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Thoughts on Venice Modern Strings?

How does this library approach legato? Fluffy's other libraries use some kind of audio level-matching algorithm to make the note transitions smoother, I believe, which seems like a neat idea.
 
@paoling, re marketing..tbh I think other's may have something to learn from your good selves..no bluster..honest appraisal of a library's positive and negative aspects.. this is a welcome attitude.. elegant, as I think you said in some post somewhere..
 
For whatever it's worth I'm a big fan of this library. Great sound on it's on, particularly with the spot/close mics. Also layers well with CSS to brighten up that dark sound. The shorts are a little bit synthy, but I've used the pizzicatos quite a lot which are really nice. It's a pretty good deal at the current price if you are in the market for this kind of thing..
 
For whatever it's worth I'm a big fan of this library. Great sound on it's on, particularly with the spot/close mics. Also layers well with CSS to brighten up that dark sound. The shorts are a little bit synthy, but I've used the pizzicatos quite a lot which are really nice. It's a pretty good deal at the current price if you are in the market for this kind of thing..

It would be great to hear more examples of the library. Would you like to run the violins through Saxer's seven legato test? (Also, if you have Spitfire Studio Strings, I haven't heard it through the test before, either).

 

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How does this library approach legato? Fluffy's other libraries use some kind of audio level-matching algorithm to make the note transitions smoother, I believe, which seems like a neat idea.
This happens with the Trio Broz series and our Woodwinds. We called it DCE (Dynamic Control Engine). At the time I felt it was a revolutionary feature but for example, Simple Violin doesn't have it and also Rinascimento neither. Their Legato is still beautiful, so I realized that we could save a few cpu cycles by ditching it altogether.
So we don't have it in Dominus and also in Venice.
This is in part due to the fact that since Simple Violin we have sampled everything in the same hall with a good amount of natural reverb. Woodwinds and Broz strings were instead sampled in a very dry room. Dry samples are more versatile, but they may sound a bit dull. Often the player is less excited to play in a completely dead place.

What I realized through this time is that the more you are able to avoid messing up with the original volumes of the samples, the better. Especially for wet samples. So samples matching may seems a great idea on paper, but the more the user listens to the sounds played at their original level the better impression he has on the sound of the library. That's why many developers including us hate normalization on samples. Unless you don't come up with the perfect formula to perfectly rebuild the lost dynamic information (as it possible for example with a piano library), the result are hardly satisfying.
 
Cross-post from the deals forum, probably belongs here

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Hello guys!

I recently bought Venice Strings and really love the sound of this library! Congratulations on the beautiful sampling :)

However, I have a serious cpu overload issue – even at large buffer sizes (256, 512) there are extremely many cpu spikes - the audio distorts so badly that the patch is not playable. It is enough to just play some simple chords to overload the cpu.

I have a 2018 6-core i7 macbook pro, thunderbolt audio interface, and it is the same behaviour in Logic, Reaper and Cubase. Multicore support in Kontakt is turned off.

This does not happen to me on the same system with most of the other libraries (spitfire, OT, CS2, Chris Hein, etc.) – they all play fine even at much lower buffer settings.

The only comparable experience I had was with 8dio strings, which were unusable due to these issues (I’ve read some users referring to them as badly scripted*).

The same did also happen with Light & Sound Chamber Strings, but turning off Time Machine in Kontakt remedied the issue completely.

However, I can not find such a button in the interface of Venice Strings.

So my question is: what am I doing wrong? Are other users experiencing the same? Are there some settings that can remedy this? Or is this simply such a beast of a library that a uber powerful computer is required to tame it? As the Venice Strings sound fantastic, I would really like to be able to use them.

So I would be very grateful for some insights. Thank you very much for your input! :)



*P.S. I do not mean to imply that Venice Strings are badly scripted or so and hope that the developers do not take offense! I am rather sure that I am doing something wrong (I am still new to all this sample based orchestration music thing and have almost no clue about the technical / scripting aspects)
 
However, I have a serious cpu overload issue – even at large buffer sizes (256, 512) there are extremely many cpu spikes - the audio distorts so badly that the patch is not playable. It is enough to just play some simple chords to overload the cpu.
On which patch/articulation do you experience this?
If you play chords on the ensemble patch make sure to increase the voice count in Kontakt from 512 up to for example 2048. Venice Modern Strings has a very high usage of voices in Kontakt. It easily drops voices otherwise.
 
Hello. We are aware of this issue and it may happen with the sustain and polylegato patches. We'll have some improvements soon, for sure. Let's see if this fixes: click on the little gear on the top left part of the GUI and select LOW as engine quality. You would not hear any difference possibly, but it will be quite lighter on the CPU. I'll update soon with a few newer patches here.
 
On which patch/articulation do you experience this?
If you play chords on the ensemble patch make sure to increase the voice count in Kontakt from 512 up to for example 2048. Venice Modern Strings has a very high usage of voices in Kontakt. It easily drops voices otherwise.

Basically on all the long / sustain and especially the (poly-) legato patches.

Thank you very much for the hint with the voice count! Will try as soon as I am home.
 
Hello. We are aware of this issue and it may happen with the sustain and polylegato patches. We'll have some improvements soon, for sure. Let's see if this fixes: click on the little gear on the top left part of the GUI and select LOW as engine quality. You would not hear any difference possibly, but it will be quite lighter on the CPU. I'll update soon with a few newer patches here.

Thank you for your response - I really appreciate your help, and it is great to hear that there will be an update! Will try the LOW quality setting and report back. Thumbs up for such a prompt response and direct involvement with your customers, even on a sunday :)
 
The topic is old, but I wanted to express my opinion. Here several people wrote that something was wrong with the legato. I don't hear it. VMS has one of the best legato on the market - there are no sharp volume drops, no transitions between layers are audible. I would put legato in the library on a par with CSS, BSS and Appassionata. In other threads, people have said that Afflatus or NSS has good legato. So, compared to Afflatus and NSS, legato in VMS is a cut above. There are no such slides for each note with this incomprehensible jump in volume, which I constantly hear in the demonstration to NSS and Afflatus. I think this library is undeservedly bypassed.
 
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