8Dio Intimate Studio Strings $45 USD (OR LESS) Flash Sale - Normally $295

[PavlovsCat]

INTIMATE STUDIO STRINGS - $45 USD NORMALLY $295 USD

I can give a mini review of Intimate Studio Strings. I bought them a couple of years ago for, I think, maybe around $120 USD on sale. They sound good and they have a lot of detail and for $45 USD, there's really nothing comparable in that range. On the downside, the loading time could be better optimized. The KONTAKT scripting could be more intuitive -- it is a bus load of articulations  and you can set them to switch articulations using velocities (as well as, I believe, keyswitches) -- so if you're into that, it's probably fine, if not, it's not as fun to use as a string library with great KONTAKT scripting. However, libraries that do that cost several times this price. 

8Dio gives current customers referral links/codes, you can PM cclarry for an additional $15 USD off if this would be your first purchase from 8DIo (no one is more deservinhg of a tip in this forum, IMO). 

"Comprising of over 500 hours of sessions at Scotland’s Premiere Recording Studio, Gorbals Sound, the Intimate Studio Strings series marks 8Dio’s commitment to push the boundaries of advanced techniques and achieve a modern, playable, and fully customizable studio sound. 

Utilizing new and unique isolation technologies, we were able to capture multiple section sizes and ensure all instruments blend seamlessly, allowing you the ability to mix and match. Including soloists and all the various ensemble sizes, there are 256 possible combinations! 

Each instrument also has its own fully capable mixer with functions such as Solo, Mute, Output Routing, Volume, and Panning, all featured alongside our more advanced offerings. In addition to customizing the number of players (either from true recordings or mixed/overdubs), we also offer the new Distance Control, which seamlessly blends between an upfront, dry signal and a wider, more spacious signal. 

8Dio Intimate Studio Strings gives you direct access to dozens of advanced and unique playing styles and articulations, full host tempo sync (relevant articulations only), and customizable section sizes, all in one streamlined and refined package. Studio Intimate Strings is the start of a new journey and one we hope you all join us on. "

SPECIFICATIONS: 

113GB compressed to 45GB of content

True Deep-Sampled Studio Strings

Advanced Section Control

Up to 256 String Size Combinations

Deep-Sampled Violin(s) (1, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4 and 5)

Deep-Sampled Viola(s) & Cello(s) (1, 2, or 3)

Deep-Sampled Bass(es) (1a, 1b, or 2)

Full Mixer for each instrument and section

Advanced Layered Legatos w/ dynamics

Ostinato Measured Portato, Tremolo, & Legato

Fluent Mic Control (near-field to entire studio)

Delivered by Download

Kontakt 5.8.1 Full Retail (or later) Required

https://8dio.com/products/intimate-studio-strings

Edited December 13, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[trager]

 

[Kal Elle]

I guess it's hard to use the search forum here ?

[PavlovsCat]

 

1 hour ago, Kal Elle said:

I guess it's hard to use the search forum here ?

The search function of the forum is pretty poor, so a lot of us long time forum members tend to scan the first page to see if a recent deal was posted. But hey, that's your 12th post in this forum, don't let me stop your mean-spirited trolling contribution as your introduction here. Way to endear yourself to the community. Just a heads up. That kind of mean-spirited trolling isn't how people roll in this forum. It's a friendly group overall. 

Edited November 10, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[pseudopop]

2 hours ago, Kal Elle said:

I guess it's hard to use the search forum here ?

Harder than being polite to other people.

[Amicus717]

9 hours ago, Kal Elle said:

I guess it's hard to use the search forum here ?

PavlovsCat contributes a lot of great stuff on this forum, including the excellent review at the top. I appreciate him writing it up. 

[ashley_k]

Thanks for the mini review Peter, I wasn't sure if I should buy it or not, as it's all too easy to get tempted by deals.

Any extra info or views on 8dio stuff is always welcome, as the 8dio walk throughs seem to go forever!

[PavlovsCat]

On 11/10/2022 at 2:57 PM, ashley_k said:

Thanks for the mini review Peter, I wasn't sure if I should buy it or not, as it's all too easy to get tempted by deals.

Any extra info or views on 8dio stuff is always welcome, as the 8dio walk throughs seem to go forever!

As I mentioned, and I want to restate it so no one is disappointed. I find 8Dio's scripting of the library disappointing. However, for the price it's now at, if I didn't already own it, I would buy it. I am unaware of any other string library with this kind of detail/depth and quality, so there are no peers in that sense. See, this is one of the many reasons, I would be terrible as an influencer.  [EDIT: I wrote that poorly the first time. I meant to say that influencers don't keep the cash rolling in if they give totally honest reviews, they're trying to sell stuff and I am too compelled to be as open as possible, which would be disastrous for an influencer.]

EDIT: I had praised a Fluffy Audio library for its scripting, which I like a lot. But after some experiences with terrible behavior from the developer that I've since learned from one well-known industry contractor and one influencer that this developer has a history of problematic behavior I can no longer recommend them. 

Edited December 13, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[daveiv]

15 hours ago, Kal Elle said:

I guess it's hard to use the search forum here ?

Let's be nice to each other. It's not a place where you can bully others.

[ashley_k]

1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

As I mentioned, and I want to restate it so no one is disappointed. I find 8Dio's scripting of the library disappointing. I have a viola solo string library from Fluffy Audio that is so incredibly well scripted, it uses articulations based on how I'm playing and I love it. It's like 8Dio didn't even try to create an intuitive script for this library. However, for the price it's now at, if I didn't already own it, I would buy it. However, even at the $100+ I paid for it a couple of years ago, I wouldn't buy it again. But for $45 USD, I am unaware of any other string library with this kind of detail/depth and quality, so there are no peers in that sense. See, this is one of the many reasons, I decided to be an influencer. 

Thank you for taking the time to share, and your views on the scripting always good to hear other peoples opinions, the truth is I don’t have the skill or musical knowledge to do any these libraries justice, but I do enjoy trying out and spending time using libraries, as I still think it’s pretty amazing that we have these tools at our disposal. I like the idea of a library of intimate more minimal strings, so I thought I’d give the library a try.

I think I’ll keep an eye out for a Fluffy Audio sale, and try the viola solo string library, I’m quite intrigued by the difference in playability / scrpting between the libraries.

[TheSteven]

Thank @PavlovsCat for the post.
re scripting - I am glad you brought this up.  As a sanity check if nothing else.   
I bought a lot of their stuff back when they were having constants sales (maybe they still are and I've just tuned them out) and I was stuck in Utah taking care of my mom after my dad's heart attack.  I didn't have a chance to actually try using what I had bought until I got back home and I then found if frustrating trying to navigate among the various libs and trying to manipulate things into playing what I wanted to hear.
TBH I am sorry I invested as much into 8dio as I have.  Now that I have invested in other libraries and experienced how things should work I will probably never use most of what I've bought from 8dio. 

[PavlovsCat]

Yikes, I had a major autocorrect snafu in my above post that I missed. I was just having a laugh that I would do terribly as an influencer because I feel compelled to be honest and detailed. Behind the scenes I have had developers tell me off for critical posts over the years. 

[PavlovsCat]

2 hours ago, ashley_k said:

Thank you for taking the time to share, and your views on the scripting always good to hear other peoples opinions, the truth is I don’t have the skill or musical knowledge to do any these libraries justice, but I do enjoy trying out and spending time using libraries, as I still think it’s pretty amazing that we have these tools at our disposal. I like the idea of a library of intimate more minimal strings, so I thought I’d give the library a try.

I think I’ll keep an eye out for a Fluffy Audio sale, and try the viola solo string library, I’m quite intrigued by the difference in playability / scrpting between the libraries.

I meant to write I would do terribly as an influencer. But there's a caveat on the Fluffy Audio Trio Broz library. It is beautifully scripted and sounds great. However,  I have never found any way to get it to play sustained notes polyphonically. That is, to my knowledge it can only play one note sustain articulations at a time. While it has a beautiful legato and other articulations sound great too, I really wish I could play sustains with two notes. I also wish the developer would have responded to my support ticket. He always seems super friendly in the forum. I will try to contact him again next sale, because if he has a good sale on the Trio Broz Cello and it has polyphony,  I probably would buy it.

@Christian Jones, you own some Fluffy libraries,  do you know if the violin sustains allow polyphony? 

Edited November 11, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Christian Jones]

No, I only own the spaghetti western library and I think an upright piano from them.

[kitekrazy1]

 There's a love/hate thing with 8dio.   The plus for me is they are Kontakt.  I can install these on every machine in the house.  Try that with Sine and Spitfire.  I can move those Kontakt libraries around and not cause any fits.

  Since I don't do this stuff professionally I don't need the boutique sounds. 

 Orchestra library developers always try to reinvent the wheel by giving a name to a library.   I'm waiting for some to release Wal-Mart Strings when they run out of names.

[antler]

I generally find loading times more of an issue than playability, but that's probably just related to my workflow. This was done with Century Strings, which has lots of keyswitchable articulations. (and no, neither the video nor channel is monetised)

 

[PavlovsCat]

24 minutes ago, antler said:

I generally find loading times more of an issue than playability, but that's probably just related to my workflow. This was done with Century Strings, which has lots of keyswitchable articulations. (and no, neither the video nor channel is monetised)

 

That's beautiful, Antler. Nice job and in addition to your great job on the songwriting and playing  (wait, I just assumed you wrote this piece, did you?)  the sample libraries sounds very nice.  If the forum let us choose LOVE, I would have chosen that instead of like for your above post. I wish more of us would share our work with one another, especially when it's related to a sample library or plugin. I find it super useful to hear what one of my fellow forum members can do with the sample libraries and plugins we discuss here. Plus, I admit, after all of these posts with one another, I enjoy learning more about people -- and I'm a big believer in encouraging each other. 

What library/libraries did you use for the brass? 8Dio has their Intimate Studio Brass on their latest flash sale for $40 USD and I'm very tempted. 
https://8dio.com/products/intimate-studio-brass-kontakt-vst-au-aax?variant=41310043078856

Edited November 11, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[antler]

1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

What library/libraries did you use for the brass? 8Dio has their Intimate Studio Brass on their latest flash sale for $40 USD and I'm very tempted. 

Thanks, and yes - I wrote it.

I think the brass was from Cinesamples, and I used the Twelve Horn Ensemble for the louder parts. The choir is Insolidus. I think I remember you saying you liked glockenspiels (apologies if it was someone else) - that was actually Pianoteq(!).

I haven't used Intimate Studio Brass, so can't provide any meaningful feedback on that.

[PavlovsCat]

17 minutes ago, antler said:

Thanks, and yes - I wrote it.

I think the brass was from Cinesamples, and I used the Twelve Horn Ensemble for the louder parts. The choir is Insolidus. I think I remember you saying you liked glockenspiels (apologies if it was someone else) - that was actually Pianoteq(!).

I haven't used Intimate Studio Brass, so can't provide any meaningful feedback on that.

It absolutely was me saying that I loved glockenspiels (and played it a couple of times in the school band; I was mainly on snare drum, but because piano was my first instrument when the kid who played  glockenspiel missed a practice, the band director would have me fill in). That experience made me forever love the instrument.