Sonokinetic Day 2 - Orchestral Strings

[Larry Shelby]

199 Euros

https://www.sonokinetic.net/products/classical/orchestral-strings/

Edited December 7, 2021 by cclarry

[Amicus717]

So, I grabbed this one. Watched all the walk-thrus and listened to the demo recordings (which sound gorgeous), and decided that it was a really intriguing library. 

This is a preliminary assessment as I've messed around with Orchestral Strings for about three or four hours, but so far I like it.

My impressions (and as always YMMV):

It's very Sonokinetic, and by that I mean it's got a certain vibe and style that is unique to their stuff. The user interface is stylish  and quirky, and a bit annoying (just like all their other ones). The string samples sound really gorgeous, and the legatos are subtle compared to many other libraries that I have; in my experience, Sonokinetic has never gone over the top in regards to portamentos or slurs, and this new library follows the pattern. The transitions are smooth and low key, with lots of configurable elements so you can tailor it to suit the task. I do find that the portamento slurs are a bit too understated for my tastes. I have no shame when it comes to schmaltz, and am one of the few people who actually likes throwing in a few 8Dio uber-slurs from their Anthology Strings when I need a super-dramatic melody line. Orchestral String's slurs are much more polite, although that does make the library pretty agile and responsive. 

The run and phrase tools are interesting. I've only spent a bit of time with them, but they are pretty easy to work with. I don't find the runs entirely convincing -- especially in the cellos -- but I haven't yet used the run tool in an orchestration or mix, and so it probably isn't fair to judge how they sound when fully exposed. The higher strings sound a lot better in the run tool. However, I have Sonokinetic's great Modal Runs library, which sounds quite convincing, and I tested it alongside Orchestral Strings. They blend together seamlessly, which makes sense as I believe they both use the same players, in the same recording space. I can see me using Modal Runs a lot with this library, and to great effect.

The ability to effortlessly stack articulations together and blend them back and forth is nice. So far, I've had good results mixing the straight and expressive strings, the sustains and the spiccato, the trems and the sustains, etc. Potentially very useful.

On the downside, I find that the library is pretty CPU heavy -- it eats up a surprising amount of horsepower when you've got all the main patches loaded up and running. 

Interesting side-note: 8Dio's Century Brass library was apparently recorded in the same hall as Sonokinetic's Orchestral Strings, and when I tested them together, the results were pretty nice. To my ears, they did sound like there were in the same acoustic space. I like Century Brass, so this should be a nice combo for my template. 

Rob

Edited December 12, 2021 by Amicus717