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Cinematic Studio Strings 1.7 - audio examples and general discussion

I like music said:
Chances of you regretting getting CSS are low.
Chance of us all getting Infinite strings this decade are lower.
Click to expand...
😅 The second sentence killed me. 😬 I've never entertained the idea IS could still be years away.
Maybe I should ask Aaron if this year is the year.

CSS seems to be the best programmed sample strings library. But then there are things like Sample Modelling and SWAM which remind maybe I should wait rather than buy another normal sample library.

I should check all the SM and SWAM stuff, maybe I'll just buy that...
 
Tanarri said:
😅 The second sentence killed me. 😬 I've never entertained the idea IS could still be years away.
Maybe I should ask Aaron if this year is the year.

CSS seems to be the best programmed sample strings library. But then there are things like Sample Modelling and SWAM which remind maybe I should wait rather than buy another normal sample library.

I should check all the SM and SWAM stuff, maybe I'll just buy that...
Click to expand...
All fair points. I have SM strings. I used to love them. They're very very good for figuring stuff out (how would a section play things etc) but unfortunately something in the tone didn't suit me in the end.

I still use them though while sketching, and sometimes for layering. But CSS is just a great library to have.

I'm putting all my faith in Aaron, but I fear that he's facing a genuinely massive beast of a challenge. Strings I imagine, are much tougher than brass, to get right. But that's just conjecture. I wouldn't wait around though if I were you. Grab something and write. Life's too short :D
 
I like music said:
All fair points. I have SM strings. I used to love them. They're very very good for figuring stuff out (how would a section play things etc) but unfortunately something in the tone didn't suit me in the end.
Click to expand...
It's weird how the tone of SM is great in some demos and meh in others.

I've just checked this and at least the violins + violas sound really good here, plus the expression and fluency is just insane.


If I could sell all the 8Dio and Spitfire libraries I spent big money on and never use I'd buy SM and CSS in a heartbeat, they seem to complement each other really well, the CSS shorts can really help SM shorts, and SM can make these super-realistic legato/glissando passages, but alas, I'm stuck with what I have and still have to pay for food, electricity and nonsense like that.

I like music said:
I'm putting all my faith in Aaron, but I fear that he's facing a genuinely massive beast of a challenge. Strings I imagine, are much tougher than brass, to get right. But that's just conjecture. I wouldn't wait around though if I were you. Grab something and write. Life's too short :D
Click to expand...
Yea, I too think strings are super hard to do well. SM strings have so many parameters to tweak to make the passage more live-like, who knows how much tweakable will IS be. Or how well will it sound...

SM is on a big rare sale until the end of this month. (While I have a discount coupon for CSS which I can use whenever.) I believe in Aaron, but we don't know when the library is released and if it really will be better than SM.

🤔 😵‍💫
 
Tanarri said:
It's weird how the tone of SM is great in some demos and meh in others.

I've just checked this and at least the violins + violas sound really good here, plus the expression and fluency is just insane.


If I could sell all the 8Dio and Spitfire libraries I spent big money on and never use I'd buy SM and CSS in a heartbeat, they seem to complement each other really well, the CSS shorts can really help SM shorts, and SM can make these super-realistic legato/glissando passages, but alas, I'm stuck with what I have and still have to pay for food, electricity and nonsense like that.


Yea, I too think strings are super hard to do well. SM strings have so many parameters to tweak to make the passage more live-like, who knows how much tweakable will IS be. Or how well will it sound...

SM is on a big rare sale until the end of this month. (While I have a discount coupon for CSS which I can use whenever.) I believe in Aaron, but we don't know when the library is released and if it really will be better than SM.

🤔 😵‍💫
Click to expand...

That does sound good...

Eh, I know what you mean with the bills. I definitely won't be buying any libraries for the next few years. Had a total of around 15k in unexpected bills land in the last month, which is half the reason I don't mind if Aaron doesn't release until 2033 haha.

Good luck and I hope you find an answer to your dilemma!
 
Tanarri said:
It's weird how the tone of SM is great in some demos and meh in others.

I've just checked this and at least the violins + violas sound really good here, plus the expression and fluency is just insane.


If I could sell all the 8Dio and Spitfire libraries I spent big money on and never use I'd buy SM and CSS in a heartbeat, they seem to complement each other really well, the CSS shorts can really help SM shorts, and SM can make these super-realistic legato/glissando passages, but alas, I'm stuck with what I have and still have to pay for food, electricity and nonsense like that.


Yea, I too think strings are super hard to do well. SM strings have so many parameters to tweak to make the passage more live-like, who knows how much tweakable will IS be. Or how well will it sound...

SM is on a big rare sale until the end of this month. (While I have a discount coupon for CSS which I can use whenever.) I believe in Aaron, but we don't know when the library is released and if it really will be better than SM.

🤔 😵‍💫
Click to expand...

I truly like the sound of the SM strings for many things and try to use them as often as I can, but I do have to say, as dynamic as that example is, it just sounds too precise. None of the imperfections I would expect in a real performance are captured, and the sound is laser focused and narrow.

I need to spend more time on these two aspects because I'm almost entirely sure it's down to the operator to figure it out, but so far no dice for me.
 
clisma said:
I truly like the sound of the SM strings for many things and try to use them as often as I can, but I do have to say, as dynamic as that example is, it just sounds too precise. None of the imperfections I would expect in a real performance are captured, and the sound is laser focused and narrow.

I need to spend more time on these two aspects because I'm almost entirely sure it's down to the operator to figure it out, but so far no dice for me.
Click to expand...
Even with these problems, the performance still sounds vastly better than what you can do with normal libraries.

I've noticed that once you get things like SM or infinite it's incredibly hard to go back to standard libraries because you immediately feel the stiffness and clumsiness.

Since strings are so easily layerable, I think my CS2 would be a great duo with SM Strings. People are layering CSS and CSSS, in this case, I'd have SM for the precision and performance and CS2 for more untamed bigger nice room sound.

I'll wait if Aaron writes some news, but I'm really close to buying SM.
 
Another attempt at trying to make CSS 1.7 to sounds more "symphonic sized" with this mockup of "The Might of Rome" by Hans Zimmer from the film Gladiator.

This time, CSS 1.7 is layered with CSSS and a little bit of Pacific Ensemble Strings (mic AB only) and CSB is layered with TH Brass (mic AMXL Tree) to match the massive orchestration summoned by Mr Zimmer for this OST.



Audio only (better quality than YouTube):



The "core" of this mockup is the Cinematic Studio Series (slighly modified version of the "Project Colossal Template" expansion 2.0 by Rico Derks)
 
gohrev said:
@EricValette Impressive mockup! What mic settings did you use for CSS and what reverb did you use?
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot!

As mentioned in my previous post, the heart of the template is based on the "Project Colossal Template" by Rico Derks for the Cinematic Studio series, and in particular on a slightly modified version by me of the 2.0 expansion whose objective was threefold: give a more "Hall / big studio" sound to the CSO, push the orchestra towards the back and avoid the mics which posed (pose) problems in terms of noise and other unwanted things, in particular the Tree mics for CSS and CSB (this has been largely fixed for CSS since update 1.7).

For this purpose, the mics positions used in this template are as follows:
CSS: Spot 2 (just a little bit, with automation for addind details and / or proximity to certain passage) + Room
CSSS, CSB: Close (with automation, same principle as above) + Room
CSW: Close + OH (with automation, same principle as above) + Room
CSP: Spot + Close (with automation, same principle as above) + Room
There's also some time delay compensation between these mics positions involved on this... and a LOT of EQing per mics.

Reverb setup:
- Fabfilter Pro-R : as a send only for the close/spot mics of the CSO, with a relatively short tail, 1,65 sec.
- Cinematic Room + Seventh Heaven: both as a sends for the room mics, the first to increase the "room impression", the second as a tail reverb (in both case "Large Hall custom presets")
There's an additional instance of Seventh Heaven Pro (custom scoring stage preset, 2,20 decay time, Mix-15db, PDL 0 ms, VLF -5.0 db, Early / Late: -4.0 db / Max late, EQ according to your tastes) as an insert on the master Bus as a "glue effect".

Hope this helps! :)
 
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