Vienna Dimension Strings I opens a new chapter in the history of sampling technology. The recordings in Vienna’s famed Silent Stage started as early as the fall of 2008. With a total of more than 830,000 samples, recorded in four years at our Silent Stage, it is by far the most ambitious and intensive production in the history of the Vienna Symphonic Library. To put these numbers in perspective: Since the foundation of the company in 2000, we have published more than two million samples, covering nearly every instrument of the symphonic orchestra and more.
The 24 string players of Vienna Dimension Strings I were recorded in homogeneous groups (8 violins, 6 violas, 6 cellos and 4 double basses), capturing all of the human interactions and slight imperfections of a live performance, but this time we’ve used individual microphones for each player, which allows you to access each voice individually.
Creating your personal string sound
We’ve even recorded each string of each instrument in its full range (approximately one octave plus a fifth), and with the included presets you may easily decide whether to have the musicians play on all strings (with a change to the next string in fifth intervals), or forced playing on a certain string. You can also choose to play with no open strings. Getting a darker or brighter string sound has never been easier and more flexible. What’s more, the technique of individual microphone placement is perfectly suited for divisi writing! For the violins, preset setups for two groups of four players and four desks of two players are provided.
Stunning realism through imperfection
Over the last decade, sample libraries have become more and more “perfect”, sometimes at the expense of human feel. In reality, even the best musicians never play in perfect unison; one makes a change a little slower, another faster, but maybe with more dynamics, and so on. When playing as a group, musicians continually adapt, matching timbre, intensity, vibrato, intonation, bow speed and more. All these interactions happen automatically in a good ensemble, led by a good conductor, and reveal the “magic” of a live performance. With Vienna Dimension Strings I, individual changes in dynamic levels of the players within a group can be achieved easily with velocity crossfades. You may even designate one or two “weak” musicians to play sloppy notes, with hesitant or delayed starts, for instance. With our Vienna Instruments PRO player and its Auto Humanization feature, all kinds of nuances and variations are possible while simply playing the keyboard. The result sounds absolutely striking!
Check out the complete list of features below and don’t miss the detailed interview with Herb Tucmandl, the mastermind behind Vienna Dimension Strings. Also, make sure to watch the informative Video Tutorials!
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