Abbey Road Orchestra - Violins 1 announced

[Linos]

Spitfire Audio have announced Abbey Road Orchestra - Violins 1:



No other information available at the moment. I couldn't listen to the announcement yet. Will do so later and share my impressions.

[Guy Rowland]

Does sound nice. Looks like we're some way from the details. Someone wake me when they're here.

[Luciano Storti]

Lots of reverb, but sounding nice. Legato sounds adaptive to my ears with short transition on the runs he was playing and portamento toward the end. Don't think I'll ever bite, but that's a pretty good start.

[Muziksculp]

It's supposed to be the deepest, most detailed sampling they have offered so far.

And Next Gen. Advanced legato scripting, ...etc.

Patiently waiting, and very excited to see Vlns 1 Released soon !

Oh, I also wonder if this release will contain Sordino Samples ?

[wst3]

Of course it is Paul at the controls, but that fast legato sounds really nice!

[Muziksculp]

' A New Era in String Technology '

I'm super excited to know more about this new tech., once they release the library.

[Piet De Ridder]

Over the past 30 years, I’ve experienced six “Wow!”-moments when a new strings ensemble library was introduced : a loooong time ago — in my EMU E-6400 & Akai days — when the Miroslav Vituous Strings Ensembles were released (to fully understand this first “Wow!” you have to consider what else was available at the time), a few years later when the Sonic Implants Strings saw the light of day, and later still, with LASS, the Spitfire Bespokes, Sable (possibly, on first hearing them, my biggest “Wow!” of all) and most recently with OT’s Pēteris Vasks. The latter not a huge “Wow!”, but still a “Wow!”. (Wrongtools’ Nodal was almost a “Wow!”, but after closer inspection: not quite. It’s not a full ensemble anyway. Great sounding double bass samples though.)

Based on the short snippet in the above video however, I don’t think these new Abbey Road Strings will make it onto my “Wow!”-list. The sound of those violins doesn’t strike me as special or even moderately appealing in any way at all. Could well be one of a handful of other pseudo-decent libraries which have been released in recent times. It’s that plastic-y, smeary sampled stringssound all over again which has been with us ever since mankind began sampling strings.

(We had a thread about this some time ago: how little progress we’ve seen in the sampling of orchestral instruments over the past three decades. These new AR violins could, to my ears, serve as the perfect illustration of the fact that the situation is even more stagnant than we thought. Why, oh why, oh why, oh why does no one seems interested in trying to capture a stringssound like this?)

That said, it is obviously impermissibly unfair to pass judgement on a library based on a mere few seconds of sneak preview legato playing. The thing could turn out OK after all.
But what I’m hearing here doesn’t sound promising at all, as far as I’m concerned.

__

[Muziksculp]

imho. Spitfire's video showing Paul playing the AR1MO Vlns 1 Legatos was not the best way to market this library.

The Legatos are a make it or break it detail for serious string libraries. I think it should have been shown during a more detailed walkthrough, with explanations of what it offers, and what's special about the legatos. He would have been safer playing the Pizz. articulation in the video

[Scoredog]

I love a lot of my SF stuff but the second Paul played a fast run I was transported back to the 90's (unfortunately my body remains in 2023). I'll give these a chance as I see a more detailed walk through but not excited by this first look.

[Lawrence]

You mean the overlapping releases? Yeah, sort of nostalgic

[Kohima]

Those fast legato runs played on a keyboard in that way is a bad idea. The whole thing is washed in reverb too. Waiting to to see the whole run through.

[Linos]

It's too soon to tell of course, but I share the sentiment that this first teaser does not give too much reason for excitement. Even if a sample libraries with no corners cut/no expenses spared is interesting, the proof is in the pudding. It could be a culmination of current sampling technology. This teaser, however, gives no indication of that. The mix is not the best to show of such a library in my opinion. It's pushed too far back, and too wet - maybe in an attempt to show off the hall. The fast transitions don't work for me in this example. The normal transitions are ok.

The sound is not immediately appealing to me neither. It's large and smeary, lacking detail. We will see what the countless that Spitfire has doubtlessly recorded can do to help. The focused sound of Piet's example will definitely not be possible. It's too large for that. But something with more detail and finesse would certainly be nice.

[Guy Rowland]

Looks like I'm the only one who liked the tone. I think it's lovely and romantic, but admittedly it's not especially unique.

The almost entirely ignored Cinestrings Pro's recent Appasionata has a not entirely dissimilar vibe, and their basic mix is less wet (see that thread for some simple comparison examples). The transitions are good there too, except for me they really lacked character. I don't hear much character in that short Spitfire demo either - if you're gonna be romantic, be romantic for crying out loud - but until we have even the most basic information everything else is wildly speculative. And with Spitfire in particular, speculation is something I'm loathe to do.

[Linos]

Well, I think the bet that Spitfire have going with their Abbey Road Orchestra is that if you keep their current technology, and max out the specs of everything, you will get the pinnacle of sample libraries. The problem ist that it is not necessarily true. VSL Synchron Strings have 8 dynamic layers on the long notes - more than any other strings library if I am not mistaken - and it was received rather poorly. Better technical stats don't necessarily result in a more expressive, better sounding library. There is also the problem that Eastwest set a standard for depth of sampling already a decade ago, with their Hollywood Orchestra. It's difficult to imagine how you could vastly surpass these specs and still get a product that is useable without a farm of dedicated computers.

What I am hearing from Paul's snippet does not sound better than other libraries that are available. The problem with that is, that these other libraries are less taxing on the system, and quite a bit cheaper. With the high price and resource usage the Abbey Road Orchestra comes with, it is not enough to match competing libraries. Not enough to just add another colour to our saturated strings palette. It has to beat them.

I hope that this risk pays out for Spitfire Audio. If not it would be a fanal that the peak of sampling has been reached. And that new ideas and technologies are needed if we are to further the possibilities of orchestral mockups.

[Tanuj Tiku]

I think that it was just a quick and joyous playback of an in development library. There has been a slight overreaction in my opinion.

I am sure that the final version will sound much better than this as it’s obviously not finished. But it does seem to have the big ‘roomy’ Abbey Road sound which is nice.

I think part of the recent disappointment with samples is that whilst the space and recording gear used is stellar, the musicality or performance aspects are not moving forward. That’s a fair assessment. But it is also very hard to do and will require serious R&D which may or may not be in the reach of even the most cash rich sample developers.

As machine learning becomes more accessible and developers find a way to harness it, we will suddenly hear very realistic and truly next generation libraries.

Many AI software already allow you to create models and as developers are sitting on mountains of deeply sampled data, they will be in a unique position to use all of that to develop new libraries or significantly improve their existing catalogue.

I am sure this is all happening behind the scenes. I have admittedly lost interest in more musical sounding samples for the moment.

I desperately want to push my career into a direction which can allow for real recordings as it’s more enriching and musically superior to any library in existence. Of course, this is a luxury and very difficult to do but year on year, I have done better.

However, with regards to medium budget films orchestras are very accessible today and relatively cost less to hire with fantastic results.

[NoamL]

Agree with you Guy & Linos. It doesn't sound romantic or unique, rather more generic/standard/neutral. Trying to be the next SSS/HWS not the next Vista/Soaring Strings.

The resource use is definitely a concern. Hopefully Core will be designed to work well on mid-tier computers.

I love the ambition of this project, that they're trying to set a new high instead of moving laterally, and hope it works out for them. If this project doesn't work, we'll be using our HWS's and CSS's until something AI-related comes along I guess. I would much rather they succeed and knock it out of the park.

[Muziksculp]

I wish Elon Musk had an interest in the Sample Library Business, our current tech. in this field will get a big shakeup if he was into it.

[Linos]

What the heck sculp. An antisemite, rightwing, conspiracy theorist in the sampling world? Just what we needed...

Anyway, the pre-order will start coming Thursday. I guess we will see more informations about the library then.

[Muziksculp]

I just got this email from Spitfire Audio

[Muziksculp]

Pre-Order will begin Sept. 21st.

Maybe some discount incentive to Pre-Order it ?

I also wonder when it will be available for download ?

[lofi]

I just got this email from Spitfire Audio

What happens when you click explore?
/Anders

[Muziksculp]

It takes me to Paul's video showing the legato.

[Guy Rowland]

It takes me to Paul's video showing the legato.

Ha!

“Arthur Dent: What happens if I press this button?
Ford Prefect: I wouldn't-
Arthur Dent: Oh.
Ford Prefect: What happened?
Arthur Dent: A sign lit up, saying 'Please do not press this button again.”

[Yasin Yavuz]

It takes me to Paul's video showing the legato.

Ha!

“Arthur Dent: What happens if I press this button?
Ford Prefect: I wouldn't-
Arthur Dent: Oh.
Ford Prefect: What happened?
Arthur Dent: A sign lit up, saying 'Please do not press this button again.”

[Muziksculp]