Native Instruments Stradivari solo violin

[Guy Rowland]

Well dayam.

"Coming Soon".

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... ri-violin/

[paoling]

Finally it is out.

I remember the free ad press in Italy and the world when they did the sampling. It was sold as a "preservation project" to save the sound of these instruments that are going to disappear. Really? How lovely.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts ... emona.html

When I researched a bit the name of e-sessions came out. And then I though at all the times we sampled something in the very same area (Crema and the whole Brescia, Trento and Verona provinces) nobody said anything. And may I say that we may be one of the biggest orchestral sample company in Italy (not that there are a lot..)

We couldn't even manage stop the gardeners of a surronding zone to our Crema hall and one time we ended with a weekly market attached to our studio in Treviso (which had the glass recycling trash nearby the main wall of the studio).

So it was more asthonishing to me as a PR thing and also I know that convincing institutions in Italy is VERY hard without resorting to "shortcuts".
How their project had such a resonance among all the press of the entire world?
Why Embertone's Joshua Bell violin (which seems superior in every possible way, features one of the most incredible performer ever and it's also a STRADIVARI) hadn't the same press coverage than this project from the very sample company that did session strings?

These are the mysteries of this business.
Sorry for seeming a bit harsh.

In the end it seems that they did quite a fine job I think, I'm not convinced about the fake vibrato idea, but the rest seems pretty solid.

[Luciano Storti]

There are same strange issues I’m hearing - definitely something with the vibrato, but also some kind of movement, undesired in this case, whereby the instrument seems to inch closer to the listener, losing some of the room in some of the sustained notes. Still, impressive.

[FriFlo]

Just listened to the audio on poor speakers, so - I cannot make up my mind about that yet ...
What I find interesting, though, is the new concept they are following with this. Of course, there already have been things like phase alignment and artificial vibrato before, but the whole package seems new! And I am always for developers trying something new.

I also like, they dared recording something chromatically once more! The cost saving whole tone sampling seems to have become the new norm with Spitfire and Orchestral Tools. But I think it is still worth it going all the way.

[Hannes_F]

Ouchie.

[Lawrence]

So far, I don't find the sustained tone felicitous, don't like the vibrato much and haven't heard one example of agile legato. On the positive side it seems versatile

[FriFlo]

Well, now that I did listen on proper speakers: The sustained notes and partly the transitions definitively have their share of problems and sometimes things sound synth-like - to me especially the portamento transitions. But that being said, the short notes seem to be very well done and not all of the longs seem unusable to me. Probably, this will be in a future Komplete Upgrade at some point anyway - or wait: no! It will rather be in the "Komplete Ultimate Fanboy-Collectors Edition" - including an action figure of Signore Stradivari! Silly me! ;-)

Seriously, I probably have no need for another "almost great" solo Violin library. But it will be a factor when deciding wether to upgrade Komplete. Speaking of it: Native Instruments should really increase the quality of their own libraries! The times where hundreds of older synthesizer emulation is making people spend that kind of cash is over, I would say. Some high value libraries on the other hand could sell more Upgrades.

[Guy Rowland]

£129 intro price - less than I'd have expected.

[wst3]

I had a chance to listen on my studio monitors last night, my initial reaction that it is a very agile library remains, but there are places where it does sound a bit off - I kind of like "synth-y" as a description, except I think it is less about being synth-y and more about being just a little off to my ears - like a real violin would be a little warmer, a little smoother? Hard to put into words...

For $129 I am tempted, but probably not tempted enough. As mentioned earlier, I'm just not inclined to invest in more libraries or plugins right now.

I am inclined to invest in tools - I made the leap to VEPro 7 over the weekend (well, I purchased it, still waiting on the license, but hey, it was the weekend, people need a break!)

And I am more than inclined to invest in guitars, although not top dollar high end stuff. For example, I've played the Dean 12 string that is supposed to sound a lot like the iconic Rickenbacker (and it is close), so I watch for them. There was one on eBay yesterday that was getting no attention, so I made a bid (almost embarrassingly low) and won.

On the same kick for a baritone guitar - bid too low on a couple of them recently and a wood body resophonic - haven't seen any I like yet, and not in a huge hurry for any of these<G>.

Which is wandering off topic except to say that the new strad instrument did not wow me sufficiently to get me to open my wallet. It is cool, and I do like the way they've arranged the controls, but it just isn't enough to push me over the edge.

[Muziksculp]

It sounds pretty good, and imho. is reasonably priced, I'm tempted to buy it.

I'm sure it has some weak points, but so far I don't know of any solo violin library that doesn't have weaknesses.

Would be interesting to hear feedback from anyone who bought it on this forum.

[paoling]

For the sake of clarity here's my recent post from vi-control:

Hello guys,
Few days ago we had a very nice Skype call with Mattia and Leo from Audiozone studios. If you are wondering who they are, they are the guys who started this project five years ago. As I said, organizing such a thing in Italy is very difficult: you have to talk with people who have no idea about what you do, to gain permits, to pay for an absurd amount of unrelated things (insurance, permits, etc..). In the private sector things gets easier, and thst's why we mainly went that route in the past.

Without this nice conversation we had, it seemed like a few guys from Germany came to Italy, took whatever they needed and went back home without saying thank you to anyone. That's not how things went.
So what's the main problem in how this thing was presented?

Basically it's the press. A journalist wrote a very nice article on the New York times which was actually quite a bit fictionalized . The photos of the deserted city, the barista who was in sorrow for dropping a glass, the fact that the police was silencing the siren or that they made the whole city church bells to stop (church bells in Italy are untouchable). They make a good read, but this was actually an invention. This article was so good and poetic that gained a lot of attention even back to Italy, so the local press suddenly was interested in this.

The fact that this was actually a commercial project was stated clear from the beginning. But the press and the story that was told in those article seemed like it was quite a gift that a bunch of researchers did for the sake of the history of music and humanity.
In that vision, a sampled instrument from Native Instruments as a result, was felt like a kind of betrayal.

Anyway in Leonardo's noble vision there is still space for such a kind of collaborative/preserving/restoration idea so who knows what these two guys (which for me are the real minds behind this project) will be able to achieve in the future?

So, bravo to the guys at Audiozone studios!

[Guy Rowland]

Ah thanks for posting that paoling. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, eh?

[Muziksculp]

Hi,

Any idea if the NI Solo Strad library will be included in NI Komplete 13 Ultimate ?

The special discounted price of $149. ends on Monday, July 13th. It goes back to $199.

Thanks,
Muziksculp

[Guy Rowland]

Hi,

Any idea if the NI Solo Strad library will be included in NI Komplete 13 Ultimate ?

The special discounted price of $149. ends on Monday, July 13th. It goes back to $199.

Thanks,
Muziksculp

I don't think anyone knows for certain. It's possible they may package this one away with the Collector's Edition, but hoping it will be in Ultimate.