for 11/23... (or, 23/11 if you prefer...  )


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> No problem! I have reproduced the issue, so you're right that there's no need to create a ticket now. Do bear in mind though (and this applies to anyone on VI-Control) that just because it's been reported on a forum, it doesn't mean we're aware and looking into it - there's sometimes a "bystander effect" on forums (or in software usage generally actually) where everyone assumes that someone else reported it.
> 
> If you find an issue, do please let us know - if nothing else, when we have two or more issues of seemingly similar priority, the one with the most reports will be looked at first.
> 
> Ben


Hi Ben,
in regards to stuck mic positions (close>>far slider not working) the new Virtuoso Violin Performance seems to have the same issue like the Progressive longs had before.
Can you please verify and confirm?
Thank you!


----------



## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Hi Ben,
> in regards to stuck mic positions (close>>far slider not working) the new Virtuoso Violin Performance seems to have the same issue like the Progressive longs had before.
> Can you please verify and confirm?
> Thank you!



There seems to be an issue with the "easy mixer" on this patch which we will look into. It's different to the issue you reported last time in that the "expert mixer" works correctly. For the time being, please use the expert mixer, we'll try to get the easy mixer fixed ASAP.
Ben


----------



## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> There seems to be an issue with the "easy mixer" on this patch which we will look into. It's different to the issue you reported last time in that the "expert mixer" works correctly. For the time being, please use the expert mixer, we'll try to get the easy mixer fixed ASAP.
> Ben


Hi Ben,
thanks for your verifying reply and suggestion for a workaround using the "expert mixer". In the meantime I had spotted, too, that the expert mixer works just fine, it simply does not sync to the "easy mixer's" setting(or vice versa).
Thanks again!


----------



## Andy B

Thanks for the comments on the patch and demo. 

Hope those of you who are using the patch are enjoying it. For anyone wondering how I realised the violin part of the demo, I thought I'd post a link to a screen-flow we put together which details everything you need to know to control the patch – CC21 Vibrato Slider, CC1 Dynamics Slider & Velocity. Everything in the piece is dictated by these three controllers. All else happens as if by magic, thanks to some incredible scripting by the UK's Blake Robinson.

Thanks,

Andy.


----------



## Yannis Mouhoun

Incredible work (and by the way, Spitfire just proved everyone they do are listening to feedbacks, and do want to improve their existing librairies). Can we expect a similar patch with the cello ?


----------



## procreative

Once again Andy wows everyone with his mastery of composition and midi! You sir are a truly superb performer (not sure how to categorise your work as you seem to capture all bases, composition, dynamics, orchestration, midi programming.

Kudos to Spitfire for fighting back and pushing the envelope, I hope they can extend this to the other instruments in the package.

Owning Sable, this is the kind of Legato options I wished this had had from the start...


----------



## fahl5

Good News fropm Spitfire: The Demo for the new Virtuos-Patch after all sounds pretty satisfying , so there is a good chance ths Spitfire Solostrings will be soon in use here in larger projects..


----------



## noises on

Sounds fantastic....


----------



## SpitfireSupport

B.Karloff said:


> Hi Ben,
> thanks for your verifying reply and suggestion for a workaround using the "expert mixer". In the meantime I had spotted, too, that the expert mixer works just fine, it simply does not sync to the "easy mixer's" setting(or vice versa).
> Thanks again!



Hi, hot off the press, here's a patch that should fix the issue for you. Please don't delete the old patch in case you need it for any reason.


----------



## madfloyd

How's that for support!


----------



## ism

Thanks Luke. So just to clarify a little bit more.




Karma said:


> 1. It’s my understanding that arpeggios are the larger intervals - similar to what Paul is doing in the opening of his walkthrough.



This is very cool - and rewatching Andy's latest demo that I think I can see at least one point where must be using them.

Of course the real urgent question is: does this mean that it's now possible to mock up he solo violin in Part's Fratres?

More specifically - ie there any way we could get more insight into exactly what arpeggios have been recorded, their tempos and how they're triggered?





Pablocrespo said:


> Yes, some sugestions
> 
> 
> Yes, I wish they could make a patch that has the lower velocity limit a little higher, I cannot seem to trigger an attack without the staccato and the slow progressive vibrato with my keyboard
> 
> 5 and 9 velocity limits are too low for my keyboard. I was told I cannot change this parameters, so maybe spitfire could make a crappy controller patch to download with those variables adjusted?






Karma said:


> 4. Currently this wouldn’t be possible I’m afraid, at least for now. Perhaps you could look to set up a custom velocity curve to reach the softer levels easier?




So the duck tape fix is to set a custom velocity curve right in the Kontakt instrument and set all velocities 19 and below to zero. Which will affect both spicatto trigger, as well as the lowest progressive vibrato (which also triggers at 0-9). Going any higher than 19 would start to affect the legato trigger also. But so far as I can see from the manual, setting all velocities below 19 as 0 isn't going to have any further effects. That said, can't go much further than this without risking affecting the legato triggers.


I do see a larger issue though, for which a way to simply disable the spiactto triggers would be an easy win.

It's partly an issue of performance style: the sense I have from nearly all the legato demos is that they tend to use predominantly the high dynamics. Low dynamics are there occasionally, but almost (and this is subjective of course) as a type of contrast or punctuation to the primary predominantly high dynamic and fiercely high-classical aesthetic of the violin. This is of course very cool, and the spicatto trigger really add something to this style of playing.


That said, what I really love about SsS is the expressive dimensions you get when you reverse this - where playing is predominantly softer, and the high dynamics are used for emphasis and (especially) phrasing - again, all very subjective, but they really feel like different instruments when you play them like this (I'll post a couple of noodlings below).

In this style of playing, the staccato doesn't really add much, especially in the lower dynamics, and just adds a piece of unnecessary cognitive overhead to a performance. Of course you can adjust he velocities in the midi afterwards etc, but the damage to the playability is already done.




Easy fix: button to disable spicatto triggers.

Slightly more complicated fix: a way to disable spicatto triggers below a certain dynamic. (As it might still be nice to have the on the highest dynamic layer).

Thanks!


----------



## ism

I wanted, partially as a corrective, to share a couple of new noodlings. You might remember that I shared a couple earlier - and in my defence, they sounded pretty good to me at the time. Though in retrospect ... ouch. (The sin quo non of this library is that you absolutely *have* to use the vibrato)

In fact, I've come to understand the fundamental subtlety of this library lies in the very particular way it allows you to craft the phrasing via the dynamics and vibrato.

So here's some noodling - starts with the (old) first chair Vl, then Vc, Va:



If you listen carefully, you can really hear how all the dynamic layers are used constantly to get the expressiveness that this style is going for. Even - or perhaps especially - within single notes. In the end, I really feel this gives you an expressive dimension that even other best in class library like the Joshua Bell and the Bohemian simply lack.


Similarly with the vibrato. But it's not just that the vibrato is a nice expressive dimension (though it is). It's that while on their own the vibrato and non vibrato samples are a bit harsh (and maybe even a bit static), when you perform them together in the right proportion (see notes below) the sum is more than he whole of the parts. I'll admit that at first I was puzzled by the absense of a nice and pleasant out of the box progressive vibrato (a la CSSS). But with a bit of work with the vibrato (and some scripting - see the notes below), I find that there's an expressiveness here that I find I *much* prefer.

Almost every single note in these noodlings is crafted with the vibrato, and a great many of use 2 or 3 dynamic layers in their shaping. All, I think, to great effect.


And its an effect that for all the brilliance of the Joshua Bell and Bohemian instruments (for which I have nothing but effusive praise) you could never reach with them.


(And of course, the time machine vibrato scripting takes this even further, although it's not used here)


And while is something that will be perfectly obvious to string players, I've also managed to put my finger on another point of angst that has long afflicted me in my struggles with solo strings. It involves how important these expressive dimensions are in ensembles.

To demonstrate this - well of couse I aspire to someday to be able to share with a series of brilliant compositions that fully exploit these expressive dimensions ... but for the moment here's another completely raw, noodling. This time it's 4-parts (including the new virtuoso Vl) and the proof of concept I'm going for here is to just to demonstrate how important these particular expressive dimension are within an ensemble:

(again - all improvised, mod wheel only, raw performance, no midi programming)




Admittedly this a bit cacophonous, but I think the proof of principle here is that you can really hear how important these expressive dimensions are the the effect of the quartet as a whole.

Come to think of it, here's maybe a simpler example, borrowed from another thread. In the couple of bars following ~0:55, when the full ensemble enters:



I think you can really hear how the phrasing of each line is performed with respect to the others.

As someone said on that thread "I can almost hear the players watching each other's wrists". Which I think captures something about why having the ability to craft the vibrato and dynamics even on a single note is so important.

Going from this library back to the Bohemian instruments (although again I have nothing but effusive praise for them) all the dynamics and vibrato are pre-recorded. So while they give you these magnificent solo performance, when you hear them in a duet, the composer can't coordinate the phrasing in this way at all. The players can never be seen watching each other's wrists.

Which is where the details in the performance become so important - like the shifing of the vibato, which adds a kind of rhythmic dimension to each line, or the dyanmic swells across layers (and I'll emphasise that its the tibre change that makes this work, so its all about the dynamic crossfade ).

And this helps me put my finger on and angst that I felt but couldn't quite express in listening to - especially acute in trying to do thinkgs like get the JB violin and Bohemian cello to play together. They can actually sound great together. But they sound like two prima donnas who don't seem to be paying much attenion to one another, much less watching eachother's wrists.


So again, it's not just that that recording these instruments in the same space helps them blend (although of course there's that too). It's that here, finally, are the expressive dimension to get them to play in this style as an ensemble, watching eachother's wrists.


I also think that the official legato demos massively undersell this expressive capacity in that they focus on a very different, and to my ear much more high-classical style in which the higher dynamics dominate. Andy's recent demo, for instance does use the dynamic crossfades in, for instance long crescendos. But he uses this capacity sparingly. Its equally brilliant. But not at all why I bought this library.


The lameness of the actual compositional content of my noodlings aside, I'm starting this feel a real turning point in the long history of my Solo String Angst. And now that I think of it, maybe its a good time to thank Luke and Sandy at Spitfire support for the years - gosh, it really has been years - of patiently fielding my (not always very, er, focused) questions on across a variety of dimnsions of my Solo String Angst.





**** notes on scripting vibrato and dynamics:

All of these noodling are played using only the mod wheel, and no cc21 (with the ocassional touch of the sustain pedal).

Vibrato is controlled by a "performance vibrato" script, which I'll share shortly, which does the following:

a) vibrato (cc21) is inferred, in the first instance, entirely from dynamics (mod wheel). Between the 3 above noodling across the different instruments, there's maybe about 600 individual switchings between vib and non vib. And in all but a handful of cases (which could be handled via the sustain pedal or a bit of midi editing) I think both that i) these switchings are very important to the expressiveness of the phrase, and ii) the script gets it right. I'd also argue this represents quite a lot of cognitive overhead freed up to focus on thinkgs like composition and performance rather than cc21.


b) This script also implements a kind of "midi compression" on the upper dynamic layers to reign in the dyamics a bit.

I find that the levels of the default dyanamics are bit extreme for my taste. They might be great for the high-classical style of Andy's demos, but I find that I prefer them to be a little less extreme.

Another way to put this is that by the time I crank up the volume so that you can really hear how great the lowest dyamaic layer sounds in a passage that isn't ostentatiously soft, the top dynamic layer have become so bombastically loud and you don't really get any benefit from it existing in the first place.

So the easy solution is just for the script to reduce the expression when you're in the higher range.

The upshot of all this is that in the above noodling you can hear individual notes crafted with dynamics across all three layers, without blowing up you speakers.

c) there also some balancing of the vibrato levels going on in the script, which helps in getting smoother transitions between non vib and vib.


----------



## frontline

Well, having just viewed Paul's Total Performance Patch walkthrough and Andy Blaney's demo, a crossgrade to Solo Strings would not seem imprudent at this juncture (or over the next several months, since I'll be busy exploring eDNA Earth patches).


----------



## Lode_Runner

WOW. I'm sooo glad I checked in, and discovered this update. Spitfire, it sounds amazing. Wonderful job, thank you so much.

I second the wish for a similar total performance patch for cello.


----------



## Sami

Lode_Runner said:


> WOW. I'm sooo glad I checked in, and discovered this update. Spitfire, it sounds amazing. Wonderful job, thank you so much.
> 
> I second the wish for a similar total performance patch for cello.


I also think a cello patch would be fantastic, but speaking of cello, the current update completely broke the cello patch for me and it now loads in edit mode but without the possibility of editing (i.e. the wrench doesn’t expand the panel) and whenever I press a note, I hear a terrible racket of all the articulations played simultaneously. Any ideas?


----------



## Shad0wLandsUK

Andy B said:


> Thanks for the comments on the patch and demo.
> 
> Hope those of you who are using the patch are enjoying it. For anyone wondering how I realised the violin part of the demo, I thought I'd post a link to a screen-flow we put together which details everything you need to know to control the patch – CC21 Vibrato Slider, CC1 Dynamics Slider & Velocity. Everything in the piece is dictated by these three controllers. All else happens as if by magic, thanks to some incredible scripting by the UK's Blake Robinson.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Andy.



Oh man I really thought that this meant we have multi-lane MIDI editing now, but I am guessing this is just some awesome video editing there 

Or is it....


----------



## Vik

Shad0wLandsUK said:


> Oh man I really thought that this meant we have multi-lane MIDI editing now


We've had that for a long time, but not in the most used editors: Score and Piano Roll. We've had it in Arrange and the step editor 'forever'.


----------



## midi-et-quart

Pretty cool, I think the legatos from Embertone's Joshua Bell violin are a bit more convincing but less playable. 
I like these spiccatos for the attack a lot by the way! Congrats on this new patch.


----------



## Shad0wLandsUK

Vik said:


> We've had that for a long time, but not in the most used editors: Score and Piano Roll. We've had it in Arrange and the step editor 'forever'.




REALLY?!...

Do we have it in Score and Piano Roll now then?


----------



## Vik

No, not in score and piano roll, but in the main window - and the step editor, which many people don't use at all. 
Your best solution for score/piano roll is currently to click on the arrow next to 'Read' to see more automation parameters in the main area, here...






...or to use the key command called Cycle Through Used Parameters in any window that has a Time Ruler. I believe the default key command is either Y or Cmd Y.


----------



## styledelk

I'm hearing an awesome mockup of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto and sonatas in my head here. Do I buy this just to feebly fulfill what I can already stream?


----------



## SpitfireSupport

Sami said:


> I also think a cello patch would be fantastic, but speaking of cello, the current update completely broke the cello patch for me and it now loads in edit mode but without the possibility of editing (i.e. the wrench doesn’t expand the panel) and whenever I press a note, I hear a terrible racket of all the articulations played simultaneously. Any ideas?


Not an issue I’ve heard of. Please contact us at spitfireaudio.com/support and we’ll look into it. Ben


----------



## Sami

SpitfireSupport said:


> Not an issue I’ve heard of. Please contact us at spitfireaudio.com/support and we’ll look into it. Ben


Already done, thanks Ben!


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## mobileavatar

The new performance patch and the new demo sound amazing, but I wonder how well the rest will match and like some other people pointed out, whether the rest will catch up with the virtuoso violin.

Right now, if I want to invest in the library, it seems I am investing in a single instrument (instead of the entire "solo strings" as a package).


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## jamwerks

They had to develop, test and get user feedback before porting to other instruments and libraries...


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## mobileavatar

jamwerks said:


> They had to develop, test and get user feedback before porting to other instruments and libraries...



Thanks, I understand but since Spitfire did not respond when people asked about the expansion to other instruments, it casts doubt on such possibility.


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## idematoa

*Violin (Virtuoso) Total Performance patch





*


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## jamwerks

mobileavatar said:


> Thanks, I understand but since Spitfire did not respond when people asked about the expansion to other instruments, it casts doubt on such possibility.


Yeah we never know, mine is just a logical speculation. But it may well be that SF will opt to develop it further before "full" implementation. I could see them adding a third controller, that combined with the first two (and velocity) could get you anywhere, even in a 20 art library. That's basically what the "Tree" does in the new Synchron Player!


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## rottoy

idematoa said:


> *Violin (Virtuoso) Total Performance patch
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *



I'm sorry, but why are you posting an example of the violin performance patch where it's not even remotely played like a violin?
You might as well be playing block chords with it. I'd suggest trying to sculpt a musical phrase that's idiomatic to a violin.


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## idematoa

rottoy said:


> I'm sorry, but why are you posting an example of the violin performance patch where it's not even remotely played like a violin?
> You might as well be playing block chords with it. I'd suggest trying to sculpt a musical phrase that's idiomatic to a violin.


Thank you for the technical advice ... Beginner, I learn from my mistakes too.
See you later


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## rottoy

idematoa said:


> Thank you for the technical advice ... Beginner, I learn from my mistakes too.
> See you later


I do apologize if my tone was a bit brusque. I wish you the best of luck!


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## styledelk

I know this forum is focused on realism, but I think we have all of these super-human tools at our disposal, I'm surprised we don't hear more "augmented reality." I realize we naturally have an allergy to the unnatural when it's been trained into our heads. I'd love to hear more of a fully bent realization of the impossibly unrealistic.


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## Sid Francis

Rottoy: your comment was on the point and quite polite for my taste. The word "parkinsons disease" was not used and that is a good sign..


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## thesteelydane

Just to put all the speculation to rest, here's what's gonna happen: the cello will eventually get something like the total performance patch, and the bass and progressive violin will get a basic fingered legato, and that's it. And no, I don't have insider information, I just looked in the samples folder.


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## prodigalson

thesteelydane said:


> Just to put all the speculation to rest, here's what's gonna happen: the cello will eventually get something like the total performance patch, and the bass and progressive violin will get a basic fingered legato, and that's it. And no, I don't have insider information, I just looked in the samples folder.



How can u tell?


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## thesteelydane

prodigalson said:


> How can u tell?



As I said, by looking in the samples folder.


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## procreative

I am curious though, the Performance patch blurb on the website states:

"It contains all the techniques you need to create a realistic solo performance — five different types of true legato: Portamento Legato, Fingered Legato, Bowed Legato, Runs and Arpeggios. It also features: spiccato, staccato, tremolo, molto vibrato, progressive vibrato and non vibrato."

If you look at the Viola, Cello and 1st Desk Violin they all seem to have Portamento Legato, Fingered Legato, Bowed Legato.

None of the instruments including the Virtuoso Violin list Runs or Arpeggios (or even Staccato). So either they have added these samples in the update or they exist or are scripted. Which leaves the potential to do the same across the board?


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## jbuhler

procreative said:


> I am curious though, the Performance patch blurb on the website states:
> 
> "It contains all the techniques you need to create a realistic solo performance — five different types of true legato: Portamento Legato, Fingered Legato, Bowed Legato, Runs and Arpeggios. It also features: spiccato, staccato, tremolo, molto vibrato, progressive vibrato and non vibrato."
> 
> If you look at the Viola, Cello and 1st Desk Violin they all seem to have Portamento Legato, Fingered Legato, Bowed Legato.
> 
> None of the instruments including the Virtuoso Violin list Runs or Arpeggios (or even Staccato). So either they have added these samples in the update or they exist or are scripted. Which leaves the potential to do the same across the board?


Don't the cello and the virtuoso violin both have fast run legato and fast legato in the samples?


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## prodigalson

thesteelydane said:


> As I said, by looking in the samples folder.



Thanks, but I’m looking for further clarification. Were there specifically different transition samples in the 1st desk violin legato than the viola legatos?


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## ism




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## thesteelydane

prodigalson said:


> Thanks, but I’m looking for further clarification. Were there specifically different transition samples in the 1st desk violin legato than the viola legatos?



Ah, I thought you owned the library and could look for yourself. Yes, there's the same fast and fast runs transitions for the cello, as well as ricochet legato, which I'm not sure what they will use for. The bass only has fingered legato, and everything else have what's already released. And to answer your question, no, but the fast and fast runs transitions are only in the virtuoso violin and the cello. So as I said, they have the material to release a cello patch like the virtuoso violin, and a simple bass legato, and that's it. Which is still pretty impressive, I just wish the viola had received the same love with fast transitions. Maybe because it sounds so good, maybe because I'm a violist and write a lot for viola.


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## catibi79

ism said:


>




Beautiful!


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## prodigalson

thesteelydane said:


> Ah, I thought you owned the library and could look for yourself. Yes, there's the same fast and fast runs transitions for the cello, as well as ricochet legato, which I'm not sure what they will use for. The bass only has fingered legato, and everything else have what's already released. And to answer your question, no, but the fast and fast runs transitions are only in the virtuoso violin and the cello. So as I said, they have the material to release a cello patch like the virtuoso violin, and a simple bass legato, and that's it. Which is still pretty impressive, I just wish the viola had received the same love with fast transitions. Maybe because it sounds so good, maybe because I'm a violist and write a lot for viola.



Ah interesting. Thanks. Maybe they’ll record those transitions for the viola at some point? It would be a shame with the strength of this programming if they only provided it for violin and cello but I suppose I understand why.


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## jamwerks

I have not doubt that SF will soon do a "Pro" expansion of the library, adding these arts and new features to all the instruments.


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## dogdad

ism said:


>



Well done! Thank you for sharing!


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## B.Karloff

SpitfireSupport said:


> Hi, hot off the press, here's a patch that should fix the issue for you. Please don't delete the old patch in case you need it for any reason.


Hi Ben,
thanks a lot for providing a fix so soon. Works perfectly!


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## idematoa

01 - Arturia - Modular - Berliner
02 - Arturia - Mini V3 - 3osc
*03 - Spitfire Audio - Spitfire Solo Strings - Violin Total Performance
04 - Spitfire Audio - Spitfire Studio Strings - Violas (6)*
05 - UVI - Orchestral Suite - Grand Cassa


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## Theodor Andrews

I'm satisfied with the new solo strings so far but I found 2 issues that makes it nearly impossible to get realistic results. First, on the new virtuoso violin patch you can hear a bow change after 1 second or even less on some notes. That's really too fast for lyrical, slow stuff. Second, on the b vilion first desk legato the vibrato on some notes sound absolutely not normal.. like the player and his violin got electrocuted or so. Someone experienced this too?


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## fiction

Although I can get some great results after some clever programming with this library, I’m also experiencing some issues with various patches in particular notes.
I’m writing them all in a notebook so I can submit a ticket to SA.
Btw had a good laugh with your post - “like the player and his violin got electrocuted or so” 
If you have time please share which notes on violin b you’re having trouble with so I can add to my notes if they are not there yet.


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## Theodor Andrews

fiction said:


> Although I can get some great results after some clever programming with this library, I’m also experiencing some issues with various patches in particular notes.
> I’m writing them all in a notebook so I can submit a ticket to SA.
> Btw had a good laugh with your post - “like the player and his violin got electrocuted or so”
> If you have time please share which notes on violin b you’re having trouble with so I can add to my notes if they are not there yet.



Thank you for doing so! I will have a look asap! Well, hopefully there did not happen bad things to the player ... It's more a kind of messed up vibrato. Like 2 vibratos at once, no idea how to describe it. But "good" to hear others experience this too. Thought I have something like a corrupt version.


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## fiction

You’re not alone, we all have this problem with the library if you check some threads.
I guess the samples are not phase-aligned, when I use the vibrato cc there’s always a point where I hear phasing and more than one violin.
There’s also some notes that start out of tune and others that have an abrupt start no matter what velocity I’m using..
That said, I still like the library a lot and have used it in 3 projects already, but I always spend some considerable time programming it


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## jbuhler

fiction said:


> when I use the vibrato cc there’s always a point where I hear phasing and more than one violin.


Sometimes I hear this and sometimes I don't, but I haven't been able to pin down when it happens. I don't know if it is only certain notes, or certain dynamic layers or what. Like the transition between nonvib and vib in general, I don't find it to be a problem when the violin is part of an ensemble and not overly exposed, presumably because the ensemble helps mask it. I have more problems with the cello, which I feel like I have to fight with a lot more.


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## Theodor Andrews

So, one can say, this is more than a buggy library. Which is sad and I can't understand why such a great company like spitfire audio is releasing such an "unfinished" thing. Again I love the overall sound of this but these bugs are really annoying. Hopefully they'll fix it asap!


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## jbuhler

Theodor Andrews said:


> So, one can say, this is more than a buggy library. Which is sad and I can't understand why such a great company like spitfire audio is releasing such an "unfinished" thing. Again I love the overall sound of this but these bugs are really annoying. Hopefully they'll fix it asap!


Because the library is very usable as it is! And some of the issues, like the way the vibrato works or the bumpiness of the transitions between dynamic layers, are part of the design of the instrument, consequences of optimizing other things in the library. @ism has a lot of good commentary on this sprinkled throughout the forum. 

My main wish is that they make a version of the legato for each instrument that uses the progressive vibrato for the sustains.


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## fiction

For now I’ve been having some good results with the progressive vibrato set by velocity in the violin virtuoso performance patch, but yeah I wish this option existed for all performance patches too or even the sustains like you mention. Those progressive vibrato sustains have a cool sound to them.


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## jbuhler

fiction said:


> For now I’ve been having some good results with the progressive vibrato set by velocity in the violin virtuoso performance patch, but yeah I wish this option existed for all performance patches too or even the sustains like you mention. Those progressive vibrato sustains have a cool sound to them.


As I understand it, only the cello has the samples to make a performance patch that works the same way as the violin.


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## fiction

Didn’t know that, would be really cool if they would improve the cello at least!


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## Spitfire Team

Spitfire Solo Violin - Now Available As An Individual Library!

Our highly acclaimed Violin (Virtuoso) Total Performance instrument is now available to purchase as an individual Kontakt Player library.

Performed by world-renowned virtuoso concert violinist Jack Liebeck in The Hall at AIR Studios, Spitfire Solo Violin contains all of the techniques you need to create an ultra realistic solo performance.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/2IEpBLX


----------



## Diablo IV

Spitfire Team said:


> Spitfire Solo Violin - Now Available As An Individual Library!
> 
> Our highly acclaimed Violin (Virtuoso) Total Performance instrument is now available to purchase as an individual Kontakt Player library.
> 
> Performed by world-renowned virtuoso concert violinist Jack Liebeck in The Hall at AIR Studios, Spitfire Solo Violin contains all of the techniques you need to create an ultra realistic solo performance.
> 
> Learn more: http://bit.ly/2IEpBLX



Is the price permanent?!!?!?1 I loooooove this one, price is absolutely crazy (meaning great price),
I am just too spent at the moment.

I am soooo glad you did this, wow.

Can you tell I am elated by these news?


----------



## SpitfireSupport

Diablo3 said:


> Is the price permanent?!!?!?1 I loooooove this one, price is absolutely crazy (meaning great price),
> I am just too spent at the moment.
> 
> I am soooo glad you did this, wow.
> 
> Can you tell I am elated by these news?



Yes, this isn’t a promo price or an intro price, this is the price


----------



## Peter Satera

Spitfire Team said:


> Spitfire Solo Violin - Now Available As An Individual Library!
> 
> Our highly acclaimed Violin (Virtuoso) Total Performance instrument is now available to purchase as an individual Kontakt Player library.
> 
> Performed by world-renowned virtuoso concert violinist Jack Liebeck in The Hall at AIR Studios, Spitfire Solo Violin contains all of the techniques you need to create an ultra realistic solo performance.
> 
> Learn more: http://bit.ly/2IEpBLX



So this is the same violin which has been pulled out of the Solo Strings? Is there an upgrade path to the full solo strings from Violin?


----------



## ERIC VALETTE

Hi all,

Note that if you enter the code "score" at the time of payment, you get an additional 30% discount (66.34 euros in my case instead of 99 euros), in fact near identical to the current promotion on the full solo package 

A no brainer opportunity to get this superb instrument!


----------



## ERIC VALETTE

In fact the code "score" currently seems to work with almost all Spitfire Audio products (except the new BBCSO), even those already enjoying a promotional offer ...


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## Sid Francis

Thank you so much for that hint with the promo code, worked flawlessly. I wouldn´t have bought it without but was too tempted at that price .-)


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## AllanH

I had forgotten about turning off the TM functionality. Personally, I don't like the very fast TM-vibrato anyway, so saving that RAM and CPU is a huge plus for me.


----------



## Sid Francis

AllanH said:


> I had forgotten about turning off the TM functionality. Personally, I don't like the very fast TM-vibrato anyway, so saving that RAM and CPU is a huge plus for me.


How is this done?


----------



## AllanH

Here is how I did it


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## AndyP

ERIC VALETTE said:


> In fact the code "score" currently seems to work with almost all Spitfire Audio products (except the new BBCSO), even those already enjoying a promotional offer ...


When I ad the code I see nothing happens. The price still is the same as before ...


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## sostenuto

Same here. Works for non-promo libs only. Great for Solo Strings /Violin ! 
Wiil wait for Wishlist promo for other desired additions.


----------



## AndyP

sostenuto said:


> Same here. Works for non-promo libs only. Great for Solo Strings /Violin !
> Wiil wait for Wishlist promo for other desired additions.


I didn't really want to buy solo stings, but if the code had worked it would be a bargain for about 180€.
Too bad actually.


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## AdamKmusic

Code works for me on anything (not tried it on BBCSO though). Worked on this & Angular Strings which are on offer


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## AndyP

AdamKmusic said:


> Code works for me on anything (not tried it on BBCSO though). Worked on this & Angular Strings which are on offer


Can you please enter the code for the solo strings, for a test? Here all promo articles ignore the code.


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## dzilizzi

It didn't change the price for Bernard Herrmann library which is 30% off. Not that I should be buying anything else this month.  

So this is a part of the Solo Strings library? I think I had them on my wishlist. It's great to have the option to buy it separately.


----------



## Sarah Mancuso

I suspect that the discount code having originally worked on some already-discounted products might have been a mistake. As of today it's no longer applying to Solo Strings, Angular Evos, or anything else that's already on promo.


----------



## sostenuto

I just tried again and used both MS Edge & Google Chrome in case that impacts. No SCORE discount works on current discounted products. Perhaps @ Sarah Mancuso is correct, and previous usage for Solo Violin may have made the difference?


----------



## AndyP

Ok, I will wait for BF or Xmas sale.


----------



## Sid Francis

AllanH said:


> Here is how I did it


Aaah...thank you


----------



## Sid Francis

sostenuto said:


> I just tried again and used both MS Edge & Google Chrome in case that impacts. No SCORE discount works on current discounted products. Perhaps @ Sarah Mancuso is correct, and previous usage for Solo Violin may have made the difference?


No, I had no former product


----------



## Sid Francis

Obviously they don´t work on sundays because my download links did not yet arrive. So I can try it out today...


----------



## dzilizzi

You need to download the installer. Once you sign in, your product will be there and you can download and install it right away. Once you have the installer installed all future purchases show up right away. Also check periodically it for updates.


----------



## Sid Francis

That was very kind help, thank you. Yes, I forgot about the new installer though I had it already installed. But with the enormous amount of libraries present...I mix things up


----------



## dzilizzi

Sid Francis said:


> That was very kind help, thank you. Yes, I forgot about the new installer though I had it already installed. But with the enormous amount of libraries present...I mix things up


I totally understand. After a while it is hard to keep up with everyone's method.


----------



## hdsmile

Andy B said:


> Thanks for the comments on the patch and demo.
> 
> Hope those of you who are using the patch are enjoying it. For anyone wondering how I realised the violin part of the demo, I thought I'd post a link to a screen-flow we put together which details everything you need to know to control the patch – CC21 Vibrato Slider, CC1 Dynamics Slider & Velocity. Everything in the piece is dictated by these three controllers. All else happens as if by magic, thanks to some incredible scripting by the UK's Blake Robinson.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Andy.




If I understood correctly the patch you used is already included in the original sales library, or you used some special patch? ...what about your promised link with some screen-flow, I missed it or...?
Thanks


----------

