Hollywood Strings 2

[Ashermusic]

It's pretty obvious that the samples in the Audio Tech Talk video are not used well. So I don't attach any importance to the fact that the examples sound bad.

This, however, is another matter:



Oh my God, how bright those strings sound. What an unbalanced sound. It's a trend that for epic music everything has to be bright to cut through the mix. The VSL Synchron libraries suffer from this. It may be modern now, but I just don't like it. Nor do I think it will age well. That's why I don't own a single Synchron library. Great concept, unbalanced sound signature in my opinion. Also the 8dio Centery series. And now Hollywood Strings 2 has gone completely over the top. It sounds like steel to me. Totally unappealing in my opinion.

If you muck around with the mic mixes it can sound pretty different from what you hear in those examples.

[Guy Rowland]

If you muck around with the mic mixes it can sound pretty different from what you hear in those examples.

Is there a good HS2 demo anywhere that a) has a warmer sound and b) has the notes joining up in phrases?

[Guy Rowland]

On sale this week for $199. Any positive experiences out there?

[Ashermusic]

On sale this week for $199. Any positive experiences out there?

If I say what I think Nick Phoenix will hear about it and come here berate as a traitor looking for revenge against EW

[Guy Rowland]

On sale this week for $199. Any positive experiences out there?

If I say what I think Nick Phoenix will hear about it and come here berate as a traitor looking for revenge against EW

Oh I forgot he did that! Fair enough, and of course your comment tells me a lot.

I need a REALLY good reason to buy any string library these days, no matter how cheap. I'm closest on Sample Modelling because it is genuinely different to anything I have. The sheer complexity of control is what holds me back there - I wish they'd do a clever clever update where it does much of the controlling of nuances under the hood depending on playing style (as an option).

[Yasin Yavuz]

I just got the library. Because I was curious and $199 crossgrade from HOOPUS is not that bad. I have a lot of strings library and this is the first one that can actually sound better than its demos/videos. 3 close mic positions are not great, I will use only mid, main and surround. Patches are too loud, so you may need to reduce volume about 6 dB. As usual with EW, tweak midi cc, use some reverb and eq to your taste. Then you have a smaller, drier and more consistent version of HS1 which you can also layer them together.