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Are Spitfire Solo Strings the best choice to go with Albion One?

Mornats

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At risk of starting another "best library" thread I wanted your thoughts on buying Spitfire Solo Strings. I got Albion One last month and one of the best things about it for me (amongst everything) is that it it all sounds right together. Whenever I've tried to mix in Damage or other instruments they've stood out a bit.

So I'm thinking of buying SSS for solo string lines. However I already have Kirk Hunter Solo Strings that I got in a VSTBuzz sale last year and whilst they do sound good and I've managed to get them sounding like they belong with Albion One somewhat I'm having trouble with a couple of things. One is that they need a bit of work to fit in with Albion and the other is that the legatos loop very harshly after only a few seconds. So for both of these reasons I'm considering SSS. I also think they sound great when I've heard demos.

If I did get SSS I could still layer KHSS on top if I wanted so my old library wouldn't go to waste. I need to think hard about which libraries I get now as I need to focus on making music but solo strings is the only outstanding thing now. I considered spending my cash on Phobos as I got a 10% off code but I have a lot of really good presets for Massive, Absynth and FM8 which has this area covered so the funds would be better placed in getting the right solo string library.
 
At risk of starting another "best library" thread I wanted your thoughts on buying Spitfire Solo Strings. I got Albion One last month and one of the best things about it for me (amongst everything) is that it it all sounds right together. Whenever I've tried to mix in Damage or other instruments they've stood out a bit.

So I'm thinking of buying SSS for solo string lines. However I already have Kirk Hunter Solo Strings that I got in a VSTBuzz sale last year and whilst they do sound good and I've managed to get them sounding like they belong with Albion One somewhat I'm having trouble with a couple of things. One is that they need a bit of work to fit in with Albion and the other is that the legatos loop very harshly after only a few seconds. So for both of these reasons I'm considering SSS. I also think they sound great when I've heard demos.

If I did get SSS I could still layer KHSS on top if I wanted so my old library wouldn't go to waste. I need to think hard about which libraries I get now as I need to focus on making music but solo strings is the only outstanding thing now. I considered spending my cash on Phobos as I got a 10% off code but I have a lot of really good presets for Massive, Absynth and FM8 which has this area covered so the funds would be better placed in getting the right solo string library.
Even though it's not recorded at AIR, I've heard the Sacconi Quartet goes perfectly with the Albions.
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/sacconi-strings-quartet/
 
I forgot to add that my budget is around £200 at the moment so they would be quite out of my price range :(
 
+1 to the Sacconi Quartet.

However, if you're on a budget, grab the Embertone Intimate Strings Collection and sprinkle a little reverb magic to make it sit.
 
I forgot to add that my budget is around £200 at the moment so they would be quite out of my price range :(
Then I would suggest to save up for it, rather then settle for less.
In your case I would also suggest sacconi quartet as your best option, for articulations and sound.
 
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A couple of good suggestions there, thanks. Sacconi Strings had a lot of articulations but is expensive, and comes in at 70GB so another SSD would be in order too. I know what you're saying about saving up and not compromising but £449 is quite an outlay so it would need some serious thought and I'd need to sell another bass guitar! (My £200 budget comes from selling a bass.)

I liked the sound of the Embertone strings but I'm still hanging on to the ease of use of SSS due to them being recorded at Air Lyndhurst. Getting them sounding spot on with Albion One is a key thing for me. Also a bit gutted that if I did go for them I've not long missed out on their special offer.

Interesting that no one has yet said that Spitifire Solo Strings are good to go for. What are the reservations around these? Is it just that other libraries have come out since and do things better or is there something inherently not good about them? The demos I've found on the Spitfire site and on YouTube all sound great to me.

Another thing that would be great to know is about the legatos. I mentioned that a big issue I hit with Kirk Hunter Solo Strings is that the legato patches loop very badly fairly quickly, especially on the cello. I can't do any long drawn-out legato notes at all. By long I mean over 3 seconds long. Will any of the libraries mentioned (SSS, Sacconi Quartet, Embertone) suffer from this problem too?
 
A couple of good suggestions there, thanks. Sacconi Strings had a lot of articulations but is expensive, and comes in at 70GB so another SSD would be in order too. I know what you're saying about saving up and not compromising but £449 is quite an outlay so it would need some serious thought and I'd need to sell another bass guitar! (My £200 budget comes from selling a bass.)

I liked the sound of the Embertone strings but I'm still hanging on to the ease of use of SSS due to them being recorded at Air Lyndhurst. Getting them sounding spot on with Albion One is a key thing for me. Also a bit gutted that if I did go for them I've not long missed out on their special offer.

Interesting that no one has yet said that Spitifire Solo Strings are good to go for. What are the reservations around these? Is it just that other libraries have come out since and do things better or is there something inherently not good about them? The demos I've found on the Spitfire site and on YouTube all sound great to me.

Another thing that would be great to know is about the legatos. I mentioned that a big issue I hit with Kirk Hunter Solo Strings is that the legato patches loop very badly fairly quickly, especially on the cello. I can't do any long drawn-out legato notes at all. By long I mean over 3 seconds long. Will any of the libraries mentioned (SSS, Sacconi Quartet, Embertone) suffer from this problem too?
My personal suggestion for solo strings would be to grab the Cinestrings Solo for 299$.
I've made it blend beautifully with the Albion Legacy library, so I'm sure it will work with One as well.
https://cinesamples.com/product/cinestrings-solo
Their sale ends tomorrow, so be quick!
 
That's only £247 which isn't too much over my £200 budget. Hmm!

So my only concern is how easy it will be to blend them with Albion One. How did you get it to blend with Albion? This is the area I'm struggling with and is what makes Spitfire Solo Strings so appealing.

I would have to buy another ssd too but my same drives are fairly full so that was going to be inevitable anyway.
 
Aria Sounds LSS solo strings might fit your budget. I never received replies to my emails from them, so I didn't buy their product and can't say how good it is in use, but they do have a demo, but it is very limited.
 
Well, today libraries has nice blending with each other, so whatever you choose will be good choice :)
 
I own Spitfire Solo Strings (I'd suggest not abbreviating them to SSS, as it'll confuse things with Spitfire Symphonic Strings). Anyhoo, they're one of Spitfires early libraries and haven't even had their GUI updated anytime recently. So I think Spitfire have pretty much left this one to die off.

It actually sounds very good, but only for very specific purposes. For isolated or high in the mix use, they're not great. For sitting in a mix and supporting other bits and pieces they work very well.

The legato isn't on par with most modern string library's and you can't really play fast passages with them.

I actually seem to remember Paul or Christian saying in one of the walkthrough videos that it wasn't really made for exposed stuff. Or something like that, I may be wrong!
 
Thanks for your comments about Spitfire's Solo Strings Killiard. That's all put some doubts in my mind about splashing £200 on them. I guess at this price level for a hobbyist like me I need to make a wise purchase as I'm not building up a collection on solo strings for different purposes. So whilst they'll fit in with Albion One perfectly I think I need something more versatile, which will mean looking at non-Spitfire libraries. And as one of my concerns was blending KHSS with Albion, other libraries aren't helping with this. I wish I'd been looking for solo strings when the Embertone bundle was on offer as they seemed ideal for a non-Spitfire library!

So I think I'll have to work with KHSS more and get the best out of them. Nothing is currently screaming "this library blends perfectly with Albion One whilst solving the legato looping issue of KHSS" at the moment so I won't make a rash purchase of something else just yet.

Aria LSS Solo Strings are actually on sale for £76 at the moment but I'm not blown away by walkthroughs.

Thanks for all your input, I think I'll save my money and thing about this one.
 
I own Spitfire solo strings, but don't think I've ever used it. Currently I blend CineSolo if solo strings are needed. Embertone can be made to sound nice, but I always found it to be far too much work.
Overall this will probably depend on the kind of solo performances you want to create, more than the room it is recorded in.
 
I'm an evangelist for Sample Modeling's solo strings. In a blind test here several months ago, most thought the SM violin was the real thing. They're bone dry and can be mixed in however you like. Which is harder work, of course, but the playability is amazing.
 
Spitfire Solo Strings are good for one thing, bringing out the section lines. For real solistic purposes they are terrible inadequate, or maybe for slow emotional lines they might be ok. There is nothing wrong with the sounds, but they are too limited.

My favorites for solistic purposes are Bohemian Violin and Emotional Cello. Bohemian Cello is great too. Never tried Sample modeling though.
 
Spitfire Solo Strings are good for one thing, bringing out the section lines. For real solistic purposes they are terrible inadequate, or maybe for slow emotional lines they might be ok. There is nothing wrong with the sounds, but they are too limited.

My favorites for solistic purposes are Bohemian Violin and Emotional Cello. Bohemian Cello is great too. Never tried Sample modeling though.

I've heard something similar to this before, right when I was aligned to buy. I love Emotional Cello, Friedlander and Hein violins, Adagio Viola and Bass. EW Gypsy (though that last is for more of a specific sound I guess)

. I use the recently revamped EW cello and violin as well, just nowhere near as much.
 
I've heard something similar to this before, right when I was aligned to buy. I love Emotional Cello, Friedlander and Hein violins, Adagio Viola and Bass. EW Gypsy (though that last is for more of a specific sound I guess)

. I use the recently revamped EW cello and violin as well, just nowhere near as much.
yes Emotional Cello & Spitfire Audio strings libraries fit very well in my opinion
 
Thanks again for all of your input so far.

What I've learned is that matching the room that Albion One is recorded in isn't as important as I thought. So now I'm looking at getting around the harsh looping issue on the Kirk Hunter strings that I have. Am I being too picky about this? Is it normal for solo string libraries to have harsh rebows early on in the note? I've played around with KHSS for an hour or so and I'm less and less happy with anything other than short notes due to this! Do any of the recommended libraries suffer from this too?

As for the type of situation I'd use these in it would favour the slow emotional solo lines in a track. Would this put Spitfire Solo Strings back in the running? Also, Strezov Sampling's Macabre strings are sounding nice at the moment. Man, this is so hard!
 
It does not have to be hard. Walk away for a few months, then see if you still want to buy solo string library. Chances are you won't. If you will, then start researching again. Good luck.
 
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