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8Dio Century Strings vs Anthology vs Adagio: Opinions?

procreative

Senior Member
As someone who owns 8Dio Anthology/Adagio, is there anyone else that owns these and Century Strings?

What do you think, is Century a great leap (Next Gen as they like to say).

Other than the different section size and space used, is the programming/legato and arcs better in Century and do you think its a step up?

Only asking as they have another of their usual 40% off sales and so its come into my thought process again. But not sure I really need it if its not much of a step foward.
 
i referenced this video.



Since I already had the Adagio Sets and ended up getting Century, I skipped Anthology. I think century is great, and different from most of the Adagio sets.
 
I Have Anthology String is great, contains Ensemble, Divisi , Solo sections.,,I use all time , completely different than Agitato string,
 
Much different! Better? It all depends on the context :) Adagio and Agitato are great libraries and still are great libraries for their designed purpose. Think of Century Strings as a whole other beast all together! Century Strings is a highly detailed and realistic string library, designed for the working composer. Century was a library created by the joint ideas of 8Dio and "us" the VI community, providing a collaborative implementation of a wide spread of concepts that we could benefit from! (Even I pitched ideas on the Century blog during the creation and now look at what Junkie XL is doing? Lol ;p) The great benefit of an open forum production was that Century Strings as a result, became a multi-purposeful library with diverse functionality in mind for the modern day composer. I personally like it above all three previous 8Dio releases (IMHO) mainly because to me, Century Strings is more of a landmark library: A Celebration of 8Dio's String Library Success. Think of everything they've learned along the process of producing well, 4 consolidated string libraries over the best part of a decade? Century Strings represents a cumulative knowledge of string sampling based upon everything 8Dio has learned about creating string libraries over the past decade. The sheer detail, realism and natural expressiveness of the library is what sold me. Compare the sonic characteristics of even just the arcs to other current string libraries on the market? Century Strings sound incredibly realistic in comparison.
 
Much different! Better? It all depends on the context :) Adagio and Agitato are great libraries and still are great libraries for their designed purpose. Think of Century Strings as a whole other beast all together! Century Strings is a highly detailed and realistic string library, designed for the working composer. Century was a library created by the joint ideas of 8Dio and "us" the VI community, providing a collaborative implementation of a wide spread of concepts that we could benefit from! (Even I pitched ideas on the Century blog during the creation and now look at what Junkie XL is doing? Lol ;p) The great benefit of an open forum production was that Century Strings as a result, became a multi-purposeful library with diverse functionality in mind for the modern day composer. I personally like it above all three previous 8Dio releases (IMHO) mainly because to me, Century Strings is more of a landmark library: A Celebration of 8Dio's String Library Success. Think of everything they've learned along the process of producing well, 4 consolidated string libraries over the best part of a decade? Century Strings represents a cumulative knowledge of string sampling based upon everything 8Dio has learned about creating string libraries over the past decade. The sheer detail, realism and natural expressiveness of the library is what sold me. Compare the sonic characteristics of even just the arcs to other current string libraries on the market? Century Strings sound incredibly realistic in comparison.

So what I am trying to gauge is, aside from the section sizes and room space, is if in your opinion on what it does better and how it is different from Adagio/Anthology?

And is there more consistency between articulations as some of the shorts in Adagio stood out as having quite different timbres.
 
Century is almost a chamber but a bit larger size string section so it has detail but still can give you girth. I personally like the sound and it is often where I go to strings first depending on the project. A lot of the power of the library is dealing with the arcs in place of sustains as it is often a more natural performance of a single note than a simple sus patch. Since you can tailor the speed of the arc it gives you a lot of versatility.
 
Anthology has a speed control, but it does not do that much to the lengths. Is the speed control in Century able to do more varied lengths? And are these sampled playbacks or time stretched?
 
Here's a link to a review I wrote of the Century Strings Bundle (Ensemble and Sordino) for Sample Library Review: https://www.samplelibraryreview.com/the-reviews/review-century-strings-bundle-by-8dio/

I love Century Strings. It is the first string library I go to nowadays. Anthology is good, as is Adagio and Agitato. I still find uses for them. Century is the best all-in-one string ensemble library from 8Dio in my opinion though. The Arcs are beautiful. The shorts are detailed and crisp. I've not found any of the mismatched volume or tuning issues that are present in the Adagio libraries. This is a much more polished library. Anthology and Adagio have some really good stuff in them too though. So much of it comes down to how you write with them, the reverb you use, etc. However, Century is way better out of the box than Agitato, Adagio, or Anthology.
 
I know CSS is the popular pick and most people absolutely love it. I would like to have it, but I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice Century to get it (if that makes sense). The arcs in Century are just so useful and beautiful and the rest of the articulations (and there are a good number of them) are great. It's my go-to string library.
All the best in picking out the best library for you. It can be a challenge to wade through the options to find what suits you best.
 
So what I am trying to gauge is, aside from the section sizes and room space, is if in your opinion on what it does better and how it is different from Adagio/Anthology?

And is there more consistency between articulations as some of the shorts in Adagio stood out as having quite different timbres.
Great time and care was placed into reviewing all shorts and making sure that they blended with every length of sample. This was discussed in great depth prior to development when the request chats on 8Dio were active on their blog. In short, the Century series is not better just different. I don't really have a need to reach for the others now that I have Century. Most users just prefer Century Strings in general. The tone, the character, the play-ability is not necessarily any better? The library is just different. The obvious improvements are that there is more consistency between patches, the patches all blend better and work well together, and there is only the need for one instance of strings now- and one Legato Patch to rule them all : )
 
Im looking for Strings library which has polyphonic legato. can any one suggest me if century or any other 8dio libraries have polyphonic legato?
 
LASS Lite was previously target Strings _ yet path to LASS Full 2.5. Total cost is a strain.

Now Century Strings Bundle is sounding very strong (@ 359.). Some 'trusted' posts / Poster(s) here are notable. :geek:

Is Century Strings Bundle a 'solid' choice as one's 1st Full String Lib ???
 
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