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Cinematic Studio Strings

For anyone wondering about the brightness compared to Hollywood Strings for example I did a rough eq match on the css violins. What you hear is Hollywood Strings Violins 1 - CSS Violins 1 EQ - CSS Violins 1 Original.



Eq curve I used is in the attachment.
So In my opinion you can get pretty close indeed to HS :) But I already own that library so I use the eq match on 50% to get the strings a little bit brighter :)
 

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For anyone wondering about the brightness compared to Hollywood Strings for example I did a rough eq match on the css violins. What you hear is Hollywood Strings Violins 1 - CSS Violins 1 EQ - CSS Violins 1 Original.



Eq curve I used is in the attachment.
So In my opinion you can get pretty close indeed to HS :) But I already own that library so I use the eq match on 50% to get the strings a little bit brighter :)

Nice!! Btw is the CSS legato "speed" kind of similar to HS or even faster in the respone? :)
Like, you play and what you hear is what you get?
 
Nice!! Btw is the CSS legato "speed" kind of similar to HS or even faster in the respone? :)
Like, you play and what you hear is what you get?

Not really! If you choose to use the advanced legato you have a bunch of speeds to choose from when you program your legatos. I find it difficult to play "live" with them but with a little bit of midi editing you'll get the results you expect.

Here was the Cinematic Studio Strings video about legatos (again :P )

 
Not really! If you choose to use the advanced legato you have a bunch of speeds to choose from when you program your legatos. I find it difficult to play "live" with them but with a little bit of midi editing you'll get the results you expect.

Here was the Cinematic Studio Strings video about legatos (again :P )


Oh yeah, ofc! Alright, but fairly good for a string library?
I only have ensemble strings from OE1 arcos, legatos but really "slow" imo so I don't use them. So, yeah I need a string library, feels like CSS is gonna be my 1st, atm I think it's a good idea. First wanted CS2 or LASS Lite. ...
leaning more and more towards to CSS for the interface, sound, good playability and all the nice articulations.

How do you like the different mics?
 
Is there any kind of divisi type logic in CSS? If I hit a 6 note chord, would I get twice as many 'strings' than I would with 3 note chord?
 
You are probably in better position to validate my above conclusion since you've actually played with both libraries.

I haven't, as I said in my post I'm saving up to buy CSS, this is just my impression from hearing the user demos here and on Soundcloud.

BTW have you guys heard this yet? Woah. If these Strings get any more Soaring there's gonna be a trademark dispute...



As for the fast legato, CSS seems to be able to handle itself ok (see the vln turn in the ET example by @ricoderks ). This is always a problem for me in Mural (Vol 1) trying to avoid an accordion effect.

Sure for extended fast passages, agile 16th runs on the bow, etc. I would still pick LASS.

CSS: Today, it is increasingly difficult to come out with a new strings-lib. that offers something in a compelling manner, unique, and on top plays well with the others, CSS does!

Perhaps lessons learned from seeing what other developers released and what the pros/cons were of each lib.... Mural has a great hall sound, LASS has agile transitions, CSS has a bit of both.... no library can have everything.

The main attraction of this library for me is the tone and expressiveness. A lot of motion and evolution even at one dynamic level... In LASS, long string pads tend to sound disappointingly static. I have a mockup of Junkie XL's theme for Furiosa from Mad Max floating around the forum somewhere where you can really hear this. Can't wait to redo it in CSS.

Here are some drawbacks of the lib, as far as I can tell from the demos and MIDI data kindly provided for The Robber and other pieces:

- dynamic range is really quite narrow. I mean if LASS is 0% to 100%, and Mural is 0% to 90%, CSS might be 40% to 85%. That's on the shorts. The longs have even less dynamic range, as demonstrated above.

- some buildup in lows and low mids compared to other libs. Sounds OK on its own but needs some EQing to combine with the rest of the orchestra, I reckon. That being said, I think the tone actually starts out closer to true neutral (which for me is the unglamorous but real sound of LASS), than HWS does. You can hear in the comparison above that the HWS mix has very much de-emphasized the "wooden-body" and "bow-rosin" sounds you get from a vln section.

- basses seem to be the weak link. Not as stentorian, growly and deep-stage as I like (Berlin nailed my ideal bass sound).

- lack of extended articulations compared to the "flagship" string libraries.
 
Here's an example in molto molto extremis ;)



1) LASS - challenging to EQ and reverb (for me, anyway). But peerless in its speed. Very easy to replicate the "blur" from the original, by humanizing the MIDI separately for each divisi section.

2) Mural Vol 1 - can't keep up with the excerpt at all. IIRC the subsequent volumes of Mural have other legato options so this may not be a fair comparison.

3) EWQLSO Gold - precise and energetic, but let down by its "keyboardy" quality.

MIDI file here in case anyone else wants to give it a spin.

Oh, and here's my transcription/arrangement of Junkie XL's Mad Max theme in case anyone wants to try that.

Awesome thread :)

jswCtb7.png
 
Here's an example in molto molto extremis ;)



1) LASS - challenging to EQ and reverb (for me, anyway). But peerless in its speed. Very easy to replicate the "blur" from the original, by humanizing the MIDI separately for each divisi section.

2) Mural Vol 1 - can't keep up with the excerpt at all. IIRC the subsequent volumes of Mural have other legato options so this may not be a fair comparison.

3) EWQLSO Gold - precise and energetic, but let down by its "keyboardy" quality.

MIDI file here in case anyone else wants to give it a spin.

Oh, and here's my transcription/arrangement of Junkie XL's Mad Max theme in case anyone wants to try that.

Awesome thread :)

jswCtb7.png


Actually in Couch / TV Mode here, so while the commercial break so I spent only a few minutes.

 
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Perhaps lessons learned from seeing what other developers released and what the pros/cons were of each lib.... Mural has a great hall sound, LASS has agile transitions, CSS has a bit of both.... no library can have everything.

I'm fairly new to orchestral based sampling, within the last year or so as I transition from engineering and producing in to doing more film score work. So forgive me if this is a stupid question. But what can't a library have everything?

We have amazingly powerful computers that can handle almost everything we throw at them. There are incredibly gifted programmers who seem to be able to model everything under the sun. Is it simply cost prohibitive to create a sample library that does everything well? Most everyone creates libraries for Kontakt it seems. Could this be part of the problem? Does the scripting in Kontakt limit what programmers can accomplish?

Sorry if this is stupid, I'm not very familiar with what happens under the hood in Kontakt. All this being said, I'm buying CSS today. I've been relentlessly looking for a string library that resonates with me. I have Spitfire string stuff, and its good, but I have had issues with it that are pretty well talked about here (some of their other non string libraries have changed everything I thought I knew about sampling). The sound of CSS kind of choked me up when I heard the first demo on their web page. I felt like I finally was able to find a loved one that I had been looking for most of my life. That sound has been so elusive to me, and I kinda felt like giving up on finding it. The dark, rich sound that reminds me of older classic string sections.

Anyway I digress. But really, why CAN'T we have a string library that does everything?
 
The simple answer to your last question, as a multi-media composer, there is not ONE client or ONE type of project. Heck - even one gig has variety in it's strings needs. Buy as many options to fill these needs as you can afford.
 
The simple answer to your last question, as a multi-media composer, there is not ONE client or ONE type of project. Heck - even one gig has variety in it's strings needs. Buy as many options to fill these needs as you can afford.

Yeah! I get that. People want different sounds. I guess I'm talking more about articulations and how they behave. Why can't someone, after they've recorded all their samples, sit down and write scripting that does everything? Why do you as a composer have to buy multiple libraries from multiple companies? I get that if someone wants smaller/larger sounds, dry, baked in, dark, shimmery etc, that one library can only do so much sonically. But as far as the way all the articulations perform, why can't we have it all? If this company does this articulation well, and that company that articulation, it's clear that it can be done. Why doesn't one company do them ALL well?
 
Yeah! I get that. People want different sounds. I guess I'm talking more about articulations and how they behave. Why can't someone, after they've recorded all their samples, sit down and write scripting that does everything? Why do you as a composer have to buy multiple libraries from multiple companies? I get that if someone wants smaller/larger sounds, dry, baked in, dark, shimmery etc, that one library can only do so much sonically. But as far as the way all the articulations perform, why can't we have it all? If this company does this articulation well, and that company that articulation, it's clear that it can be done. Why doesn't one company do them ALL well?

Dude, I ask that myself every morning why the heck the neighbours dog not always does shit at the same spot because I would place him a mobile toilet there. Having said that, so why is that? Well, so many things, there are different philosophies in approach of producing sampling libraries, not everybody out there is at the same level and shares the same opinion regarding string libraries and how they have to sound so the results differ from company to company, also different budgets, different targeting groups and so etc etc..,long story short: Nobody needs to buy everything from everybody, that is at least one thing I want to clear out for you.
 
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Dude, I ask that myself every morning why the heck the neighbours dog not always does shit at the same spot because I would place him a mobile toilet there. Having said that, so why is that? Well, so many things, there are different philosophies in approach of producing sampling libraries, not everybody out there is at the same level and shares the same opinion regarding string libraries and how they have to sound so the results differ from company to company, also different budgets, different targeting groups and so etc etc.., you know the neverending story? So long story short: Nobody needs to buy everything from everybody, that is at least one thing I want to clear out for you.
I guess that makes sense. Coming from more of an engineering background, one coveted compressor may behave differently than another coveted compressor, and you reach for different tools for different things.

So you would say that a legato that sounds good to one set of trained ears, doesn't sound good to another? Or that it sounds good, but maybe isn't the exact expression you were looking for?

This is helpful. Because I haven't been thinking of it in this way. I've spent a small fortune on gear. Neve pres sound amazing. And so do API. Both are well respected and coveted. But both do different things. I need to start thinking of string libraries in this way.

Thinking of it this way actually makes me like my Spitfire string more. I wrestle with them to do everything. I'm seeing now I should appreciate them for what they do well.
 
Even if it were possible to script and program something that could behave with the same nuance and subtlety as a human being the amount of time it would take to record every single possible articulation under the sun would be preposterous. The upfront investment in musician time, recording time and R&D for the implementation would be astronomical.
 
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