Best String VST Plugins & Sample Libraries

VST & Plugins
21

I own Hollywood Orchestra, EWQL Symphonic Orchestra, Kirk Hunter Diamond Symphony Orchestra, Miroslav Orchestra and Cinematic Studio Strings.

CSS is by far my favorite to play, the interface is so minimalistic and the legato is awesome. The sound is dark, intimate and romantic, and I love to play old movie scores with it, Ennio Morricone etc.

Miroslav is quite bad and I never use it, Kirk Hunter is not very realistic but I find it an excellent additional strings layer. EWQL SO Is usually my second choice after CSS, Hollywood Strings I rarely use.

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22

I have Cinematic Strings 2 and like them too, as I know does Tom Holkenborg. I also have Novo Modern Strings which rock. For more lush sounds, or just in general , my go to libraries for strings though are Hans Zimmer Strings and also Masse and Spitfireaudio’s other string libraries such as in their orchestral libraries (SSO). HZS rocks, so many articulations including harmonics on all the string instruments.

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23

I feel like the LEAPMotion is a bit of a blunt instrument because of the sensor, but it’s fun. I don’t use it regularly, but it usually gets involved if I’m building stuff for my amusement in downtime.

With any controller, the instrument has to be worthy of it. I have seen a million demos of things like Touche and the vastly-overrated Roli controllers, and the Linnstrument also, and it’s 98 times out of a hundred that the player lacks taste or understanding of the instrument being emulated. The vast majority seems to be people going “look, if I move my fingers the sound moves too!” Yes, Shemp, that’s how all instruments used to work.

But there are only a very few of what I would call virtuosi on new controllers. And seriously, I have never ever, not once, seen anyone play convincing strings on a Roli. Not surprising, as the metaphor is not conducive to creating that. Bowing is one thing and pitch selection is another, and it has not been shown to work if you try to do it all with one finger on the back of a seal with dermatitis.

And with all due respect for his other accomplishments, I think we need to lower the number of demos done by Jordan Rudess until there is more grace and beauty in what he does in them. (I will say that I’ve seen some really great lapsteel guitar stuff done by Roger Linn on his Linnstrument. Fun and musical.)

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24

Haha, that last part made me laugh. I actually like dream theater as a band, but the demos by Jordan are (as I believe you insinuate) indeed similar to a lead guitarist doing a crazy fast guitar solo. Playing fast is not the way you get expression and emotion imho.

25

I’m a little late in the discussion but I registered to the forum yesterday :slight_smile:

I own EWSO, Albion 1 and 2. Metropolis Ark 1 and 2, LASS 2.5, Intimate Textures and Rhythmic Textures (from Heavyocity), Miroslav Philharmonik 2, Inspire 1 and 2.
My go to for sketching is Inspire 1 and 2, and for the real thing, I most often end up using Metropolis Ark 1 or Albion One as the main source and EWSO and LASS for layering. Then, if I need some hybrid string textures, Intimate and Rhythmic Textures (from Heavyocity) do the job. They are additional pack of NOVO.

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26

Nice setup. I don’t have Metropolis ark but I think it sounds good. Love the choir in it.

27

Yes I love Metropolis Ark. It’s not good for every thing though. The patches crossfades from mf to fff. So forget about an intimate string passage :slight_smile:. And you’re right, the choir, even though it is limited compared to a choir library, is very usable.

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28

Thanks Mikael for mentioning the Cinematic Strings 2 and its Lush sonority. This actual winner of the strings seems to be underrated indeed.

29

Sorry man, this is not the case of personal happiness, haha! Cinematic Strings 2 is lush and strong, this is very critical regarding the strings recording as most other libraries lack it. They might be good for more romantic or harmonic styles or better to say consonant harmony but not for real orchestral composing which is based on role. When it comes to role then the strength of an individual group becomes important, and if there’s no strength and clarity in the sound of that group it practically becomes useless for the mentioned purpose.

30

I haven’t seen Pacific Strings [Performance Samples] mentioned, but it just came out the end of last year [2022] so I guess no one has it yet
but me. I bought them because I was so in love with Vista strings, and they have a similar sound, but more variety in articulations. They have [to me] an “achy” sound that I love in strings.
Other string libs I have are Cinastrings [Core] & Solo, Tina Guo Cello,
Cinematic Studio and Solo,
Hollywood, & the oldest version of LA Scoring, EWQLSO [has a few of my favorite patches],
3 Kirk Hunter libs: Virtuoso, Diamond, Lyrical
All of 8dios [Century, Sordino, Grandiose, Adagio, Anthology, All solos, etc],
Sonokinetiks Sordino,
Orchestral Tools String Runs [includes some useful normal patches],
NI Session Str pro,
Heavyocity’s Rhythmic & Intimate Textures,
London Symphonic & Solo libs,
Soaring & Adventure Strings [Music Sampling]
Westwood Solo String Libs
Complete Orchestral Collection [way old stuff]
Garritan [old & obsolete, yet paid $1000 - more than for any other library-the regret is unbearable]
Symphobia I & II
Philharmonik 2 [+the original]
Spitfire Solo Strings
and probably more obsolete libraries I haven’t looked at in over a decade.

I hate to say Cinematics were disappointing for me - sounded wonderful on their website, but like a swarm of bees on my computers for some reason. Others I don’t bother much with are the new Philharmonik 2 [definite DOWGRADE from the original, which had some expressive patches], Sonokinetiks Sordino [sounds ok but has bugs] Symphobia’s [too niche’], & London Symphonic.

What I tend to use

There is a patch in Kirk Hunter’s Virtuoso that I load in almost every project, because it’s so all around nice sounding, never gives me grief, seems to work ok with anything. I love Pacific & Vista for final touch, and often load some Century patches [8dio] that seem to work OK. I love the Hollywood string sound, but it requires a dongle, and has too many patches to load, using too much memory, so out of sheer laziness don’t bother with them much. Also I’ve noticed trying to mix them with any EQ tweaking destroys them.
I barely touch Spitfire Solo, due to constant problems with the microscopic interface, and Cremona Solos sound better anyway, so it’s either them [Cremona -NI], Emotional Viola [Best Service], Bohemian Cello, Cinestrings Solo, or Anthology Solo that get used.
TinGuo Cello has some great patches [Pizz, Stac, Legato] that always work well.

Cinestrings seem to have some issues with processing power on my machines, otherwise I might use them more because I like their sound. Cinematic strings use way too much RAM for a single patch.

Anything else I listed but haven’t mentioned again is underwhelming enough to leave alone if you have something else to work with.

31

I will preface this by saying I have StaffPad which uses cut down versions of libraries such as Spitfire, Berlin, Cinemasamples.

My favourite has to be Spitfire chamber strings, nice intimate sound. I use it a lot for smaller ensembles.
Tina Guo ‘cello for an expressive solo sound.
OT Berlin first chairs for a “classical” quartet sound

I do find myself swapping part way through a piece if I’m not happy with the way a passage is handled.