What's new

New from Strezov Sampling: Afflatus Chapter - Part one: Strings

Overpriced...like most other Strezov libraries...wonder when this company is going to get with the times....
 
I am still on the fence, unfortunately. I hear some phasing like issues, weird hissing noises (e.g. on the cellos), stereo perspective issues (samples jumping all over the place), and the sound seems inconsistent between patches/sections which I can see would be a big annoyance - like many patches sound "old", like a pillow has been pulled over the sound, completely lacking air. I have Strezovs first little string library, Cornucopia, where I always thought the sound was a stylistic choice. But now with this I am not so sure.... maybe it's more a cultural, traditional thing making it sound like that. And possibly some mics that aren't up to the task of capturing all the detail and clarity which should be present in strings.

At half the price I would buy it anyway, because there IS stuff that I really like when I hear it (the shorts, the shark strings patch for example), but even after the walkthroughs and reviews coming out I just remain with a somewhat confused picture of what the library is and how it sounds.

I think I'll grab it at a sale at sometime, and at that time I hope I'll be bitching about why I didn't buy it now:)
 
Btw, in regards to your comment at 18:57, Orchestral Tools does have the Berlin EXP E SFX library. :thumbsup:
I am still on the fence, unfortunately. I hear some phasing like issues, weird hissing noises (e.g. on the cellos), stereo perspective issues (samples jumping all over the place), and the sound seems inconsistent between patches/sections which I can see would be a big annoyance - like many patches sound "old", like a pillow has been pulled over the sound, completely lacking air. I have Strezovs first little string library, Cornucopia, where I always thought the sound was a stylistic choice. But now with this I am not so sure.... maybe it's more a cultural, traditional thing making it sound like that. And possibly some mics that aren't up to the task of capturing all the detail and clarity which should be present in strings.

At half the price I would buy it anyway, because there IS stuff that I really like when I hear it (the shorts, the shark strings patch for example), but even after the walkthroughs and reviews coming out I just remain with a somewhat confused picture of what the library is and how it sounds.

I think I'll grab it at a sale at sometime, and at that time I hope I'll be bitching about why I didn't buy it now:)
I understand where you're coming from. From using the library personally non stop for the last 20 hours I can positively say there are no phase, hiss or image issues apart from what you would hear in a real live recording (many samples were taken from performances). The difference in sound and "old" tone you heard was most likely the flautando and sordino string patches (the "Vintage" strings patches), which are meant to sound slightly different from the rest of the legato styles, and as for the image, I was switching between divisi and full a lot in all of the individual section patches. Most notable is the switch from middle to slightly right in the violas Lush KS patch. Either way I understand that with a price tag that high people's suspicion and critical ears will be on high alert.
 
I understand where you're coming from. From using the library personally non stop for the last 20 hours I can positively say there are no phase, hiss or image issues apart from what you would hear in a real live recording (many samples were taken from performances). The difference in sound and "old" tone you heard was most likely the flautando and sordino string patches (the "Vintage" strings patches), which are meant to sound slightly different from the rest of the legato styles, and as for the image, I was switching between divisi and full a lot in all of the individual section patches. Most notable is the switch from middle to slightly right in the violas Lush KS patch. Either way I understand that with a price tag that high people's suspicion and critical ears will be on high alert.

Hey Cory. Good that you are happy with them. But what I meant with the "old" sound isn't the sordinos or flautandos, just the regular sections, especially the divisi ones I believe. And I am not talking about recording hiss, it seems more to be a result of mic placement (e.g. for cellos that I mentioned) and other technical decisions leading to these unwanted artifacts. And regarding the stereo-perspective change + phasing I heard that in the non-Soundcloud version of "Pictures of you" (one of the official demos) as well.

So as I said... at the current pricetag I am not willing to shell out for it with the chance of hardly ever using it because of these issues. But with a 50% sale or something in the future, no problem.
 
Hey Cory. Good that you are happy with them. But what I meant with the "old" sound isn't the sordinos or flautandos, just the regular sections, especially the divisi ones I believe. And I am not talking about recording hiss, it seems more to be a result of mic placement (e.g. for cellos that I mentioned) and other technical decisions leading to these unwanted artifacts. And regarding the stereo-perspective change + phasing I heard that in the non-Soundcloud version of "Pictures of you" (one of the official demos) as well.

So as I said... at the current pricetag I am not willing to shell out for it with the chance of hardly ever using it because of these issues. But with a 50% sale or something in the future, no problem.
Ha, you make it sound like they're good enough for little old me but not enough for you. I get what you're saying though, no problems. It's just easier for me to make a call on it because I have the luxury of going into the samples myself and checking everything - not something everyone else has considering the price, so I got lucky. I honestly really do love the library though. Best thing I've used since CSS and Chamber Strings.
 
Hi Cory. No I didn't mean it that way. Just possibly that I have noticed these things in specific demos that you might not have heard or found problematic. I love CSS even though it's a little "muffled" in tone - it still has a very open and smooth tone. And many of Strezov's demos certainly sound very good musically, I just have a problem with the recordings which seem to suffer from some issues that I mentioned. But as you say, you have sat down with it yourself, so you should be able to better judge how it holds up against CSS and other libraries.
 
Honestly. I think that your review represents this library in a better light than anything else I've heard before. Good job!

-Hannes

I agree! I was thinking a lot about whether to buy or not... Saw this review and had no more doubts and purchased immediately, with no fear. Thanks @Cory Pelizzari for an excellent review that really shows how musical, realistic and even "buttery" these strings sound. Downloaded yesterday and I'm getting ready to trying them out.
 
I agree! I was thinking a lot about whether to buy or not... Saw this review and had no more doubts and purchased immediately, with no fear. Thanks @Cory Pelizzari for an excellent review that really shows how musical, realistic and even "buttery" these strings sound. Downloaded yesterday and I'm getting ready to trying them out.
Please report back. Would love to hear your thoughts (while I check the couch for loose change :roflmao:).
 
After careful consideration, I've decided not to purchase Afflatus for the time being. I love all of the patches, but I have way too many string libraries that can already cover the things I like about it. The Avant-garde sustains are fantastic, but I can do similar things with Evo Grid 1. The playable cluster shorts sound great, but Ark 3 has me covered in that department. All of that factors into my personal perception of this library's value, and there just isn't enough reason for me to spend $700 (while it's on sale) for another string library. If this library was $200 cheaper, I'd pull the trigger.

Also, with Black Friday right around the corner, and ProjectSAM releasing an orchestral library next year, I may be better off waiting things out.

In the meantime, I congratulate Strezov Sampling for creating such a beautiful sounding library. I wish them the very best of luck and success, and hope that everyone who buys Afflatus will compose some awesome music with it!
 
Last edited:
I will buy this eventually, but with exchange it's $1000. I already have Albion I/II/III/IV/V, SCS, VSL DS, HS, Adagio, and other small ones such as Cornucopia 1 & 2, the ones included in Kontakt Ultimate, and good old EWQLSO. It's just a bit silly to buy more strings even if they sound as great as these ones do. I really believe in the workflow. I am astounded by the sound. Such realistic, emotional, playable performances. What an achievement! I wish I could support it just based on the high quality of the release. But I straight up do not have $1000 in my budget for more strings. I just don't.

Congrats again to GS/Strezov team regardless!!!
 
I will buy this eventually, but with exchange it's $1000. I already have Albion I/II/III/IV/V, SCS, VSL DS, HS, Adagio, and other small ones such as Cornucopia 1 & 2, the ones included in Kontakt Ultimate, and good old EWQLSO. It's just a bit silly to buy more strings even if they sound as great as these ones do. I really believe in the workflow. I am astounded by the sound. Such realistic, emotional, playable performances. What an achievement! I wish I could support it just based on the high quality of the release. But I straight up do not have $1000 in my budget for more strings. I just don't.

Congrats again to GS/Strezov team regardless!!!
Convert it to Australian and it's $1300. We love living here.
 
I'm kind of conflicted here. Trying to understand how does this library stand or blend with my other libraries. Trying to understand whether this presumes to bring new timbres and articulations to the table - or presume to be a library that does what other libraries do, but does it better.
I have spitfire symhonic strings, chamber strings, bernard hermann, tundra, orchestral swarms, sonuscore the orchestra, several sonokinetic phrase libraries, novo and its expansions.
Do i go the Afflatus route? And then what? Would what i have be redundant to an extent? At least the bread and butter spitfire strings?
Or is it better to go for other tastes and colors, such as Olafur evolutions etc?
Btw, i have an edu discount and some loyalty discount so afflatus would cost me €624 now or after the intro price phase.
 
I wish I could support it just based on the high quality of the release. But I straight up do not have $1000 in my budget for more strings
I guess as a strings 'consumer'...I would pull the trigger right away if there was a kind of...let's say modular way to purchase the whole library(such as...eg by sections or any other way to divide the library)!!!!
 
I guess as a strings 'consumer'...I would pull the trigger right away if there was a kind of...let's say modular way to purchase the whole library(such as...eg by sections or any other way to divide the library)!!!!
Whenever I run into a pricey library I want that doesn't have a la carte, I pretend to buy different sections for fractions of the overall cost by sending the money to a savings account every couple of weeks, then when I've "bought" all the sections, I take the money and drop it on the library.
 
Top Bottom