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High quality film music mock-ups - Best string libraries and or best combination of libraries?

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AliciaMusic

New Member
Hello!

I've been using Cinematic Studio Strings for a while in combination sometimes with other libraries such as Symphobia and others for other articulations aside from legato.

The thing is that, even if I still find CSS amazing, and after using it for some years already and found ways to make it sound very realistic, my ears are getting tired of the same sound again and again.

I wanted to ask about one or two really AMAZING string libraries for film music production, specially for legato/espressivo.

Thank you!
Click to read more...
 
AliciaMusic said:
Hello!

I've been using Cinematic Studio Strings for a while in combination sometimes with other libraries such as Symphobia and others for other articulations aside from legato.

The thing is that, even if I still find CSS amazing, and after using it for some years already and found ways to make it sound very realistic, my ears are getting tired of the same sound again and again.

I wanted to ask about one or two really AMAZING string libraries for film music production, specially for legato/espressivo.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Pacific strings from Performance Samples are amazing at legato.

Example by @Steve Hicks :

Star Wars - Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 7M3 Yoda Raises the Ship

Another little mock up following Mr Sewell's analysis. I've no real idea why I do these - other than I've always loved this cue (obvs) and allows me to marvel at quite how good and rich the music is! Libs: Berlin Soloists and Berlin WW (Berkley) CSB and Berlin Brass (Berkley) CinePerc...
vi-control.net vi-control.net
 
Marcus Millfield said:
You'll probably get 100 different answers from at least as many people. Everyone has their favorite and the answers in this thread probably won't answer your question.
Click to expand...
Yep. Everyone is going to just trot out their own favorite "horse". There is no best. probably no best for a particular person even.

That said the Berlin String Bundle is miles ahead of all the trashy recommendations so far ;)
 
Marcus Millfield said:
You'll probably get 100 different answers from at least as many people.
Click to expand...
Yet, these libraries never get approx. the same percentage of votes in polls/discussions, so it would be pretty safe that some of them generally are seen as clearly better than some of the others. Most people with only one or just a few library would benefit from checking out existing threads or polls on this forum. @AliciaMusic: Tip – when you search for older threads, enable Search Titles Only.
 
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Vik said:
Yet, these libraries never get approx. the same percentage of votes in polls/discussions, so it would be pretty safe that some of them generally are seen as clearly better than some of the others. Most people with only one or just a few library would benefit from checking out existing threads or polls on this forum. @Marcus Millfield: Tip – when you search for older threads, enable Search Titles Only.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip Vik, but I wasn't asking ;)
 
Marcus Millfield said:
You'll probably get 100 different answers from at least as many people. Everyone has their favorite and the answers in this thread probably won't answer your question.
Click to expand...
The question was not "Which strings are good for film music production" - that would indeed have resulted in a zillion answers, leaving OP none the wiser.

OP's question was more specific:

"I wanted to ask about one or two really AMAZING string libraries for film music production, specially for legato/espressivo."

(my emphasis of the last part)

Amazing string libraries especially for legato/espressivo...that narrows down the selection, wouldn't you say? :)
 
AliciaMusic said:
Hello!

I've been using Cinematic Studio Strings for a while in combination sometimes with other libraries such as Symphobia and others for other articulations aside from legato.

The thing is that, even if I still find CSS amazing, and after using it for some years already and found ways to make it sound very realistic, my ears are getting tired of the same sound again and again.

I wanted to ask about one or two really AMAZING string libraries for film music production, specially for legato/espressivo.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
I'd look into Pacific Strings, Spitfire Appassionata, Afflatus from Strezov, Vista, Con Moto.

Probably others but this is what I can remember right now :)
 
Well, Henrik, we don't agree there. I like that the legato in Spitfire is both subtle and somewhat controllable. The performance legato and "true" legato (a few patches out now) are quite good and not so conspicuous as some other libraries.

And then there's Strezov Sampling's "Afflatus" strings, with poly legato.

I think there are possibly as many opinions about legato as about anything else.

[note: I have recevieved free products from Spitfire and Strezov]
 
Henrik B. Jensen said:
I doubt anyone would claim Spitfire Symphonic Strings has "amazing" legato - even people who like the sound of the library.
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How convincing a legato patch is depends on a lot of factors, and IMO, SSS is very useful for certain things that many other libraries struggle with.

In this now three year old little comparison, SSS is still one of my favorites for such material:


Just like CSS, Berlin Strings also sound more convincing after the last major update/rewrite, so BS (especially the Special Bows Sul Tasto), PS Pacific (and Vista), SF Appassionata and VSL Synchron Strings are all worth checking out IMO. Audiobro LASS and Modern Scoring Strings also have som great stuff.
Personally, I've come to the conclusion that I'll more or less avoid 8dio-libraries.
 
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Truth is you can produce high quality film-music mockups with most of them. There are at least a dozen or so with which you can achieve state of the art results if you know how to use them. @AliciaMusic as you seem to know your preferences, my advice would be to listen to the demos of the most widely used libraries, and then decide according to your tastes. From off the top of my head, ones to check out are:

Spitfire Appasionata Strings
Berlin Symphonic Strings
Cinematic Strings 2 (from the same developer of Cinematic Studio Strings. This is the predecessor of CSS)
Eastwest Hollywood Strings
VSL Synchron Strings Pro
Spitfire Symphonic Strings
Audiobro LA Scoring Strings
Musical Sampling Soaring Strings


There are probably a few more I can't think of right now. If you grew tired of Cinematic Studio Strings sound you could also try to alternate between v1.0 and v1.7. The latter has changed the tone of the library quite a bit.

Out of the bunch mentioned above, I would say thtat the four at the top have the most pronounced espressivo quality. But your tastes may differ.



Disclaimer: I have received free products from Eastwest.
 
JohnG said:
Well, Henrik, we don't agree there. I like that the legato in Spitfire is both subtle and somewhat controllable. The performance legato and "true" legato (a few patches out now) are quite good and not so conspicuous as some other libraries.

And then there's Strezov Sampling's "Afflatus" strings, with poly legato.

I think there are possibly as many opinions about legato as about anything else.

[note: I have recevieved free products from Spitfire and Strezov]
Click to expand...
John, you are right (and so were you, @Marcus Millfield :) )

When replying above I implicitly assumed - without even being aware of it myself - that my own impression of what makes up a good legato is correct. So your post was a good reminder for me. :)
 
I would also add Nashville Scoring Strings to the list) For me these and Pacific Strings are the most emotional and easy to work with of what I have - considering legatos at least.
 
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