Just gonna pile on some thoughts since I think some of the other reviews here are kind of overly negative. These are just impressions from playing with it (with their reverb off) and thinking ahead to server integration. I've yet to mock anything up but:
Sat with this library for the first time tonight and I have to say I am really impressed by the thought and detail that has gone into EVERYTHING.
From the degree of sampling to the articulation switching and controls for those of us who hate looking at UIs.
Well done Andrew and Sebastian. I personally feel justified in the expense. So thank you.
There are some scripting growing pains here, but I'm sure they'll be overcome. Libraries release updates and patches, this always happens with a big release (with software in general) where users find things the coders and testers didn't. People seem to take it personally like they were cheated out of their cash but it's like... that's how it has always worked. BBCSO release already forgotten? Hell I think SF is STILL releasing fixes for chamber strings! Anyway...
The divisi can get wonky-- I've experienced some phasing here and there, as well the engine not playing a note because it seems to not know which voice to release? Not something that can't be overcome with programming vs playing. And I'm personally getting enough hanging notes forcing me to hit the panic button in Kontakt that I'm a little nervous about how this is going to perform on a real mock-up, however that's me hamfisting a patch on a keyboard in a way I would never write with it.
I recall some people mentioning the vibrato elsewhere, I'm kind of glad it doesn't go as hard as CSS, that vib gets a little dramatic for me at times.
***I would also almost prefer the attack mods (Cres/Norm/Acc) were on switches personally but not a big deal.*** EDIT: Just to say that they actually DID put these on switches. I'm telling you guys, they thought of everything.
The Ostinatos are potentially cool, I kind of wish they worked like the ostinato tool for the shorts so you could get more interesting phrases; I think with some clever programming between the up and down patters it's possible to get cooler patterns sounding smoother so just a first impression there.
One of the main reasons I bought it was the scales patches and while it's a little more programming than I anticipated to get it sounding nice for my current use case, it's still promising and useful. The scale patch can be used to create some pretty quick easy ostinati as well, especially if you can switch off between Vlns 1 and 2 for the pattern to get less obvious reptition.
I don't see myself using the upper range of these Cellos, but the low and middle of the staff is great, good tone and playability overall. The ostinato patch sounds particularly good on these IMO. The tail is a taaaad weak but with something else just to fill in the gap, real nice. like *really* nice. if someone other than a few pro mockup artists i know could program something in another library that sounded even close to these i'd be pretty blown away.
The solo cello is a little more tolerable in the upper range but I'm not sure it does something CSSS doesn't already do for me-- except for the scales patches which is great, and on some articulations the samples themselves might actually sound better once programmed. if you don't own CSSS then this could be a nice bonus coverage for you.
I'll lastly also say since this is my first AudioBro library-- I just never wanted LASS-- the customer service here is above and beyond. Been getting questions/issues answered by Andrew via email all weekend. So while I'm not surprised to see certain people in this thread I've seen elsewhere always talking sh*t, I think some of the harshness is kind of unwarranted and since an update is coming to at least be a little patient and see how that plays out. This thing is pretty deep and there's plenty of great bits that work very well to keep you at bay for now if you own even one other popular string library.