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Spitfire The Ton Prediction BF 2022 thoughts?

I’m really loving Fragile Strings as I go deeper into it.


It’s not what I expected at all. It’s really not a harsher version of OACE, although the episodic and extreme patches (which I haven’t looked at yet) very probably add that too, and the walkthrough seems to focus on the sound design aspects, which I’m not interested in myself either.

In fact the first 24 “traditional” evos are subtle, gorgeous, articulations in their own right sit nicely with OACE as a gentler more subtle textural layer. And I don’t think the walkthrough really gives you a full sense of this part of the palette.

So I can’t answer this for anyone else, but definatively: yes, I do, as it turns out, need both.

@jbuhler and an I are, kind of “live-blogging” as it were, our experiments in figuring out what this library is about over on this thread, if anyone wants to join in.

Fragile Strings vs OACE - beyond underscore and fx

There's been a lot of people asking "Why do I need Fragile Strings when I have OACE" recently, and having just picked up this Evo myself, it strikes me that beyond sales, this is quite an interesting question musically. Because, Iit's easy sit down with a library like OACE or Fragile Strings...
vi-control.net vi-control.net


TL;DR - loving the Ton this year. :)
 
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I've had a chance to play around with Fragile Strings a bit and its exactly what I wanted from a library like this. Soft pad-like gently shifting beds of soft strings, floating in the background then reminding you with a few embellishments that something else is around the corner. It's spot on my cup of tea.
 
Mornats said:
I've had a chance to play around with Fragile Strings a bit and its exactly what I wanted from a library like this. Soft pad-like gently shifting beds of soft strings, floating in the background then reminding you with a few embellishments that something else is around the corner. It's spot on my cup of tea.
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Do you have OACE?
 
Alchemedia said:
Do you have OACE?
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I don't. It's been on my wishlist for a long time though and I'm a fan of Ólafur's music. I saw him live a few years ago and he was amazing. However, I didn't really gel with the sounds I heard in the walkthrough. They were quite sharp-sounding, likely from being a chamber sized orchestra. I find Fragile Strings a bit smoother in the articulations that are meant to be smooth.

The biggest thing was that I've cut back massively on my sample library spending since our first child came about (2 years ago today!) so the £63 price (I own SStB already) fit within the final few quid of my budget and OACE just hasn't.
 
Mornats said:
I don't. It's been on my wishlist for a long time though and I'm a fan of Ólafur's music. I saw him live a few years ago and he was amazing. However, I didn't really gel with the sounds I heard in the walkthrough. They were quite sharp-sounding, likely from being a chamber sized orchestra. I find Fragile Strings a bit smoother in the articulations that are meant to be smooth.

The biggest thing was that I've cut back massively on my sample library spending since our first child came about (2 years ago today!) so the £63 price (I own SStB already) fit within the final few quid of my budget and OACE just hasn't.
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OACE isn't harsh except for the more extreme evos IMO. There is OAE ("Olafur Arnalds Evolutions"), which is rather harsh, even the ones marked "subtle". It actually was in last year's Ton, and I didn't pick it up as I didn't care for that harshness. Did you mistakenly watch the OAE walkthrough?
 
First time buying the Ton - I gave it a pass in 2019, 2020 and 2021. I'm not sure why most people seem underwhelmed, personally I find this year to be better than any of the past 3. Maybe just personal preference, but I quite liked the walkthrough of Fragile Strings Evolution and thought that alone might be worth it, but the Studio Brass is a nice addition, I recently passed on the CineBrass $199 glitch because I felt HOOPUS covers most of the same ground (huge Hollywood sound), but Studio Brass seems to add a different flavour. I'm aware of some of the downsides and frustrating aspects people have mentioned before but I still think it's a pretty good deal. My opinion might change once I start playing with it.
 
Justin L. Franks said:
OACE isn't harsh except for the more extreme evos IMO. There is OAE ("Olafur Arnalds Evolutions"), which is rather harsh, even the ones marked "subtle". It actually was in last year's Ton, and I didn't pick it up as I didn't care for that harshness. Did you mistakenly watch the OAE walkthrough?
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No, I've listened to them both and did prefer OACE from those two. Harsh is possibly not the right word. I think it's the thin, more naturally brittle nature of the chamber size that didn't work for me. I was surprised I didn't love the demos to be honest as most people love this library.

Fragile Strings has more of a fuller sound that works to fill more of the sonic space and I like that. Although in a mix I do wonder if OACE would leave more room. Time will tell :)
 
Thanks to @ism and Jim @jbuhler and their excellent effort to properly document the properties, sonic qualities and possible avenues for composing they open up, I finally got a good overview of FSE and the potential it has.

So I too decided to purchase The Ton, alongside Studio Woodwinds (core) and a couple of Pianobook Artist libraries.

Thanks for the more than elaborate well researched and thoroughly documented thread guys! One of the best of 2022 if you ask me. Extremely helpful. “Sticky material” for a future “textural string libraries” subforum…
 
easyrider said:
I’m on the fence to get Fragile strings for £54

Not sure I need it having OACE
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I was until this morning too. I decided to get it and it's lovely, definitely worth the price of entry (same as yours). Only had chance for a quick play but it layers nicely with some low string beds etc and I'm sure I'll get lots of use from it.
 
Mornats said:
I don't. It's been on my wishlist for a long time though and I'm a fan of Ólafur's music. I saw him live a few years ago and he was amazing. However, I didn't really gel with the sounds I heard in the walkthrough. They were quite sharp-sounding, likely from being a chamber sized orchestra. I find Fragile Strings a bit smoother in the articulations that are meant to be smooth.

The biggest thing was that I've cut back massively on my sample library spending since our first child came about (2 years ago today!) so the £63 price (I own SStB already) fit within the final few quid of my budget and OACE just hasn't.
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Congratualations on your first child's birthday!
 
doctoremmet said:
Thanks to @ism and Jim @jbuhler and their excellent effort to properly document the properties, sonic qualities and possible avenues for composing they open up, I finally got a good overview of FSE and the potential it has.

So I too decided to purchase The Ton, alongside Studio Woodwinds (core) and a couple of Pianobook Artist libraries.

Thanks for the more than elaborate well researched and thoroughly documented thread guys! One of the best of 2022 if you ask me. Extremely helpful. “Sticky material” for a future “textural string libraries” subforum…
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The group pressure is building up… need to look at more walkthroughs on the SStB. The fragile strings I know will be nice since I have no evos… time is running out
 
easyrider said:
If you have no EVOS go for it.
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No evos! Except the ones in solstice. But no standalone fleshed out evos

For me it stands between upgrading SStS to Pro or get the Ton. It is still BtS brass I am unsure of if I ever use. Having infinite brass and BHCT (for that studio sound). After listening to demos and walkthrough it so sound better than I was expecting, I also like the sound of BHCT.

Pondering some more
 
easyrider said:
I’m on the fence to get Fragile strings for £54

Not sure I need it having OACE
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It might seem very similar to OACE on paper, but Fragile Strings sits nicely between OACE and Angular Strings.

OACE is just delicate and beautiful. To me, it sounds slightly bigger than the Evos recorded at Air Edel, even though the section size is the same. Maybe because of the large hall? And I think because individual players don't stick out that much. It sounds soft and "loopable", very often uniform without drastic transitions inside one Evo. I have to say I mostly use the "subtle" Evos. I have heard that the dissonant Evos could even sit in a horror cue :)

Fragile Strings has similar qualities in some patches, but it can go beyond that and introduce more "edge" with distinctive Avantgarde playing techniques. Very often, it will have a transition from one technique/sound to another. Individual players will stick out more when, let's say, ricochet flickers are gradually introduced into a static note. That's great for transitions inside a musical piece, but it won't just work on any given phrase (which OACE mostly does!). Thankfully, you have control over those transitions with a "variation" slider - something OACE does not have and does not need.

Also, the warped ambient patches sound really good. I think Fragile Strings is worth it if you like working with Evos. I have both and don't think one fully replaces the other. But as always, YMMV ;)
 
In addition to that: Angular Strings is even more edgy. I don't have that one yet, I am very tempted though. There is a labs patch called "Scary Strings", I think it's taken from Angular Strings. At least it sounds very similar. There is a little bit of overlap between Angular and Fragile, just as there is between Fragile and OACE. But each one sits in it's own place in the spectrum.
 
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VVEremita said:
In addition to that: Angular Strings is even more edgy. I don't have that one yet, I am very tempted though. There is a labs patch called "Scary Strings", I think it's taken from Angular Strings. At least it sounds very similar. There is a little bit of overlap between Angular and Fragile, just as there is between Fragile and OACE. But each one sits in it's own place in the spectrum.
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If I remember correctly, Scary Strings was the proof-of-concept for the Evos.
 
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