ISW Tokyo Scoring Strings 2.0 - a massive update!

[EvilDragon]

TSS 2.0 is a complete reworking of the entire library from the ground-up. We've redone everything from the audio (from the original sessions) to the script engine to create the very best version of this instrument possible.

With this update we have what our team believes is the most playable, versatile, AND easy-to-use string library out there.

Important: THIS IS A 100% FREE UPDATE FOR EXISTING USERS! Existing projects will not be affected or changed to maintain compatibility.

Key Differences & Improvements from TSS 1.0 to TSS 2.0

• Vastly improved consistency in sample timbre, attack time, and dynamics across the board
• Two brand-new mic mixes in addition to Aizawa's bright and cutting 'Board Mix': lead producer Sarah Mancuso well-rounded ‘Anima Mix’, and lead software architect Nabeel Ansari's more traditional ‘Cinema Mix’
• Stunningly realistic legato transitions using all-original DSP research to smoothly balance and blend between source, transition, and ending notes
• Three brand-new legato articulations: emotional Lyrical legato, super-agile Runs legato, and powerful Marcato legato incorporating adjustable bow noise. This is in addition to the existing Legato Bow, Legato Slur, Porta Bow, and Porta Slur articulations.
• Save a potentially massive amount of CPU and RAM with new dynamic layer and vibrato layer purging, which can be done in just a single click and works seamlessly with existing automation (no bumps or messy crossfades)
• The super playable Smart Attack feature while playing Arco seamlessly shapes and blends short articulations with your playing based on velocity (while modwheel handles dynamics.) This has been carefully tuned to ‘feel’ just right for real-time playing.
• For the Mic Mixer patches, the Close position now uses a much more focused, solo spot mic with less bleed than in TSS1. We’ve also replaced the ‘Room’ and ‘Surround’ positions with the more distinct ‘Side’ (outtrigger) and ‘Rear’ mic signals.
• The already very powerful Poly Legato has now been improved to work seamlessly with sustain pedal changes. You can now play chords in a naturalistic way and get gorgeous smart legato between notes without a second thought.
• A brand-new Ensemble patch featuring entirely new and carefully-balanced samples, which is incredibly inspiring and a joy to play particularly in Poly Legato mode. This is not just a ‘big sustain’ patch. It has 100% articulation parity with all other sections making it completely capable as the ONLY patch you use!

Lookahead 2.0

Our initial, groundbreaking Lookahead system analyzed notes during playback to create more realistic performances. For example, rather than having to set messy off-grid transitions, Lookahead allows you to write 100% quantized notes and get perfectly in-time legato & portamento. And with optional Easy Articulations enabled, you can write intricate parts with lots of articulation switching by only adjusting note length and velocity - no keyswitches needed.

As part of the complete script rewrite, Lookahead 2.0 offers all of the above in a more stable and better-sounding package, along with several new and extremely useful features.

To save CPU, Lookahead now analyzes dynamics used on each note and disables any unused layers on a per-note basis. So, even if you don’t use the aforementioned dynamic/vibrato purge feature above, Lookahead will greatly increase your possible voice count and CPU efficiently.

For greater compatibility across more DAWs and quirky plugin/wrapper setups, you can make use of Short Mode which reduces the Lookahead latency to 300ms, and toggleable UI Parameter Sync which can fix playback situations where CC automation is out-of-sync with your parts.

Complete Content Overview

• World-class string ensemble recorded in a tight, focused studio space
• 8 violins 1, 6 violins 2, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 3 basses
• Board Mix, Anima Mix, and Cinema Mix patches
• Mic Mixer patch offering per-channel control over Close, Decca, Side, and Back positions
• Five sustain dynamic layers
• Three vibrato types: non-vibrato, regular vibrato, molto vibrato
• Long articulations: Arco, Trills (HT), Trills (WT), Tremolo, Harmonics
• Legato articulations: Legato Bow, Legato Slur, Lyrical Legato, Run Legato, Marcato Legato, Portamento Bow, Portamento Slur, Rebow
• Release articulations: Release (Natural), Release (Excited), Release (Staccato), Release (Decrescendo), Release (Harmonics)
• Short articulations: Sforzando (Long), Sforzando (Short), Decrescendo (Long), Decrescendo (Short), Pizzicato, Staccato, Staccatissimo, Spiccato, Spiccato Secco

Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials

We realize that not every composer is in a position to afford a flagship string library, and that not everyone needs every single feature it has. That’s why we are debuting Tokyo Scoring Strings Essentials, a more affordable version of TSS that keeps the vast majority of what makes TSS great - all crucial articulations, features, and sampling depth, plus three sets of mixes.

Mics/Signals: Essentials comes with the Board Mix, Anima Mix, and Cinema Mix patches, and only lacks the Mic Mixer patches with control over the individual mic signals.

Essentials Articulations: Essentials includes Arco (sustains), Tremolo, Natural releases, Legato Bow, Legato Slur, Lyrical Legato, Run Legato, Marcato Legato, Rebow, Pizzicato, Staccato, Staccatissimo, and Spiccato articulations.

For comparison, TSS Complete includes the above, plus Trills (HT & WT), Harmonics, Excited releases, Staccato releases, Decrescendo releases, Harmonics releases, Portamento Bow, Portamento Slur, Sforzando Long & Short, Decrescendo Long & Short, and Spiccato Secco.

Otherwise, in terms of dynamic layers, vibrato layers, round robins, script features, and instrument sections, there are no other differences!

Tokyo Scoring Strings Free

If you want to get a taste of the beautiful sound & playability of TSS, we’ll be offering this Kontakt Player-compatible instrument that includes:

• The versatile Anima Mix
• Violins 1 & Cellos sections
• 3 Arco dynamic layers
• Arco, Legato Slur, Rebow, and Natural releases
• Smart Attack for Arco, giving you a palette of short articulation on top of your Arco playing
• Regular Vibrato
• All round robins & script features
• Full sampling range!

Library Walkthrough



Pricing & Availability

Tokyo Scoring Strings 2.0 Complete is available now for the introductory price of $349 through October 23rd (MSRP: $449)

Tokyo Scoring Strings Essential is available now for the intro price of $199 (MSRP: $249)

Tokyo Scoring Strings Free is… well, free

All three versions run in the free version of Kontakt Player 7.8+ and are fully NKS and NKS 2 compatible.

Update Process

All existing TSS 1.0 customers will (or have already) receive an email reiterating this process in greater detail, but at a high level, here’s how it will work.

1. Open Pulse. Ensure you have 400 GB free on the drive where TSS is installed.
2. Update TSS in Pulse.
3. The new patches are installed in a folder alongside your existing instruments folder, called 'Instruments 2.0'
4. That's it!

Through this approach, 100% of your old projects using TSS 1.0 will be completely untouched. The two library versions will live side-by-side.

We chose this approach because of how many fundamental things changed in TSS 2.0. While using the same MIDI from a TSS 1.0 project will sound largely similar, it definitely won’t be identical, which (as composers ourselves) we know is not acceptable for archival or ongoing projects.

[Piet De Ridder]

I read on VI-C of a number of people having problems with the download and the installation, and the fact that the cello patches open in demo-mode. I experienced nothing of that: quick download (just over an hour), smooth installation and every cello patch I tried (didn’t try them all yet) opens just fine.

The low strings were never my favourite patches of the Tokyo Strings though. And this update doesn’t change that. The violins and violas however have improved very nicely.

Shortly after the release of V1, I asked/suggested if ISW would consider implementing the possibility to modulate the attack of the shorts via velocity. I do that with all my strings libraries, if possible, as it increases the playability of the shorts patches considerably, I find: going from a more feathery attack at lower velocities to a more determined one at higher velocities. There was a positive reply to that suggestion, I recall, but it seems ISW must have forgotten about it again, or decided not to do it after all, because I can’t find the option anywhere on the GUI. Unless it’s hidden somewhere where I haven’t looked yet.
(It’s always possible to do it in the Kontakt editor of course. But a parameter on the GUI would have been nice.)

All in all, an impressive update though. Must have been a huge amount of work. Thanks to all involved!

__

[EvilDragon]

The cello patches will work fine in Kontakt full, that issue only shows in Player. That issue should be fixed today or tomorrow.

Thanks for your comments, Piet! Regarding velocity to attack for shorts, I think that feature request sadly got forgotten amidst a plethora of other things that were done in the previous year to make this update possible. I will log it again for subsequent updates.

EDIT: In fact, we cannot even find where you posted this request? It's not mentioned on VI-C, and ISW (apart from me in very limited capacity) is not monitoring this forum... Was it via direct support ticket, or the like?

The low strings were never my favourite patches of the Tokyo Strings though. And this update doesn’t change that.

Would you mind expanding on this a bit, perchance? Is it simply timbre, or something else? Tried the different mixes/mic mixer, etc.? Understandable if it's just personal preference, of course, but as it stands, the sound of basses and celli is exactly how the Japanese crew wanted.

[Piet De Ridder]

Not only has the original TSS v1 release thread been renamed — took me quite a while before that dawned on me — but it’s a 103 page thread I had to wade through in order to find my post. I’d almost given up looking for it, but I eventually found it on page 80. After this however, I couldn’t be bothered to look for ISW’s acknowledging reply. But it’s in there somewhere.

https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... st-4995903

Regarding the low strings: yes, it’s their timbre that isn’t quite how I like (chamber or studio) celli and basses to sound. But you're right: entirely a matter of personal preference, of course. And I also have to add immediately that the demos show that these low strings function very well within the ''sum total' of the Tokyo Strings ensemble.

__

[EvilDragon]

OK thank you so much for digging that one out! And you got affirmative reply from neblix (Nabeel, ISW's senior software engineer) 3 posts down! The Swell feature (velocity -> envelope attack time) was eventually removed even from longs because it was not working well with Smart Attack and needed more proper evaluation on how it should be best implemented.

It is now properly logged and you can absolutely expect it in an update!


And thanks for further explaining re: low strings. Understood. I'm glad that you still overall like the library despite that!