KVR Audio

masterhiggins · Post by **masterhiggins** » Fri May 16, 2014 6:59 am

I've been loving Fxpansion Amber's sound, but it's so goddamned buggy on my system it's nearly unusable (either random authorization failures in the middle of a session or random volume spikes that wake up my family at 1AM or random crashing). Does anyone have any good alternative to this synth, preferably in AU format? Thanks.

-Sam

Halma · Post by **Halma** » Fri May 16, 2014 10:01 am

I don´t know Amber but maybe either Full Buckets free deputy Mark II or Nabla could fit the spot.

Payware (but dang cheap) would be Night Flight by Interruptor.

Unfortunately no AU versions.

Regards
Sebastian

Lotuzia · Post by **Lotuzia** » Fri May 16, 2014 10:18 am

Xils-Lab V+ ( and you'll also get a splendid vintage Vocoder in addition to the Strings and the Human Voices )

Described by many users, and reviewers, as almost identical to the original machine

jdnz · Post by **jdnz** » Fri May 16, 2014 4:35 pm

free : Hugo Portillo's solina & eminent for reaktor

paid: loomer string

as for cypher - you running the latest release (tagged as a beta on fxpansion's site, but def more stable)

LimboLoves · Post by **LimboLoves** » Fri May 16, 2014 4:59 pm

I own Night Flight and Loomer String. I wanted to buy Cromina but the demo was only the bass and violin sound, so I wasn't sure what 75% of the synth sounded like.

I haven't tried V plus, G Force String Machine, or Amber.

String is wonderful. Match it with some EQ and a good filter (I use The Drop) and some valhalla reverb and it sounds like Pink Floyd.

Night Flight is ok but not as good as String or Cromina for that vintage divide down sound.

bharris22 · Post by **bharris22** » Fri May 16, 2014 5:05 pm

+1 for String. Once I got this I don't really use any others (such as String Machine) any more.

electro · Post by **electro** » Fri May 16, 2014 5:12 pm

LimboLoves wrote:I own Night Flight and Loomer String. I wanted to buy Cromina but the demo was only the bass and violin sound, so I wasn't sure what 75% of the synth sounded like.

I haven't tried V plus, G Force String Machine, or Amber.

String is wonderful. Match it with some EQ and a good filter (I use The Drop) and some valhalla reverb and it sounds like Pink Floyd.

Night Flight is ok but not as good as String or Cromina for that vintage divide down sound.

Night Flight is closer to an Eminent than Cromina is to a Solina. None of those are 64bit though.

jdnz · Post by **jdnz** » Fri May 16, 2014 7:52 pm

electro wrote:Night Flight is closer to an Eminent than Cromina is to a Solina. None of those are 64bit though.

string definitely is 64bit

BlackWinny · Post by **BlackWinny** » Fri May 16, 2014 8:44 pm

jdnz wrote:
electro wrote:Night Flight is closer to an Eminent than Cromina is to a Solina. None of those are 64bit though.
string definitely is 64bit

Nabla and Deputy Mark II also are 64-bit. We can see that at the bottom of their pages (and I actually use them in native 64-bit).

BlackWinny · Post by **BlackWinny** » Fri May 16, 2014 8:57 pm

You have also eSline (from Elektrostudio) which is quite good to emulate a Solina.

You have also the brand new Selena (made available three days ago), from our french friend Benoît Serrano.

Are they among the "best"? With the String Machines it is much more difficult to say than for a synth, because in their old hardware originals, there was absolutely no String Machine which sounded exactly as another even in the same model. It was actually a bit true yet for the old analogue synths but it was totally true for the String Machines.

Therefore, for the String Machine emulations the preference is totally at the feeling of each musician.

BlackWinny · Post by **BlackWinny** » Fri May 16, 2014 9:08 pm

And you can choose also some other very good String Machines in these products:

BigTick Cheeze Machine
Rumpelrausch Crazy Diamonds
Nusofting Strings Dream Synthesizer (very underestimated at KVR)
Analog Strings Station (very expensive, but it's a real "Divine String Machine" as Xils-Lab V+)
Ugo String Theory
AlgoMusic String Synthesizer

And there are probably other nice products that I haven't tried.

And in the same KVR Database there are also many anecdotal products absolutely without any interest.

Note: I have referenced at the top of the pages of this thread all these little jewels that we have cited in this present page, because they all really merit to be known and tried.

masterhiggins · Post by **masterhiggins** » Fri May 16, 2014 9:17 pm

Woah. Thanks for the huge list of alternatives everyone. I'll check them all out this weekend. I did try the xils v+ when it was initially released but it I was mainly using the vocoder, which didn't really suit me at the time. I'll have to give it another spin.

-Sam

BlackWinny · Post by **BlackWinny** » Fri May 16, 2014 9:20 pm

masterhiggins wrote:Woah. Thanks for the huge list of alternatives everyone. I'll check them all out this weekend. I did try the xils v+ when it was initially released but it I was mainly using the vocoder, which didn't really suit me at the time. I'll have to give it another spin.

-Sam

For the moment you have 16 instruments to try...

Ca ira ?

electro · Post by **electro** » Fri May 16, 2014 10:11 pm

Not every "string" VSTI is a true paraphonic

BlackWinny · Post by **BlackWinny** » Fri May 16, 2014 10:29 pm

electro wrote:Not every "string" VSTI is a true paraphonic

No, of course.

But polyphonic may be interesting for some users in search of a string machine.

Now, I can revisit the 16 products listed above (and more if some of us find still other excellent products we forgotten) and add the precision of each one to indicate if it is a real paraphonic, if it is native 64-bit Windows and if it is OSX compatible. I could do that sunday...

EDIT : 1:38 PM (hour of Paris, France)

I have found other products which can be interesting for some who search for string synths. Some are real products, others are soundwares for Kontakt of for UVI:

UVI String Machines (for UVI Workstation)
Krakli StringZ2
Rhythmic Robot Godwin (for Kontakt)
Sample Katra Surreal Strings (the Yamaha SS30 string synth (1981) for Kontakt)
Forgotten Keys FK4 (the famous Elka Rhapsody 490 for Kontakt)
Ugo M-theory (it was the successor of String Theory that I cited previously in another post above)
Tronsonic Logandy (the famous Logan/Hohner String Melody (1973) for Kontakt)
Polychrome (the Farfisa Polychrome (I was totally in love for this instrument at my 18! I had the chance to have en uncle who owned one in the 80's) for Kontakt. You have a good description of the original Polychrome here)
Synth Magic Sounds of the Korg Delta (the famous Korg Delta for Kontakt. See also Nabla from Full Bucket Music that has been cited in two posts above which is a true VST (and 32/64 bit and paraphonic) emulating perfectly this legendary string synth)
FrozenPlain Phoenix (for Kontakt. Oh... Listen to these splendid demos in the page!)
Rythmic Robot Lambda (the famous Korg Lambda for Kontakt)
Wusik EVE - Electronic Vintage Ensemble
- (why the hell do I have forgotten this one? )

All the others that I have seen are anecdotical.

Sunday I'll revisit the list to indicate for each one the compatibilities (OSX and 64 bit Win) and the mode paraphonic-OR-polyphonic.

Best Ensemble/Divide-Down/Paraphonic VST/AU Synth