String Murmurations - £199 (RRP £249) - Promo ends Feb 29
- Thread starter christianhenson
- Start date
Hi,
I heard String Murmurations for the first time yesterday, on Simeon Amburgey's channel. This seems like a fascinating, as well as emotional library. However, I found the portamenti when chords change, in both this and Small String Gestures unsuitable for the music I write. I think many of you have now had quite a bit of experience at using these libraries, so I'd like to ask: is it possible to switch this feature down ... perhaps even bypass it?
Thanks, Brill
I heard String Murmurations for the first time yesterday, on Simeon Amburgey's channel. This seems like a fascinating, as well as emotional library. However, I found the portamenti when chords change, in both this and Small String Gestures unsuitable for the music I write. I think many of you have now had quite a bit of experience at using these libraries, so I'd like to ask: is it possible to switch this feature down ... perhaps even bypass it?
Thanks, Brill
jbuhler
Senior Member
The portamentos are recorded and a part of the gesture recorded in the sample, so you can only avoid it by not triggering the sample or releasing the note before the portamento occurs. There is also the option of triggering the the samples containing the gestures with velocity. But that just means you get a suitable sustain instead of the gesture. Not all of the gestures have portamento so you can also choose a preset with gestures more to your liking. Finally the same pitch in the same preset can have different gestures depending on the key you have selected so that gives you options as well.
Thanks for responding so quickly! Oh... seems a bit complicated, but I guess I’ll understand better if I buy one or other of the libraries and ‘fiddle around’.
jbuhler
Senior Member
It’s not really complicated, just a bit hard to describe. It can be a bit inflexible, depending on your view on the matter, and you have to compose to what the library allows since there is not a lot of shaping it to your own purposes. It can be very nice for sketching. But then I want to bounce to audio, extract the midi or transcribe and rework with my own libraries, sort of the way you might with Sonokinetic phrase libraries (except the latter have the convenience of drop and drag midi for that).
These sort of libraries can make you feel more like a music producer or arranger than a composer, so there’s that too, and the gestures of String Murmurations are generally more arresting and motivically defined than the Sonokinetic phrase libraries, so that can be an issue as well, depending how you feel about such things.
LinusW
Senior Member
No, Codemeter does not need that. It was the choice of Vengeance/keilwerth to have expiration dates that would be constantly renewed. This way you would not lose a license if your computer crashed. I prefer to use a CmStick anyway.
I'm adding a screenshot of my CmAdmin showing there is no expiration date on Crow Hill license. Actually no expiration date on my UJAM plugins (showing in between either).
Banquet
Active Member
I was just checking my computer for bloat and found CodeMeter. I shut it down and then found Cubase crashed when trying to load my latest project. After a bit of research I've found out it was installed when I bought Small String Gestures.
I'm not thrilled about this. When I buy something that uses iLok, it's pretty well flagged when I buy it, and I have lots of plugins using it. However CodeMeter is going to be running constantly just for one app - Small String Gestures.
I've searched Crow Hill's website and see they don't offer refunds. I understand why people don't offer refunds or licence transfers on Kontakt libraries, as someone could sell the software and then still continue to use it... but if you've installed an app to make sure only licenced users can run the app, then you should offer a refunds and licence transfers imo.
I've contacted Crow Hill for more info, but I'm annoyed that CodeMeter isn't mentioned by Crow Hill at all (unless I'm blind), yet they push it onto your computer where it runs 24/7.
I'm not thrilled about this. When I buy something that uses iLok, it's pretty well flagged when I buy it, and I have lots of plugins using it. However CodeMeter is going to be running constantly just for one app - Small String Gestures.
I've searched Crow Hill's website and see they don't offer refunds. I understand why people don't offer refunds or licence transfers on Kontakt libraries, as someone could sell the software and then still continue to use it... but if you've installed an app to make sure only licenced users can run the app, then you should offer a refunds and licence transfers imo.
I've contacted Crow Hill for more info, but I'm annoyed that CodeMeter isn't mentioned by Crow Hill at all (unless I'm blind), yet they push it onto your computer where it runs 24/7.
jbuhler
Senior Member
Yes, there’s also not an easy way to move Crow Hill libraries that doesn’t involve downloading everything again, and even more than most its installer really wants to install the library on the system drive. (And because of the difficulty moving libraries it’s hard to get the library installed where you want it if you make a mistake.) These libraries are also going to be a major PITA once there are more of them. Vaults is already on the verge of being a mess and there are what only three or four small libraries involved.
Kerryman
New Member
It's an instrument. I have 'Small Strings Gestures', which is a limited spin-off from Murmerations. See my review in another thread.
Kerryman
New Member
Crow Hill is not a subscription plan - not yet anyway. They are a plugin provider, just like Spitfire Audio (the Crow Hill founder was a co-founder of Spitfire).
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Symphonichrome
Active Member
Is Codemeter also installed alongside the Vaults Beta plugins?
Evans
Senior Member
Key comment here. I know it's a difficult thing to prioritize as a young software company, but this is a frustrating flavor of tech debt to build up.
jbuhler
Senior Member
Yes, and companies that get this sort of thing wrong at the start rarely find a way to make it right later.
jbuhler
Senior Member
As far as I have been able to determine. I wasn't able to move the library and relink it when I changed machines, but had to redownload everything, and when I mistakenly missed the page to install one of the libraries where I wanted to and it installed in the default location on the system drive, I haven't found a way to move it without deleting it and redownloading everything. Obviously, not much of an issue when libraries are small, but it will become a bigger pain as libraries increase in size. And String Murmurations itself is already large enough that I don't especially want to be downloading it every time I want to change its drive location. (Hopefully, there is a way around this that I just missed in looking through the documentation.)
SupremeFist
Senior Member
Sounds like they found a way to make it even worse than Spitfire library management!
mussnig
Senior Member
Usually the downloader first downloads some installer files that start automatically once the download is finished. You can however copy these files and run them again later (which is necessary if you want to move the location of the samples) - so no need to download everything again.
I agree though, that this is less than ideal and feels quite cumbersome.
jbuhler
Senior Member
The downloader itself is small. And the downloader does the actual downloading of the library, so saving that doesn't really save that much. As far as I'm aware the downloader doesn't leave an uninstalled file that you can move and reinstall, but I will double check. Maybe I missed it. If it does, that still means you have a many extra gigs you need to hold on to as back up, but given that you can't simply relink the installed library, I suppose that just means you don't back up the installed library...
muddyblue
Member
When you like to move it, (got that from support, I asked for myself...) :
During installation, you are asked to select the location of the Audio Content. Due to macOS fixed installation layout, this can sometimes be overlooked (see screenshot)
If you wish to move the location post-install install simply navigate to Library/Application Support/Crow Hill/Small String Gestures and move the 2 .blob files to the location of your choosing.
Then, in the same Library folder open Small String Gestures.settings in a text-based editor, and alter the file path to the updated blob location.
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