KVR Audio

doja · Post by **doja** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 6:10 pm

I have an iMac Core2 Duo, 2.16 ghz, and 3 gigs of RAM. I'm looking for the best, most realistic strings I can get. I have the strings which come in Logic Studio, and I have Garritan Personal Orchestra. Can I do better with the Mac I'm running, or have I hit the ceiling pretty much?

Someday I'll get a big powerful new mac, and then get Kirk Hunter or Vienna (or LASS or whatever), but for now, what's my best route?

thanks!

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:59 pm

Having Logic Studio means you have all 5 Jam Packs included.
One of them is the Orchestral pack.
Those strings from what I read about it, are very good.
Although I don't own them yet.
You also have about 1300 samples for the Logic sampler too.
They must have a lot of string samples with that.

There are some good strings with these free packs for Garageband and Logic here though, to check out.
http://www.d.umn.edu/~bold0070/projects/instruments/

doja · Post by **doja** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:08 am

I've explored and tried many of the string instruments that came with Logic. Have all the jampacks. I'm looking for another product that might be better.

mcnoone wrote:Having Logic Studio means you have all 5 Jam Packs included.
One of them is the Orchestral pack.
Those strings from what I read about it, are very good.
Although I don't own them yet.
You also have about 1300 samples for the Logic sampler too.
They must have a lot of string samples with that.

There are some good strings with these free packs for Garageband and Logic here though, to check out.
http://www.d.umn.edu/~bold0070/projects/instruments/

risome · Post by **risome** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:15 am

Why would you have hit the ceiling whats stopping you from choosing any of the available commercial string libraries out there.

doja · Post by **doja** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:28 am

Boy I must have worded my post really poorly! Sorry about that. I'm asking for recommendations for string libraries instruments that will be able to run on my not too powerful system!!!

risome wrote:Why would you have hit the ceiling whats stopping you from choosing any of the available commercial string libraries out there.

risome · Post by **risome** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:05 am

I think your system is plenty powerful ,you dont need a sledge hammer to crack acorns.

doja · Post by **doja** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:11 am

This is so weird. Nobody has any recommendations for string libraries/instruments?

risome wrote:I think your system is plenty powerful ,you dont need a sledge hammer to crack acorns.

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:56 am

Kontakt's bundled strings are of good quality, though not real extensive in the articulation area.

A step up from there would be VSL Special Edition, EWQL Silver/Gold, Miroslav Philharmonik... any of these would work just fine on your system. The question is, would you be able to make the most of these libraries?

Also, is this just for your personal-hobbyist use, or a pro production? Studio hip-hop or film scoring?

No disprespect intended, but without knowing your skill level - and musical intent for the strings - it would be rather pointless to try and advise you. And FWIW, I've heard some impressive string work done with GPO. Of course the guys who did those productions knew what they were doing.

A bit more info would help us help you...

doja · Post by **doja** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:08 am

My skill level as an arranger is very low, I'm a noob. But I'm an experienced musician. The work I'm doing is some scoring, for that I'm doing several pieces that require jazzy horns and some orchestral strings; a Glenn Miller-like cue, a Bernard Hermann-style moody piece, another in which I'm trying to cop the feel of a Zubin Mehta-led NY Philharmoic playing a Gershwin style tune. Yikes. Not easy stuff to make sound real. Then there are some r&b old (old style) and rock sounding cues. A Brown Sugar-ish thing, and an Al Green-y piece. Need both strings and horns for that. All the cues are coping sounds and styles that rely very much on real sounding strings and horns. And with a limited budget, it's fallen to me to do the best I can with the software I've already got, or perhaps pick up a couple of not too expensive packages. So far it's going well, everybody seems to be happy. But I'm doing it all by ear, so to speak, I don't have any schooling as an arranger. I'm just going by what sounds good. And I'm fighting all the way to keep the the strings and horns from sounding synthetic to me, that's why I'm asking about better libraries. I'm using Garritan GPO and Big Band and Logic, but reading about Mojo horns, Hollywood strings etc has piqued my interest.

That's why I posted here asking about what libraries/virtual instruments could work on my limited budget and limited power mac.

flugel45 wrote:Kontakt's bundled strings are of good quality, though not real extensive in the articulation area.

A step up from there would be VSL Special Edition, EWQL Silver/Gold, Miroslav Philharmonik... any of these would work just fine on your system. The question is, would you be able to make the most of these libraries?

Also, is this just for your personal-hobbyist use, or a pro production? Studio hip-hop or film scoring?

No disprespect intended, but without knowing your skill level - and musical intent for the strings - it would be rather pointless to try and advise you. And FWIW, I've heard some impressive string work done with GPO. Of course the guys who did those productions knew what they were doing.

A bit more info would help us help you...

Yossarian · Post by **Yossarian** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:55 am

If you don't need solo strings you might want to take a look at String Essentials:

http://www.bestservice.de/detail1.asp/b ... dlaczek/en

I believe it's also available through US distributors like Guitar Center. Of course, if you're planning to get LASS eventually, you might aswell get LASS Lite now and upgrade later.

/Yoss

risome · Post by **risome** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:38 am

ok primeloops loopmasters heaps of stuff there use your google fu bro

TristezaOrange · Post by **TristezaOrange** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 12:24 pm

For jazzy horns I don't think you can do better than Samplemodeling's trombones, trumpets and saxes. Or perhaps WIVI, although I own SM's instruments (not the saxes yet) and I have tried WIVI's demo and I prefer SM by a mile. Just a drawback though: SM instruments don't have sections but you can make your own with enough work.

Warp IV also have some awesome jazzy horns, reeds and woodwinds. I have the Jazz Flute and while it's a keyswitch hell sometimes you can make really convincing parts with it. The rest I only know by the mp3 demos but jancivil swears by them.

Now strings... that's a difficult one. I have GPO4, Kirk Kunter's Solo Strings I, KH's Pop Rock strings, the strings included in Kontakt 3 and some other stuff but I don't have any of the high-end libraries. On the other hand, I had someone (a professional arranger I respect VERY MUCH) asking me if some strings I did in Miroslav Philharmonik (I don't have MP but a friend of mine does and I use it occasionally) were real or programmed. It took some work, automation and stuff BUT my point is that with enough work you can get decent results from any library, even the relatively cheap ones.

GPO's awesome though, especially for the size and the resources it uses. Oh and check this out:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4421393

Reverend Rhythm · Post by **Reverend Rhythm** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:08 pm

Take a look at Kirk Hunter's Pop Rock Strings and IK's Miroslav. Both of those could be mixed with GPO. Miro is "long in the tooth," but it has a warm sound. esounds also has the Miroslav stuff for Kontakt Player (They call it Infinite Player).

There are 3 suggestions to look at.

whitecat.tv · Post by **whitecat.tv** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:28 pm

IK's Miroslav is pretty good and not too hard on the computer. Often I'll use it to knock up arrangements quickly and then replace it later with something more complex (usually EWQL Platinum).

That said, in a pop music context the IK stuff sometimes is just the ticket as-is.

Best Strings for a fairly limited Mac setup