KVR Audio

jens · Post by **jens** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 6:55 pm

I have V1 but must say I am very reluctant to upgrade, as V1 imo is a joke.... (I own a few real string machines and have been using them extensively for years and I think V1 sounds not in the slightest like a real string machine)

Dewdman42 · Post by **Dewdman42** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 6:57 pm

have you compared it to any other software string machines like GeForce or others? Just curious...

jens · Post by **jens** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:14 pm

No tbh I didn't... I purchased it because it was on sale and it looked great on paper... these things are huge (to be exact I have multi-keyboards, not string-machines) so they're in the cellar now but when I ended up trying UVI SM I could not believe it... I find the sampling is done poorly too and there's a lot of aliasing I think (I did not measure it though and to be fair it's more prominent in ranges that aren't available in the original instruments, but then I'd say they should rather limit the range to that of the original)

I can't imagine the G-Force to be nearly that bad really... but then again I didn't really think it through and examine how close they can come with sampling anyway... I'm really not sure at all about this, I must admit - I guess that would take someone smarter than me.

jens · Post by **jens** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:33 pm

Okay, I now quickly tried Loomer String and this absolutely nails it.

So personally I'd much rather purchase this than to upgrade (I'm really eyeing the Waldorf Streichfett too though as I'm generally not really into software instruments these days)

groovyomega · Post by **groovyomega** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:25 pm

jens wrote:I have V1 but must say I am very reluctant to upgrade, as V1 imo is a joke.... (I own a few real string machines and have been using them extensively for years and I think V1 sounds not in the slightest like a real string machine)

Yes, owning a real Solina String Ensemble, Streichfett and nearly every string ensemble sample library out there, UVI String Machines was one of the worst sounding libraries out there. Completely lifeless. String Machines 2, however, is really a new product. Over 50 new synthesizers (including Streichfett) and over 300 new presets (see preset list: https://s3.amazonaws.com/uvi/SC67-Strin ... manual.pdf).
Since RetroSound (see YouTube) is involved with some libraries (e.g. Synth Anthology 2) they really stepped up their game. Klaus P. Rausch also seems to be involved in the recording of String Machines 2. In other words, we are dealing with completely new samples and totally new presets.
I still don't like the ensemble/phaser/thorus fx, but the raw sample patches and presets are very good overall. If you own String Machines and get the update for a good price I totally recommend getting it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPLPub5wU7M

Norrin_Radd · Post by **Norrin_Radd** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:33 pm

groovyomega wrote:
jens wrote:I have V1 but must say I am very reluctant to upgrade, as V1 imo is a joke.... (I own a few real string machines and have been using them extensively for years and I think V1 sounds not in the slightest like a real string machine)
Yes, owning a real Solina String Ensemble, Streichfett and nearly every string ensemble sample library out there, UVI String Machines was one of the worst sounding libraries out there. Completely lifeless. String Machines 2, however, is really a new product. Over 50 new synthesizers (including Streichfett) and over 300 new presets (see preset list: https://s3.amazonaws.com/uvi/SC67-Strin ... manual.pdf).
Since RetroSound (see YouTube) is involved with some libraries (e.g. Synth Anthology 2) they really stepped up their game. Klaus P. Rausch also seems to be involved in the recording of String Machines 2. In other words, we are dealing with completely new samples and totally new presets.
I still don't like the ensemble/phaser/thorus fx, but the raw sample patches and presets are very good overall. If you own String Machines and get the update for a good price I totally recommend getting it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPLPub5wU7M

I know I've made it when my video gets uploaded here before I can do it myself. XD

Honestly, this is a really incredible library. The entire video was improvised on the fly, and a lot of the patches just had inspiration oozing from them ready to rock. I found that the real strength of this library was in adding muuuuuch longer envelopes to the presets than were provided, and then adding some filter cutoffs or tremolos to build over time.

I can do this stuff in other libraries, but it was literally done on the fly in this video, and you can see how little resistance the thing put up. It just goes.

Of course, adding longer envelopes does increase CPU. But fortunately again, the sounds were good enough that I could allow them to be the focal point in a track.

I can't speak to the upgrade, as I am not sure what String Machines 1 was by comparison, but on it's own, I think this library is a home run, especially if you are coming at it from a synth perspective.

Harry_HH · Post by **Harry_HH** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 11:16 pm

I upgraded it too, of course. Really great sounding library, so versatile with double instrument head, templates, effects, modulations, arps...you can't find out in one life time.

With the recently bought Retro Organ Suite, this library complements well the keys available.

Some tiny blunders in the GUI: e.g. the main page should include information, which oscillators uses fx, arp, mod or are edited, just red lights had done the trick. The arp lenght indicator is not the beat possible. But these are details.

svart · Post by **svart** » Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:43 am

Very happy with the upgrade. But is the "1974 Stringman" supposed to be out of tune (the Bb and the H (B) in all octaves)?

Kevin63101 · Post by **Kevin63101** » Sat Jul 07, 2018 2:45 am

I went for upgrade. A big selection and nice templates to create pallets from.

Back in 1979-1982 I was playing some of these. Even a home built PAIA Strings and Things.

It will be a usefull tool.

Rik · Post by **Rik** » Fri Jul 13, 2018 2:30 am

svart wrote:Very happy with the upgrade. But is the "1974 Stringman" supposed to be out of tune (the Bb and the H (B) in all octaves)?

I am new to String Machine and OMG this library is out of this world. It was love at first sight with the ARP presets. I've been looking for "dark" & warm string sounds and there is a world of choices in this library.

Overall SOOOO impressed with the recent UVI libraries - a lot of brilliant creative choices.

Erik.

benheman · Post by **benheman** » Fri Jul 13, 2018 3:30 am

UVI products are really good overall!

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Fri Jul 13, 2018 6:11 am

Dammit! I get no notifications about this, and UVI aren't offering an upgrade price anymore. Love most UVI stuff, hate that they do limited time upgrades.

Harry_HH wrote:
parma wrote:
Harry_HH wrote:
tonedef71 wrote: $39 upgrade

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Fri Jul 13, 2018 6:22 am

machinesworking wrote:Dammit! I get no notifications about this, and UVI aren't offering an upgrade price anymore. Love most UVI stuff, hate that they do limited time upgrades.

The intro period seemed unusually short on this one.

otristan · Post by **otristan** » Fri Jul 13, 2018 8:19 am

Hi guys,

An update to the product has been posted which fixes couples of tuning issue FYI.

dbender · Post by **dbender** » Fri Jul 13, 2018 8:24 am

Thank you for the heads up!

UVI String Machines 2