Miroslav Vitous String Ensemble

[red1]

Miroslav Vitous String Ensemble - Composer's Dream | DV247

[frankymax]

Okay- so about $1,425 or so US dollars. And no audio demos or anything of note (not even a screenshot) on that website. Well, maybe they'll be at NAMM to see and hear?

[Killahurts]

Miroslav's stuff is great, I've used it for years.. but it's going to be hard-pressed to compete with LASS, IMO.

But of course the real gearslut has all of them!

[LOU AU]

There is a demo now on the Big Fish Audio page

Big Fish Audio - Miroslav Vitous String Ensembles

The demo is chordal and doesn't demonstrate at all how the strings can make a cohesive melodic line or if it achieves the melodic and counterpoint versions that Miroslav discuss were his goals. Sonically they sound gorgeous and very believable. I'm sure more demos will be posted soon.
Looking forward to this!

[everythinglouder]

I'm impressed. Dying to hear more.

I'd really love to support this guy rather than buy EW Hollywood Strings. Just trying to be PLAY free.

If this library is everything else it's said to be, it should be an easy move.

Anyone know if the Yellow Tools Engine is stable/reliable?

[noiseflaw]

They sound a bit... 'chalky' on that demo.

Could be useful for some occasions.

[VitaEtMusica]

I do like the sound of the basses and celli. There were some awkward transitions even in this paddy type piece. Would really have to hear something outside the Gabriel Yared vein to know whether or not you could use this convincingly for anything other than slow swells and footballs.

[noiseflaw]

Originally Posted by VitaEtMusica

There were some awkward transitions even in this paddy type piece.

Yup - what you said.

Originally Posted by VitaEtMusica

Would really have to hear something outside the Gabriel Yared vein to know whether or not you could use this convincingly for anything other than slow swells and footballs.

Yup, what you said again.

For similar money, I think the LASS library sounded warmer, smoother, rounder, more realistic, expensive.

[LOU AU]

There is a new demo on the Big Fish Audio page. Sounds much better than the first demo, but I wish they would have a long melody played in all sections and repeat it in octaves (violins and violas) so we can hear how well the samples connect. Some four bar phrases would be nice. There are a lot of libraries out there now and this is a crucial way to distinguish them apart. What is posted does sound very very good.

[AudioSight]

Has anybody tried this library already? would be very interesting to hear some opinions from people who tried it themselves.

[Piet De Ridder]

I have bought it, tried it, cursed it, tried it again and then cursed it even more. Never, in my opinion, was a library more disappointing than these new Vitous Strings.

- The sound hovers between the decent, the average and the bad.
- There's a complete neglect of short articulations (only some moderately useful staccatos).
- The samples aren't looped (which has some advantages, but also some major disadvantages).
- The long articulations don't last equally long (even within one program), which means that, if you play a sustained chord, some notes stop much earlier (or later) than others, which can be extremely frustrating.
- ENGINE is a cumbersome, awkward and badly designed environment to work in.
- Most articulations are criminally under-sampled: there's hardly any velocity switching (2 layers, if you're lucky), there's nothing in the way of acceptable legato simulation, almost no realtime control (you have to program that in yourself), ... Really, the whole thing seems to be conceived as if intended for an Akai S1000 or some other ancient piece of extremely limited equipment.

Those are my main annoyances. There's a few good things to say as well obviously, but these all vanish in light of the many flaws - some of them quite unacceptable - and certainly when considering its price and what's being offered by the competition (LASS, HS, CS, ...). It seems to me that Mr. Vitous is completely out-of-step with the times and totally unaware of what's been happening in the field of orchestral sampling over the past few years. Judging from the way this new library was developed, he still seems to be living in the early 1990's. Very peculiar.

This library really needs a major update/revision before I will ever be prepared to say anything positive about it.

_