Amazing video! Absolutely adore the sound of Afflatus, and Berlin has that magic/natural-feeling reverb of Teldex! Thank you for the comparison, Christopher!
I love the sound of Afflatus. Sometimes I think man it's expensive, but everytime I hear it I totally understand. CSS is just so silky smooth. Hard to go wrong here. Soaring strings is not as slurred and that's good because it's good at both mediums and fast legatos. Definitely best to layer with another library I feel, but totally fine by itself. So far I think it's Afflatus for me as a standalone. But in terms of versatility you cannot deny the heavy weight champion, the workhorse, CSS.
What makes CSS my library of choice is sampled rebows - no other Library here has them. And as far as i know, out of all the libraries on the market, only Hollywood Strings has them as well. Once youre used to integrating lots of rebows in your workflow, theres no going back. Soundwise, its Afflatus for me all the way as well though. If Afflatus had rebows and multiple legato speeds, plus different articulations for every ensemble size, id instantly trash CSS :)
@@Nexun8 Very different sound, but Tokyo Scoring Strings has Rebow, Bow, Slur, Portamento with rebow and portamento without rebow with multiple round robins for each of the above (I think 5 for rebows and 3 for the rest). Also has down and up bow samples, 2 vibrato types and a non vibrato type. Also 5 dynamic layers. So in terms of legato depth TSS kind of supercedes CSS (not to mention all the other features) It has a very different sound of course, but totally worth to check it out As a side note, Vista also has rebows. Don't know about the other libs in the video, but it's pretty common for recently released libraries to have rebows etc
Hey Christopher! You should check out Light and Sound Chamber Strings! You would love it. It's super intimate on a level no other library can match I feel.
in many legato phrases in classical music, there are some repeated notes - "a,a,a,d,f,e,d,d,d.....etc" - it need to change direction of bow. I woud like to listen how legato strings sounds on that phrases...
Berlin Strings in Sine Player has a mic position for the Section Leader, providing for a unique sound. I'm not sure if this is available in the Kontakt version. I like the sound of the Vista Strings quite a bit. Afflatus is great, and I also blend in the First Chairs from the Afflatus library. Cinematic Studio Strings has a darker vibe; needing some mid boost in each section range. But, I also like the Spitfire Chamber Strings "Fast Legato" patches, which could easily be compared amongst the libraries you presented today.
I downloaded your guide, but I am a bit disappointed. For example, you write that you need 1TB disk space for EW Opus Hollywood Orchestra. That's misleading, because you can also download only those instruments and articulations you want. Every single one. Which means you need not very much disk space as I doubt someone needs the complete package. or at for some other libraries you write it contains legato. Which implies those other libraries don't have legato. Still this is a good guide which provides some first impressions. Thanks
I could've included them, but I definitely see them as more of a general workhorse library that specializes more in the short articulations and has a good legato to go along with it!
I recorded this before Spitfire Appassionata came out, so I may do a follow-up including that library as well ;)
It's in the intro price right now, so It would be VERY handy... 🤓🥸🤓🥸
@@chicomp Unfortunately the intro price was until 2 days ago
please do! what are your favorite legatos so far in 2022?
Great video! Been waiting for something like this! Maybe you can do a special focus video on LASS 3.0? That would be awesome.
I don’t have LASS myself, but if I pick it up I’ll def do a video!
Amazing video! Absolutely adore the sound of Afflatus, and Berlin has that magic/natural-feeling reverb of Teldex! Thank you for the comparison, Christopher!
You’re so welcome Anthony!
CSS with a layer of Soaring Strings is a go to for me. Great choice of libraries! I love Afflatus too, so much character!
Yessir!
I love the sound of Afflatus. Sometimes I think man it's expensive, but everytime I hear it I totally understand. CSS is just so silky smooth. Hard to go wrong here. Soaring strings is not as slurred and that's good because it's good at both mediums and fast legatos. Definitely best to layer with another library I feel, but totally fine by itself. So far I think it's Afflatus for me as a standalone. But in terms of versatility you cannot deny the heavy weight champion, the workhorse, CSS.
Absolutely!
What makes CSS my library of choice is sampled rebows - no other Library here has them. And as far as i know, out of all the libraries on the market, only Hollywood Strings has them as well. Once youre used to integrating lots of rebows in your workflow, theres no going back. Soundwise, its Afflatus for me all the way as well though. If Afflatus had rebows and multiple legato speeds, plus different articulations for every ensemble size, id instantly trash CSS :)
@@Nexun8 Very different sound, but Tokyo Scoring Strings has Rebow, Bow, Slur, Portamento with rebow and portamento without rebow with multiple round robins for each of the above (I think 5 for rebows and 3 for the rest). Also has down and up bow samples, 2 vibrato types and a non vibrato type. Also 5 dynamic layers. So in terms of legato depth TSS kind of supercedes CSS (not to mention all the other features) It has a very different sound of course, but totally worth to check it out
As a side note, Vista also has rebows. Don't know about the other libs in the video, but it's pretty common for recently released libraries to have rebows etc
Hey Christopher! You should check out Light and Sound Chamber Strings! You would love it. It's super intimate on a level no other library can match I feel.
Thanks Justin! I might one day :)
Whoa, thank you for mentioning this! Sounds awesome.
Great, efficient and informative. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to hear the Appassionatas in comparison ...
You bet!
Nice. Perfect for Valentine’s
Trueeee
@@ChristopherSiu :)
in many legato phrases in classical music, there are some repeated notes - "a,a,a,d,f,e,d,d,d.....etc" - it need to change direction of bow. I woud like to listen how legato strings sounds on that phrases...
Berlin Strings in Sine Player has a mic position for the Section Leader, providing for a unique sound. I'm not sure if this is available in the Kontakt version. I like the sound of the Vista Strings quite a bit. Afflatus is great, and I also blend in the First Chairs from the Afflatus library. Cinematic Studio Strings has a darker vibe; needing some mid boost in each section range. But, I also like the Spitfire Chamber Strings "Fast Legato" patches, which could easily be compared amongst the libraries you presented today.
Thanks Kerwin!
Any reason why you didn't include EW Hollywood Strings Legato/Portamento patches? Thank you for this informative video, definitely a big help!
So welcome! I don’t actually use those, hence why I didn’t include them. Cheers!
Afflatus has a unique sound... I'm a relatively new CSS user. I always layer it subtle with solo patches, currently with OT's Tableau Solo Strings
Good choices!
I love Afflatus!
Yup! Beautiful indeed.
I downloaded your guide, but I am a bit disappointed.
For example, you write that you need 1TB disk space for EW Opus Hollywood Orchestra. That's misleading, because you can also download only those instruments and articulations you want. Every single one. Which means you need not very much disk space as I doubt someone needs the complete package.
or at for some other libraries you write it contains legato. Which implies those other libraries don't have legato.
Still this is a good guide which provides some first impressions.
Thanks
Sorry about that! I plan on updating the guide each year, so I'll try to remember to make that change. Thanks!
Why no tokyo strings
I could've included them, but I definitely see them as more of a general workhorse library that specializes more in the short articulations and has a good legato to go along with it!
i thought the main point of tokyo strings library is the innovative legato lookahead system that is much quicker to work with than say css
Strings samples still sound very fake moving from note to note, maybe A.I. can help in the future to make it more realistic?