So, who does the best solo strings?

[forw]

judging by the demos I would go for synful instead of xsample, no doubt.

[koolkeys]

judging by the demos I would go for synful instead of xsample, no doubt.

I wouldn't.

Keep in mind that neither are very good for real time playing, and to get a realistic performance, you WILL have to do some MIDI editing afterwards.

XSample has so much more it can do though. Don't get me wrong, Synful is it's own beast. But they need to redo the samples as they aren't the best recordings, IMO. And while you CAN get a good performance out of it, it's MUCH easier to get a BAD performance out of it than with XSample.

Brent

[AKJ]

judging by the demos I would go for synful instead of xsample, no doubt.

I won xsample and can judge only from the synful demos, but to me Xsample sounds by far better although synful is the more innovative approach so a agree with koolkeys on this

[benjamind]

Guys, wait for Samplemodeling to release their solo+section strings. Samplemodeling will produce the most realistic strings.

Simple reason - they were behind Garritan's solo Stradivarius and Gofriller instruments and you all know they were superb.

Samplemodeling is supposedly working on a string set that will blow away the the Garritan ones, so if that says anything, we are in for a real treat.

Ben

[Krakatau]

Synful has impressed me the most (more than any sample set).

LOL. welcome to the ranks of "pernicious mendacious trolls"

I disagree, because due the inherent limitations of sample libraries, i think also that the synful solo violin (in particular) in unbeatable in term of both expressiveness and playability

no trolling in there, as solo string synful is one of the winners IMHO...

[mellotronaut]

Max el Belga does the best solo strings with his Tanga Girls ... it's not sinful, but ...

[koolkeys]

Guys, wait for Samplemodeling to release their solo+section strings. Samplemodeling will produce the most realistic strings.

Simple reason - they were behind Garritan's solo Stradivarius and Gofriller instruments and you all know they were superb.

Samplemodeling is supposedly working on a string set that will blow away the the Garritan ones, so if that says anything, we are in for a real treat.

Ben

I agree. They will be stellar. Not a replacement for all strings, but likely some of the better solo strings out there.

However, it's hard to say how long it will take for them to be released. If you need solo strings any time in the next couple of months or more, you can't just "wait" for a product to be released down the road. So you gotta choose from the currently available options, many of which are still pretty good.

Brent

[koolkeys]

Synful has impressed me the most (more than any sample set).

LOL. welcome to the ranks of "pernicious mendacious trolls"

I disagree, because due the inherent limitations of sample libraries, i think also that the synful solo violin (in particular) in unbeatable in term of both expressiveness and playability

no trolling in there, as solo string synful is one of the winners IMHO...

To be fair, Synful IS a sample library, despite it's different method of working. I do think the samples could be much better than they are and they would be more appealing, IMO.

Brent

[Yossarian]

To be fair, Synful IS a sample library, despite it's different method of working.

Not really. The elements that make up the RPM library are based on analysis of samples but the sound is produced by a form of additive synthesis.

From the Synful Orchestra manual:

A single note in Synful Orchestra may be built from three or more rapidly spliced phrase fragments. Splicing ordinary PCM sampled sounds in this way would create unacceptable warbles and clicks.

Synful Orchestra uses a patented form of additive synthesis in which sounds are generated from combinations of pure sine waves and noise elements. This gives Synful Orchestra the ability to rapidly stretch, shift, and splice phrase fragments while preserving perfect phrase continuity.

/Yoss

[pmj_rit]

Note that this requires the full version of Kontakt. Not a cheap option, then.

I still think Kirk Hunter's solo strings sound pretty good, certainly worth the $99 asking price:

http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/solo_demos.html

/Yoss

[dmbaer]

Here is a very detailed review of one package. Near the bottom, the reviewer mentions relative merits of competing packages.

http://soundbytesmag.net/review-trio-br ... ffy-audio/

[Fleer]

SoundonSound reviewed Hollywood Solo instruments by EastWest in this week's issue.

[emcee]

Max el Belga does the best solo strings with his Tanga Girls ... it's not sinful, but ...

that's an entirely different line of modelling, acoustic or not

[Cinebient]

Harmonic Subtones "Emotional Cello" is the best solo string instrument ever.....
Wish they would make a violin too!
Bohemian Violin is awesome too but it lacks a few things which might come in one of the 2 expansions.
Chris Hein Violin looks great too.

[Mystic]

SoundonSound reviewed Hollywood Solo instruments by EastWest in this week's issue.

I'm sure they gave it high marks. That's all SOS gives to anything they review it seems. I gave up on them being a credible source of information a loooong time ago.