Out Now: Areia - Cinematic Ensemble Strings
- Thread starter audioimperia
- Start date
Mr Sakitumi
Active Member
I went for it, I upgraded my Lite to Areia Full.
It’s amazing! Loving the updated v1.2
The legato performance update feels so much more playable and expressive, especially having a cheeky little Portamento to sneak in every now and then.
The extra complete articulations list and the mic positions for all has also been a welcome upgrade for me.
Thanku @audioimperia
It’s amazing! Loving the updated v1.2
The legato performance update feels so much more playable and expressive, especially having a cheeky little Portamento to sneak in every now and then.
The extra complete articulations list and the mic positions for all has also been a welcome upgrade for me.
Thanku @audioimperia
bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
I am also enjoying this library very muchI went for it, I upgraded my Lite to Areia Full.
It’s amazing! Loving the updated v1.2
The legato performance update feels so much more playable and expressive, especially having a cheeky little Portamento to sneak in every now and then.
The extra complete articulations list and the mic positions for all has also been a welcome upgrade for me.
Thanku @audioimperia
My favorite things about this library:
-Versatility in tone. I love CSS but don't like the overall muddy, dark quality for busy legato passages. I use EQ for the longs but not the shorts. The fact Areia has the classic and modern mixes so easily accessible and interchangeable is really nice. Classic is genuinely warm and beautiful and modern cuts thru a mix like nobodies business.
-Versatiltiy in instrument placement and reverb - recorded centered and dry. Easily reposition any instrument and have a totally dry sound just by turning off reverb. This also allows you to blend it 100 percent flawlessly with your other samples by using the same space/reverb(s) for a totally cohesive simulated acoustic space.
-Dynamics - the truly nailed the dynamic range here. I used to only trust Ark 1 low strings for those REALLY aggressive low portatos/marcatos... however Areia absolutely kills for those aggressive low strings. The kicker is it can also do soft dynamics just as well. Really impressed with that, honestly.
-Tone/detail - there's a nice level of detail you get with these that other libraries can't match. I love the texture/bow noise of strings, and these are very detailed and sound VERY "alive". Which leads me to the last thing and probably the thing I love most..
-Overall this library sounds very alive. Of course you have to work with some quirks here and there, but overall, from the longs and legatos to the shorts, it's very kinetic and you really can hear the players performance in the samples, but not to the point where it's totally restrictive (you can still adjust vibrato, sample start, short note tightness, etc). Pacific and Vista are amazing but only one legato type, and the shorts in Pacific are absolutely drowning in reverb. Great library, but the Areia spiccatos sound VERY similar to me as far as the playing/sampling style, but you have more than one type of short and also you can turn off the reverb!
I paid $169 for this library, never owned it before, but that to me is a ridiculously good deal. PS I'm still on the "honeymoon phase" so I am excited about it, but it's not perfect! I will also try to be fair and balance it out.
Things that could still use improvement:
many of the legato transitions are more subdued and seem to be at a lower dynamic level than the connected sustained note. Sometimes it sounds as the legato transitions even have sort of a low pass filter compared to the rest of the notes, they are missing that top layer of bow noise/high end. There is still a sucking effect between transitions, where you can always hear the sustained notes "bloom" into full dynamics every time, which need to be finessed quite a bit for exposed passages. I am still experimenting with the legato smoothing and velocity curves and what not, to try to fix this. There is also some inconsistent panning and bouncing stereo field issues with legato (transition is hard panned and sustained note is more centered)
Volume of short note overlay in performance legato can be way too loud compared to the sustain it’s stacked with.
Performance legato violins don’t have the button to simulate 2nd violins. I use the legacy legato patch but when I do this, I realize instantly why users didn’t like the legato so much before the update!
And it still can’t do runs. Performance legato with the overlay is really nice though, but for fast runs it still can’t pull it off. It never claimed it could, so it wasn’t expected for me, but if it could it would genuinely be my first choice for any strings writing in a full orchestral context.
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bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
I want to add one more thing, honestly the reason I never bought it before besides the legato complaints: people always claimed it sounded "synth-y". I watched reviews or listened to lots of string comparisons and it's usually people playing block chords with string ensembles totally exposed (which is totally fine, I appreciate this kind of demonstration for comparisons and am NOT knocking anyones technique or methods here). However, when you use the modern mix in this setting, yes it sounds "synth-y" as hell when compared with other libraries! The modern mix in and AI library does NOT sound realistic when playing by itself. It's not supposed to... the classic mix sounds perfect for realism. The modern mix is super bright and processed and if you want realism, don't use it.
It kind of baffled me there was this perfect "classic mix" option and people play some notes with the modern mix and complain it doesn't sound real. I mean, it's fair/valid criticism if it's the only sound the library offers, and I am not knocking anyones methods of comparing, but besides the modern mix sounding super processed (and perfect for hybrid/trailer and cutting thru a busy mix), this library is no more or less synth-y than any other.
It kind of baffled me there was this perfect "classic mix" option and people play some notes with the modern mix and complain it doesn't sound real. I mean, it's fair/valid criticism if it's the only sound the library offers, and I am not knocking anyones methods of comparing, but besides the modern mix sounding super processed (and perfect for hybrid/trailer and cutting thru a busy mix), this library is no more or less synth-y than any other.
Yuri Tremolo
Active Member
Does anyone else has a pinch of hard panned RRs on 'Celli - Legato Performance' patch on Legato Fingered articulation (with Classic Mix selected)?
bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
I’ve noticed some panning/stereo field issues as well, I forgot to include that (just added it to my post). It’s much, much more noticeable on
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Batrawi
Senior Member
how about trying runs with portamento transitions only with shorter sample start? theoretically this should give a very decent result (provided that portamentos are affected by sample start)
bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
Definitely worth trying!
Trash Panda
Clueless nitwit
Can confirm this works well for most transitions with the default settings when you load a patch.
Also noticing this on the celli. @audioimperia I think this is a legitimate bug but it's hopefully easily solvable by some panning adjustments under the hood. It is quite jarring on the classic mix.
bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
Can you share an example of this? I am trying your suggestion and it doesn't sound anything like a run should, it's very slurry/sluggish still and not convincing at all. Do you have short overlay on or off?
Batrawi
Senior Member
unfortunately I don't have the library (yet). my suggestion was based on experimenting with other libraries that I have.
bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
Ah sorry I was hoping @Trash Panda could share settings for that since he said it worked. I can get it to sound decent but anything past a certain speed and it falls apart, so just hoping we can share specific settings or tips here
Trash Panda
Clueless nitwit
Sure. I just threw together a quick C pentatonic run up and down for Areia, CSS marcato (no overlay) and Berlin Strings runs legato.
View attachment Areia-CSS-BS Legato Runs.mp3
I could probably get Areia closer to the CSS and BS runs if I futzed around enough with the Sample Start Time and Legato Smoothing, maybe experiment with those values for Fingered and Rebow as well, but this should get you somewhat in the ballpark as a starting point.
Areia Sample Start time set to -80 ms and 50% Legato Smoothing, using Portamento. 120 bpm using 16th triplets.
MIDI data
bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
Fantastic. Thanks!Sure. I just threw together a quick C pentatonic run up and down for Areia, CSS marcato (no overlay) and Berlin Strings runs legato.
View attachment Areia-CSS-BS Legato Runs.mp3
I could probably get Areia closer to the CSS and BS runs if I futzed around enough with the Sample Start Time and Legato Smoothing, maybe experiment with those values for Fingered and Rebow as well, but this should get you somewhat in the ballpark as a starting point.
Areia Sample Start time set to -80 ms and 50% Legato Smoothing, using Portamento. 120 bpm using 16th triplets.
MIDI data
Trash Panda
Clueless nitwit
Any time. It actually sounds a bit better with Legato Smoothing turned down to around 25% so there's less abrupt cutoff of the prior note's release. Enjoy!
bfreepro
Infinite Musical Possibilities
At first with just portamento I couldn’t get it to sound good, but the other two legato types actually sounded way better than I expected for the high bpm runs once I started digging into the controls, I was kind of using it more like a spitfire performance legato with the overlay enabled but I think that still needs some work (short overlay too loud). There’s still a tiny bit of that… “accordian”-like sound when exposed but in context I think it’ll work better than I anticipated.
muziksculp
Senior Member
Hi,
Is there any way to control the Volume of the Legato-Overlay sounds (Spicc, Stacc., Marc.) that are triggered when not playing legato style ?
I find the overlay volume too loud to use at this time, it would be great if there was some control over the relative volume of the overlay so we can set it to taste, matching it nicely to the legatos. Any chance this might be possible in the future ? I didn't find any way to adjust their volume.
I recall someone asking about this, any feedback on this detail ?
Oh.. the legatos in this version 1.2 is a big step up in terms of the quality of the legato transitions, very smooth, and transparent, no bumps. Wonderful !
Thank You Very Much @audioimperia for this Update.
Cheers,
Muziksculp
Is there any way to control the Volume of the Legato-Overlay sounds (Spicc, Stacc., Marc.) that are triggered when not playing legato style ?
I find the overlay volume too loud to use at this time, it would be great if there was some control over the relative volume of the overlay so we can set it to taste, matching it nicely to the legatos. Any chance this might be possible in the future ? I didn't find any way to adjust their volume.
I recall someone asking about this, any feedback on this detail ?
Oh.. the legatos in this version 1.2 is a big step up in terms of the quality of the legato transitions, very smooth, and transparent, no bumps. Wonderful !
Thank You Very Much @audioimperia for this Update.
Cheers,
Muziksculp
