Off-Topic: Hey,
Jeff, it's good to see you here.
Are you still at TASCAM? How's life treating you? It almost seems like Gearslutz has more MusicPlayer posters than MusicPlayer these days!
On-Topic: I got a chance to check out the DVZ Strings at NAMM and then again at the audioMIDI Film & TV Composer Clinic a couple of months ago. I also got to talk with Chris Stone for over two hours after the audioMIDI Film & TV Composer Clinic. Man does that guy know his stuff, both as a developer and as a composer! He shared a wealth of information about scoring methods, the business of composing, and of course DVZ. Immediately after the event, I called my machine and left four voicemails full of rapid fire notes!
I was impressed with the intuitive way in which the product was constructed. You can click on string icons to increase and decrease the size of your sections and grab microphones with your mouse and move them around the room. The divisi feature -- that assigns the number of instruments on the fly depending upon how many notes are played -- is another intuitive aspect that not only adds an element of realism that other libraries lack, it helps to trump the competition at meeting the imperative needs of working composers for speed and flexibility. thumbsup
I've been fortunate to follow the product's development process a bit during the last couple of years, and my hat's off to Audio Impressions for waiting to release DVZ until they felt they had it right. As a working composer, DVZ seems very promising to me -- both in terms of its design and its sound -- and I'm looking forward to sitting down with it in depth.
Best,
Geoff