They just dropped these videos. What do you think of it? To me some parts were convincing, the vibrato had me vomiting. The work behind the library is outstanding, gotta give it to e-instruments...

Further links:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/cinematic/stradivari-violin/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/stradivarius-sound-bank-recording-cremona.html

 

Last edited: Jun 27, 2020

Sounds very nice... kind of like the Joshua Bell violin... it has the same issues of suspicious perfection they all do though, intonation is too clean, ransitions are too perfect. Just gives the game away, imo. I'd rather they worry less about the label and more about getting musical imperfection into it.

 

I'll have to disagree with you on this one if you don't mind, many classical instruments players, are stressed and trained and pushed to their human limites, to play as perfect as possible, as most of the time including your own touch into a score will eliminate you or makes you lose your position, one of the main rules in the classical music world, is to stay as true as possible to the score and not change it, at least as humanly as possible...

so your point about musical imperfection is invalid, at least in this case, as nowadays we tend to look for these imperfection to actually feel the music, because of the way it became...

 

My only concern about the youtube video (regarding audio) is a strong hollow sound that oscillates throughout the playing. Sounds like the cardioid was picking up too much of the F hole.

 

Exactly. I have a friend playing French Horn with The L.A. Philharmonic who is quite OCD about not injecting his personality into his instrument. No surprise, he just couldn't jam out with us and free himself up for fear of it translating to his job and loosing his seat. Bummer. He practiced like 6-8 hours a day to maintain his armature outside of rehearsals and gigs.

 

The sound should be a mix of the different mics positions so it is hard to judge without naked demos of each. On the other end I am super curious to hear the Amati which sounds better for my own personal taste. If there is something to appreciate is the fact that this time all instruments are recorded in the same place by the same developer unlike the symphony series.
Regarding the imperfections in violin playing I can only suggest to hear some Heifetz or Kavakos.

 

Last edited: Jun 27, 2020

As per the video, the samples were tuned.

 

They say in the video they were not.

 

even the wallpaper was tuned

 

The majority of classical music (but certainly not all) is written in scores to be performed and executed in a specific manner, every time. Its goal is perfection. There are two valid points being that no human is perfect and every serious classical musician dedicates their performances aimed at perfection in dynamics, phrasing, articulation, interpretation and execution.
In jazz if it is perfect and exactly the same twice it is not jazz. This does not mean it has bred inarticulate musicians, the articulation stems from different sources and the execution is no different or the dynamics in skill, but the approach and phrasing, along with much of the harmony approach is very different. Both styles and genres contain a free improvisation facility which is something different again and is not designed to be perfect.

A computer will only ever approximate a real musician it cannot automatically think what any specific person at any given point in time will do, like a slide on or off, a bend, hammer, use a different part of the bow on a specific note etc etc.. All valid and often included but contrived not spontaneous and intuitive, that part is always on the player. You can play these via a keyboard but it will never be the exact same thing.
as such if a sampled pack walks like a duck, sounds like a duck and the picture looks like a duck then it is probably a sampled duck.

 

First vid 2:08 'although the samples were precisely tuned...'

 

Sounds good to me.. seems a "little" like Embertones last violin attempt.

If they can keep down cpu consumption they might be doing a "perfect" string quartet which I really need in my collection?!?

NI Kontakt libs are in general high cpu - latest relases are massive cpu.

 

Last edited: Jun 27, 2020

Wonderful I heard exactly the contrary. Thanks for the double check.

Now I know why the Paganini sounded so good: Przemyslaw Kopczyk did it.

 

Last edited: Jun 27, 2020

I'm not talking imperfections as in, dang that guy sucks, or, his intonaion isn't any good. I'm not talking about "injecting musical personality". I'm talking about what makes a human human, no matter how good he is. Heifetz does not sound like a sample library played from a keyboard and if someone told him he did he'd punch them in their face. I'm talking about deviations of a few cents her and there but it makes a difference. A lot of the time a violinist might not hit a note perfectly square on but the vibrato will totally hide it- but that sounds different from hitting the note dead square every time. I'm talking about deviations in the attack of a note. This is all stuff people argue until they're blue in the face about regarding drummers, and no one argues that a drummer with great feel that doesn't sound quantized is a bad drummer. Tiny but important deviations and imperfections. Also, no string player ever intonates with perfect well-tempered intonation like a (typical) keyboard. They adjust for consonance note by note depending on what's going on harmonically around them- especially in small string groups but in orchestra environments as well. And that's something no library can ever do because it requires note-by-note analysis on the fly (and also contributes to micro-adjustment of pitch after hitting a note). I think this is as good as anything out there probably but it still sounds sterile in certain regards and would require a lot of microediting to really nail it in solo situations, imo. As a "first violin" in a section it would probably kill it out of the box.

 

Last edited: Jun 28, 2020

you can check it
it is connected.

 

Absolutely agree. As you implied, in a composite sampled tune or orchestra it will work great. I am yet to find solo strings that out-of-the-box sound how a string quartet would play it, as in all of the subtle nuances. As said, you can microedit it, but the amount of work for every single articulation is not a pleasantly quick experience. Often, it can be painful. These days, not everyone can afford to hire musicians the way they used to, and a full human outfit of good players wins every time for me.

 

HA! You lucky people!
Seen what's on AZ??

Either he is some sort of robot, or you meant embouchure.

 

Last edited: Jun 30, 2020

Both

 

Have you tried it now? what's your verdict? It confirmed your opinions or it surprised you in some other areas?

 

This is not remarkable but certainly the best solo violin library so far. I've compared this with all the famous libraries I had. Every articulation sounded good, only thing I didn't like was slightly loud bow/white noise in the upper register. I know this is pretty common in most of the violin libraries, but could have been minimized as they've taken extra measures to reduce the noise around the recording hall. Also they've recorded 4 different instruments, so more similar libraries might come in the future.