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Advice on a new string/orchestral library

Sounds like GAS to me. I have a very similar line-up. Fire up the Kirk Hunter Diamond, the strings are great. But if I were to buy something new it would probably be LASS. I know it's not "sexy" anymore, but it sounds like a really great library.
 
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Sounds like GAS to me. I have a very similar line-up. Fire up the Kirk Hunter Diamond, the strings are great. But if I were to buy something new it would probably be LASS. I know it's not "sexy" anymore, but it sounds like a really great library.

i was about to spring for LASS, but i got distracted by a sexy Hein.
 
be aware that it takes some time to make LASS sound good.

CSS for example sounds phenomenal out of the box and its very easy to get good results out of it.

LASS looks deep, i like deep. i may wait for LASS 3.0.

I think i'm set with strings for the year...



damn, did i just say that?



William McFadden's latest Solo Violins Compared is revealing.

OT is a standout for sure - Josh Bell and Chris Hein up there too, of course.

I mentioned in the comments how i thought VSL had great tone - i'm partial, though.


so many things on the near horizon, should be a fun Black Friday this year.

must hold steady!

-

<will probably buy CSS and Josh Bell anyway>
 
LASS looks deep, i like deep. i may wait for LASS 3.0.

I think i'm set with strings for the year...



damn, did i just say that?



William McFadden's latest Solo Violins Compared is revealing.

OT is a standout for sure - Josh Bell and Chris Hein up there too, of course.

I mentioned in the comments how i thought VSL had great tone - i'm partial, though.


so many things on the near horizon, should be a fun Black Friday this year.

must hold steady!

-

<will probably buy CSS and Josh Bell anyway>

most of us say always we are done... and then boom! we buy something else ;)

you wont regret a purchase of CSS and joshua bell i guess.
 
Let me be perfectly clear. Talent-wise I haven't outgrown the General MIDI orchestral sounds on my Roland XP-80 so I am fully aware I suck. But if I didn't squash those feelings with retail therapy well then... i'd just have to get better... and that my friend... is really hard. ;)

Comedy aside. Yes I have quite a bit of stuff but... I need more. More is more bigger and more bigger is more better. ;)
Based on this comment I would say don't buy anything. Invest your money into classes or tutorials. What good are all those great libraries if you don't learn to really harness them and make great music out of them? I'm sure you have some great musical masterpieces in that head of yours, let's hear it! Having said that, I only let myself buy things where I feel I have gaps and so far I don't see any in the string libraries you have, unless for some reason you aren't getting along with your VSL stuff then an alternative to those would be either LASS, CSS, or Chris Heins. Any of those would be my vote as an alternative (CSS will give you more of that out of box with not to much tweaking sound)- but I like to tweak so I like LASS.

Edit: Oh and Hollywood Orchestra is a great alternative too but try composer cloud first and make sure you get along with Play first, and if you do then you also get a great Brass library. Even people who don't care for the workflow of HS will tell you the brass library is top notch.
 
Don't be seduced by great sounding "out of the box" libraries. They can come at a cost both financially and in your mix. The reason people are intimidated by LASS is because it sounds raw and real and dry. It really take little work at all to make it sound fantastic.
 
i was about to spring for LASS, but i got distracted by a sexy Hein.

That's not a bad alternative to LASS IMO given that it seems to be as flexible, can be bone dry if needed and is cheaper than LASS2. I love LASS but I do feel it is a bit pricey now that we have the new Heins Library and Century Strings. It's hard to say though since I don't own the 2 Latter but if I was looking currently then Heins String Ensembles and Century Strings (on a big 8Dio sale) would be top on my list. The real question is do those compete with LASS's famous Legato sound.
 
That's not a bad alternative to LASS IMO given that it seems to be as flexible, can be bone dry if needed and is cheaper than LASS2. I love LASS but I do feel it is a bit pricey now that we have the new Heins Library and Century Strings. It's hard to say though since I don't own the 2 Latter but if I was looking currently then Heins String Ensembles and Century Strings (on a big 8Dio sale) would be top on my list. The real question is do those compete with LASS's famous Legato sound.

my first look at Century Strings - pretty nice.
 
LASS is staggeringly consistent 'recommend' Strings Lib here. Many truly good ones, yet LASS 2.5 rules, and who knows when 3.0 'surprise' is coming ????? :inlove:

(edit) ++++ for L&S Chamber Strings !! Headed there now.
 
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LASS is staggeringly consistent 'recommend' Strings Lib here. Many truly good ones, yet LASS 2.5 rules, and who knows when 3.0 'surprise' is coming ????? :inlove:

(edit) ++++ for L&S Chamber Strings !! Headed there now.

I don't think you would regret them, I sure didn't. One thing to remember, they're built around playing with the sustain pedal, but once you get used to it there's no other way :) Oh, and the sound is superb of course!
 
You can't go wrong with East West Hollywood Strings, also Light and Sound chamber strings are superb!

Replying to myself... If I were to pick one of them today, I would definitely pick L&S. Hollywood Strings has stronger shorts though.
 
Dunno if you guys have seen this:

https://vi-control.net/community/th...hmarking-entries-now-open.72778/#post-4248045

I found the original shootout to be very informative, and a chance to listen to many different libraries in a similar setting. If you are thinking about a library that was represented, you could check it out here and do some comparisons. If there's a library that you own that was not included or maybe you think you could do better, then you could submit an entry. I did one for my library, 8dio Agitato/Adagio, and learned a lot from it. Now I'm experimenting with layering in the other libraries (especially Chris Hein--just one more day to pull the trigger or not on the 2 for 1 sale) to see what kind of results I can get. A very cool lab to try things out!
 
Just what Alexander says.

What days we're living...
Purchasing more and more, mostly to no avail - or for the sake of instant gratification followed by instant desillusion. Addicted to new stuff just like spoiled kids, except that we do work, most of the times anyway, to bite into these constant offerings. The blood rush when dowload and unpacking and install processing is just over. Just to understand we'll have to do a hellova shitload of work to make the new toy sing. Because, yes, it's not a toy.
VI.C is looking more and more Gearslutz. Except that you can resell synths, but rarely virtual orchestral libraries.
Been there, done that, mind you. Hopefully, one day my CPU won't follow the new scripts - it's already the case,mostly - and my HD will be fully loaded with instruments I didn't take time to fully discover,compose with, arrange, "midi-massage".
Erik
 
Based on this comment I would say don't buy anything. Invest your money into classes or tutorials. What good are all those great libraries if you don't learn to really harness them and make great music out of them?

+1 for that. In the last sale I was tempted to buy Trailer Brass but then I bought a bunch of Mike Verta's masterclasses instead for the same total cost, and I'm super happy with my choice. Now I wish many of my first library purchases had been investments into knowledge instead, because I'm not using any of those libraries anymore and knowledge from courses would still be useful today.
 
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