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Venice Modern Strings - Intro offer ends in 24h

Uhm.. lovely mockup, but this is not legato (I've noticed that you have changed the text).. I'd use the staccatissimo for most of this piece. We have a version of Archoir by Simone Mor, naked with just the staccatissimo in our articulation walkthrough. We'll try to produce some super fast demo-thing anyway :D
 
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That isn't a mockup. It's the real orch with the midi of the mockup playing. Saw it on social media a while ago and it confused me too...
 
looks and sounds amazing, great work!

also, props on that clean and beautiful GUI design. Too many devs don't keep their UX clean, yours looks especially nice.
 
@paoling As the fastspring rar archive downloads were extremely slow I used the pulse downloader. This downloader loads VeniceStrings114 vs the archive downloads are VeniceStrings115. Is there a difference between the two?

I had not too much time to use it yet, but I am already fully pleased and would get it again :)
Venice Modern Strings has a beautiful sound :thumbsup:

A possible improvement would be an Ensemble Staccatissimo patch.

Just for info: The double basses do not have a c-extension and thus the lowest note is the E. Not that big of a problem though.
 
Thank you Manuel! No difference between the two. We've named the ear differently because it was easier for Pulse, I believe, to handle many little parts of 1gb each, while for the manual download a bigger ear size would be more handy (so the manual download is 2.5 GB per file).

Let me know your experience with Pulse. We have tested it a lot, it works nice on our system, but some people had some issues that convinced us to give the manual links anyway.
 
I´ve been playing around with Venice Modern Strings a little now. I´ve had/have lot´s of string libraries. And lately the only one I´m using is CSS. I´m pleased that I try Venice Strings. It sounds fantastic. And one thing I really like is that it sits super well with CSS. both together sound fantastic. Venice for me has a bit more defined and slightly brighter tone than css, not to be mistaken with harsh. Is really mellow. Dynamics are well captured as well. Don´t get me wrong, if i´m mentioning CSS in this post is cause is my by FAR favourite string library and I use it as a context. I can say Venice Strings is on par with CSS. Both combined are very nice! I think I better show something quick I did with Venice . As I think it speaks on their own. This has violins I, Viola, Cello and Basses from Venice Modern Strings, Mixed with Violins II from CSS. The link : https://www.dropbox.com/s/clrilhn4fhibdew/Venice Test.wav?dl=0 also played some lines with the first violin of Venice Modern Strings using the legato patch : https://www.dropbox.com/s/yl0p6ijt4fj3vfu/Venice Violin I legato test.wav?dl=0

Cheers!
 
Love the sound. Sounds and looks fantastic! Will definitely put it on my wishlist. Need to buy another SSD before even thinking about it tho ;).
 
That's an impressive release. I really like the warm sound. The staccatissimo demo is really excellent and essentially avoids the "machine gun" effect despite the same-note repetitions. I'm thinking of 2:30 into the Overview Video.
 
Let me know your experience with Pulse. We have tested it a lot, it works nice on our system, but some people had some issues that convinced us to give the manual links anyway.
Download through pulse worked very well. The biggest disadvantage is: Pulse buffers the temporary files to the main system drive and there is no option to change this path (really there should be an option, so that you can point to another disk for these big data files) . Which means you need the complete library space free on that drive, which already was a problem for me. My system drive is only a rather small SSD. For 55GB it was ok, but if a sample lib would have 100GB, the downloader would be totally useless for users having a small main system drive.

Most often I prefer manual links over tools (at least as a fallback option they are important).
 
Download through pulse worked very well. The biggest disadvantage is: Pulse buffers the temporary files to the main system drive and there is no option to change this path (really there should be an option, so that you can point to another disk for these big data files) . Which means you need the complete library space free on that drive, which already was a problem for me. My system drive is only a rather small SSD. For 55GB it was ok, but if a sample lib would have 100GB, the downloader would be totally useless for users having a small main system drive.

Most often I prefer manual links over tools (at least as a fallback option they are important).

Hi @Manuel Stumpf yes you're absolutely right! Not the best experience as some people don't have that much space on their main drive. So we're changing this right now and releasing the update in the next few days at the latest - your app will automatically update once the new version is out. Thanks for the feedback :)
 
I will say that the overview video on Fluffy’s site gives an honest and compelling representation of the character and sound. If you hear both those sustained moments in the Mahler, or the shorter pulse of the Vivaldi, and think how you might sculpt (midi interpret) a note or two a bit differently, as was my reaction before buying, that sums up my experience working through various patches so far. Kudus to them for using known works to help expose the product, btw.

Which is to also say I find the brighter quality to be both immediate and unique - something that has been missing from my string library template. I can’t say enough about how glad I am for that character. The choice of the hall/space used in recording, imho, is half the brilliance (literally). Some will find this to be too wet, and for my taste, the close mics alone capture that resonance and natural decay best, where less is more (the default patches load both close and far, and no mid, and I immediately started muting the far for composing purposes). So, I do find the mics here to be less distinct from each other than I’d like, though I’m only relaying first impressions here, void of thorough testing.

But to me, that space is a feature of how and where this was recorded: any style one might associate with Venice is not merely a product name here, as it is implicit to me that Fluffy set out to be distinguishable from the British hall sound, and the German studio, or an East European character, or other European go to venues, or even the darker coloring in another hemisphere hall mentioned by others - and it succeeds in standing apart on that front. I tend to be more critical of coloring in string libraries (not just the room decay) as I compose small/chamber/stage, than perhaps others are who work in more expansive orchestral strokes. Hence, “yet another string library” had to catch my ear before purchasing.

In terms of core articulations and how I (we) are accustomed to a certain way of working, I felt during auditioning yesterday those moments where the staccatos (and staccatissimos) have to be approached on their terms, if that makes sense. That these have a certain lilt in fast passages, and can be further harnessed via velocity considerations (and TM, though to very mixed results for me), is very stylistic and appealing. And while I suppose they are capable of being used (obliterated) into epic hellish intent, I would recommend other options for those inclined to do so.

The other expressive articulations, like floutandos and arcs are reminiscent of other libraries I use, and yet brighter in character for reasons already mentioned.

The compare/contrast, or blending with other library scenarios is inevitable to me as well, where I am already plotting how I might round out sustains or give more weight to shorts, sparingly. Though not necessarily. Listening to the demo songs beforehand, I had (have) reservations about some of the higher string legato, where scripting compensates for what feels like a slightly less mature development compared to other considerations.

And yet, I actually don’t always want a library to impose its legato on me (old school, I know). There were no surprises to me after buying, where the ample and amply expressive legato is concerned - Venice’s included tools for further shaping how legato styles are triggered a necessity. Out of boxers should take note! As these are all first impressions, it’s still a bit early for me to say how I will ultimately feel after integrating Venice in projects, except I already know that the glassier overall (baroque sheen) is worth whatever effort I put into shaping legato, even if I blend in a workflow like SCS, albeit very discriminately.

I haven’t gotten there yet, and can see how the advanced features themselves are going to be key in creating nuance. To me, so far, that nuance is never simply “out of the box,” no matter which library I use, though I was easily lost and absorbed playing the cello yesterday to great, inspirational affect - which meets a personal threshold for me in terms of a library’s effectiveness for future use. It’s not a perfect library, or a perfectly articulated solution throughout, and it has some inconsistencies I’m detecting (as well as technical glitches I have reported already). Being visually impaired, I wished Fluffy had stayed with the higher contrast against the parchment art throughout, as opposed to the second tier options which use muddy low contrast beiges and browns (and small text) for the advanced tools.

[Edit: not to end on a critical note, I meant to conclude with how my overall impressions are positive.]

Please forgive my review style, as it is what I did for years, and I tend to lapse into that cadence, lol. My personal wallet paid for these humble opinions and first impressions, all typed on an iPad at 4 am.
 
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A pleasure to read such kind of personal reviews, very helpful and honest. Kudos to you!

This library seems to be a nice addition to the actual strings palette and would probably fits my needs. I hope Paolo will find some time to make a complete walkthrough video including "naked" playing of each instrument and mic comparison...
 
@gpax. Thanks for your review, much apprected. It's a bit hard to follow you in places, but it sounds like you are giving it a thumbs up on sound and scripting overall?
 
Let me know your experience with Pulse. We have tested it a lot, it works nice on our system, but some people had some issues that convinced us to give the manual links anyway.

@pulsedownloader The pulse download worked well for me, no issues. I actually liked that I didn't have to physically download on to my laptop and then move it to my ssd drive etc...Took about an hour which I guess is fair for 50GB of Library. I will now back up to my spare drive
 
@gpax. Thanks for your review, much apprected. It's a bit hard to follow you in places, but it sounds like you are giving it a thumbs up on sound and scripting overall?
Sorry about that! It was really meant to be nuanced first impressions, and not a definitive review at this point. In truth, I thought I was posting in the other thread asking for those impressions, and by accident posted here instead. I really like this library, The sound which seems tailor-made for my style. But I’m still working through its various strengths and weaknesses.
 
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