December updates!

Hello everyone! I hope this message finds you well. This has been quite a wild year for everyone, I think, and I wanted to offer some brief updates on my latest projects.

Firstly, I am very excited to share with you that I have won my first award as a composer! The film Tin Box, a psychological horror/thriller directed by the talented Andy Compton and starring Larry Claudin, has been making waves in the festival circuit the past few months. I am very honored that the film has won a couple of awards, including Best Original Score and Best Narrative Short at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase! Check out the trailer below, and be sure to watch this space for more updates about when you can watch it in its entirety.

Secondly, an incredible documentary I scored last year, called The Circle, has been released for free on YouTube. This is easily one of the most fascinating and eye-opening projects I’ve ever worked on, and it’s brilliantly shot by award-winning photographers Timothy Allen and Thom Cytry. Timothy Allen has previously worked on the groundbreaking BBC miniseries Human Planet, as well as cable TV programs such as Epic Animal Journeys on Animal Planet. It was a joy to collaborate with these incredibly talented and passionate individuals. You can watch the documentary in its entirety right here!

Thirdly, a video game I scored a few months back has been received VERY well on the Roblox platform for PC, iOS, Android, and Xbox consoles. The game is entitled Outlaster, developed by Peak Precision Studios, and has been enjoyed by nearly three million different users, and has been favorited over 100k times on the Roblox platform. Best of all, it’s free to play and you can even play it right from your phone or tablet! Check it out by clicking the image below!

I want to thank you all for your continued support and wish you a very happy holiday season. Until next time, please stay safe and be excellent to each other!

Review: Spitfire's BBC Symphony Orchestra (Reviewed from the perspective of a "non-beginner")

Hyped to death and touted as a revolution in orchestral sampling, does the BBCSO deliver?

Update 11/26/2020: Spitfire has announced a 35gb update to this library, adding muted brass among other things, and hopefully optimizing the plug-in further. I will certainly re-evaluate the entire library and plug-in performance after I install said updates.
I’ve also noticed a select few people have had a very defensive and extreme reaction to my thoughts about this library, some going so far as to personally attack me and insinuate I am making stuff up just to bash the product. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as I do NOT hate the product and really tried to be balanced and fair in this review. There’s some amazing content, but there’s also some mediocre or flat out bad content. The biggest thing I want people to take away from this review, is the fact there are better options, but you’ll end up spending more (which is also why I specifically state it’s a GREAT VALUE). Remember: Spitfire promised a game changer, something that will benefit every composer on the planet, and delivers a sound and ease of use better than anything you’ve tried before. If I simply ignore these promises and don’t judge it on its merits compared with the other libraries on the market, that, to me, is not an honest evaluation. To clarify some points: the libraries I prefer for brass are Junkie XL Brass, Cinematic Studio Brass, and 8dio’s Century Brass, while the libraries I prefer for woodwinds are Berlin Woodwinds, Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds, and VSL Synchron-ized Woodwinds and the ensembles from VSL SE Vol 2. In my extensive test and real world use, these libraries mentioned sound better and simply out perform their correlating sections in the BBCSO.
Others have taken offense with the fact I say I’m a non-beginner, and for some reason, they jump to the conclusion that I think anyone who likes this library must be a beginner or a non-professional, which again, is completely false. I simply know if I have zero orchestral libraries and was a beginner in terms of sample library collection, I would appreciate this library a lot more. So I’d like to finally apologize to those who took offense, but also remind everyone: it’s just a product, and to conveniently overlook the good things I say about the library is, quite frankly, nothing more than “selective reading” on your part. I’m a person who has used this product extensively. I simply refuse to treat this company with kid gloves or give only praise to this library because “their hearts were in the right place”, or what have you. Thanks for reading!

Original post follows:

Ah, we all remember it (not so) fondly: Spitfire Audio tickled our curiosity with a series of vague, ambiguous and visually enticing promo teasers… making their rounds on Facebook, VI-Control, and the like. What could they have done this time? We all feverishly guessed and commented like eager school children, building up a record breaking thread in the process. “This is London Calling!” they pronounced, as well as claiming “Everything is about to change”, hereby adding bold promises on top of their usual marketing hype.

Well, that time has come and passed. We’ve learned the product in question was their BBC Symphony Orchestra, and it was staking a claim at the top of the “all-in-one” orchestra market. We have quite a few orchestras all sampled in the same hall: East West Hollywood Orchestra, Orchestral Tools Berlin Inspire, Red Room Audio’s Palette: Symphonic Sketchpad, Audio Imperia’s Nucleus, hell, even Spitfire’s own Symphonic Orchestra, and probably more I can’t think of. What makes this one any different?

For starters, it’s the simple renown of the orchestra they’ve chosen to sample, and the location which they’ve chosen to sample them at. The legendary BBC Symphony Orchestra, in their home of Maida Vale Studios in London. As Londoners themselves, I believe for Spitfire Audio, as a company, this was also a deeply personal endeavor. Something that Christian Henson and Paul Thomson may have dreamed of doing for decades, and now they were given the chance, there’s no way they could turn it down. And, frankly, can we blame them?

There was also much talk of this library sounding better simply because they were seasoned musicians who worked together for years, all recorded in the same room… which I never fully understood completely. We’ve had many orchestral sample libraries sampled in the same room…always using some of the finest musicians in the world, who are utmost professionals and can perform with anyone and everyone day in and day out. While the advantage to having a familiar group of musicians perform a piece of music together is obvious, when they are being sampled, tediously playing individual notes instead of actually performing a piece of music… to me, the advantage disappears, and that’s nothing more than marketing hype. Powerful marketing hype, to be sure, but ultimately doesn’t amount to anything for me personally. However, I watched with curiosity as many, many users bought into this. Swearing that this one sounded more realistic and better than anything else available. As you may have already guessed…I ended up buying it.

The Sound and Playability

Now, in my style of reviewing, I tend to be very critical. The more marketing and hype that surrounds the product, the easier it is to be disappointed. So I want you to keep this all in mind as I write my honest and in depth thoughts about this library.

The library, when you just sit down and start playing notes, sounds amazing, as many would expect. It sounds like a real orchestra when you play the notes. It blends together very well. However, this is simply not enough to warrant a purchase for many composers today, as we have reached a point where almost all sample libraries released today sound utterly realistic when played. The big question is, does it sound inherently more realistic than every other library I own and every other library on the market? In some aspects, yes it does. In others, it falls significantly short.

The library is massive, and contains individual sections and solo instruments for strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion. I’ll break down my thoughts on the sound of each:

The Strings : 9/10 -The string ensembles here are top-tier stuff. They have an amazing amount of depth and space without sacrificing any of the detail. Overall, they are quite warm and truly a joy to play. The performance legato is an absolute standout feature here: this is an articulation that allows you to play short spiccatos and fast and slow legato lines (including very realistic runs and portamento) all with one patch. It works beautifully, and is a noticeable improvement from the performance legato patches in Spitfire’s Symphonic Strings and Chamber Strings libraries. In fact, the performance legato patches are a staple in my personal composing template, I really love them that much. The rest of the string articulations are all great, from short notes like spiccatos and staccatos, to tremolo, flautando, and more unique articulations as well. It’s all quite extensive and sounds fantastic, and the room really compliments the string recordings very nicely. While there are some sloppy inconsistencies here and there, like slightly choppy dynamic layers or shorts that are a bit out of sync on rare occasion, overall the strings are incredible.

The Percussion: 10/10 - This is simply the most realistic sampled percussion I’ve heard to date. There is something about the depth, the sense of 3d space, the width, the ambience… it all comes together to truly make you feel like you are sitting in the exact same room as the players as they play these instruments in front of you. I was incredibly impressed across the board here, from the insanely powerful timpani, to the beautiful tuned percussion, to the plethora of snares, cymbals, etc. Honestly, zero complaints here. It all sounds stunningly realistic and natural.

The Woodwinds: 6/10 - This is where things start to fall apart for me, mostly due to incredible inconsistencies. Some of the instruments are absolutely beautiful, most namely the flutes (solo and ensemble) and the bassoons (solo and ensemble). Some of the woodwind instruments also contain performance legato patches, which is something they’ve never done before, and with the instruments that utilize it, it’s very effective and works great. The flutes are a standout here, as they utilize the performance legato techniques flawlessly, with an absolutely beautiful and lovely, airy tone, with an amazing sense of both depth and detail. The bassoons come second to me, they sound very, very good, but I don’t like the default mix option, preferring he tree mics. There is a noticeable crossfade in some of the dynamic layers in the bassoons after transitioning from one note to the next. It’s a very small thing you have to listen for, and overall I love the sound of the bassoons here.

The rest of the woodwinds really start to fall apart for me in a few areas: noticeable lack of dynamic layers and legato transitions. This is why I mentioned this library, as a whole, is plagued by inconsistencies. It’s most noticeable in the woodwinds for me, because while the flutes are among the finest sampled instruments I’ve heard, many of the other sections sound like they were hastily thrown together and sloppily edited. The oboe, for example, sounds good, and has some great legato transitions, which is the natural slurring you hear when transitioning from one note to the next. However, when you switch to the English horn, the legato transitions are practically non-existent, with very jarring and noticeable lack of slurring when you transition between notes, as if you are simply playing a sustain patch with “fake” legato scripting as opposed to true recorded legato. Some details like this are to be expected when you have such a huge sampling project, but it simply happens too often here to tout this as the best sampled orchestra you can get. I am also not a fan of the tone of the clarinets, while there’s nothing wrong with it, again it’s simply not up to the standard set by other companies, or even the standard set by Spitfire with their Symphonic Woodwinds collection. With some of these sections, the lack of dynamic layers is truly jarring. There is barely any change as you push the mod wheel up above value 27-ish, but once you go down below 27, if nearly drops to silence. Things like that are even more frustrating when you notice some of the sections do not have this problem, though the ones that don’t have it are the exception with the woodwinds, as most of them seem to be very sloppy and half-assed, for lack of a better term. Also, the legato is just sloppy in general, often skipping notes and not being able to perform runs anywhere near as convincing as other collections, and again, easily bested by Spitfire’s Symphonic Woodwinds which is many years old now.

The Brass - 6/10 You’ve probably heard that the brass in this collection is weak, and that’s definitely not a false statement. The solo horn, in particular, sounds laughably bad to me. However, I really like the trumpets, the legato especially, and the fantastic multitongued articulations. The only thing is, the brass all tops out quite early in terms of dynamics. Again, this is the BBC Symphony Orchestra, not the Hans Zimmer Symphony Orchestra, so I don’t mind it quite so much, but it’s very noticeable. The biggest complaint I have is, again, the inconsistency, lack of solid legato transitions, and the lack of dynamic layers here. I’d put it all on par with the woodwinds. Some sound good, most sound half baked.

The Plugin Itself/Performance

Here is where my biggest complaints come with this library. I’ll be honest, I do NOT like the plugin. I have had many, many issues with it over the last year, even after numerous updates and promises of better performance. My biggest problems with it are the load times and the overall lack of stability and choppy performance compared to Kontakt, SINE Player, and the Vienna Synchron Player. It’s simply impossible to ignore, and I am just giving my honest thoughts here, but the plugin itself tends to be a nightmare for me. I had, at one time, replaced many of my favorite Kontakt libraries with the BBCSO to try to get that fabled “cohesive” sound I kept hearing about. When it worked, it sounded amazing. Did it sound better than combining my favorite Kontakt libraries? Nope. However, the most frustrating part was how much RAM the plugin would use, how long it took to load, and how frequently it caused performance issues when composing large orchestral projects (Studio One 5, Windows 10, 64gb of RAM, Intel Core i7 8700K processor, with all the latest updates). It would often completely max out my RAM usage, when the same amount of instruments could be open and loaded in Kontakt with only a little over 50 percent RAM being used. I also noticed audio pops and dropouts frequently, which would go away after changing some settings, but would always start to happen again. I couldn’t figure out some magic setting that would fix everything, it would always come back eventually. I also would have noticeably longer load times when loading a template with multiple instances of BBCSO. I remember seeing a Youtube video that Christian Henson had an entire orchestral template loaded with every instrument from BBCSO and it only used like 12 gb of RAM or something? I don’t know what he did, but it sure as hell never worked for me.

Value

This library offers an incredible value for those staring out (and those with POWERFUL systems to handle a full template). For the pro version, it’s $999 bucks for an entire orchestra with individual sections, solo instruments, and a TON of articulations. If I were a beginner, I would probably give this library at least a solid 8/10. However, I’m not. I bought it because it promised THE most realistic and “cohesive” sound on the market. Did it deliver? For the percussion, and to a lesser extent the strings, it absolutely did. However, this isn’t the BBCSO Percussion or the BBCSO Strings library. We have to take it ALL into consideration. Did it simplify my composing progress and make it easier and more fun to write? No, quite the opposite actually. It over complicated things, and the end result was never worth it. The whole “cohesive” sound can easily be achieved by combining libraries from multiple developers, proper panning and reverb, and some basic mixing knowhow. I would rather do that, and get the exact sound I hear in my head, than have to struggle with clunky plugins and trying to work with incredibly inconsistent samples across the board. Is it terrible? Hell no! However, it’s simply not worth it in my opinion, and I regret buying the pro version. I would be happy with the Core Version for the Strings and Percussion alone, however, or even better, if they sold each section separately.

The Verdict - 6/10

Pros +

+ An iconic and world class orchestra at your fingertips.

+The best sampled percussion I’ve heard to date, and some of the best sounding and most playable strings I’ve had the pleasure of using.

Cons -

-Frustratingly inconsistent sampling especially In regards to dynamic layers and legato

-The plugin itself is clunky and a serious resource hog, and long load times and performance issues lead to frustration.

-Tops out early in the dynamic scale, especially the brass.

-SPITFIRE simply overpromised and underdelivered.

Final thoughts: If you are a beginner and can afford it and have a nice system to run it, it’s a good choice, and a very solid value. Not perfect, but good to start with. If you are a composer who has some top notch libraries already, trust me, SKIP IT. I respect the company and their ambition and what they tried to do, but it simply didn’t even come close to the monumental hype and promises it made initially.

Epic Choir Shootout, featuring a mockup of Duel of the Fates from Star Wars!

Review: Veil By Instant Sonics (Pads and Textures)

Veil is a brand new library from Instant Sonics. Their last offering was the Silver Screen Toolkit, which I reviewed a few months back. While the Silver Screen Toolkit was a large and varied library, Veil is significantly smaller and much more focused, this time offering a great collection of pads and cinematic textures. The library costs $25, comes in at just under 1.5 GB, and requires the full version of Kontakt to run.

The GUI is clean and simple, similar to Silver Screen Toolkit.

I really like the clean GUI of Veil. To be honest, I rarely use built in FX with any Kontakt instrument, but the libraries from Instant Sonics seem to always be an exception. I grew up with VST soft synths, so there is a sense of familiarity with the various effects, dials, and knobs represented in the GUI of Veil.

The on board effects are plentiful and powerful, offering an arpeggiator, filters, distortion, gating, ADSR, and echoes, which enables delay and reverb all generated in a powerful convolution engine, with several reverb presets to choose from. Different variations of effects can be applied independently to each sound source, which is a nice touch. There’s also a randomize function for instant inspiration.

The heart of this instrument is a dual layer sample engine, allowing you to load up to two sound sources at once and seamlessly mix between them and blend as you see fit. Each generator has four separate categories to load sounds from: Pads, Plucks, Rhythmic, and Other.

The Pads category easily takes the cake for the most sound sources available. The sounds included are really fantastic overall, and very textural. While the sounds may sound similar to some synths at first, what sets them apart is the unique, evolving textures embedded in each sound. You get a large variety of sounds, and each pad evolves as you hold down the keys. For instance, the “Bubbles” pad has a bit of a mild glitchy effect, and “Desert Winds” invokes the sound of wind blowing across a natural landscape. Each sound is fairly unique, and most are instantly useable, just drop them into a track and they will stand on their own, not to mention the fun that can be had blending them together. While the sounds in the Pads section are unique and differentiate from one another, a few of the sounds on their own can be just a tad generic, but, this library isn’t about loading up just one sound source, and that initial feeling disappears quickly once you dive in and start tinkering. Experimenting and getting creative is what this library is all about. When you also take into consideration the fact you could literally experiment for hours with the onboard effects, it’s pretty impressive the amount of content you get for just $25.

The other sections are much smaller, but they all deliver. The plucks are typical EDM style plucked sounds, but again, experimenting with the echoes and convolution effects prove to be a real joy, no matter what the initial sound happens to be. The rhythmic section sounds a bit more loop based, sometimes sounding like a cross between a synth pulse and a pad with a trance-gate effect. The “other” section seems to be a grab bag of stingers and transitions, with a couple phat synth sounds thrown in and one really quirky sound (Sunrise String) that has a synthetic, human-voice type sound.

From etheral soundscapes, haunting and unnerving drones, and everything in between, this library delivers. I was very impressed with the variety of sounds and the incredible quality of the on-board FX engines. The evolving nature of the sounds and the sound shaping capabilities are top notch. I almost always use third party reverbs and effects, but the included effects are very satisfying, which is a huge plus. Instant Sonics is one company I find myself not wanting to each for the third party effects, I feel satisfied just playing around with the on-board settings.

I really love smaller and more focused libraries, and while I really enjoyed their last offering, Silver Screen Toolkit, I think the lower price tag and increased focus of Veil will go a long way to making Instant Sonics a household name. I would definitely recommend this product for someone looking for cinematic textures and soundscapes, especially for those who love to get creative and have fun tweaking dials and layering FX.

The Verdict - 9.0/10

Pros +
+ Fantastic sounds and on board effects engine.
+ A lot of content and fun for a really great price.
+ Offers a wide variety of unique textures and encourages hours of creativity and experimentation.

Cons -
- May have trouble sorting through the different pads and remembering which one was your favorite.

People are loving Bombfest!

Check out this great multiplayer gameplay video of BOMBFEST, and enjoy the music written by B. Free Productions exclusively for the game!

Stumpt plays Bombfest! A party game where you throw your little wooden toys that blow up each other with lots of fun bombs!

Review : Jaeger (version 1.2) by Audio Imperia

Just a few days ago, after much anticipation, Audio Imperia released a massive free update to their flagship orchestral library, Jaeger. This update is huge, and you can tell they took their time and really listened to user requests and critiques. This review is going to cover my overall thoughts and critiques of Jaeger ($599), including the recent improvements featured in the 1.2 update.

When Jaeger was first announced (see teaser above), it came as a bit of a shock to some. Audio Imperia, as a company, are known for their cutting edge sound design libraries. When I think of the name Audio Imperia, I Instantly think of AAA film trailer effects, such as intense braams, risers, gritty synth pulses, atmospheres, mechanized hybrid FX, and the like. This company not only carved out a niche, but earned a spot at the top, offering incredible designed sounds at really competitive prices. While a lot of their products did include organic instruments, such as Trailer Guitars, and their Klavier Piano series, I truly never expected them to release a full fledged orchestral library. There was such a massive market already for orchestral samples, from companies such as Spitfire Audio, 8dio, Cinesamples, Orchestral Tools, and East West, so when they did announce their plans to release Jaeger, my initial reaction was one of surprise, quickly followed by excitement.

The GUI is sleek and modern.

I had yet to be disappointed by anything released by Audio Imperia, and the more I learned about Jaeger, the more eager I became to hear more demos and check it out for myself. The artwork and marketing alone sure go a long way to selling the product. They made it clear, this is not your mother’s orchestral library... this is modern, epic, and in your face. You won’t find any vague and pretentious marketing campaigns here! You know… the kind with musicians playing in slow mo, quiet string swells and minimalist ambiance (aka… Spitfire Audio). Instead, we get massive braams, blaring horns, tight string ostinatos, and the most gorgeous legato vocals you’ve ever heard. To top it all off, the visuals seem straight out of a sci fi blockbuster... you’re faced with this badass artwork of a giant mechanized robot (like the Jaegers in Pacific Rim), a big knob in the center of the GUI that looks sort of like the arc reactor on Iron Mans chest, and just an all around sleek, futuristic, mechanical design. Pretty freakin cool, if you ask me.

I held off on buying this library for a while. I recently had purchased Spitfire Albion One, I didn’t need another all-in-one orchestral library. I had also recently purchased 8dio’s Century Strings and Brass, plus Keepforest Evolution Dragon and Atlantica...I didn’t need more individual instrument sections or any more hybrid trailer FX. Plus, those companies had years of experience perfecting their craft... I’m sure many of us wondered that maybe Audio Imperia bit off more than they could chew. It’s their first attempt at anything orchestral and they chose to do an entire orchestra (minus woodwinds, more on that later...) How good could it be?

Pretty good, apparently..

The first look and unboxing videos started to make their rounds on the interwebs (thanks Daniel James!) The reviews began to pour in! General consensus: it was GREAT. Not just good, but great, even excellent! It earned an astonishing 10/10, a perfect score, from MusicTech magazine. That’s pretty impressive. You couldn’t even begin to talk about vocal samples online without someone raving about the Jaeger legato vocals by Merethe Solvedt (of Two Steps From Hell fame). I had to admit, everything I had heard sounded stunning. Yet I continued to hold off on purchasing. I mean, if it had woodwinds, I would have been all over it from day one. To me it felt a bit incomplete, but I couldn’t get over the sound of that legato vocal patch I kept hearing. It sounded so beautiful yet epic, and the legato so natural and smooth you could swear she was standing in front of you, singing her heart out. They had a promo and sold the vocal library on its own, and of course I had to check it out. After buying just the vocal, about a month later I had caved and bought the entire Jaeger library. I had to have it. It was just too cool! 

Audio Imperia "Jaeger: Essential Modern Orchestra" https://www.audioimperia.com Deriving from the German word Jäger, meaning Hunter, JAEGER is the first release in a series of orchestral instruments that will usher you into a new era of modern cinematic music. As composers, we constantly find ourselves chasing that next creative spark, but our short deadlines don’t always allow us the time to let inspiration hit. You have to simply apply fingers to keys and pour the music into your sequencer. To overcome this, JAEGER was created by a team of industry veterans who set out on this endeavor with two, seemingly, simple goals: * An incredible sound straight out of the box * An incredibly user-friendly engine and interface Before settling on the exact specs for the library, the guys received extensive feedback from a number of highly successful, working composers to ensure no stone was left unturned. The constant pressure and tight deadlines demands for libraries with easy load times and maximum flexibility for a quick workflow. With all of that in mind, the orchestral parts of JAEGER contain individual sections for strings, brass, and percussion. Though the library is primarily focused on punchy, epic music (i.e. no woodwinds), it is not just designed to be loud; it is cinematic. JAEGER offers the following: * Up to 6 morphing velocity layers. * Up to 9 Random, No Repetition, Round Robin. * Dynamic Pure Tuning for Strings & Brass, just like a real orchestra. * Preserved Original Recording Levels. * Non-Distance Compensated Mixes & Distance Compensated Mixes for Percussion, the best of both worlds. * Separate Sections for Strings: 16 Violins, 10 Violas, 6 Celli, 4 Basses * Separate Sections for Brass: 3 Trumpets, 6 Horns, 2 Tenor & 2 Bass Trombones, 2 Tubas. * Expansive Percussion Section: Gran Cassa Ensemble, Taikos (Small), Taikos (Medium), Taikos (Large), Concert Tom Ensemble, Concert Snare (Low) Ensemble, Concert Snare (High) Ensemble, Sticks, Tam Tam, Piatti. In true Audio Imperia fashion, we added more to the library than you’d normally expect. The orchestral sections are complemented by processed percussion mixes (by Decimator Drums producer Martin Hasseldam), an extensive sound design section, and most importantly, an incredibly unique vocal section featuring internationally renowned vocalist Merethe Soltvedt. Merethe Soltvedt is an award-winning vocalist who has performed for composers such as Jeff Broadbent, Henry Lai, Tom Salta, Ivan Torrent and companies like Brand X, Two Steps From Hell, and Ghostwriter Music. A truly unique voice that will add a whole other dimension to your music. Be the Hunter, Not the Hunted!

Content and Sound

Jaeger loads up into the file browser, or quick load, section of Kontakt, not through Native Access, therefor it is not compatible with the free Kontakt Player, which is always a tiny bit disappointing to me. Not because I personally use the free Kontakt player (though I know many who do), but because I just prefer having seamless access to my content in the library tab, and while it is such a small detail based on vanity, it feels so much more official having the nice little graphic there to click on to explore and load the content. Nonetheless, that is purely my personal taste.

Jaeger is a very good sounding library, no doubt about it. It’s divided into sections labelled “hangars”, consisting of Strings, Brass, Percussion, Sound Design, and Vocals. The shorts are, for the most part, impressively crisp and punchy, in fact the staccatissimo brass is my new go to when I need to achieve a tight and punchy sound that bites right through the mix. While the brass shorts can be very aggressive and hot, I feel the spiccato strings, while perfectly usable, can sound a bit bland and lack detail. However, I do use them very frequently to achieve a full and lush Hollywood trailer sound, though usually layered under a more detailed ensemble that cuts through the mix. Alternatively, you can EQ them to bring out more of the highs. I noticed by default, the short notes were not syncing up to my tempo properly, instead sounding a bit sloppy and delayed. I realized I simply had to adjust the “sample start” slider all the way to the right, which made them perform like my other spiccato patches. While I first thought this was an odd choice, I do appreciate the amount of control this library offers, and by featuring a slider like this, it can consequently produce the tightest string ostinatos out of any library I own. Additionally, using this feature, along with a similar “Legato sample start” slider, can produce the fastest and most nimble legato lines I’ve heard, which is pretty impressive.

French Horns are essential for epic music, in my humble opinion!

When I tested out the legato and long notes, the first thing that struck me was how incredible and lyrical the legato is. This is hands down some of the best legato I’ve ever heard, and by nature is incredibly beautiful, natural, and flowing, which, to me, somewhat stands in stark contrast of the “epic” and aggressive focus of the marketing. I found Jaeger had a beautiful and cinematic side to it, and was more than capable of producing soft and intimate lines that you’d expect in a John Williams or James Newton Howard score. I also found the horns, while beautifully sampled, did top out fairly early in terms of dynamics, especially for epic music. While they do provide an aggressive growl when they get louder, they couldn’t quite match the bold and precise sound of the 6 horns featured in 8dio Century Brass playing at their loudest.

However, when layered with the trumpets, trombones and tubas, the long and short notes of the full brass section are stunning... very rich, full, and bright, and along with the legato, the brass section is a true highlight of this library. The trumpets are bright and full of life, while the trombones offer an aggressive and raspy edge, rounded out on the low end by the tubas.

The strings have a nice, lush, Hollywood sound, and are much improved with the new 1.2 addition of NV (non-vibrato) samples as well as a vibrato slider, for more control over the overall sound. The cello and violin legato once again sounds fantastic, giving these sections a majestic and soaring vibe when needed. The strings, overall, do lean towards being more full and lush, as opposed to intimate and detailed, and although I find it is a nice balance overall, I would have liked a bit more detail in the spiccato strings. There is also a noticeable lack of dynamic layers with the short notes which is a bit frustrating.  I also noticed the basses are quite weak compared to the rest of the strings, producing a very noticeable drop in volume going from the lowest cello note to the basses when an ensemble is loaded.

This is what I picture when I hear the violin legato…lyrical and beautiful.

Jaeger is a very dry library, meaning any reverb, or sound and space of the room,  is little to none. I have no problems with this, in fact I sometimes prefer it, so I can apply the same third party reverb to all of my tracks and give it a more cohesive sense of space. One thing I did know going in, is that everything in Jaeger is recorded centered, meaning if you want it to sound more realistic and natural, you will need to pan each section accordingly. To some users, this is a deal breaker, though I personally don’t mind panning on my own. It would have been nice, however, to have a pre panned mic setting, so you could have both centered and panned mixes at the click of a button. 

The library could have used more of this…

The percussion section, while offering the nice touch of featuring both distance compensated (DC) and non-distance compensated (NDC) mixes, seems to be the weakest section out of the bunch. While they do include some great sounding samples, do not expect to achieve an epic, Hans Zimmer style percussion sound from what’s included in Jaeger. Nothing here sounds bad at all, just a bit underwhelming as far as ensemble sizes go . What they do provide, including hits, rolls, and crescendos, all sound great. While the library offers a lot, I feel including some truly epic percussion ensembles would really sweeten the deal.

The package is rounded out with the absolutely beautiful solo vocals, performed by renowned vocalist Merethe Solvedt, and feature the most convincing legato transitions I’ve ever heard. They are pretty much perfect. You’ve probably heard enough about them already, but they really are the best available, and that’s damn impressive.

Merethe Soltvedt lends her incredible voice to Jaegers vocal patch.

The sound design hangar is also incredible as expected from Audio Imperia. You can easily make a licensable trailer track using just sounds from the sound design hangar as your only FX, not even needing any post processing. If you have any Audio Imperia sound design libraries, you know what to expect. Absolutely top notch sounds and fx here, absolutely no complaints. 

Bang for your Buck

Overall, Jaeger offers a good value, but I believe it could definitely be improved, and I personally believe there are other packages that offer more for the price. Spitfire’s Albion One ($449), which earned a 9.0/10 score from my review, offers massive percussion, loops, synths, and woodwinds, while another 9.0/10 score went to Berlin Inspire (399 euros, approx $453.42), which offers solo instruments and combined sections. Overall, they still take the cake for me as far as content and value is concerned. While Jaeger does feature great sounding individual instrument sections, offering a level of detail that may not be attainable in the aforementioned libraries, it doesn’t help that the areas where Jaeger seems to be lacking are now going to be sold as additional libraries by Audio Imperia. That’s content that is included in some other packages, that you will now have to pay extra for. For instance: Audio Imperia scrapped their Decimator drums library for Cerberus, and are selling it for 299 dollars, touting it as the epic, percussive companion to Jaeger, as they are recorded in the same space. Basically, I can’t help but shake the feeling some things are missing on purpose with Jaeger. While it offers a lot of great sounding content, and is perfectly useable on it’s own, it’s lacking in quite a few areas that other packages often include. If you buy Jaeger as a first library , and want to truly have epic percussion, you may then feel obligated to buy Cerberus. If you want truly earth shattering low brass and horns that will melt your face off, you’d then invest further in Talos. And if you want woodwinds, be prepared to invest even more into the upcoming woodwind library. Please keep in mind, while I am offering quite a few points of critique, Jaeger is a very good library, but it still feels lacking in some areas, and with the release of so many companion libraries at fairly high prices, it can sometimes feels intentional. 

Final Thoughts : a bit of an identity crisis?

Nonetheless, the library was impressively beautiful, which struck me again as a bit odd, but by no means a bad thing. While it was very suitable for modern and epic music, it seemed it could equally perform at the opposite end of the spectrum, able to produce delicate and soft passages of equal measure, sometimes even better, than the more aggressive sounds. While I welcome this decision, it’s here where the lack of woodwinds really hurts it. For soft passages, to me there is nothing quite like the delicate and expressive sound of woodwinds, and they are sorely missed when you bring this library down to its softer dynamics. This library also combines first and second violins into one section, which again seems to highlight a slight lack of vision... this library is impressive, but can’t quite be a jack of all trades, and, on it’s own, it can’t yet succeed at fulfilling the needs of making truly epic music. For instance: those who want something purely for epic music have louder and more bombastic options such as Metropolis Ark 1, and those who want a more traditional library would most certainly favor a library with pre-panned sections, woodwinds, and first and second violins. You also only get legato patches on cello, violins, vocals, and horns, though it sounds absolutely stunning on those that do feature it. I feel this library could have easily ventured into GREAT or EXCELLENT territory if it expanded it’s content to offer woodwinds, and included epic percussion, maybe even louder dynamics on the horns.

Updates! 

One thing I felt was missing originally was the ability to load a full ensemble patch. I had saved some custom multis, one featuring every string section and panned accordingly. However, every time I loaded this multi up, the sample start slider was always reset, and I had to adjust the slider for four different instruments every time I loaded up a project, so my shorts played nice and tight. A minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless  One of the new features included in the 1.2 updates is the ability to load up full ensemble patches , however, there are no options to individually pan each instrument section, so it’s a bit of a trade off.  Personally I use the ensemble patch for shorts but still load individual sections for every other articulation, so I can pan them individually. Nonetheless, it is very nice to have the ensemble patches available for quick loading and sketching. 

The feature that most interested me on the list of updates was the decision to include polyphonic legato. I felt this was generally a fairly new and cutting edge feature, implemented in only a handful of libraries I owned, but those that had it were an absolute joy to play and I favored them for their ease of use and effenciancy when writing. Polyphonic legato works differently in Jaeger, splitting each legato voice by velocity. I will quote Tomas from Audio Imperia here:
“For instance, when you enable three velocity splits you’ll be able to play up to 3 different legato voices, with voice 1 being linked to velocity range from 1 to 42, voice 2 from 43 to 84 and voice 3 from 85 to 127.“

While it doesn’t offer the fun factor and ease of use as something like Strezov’s Afflatus, it is an excellent feature and works very well, and I’m quite impressed they managed to include this in the update. 

Another very nice feature is the new vibrato slider, which enables you to load one patch and choose between a non vibrato or vibrato playing style. 

Overall, the updates are quite substantial (over 10gb), and add some really great features.

All updates are as follows:

• Added new legato unison interval samples for all legato instruments. The feature is triggered when the sustain pedal is on.

• Added strings non-vibrato samples and the corresponding non-vibrato to vibrato instrument patches.

• Added ensemble samples and ensemble instrument patches.

• Added velocity based polyphonic legato.

• Added lite, super resource-friendly patches.

• Added sustain pedal support.

• Added Stereo Spread and Reverse parameters on Sound Design engine.

• Release samples were denoised and sample starts were adjusted for all instruments.

• Loops on sustained instruments now use equal power crossfades.

• New percussion engine for percussion instruments.

• Huge improvements in release samples behavior.

• Release samples are not affected by dynamics after release.

• Fixed non-persistent controllers issue.

• Individual patches were hugely optimized and now load much faster.

• 36.2 GB installed (up from just under 25 GB in Version 1.1).

I did notice all patches now load instantly, even before doing any sort of batch resave, which is very nice! 

The Verdict - 8.75/10

PROS +
+ Overall impressive sound, especially for the first orchestral offering from the company.
+ Brass is bright and powerful, offering some of the most crisp and punchy short notes I’ve heard.
+Amazing Legato for Violins, Cellos, Horns, and the impeccable Solo Vocal.
+Sound Design elements are second to none.
+1.2 updates are substantial and add quite a bit to the value of the library.

CONS-
-NO WOODWINDS! Even just a full ensemble would go a long way to flesh out this library :(
-Percussion is sorely lacking in ensemble sizes, especially for epic music
-Seems to lack a well defined vision…can’t quite do everything, can’t quite nail one niche.
-Doesn’t offer as much content as some lesser priced packages, feels a bit stripped down on purpose to sell Cerberus and Talos.

New releases and 2019 updates!

Legion of the Damned release Slaves of the Shadow Realm, featuring cinematic music by B. Free Productions!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2018 has treated you well! First off, 2019 is off to a great start already, as this month already has some exciting releases.
First we have the release of a brand new album, Slaves of the Shadow Realm, by thrash metal titans Legion of the Damned!

This album features some epic original music, created exclusively for the album by B. Free Productions!

Legion of the Damned are signed to Napalm Records and launched their newest album on January 5th, 2019. I had the privilege to write the intro for the track “Priest Hunt” as well as the cinematic outro for the entire album (“Dark Coronation/Outro”). It was a lot of fun creating the dark soundscapes featured on the album!
Be sure to check out LOTD!

-Official Site
-Facebook
-Spotify

BOMBFEST releases worldwide on all major consoles on January 31st, 2019!

As part of my ongoing collaboration with indie game publisher Whitethorn Digital, I had the opportunity to contribute some additional music for the award winning multiplayer game, BOMBFEST! Developed by Sudden Event studios, I worked closely with lead developer Zac Pierce to write some exciting new music, including music for four new stages that were added after they reached their funding goal. I can’t wait for you all to play this addicting party game! It releases January 31st, 2019, on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Review: Native Instruments Symphony Series - Woodwinds

Today I’ll be reviewing another product in Native Instruments’ fairly new orchestral product line, Symphony Series Woodwinds. I was in need of a wide ranging collection of solo woodwind instruments as well as ensembles, and the entire Symphony Series line has a very attractive price point, especially for owners of Komplete or Komplete Ultimate! I paid around $150 USD during a promotion where everything was 50% off, normally you’d pay $499 for the whole collection, and Komplete owners are eligible for a crossgrade price of $299 for everything, which is a really great price compared to the other collections on the market. They also offer this Woodwind library (and all NI Symphony Series products) in a stripped down, Symphony Essentials version, which is even cheaper, but lacking in the amount of features and articulations.

The full ensemble patch features color coded keys for each instrument section

GUI and Features

The GUI is consistent across the board with every Symphony Series library, and I really do appreciate the simplicity and layout. There are single patches for each articulation, which include “Effects” (some really nice flourishes, arps, and valve clicks), “Expression” (crescendos and decrescendos, sforzando, and swells), as well as the standard Sustain, Staccato, and Legato, and an additional Multi-articulation patch which enables keyswitches for switching articulations. There are options for enabling different arpeggios for the sustains, shorts, and legato patches, which is a nice option to have, although while some scales perform great, others are out of sync and really not very usable in my honest opinion. For instance: hold down the D key for a major arpeggio run, and it performs the arp in tight 16th notes. However, when you move up to the E key, it no longer performs the arp with consistent 16th notes, instead having more of a swing, which gives it a human feel, but it will not be in sync with any other 16th notes in your track, and the lack of consistency is quite frustrating. There is a “tightness” slider which I believe is meant to fix this issue, but it begins to make everything sound very synth-y and fake. This collection is also lacking an English Horn or Bass Clarinet, and strangely includes an ensemble of saxophones where the other instruments mentioned would be much more appropriate for an orchestral setting.

The Sound

The sound featured in this collection is truly a mixed bag, but it leans towards the negative end of the spectrum. I’ll be completely honest, my initial reaction upon loading up a few different instruments in both the ensemble and solo libraries, I was disappointed. There seems to be some sort of processing going on in the sounds, and there is a lot of ambient room noise and reverb included in the recordings, even with the “reverb” setting turned off. For the most part, the various effects like clusters, flourishes, and the like, all sound very natural and add a nice human performance to a composition, and I can definitely see myself using them quite a bit. However, this library is very hard to blend with other orchestral or woodwind libraries, due to the overall quality and nature of the recordings themselves. There seems to be an overall lack of purity, which I get from other libraries such as Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds and 8dio’s Claire woodwind collection, both of which feature far superior sampling quality than NI’s offering. Some of the short patches are good, but the sustains sound very, very fake and processed to me. The legato also says it’s “true legato” but, the transitions are quite poor. I find these observations ring true with both the ensemble and solo libraries. Simply comparing the quality of the solo clarinet in Symphony Series to the 8Dio or Spitfire solo clarinet is truly night and day. There is an airy, raspy quality to the NI collection which just sounds bad to me. While this may serve the Bass Wind’s patch well, for others it sounds very out of place and just amateur overall, especially with the clarinets and bassoons. I have experimented extensively with different mic positions as well, and while I do prefer the close mic, I still do not like the overall sound of this library. The sounds are pleasant in low dynamics, but lacking in volume, as if played very far away. When you begin to push the dynamic slider up further, the warm, subtle pleasantness of the instrument quickly vanishes and is replaced by a harsh, raspy, buzzy tone quality, and everything sounds processed as if compressed. There is simply an uneven and inconsistent quality when it comes to the sounds you get with this collection, and it really is frustrating. While these instruments may work very well in a full orchestral setting, when played on their own in an exposed setting, they do not sound convincing to me. While it might be nice to use the flourishes and clusters and some effects in certain places, do not expect them to really blend well with other woodwind libraries, simply due to the difference in sound and timbre, which means I may never get any use out of it at all due to owning much better libraries for woodwinds. I don’t mean to imply this collection is useless for everyone, and it would work if you are a composer on a budget and aren’t looking for realistic and expressive performances. The effects included are really nice, and this product would suffice if you don’t use woodwinds often and need them to enhance a pop song, or use them in context with a full orchestra (if they play in an exposed setting they can’t really hold their own), but to me overall, there is a certain lack of quality that prevents this collection from earning a recommendation.

The Verdict -

5.5/10

Unfortunately, this collection falls far short of the quality standards expected from modern orchestral sample libraries. While it does offer a very good price and lots of content, I feel the samples themselves are of very poor quality, sounding overly processed and they never once were truly convincing. There is also the issue of having so much room ambiance and reverb baked into the samples themselves, which does not enhance this collection in any way. Sadly I feel this product was a waste of money, and while I only paid $150, please be warned for those looking for a “bread and butter” woodwind collection, it would be wise to invest in a library of higher quality from a more reputable company.

Review : Berlin Inspire by Orchestral Tools

Berlin Inspire is another addition into the popular (and ever-so-crowded) category of “All-In-One” orchestral sample libraries. These libraries are aimed at a specific crowd: those who may be newer to the field of composing with MIDI in a DAW and want a good starting point, or those who may not be able to afford (either with income OR computer resources) the large and detailed libraries featuring full orchestral sections. There are quite a few of these libraries which are recommended commonly on the internet : Spitfire Audio’s Albion One, Orchestral Tools Metropolis Ark 1, and Audio Imperia’s Jaeger. These libraries, however, seem to be aimed towards a more specialized approach: making music that is more modern and bold (able to produce a louder dynamic range), with large ensemble sizes and no solo instruments, as opposed to focusing on the sounds of traditional film scores and classical music. Enter BERLIN INSPIRE!

Berlin Inspire is an all in one orchestral package from Orchestral Tools. It includes arguably the most comprehensive list of instruments for a traditional film score or for writing classical music. To my knowledge, it is the only such package to include solo instruments (flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet), as well as a harp, piano, and timpani/orchestral percussion, in addition to the standard Strings, Brass and Woodwinds. Each section is also very detailed, offering a patch solely for first and second violins and first chair strings as well as the full string ensemble and high and low string 8va patches.

Included are the most common articulations for each instrument section, including sustains, spiccato/staccato, pizzicato and tremolo (strings), marcato (brass), and trills (woodwinds). You also get a few combined sections, such as Trumpet+Horns 8va, Trombones+Tuba 8va, Flutes + Clarinets 8va, and Bassoons + Clarinets 8va. Having solo instruments as well as smaller combined sections goes a long way to add detail and clarity to tracks created using this library.

The sound of this library is very detailed and crisp, the shorts in particular sound impeccable. Every instrument is recorded in their natural seating position, meaning everything is pre-panned right out of the box, which is very nice and adds realism (some may prefer a centered recording approach, but I believe pre-panned works for the style this library represents) The “Whole Orchestra” multi is an amazing tool to load up for sketching out ideas and fleshing out tracks that may be lacking thickness or punch. The first chair strings sound appropriately intimate and are a welcome addition to provide a more close and detailed sound. The inclusion of a harp and piano are nice, however the harp I found sounded quite disappointing compared to the Kontakt Factory Library VSL Harp patch. The percussion included performs very nicely, the timpani especially. Also included are a glockenspiel and a combination patch featuring a marimba and xylophone (this patch sounds great, the glockenspiel, however, isn’t my favorite). Besides these exceptions, the sound is amazing and lives up to the high standard set by previous libraries by Orchestral Tools, and it stands as a great starting point for those wanting to dive into the sounds this company offers without spending thousands of dollars.

Not every instrument features legato, and while it performs beautifully for the solo instruments (the solo horn especially sounds amazing) and for the instruments which it was specifically recorded for, the emulated legato transitions on the other instruments aren’t anything to write home about, though it is nice to have it included. This library also tops out fairly early in terms of dynamics for the sustains. For instance, for the “whole orchestra” staccato patch, it sounds incredibly punchy and full of life. When you switch to a sustain articulation on the same patch, it does not go into the same realm of punchy-ness and intensity, instead sounding a bit mellow even in the highest dynamic range. It does however easily provide enough loudness and range to fulfill the needs of a classical composer.

My biggest complaint is on the lack of any extra mic positions, only offering one, which sounds fine for me, but more control over the mic positions would go a long way (and also add to the hard drive space and resource consumption of the library, so it’s perfectly understandable why this feature was left out).

The Verdict-

9.0/10

Pros +
+ Amazing amount of content for the price.

+ Very detailed and focused sound, perfect for traditional film scores and classical music.

+ Nice variety of articulations.

+ Includes First Chair strings and Solo Instruments, most comprehensive ‘all in one’ package.

Cons -

- Only one mic position

- Emulated legato transitions, plus the sound of the harp and glockenspiel, aren’t my favorite.

- Sometimes fast staccato/spicatto phrases fall out of sync in certain note ranges (for instance: low full strings aren’t properly synced when playing fast)

Overall, Berlin Inspire is a great choice for anyone seeking a detailed and traditional orchestral package, as it is full of great and realistic sounds, without breaking the bank or requiring a super powerful computer.

Review - Afflatus Chapter I: Strings by Strezov Sampling

The art style represents the unique quality of this library

Here it is! The big review for the massive new release from Strezov Sampling, Afflatus Chapter I: Strings! This library has been the talk of the town on social media and composer forums since the first teasers began leaking out, and hearing the demos, the unanimous decision was that it sounds incredible. A new revelation dawned once the library actually released : It’s EXPENSIVE, costing 799 euros at the time of writing, which is roughly $909 USD. When you see user opinion on this library, a clear pattern emerges: everyone seems to agree it sounds amazing, but many simply refuse to budge and purchase a library with such a high price, which is understandable since there are so many great string libraries out there already, many for a fraction of the cost. Also, many composers have at least one or two all intensive string libraries already, so many are wondering “what will this do for me that I don’t already have with my other libraries?”

Details

This library is massive, coming in at ~123 GB Hard drive space for the library (59GB for installation files and 64 GB extracted full size library). This library does NOT require the full version of Kontakt and runs in the free Kontakt Player, which is a major plus for many users. Upon hearing the demos and reading the first details of this library even before release, you can get a feel for what Strezov is trying to accomplish here: incredibly realistic and flowing string performances captured in samples, with none of the nuance and emotion lost in translation. Here is an excerpt taken directly from their official site :

“Inspired by film and classical music icons this collection pushes the boundaries of traditional sampling methods by introducing revolutionary features like Auto Divisi combined with Polyphonic True Legato and a Thematic Approach towards playing techniques. Gone are the days of soulless samples.”

The more I delved into the details of what this library offers, the more excited I became. I have a few string libraries, each with their own pros and cons, but never have I had one that I can just load up and play with my keyboard and have it perform completely naturally, until now (and many more libraries will begin to implement this in the future, I can guarantee that). I had chalked it up to simply being the limits of sampling in general: I assumed legato patches would only be feasible on individual sections, playing one note at a time, and not being able to perform polyphonic chords or sections while still applying the beautiful legato transition. That is, until I got my hands on some newer libraries which implemented this exact technology (Genesis Choir by Audiobro and Silka Choir by 8dio, specifically, although this polyphonic legato is also a feature on Strezov’s Wotan and Freya Choirs). I really love using polyphonic legato featured in the libraries I mentioned, but I really desired a string library with the same features, as I (and most composers I know of) write more for strings than for choir.

The Interface/Content

Useful help messages pop up when needed

One immediately notices the beautiful art design used for the promos and GUI of this product : very noir with a vintage color palette. Don’t let this fool you, as while some patches very distinctly emulate vintage style recordings/arrangements, there is something for everyone here in this library, from the classical and traditional film composer to the modern and more bombastic/aggressive styling. I was initially a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content here, as I started to realize why this library may be a bit more pricey than other standard string libraries. Not only do you get the incredibly realistic and playable polyphonic legato and auto divisi technology, you get full ensembles ranging from 50+players to a more intimate chamber size ensemble and everything in between. These patches offer instant gratification the likes I haven’t experienced with any other string library to date and are incredibly rewarding to just load and play to your hearts content.

You can enable and disable the legato for all the long patches, and there is a very useful “overlap” toggle button, which will allow for a more traditional legato transition once you play a new note, as opposed to playing both notes simultaneously. Some features I’d like to see in future updates : adjusting the speed and volume of the legato transitions between notes themselves, to enable faster and tighter legato phrases.

There are many unique combinations here as well, such as “Shark Strings”, which is a combination of 10 cellos, 8 basses, and 2 pianos (Jaws, anyone?). “Christmas Strings” are violas and cellos accompanied by a pleasant alto saxophone, “The Mouse Strings” are a detailed Pizzicato ensemble. “Contemporary Strings” is a short spiccato 12 string patch. There is a TON of content here and they’re all properly labeled and explained in the provided user manual. Some personal favorites are the Lush Strings (standard big Hollywood Sound) and Minimalist Strings Legato (a more intimate and detailed sound). I also really loved “Warrior Basses” which is a combination of bartok pizzicato, timpani, percussion and male shouts. There are also preset patches tailored to modern pop and ethnic/world music as well as modern and vintage film music and classical genres as well. As you can see, you really can get an immediate and focused sound for almost any single genre of music imaginable from this one library alone. Each ensemble comes with the option to use “All Samples” , “Full Section Only”, and “Half Section Only”, which can help save computer resources. Not all patches provide the option to enable Divisi (using only half of the number of selected instruments), but most allow the use of sordino or dampened/muted playing. This library also provides experimental patches, which provide many unique instrument combinations you would never normally find in a string library, and are listed below:

The addition of so many unique instrument combinations is really incredible

Some small critiques here about the arrangement and categorization of patches: These would ideally be arranged in “Long” and “Short” categories, where as some of them are labelled by articulation in the patch name, others are not, and it feels a bit inconsistent and leaves it up to you to remember that “Contemporary Strings” only provides the spiccato articulation, as opposed to simply naming it “Contemp Strings Spic” or simply having two categories for “Ensemble Long” and “Ensemble Short”. Another thing I noticed was there are limited keyswitches available. For instance, “Lush Violins 1 KS” only allows you to keyswitch between long/legato and tremolo. It would be nice to have at least one large patch that allows you to switch between Long/Legato, Short/Spiccato, and Tremolo, to prevent from loading up multiple instances of this library with each unique articulation patch, for users who may need to conserve CPU and RAM. Also, only two patches provide a marcato articulation (“Red Army Strings” and “Shark Strings Marcato”). These critiques are small, as the library provides a truly staggering and impressive array of content, and some patches are more niche (such as the combination patches). While many of us already have a more generic/standard library with the “bread and butter” articulations already, some users may never spend this amount of money on a String Library that doesn’t at least give them a patch with the ability to key switch between the basic articulations of long, short, trem, pizz, etc.

The Sound

The sound and playability of this library are truly amazing. There is a built in reverb slider to make it as dry or as wet as you want. Overall the samples are dripping with realism and emotion, capturing the nuance of a real performance in every stroke. The polyphonic legato feature is incredible, and a massive time saver (load up ONE polyphonic legato ensemble patch instead of each individual legato section). The sheer variety of sounds this library is able to produce is phenomenal. In one library, you get typical large orchestral string sizes, as well as smaller chamber sizes, sordino, harmonics, “vintage” film/classical sounds, “trailer” patches with a more bombastic and intense phrasing, trills, molto vibrato, as well as standard pizzicato, bartok, spiccato, marcato, not to mention the vast amount of combinations, experimental patches, and pads. This library can do the classic Hollywood sound: huge, lush, and soaring (think CSS and Hollywood Strings) ; while also easily tackling the smaller section sizes with increased detail and clarity (think 8dio Century Strings or Spitfire Chamber Strings). The sound of this library alone is absolutely incredible, and just has an amazingly sweet and realistic tone, but what really pushes it to the next level of greatness is how it plays and performs. Out of every string library I have tried, none so far come close to the instant gratification and ease of use that I got from Afflatus Strings. This library is capable of producing the most realistic and beautiful string sounds with an absolute minimal of tweaking, it just works, right out of the box, and enables any composer to skip with the fuss and painstaking editing and tweaking we’re so used to with other libraries. It doesn’t eliminate tweaking completely, as sometimes legato transitions need to be adjusted slightly, and sometimes legato transition volume can be slightly inconsistent (hence my recommendation for a legato speed and volume slider), but it succeeds better than any other library at getting the performance AND sound as close to perfection as possible.

The Verdict

We all knew Afflatus Strings would be great, no doubt. What I did my best to determine was answers to the following:
Does it bring anything new to the table? - Yes

Is it versatile, can it do modern music? (such as fast paced and tight action, as well as the more traditional film style focused on in the trailers and most demos) - Yes

Does the amount of content justify the high price, and can it be the one string library to cover all grounds? - It depends.

The answer to the third question definitely depends on what you own so far, and how much use you will get out of the unique combinations and patches. Some people may never want a string section combined with a saxophone, or low strings and two pianos playing simultaneously. Some others may still be put off by the high price and lack of in depth key switch options between articulations, or furthermore the lack of a comprehensive list of articulations (some standard articulations in other libraries aren’t well represented, long patches only keyswitch between trem and legato/sustain, etc.)

For me the library is incredible and delivers wholeheartedly on sound and content (and then some) and for long strings and the full patches, nothing comes close to matching the realism and sweet sound of the polyphonic legato, not to mention the auto divisi which is not a prominent feature on many string libraries whatsoever. I did have a few critiques that I do believe, if updated and addressed, could push this string library into the realm of perfection (an unprecedented full 10/10 score). I know there are planned updates to this library, so I have very high hopes these features can and will be implemented in the future.

*Future updates are bringing in First Chairs and SCENE D'AMOUR Celli

(Scene D’Amour = “very small string ensemble playing con sordino and with molto vibrato. Very emotional performances. Patches also have Tenutos”)

Final Score: 9.5/10

Pros+
+Incredible sound with unmatched playability.

+Polyphonic legato and auto divisi perform exceptionally.

+Massive amount of content, capable of a staggering amount of sound possibilities and combinations to match ANY style.

+THE library to beat for the traditional and classic soaring “Hollywood Sound” (John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Bernard Hermann, etc)

+Every patch is dripping with emotion, soul, and realism.

Cons-

-Some ensemble patches should be categorized or labeled better (into long and short, etc)

-High price is only fully justified if you plan to use the full extent of the library: unique combinations and playing styles, and varying ensemble sizes, may not be for everyone (although the price is justified for the amount of content, IMO. Normally you’d pay 500+ for an orchestral string ensemble, and 300+ for a chamber string ensemble, etc.).

-Limited keyswitch options and some missing articulations that are standard in other libraries.