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Strezov Sampling presents AFFLATUS Chapter 1 // 1.2 Update feat. 18GB of new sample content

I have been pronouncing Afflatus wrong this whole time...on multiple streams, for hours on end, and no one corrected me. XD

Af - FLAY - tus

NOT

Aff - LAT - US

Also Thomas Bergersen is and incredible composer, good catch for a quote. Caught my attention :)

🚂 🍔 🌞

-DJ
We can call it whatever we want, until they bring the price down.
 
We can call it whatever we want, until they bring the price down.
Don't forget that this isn't a string library, in the most common meaning of that word - it's multiple string libraries. It has its pros and cons like all other libraries, of course. But considering that you get all this...

- a full 12-10-8-8-6 library with divisi​
- a 6-5-4-4 chamber library (which may or may not be made out of one half of the full section, but which still is usable as a chamber library, but without divisi)​
- a 6-5-4-4-2 'minimalist' library - which could be based on the other half of the full section, but which still also is usable as a small library. The minimalist sections also has divisi, and those can be used alone as well, meaning that you also get a 3-3-2-2 half section​
- then there's the 'Scene d'Amour' presets (5-4-3-3).​
- there are first chair presets for all five instruments as well.​

...maybe the price is just where it should be. Most of the popular string libraries come with only one section size (but have some options Afflatus doesn't have), and usually without divisi.
 
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After the solo strings were added, the price did not bother me at all. It's a complete library. Maybe not a traditional one, but it is unique, complete, high quality and worth what they charge.
 
Price is too high guys. Unless you own it of course. Then you have to justify owning it right?

Look at the amount of content, dynamic layers, articulations etc... It's really not much. Be happy it works for you and you can justify the price though.

I would personally love it if strezov got off his high horse and attempted to make his libs more accessible.
 
We can call it whatever we want, until they bring the price down.

The price of afflatus is very proportional to its quality. I am not saying its cheap, but its definitely not overpriced. It is a state-of-the-art strings library. Top notch. I remember buying Hollywood Strings for I think $1400 when it was released. So Afflatus is a bargain in comparison.

I'll buy a Rolls Royce when they bring the price down :P
 
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I was expecting the price to what Strezov hinted before its release to be in the neighborhood of his highest priced samples back then. When he revealed the actual price, I remember people being pissed off, including me.

Fast forward to today. I've used it quite a bit and to me (especially the Scene d'Amour patches), it's well worth it!
Again, just wishing for the portamento articulation to be implemented eventually.
 
Price is too high guys. Unless you own it of course. Then you have to justify owning it right?

Look at the amount of content, dynamic layers, articulations etc... It's really not much. Be happy it works for you and you can justify the price though.

I would personally love it if strezov got off his high horse and attempted to make his libs more accessible.

You have the ability and option to buy the library. Couldn’t be more accessible than that. If you mean they should make it cheaper so more people can buy it, that’s ridiculous. Getting more people to buy isn’t a matter of just pricing stuff cheap. If that price tag was what’s needed to pay for the production of the library and fund it’s promotion and continued support, then its price is justified, regardless of how we feel about it.

These arguments always result in people who don’t own it implying those who do are fools for buying it and finding the value as they use it. If your situation does not allow you to purchase the library, that’s not a fault of the developer. It’s the conditions of your budget. Any professional making enough money to invest in their business should be able to look at these costs, and buy what they need knowing their business will cover the cost. If it doesn’t seem like a necessary investment, don’t buy it. If you’re a hobbyist upset that it’s priced high, wait for sales when your budget will allow for you to join in. Blaming developers for insatiable FOMO is just a shitty practice of entitlement.
 
It's super worth it. Been adding it to my template bit by bit but definitely the Scene D'Amour legatos, the Minimalist legatos and the Psychatto shorts are very good.

Probably even more worth it if you can hang on until Black Friday.... maybe.... ;)
 
Price is too high guys. Unless you own it of course. Then you have to justify owning it right?

Look at the amount of content, dynamic layers, articulations etc... It's really not much. Be happy it works for you and you can justify the price though.

I would personally love it if strezov got off his high horse and attempted to make his libs more accessible.
Just to clarify - not "his libs", "their libs" - we're a team doing this. I'm sorry you feel that way axb312... the good thing is that we have a very diverse market with a lot of options in front of all of us, so you can make a choice towards any developer. There is only one thing that makes me sad and worried - and obviously you are bitter for some reason, but I have to point out your comment for another library of ours - The Performers A. You said that the price of €69 intro is not affordable and implied that we as a company have a practice of putting high prices. That may be so, but for how much should we release a library of choir performances that took 4 full days to record and months to script and edit? Don't you think that undervaluing this industry will result in more developers recycling old material, "faking" RRs, doing lazy scripting and even more automated process that will result in us, composers, getting tools that are... ok? Curious to hear your thoughts about this.

P.S. also curious, would there be comments like this if our geographic location was different ;)
 
Price is too high guys. Unless you own it of course. Then you have to justify owning it right?

Look at the amount of content, dynamic layers, articulations etc... It's really not much. Be happy it works for you and you can justify the price though.

I would personally love it if strezov got off his high horse and attempted to make his libs more accessible.
I'm thrilled his library is not accessible by someone like you.
 
Just to clarify - not "his libs", "their libs" - we're a team doing this. I'm sorry you feel that way axb312... the good thing is that we have a very diverse market with a lot of options in front of all of us, so you can make a choice towards any developer. There is only one thing that makes me sad and worried - and obviously you are bitter for some reason, but I have to point out your comment for another library of ours - The Performers A. You said that the price of €69 intro is not affordable and implied that we as a company have a practice of putting high prices. That may be so, but for how much should we release a library of choir performances that took 4 full days to record and months to script and edit? Don't you think that undervaluing this industry will result in more developers recycling old material, "faking" RRs, doing lazy scripting and even more automated process that will result in us, composers, getting tools that are... ok? Curious to hear your thoughts about this.

P.S. also curious, would there be comments like this if our geographic location was different ;)

It would be nice if you didn't make this personal. If anything,yes I'm a little upset that this is outside my budget, but not bitter in any way - because as you rightly pointed out there are other great options within my budget.

However, your comments about undervaluing the industry are unfair to a whole bunch of developers who offer great libraries at affordable prices, without cutting any corners. It's one of the reasons why CSS has become pretty much the standard, ubiquitous recommendation and daily driver for many people looking for a string library.

Afflatus could have been that library but you chose to go a different route. By lowering prices, you could've lowered the barriers for entry and therefore sold more (perhaps a lot more of the library) which you obviously put quite some effort into.

Yes 69 Eur was a high prices for a bunch of phrases.
 
This is the commercial announcement section of our beloved forum for devs who pay to be here in this section.

Its not the drama zone, so please if anyone feels they need to go through their complaints then start a thread in the drama zone.! And as far as I am concerned you should have to pay for complaining too......I guess that would make our host @Mike Greene very happy.
It would either make him very rich or people stop complaining.

Either way, strezov produces some very good libraries for those who want them.
If its not for you, then please move along and get on with your life.

All the best
 
Look at the amount of content, dynamic layers.....
There's probably around 3-400 dynamic layers in the various Afflatus presets. The Scene d'Amour preset seems to be the most mentioned Afflatus preset here, even if it has only two dynamic layers, so this is of course at least as much about 'tone' as it is about "amount". And it won't be easy to define an exact value for the tone of a library.

Personally, I somehow wish all string presets had 4 or more dynamic layers, but that would mean a lot more recording and coding = higher price. But amount of content isn't a problem here IMO, due to all the samples and all the presets.

There's no portamento, no separate vibrato control, and sustains/legatos lack round robins, so you could say that the library is missing some functionality, but OTOH, you'll get auto-divisi, polyphonic legato and several section sizes.

The main strength here is probably that they have spent the time and money needed to get a tone which offers something else than what most other libraries offer, and therefore have a library with a tone and a legato many of us really like. My guess is that they won't reduce the price (except possibly during some sales), but that they possibly, at some point in the future, would consider selling some of the sections separately.
 
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It would be nice if you didn't make this personal. If anything,yes I'm a little upset that this is outside my budget, but not bitter in any way - because as you rightly pointed out there are other great options within my budget.

However, your comments about undervaluing the industry are unfair to a whole bunch of developers who offer great libraries at affordable prices, without cutting any corners. It's one of the reasons why CSS has become pretty much the standard, ubiquitous recommendation and daily driver for many people looking for a string library.

Afflatus could have been that library but you chose to go a different route. By lowering prices, you could've lowered the barriers for entry and therefore sold more (perhaps a lot more of the library) which you obviously put quite some effort into.

Yes 69 Eur was a high prices for a bunch of phrases.

CSS is a mostly irrelevant comparison as it doesn't have as many various presets. You also work against your own argument. To get both CSS and CSSS the cost is $698.

Afflatus has added solo strings, various articulations and tones. It’s marketed as something different than what CSS is meant to be, and for its content, it’s actually priced competitively to your own example. They’re both great libraries but they’re apples and oranges.

Not to start a flame war, but the point about undervaluing the industry is valid imo. You can’t just say that because cheaper options exist, all libraries should all be priced the same. The cost of development and the necessities of their businesses vary. The only thing that matters in the end, is if people are getting their money’s worth for what they buy. Since you have not bought the library, you can’t make a fair judgement about the value and fair price of the library. I do hope that it will be at a sales price some day so you can experience it. It’s fantastic. After it came out I immediately started using it in commercial projects and it was a standout. It’s a truly special library worth it’s cost for entry.
 
I would personally love it if strezov got off his high horse
It would be nice if you didn't make this personal.

:emoji_confused:

I don't think it's as simple as produce > price low > profit in the current VI market. Pricing low has as equal a chance of signalling low quality as it does accessible high quality, and there's no guarantee with pricing low that there will be enough sales to make up the difference. Most figures I see mentioned to bolster the low price perspective mention sales figures that are really high guesses (as if every dev was selling as much as Spitfire or EastWest - tangent: Spitfire got it's audience by starting boutique and only lowering prices when they had the demand, and EastWest only sells so low because they figured out how to make the low price a monthly payment rather than a single payment).

Since CSS was mentioned, that seems like a unique scenario since there was already a built in audience who trusted the brand from when CS2 was released in 2009 (for $699 I might add, in the days before VSTBuzz and APD lowering perceived VI value). The sales from that surely removed the edge from what must have been the high investment cost of CSS. I don't think that's a repeatable formula.

The cost of Afflatus makes it currently inaccessible for me even though I'm really intrigued and it sounds great, but IMO it doesn't follow to say that therefore he's missing out on lots of sales. I am not the market, and I'd trust Strezov's perspective on his own sales over my own. Regardless, in the end the market will speak for itself.

Best,
 
This is the commercial announcement section of our beloved forum for devs who pay to be here in this section.

Its not the drama zone, so please if anyone feels they need to go through their complaints then start a thread in the drama zone.! And as far as I am concerned you should have to pay for complaining too......I guess that would make our host @Mike Greene very happy.
It would either make him very rich or people stop complaining.

Either way, strezov produces some very good libraries for those who want them.
If its not for you, then please move along and get on with your life.

All the best

I second that, it’s disrespectful to throw mud in this thread.

Personally, I regard it as really bad taste to “force” a developer to reduce the price of a library because you feel discriminated against. That’s not how it works...
 
:emoji_confused:

I don't think it's as simple as produce > price low > profit in the current VI market. Pricing low has as equal a chance of signalling low quality as it does accessible high quality, and there's no guarantee with pricing low that there will be enough sales to make up the difference. Most figures I see mentioned to bolster the low price perspective mention sales figures that are really high guesses (as if every dev was selling as much as Spitfire or EastWest - tangent: Spitfire got it's audience by starting boutique and only lowering prices when they had the demand, and EastWest only sells so low because they figured out how to make the low price a monthly payment rather than a single payment).

Since CSS was mentioned, that seems like a unique scenario since there was already a built in audience who trusted the brand from when CS2 was released in 2009 (for $699 I might add, in the days before VSTBuzz and APD lowering perceived VI value). The sales from that surely removed the edge from what must have been the high investment cost of CSS. I don't think that's a repeatable formula.

The cost of Afflatus makes it currently inaccessible for me even though I'm really intrigued and it sounds great, but IMO it doesn't follow to say that therefore he's missing out on lots of sales. I am not the market, and I'd trust Strezov's perspective on his own sales over my own. Regardless, in the end the market will speak for itself.

Best,

Theres a difference between stating a personal opinion and attacking someone personally? Anyhow, as someone rightly said this is the commercial announcements section so....
 
It would be nice if you didn't make this personal. If anything,yes I'm a little upset that this is outside my budget, but not bitter in any way - because as you rightly pointed out there are other great options within my budget.

However, your comments about undervaluing the industry are unfair to a whole bunch of developers who offer great libraries at affordable prices, without cutting any corners. It's one of the reasons why CSS has become pretty much the standard, ubiquitous recommendation and daily driver for many people looking for a string library.

Afflatus could have been that library but you chose to go a different route. By lowering prices, you could've lowered the barriers for entry and therefore sold more (perhaps a lot more of the library) which you obviously put quite some effort into.

Yes 69 Eur was a high prices for a bunch of phrases.
Sorry, didn't mean to be offensive - language difference I suppose. Just wanted to get your thoughts about the pricing - and also I wouldn't say that my comment about undervaluing the industry is aimed to current practices of fellow developers (us included). I'm just stating that for me (personal opinion here) devaluing a business or industry will result (in a long term perspective) in financial changes in said industry. Just look at the current state of pop music for example. Take a look at what streaming does to royalties...

But I may be wrong... I did a #1 TV series in Bulgaria during my second year in university and made a poll among composers in my country so that my quote wouldn't devalue the business standards in my country (because we don't have regulations that you can openly see). A lot of people were angry about that at that time, but for me that's the way things should operate... As I said above, the market is big enough with wonderful tools (I love CSS, it is inside my template and I envy Alex' skills in writing music). And having different opinions probably makes the world a more colourful place anyway. Cheers!
 
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