What's new

Cinematic Studio Strings vs. Spitfire Studio Strings Pro: My observations

just bought SStS Pro two days ago, and i don't regret, passing good time to sculpt the sounds in micro details and obtain very precises phrases i was looking for..... Complement very well berlin strings and CSS.
 
@NoamL have you tried Kush Clariphonic? That's the first tool I reach for when trying to make CSS sound a little brighter and more open.

Here is a super quick and dirty test:


Only processing is from Clariphonic and just a tad of reverb.

By the way, have you rebalanced your CSS template somehow? Using your midi file out of the box, the melody line sounds much more prominent for me than it does in your example.
 
Last edited:
@NoamL have you tried Kush Clariphonic? That's the first tool I reach to when trying to make CSS sound a little brighter and more open.

Here is a super quick and dirty test:


Only processing is from Clariphonic and just a tad of reverb.

By the way, have you rebalanced your CSS template somehow? Using your midi file out of the box, the melody line sounds much more prominent for me than it does in your example.
@muk This is really interesting. Do you happen to have a before and after to do an A/B comparison. Is Kush Clariphonic your main eq for for all your instruments. I like the sound alot. I see they do a demo version. Might you be able to share your settings ? Thanks you
 
  • Like
Reactions: muk
And some screenshots for people with other EQs (V1 / V2 / Va / Vc / DB)

EDIT: by the way, this was the penultimate version actually, I strongly suggest removing the highest frequency peak for all instruments, it just brings out the hiss too much during soft-dynamic passages.

Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.29.36 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.29.57 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.30.10 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.30.30 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.30.39 PM.png
Thanks so much @NoamL this is so helpful,thanks for taking the time to do this. I'm going to give it a try now. Do you use a Valhalla Preset, or have you made your own. I agree, perhaps mixing is best left to the pros and I stick to composing ! It would be good to learn a little more though. Thank you
 
Last edited:
And some screenshots for people with other EQs (V1 / V2 / Va / Vc / DB)

EDIT: by the way, this was the penultimate version actually, I strongly suggest removing the highest frequency peak for all instruments, it just brings out the hiss too much during soft-dynamic passages.

Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.29.36 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.29.57 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.30.10 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.30.30 PM.png Screen Shot 2020-03-28 at 9.30.39 PM.png
My EQ's looks very similar to this, and I get what you mean about the hiss from the high frequency peak, but honestly I love the way it adds some air to the strings, so it's a constant struggle between "do I get rid of the hiss, or do I keep the air"
 
Do you happen to have a before and after to do an A/B comparison.

Sure. Here is the same thing without the clariphonic. Everything else is exactly the same:


Is Kush Clariphonic your main eq for for all your instruments.

No, the clariphonic is not really your standard eq plugin. For eq purposes I use a traditional eq plugin. The clariphonic I use mainly to 'open up' sounds that are a bit dull, dark, or muffled. CSS is a classic use case for me, as I find it can make them sound a bit brighter without boosting the hiss too much.
 
My EQ's looks very similar to this, and I get what you mean about the hiss from the high frequency peak, but honestly I love the way it adds some air to the strings, so it's a constant struggle between "do I get rid of the hiss, or do I keep the air"

Interesting! Do you have cuts and boosts at about the same frequencies?
 
Interesting! Do you have cuts and boosts at about the same frequencies?
Yeah, the most common ones I saw were the cuts just before 500hz, just before 5k, and then a boost at roughly 12k. I don't have the room noise killer cut right at the bottom on my strings eq when composing, but I usually do that at the end when mixing
 
I like CSS quite a bit. The only two real limitations imo are:

1. the heavy vibrato on the sustains
2. and the section sizes being short of symphonic proportions.

Other than that it can handle lots of different kinds of music.

It does need a lot of EQ, I feel.

You've got to tradeoff between added clarity and added hiss, especially on the lower dynamics, but I don't mind a bit of air in samples. It's rarely too audible in orchestral context.

Here is a theme from Mad Max: Fury Road by Tom Holkenborg with my CSS setup (still a work in progress...)



And here is the exact same MIDI but CSS out of the box:



Again, still battling the hiss a bit and this excerpt is unforgiving in that aspect (strings stop & start and are very exposed). But it shows that CSS doesn't always have to have that dark & muddy sound. You can shape it to whatever aesthetic pleases you! :)


How do you get such a good stock css sound?

I tried different chord progressions, and they always sound strange. I tend to use Albion One strings and this is very dumb.

Do you use the none legato patch for chord progressions? Or do you split the progression into 5 tracks and run in legato mode for all?
 
I stopped reading at "CSS doesn't do short samples too well". You are comparing a lib that has 4 different shorts (and can sound very trailer-ish aggressive too) with one that only has one. Comparisons are nice but please, use the lib a bit before doing one ;)
 
How do you get such a good stock css sound?

I tried different chord progressions, and they always sound strange. I tend to use Albion One strings and this is very dumb.

Do you use the none legato patch for chord progressions? Or do you split the progression into 5 tracks and run in legato mode for all?
Probably the latter.
Also, how familiar are you with 4-part writing? Parallel fifths, octaves, resolving tritones etc.
Makes a huge difference in sound, something I knew almost nothing about some time ago :)
 
Probably the latter.
Also, how familiar are you with 4-part writing? Parallel fifths, octaves, resolving tritones etc.
Makes a huge difference in sound, something I knew almost nothing about some time ago :)

I’m getting into writing for strings atm, so the lack of orchestrating experience is definitely a problem.
But I saw, NoamL postet the midi of his example, i will look into that.
 
I stopped reading at "CSS doesn't do short samples too well". You are comparing a lib that has 4 different shorts (and can sound very trailer-ish aggressive too) with one that only has one. Comparisons are nice but please, use the lib a bit before doing one ;)

One of the interesting things about the OP was that it's not a review, it's a rather more impressionistic comparison. And it's led to some interesting discussion if you read the rest of the thread (including ~17 corrections (and counting) of that line about the shorts). :)
 
Last edited:
I stopped reading at "CSS doesn't do short samples too well". You are comparing a lib that has 4 different shorts (and can sound very trailer-ish aggressive too) with one that only has one. Comparisons are nice but please, use the lib a bit before doing one ;)
When Studio Strings fires up, it loads a "greatest hits" patch of common articulations, presumably to save memory. That is only some of them. It has a ton. One has to go further to "core", "extended", "individual" etc. to see all of them...

sarc.jpg
 
When Studio Strings fires up, it loads a "greatest hits" patch of common articulations, presumably to save memory. That is only some of them. It has a ton. One has to go further to "core", "extended", "individual" etc. to see all of them...

sarc.jpg

I have it. Yet, I didn't find common shorts like staccato ;) Super Sul Tasto may be nice but that's not really bread and butter articulations (neither it is a short articulation, which was the point).
 
I have it. Yet, I didn't find common shorts like staccato
Well, you could always call one of the many shorts "staccato" if you'd like. :)

Since you have it, others can listen to the attachment. I played a few notes and messed up at the end, you can tell that it's the same performance. Call them what you want- spiccato, shortcato, spiccorko, splexasto. It has any kind of short needed. I didn't do mic positions or section sizes etc because that would be an endless amount of shorts. :)
 

Attachments

  • shorts.mp3
    1.5 MB · Views: 179
Top Bottom