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  • SYNCHRON-ized Chamber Strings: More demos please

    Is it possible to have some more demos for the chamber strings on its own before the end of the month? That would be great and helpful.


  • https://forum.vsl.co.at/topic/49035/Wanna Play Marbles Synchron Chamber Strings Demo/274745

  • last edited
    last edited

    Herewith some user demo's with the new Synchronizd Chamber Strings, also in comparison with the old version and the new Synchron Strings as well. Source used: a fragment from "South by SouthWest", composed by Stephen Barton, who wrote a lot for film. This is a very energetic piece for string ensemble, written at the time for DVZ, Audio Impressions.

    I tried to give some strenght to the more raw side of this piece, so no feathering spiccato, but bows into the strings: there is a lot of ff marcato indicating in the score.

    Using the three libraries, I would say: there is soundwise a difference between the 1.0 and 2.0 version of these chamber ensembles: 2.0 is some more polished and suffers less from a thin and bit nasal sound that in some cases the 1.0 version could demonstrate.

    BTW: I turned the reverb off in the 2.0 version and lowered the IR settings to about 11-12%. Furthermore a touch of dynamical EQ, again in the violins. Added tail: some RC48, which I love for orchestral mockups.

    I all cases I used some help from the LASS ER's from Numerical sound to sweeten a bit the first violins. Despite this help I must say that moreover the Synchron violins still give me a sort of unpleasant listening experience. What lacks is basically a convincing, musical vibrato and legato imo. Shorts do the job OK, but if you listen carefully to the isolated violins in example A, sixth track, you'll hear what I described. It is really a pity that these strings have so many disappointing issues in the violins a.o..

    On the contrary for me: both chamber libs are more convincing in most cases in this particular work, and guess what: the combination of Chamber Strings 1.0 and (!) 2.0 gave a surprisingly good result! Chamber 2.0 and SyS is quite OK for me, but 2.0 doesn't exactly compensate all issues of the Sys imo. I would have hoped for a Synchron strings product with the same musical (input and ) output as in the products they made in the past, or even much better and lively. Enough talking now, I hope you'll enjoy these tracks here.

    Here two short fragments: the beginning of the piece and secondly a small legato part in the violins. Order of appearance: Chamber Sy_ized (2.0) - Chamber 1.0 - SyS
    Soundcloud #1

    Some more of this work, the first half, order of appearance: Chamber Sy_ized (2.0) - Chamber 1.0 - SyS - Chamber 2.0 + 1.0 - Chamber 2.0 + SyS
    On Soundcloud #2


  • Very good explanation and intersting experiment. I agree with your conclusions, even if something in Chamber v.1.0 was a bit more natural, while in v 2.0 sometime sounds a bit artificial.


  • Thanks Fatis, I agree with you.

    Furthermore: in all my great respect and huge admiration for Jay Bacal, who usually really does magical things in his mockups, I was a bit disappointed with the outcome of his Waltz here as demo.I didn't like the sound very much tbh.

    So at the moment I am working on my own version of the Tchaikovsky Waltz from the Serenade with the 2.0 Chamber Strings. As far a I can see at the moment there is room for improvement when it comes down to really expressive playing if these strings are layered, with the utmost care, with Swam strings. These are very difficult to get right on their own, but in this situation it can be a welcome addition. When ready  IĀ“ll have it for some time on my HD for further customizing, IĀ“ll let you know the result here.

    After all it is very hard to compete with the real performances I heard on Spotify of this lovely work, I know.


  • I really like the new demo by Guy Bacos (TrƤumerei).

    @Guy
    Is it possible to have a comparison with the old library?

    I also want to know how the synchon-ized version sounds with less (or no) reverb, also for comparison with the old library. Without reverb it should sound as the original one. So this would be a good comparison of how the samples were re-edited, too. Especially, in terms of the legatos.