KVR Audio

klagga · Post by **klagga** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:52 pm

I´m looking for a good cello sample collection. I´ve listened around at demos of different cello sample collections.

The last one I heard was the Vienna Solo strings, reviewed in SOS september 2004. Dave Stewart pitched this library as state of the art, "£296 seems a very fair deal for a library containing arguably the best collection of solo string samples in the world".

If this is the best there is, I can´t help feeling sad. To me, the demos of the collection on the Vienna site sound just plain awful. Listen for yourself, http://www.viennasymphoniclibrary.com/

The demos are probably well programmed, all the notes of the classical pieces seem to be there... but the sound of the cellos (not to mention the violins) lack all realism. The demos wouldn´t fool a professional for 5 seconds. The vibrato is robotic, the sounds are thin. Just awful.

Sorry for ranting, but I´m just very disappointed.

marce · Post by **marce** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:02 pm

Hi Klagga. In the way you talk, i guess that you know well the real violins&cello and that's the reason you found samples non real (im right?).
In the sample world talk about the "best" samples is sometimes, relative. Every time i heard about string samples discussions, the more "wise" guys always refer that the key is have a lot of diffrent samples from diffrent sources.
I have heard that Garritan strings and personal orchestra have good strings, and personally i have tryed some good soundfonts with nice sound.
But i dont play/ dont have any string instrument (violin family)

Patrice Brousseau · Post by **Patrice Brousseau** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:07 pm

I don't know if they stand comparison beside the big libraries but they're free: http://www.fitchsounds.com/Synths_Patches.html#

There's EXS24 mappings plus a free cello sf2. Not too bad to my ears.

moosethree · Post by **moosethree** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:12 pm

kirk hunter solo strings collection

DevonB · Post by **DevonB** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:22 pm

moosethree wrote:kirk hunter solo strings collection

I second that one.

Devon

Yossarian · Post by **Yossarian** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:28 pm

Ditto on the Kirk Hunter Solo Strings. I also like the Cosmo D Cello Soundbank.

It’s not your everyday cello sample set (as the mp3 demos clearly demonstrate

) and probably not your first call for classical mock-ups but then that’s not my thing anyway.

/Yoss

TrekStar · Post by **TrekStar** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:32 pm

...klagga.....to let sound an orchestral library vivid you need a lot of technical and musical know-how....so be patient. you won't learn it in a few weeks.

just buying the best library and everything will sound great is an illusion.

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:33 pm

gugusse wrote:I don't know if they stand comparison beside the big libraries but they're free: http://www.fitchsounds.com/Synths_Patches.html#

There's EXS24 mappings plus a free cello sf2. Not too bad to my ears.

I think they pretty realistic, considering they were recorded on here own real cello

klagga · Post by **klagga** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:48 pm

TrekStar wrote:...klagga.....to let sound an orchestral library vivid you need a lot of technical and musical know-how....so be patient. you won't learn it in a few weeks.

just buying the best library and everything will sound great is an illusion.

Well, instead of accusing you of being patronizing, I´ll just point at the demos at the Vienna site. Wouldn´t you think that the guys at Vienna Symphonic Library should know what they´re doing? I figure that if they can´t make their own sample library sound better, there´s no chance in hell I´ll succeed either.

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 10:31 pm

You could have a sneak peak at the Synful Orchestra experiment.

It's trying to address the lack of realism in static samples through some sort of additive trickery.

It's not perfect yet, but there are some impressive qualities about it and it seems to use marginal CPU which is an impressive feature in everyone's book.

Also it is something that will continue to be developed.

http://www.synful.com

Caleb

Yossarian · Post by **Yossarian** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:01 pm

Caleb wrote:You could have a sneak peak at the Synful Orchestra experiment.

It's trying to address the lack of realism in static samples through some sort of additive trickery.

It's not perfect yet, but there are some impressive qualities about it and it seems to use marginal CPU which is an impressive feature in everyone's book.

Also it is something that will continue to be developed.

http://www.synful.com

Caleb

Couldn't agree more, Caleb.

I listened to the VSL solo cello demo and wasn’t too impressed. The thing is, it would probably have sounded OK to me before I had heard Synful Orchestra. I’m much more aware now of how important the transitions between notes are to the overall impression and that’s where Synful has the edge simply because it sounds more alive than a set of samples.

Unfortunately, the Synful cello is not up to the same quality as the violin but I’m sure this will be improved with time. It really is an impressive plugin and when I can afford it I’ll probably buy it.

/Yoss

DevonB · Post by **DevonB** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:50 am

I've actually not been that impressed with Vienna's strings. Their Percussion on the other hand is to die for! The strings that I've really liked has been Sonic Implant's Symphony Strings.

Devon

Any realistic sounding cello sample collections in sight?