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Sample Talk Thread: OT Benjamin Wallfisch Strings

Yes, if you are able to desire less, have fewer wants, then there should be no problem.

I want to want less. I need to want less. And that might, for me, mean leaving the space for a while, or engaging with it in a much more limited way.
Tons of other stuff I would like, too - and I love the process of research and acquiring tools that fit where I think I want to go! Why did I just look at that Vivid Strings thread, for example?? 🤣

But for me, as someone who might have already spent too much on BF at my level, it's time for me to take a step back and assess/start working with all of the really cool stuff (including some great courses!) I've picked up and focusing on what I really NEED for the next year now. 🙂
 
Divisi only for the longs kills it for me. I think they really missed a trick there. With something like MSS (full divisi articulation sets) you effectively get 3 string libs, one large with divisi and 2 separate (and different) smaller.

I still hope OT does a proper Teldex-hosted chamber strings lib someday (with a giant articulation set and 5 dynamic layers everywhere).
Really no divisi shorts? If that's true, hard pass at this price point.
 
Personally I don't love the timbres and the frequency balance in the Strings demos I've listened to---especially not for each patch in isolation. The violins seem lacking in the highs for my taste. Of course EQ can help, and other instruments can fill in the missing frequencies....

I like Stringscapes much better.
 
There's a warning about potential performance issues on the product page. Since this likely will cost them some sales, I'm assuming it's no joke and one should take the warning serious:

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I've had no CPU issues using normal mic combinations. I'm assuming that warning's in place for folk using the gazillion mic options for atmos mixes.
 
There is some really, really lovely writing in those demos. But yeah, I don't hear anything in there that (for me) makes me want to drop CSS, or justifies the sticker price and the colossal 1TB+ storage requirement. I do love the concept, and there are obviously some terrific musical minds involved here - it will be interesting to see how this library evolves.
It's 501 GB SINEarc compressed on the SSD. Huge enough to be sure.
 
I am a bit puzzled by this new release.

up-and-down bowing sounds nice as a feature but the rest of it...? loopless samples - when will you hear the difference? if you have more than one playing at once it gets buried in the mix so in most cases a looped long note isn't a problem.

Then we have no divisi on shorts... what?

Not a lot of RRs on the shorts either (especially considering the ambition of this library)
From a brand new modern library I would expect more support for ostinato writing, whether that is RRs, performance based samples or even things like intervals/mini phrases... just something!

No sordinos or any other techniques that have become standard in most bread and butter libs.

Then it still comes in a player software that IMO is still inferior to Kontakt. OT and Spitfire have been bumped further towards the bottom of my want lists because of that.

The number of mic positions are impressive but I wonder who really needs all that? I am sure there are folks who will get use out of it but for me a good tree, close and ambient mics suffice in 95% of all my cases.

All that for a lot of money and half a TB of your storage. I makes me feel good about my previous choices in string libraries. I can get a lot more done with them...
 
Something I find interesting is the choice to record tutti and divisi separately. In that case, why not do 3 divisi's? You could layer them together and you'd have tutti right? Basically what MSS does as well and which sounds great to me. Would've made the library much more versatile imo.
 
The unique selling point of this library is the unlooped sustains and the independent up and down bow samples. But I cannot personally say that the demos sound significantly better or more realistic or close to a real recording than other libraries on the market. They sound good of course, but I feel this was a solution looking for a problem. And maybe for Ben, it is a real problem - but not sure that's the case for 95% of the rest of us.

And the trend of more playable libraries (with things like performance legatos or variable marcatos) seems to remain missing from OT's approach to their libraries. Key switch everything. No intelligent scripting advances. I wonder why?
I had the same thoughts about performance patches that offer more flexibility when playing.
I think BWS sounds very good, but not so good that I really want to have them.
I'm very excited to see what Aaron Venture will come up with when the strings are released (if they are). Since I have the Infinite Bundle, keyswitches annoy me even more than before.
 
Ok so in resume is a great sounding library with partial Divisi. That omisión was all the downfall. I mean if they give us complete control of the divisi we could have almost a chamber an a full section, but no, instead of that we have up/down bows, and a special FX library. If they could just concentrate to make the most of the standard library everybody here was getting. So partially Divisi without shorts, no portamento, no pattern, no runs legatos, any vibrato control, no soft/hard/accented sustain?

So basically this library is for?

So, you would need another library to implement everything without the possibility of Divisi.
 
Synth V is amazing. But for modeled orchestral instruments, I still hear a huge delta in tone between samples and the modeled sounds.
I don't think anyone has come at the problem for instruments the way Synth V has come at the problem for voice. And I've wondered if the model could be adapted or if for some reason they are fundamentally different. (I haven't yet heard Synth V do classical singing all that credibly, and there too I don't know if that's because the tech is not well adapted to the task or if it's because the developers see too little demand for that sort of voice.)
 
I find that the sound "in general" is good..., the legatos...I'm not sure, I prefer a good false legato than a fairly average real one, a known name, a big price, a quantity of microphones which risks bring your computer to its knees and new sustains without loops..like in Miroslav Vitous from ago....I am not stunned by this release but I wish the buyer to make very beautiful music with their purchase .
 
It looks like a nice collection, but too expensive for me after buying the strings collection last month. But for me, the a la carte function is the thing here that could help. The divisi patches are not something i would use often. So just buying the main ones for €94+VAT each is nice. I could probably do with just V1, viola, cello and basses, and done with it. Combine that with edu discount and it's a nice package for not too much money.
 
Besides the Divisi conversation, it’s the “raw” mic positions that make this a standout library for me. You can hear those at around 17:03 in the walkthrough video, does anyone know another symphonic sample library with such a dry and biting sound as this?
I don’t think I ever found one! It’s my favourite feature here I think.
 
Synth V uses AI (neural networks) rather than physical modelling.
I've tried to find out more info on that, and I'm not sure that is right. It's only in the past year that everyone's started conflating AI with generative models, neural networks can absolutely be trained to work with physical modeling. Samplemodelling talks about using AI on their own tech page with their modelled instruments. I'd love to know more about what's going on under the hood with their products though, clearly you are still buying a specific vocalist with their vocal packs
 
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