Can Vivid Strings sound like Tundra?

Soundbed said:

This is a super short, no talking compare and contrast with the new Vivid Strings First Violins (updated today, to v1.3) with the tried and true reigning champ of the edge of silence, Spitfire Albion Tundra, the Legato Flaut Con Sord patch.

I have the close mic on the whole time, which shows Vivid to be even "closer" or "more revealing" maybe vs Tundra's close mics, which you might enjoy or might not enjoy, depending. The farthest Vivid mics do sound closer to Tundra, but they are not in this video.

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VIVID STRINGS is a meticulously crafted chamber strings sample library, featuring the rich and intimate sounds of a range of elite performers.

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Albion Tundra — Spitfire Audio

Albion Tundra captures a characteristically Scandinavian sound, recorded at the edge of silence - everything you need to take it down a degree or two.

www.spitfireaudio.com

@Pulse Audio — I also think I found a bug, shown around 0:52, where sometimes the Expression does not seem to change anything. It's inconsistent though (usually it works fine).

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This is most interesting, thanks for doing this. Tundra is quite a lot larger ensemble, and the smaller ensemble of Vivid Strings, enhanced by the close mic, immediately reminds me of the SCS flautando, which I find is quite close to the lowest dynamic layer of OT's new BWS, at least with the viola divisi that I've tested it with. For better or worse, Vivid Strings doesn't have the sound of Air... In any case, it looks like I have more "greens" in my future. (I can't really test this straight up against BWS, since I only have the violas there, and Vivid strings only has violin 1.)

jbuhler said:

This is most interesting, thanks for doing this. Tundra is quite a lot larger ensemble, and the smaller ensemble of Vivid Strings, enhanced by the close mic, immediately reminds me of the SCS flautando, which I find is quite close to the lowest dynamic layer of OT's new BWS, at least with the viola divisi that I've tested it with. For better or worse, Vivid Strings doesn't have the sound of Air... In any case, it looks like I have more "greens" in my future. (I can't really test this straight up against BWS, since I only have the violas there, and Vivid strings only has violin 1.)

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You’re right, the section sizes are definitely part of the equation.

You’re probably in the other thread where people are trying to mimic the Air Lyndhurst “reverb” sound… it would probably involve some EQ on the source, plus finding the right reverb base (starting point), and maybe EQ on the verb too.

But … if one isn’t trying to match Air, I quite enjoy the sound of Vivid strings as it is, intimate and close and yet very quiet and almost breathy sounding.

Soundbed said:

You’re right, the section sizes are definitely part of the equation.

You’re probably in the other thread where people are trying to mimic the Air Lyndhurst “reverb” sound… it would probably involve some EQ on the source, plus finding the right reverb base (starting point), and maybe EQ on the verb too.

But … if one isn’t trying to match Air, I quite enjoy the sound of Vivid strings as it is, intimate and close and yet very quiet and almost breathy sounding.

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Yes, I agree: These soft sounds from Vivid Strings are lovely. It's one of the reasons I picked up the collection. That, and I thought they paired well with SF's LCO and so might be able to supplement that library as well.

jbuhler said:

Yes, I agree: These soft sounds from Vivid Strings are lovely. It's one of the reasons I picked up the collection. That, and I thought they paired well with SF's LCO and so might be able to supplement that library as well.

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Oh great callout! I’ll check with LCO at some point too.

Can't comment on Tundra, but Vivid Violins pair beautifully with Iremia.
I am so looking forward to having the 2 collections completed, as that combination of close and intimate textures and legatos is going to, provided the quality remains the same, be hard to beat.

Interesting topic. VSL Dimension Strings vol. 3 also excels at soft playing i assume. I wonder why we never hear about that library? Anyway, thanks.

Obi-Wan Spaghetti said:

Interesting topic. VSL Dimension Strings vol. 3 also excels at soft playing i assume. I wonder why we never hear about that library? Anyway, thanks.

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I don’t have it :(

Someone else could post a noodle.

Soundbed said:

I don’t have it :(

Someone else could post a noodle.

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I wanted to start a thread about this library to have opinions on it but after doing a research on it 1st and found zero comment about it i did not even bother. But the demo suggest that it might be the ultimate tool for that sort of thing. But it was recorded in the silent stage(super dry) so it's not ideal from that point of view but all players were recorded individually which does add to realism for sure. Anyway, i might pic it up at some point, I'm just not sure how useful it would be.

Obi-Wan Spaghetti said:

I wanted to start a thread about this library to have opinions on it but after doing a research on it 1st and found zero comment about it i did not even bother. But the demo suggest that it might be the ultimate tool for that sort of thing. But it was recorded in the silent stage(super dry) so it's not ideal from that point of view but all players were recorded individually which does add to realism for sure. Anyway, i might pic it up at some point, I'm just not sure how useful it would be.

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Hmm … I didn’t realize it was individually recorded. I thought the main selling point was two orchestras in two rooms playing the same stuff, maybe with sordino or something. I’m so uninformed…

Soundbed said:

Hmm … I didn’t realize it was individually recorded. I thought the main selling point was two orchestras in two rooms playing the same stuff, maybe with sordino or something. I’m so uninformed…

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That’s Duality, a recent VSL library. Dimension is older. I think of it as the ultimate divisi library, if you ever need to do divisi down to the player. I don’t have the library but I’ve been intrigued by it. I think Chris Hein has a similar library.

Hmm, suddenly Dimension Strings becomes a library of interest.
Toddles off to VSL.

jbuhler said:

That’s Duality, a recent VSL library. Dimension is older. I think of it as the ultimate divisi library, if you ever need to do divisi down to the player. I don’t have the library but I’ve been intrigued by it. I think Chris Hein has a similar library.

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Ohhhhhh this is that one. My bad.

I’m sorry I need to stop forum posting on my phone. It’s January and I’m getting back to “work” lol.

Didn’t Spitfire have a sort of scale up with the mod wheel version of that concept for a limited time sale? Maybe … Aperture? Now I need to swipe apps to go research …

Soundbed said:

Ohhhhhh this is that one. My bad.

I’m sorry I need to stop forum posting on my phone. It’s January and I’m getting back to “work” lol.

Didn’t Spitfire have a sort of scale up with the mod wheel version of that concept for a limited time sale? Maybe … Aperture? Now I need to swipe apps to go research …

Click to expand...

Dimension is a build your own section size library. Its downside, as I understand it, is that each player is an instrument, so in former times it often taxed even fairly advanced systems, since you needed eight instances of the plugin just for the first violins, or so I understand it. In this age of SSDs and very large RAM computers, that may no longer be an issue. I don't have the library so I can't say for certain, though I have been very intrigued by it, since I quite like the idea of being able to create sections where you can divide down to the individual player.

SF Aperture is closer to the Duality Strings idea, I think. It's a newly recorded quintet of individual players ppp, then samples from the solo strings library mp, SCS mf and SSS ff, at least for normale. Those make up the dynamic layers, and the instrument crossfades among them, so that ensemble size increases along with dynamics. They did something similar with Colossus, crossfading between a chamber orchestra and a large orchestra, and in that case, crossfading between a small hall and a large hall as well (similar to Duality Strings, except I don't know if SF recorded the two ensembles together the way Duality Strings was recorded simultaneously in two different studios).

Yeah, Pulse nailed some aspects of a bread and butter string library, and for once it has real variety in the playing styles, opposite to "dynamics" that crossfade just like a volume knob turned up and down...

It's definitely interesting how close the sound is when you consider the rather extreme differences in section sizes.

@Pulse Audio Could you be sure to add a note to all items which are on sale, letting us know when that sale ends? Like on the Vivid Strings page, it has the sale price of $29, but nowhere does it say how long it's good for. Some items have a countdown posted, but some don't.

Justin L. Franks said:

It's definitely interesting how close the sound is when you consider the rather extreme differences in section sizes.

@Pulse Audio Could you be sure to add a note to all items which are on sale, letting us know when that sale ends? Like on the Vivid Strings page, it has the sale price of $29, but nowhere does it say how long it's good for. Some items have a countdown posted, but some don't.

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Vivid is till the end of January.

Soundbed said:

This is a super short, no talking compare and contrast with the new Vivid Strings First Violins (updated today, to v1.3) with the tried and true reigning champ of the edge of silence, Spitfire Albion Tundra, the Legato Flaut Con Sord patch.

I have the close mic on the whole time, which shows Vivid to be even "closer" or "more revealing" maybe vs Tundra's close mics, which you might enjoy or might not enjoy, depending. The farthest Vivid mics do sound closer to Tundra, but they are not in this video.

Buy Vivid Strings By Pulse Audio - 5% Back

VIVID STRINGS is a meticulously crafted chamber strings sample library, featuring the rich and intimate sounds of a range of elite performers.

pulse.audio

Albion Tundra — Spitfire Audio

Albion Tundra captures a characteristically Scandinavian sound, recorded at the edge of silence - everything you need to take it down a degree or two.

www.spitfireaudio.com

@Pulse Audio — I also think I found a bug, shown around 0:52, where sometimes the Expression does not seem to change anything. It's inconsistent though (usually it works fine).

Click to expand...

The sound of Vivid is very good and comparable with Tundra, but Tundra flows through the legato transistions. Vivid doesn't. A little bit of the 'sucking' effect. Thanks for the comparison!

[Very] excited new owner of this library today!

Been following the thread for a while now and am eager to see where the full series goes in 2024.

Maarten said:

The sound of Vivid is very good and comparable with Tundra, but Tundra flows through the legato transistions. Vivid doesn't. A little bit of the 'sucking' effect. Thanks for the comparison!

Click to expand...

I guess words get in the way because I don’t hear it as a sucking effect, esp with the close mic. If anything the legato transitions are more prominent in Vivid, and Tundra buries them and has more of the disappearing legato sound to my ears.

But these are words. Either way we can ask for a legato volume control with an auto setting.