Sonuscore’s LUX Orchestral Strings has been met with widespread praise since its launch in late 2025, and has since been treated to an Elements variant that offers access to a limited set of articulations for free. Now, there’s a new Essentials version that sits between the two offerings, delivering a keenly priced, scaled-back version of the full library.
The company say that LUX Orchestral Strings Essentials has been designed around the writing most composers do most often: documentary underscoring, trailer tension builds, game cues, episodic television and production music briefs. The selection of articulations covers the scoring scenarios composers work in across a typical week, and offers enough depth to deliver credible, professional results.
What’s Included?
- All Five Orchestral String Sections: 1st Violins, 2nd Violins, Violas, Celli and Basses, each available as its own NKI for individual control.
- Sustains: Sustain, strong sustain, whisper sustain, and marcato.
- Legato: Full legato across the playable range, plus whisper legato.
- Shorts: Staccato, spiccato and pizzicato.
- Tremolo & Trills: Standard tremolo, sul ponticello tremolo and trills at both the second and minor second.
Articulation combinations: a substantial set of layered articulation combinations covering the transitions and blends that give string writing its depth, including sustain with tremolo, sustain with sul ponticello tremolo, tremolo with marcato, whisper with tremolo, staccato with spiccato, staccato with pizzicato and more.
“Most professional composers spend their week on cues that need strong, dependable strings rather than the full scope of a flagship library. LUX Orchestral Strings Essentials is built specifically for that work, with the same recording, ensemble, and scoring stage as the full LUX Orchestral Strings. It is the version most composers will reach for every day.” - Tilman Sillescu, Sonuscore Co-Founder & Dynamedion Lead Composer
Compatibility
LUX Orchestral Strings Essentials runs in Native Instruments’ free Kontakt player version 7.10.9 or higher, which is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or above, and Macs running macOS 12 and later. VST3, AU and AAX plug-ins are available, along with a standalone application.
Pricing & Availability
Lux Orchestral Strings Essentials is available now, priced at $199£145 including VAT.
