Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Cinematic Studio Strings 1.7 - audio examples and general discussion

Markus Kohlprath said:
I like CSS much more in several ways. Most important the phrasing is more musical and realistic to my ears. The individual voices are clearer audible which is a huge plus imo and the overall sound is less muddy. Interesting comparison. My humble opinion or taste.
Click to expand...
From my own experience, yes, Vista is more homogenous than a lot of libraries out there. That's not a bad thing though. Sometimes I want a well blended ensemble and sometimes I don't.
 
muziksculp said:
Besides the new Low-Latency mode, what fixes, and/or new features/improvements are you expecting the next update versions of CSW, CSB, and CSSS will offer ?

I could post this as a new thread if you think it will be useful to separate it from the focus on CSS 1.7 on this thread.
Click to expand...

You downloaded the new CSS minutes ago! Why not have fun with it and write some music?
 
Dirk Ehlert said:
Alright, I have to admit, that I'm a VISTA fanboy, but I wanted to give the new CSS 1.7 a new try on one of my tracks that I'm working on... so here it is. Did a bunch of EQing on the 1.7 to get it closer to the sound of Vista and used the close Mics and the Room (not Main). I do love the expanded functionality with CSS's Marcatos etc compared to just the Vista Legatos...

Would love to know which you like better?

Vista:

View attachment Intro_VISTA.mp3

CSS:

View attachment Intro_CSS.mp3
Click to expand...

@Dirk Ehlert it's close. I slightly prefer Vista here. But - did you use the marcato (F#0) legato for the CSS version? If so, the Expressive Mode C0 Legato might create an even better result.

Vista no doubt sounds great though!
 
Hi everyone,

I just wanted to drop in and provide a brief update on things.

Native Access / download issues

Firstly, thanks so much to everyone for being so patient while we deal with Native Access issues. I totally understand your frustration, and to cut a long story short, I am looking to implement an alternative download method for anyone having trouble with NA. For most people NA has worked okay, but when it doesn't, I haven't always had the answers, and it doesn't feel good to have to send people away to NI support. But don't worry, I'll get this all sorted out.

Expressive legato in v1.7 vs Advanced legato in v1.5

To the folks that commented that the new Expressive legato mode feels different to the previous Advanced setting, please accept my apologies - you were actually right. As it turns out, I realised this morning that I had mistakenly changed a couple of parameters in the legato settings, and these two parameters have made quite a noticeable difference in the way the expressive legato "flows". I must have made this mistake very close to the actual release date, and because I ended up using low-latency legato for all the demo material, I simply didn't notice. There are literally hundreds of parameters to be tweaked in the back-end of every patch, so it was just an oversight that will be easy enough to fix. So anyway, I was wrong to shut that conversation down - my bad. I just didn't want it to instantly turn into a "v1.5 is better than v1.7" thread.

It's all good though, I fully expected there to be a few minor bugs / tweaks after the first couple of weeks of release. I'm looking into the various bugs that have been reported - they all look fixable, and I'll return the expressive mode parameters to where they should be.

Spiccato overlay volume for Marcato

Also, @TomaeusD I agree with your critique of the spiccato overlay. In v1.7 I implemented a "velocity-compression" function into the overlay itself, so that when the modwheel is low, it reduces the max range of velocity so that you can play soft agile passages without needing to worry about playing really lightly on the keyboard, as hitting the keys softly is difficult when you're playing a fast passage. I love this function, but I will scale it back a bit so that you can still get more energy into the accents - this should restore the "fanfare" ability as you pointed out.

Version 1.7.1 update

Okay, I think that covers everything. Tech support is finally quietening down enough for me to start working on the above things, and hopefully I'll be able to get a version 1.7.1 update ready for release in the next couple of weeks.

I'm also loving the demos being posted - please continue! And lastly, please don't hesitate to offer constructive criticism if you want to. It turns out that releasing an update to an already well-established library is actually much more stressful than simply releasing a new product. But that's the way it goes, and it's important to me that people still feel like they can voice whatever opinions they have. I won't always agree, but I always take any constructive feedback into consideration.

Thanks again!

-Alex
 
Alex W said:
Hi everyone,

I just wanted to drop in and provide a brief update on things.

Native Access / download issues

Firstly, thanks so much to everyone for being so patient while we deal with Native Access issues. I totally understand your frustration, and to cut a long story short, I am looking to implement an alternative download method for anyone having trouble with NA. For most people NA has worked okay, but when it doesn't, I haven't always had the answers, and it doesn't feel good to have to send people away to NI support. But don't worry, I'll get this all sorted out.

Expressive legato in v1.7 vs Advanced legato in v1.5

To the folks that commented that the new Expressive legato mode feels different to the previous Advanced setting, please accept my apologies - you were actually right. As it turns out, I realised this morning that I had mistakenly changed a couple of parameters in the legato settings, and these two parameters have made quite a noticeable difference in the way the expressive legato "flows". I must have made this mistake very close to the actual release date, and because I ended up using low-latency legato for all the demo material, I simply didn't notice. There are literally hundreds of parameters to be tweaked in the back-end of every patch, so it was just an oversight that will be easy enough to fix. So anyway, I was wrong to shut that conversation down - my bad. I just didn't want it to instantly turn into a "v1.5 is better than v1.7" thread.

It's all good though, I fully expected there to be a few minor bugs / tweaks after the first couple of weeks of release. I'm looking into the various bugs that have been reported - they all look fixable, and I'll return the expressive mode parameters to where they should be.

Spiccato overlay volume for Marcato

Also, @TomaeusD I agree with your critique of the spiccato overlay. In v1.7 I implemented a "velocity-compression" function into the overlay itself, so that when the modwheel is low, it reduces the max range of velocity so that you can play soft agile passages without needing to worry about playing really lightly on the keyboard, as hitting the keys softly is difficult when you're playing a fast passage. I love this function, but I will scale it back a bit so that you can still get more energy into the accents - this should restore the "fanfare" ability as you pointed out.

Version 1.7.1 update

Okay, I think that covers everything. Tech support is finally quietening down enough for me to start working on the above things, and hopefully I'll be able to get a version 1.7.1 update ready for release in the next couple of weeks.

I'm also loving the demos being posted - please continue! And lastly, please don't hesitate to offer constructive criticism if you want to. It turns out that releasing an update to an already well-established library is actually much more stressful than simply releasing a new product. But that's the way it goes, and it's important to me that people still feel like they can voice whatever opinions they have. I won't always agree, but I always take any constructive feedback into consideration.

Thanks again!

-Alex
Click to expand...
Legend ! Thanks for the hard work mate …
 
Alex W said:
Hi everyone,

I just wanted to drop in and provide a brief update on things.

Native Access / download issues

Firstly, thanks so much to everyone for being so patient while we deal with Native Access issues. I totally understand your frustration, and to cut a long story short, I am looking to implement an alternative download method for anyone having trouble with NA. For most people NA has worked okay, but when it doesn't, I haven't always had the answers, and it doesn't feel good to have to send people away to NI support. But don't worry, I'll get this all sorted out.

Expressive legato in v1.7 vs Advanced legato in v1.5

To the folks that commented that the new Expressive legato mode feels different to the previous Advanced setting, please accept my apologies - you were actually right. As it turns out, I realised this morning that I had mistakenly changed a couple of parameters in the legato settings, and these two parameters have made quite a noticeable difference in the way the expressive legato "flows". I must have made this mistake very close to the actual release date, and because I ended up using low-latency legato for all the demo material, I simply didn't notice. There are literally hundreds of parameters to be tweaked in the back-end of every patch, so it was just an oversight that will be easy enough to fix. So anyway, I was wrong to shut that conversation down - my bad. I just didn't want it to instantly turn into a "v1.5 is better than v1.7" thread.

It's all good though, I fully expected there to be a few minor bugs / tweaks after the first couple of weeks of release. I'm looking into the various bugs that have been reported - they all look fixable, and I'll return the expressive mode parameters to where they should be.

Spiccato overlay volume for Marcato

Also, @TomaeusD I agree with your critique of the spiccato overlay. In v1.7 I implemented a "velocity-compression" function into the overlay itself, so that when the modwheel is low, it reduces the max range of velocity so that you can play soft agile passages without needing to worry about playing really lightly on the keyboard, as hitting the keys softly is difficult when you're playing a fast passage. I love this function, but I will scale it back a bit so that you can still get more energy into the accents - this should restore the "fanfare" ability as you pointed out.

Version 1.7.1 update

Okay, I think that covers everything. Tech support is finally quietening down enough for me to start working on the above things, and hopefully I'll be able to get a version 1.7.1 update ready for release in the next couple of weeks.

I'm also loving the demos being posted - please continue! And lastly, please don't hesitate to offer constructive criticism if you want to. It turns out that releasing an update to an already well-established library is actually much more stressful than simply releasing a new product. But that's the way it goes, and it's important to me that people still feel like they can voice whatever opinions they have. I won't always agree, but I always take any constructive feedback into consideration.

Thanks again!

-Alex
Click to expand...
Thank you for being such a humble and hard working professioal, Alex. You are the best!
 
Your hard work and openness is so appreciated here, @Alex W! I was using the marcato for a project today and it's still very much useable for fanfare playing with modwheel up. I'd rather you keep it how it is if it means it's easier to achieve smooth string runs, or else have an option to access the velocity compression in the settings. Thanks again!
 
Stardog24 said:
So two things. First of all re: loading up 1.5, I've had huge success just dragging the instrument nki's from the file browser. Had both 1.7 and 1.5 running simultaneously in Logic with no dramas at all. Heaps easier than renaming, and I now have both versions sitting side by side in my template. :)

Also, in the sake of fairness, I did that thing that Alex keeps telling us not to do in reverse and ran the piece I wrote in 1.7 through 1.5. Ouch. :emoji_grimacing:

1.5
View attachment StringActionThing-OLD.mp3

1.7
View attachment StringActionThing.mp3
Click to expand...
The Basses shorts are waaaaaay more agressive in 1.5. Is that due to the fact that Alex removed the staccatissimo layer from the spics?
 
johncdl said:
Sounds awesome with Albion One's strings
Click to expand...
I think it actually sounds awesome with almost any other library as long as they're not bone-dry. It's one of the main things that makes CSS so good- it sounds very good on it's own but it's very moldable sound-wise, and you can layer almost any other strings with it and they complement each other excellently.

In fact, I just rebuilt my whole workflow yesterday and finally decided to go with CSS as my main strings for everything after years of hovering between SCS, SSS, CSS and lately with Hollywood Strings. I'm just so goddamn fed up with the inconstencies, bugs and everything else on these other string libraries which slow me tremendously down. I want my main strings to actually work and then augment if needed, not vice versa.
Using CSS as the backbone, it's faster to get good results first and then augment it afterwards with the others, instead of starting with a buggy or completely inconsistent library having to replace half of the articulations with other libraries first because the first choice sounds like shit or bugs on important articulations in the middle of everything.
 
Alex W said:
Hi everyone,

I just wanted to drop in and provide a brief update on things.

Native Access / download issues

Firstly, thanks so much to everyone for being so patient while we deal with Native Access issues. I totally understand your frustration, and to cut a long story short, I am looking to implement an alternative download method for anyone having trouble with NA. For most people NA has worked okay, but when it doesn't, I haven't always had the answers, and it doesn't feel good to have to send people away to NI support. But don't worry, I'll get this all sorted out.

Expressive legato in v1.7 vs Advanced legato in v1.5

To the folks that commented that the new Expressive legato mode feels different to the previous Advanced setting, please accept my apologies - you were actually right. As it turns out, I realised this morning that I had mistakenly changed a couple of parameters in the legato settings, and these two parameters have made quite a noticeable difference in the way the expressive legato "flows". I must have made this mistake very close to the actual release date, and because I ended up using low-latency legato for all the demo material, I simply didn't notice. There are literally hundreds of parameters to be tweaked in the back-end of every patch, so it was just an oversight that will be easy enough to fix. So anyway, I was wrong to shut that conversation down - my bad. I just didn't want it to instantly turn into a "v1.5 is better than v1.7" thread.

It's all good though, I fully expected there to be a few minor bugs / tweaks after the first couple of weeks of release. I'm looking into the various bugs that have been reported - they all look fixable, and I'll return the expressive mode parameters to where they should be.

Spiccato overlay volume for Marcato

Also, @TomaeusD I agree with your critique of the spiccato overlay. In v1.7 I implemented a "velocity-compression" function into the overlay itself, so that when the modwheel is low, it reduces the max range of velocity so that you can play soft agile passages without needing to worry about playing really lightly on the keyboard, as hitting the keys softly is difficult when you're playing a fast passage. I love this function, but I will scale it back a bit so that you can still get more energy into the accents - this should restore the "fanfare" ability as you pointed out.

Version 1.7.1 update

Okay, I think that covers everything. Tech support is finally quietening down enough for me to start working on the above things, and hopefully I'll be able to get a version 1.7.1 update ready for release in the next couple of weeks.

I'm also loving the demos being posted - please continue! And lastly, please don't hesitate to offer constructive criticism if you want to. It turns out that releasing an update to an already well-established library is actually much more stressful than simply releasing a new product. But that's the way it goes, and it's important to me that people still feel like they can voice whatever opinions they have. I won't always agree, but I always take any constructive feedback into consideration.

Thanks again!

-Alex
Click to expand...
I'm sure I'm just contributing to your excess notifications here, but Alex, what you have done with version 1.7 is nothing short of miraculous in my view. Short of modelled libraries this is the most playable Kontakt instrument I've come across bar none, and much as I loved it, I could not say that of the old versions.

Thank you!
 
Alex W said:
It turns out that releasing an update to an already well-established library is actually much more stressful than simply releasing a new product.
Click to expand...
This.

I think I know some of why this happens - it's like the difference between releasing an original track and a cover - with the cover, everyone is goes immediately into comparison mode, rather than a thoughtful evaluation of the cover track. Further, in VI world, the main evaluation tool is to drop the updated library onto MIDI created with the original library or another library completely (I'm guilty of this - but I now try to make sure this is only used to demonstrate something positive - e.g. how well the updated library sounds). Those evaluating by actually creating new music are drowned out by all the 'drop in' comparison folks and a skewed viewpoint can become the norm, blooming into a shared "reality".

Finally, the more a product is loved, the harder time vendors seem to get for updating it. If a product is not great, noone is going to have any problems with it being updated! If its already a wonderful, loved library, folks are going to be more protective of the original...

We should all remember this in our responses to vendors updating stuff: free updates represent a hugely charitable effort from the vendor. Other vendors that don't do these are going to be able to channel more funds into other areas - marketing, R&D, etc, etc.

So please, if you love free updates like I do, take time to evaluate them and treat them with the respect they deserve. That said - I can see that the best vendors* do value constructive feedback from us - we must be a hugely valuable set of (gamma? post-gamma?) testers, so please don't stop with the constructive feedback - I'm certain that responses from members on this forum have directly improved some products out there, and we have all benefited from this.

* and not coincedentally perhaps - these receptive vendors are often the ones offering free updates!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom