Sonic Implants Symphonic Strings at NAMM

[studioJ]

If anyone is considering a big string library purchase I can say this library sounded AMAZING at the NAMM show. It might be worth it to hold off a month or so to wait for its release. I heard Hans Zimmer and Jeff Rona both came by the booth and were very impressed with the quality.
My impression was that the strings had some more air around them than what I heard of the Garritan (maybe mic\'d a little further away) and the attacks seemed a little faster and more usable than my experience with both the Garritan and Mirslav.

studioJ

[PatS]

Drat! I was at NAMM and didn\'t stop by their booth. Of course I probably missed more than I saw, since I was only there for one day.

I see you\'re a sound designer from Boston (nice area, except for the drivers). Being so close to Sonic Implants (Arlington, MA, which is only a hop, skip and jump away from Boston), do you beta test their libraries?

Pat

[This message has been edited by PatS (edited 01-27-2002).]

[Damon]

There is some info about the strings up on their site now as well.
It looks like the same articulations that are on GOS except I don\'t see any marcato.
Curious as to what they sound like.

[PeterRoos]

I hope SonicImplant will:
a) check this forum
b) make separate intruments or discs available.
The PDF file sure looks promising!

[SyQuEsT]

A word for the GOS : Upgrades !!!

http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/tongue.gif

[KingIdiot]

Yah definitely upgrages http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif oh and.. Maestro Tools http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Abou trelease triggers, There is some work trying them with The Grand Detache loop/updates. Should sound pretty good. Also Gary\'s been fooling around with the idea of Adding Release triggers to the library as an update from the very start, but there are other ideas that might take its place.

I, like Haydn, am not a fan of Release triggers, but for a different reason. They eat up even more Poly, and you dont ALWAYS want them on a note....but there are ways around this that no developer has done yet for some reason.

I have to admit tho I\'m curious about the library. If I wasn\'t on Gary\'s Beta Team I Would ask Jennifer to be on her\'s, if she has one. SO I guess I\'ve found something that isn\'t so nice about being a liibrary beta tester! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif I\'ve talked with her before on other issues on and off for a few years, and she is a very knowledgable person. I have no doubt that these strings are going to sound great. I wish I knew it was at the booth I would have dropped by.

I\'m curious about the expressivo samples.

A word about Hans Zimmer and Rona, I\'ve also heard that people with Access to Hans Zimmer\'s Samples like GOS much better. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Anyhow, I do think I\'m done with ensemble strings so far. Solo strings next. Of course I could be wrong I do tend to get that \"man I want those\" when I hear good samples and SI\'s samples could do that http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

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Really...I am an Idiot

[This message has been edited by KingIdiot (edited 01-27-2002).]

[Damon]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KingIdiot:
A word about Hans Zimmer and Rona, I\'ve also heard that people with Access to Hans Zimmer\'s Samples like GOS much better.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Hey King, I thought nobody had access to those samples except MediaVentures?

[studioJ]

Actually I\'m in NYC now. I\'ve never Beta tested for them but they did some original soundfont design for a multimedia company I worked for in Andover, MA. Great people! I think their library will be a contender for sure.

[Damon]

Hey StudioJ,

How did the violins sound in the high register from the SI strings? Someone told me they thought they sounded synthy.

[KingIdiot]

Damon,

Well I dont doubt that there are other people with access to the MV samples, but yes its mostly those guys who do. Still there are people with access to them form being engineers or sound designers or otheer people who work on MV scores. Its not just tthe composers who get to hear them or use them http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Anyhow, I\'m really interested in hearing the expressivo strings, but I think my next choice is solo strings, Dan Dean sold me on the vibrato/expressive thing with his solo string over ensemble some time ago http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif Tho...more short bows is always a plus....

From everyone I\'ve talked to that listened to the SI stuff, they\'ve said that its got a great sound. Still I\'m actually happy I didn\'t hear them at the show to a point. EVERYTHING sounded like garbage to me at the show.... jsut because it was so FREAKING LOUD with all the people tlaking and walking around. Donnie was showing me LOP and I could barely hear a thing with the headphones cranked, he must\'ve thought I was deaf! I\'m awaiting the demos they had to go up online, as well as Gary\'s new demos.


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Really...I am an Idiot

[wazoo]

StudioJ,
I also heard these new Sonic Implants Strings at NAMM, and I agree that these are very inspiring, a beautiful work of fine art, most certainly worthy of everyone\'s consideration.

To me, the \"air\" was not the release samples - just the overall feel. It is a very personal thing. I know we can all rejoice in any library on these merits, and avoid comparison from competing libraries based on things that can\'t be appreciated until you get your hands on them.

If it were only possible, I would recommend that everyone just go down to Mars or GC and play this library - and avoid all the \"noise\" from folks up here who worked on this or that other library. Keep business out of it and just see what happens when you play it, and be your own judge.
Peace.

[KingIdiot]

I agree wazoo. I have a feeling that the SI stuff will sound pretty good. I\'m a bit biased towards Gary\'s stuff now that I\'ve done some work on updates, but I can appreciate good work when it comes along. So I\'m definitely curious about SI\'s strings.

If my bidget would allow I\'d pick them all up http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

I\'ll be the first to admit that Gary\'s library is not perfect, I\'m just inspired by the fact that he offers updates for free, always trying to get closer. I just feel like I\'m getting more for my money, but maybe its because I\'m involved now... I dunno.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[Haydn]

The \'air\' you hear is the release samples of the room they were recorded in. GOS does not use release samples. David Govett and I spoke to Jennifer Hruska of Sonic Solutions about the library a little bit while at NAMM. This library should cause some competition with GOS which will push both libraries to higher levels.

Personally, I don\'t like using release samples on my orchestral instruments but like adding my own reverbs to make all the sections sound like they\'re in the same room.

[Bruce A. Richardson]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by wazoo:
StudioJ,

I would recommend that everyone just go down to Mars or GC and play this library - and avoid all the \"noise\" from folks up here who worked on this or that other library. Keep business out of it and just see what happens when you play it, and be your own judge.
Peace.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Wazoo,

You know, there\'s nothing wrong with recommendations. Not everyone has ulterior motives or financial gain in mind. It really does seem that if you try to be helpful or descriptive about libraries, and what you say happens to be positive, then it becomes construed as an invalid perspective.

For what it\'s worth, I have a really simple formula about recommending libraries, both in my articles and here on the forum. If I can\'t find three, good, moneymaking projects for which a particular sample works, I don\'t recommend it...I don\'t even mention it.

That\'s how I avoid saying negative things about a library or its author. I think negativism is harmful, and it just poisons the discussion.

I think praise is most effective when it\'s not \"this is great, you\'ve got to buy it.\" That doesn\'t really help. Specific uses, specific projects, and specific results are VERY helpful, though. The first thing I do when considering a library is look here and see who has used it, and if they wrote about specific tasks. I can\'t tell anything from \"it\'s great.\" I can tell a lot from a description of something\'s use.

[PatS]

Bruce:

That is a great strategy and has caused me to rethink my opinion that both positive and negative opinions should be welcome here. Of course, folks are free to say what they want. But if we wish to cultivate a more collegial atmosphere, resisting the urge to post useless praise or negative remarks strikes me as the best approach. I find much resonance in the idea that one can say a lot about a library by how one uses it or . . . by not uttering a single word.

Pat

[This message has been edited by PatS (edited 01-29-2002).]

[David Govett]

The SI string are not bad at all. In all honesty they will be decent competition but they won\'t be a huge threat to GOS. They use a different philosophy in their designs Garry set the standard with the nice personalized books, upgrades and vast amount of articulations. Others may copy him of course. It\'s a very smooth sounding library and will be yet another nice string option. SI strings specialty as far as I can tell will be the MIDIOT proof plug & play smoothness while GOS seems to offer more components that you assemble to create a very realistic sound. We\'ll see how they turn out when they are released. One major advantage of GOS of course is that they are available NOW.
Later
Dave

[This message has been edited by David Govett (edited 01-29-2002).]

[caveman]

Hi Dave

I purchased the Ultimate Strings Library and I saw your name on it. This is a great library too and also deserves some credit. I would like to know however if you intend to release updates like Gary on this Library. I feel the Violas are very expressive. I really think that this Library has lots of potential and if you have tips on them I would love to hear what you have to offer. I would like to see some updates on this library as it is very nice rosin sounding.

[wazoo]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Govett:
[B]The SI string are not bad at all. In all honesty they will be decent competition but they won\'t be a huge threat to GOS. ...
One major advantage of GOS of course is that they are available NOW.
Later
Dave
B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dave,
per your post on the Nick Phoenix thread, you admit to working for Mr. Garritan in his booth at NAMM and so forth.

To this forum audience it is worth mentioning this, as loyalty may be a virtue but it doesn\'t set the stage for objectivity.

For the SI Strings, as well as GOS, the hall, instruments, musicians, conductor, selection of instruments per sample, choice of microphones, mic placement, mic pre\'s, etc. are all quite different from one another, and have nothing to do with having your name printed in a user\'s manual or the choice of articulations.

In either case, the fundamentals must work too.

Bruce said that he like the Malmsjo piano for these type of fundamentals - and it inspires him to create great music.

Perhaps it made sense to declare a \"Holy Grail\" string library ten years ago, but the sampling market is out of adolescence and is far more sophisticated now. Today, personal taste reigns as does freedom of expression and choice, which is music... otherwise all guitarists would play Fenders and not Gibsons, etc.

Let\'s not forget about the most important things. Let all new libraries assume their rightful place for inspiration - get your own hands on them, and see what happens next.
Peace.


[This message has been edited by wazoo (edited 01-31-2002).]